Hundreds rally in Bath & Brunswick (Maine) for Palestine

 

About 300 mostly young activists at Bath Iron Works on Friday

The navy shipyard in Bath has shift change at 3:30 pm

Traffic picks up around 3:00 pm

A rally with speakers began at 2:00 pm as the crowd grew

At 3:00 pm people began moving into the middle of street

Folks held a die-in blocking traffic

 

Traffic from both directions was shut down for almost two hours (Click on the photos for a better view)

Bath Iron Works (BIW) is owned by the General Dynamics Corporation which builds the bunker buster bombs that Washington has sent to Israel. More than 100 have been shipped so far.

BIW built destroyer warships have been sent to the Red Sea (just off Yemen) and to the Mediterranean Sea to protect Israel since this war began on October 7. 

In 2003 when George W. Bush launched 'shock and awe' on Iraq the very first weapon fired was a Tomahawk cruise missile launched from the USS Cowpens which was built at BIW. 

In 2008 the USS Lake Erie (also built at BIW) launched an interceptor missile into space to knock out a US military satellite in what was coined 'Operation Burnt Frost'. The warship's interceptor proved that navy destroyers could be utilized as Anti-satellite weapons (ASATS). The Pentagon reported that the successful impact created 174 pieces of space debris.

The navy is currently encircling China and Russia with these destroyers that have shown the capability to fire first-strike attack Tomahawk cruise missiles and the 'missile defense' interceptors thus giving the Pentagon the 'sword and shield' capability in warfare.

The protest at BIW on Friday, organized by young activists who are leading Palestinian solidarity efforts across the nation, linked the issues of Israel-US genocide of Palestine and broader American war-making efforts on behalf of collapsing empire.

No one was arrested at BIW on Friday but the road die-in did shut down traffic and forced the Bath police to reroute worker shift change vehicles causing a major congestion problem. Otherwise there were no incidents at the shipyard. The Bath police showed unusually remarkable patience and professionalism in how they handled the protest. 

Activists came early to the shipyard and handed out flyers on Friday morning and at lunch time ensuring that the workers understood that the protest was not aimed at them. Rather it was directed at the war-mongering Biden administration, Congress, the Pentagon and the military industrial complex.

 

Saturday protest at Bowdoin College in Brunswick

Again about 300 people turned out for this student led protest

A rally began on the steps of the Art Museum at the college and then a spirited march  through downtown Brunswick was held. At the campus rally college security would not allow any mainstream or independent media to film, take pictures or do interviews. Likely this is due to growing pressure on campus administrations across the nation to shut down college organizing in support of Gaza which is making many wealthy Zionists donors angry.

 

The  1.5 mile march stopped at the home of US Senator Angus King (Independent from Maine) who has repeatedly refused to call for a ceasefire. King lives just a few blocks from the college. At King's home a letter signed by 1,500 Maine college students was read to the marchers and nine long paper scrolls with names of the known dead in Gaza from Israeli bombing were delivered to King's doorstep. He was conveniently not at home.

In Sen. King's front yard was a Ukraine flag signaling King's long time hatred for Russia. He once had a statewide phone call-in show on Maine Public Radio and I dialed-in to counter his trashing of Russia. He was talking about the melting ice in the Arctic Ocean and the need for the US-NATO to contest Russia for control of that region. After I made my statement to King he said, "If you like Russia so much, why don't you move there!"

Because of climate change the Arctic ice is melting and western resource extraction corporations want to wrest control of the region from Russia which has the largest border with the Arctic. Thus the war on Russia, using Ukraine as the hammer, has always been about grabbing Russia's vast resource base.

So in the last three days I have been to five protests between nearby Bath and my hometown of Brunswick (about 10 miles apart). It has been very exciting to see so many young people connecting the issue dots and leading the organizing.

On we go.

Bruce

Role of U.S. Menwith Hill NSA base and the UK in Gaza

 

By Dave Webb

Every Tuesday at 6pm, rain or shine, a small group of protestors stand outside a U.S. base in North Yorkshire with banners and flags. Members and supporters of the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign (MHAC) are there to protest at the unaccountable and highly secret activities that go on inside the U.S. spy base nominally called ‘RAF’ Menwith Hill but run by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In recent weeks the focus has been on the UK’s role in events in Gaza.

Just how is the UK government involved in Gaza? According to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, the UK has consistently sold arms to Israel since 1967. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military actions supported by UK arms exports. Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza and the forced displacement of innocent civilians fly in the face of international humanitarian law, and the UK is assisting in these war crimes in more ways than one.

One way will be through the activities at Menwith Hill. Operatives there are busy supplying the U.S. intelligence services with information, some of which will be used to help the Israeli Defence Forces target their attacks in Gaza.

