Obama Orders Military To Prepare For Spring Food Riots

EU TIMES

A grim report prepared by France’s General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) obtained by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) states that president’s Obama and Sarkozy have “agreed in principal” to create a joint US-European military force to deal exclusively with a Global uprising expected this spring as our World runs out of food.

According to this report, Sarkozy, as head of the G-20 group of developed Nations, called for and received an emergency meeting with Obama this past Monday at the White Housewherein he warned his American counterpart that the shock rise in food prices occurring due to an unprecedented series of disasters was threatening the stability of the entire World and could lead to the outbreak of Total Global War.

Just last week French Prime Minister Francois Fillon underlined that one of France’s top G-20 priorities was to find a collective response to “excessive volatility” in food prices now occurring, a statement joined by Philippe Chalmin, a top economic adviser to the French government, who warned the World may face social unrest including food riots in April as grain prices increase to unprecedented highs.

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Video of thousands clashing with police in Croatia, dozens injured

Croatian police clashed with approximately 15-thousand anti-government protesters who rallied in the capital on Saturday, and state television reported that officers used tear gas to disperse the group. At least 25 people were injured. Dozens of mostly young demonstrators charged at a police cordon preventing them from reaching a central square in Zagreb where the government headquarters is located, Croatian television reported. The protesters threw stones and bricks at police, who responded with tear gas, the report said, adding that several people were injured and nearby windows were broken. Croatian broadcaster, RTL, also showed riot police striking anti-government protesters with their batons. Police set up metal fences to corral the crowd, the report added, describing the situation as “chaos.” Croatian police said they detained 60 protesters and that 12 police and 13 citizens were injured.
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China floods Beijing with security before planned protest

CNN

Beijing (CNN) — For the second weekend in a row, anonymous calls by organizers for a pro-democracy demonstration in Beijing were overshadowed by heavy security presence.

Hundreds of Chinese police officers along with more than 120 vehicles flooded Beijing’s central pedestrian shopping area, Wangfujing, around the site of a second attempted “jasmine” rally inspired by pro-democracy protests in Tunisia.

There was no sign of protest as the police deployed unusual tactics to prevent demonstrations.

At least three foreign press photographers at the scene were reportedly beaten by police officers and detained. Other foreign journalists, including CNN, were manhandled, detained and escorted away from the site.

Security forces in Libyan city switch sides as Gadhafi clings on

CNN

Zawiya, Libya (CNN) — Libya’s embattled leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, seemed increasingly cornered Sunday as security forces defected to the opposition in a town a short drive from the capital, and the United Nations Security Council voted for tough restrictions on and possible war crimes charges against the Libyan regime.

Former security forces said they had switched sides and joined the opposition in Zawiya, a town about 55 kilometers (35 miles) from the capital, Tripoli. Some buildings in Zawiya showed signs of damage, including a freshly burnt-out police station.

CNN’s Nic Robertson saw armed civilians taking defensive positions on rooftops to prepare for a possible effort by Gadhafi loyalists to retake the town.

About 150 people rallied outside the town in support of Gadhafi later on Sunday, in what appeared to be a hastily organized demonstration.

Tunisia PM announces resignation

Aljazeera

Mohammed Ghannouchi says he will step down following deaths during anti-government protests.

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Mohammed Ghannouchi, Tunisia’s interim prime minister, has resigned, as security forces clashed with protesters in Tunis, the capital, who were demanding some of his minsters be removed.

Ghannouchi made the announcement on state television on Sunday, saying that he had thought carefully before taking the decision and that he had the support of his family.

“I am not running away from responsibility … This is to open the way for a new prime minister,” he said. “I am not ready to be the person who takes decisions that would end up causing casualties.”

He did not say when his resignation would take effect.

More on Wisconsin: Police, Scale, and Terror Threats

Police join in!

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Largest Crowds Since Vietnam

(Reuters) – A crowd estimated at more than 70,000 people on Saturday waved American flags, sang the national anthem and called for the defeat of a Wisconsin plan to curb public sector unions that has galvanized opposition from the American labor movement.

In one of the biggest rallies at the state Capitol since the Vietnam War, union members and their supporters braved frigid temperatures and a light snowfall to show their displeasure.

