statism watch

Related: Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Jayme Poisson, Toronto Star
June 21, 2010

They were the first out of the gate, the first to occupy an Esso, and the first to disperse. Welcome to protesting G20-style.

About 100 protesters briefly occupied an Esso gas station and convenience store at Dundas and Church Sts. Monday afternoon in the first major protest of the G20 summit.

Some came with bandanas covering their faces. Others carried signs that read “Fake lake or human rights.” Most had a legal aid phone number scribbled across their forearms in case of arrest.

The main organizers, members of a Guelph-based anti-poverty group called Sense of Security, had vowed to “take a piece of property” in Toronto’s downtown core in an attempt to bring attention to lack of housing for the poor.

But their plans were stymied when a squad of about 50 police officers, many on bikes, redirected their march at Sherbourne and Dundas Sts.

While the Esso wasn’t their first choice, “we have to go with what we’ve got,” said Julian Ichim, of the on-the-fly venue change. He would not divulge what building the group had initially planned to occupy.

“Corporations like Esso have caused irreparable damage all over the world,” shouted Ichim, referring to Esso’s parent company, ExxonMobil. “There is a lack of housing. This is our housing now.”

But it wasn’t their house for long. The protesters congregated in the gas station’s convenience store for all of about 10 minutes, then began heading north along Yonge St.

“This is what democracy looks like,” they chanted. “That is what a police state looks like,” they added, pointing to a growing number of police officers surrounding them from all sides.

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The indications are that the inspectors were turfed because, Iran contends, they lied about Iran lying about an electrochemical cell having been removed from a pyroprocessing experiment. Read more about the contentious report here.

Related: Iran Threatens to Stop Western Ships if Subjected to Cargo Inspection | Tucker Bilderberg 2010 Wrapup: Attack on Iran discussed, World Treasury Dept delayed | Iran has ‘fuel for 2 nukes’: UN report | Israel rejects UN call to come clean on nuclear program | MIddle East arms treaty a go despite US ‘deep regret’ over focus on Israeli nuclear arsenal | Disclosure of apartheid-era warhead negotiations with South Africa tip Israel’s nuclear hand | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | US claims Security Council backing for Iran sanctions | Iran brokers deal with Turkey for uranium enrichment | Dublin Trilateral attendees let slip need for world govt, war with Iran, Bilderberg oversight | UN-led uranium deal still on table: Iran | Robert Gates says White House lacks plan to deal with Iran nuclear threat | China sells petrol to Iran while talking at UN about sanctions | Nuclear summit urges anti-terror treaty | Enriched uranium going back to U.S.: PM | Iran unveils new uranium centrifuges | Barack Obama to limit use of US nuclear weapons | Russia claims breakthrough in historic nuclear reduction agreement with US | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | Russia to push ahead on Iran missile deal | Iran could be making nuclear warhead, says new director of IAEA | US media omission: Iran calls for global nuclear disarmament | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | Western powers voice scepticism over Iran uranium offer | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Chomsky says Israel, ‘US military base’ | Russia has no evidence of Iran nuclear bomb-Putin | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | How the USA Gave North Korea The Bomb | Former CIA Officer — US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

Hossein Jaseb, Sylvia Westall, Reuters
June 21, 2010

TEHRAN/VIENNA–Iran has barred two U.N. nuclear inspectors from entering the Islamic Republic, adding to tension less than two weeks after Tehran was hit by new U.N. sanctions over its disputed atomic program.

Officials accused the two unnamed inspectors of providing false information in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and declared them persona non grata.

They made clear Iran would still allow the Vienna-based U.N. agency to monitor its nuclear facilities, saying other experts could carry out the work.

“Inspections are continuing without any interruption,” Iran’s IAEA envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters in Vienna.

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Related: The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill

Paul Joseph Watson, Alex Jones, PrisonPlanet.com
June 20, 2010

Mounting evidence shows disaster was deliberately contrived either through conscious negligence or outright sabotage and is being allowed to worsen

There can now be no doubt whatsoever that the BP oil spill was purposefully contrived, either through deliberate negligence or outright sabotage, and is now being used to further the Obama administration’s political agenda. Criminal investigations into the government and BP’s role in the disaster need to be launched by state authorities in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi immediately, while local authorities also need to call emergency legislative sessions in order to take over emergency response efforts from the feds before the crisis gets much worse.