In 2016 top secret documents obtained by Edward Snowden showed that Menwith Hill collects and analyses satellite data obtained by intercepting electronic communications (emails, texts, telephone calls, etc) and passes on anything of interest  to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The Snowden documents revealed that, in the past, the NSA has used the powerful eavesdropping technologies at Menwith Hill to provide “continuous coverage of the majority of the Eurasian landmass,” where they can readily intercept “tactical military, scientific, political, and economic communications signals.”

In the past, the information gathered has helped target armed drone strikes across the Middle East and North Africa and Menwith Hill has provided support for British and American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it has also been used to assist with covert missions in countries where the U.S. has not declared war. As Ryan Gallagher wrote in the Intercept, “NSA employees at Menwith Hill have collaborated on a project to help ‘eliminate’ terrorism targets in Yemen, for example, where the U.S. has waged a controversial drone bombing campaign that has resulted in dozens of civilian deaths”. In 2021 MHAC and Yorkshire CND jointly published a booklet called “Menwith Hill in 3D: Domes, Data & Drone Strikes” which explores the issues around the legality of the activities of the base, including the disclosures made by Edward Snowden.

 

Documents leaked by Snowden have revealed that the NSA “maintains a far-reaching technical and analytic relationship with the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU)” and the documents show that the NSA and ISNU are “sharing information on access, intercept, targeting, language, analysis and reporting.” There can be little doubt then, that Menwith Hill will have been working all hours over the last few weeks to provide information to help the Israeli attack particular targets identified by the intercepted information.

Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, writing in Declassified UK, have described how the UK military and intelligence services may be aiding Israel’s attack on Gaza. In December 2020, a military cooperation agreement was signed by Britain and Israel. Despite the UK MoD describing it as an “important piece of defence diplomacy” which “strengthens” military ties, the British parliament and public has never seen what is in it. The MoD has refused to publish it and has only briefly mentioned it in parliament once, in a response to a direct question from an MP.

Declassified UK has also revealed that, since the bombing of Gaza began, the RAF has made over 30 military transport flights to Tel Aviv. The MoD is now censoring requests for information by MPs about flights from the RAF base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, which is only 40 minutes from Tel Aviv by plane.

There are also reports that the US is using RAF Akrotiri to send arms to Israel. RAF Akrotiri has, for a long time, been the base from which British bombing campaigns have been carried out across the Middle East and it was recently revealed that 129 US airmen are permanently based there. The government has denied sending ‘lethal aid’ to Israel, the censoring of MPs’ requests indicates that RAF Akrotiri is being for just that purpose.

 

Information from electronic communications is also being collected by aircraft and the MoD has sent the Israeli forces several Shadow R1 reconnaissance aircraft to help the Israeli forces find and rescue hostages. They claim that, as the aircraft are unarmed, they have no military role, but it seems highly unlikely that information on Hamas positions will not be passed on.

So, the UK is helping Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians not only by supplying arms, but also by supplying intelligence information to help target the attacks. The protestors standing outside the Menwith Hill base in the cold and the rain, are reminding the British public and politicians that the U.S. spy base at Menwith Hill continues to play a crucial role in conflicts that are of concern to the U.S. – which means any conflict, anywhere on Earth.

~ Dave Webb is the board convenor of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He also chairs Yorkshire Region CND and lives in Leeds, England.

Checking out a school shelter in Gaza

 

AJ+

Bisan Owda, a video journalist in Gaza, takes us inside the UN schools that now act as shelters for over 1 million displaced Palestinians. The schools are severely overcrowded and lack proper sanitation — as many as 160 people are forced to share a single toilet. Some shelters have seen outbreaks of cholera and hepatitis. 

But even these shelters are not safe — Israel is now demanding that the Palestinians sheltering in Khan Younis flee farther south to Rafah. 

South Korea launches first military recon satellite

 

 

By Choi, Sung-Hee (Jeju Island, South Korea)

On Dec. 4th, Hanhwa System, a South Korea arms company launched its military satellite in the South of Jeju. [This satellite will assist the US-NATO crazy preparations for war with China and North Korea.]

The launch platform was installed just 4 km from the coast. (You can just barely see the launch platform in this photo. See the actual launch video below.)

On the very day, we had an emergency cultural program in protest of the rocket launch in the spot where we could watch the view. About 30 of us watched the rocket being launched with shock and bitterness.

A Jeju local TV news reported the launch (from 2:26) as well as our protest. They interviewed me also and you can see me around 4:30 here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=RS1RFb4rAfMd49xT&v=9uUSd6s0z-A&feature=youtu.be

The satellite was launched under the collaboration between the military, arms company and Jeju Island government.