Nationwide student campaign for Western Sahara launched

A new student solidarity campaign calling for self-determination for Western Sahara – unlawfully occupied for over 35 years – will be launched today in London endorsed by students from across the country and by Jeremy Corbyn MP

A new national student campaign initiative will be launched today at a meeting in central London. Students for a Free Western Sahara will start as a UK wide network which hopes to establish groups in schools and universities across the country. It also has ambitions to link with student groups internationally.

Representatives from several British universities will meet to elect the first President and Committee. It is hoped that branch groups will be set up in universities across the country, holding regular meetings and awareness raising actions. Each branch will propose a motion for their university students union offering solidarity with the Saharawi struggle.

The launch of the network, timed to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the declaration of an independent Western Sahara, will also tie in with a number of other campaigns on the EU fisheries agreement, the extension of the UN peacekeeping monitoring mandate and the ‘Sun, Sea, Sand and Torture’ tourism and economic boycott campaign.

The Army and the Police are one

Reports from the Egyptian uprising

The sad events of tonight will hopefully bury that relatively misguided phrase الجيش و الشعب أيد واحدة, “the people and the army are one hand” and reveal that the true nature of the situation in Egypt is better described as الخيش و الشرطة أيد واحدة “the army and the police are one hand.” A group of several hundred peaceful protestors, attempting to stay the night in Tahrir square and in front of the People’s Assembly to protest continued military rule and the persistence of the old regime’s illegitimate presence in government, were violently attacked and driven away by Military Police, Army officers and commandos wearing balaclavas and wielding sub-machine guns. One protestor, taken inside of the People’s Assembly building by army officers and beaten, was told bluntly “don’t fuck with the army.”

The victims of this assault were the committed remnants of an earlier protest of thousands in front of the square, whose numbers were perhaps artificially low since the army had kettled those already camped out and prevented others from joining them. These would-be demonstrators were quickly and unflinchingly attacked by military police and army soldiers using nightsticks and cattle prods, beating and shocking them until they were forced to scatter. Many people were abducted, including Shady al Ghazali Harb and one ‘foreign’ journalist who was taken away early (whereabouts currently unkown). Many more people were injured to varying degrees, some quite seriously, including several people passing out from the voltage of the stun batons; some of the injured required treatment at hospital.

The putative excuse for this assault was that protestors were in violation of curfew; aside from a curfew violation not justifying extreme physical violence without warning, this is effectively the same curfew that was flaunted without consequence throughout the entire initial sequence of this revoultion. The army, since taking control over the executive, has been increasingly strict (read: arbitrary, violent) in its enforcement of the curfew, seemingly in order to prevent sit-ins and other nighttime demonstrations. We saw no property damage or other violence during curfew hours in previous weeks (except that perpetrated by government-hired thugs), and so the presumption that this is “for our own protection” is a farce that hardly warrants discussion. Collective punishment, an air of anxiety, and the disruption of continued control and presence of key protest sites are the only observable motives of this curfew.

The greater point, however, which comes as no surprise to most involved in this revolution, is that the army is no friend of the people. This institution is as much a part of the regime as any other, representing not just the same entrenched military-political elite that have ruled Egypt for 60 years, but also enormous and substantial business interests that benefit from preferential treatment and systemic corruption. There has been little doubt in anyone’s mind that the army’s preference would be to maintain most of the country’s infrastructure (police and political) just as it was before, while placating the people telling them that it was their ally and guardian. And yet, and yet, we see the same violence directed at citizens here that we have seen in the hands of police (and only a day after a police officer shot a microbus driver during a verbal argument in the street). The army has shown its bloody hand, and the only hope is that the news of this will spread fast enough that people can realize their complicity and duplicity before any more blood need be spilled.

This remains a regime and a system which has been trained and taught to regard people as a threat to their continued privilege and prosperity, who in the name of stability create chaos, pain and anxiety for anyone who would seek to be present in public, to voice an opinion or seek after their long-lost rights. Whatever expectations the Egyptian people may have had from the army, and whatever the army may have done by way of protecting civilians during the early weeks of protest (as they did somewhat, but not enough) should be meaningless now. Now in the seat of power, they display the same callous paternalism and heavy hand that the old figureheads of the regime did, and whether this is their desire or this is simply the machine controlling its operator, serious structural and institutional change is the only possible acceptable outcome.

