Never Again?

The Basque language newspaper Berria is under attack by the Spanish government, 8 of its employees have been arrested by the Guardia Civil. That makes twice in one year that the Spanish government attacks the right of the Basque people to communicate on their own language and the freedom of speech embodied in the labor of journalists.

Now take a good look at this picture an its caption:

Dr. Josef Ackermann, left, chairman of Deutsche Bank and Rabbi Authur Schneier, right, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, present Jose Maria Aznar Lopez, center, president of Spain, with the 'Appeal Of Conscience World Statesman Award' in New York, Tuesday October 14, 2003.

Yup, you read it right, a Rabbi has presented the guy that ordered the attacks against the most basic rights of the Basques with an Statesman award. May I remind you that this guy Aznar is the one that endorsed a book by a fellow member of his political party that denies the Holocoust?

How can a Rabbi allow this to happen? Did he forget about the Holocoust? Have the victims of the Holocoust become bargain chips for the invasion of Palestine by Israel?

Spain is about the only European country (besides England, which is more like the USA's biggest air carrier since the end of WWII) that supports the actions of Israel in Palestine, so now a Rabbi awards a Nazi apologist because it fits Israel's expantionist plans. That fucking Rabbi piece of shit is gonna have some explaining to do when he faces his deity.

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Appeal of Totalitarianism

What you're about to learn defies all kinds of logic, that is if you still believe that the Jewish people stand for peace and justice even when an all out genocidal war against the Palestinian people takes place.

Despite the decision by Jose Maria Aznar to condecorate Gestapo's collaborator Meliton Manzanas, on October 14th a Zionist organization in the USA decided to honor him as the statesman of the year.

Here you have a picture of Aznar and his dear friend Rabbi Schneier:

His Excellency José Mará Aznar, President of the Government of Spain, Recipient of the Appeal of Conscience World Statesman Award, receives the award from Rabbi Arthur Schneier, President, Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Rabbi, Park East Synagogue. Philip M. Condit, Chairman & CEO, The Boeing Company, Chairman, 2003 Appeal of Conscience Foundation Annual Awards Dinner looks on.

Who could have ever imagine that a Rabbi would be shaking hands with the ideological heir to Francisco Franco, an ally of Adolph Hitler during the Holocaust, one that 56 years after the end of WWII decided to condecorate an individual that persecuted Jewish people escaping from occupied France thanks to the courageous work of Basque resistance fighters.

This is the world we live in.

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Bush's Resumé

I just got this on the mail:

White House, USA

GEORGE W. BUSH ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

I attacked and took over two countries.

I spent the US surplus and bankrupted the US Treasury.

I shattered the record for the biggest annual deficit in history (not easy!).

I set an economic record for the most personal bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.

I set all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the stock market.

I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.

I am the first president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.

In my first year in office I set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history (tough to beat my dad's, but I did).

After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in US history.

I set the record for most campaign fund raising trips by a president in US history.

In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their jobs.

I cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any other president in US history.

I set the all-time record for most real estate foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.

I set the record for the fewest press conferences of any president, since the advent of TV.

I signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any other US president in history.

I presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.

I cut health care benefits for war veterans.

I set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.

I dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.

I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.

Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history.
(The poorest multimillionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her).

I am the first president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously struggle against bankruptcy.

I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud in any market in any country in the history of the world.

I am the first president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the vast majority of the international community.

I have created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.

I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any other president in US history (Ronnie was tough to beat, but I did it!!).

I am the first president in US history to compel the United Nations remove the US from the Human Rights Commission.

I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the Elections Monitoring Board.

I removed more checks and balances, and have the less congressional oversight, than any presidential administration in US history.

I rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.

I withdrew from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.

I am the first president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors access during the 2002 US elections.

I am the all-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.

The biggest lifetime contributor to my campaign, who is also one of my best friends, presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).

I spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.

I am the first president to! run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied, saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1).

I am the first US president to establish a secret shadow government.

I took the world's sympathy for the US after 9/11, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).

I am the first US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.

I changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I set the all-time record for the number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling their huge investments in corporations bidding for govt. contracts.

I have removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.

I have created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided that the US has been since the Civil War.

I entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).

I was AWOL from the National Guard and deserted the military during time of war.

I refuse to take a drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All minutes of meetings of any public corporation for which I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

(Note: this information should be useful to voters in the 2004 election. Circulate to as many citizens you think would be helped by being reminded about my record.)