It has become very obvious that if the Hanwha Space center is built just 10 min. from Gangjeong village (location of the long contested naval base), we will see more launches of military reconnaissance satellites in the sea of Jeju.

The next day, we had the press conference in protest of the rocket launch in front of the Jeju island government hall.
https://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/Ucf9/172

We have wondered if Jeju might be an aerospace war Island. It is happening now.

I think Jeju is becoming a test bed for the military-industrial complex. Now, many of my friends talk about militarization of space, civilian satellites for military networks of all domains. 

Now, it has become real for all of us.

Biden staff revolt growing

 

 

BreakThrough News

Biden staffers are turning against their boss and are disgusted with his support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

BT’s Kei Pritsker spoke to a dissenter about the mood in the White House, the internal tensions and the impact of all the protests.

The staffer encourages the public to keep the protests growing.

Genocide of Palestinians escalates in Gaza

 

 

 

At first glance one might think this is ISIS mass executing civilians in Iraq.

After a bombing siege for 3 days, the occupation army is now entering all the homes in Gaza, taking out the women and children, and taking the men to an unknown destination.

Photos show the Israeli occupation forces' arresting scores of Palestinian civilians, forcing them to strip off their clothes and subjecting them to abuse in the Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

An eyewitness said at least seven men were shot dead by troops for not complying with the soldiers’ orders fast enough, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. 

The Euro-Mediterranean monitor said doctors, academics, journalists and seniors were among those detained. 

Do not believe for a second the lie that the men Israel abducted and stripped in northern Gaza are Hamas. They are civilian men and have families that recognize them. One of them is a press worker.

This is the consequence of the world turning a blind eye to Israel's "human animals" rhetoric, fascism in practice. 

See more on this story here

~ Some of the above words taken from twitter where multiple people commented on these photos

Photo precedes the onslaught

 

Photo by M.H.

 

This image was among pictures that were in a photo essay in the West Bank. This picture was taken in 2013.

Fast forward to 2023, and we are now seeing the unthinkable. This photo is a symbolic truth that rattles the soul. This time it is in broad daylight, day after day after day, as the whole world is watching.

 

The pictures and the stories will last forever, as they will be kept safely in archives all over the world, so they will never be forgotten. 

 

The United States is an accomplice-- a country who helps another country commit a horrifying crime. That is what an Empire does, unapologetically, in spite of what our immoral political leaders are saying. 

 

That is part of the lying choreographed presentation to the American people. It is preordained, like a plague.

 

Mike Hastie

Medic Viet Nam 

Walking the path with the spirit of the moment

 

Alfredo Bolduc

Regis Tremblay (from Maine now living in Crimea) interviews Bruce Gagnon in another wide-ranging conversation about the changing narrative re Ukraine; genocide in Gaza; and conquest, colonialism, war have been part of humankind since ancient, post agriculture societies. 

We also talked about the spiritualism of the Lakota and other original peoples around the world. 

We either rediscover what makes us human, or we perish.

Zionist attacks on students who support Palestine

 

 

 

BreakThrough News

NYU just committed one of the most blatant acts of anti-Palestinian repression yet. They suspended a student for a year and took away her scholarship because she tore down an Israeli poster. 

BT’s Kei Pritsker spoke to Hafiz Khalique about her suspension.  

Money runs the 'institutions of higher learning' and anyone not in line gets their knees-busted by Mr. Big.

Hafiza calls it out - she says, 'It is a play of power here'.

Don’t cry for Argentina. It is not worthy of your tears

 

By Stephen Karganovic

Argentina has made its choice and now it must bravely face the consequences of its own making

The Argentine runoff Presidential election has produced a result that many who still care for Argentina will regard as regrettable. But there are also bound to be not a few level-headed observers who will regard the outcome as somewhat suspicious.

The apparent winner is an oddball “Libertarian” politician, Javier Milei. Being an eccentric and a loose cannon, Milei is difficult to classify ideologically. He appears to be enthusiastic about cloning his deceased dogs, and he himself seems to be a cloned personification of the most obnoxious aspects of the American Libertarian movement. Libertarianism in its inspiration happens to be as parochially North American as the Mormons in the domain of religion and just as shallow in terms of philosophical substance. It remains to be seen whether Milei will prove to be a consistent ideologue of the nebulous Libertarian doctrines he professes, in which case the Requiem for Argentina should begin to be composed without delay.

If, however, Milei has even one pragmatic bone in his body he will be obliged very soon after his inauguration in December to go into reverse gear or face the wrath of the public that he has deluded with his irresponsible messianic promises.