While BP CEO Tony Hayward is busy watching yacht races, Barack Obama, who took two vacations immediately after the oil spill, spends his time playing golf. If this disaster is on a par 9/11 as Obama claims then why is he fiddling while Rome burns? Every effort to find a solution to this crisis while cleaning up the mess has been lackluster and half-hearted. The federal government’s hyped rhetoric about how bad the consequences of this spill will be has not been matched with the appropriate action to combat the problem.

In hindsight, it’s becoming clear that the government has deliberately botched the response and prevented local authorities from doing their jobs, just as FEMA deliberately sabotaged the state response to Hurricane Katrina in order to make the crisis worse and create the pretext for a police state response, gun confiscation and ultimately more federal power.

Numerous reports have surfaced of locals and state authorities being prevented by BP contractors and the U.S. Coast Guard from helping to address the devastation the spill has created in the region.

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This organization has the stink of spooks. See also this article on a sting in Lithuania in 2009, and this article which features the Real IRA making threats against mainland Britain in the photo below. It’s pretty suspicious, and ties into the same old pattern of state provocation. The Real IRA has in the past been exposed as being run by MI5 agents, as was the case in the Omagh bombing, and it appears that the British officials are keen to continue keeping people in fear through this same control mechanism despite the recent apology to victims of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre.

Related: Bloody Sunday report released, UK soldiers may face prosecution over ‘72 massacre of Irish | Army defuses huge bomb on Northern Ireland border | Security guards stood by as gunmen killed Northern Ireland soldiers

BBC News
June 18, 2010

A man accused of smuggling guns for the Real IRA has walked free from court after a judge ruled he had been wrongfully entrapped in an MI5 ‘sting’.

The case against Desmond Kearns, 44, from Tannaghmore Green, Lurgan, collapsed on Friday.

He had been charged with attempting to smuggle arms and explosives from Europe in an alleged Real IRA arms operation.

But the case was stopped when a judge ruled that an MI5 agent, known only as Amir had “entrapped” him.

In Belfast’s crown court on Friday, the prosecution decided not to contest the judge’s ruling.

Mr Kearns had denied two charges of plotting to possess guns and explosives between May 2005 and June 2006.

In his ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Hart said that having reviewed the evidence, “the edifice of the prosecution case” rested on “inadequate foundations and therefore that edifice cannot stand”.

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It’s eminently reasonable that the the activist groups raise maintream history, such as Montebello, or the goings-on at the London and Pittsburgh G20 meetings – for starters. It’s only natural, of course, that the police pretend great umbrage at Sid Ryan’s suggestion since that would blow the entire operation wide open and remove a tool from their toolbox (regardless of whether frontline officers realize it or not). This is just what states do – like the schoolyard liar accusing his victim of having hit him first, the secret police manipulate perceptions on a scale that range from police provocation as an excuse to move in on resistance groups to full-fledged false flag terror events. Documented. Proven. See below. The facts are unassailable. And Mike McCormack is in no position to be getting all righteous when accusations of police corruption come to the fore.NO to police provocation at the G20, it’s a reasonable request. We’ll all be watching you now. Interested researchers are referred to police comment on the”Blueline” forum for further comment on hippie bashing fun. “Oh man I am looking forward to some great hippie beating videos on youtube” – “DA, HST, G8, G20 = Holy Crap March Break 2011 is PAID FOR!!! I love this country…..especially all the tree hugging assholes that make this possible…cheers to all of you!!” - Police comment by ‘Sly’ and ‘Mcdonaja’. For more on the G20, see the G20 Coverage page feature.

Related: Times Square Bomber Linked With CIA-Controlled Terror Group | Mumbai Terrorist Headley Was US Agent | Arrested Terrorist Leader Exposes Extensive CIA Connections | Nine Months Before Operation Northwoods, Government Leaders Suggested False Flag Terror in the Dominican Republic | Authorities Quietly Reverse Underwear Bomber Official Story | How the US Funds the Taliban | Montebello police provocateurs called before ethics panel | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | A Sibel Edmonds Bombshell — Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Until 9/11 | Professor fingers Thermite charges as responsible for 9/11 demolition | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | New York “Terror Plot” Another Government Provocateured Set-Up | G20 police ‘used undercover men to incite crowds’ | Amateur video blasts G20 death coverup | G20 protests: Riot police, or rioting police? | Not very cricket: Witnesses report Pakistani security abandoned convoy prior to attack | Toronto 18 Terror case: RCMP agent Shaikh was instigator who broke law: defence | Rioters Were Paid To Provoke the Police in Bulgaria | Greek Cops Caught on Video Posing as Anarchists | German Intelligence Agents Caught Staging False Flag Terror in Kosovo | ACLU wants probe into police-staged DNC protest | Ex-Italian President: Provocateur Riots Then “Beat The Shit Out Of Protesters” | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | OPP officer posed as journalist during 2007 Mohawk protest | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Police inspector posed as militant protester | Declassified: Israel, USA Attempted Deliberate Sinking of USS Liberty During Mideast War | Quebec police admit agents posed as protesters | Undercover cops tried to incite violence in Montebello: union leader | Officers never posed as protesters: Quebec police | Canadians who trust our secret police should think again | British Special Forces Caught Carrying Out Staged Terror In Iraq? | Operation Northwoods Declassified: U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba | RCMP bombed oil site in ‘dirty tricks’ campaign