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Batera's Proposals

Yesterday in Berria.info:

Batera forum proposes constructive action as well as disobedience

A process of debate is underway between now and December 13, which is the deadline France has been given

Eneko Bidegain – BAIONA (Bayonne)

“So far 500 people have filled in the commitment paper,” shouted Jean-Noel Etxeberri as the head of the “Batera” march was approaching the finish. Thousands of people converged on Baiona yesterday afternoon in support of a Basque département, official recognition of the Basque language, a chamber of agriculture and its own university. The paper asks for a commitment to be taken to occupy the buildings of official institutions. Ten minutes later they totalled 540. It will be one of the mainstays of the Batera forum’s strategy. The debate will continue until December 13 and yesterday other lines of action were presented.

One of them is based on disobedience. Actions like the occupation of public buildings, the disruption of the meetings of the Development Council, the Council of Elected Representatives and the General Council, the “dismantling” of the Millau McDonalds, hunger strikes, etc. are also mentioned in the papers distributed among the demonstrators. Another possibility is the indefinite occupation of some symbolic building.

The second most important mainstay will be constructive action. A proposal has been put forward that a “parallel” General Council be created. This would consist of a language council, an agricultural council and an office for economic development and university matters. Everyone who wishes can pay a “tax” by making a donation, or organise festivals with the participation of the Udalbiltza and the Government of the BAC [Basque Autonomous Community of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa]. This General Council would “pursue initiatives to push through its proposals” and would “reach agreements with the Udalbiltza, the universities of the BAC, Europe, associations of cities, companies, etc.”

Another focal point of the work will be to demand that a referendum be organised. A campaign would be launched to demand this, and if it did not succeed, a process would be started so that the town councils themselves could organise a referendum.

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Van Boven Sets the Record Straight

Today in Berria.info:

Van Boven: “Denying the problem hinders the solution”

He pointed out that he would be looking into whether torture is “the tip of an iceberg or whether its practice is limited”

Editorial Staff – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

Theo Van Boven, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the question of torture, gave a press conference in Madrid yesterday. This week the UN representative has been visiting Spain and the Basque Country to investigate the torture claims that have been filed, and has held meetings with officials, civil society organisations and a number of people who have filed complaints of torture.

In his appearance before the press Van Boven said that he had received many testimonies and views, but added that depending on the sources they were “very contradictory”. He said he had been with “a number of people who had been tortured” and with other officials who had told him that “in Spain there is no torture.” In response to this he said, “denying the problem hinders the solution.” At the same time the UN representative pointed out that most sources had told him that “torture is not systematically applied.”

In Madrid he met with the Spanish Foreign and Interior Ministers, the Heads of the Spanish Police and Civil Guard, the Secretaries of State Security and Justice, the Attorney-General, the Head Public Prosecutor of the Spanish National High Court, the Spanish Ombudsman and Prison Institutions, among others.

In the Basque Country he was with Etxerat, the Torturaren Aurkako Taldea (anti-torture group), Elkarri, and with Javier Balza and Joseba Azkarraga, the heads of the Interior and Justice Departments, respectively, of the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community [of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa]. In addition, Van Boven heard the first-hand testimonies of Unai Romano and Juan Carlos Subijana, who were arrested in Gasteiz (Vitoria) in September 2001, and of Martxelo Otamendi, Joan Mari Torrealdai and Txema Auzmendi, detained in the Egunkaria case.

The declarations that were heard will make up the first item in the report due to be published between March and April of next year.

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Youths In Dire Situation

Berria has published this article regarding the Basque youths being tried as adults for the so called street violence under the draconian "terror laws":

“Dire situation” of minors punished for street disturbances denounced

The “Gurasoak” and “Etxerat” associations have begun collecting signatures in an attempt to improve the situation endured by inmates at Los Rosales remand home in the Carabanchel district of Madrid

Aitziber Laskibar – BILBO

Since its implementation two years ago the Juvenile Law refers the crimes of those under 18 to a special court. Moreover, those people linked to street disturbances or “crimes of terrorism” go through the Juvenile Court that answers to the Spanish National High Court. The young people also have to serve their sentences in special centres; the regulations state that the aim is to attach greater importance to education. The reality, however, is quite different, according to the denunciation made by the “Gurasoak” and “Etxerat” organisations (*). The four Basque citizens at the special centre known as Los Rosales are in a “dire situation”. For this reason the two associations have launched an awareness campaign with the collecting of signatures.