Even worse for himself, for his political buffoonery he may also be obliged to face punishment from Argentina’s still vibrant armed forces, which have a respectable record of intervening to rein in wayward civilian politicians, though not necessarily always displaying as well the skills required to straighten out the messes the former had left behind.

There is no doubt that Argentina is currently very deep in one of those imbroglios into which it cyclically descends. The solutions offered by the charlatan were wisely rejected by its citizens in the first round of the elections, restricting Milei to about 30% of the vote. But Milei’s runoff rhetoric must have been irresistibly persuasive. In the second round he went on to garner a remarkable 55% of the vote (prompting the reasonable question of whether the popular Dominion vote counting machines, after their stellar performance in 2020, may have ended up in Argentina).

One of Milei’s brilliant solutions, abolishing the Argentine peso and replacing it with the U.S. dollar, may soon come to haunt the Argentine people. It would be interesting to hear Milei’s explanation of how doing away with the national currency, fragile as it may be yet always capable of recovery given the application of correct financial policies, and under the control of the issuing government, while replacing it with a declining foreign currency under the control of outside interests, would help remedy Argentina’s problems. Does Libertarian ideology allow for national sovereignty? Is Milei informed that not too long ago Ecuador discarded its national currency in favor of the dollar, but that for the Ecuadorean people the experiment on the whole resulted in more economic discomfort than benefit? Why now should the outcome be different in Argentina, and that at a time when the dollar is losing its reserve currency status and rapidly declining in value, far more so then when Ecuador was led down that primrose path?

Moreover, has Milei, who is reputed to be an economist, noticed a global financial trend which a repentant Jeffrey Sachs has called by its correct name, “dedollarisation,” and has that conspicuous trend had any impact on his thinking and choice of cures for Argentina’s financial ills? There is scant evidence that it has or that the warnings of sober economic experts have influenced the formulation of the policies that Milei has proposed. At the end of the day, with their new junk currency in hand, Argentines may remember with nostalgia their present inflation of mere 143%. Just as probably, they may come to regard with wrath the Pied Piper many of them had voted for.

Nor does Milei appear to be aware of the other major collapse that is taking place in the contemporary world, that of the unipolar system to whose imperilled currency he wishes to tie his country’s fortunes, suggesting that, indeed, El Clarín may be his chief source of political information. Contrary to every postulate of prudence (and some would argue of common sense as well) Milei has announced that as President he intends to reverse Argentina’s membership in BRICS. Public commitment to this politically counterintuitive policy goal suggests that Milei may be more than just an eccentric Libertarian enthusiast and that in fact he may be a figure purposefully inserted into the global game to promote a much more serious and disruptive geopolitical agenda.

There are very few today who recall that Argentina has not always been the Sick Man of the Pampas and that over a hundred years ago in economic strength and attraction it rivalled the United States as the destination of choice for European immigrants. Its once brilliant prospects came to nought as a result of the combination of the corruption and foolishness of its elite and idiocy of its pampered populace.

Argentina’s decline and fall has mirrored in many ways the downfall of Ukraine, formerly one of the Soviet Union’s most progressive and prosperous republics. Argentina, like Ukraine, was thrown under the bus by its greedy elite, also acting from selfish motives of short-term material gain and also placing itself in a condition of voluntary subservience to foreign, in Argentina’s case mainly British, patrons and their dazzling culture. The bamboozled populace followed suit in its own ignorant way.

The tribulations of both countries, far from being the outcome of objective necessity, are the avoidable result of foolish choices made jointly by the ruling elite and their equally irresponsible subjects.

Whatever vote counting machines may have been used, Argentina apparently has made its choice and now it must bravely face the consequences of its own making. There is no particular reason to shed tears for it any more than there is to cry over the tragic fate of its suicidal mirror image in Eastern Europe.  

~  Stephen Karganovic is President of the Srebrenica Historical Project

Chinese laundry

 

George Galloway

British navy waives the rules and cashiers officers’ laundry servants because they’re Chinese, could spy on their smalls and reveal the dirty secrets to Beijing.  

What do you call this?

 

 

AlJazeera Arabic قناة الجزيرة

Al Jazeera received this video of the first moments after a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City was bombed.

Are these people supposed to be Hamas?

When does the U.N and the Int'l Criminal Court file war crimes charges against Israel and the US?

The UK has announced it will soon begin flying surveillance flights over Gaza so they will be complicit in this genocide too.

Just wait until the little food and water is gone and the already spreading diseases really hit hard. The amount of deaths in Gaza will surge dramatically.

At the same time Israel is daily killing more and more people in the West Bank as a result of the IOF's indiscriminate raids and abuse of the population there.

When does this madness end?

Bruce