Out with the army, out with the police, out with the old regime. All one hand, all working together to drive the Egyptian people into despair, subjection and quiescence. We, however, have had a taste of the immediacy of freedom and will neither be placated by the gifts of the state nor cowed by its criminal, unacceptable violence

Iraqis rally in “Day of Rage,” with 10 dead, scores hurt

Yahoo

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Thousands of Iraqis inspired by uprisings around the Arab world protested on Friday against corruption and poor basic services in nationwide rallies where at least 10 people died in clashes with security forces.

Scores of others were hurt in skirmishes during Iraq’s “Day of Rage” when demonstrators tried to storm government buildings and security personnel fired shots to try to disperse them.

There were no reports of insurgent attacks against the protests despite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s warning that al Qaeda militants and others might try to disrupt the rallies.

Maliki vowed not to ignore the protesters’ demands.

“I would like to assure all our people that nothing which they have protested against due to their discontent will go in vain,” he said in a statement. “I will follow up personally the implementation of all issues under my authority as prime minister.”

The most violent clashes between protesters and security forcesoccurred in the restive areas of Hawija and Mosul in the north and the southern oil hub of Basra.

Eight years after the U.S.-led invasion which ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, development remains slow and Iraqis complain of shortages of food rations, water, power and jobs.

The Arab world has erupted in protests aimed at ousting long-standing rulers and holding free elections but Iraqis have focused more on gripes over essential needs and corruption.

“We are here for change, to improve the situation of the country. The education system is bad. The health system is also bad. Services are going from bad to worse,” said 27-year-old Lina Ali, part of a protest youth group on Facebook.

“There is no drinkable water, no electricity. Unemployment is growing, which can push the youth toward terrorist activities,” she said at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.

Frustration has mounted in the war-torn state, which has vast oil reserves and the potential to be a major producer. “Where’s my share in the oil profits?” one banner read.

“People are hungry. We ask the government to find job opportunities for the young,” said 52-year-old Um Safa, who walked from Baghdad’s northeastern Sadr City slum to Tahrir Square to take part in the protests.

SECURITY THREAT

In Mosul, guards and security forces opened fire when protesters tried to storm the local government building, a Reuters witness said.

Three people were killed and 15 wounded in the clashes. Demonstrators set fire to the building and a percussion bomb exploded amongst the crowd, a police source said.

Protesters also set fire to a local council building in Hawija, a restive area near the oil city of Kirkuk. Two people were killed and 22 injured in scuffles, a police source said.

In Kalar, a town south of Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq, one person was killed and at least 10 wounded when security forces opened fire on protesters, security and medical sources said, while another 15 people were injured in separate skirmishes.

In the northern town of Chamchamal, one person was killed and five wounded in protest clashes, a health official said.

A curfew was imposed in Basra until 6 am (0300 GMT) on Saturday after clashes between security forcesand protesters that killed one person and wounded dozens protesters and security officers, Basra Governor Shaltagh Abboud said he would resign in response to protesters’ demands.

Two people were killed and 22 others were wounded in Samarra and Tikrit and at least 43 protesters and security officers were hurt in Kirkuk, Falluja, Sulaiman Pek, Nassiriya and Khaldiya.

In Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, where the crowd swelled to thousands, minor clashes broke out as protesters stormed past concrete blast walls on the nearby Jumhuriya bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone of government buildings and embassies.

Fifteen people were hurt as protesters threw rocks and security forces hit them with sticks. Police and soldiers used sound bombs and fired shots into the air to scatter protesters. A vehicle curfew was in effect in the capital.

(Additional reporting by Muhanad Mohammed and Suadad al-Salhy in Baghdad, Sabah al-Bazee in Samarra, Aref Mohammed in Basra, Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk, Khaled Farhan in Najaf, Jamal al-Badrani in Mosul, Fadhel al-Badrani in Falluja and Namo Abdulla in Sulaimaniya; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Jon Hemming)