As its starting point the petition takes a letter sent to his friends by Z.L. of Durango (Bizkaia), who is serving a five-year sentence at Los Rosales. He described their way of life at the juvenile centre and asked for something to be done about his rights. The awareness campaign was launched in Durango itself. Yesterday, a round table discussion was held there on the Juvenile Law and the situation at Los Rosales.

Although the initiative was started in Durango the two associations plan to extend the collecting of signatures throughout the Basque Country. The petition will request that at least the same rights enjoyed by ordinary prison inmates should be extended to the children. They plan to send the petition both to the Spanish National High Court and to Los Rosales. Furthermore, the “Gurasoak” and “Etxerat” associations will be meeting with social bodies to inform about the circumstances of the young people and to collect signatures. Later on they plan to meet with the Basque institutions.

(*) Associations of Basque political prisoners’ relatives to defend the rights of their family members in prison. “Gurasoak” is the association specifically geared to parents whose under-age children have been charged with involvement in street disturbances.

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Medem's Woes

Even if there no such thing as bad publicity, acclaimed director Medem didn't expect quite the maelstrom his documentary about Spain's Basque region would stir up. Medem says his documentary, which includes 70 interviewees talking about the status of the Basque region is simply a call for dialogue.

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Dos de Octubre No Se Olvida

October the second will never be forgotten. To some of the people that read my blog yesterday maybe it was the first time that they ever read what happened in Mexico 35 years ago and will understand why that date will never be forgotten. October the second in an open wound on the heart of the Mexican society, and with each year that goes by without presenting to the justice the thugs responsible for all the crimes committed against the Mexican people throughout the summer of 1968 that reached its pinnacle on that October evening the wound only deepens.

The so called soft dictatorship in Mexico could get quite hard at times, like in 1968 and again in 1971, the justice system in Mexico is so corrupted that the victim suffers more than the criminal, the degree of impunity is so high that is unbearable for a lot of people to live on those conditions, and it is now evident that not even a government of a party on the opposition is willing to change the status quo, sad indeed.

Now transfer that to what is going on in the Basque Country, in a year period of time I have reported to you about the banning of a political party, the closing of a news paper, the incarceration of artists, journalists, peace activists, the banning of artistic expressions by musicians and movie makers, the attack against the freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly and most important of all against the right to self determination, the criminalizing of a language, the accusations against elementary schools as "hot beds" of terrorism just because they teach kids on our own language. Imagine having to live on those conditions only because you want to be what you are.

But no, people has to wait for tragedies like the one I presented to you yesterday, or the Holocoust, or the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, or the use of unconventional weapons on the Kurds to then do something about it, which is pretty much like applying a band aid to a severed limb when the ax that inflicted the wound could have been taken away.

I leave you with a quote by Martin Luther King:

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."

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Killing Democracy

At Yahoo! News today:

AP: Snipers Triggered '68 Mexico Massacre
Thu Oct 2, 3:16 AM ET

By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY - Once-secret government files show a massacre of student protesters 35 years ago was touched off when snipers under the command of the Mexican government fired into the crowd. At least 360 government gunmen were present, the documents indicate.

Government officials at the time said armed dissidents provoked the deadly confrontation on Oct. 2, 1968 — 10 days before the start of the Olympics hosted by Mexico — by firing on police during a protest against Mexico's lack of democracy. Estimates on the number of people killed range from 38 to several hundred.

As Mexicans prepared to hold an annual march to mark the anniversary of the shooting at Tlatelolco plaza, the files obtained by The Associated Press added to evidence backing up claims by student protesters that government operatives initiated the massacre.

The Supreme Court ordered the federal Attorney General's office to investigate how big a role the government played in the massacre, but the investigation by a special prosecutor has faltered because those in charge at the time of the attack refuse to testify.

Researchers say newly uncovered files with police names and the number of snipers may give new momentum to the case.

Investigators say there is evidence top officials, including then-Interior Secretary Luis Echeverria, knew much more than they originally claimed. In 1970, Echeverria became Mexico's president.

The documents say that some snipers moving from window to window above the plaza scurried through an apartment that belonged to Echeverria's sister-in-law.

Echeverria, who was in charge of Mexico's domestic security, has denied any direct involvement in the attack, and he and his assistants refused to comment to the AP. Called in for questioning last year by Special Prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo, Echeverria refused to talk, citing his constitutional right to remain silent.

"You think Echeverria didn't know that they were firing from the apartment of his sister-in-law? I don't think so," Maria de Los Angeles Magdaleno, an investigator for the special prosecutor researching the case, said in an interview with the AP.

Magdaleno leads a team of five government researchers combing through millions of uncatalogued documents. Among the team's recent discoveries is a list of the intelligence monitors for dozens of military units and police squads who showed up at the plaza, another indication the events were no secret to high-ranking officials.

Researchers have uncovered mounting evidence that among those at the plaza was Manuel Diaz Escobar, who led a secret battalion of police known as the Falcons. The Falcons went on to lead another bloody attack on student protesters in 1971.

Magdaleno says there were diverse groups of police at the plaza, including federal police, city police and secret service agents.

Investigators do not have evidence the government had previously ordered police to carry out the killings, but documents suggest things got out of control.

"The decision was not to go out killing students and certainly not with the eyes of the world on Mexico" before the Olympics, Magdaleno said. "There were so many groups in the operation that the authorities couldn't control them."

Until recently, prosecutors had brushed aside demands to prosecute those responsible for the massacre, claiming the statute of limitations had expired years ago.

But on the anniversary of the massacre two years ago, President Vicente Fox promised to open secret government archives about the event.

Carrillo, the special prosecutor appointed by Fox to investigate crimes by past governments, said there is evidence 38 people were killed at Tlatelolco Plaza. Human rights groups have contended several hundred died, but government officials hid the bodies so an exact count was impossible. Government officials also seized photos of the carnage and ordered newspapers not to print photos of corpses.

International observers worry the investigation will stall, especially as government officials remain silent.

"If you don't put a limit on time, the process will go on for 10 years," said Sofia Macher, a member of Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated deaths and disappearances in Peru during a brutal insurgency by Shining Path guerrillas.

Human Rights Watch has urged Fox to make the investigation a higher priority and to provide investigators with more resources. The group also wants Congress to pass new legislation that would pressure witnesses to testify, saying prosecutors need the power to negotiate plea bargains.

"As this thing drags out, I think the frustration has grown considerably," said Daniel Wilkinson, an attorney for Human Rights Watch. "It will take showing concrete results for that to abate."

At an appearance Tuesday by Fox, a group of students told the president they hadn't forgotten about the case.

"I haven't forgotten about it either," local newspapers quoted him as responding.

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Aznar's Reaction

In this news article you'll read about Aznar's reaction to Ibarretxes's plan:

Spain's Aznar rules out Basque plan for new status

Tue Sep 30, 1:35 PM ET
Add World - AFP to My Yahoo!

MADRID (AFP) - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said that a plan by the autonomous Basque government to change the region's political status to one of "free association" with the rest of the country had "zero" chances of success.

The president of the Basque government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, told the regional parliament in Vitoria on Friday that the plan to bolster Basque autonomy would be presented to parliament next year with a view to opening talks with Madrid on the new status.

But Aznar made clear it was a non-starter.

"The chances that this plan will amount to something are literally zero," Aznar told reporters during a joint news conference with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who on Monday began a state visit to Spain.

Aznar said the proposal would be considered "laughable were there not bombs and guns, still smouldering, and victims involved," in a reference to attacks by the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

"It's a plan that is born out of terror and says that terror is right, which is extraordinarily serious," Aznar added.

Aznar described the plan as an "act of deep disloyalty combined with an act of unacceptable blackmail".

Ibarretxe has stressed that the Basque government intends to put the plan to a referendum regardless of the outcome of its talks with the central government.

"Spanish democracy will in no way accept the least blackmail," Aznar said.

Presenting the plan Friday, Ibarretxe told the regional parliament in Vitoria that the new statute would be based on the "respect for the right of the Basque people to decide their own future".

Ibarretxe, of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV -- in power in Vitoria since 1980), first drafted the plan a year ago.

He also revealed Friday that the Basque government was set to approve the project on October 25 and that it would be put to a vote in the regional parliament in September 2004.

If the plan were to succeed, Euskadi, the Basque name for the region in the country's north, would be freely associated with the remainder of Spain by the will of its inhabitants rather than by the current constitutional arrangement that granted the region its autonomy, under the so-called 1979 Statute of Guernica.

Ibarretxe has said that as the region's lehendakari or president, he would seek to ensure that the referendum would go ahead with an "absence of violence".

Aznar's intellect is so limited that all he does is keep repeating the same old and tired mantras.

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