CBC News
June 18, 2010

Activists and labour organizations are calling for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to rule out the use of agents provocateurs during the G8 and G20 summits.

Pointing to the 2007 Montebello summit of North American leaders, where Quebec police admitted that three of their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during protests, the People’s Summit urged officials to prohibit any attempt to incite violence to justify what they dubbed a “billion-dollar boondoggle.”

Quebec police [Ed. Note:  initially] denied allegations they used the officers to instigate violence at Montebello.

“The state is, in fact, doing criminal activity if they don’t rule out agents provocateurs,” Christine Jones, co-chair of the Canadian Peace Alliance, said at the launch of the People’s Summit on Friday morning.

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Astroturfing (v.): An artificially-manufactured political movement designed to give the appearance of grass roots activism. Campaigns & Elections magazine defined astroturf as a “grassroots program that involves the instant manufacturing of public support for a point of view in which either uninformed activists are recruited or means of deception are used to recruit them.” Unlike natural grassroots campaigns which are people-rich and money-poor, an astroturf campaign tends to be the opposiite, well-funded but with little actual support from voters.

Related: Tories unveil tougher copyright bill, requires ISPs to keep user info | Copyright Act changes to be revealed today | India Gearing Up To Fight ACTA; Seeking Other, Like-Minded, Countries | Red Alert: New Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks | Official ACTA Draft Released, Only Very Slightly Less Awful Than Expected | The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots | Big Content’s dystopian wish-list for the US gov’t: spyware, censorship, physical searches and SWAT teams | Thousands condemn secrecy of New Zealand round of internet copyright talks | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | Entire Text of ACTA Treaty Leaks to Online Rights Website | Revealed: ACTA to cover seven categories of intellectual property | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | EU Parliament votes down ACTA global copyright resolution by overwhelming margin | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU — Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | MPAA Says Critics of Secret Copyright Treaty Hate Hollywood | ACTA Threatens Made-in-Canada Copyright Policy | More ACTA Details Leak: It’s An Entertainment Industry Wishlist | Six Days Left: Canadian Net Users Caught As Copyright Consultation Nears Conclusion | MP Charlie Angus on copyright: industry lobby pulling for ‘dead business model’ | Ottawa denies altering public’s ECopyright Consultation submissions | Security guards stop MPs, students from distributing fair use flyers at Toronto copyright townhall | Can The Public Be Heard On Copyright Issues? | Copyright Consultation Launches: Time For Canadians To Speak Out | Third stab at copyright law ‘reform’ to kick off with consultations | Time to slay Canadian file-sharing myths | Canadian copyright lobbyists leaned on “independent” researchers to change report on file-sharing | Think tank plagiarizes, pulls report on Canadian piracy | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Digital rights groups sue for access to secret ACTA treaty | Critics waging a cyber offensive to fight copyright changes | Canadian Industry Minister lies about Canadian DMCA on national radio, then hangs up | The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print | Government ready to drop copyright bomb | Transparency needed on ACTA | Revamped copyright law targets electronic devices | New Attempt to Align Canada’s Copyright Act with USA Coming Soon | Canadian DMCA To Be Introduced Tomorrow Morning?

Michael Geist, MichaelGeist.ca
June 16, 2010

The copyright lobby, almost certainly led by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, has launched a major astroturf campaign in which it hopes to enlist company employees to register their support for Bill C-32 and to criticize articles or comments that take issue with elements of the proposed legislation. The effort, which even includes paid placement of headlines on Bourque.com, is still shrouded in some secrecy. A member list, which featured many record company executives, has now disappeared from public view. Requests to identify who is behind the site have been stonewalled thus far, with both ACTRA and AFM Canada explicitly stating they are not part of the site (this is no surprise since most creator groups have been critical of C-32).

The heart of the site (which requires full registration) is a daily action item page that encourages users to “make a difference, everyday.” Today’s list of 10 items is a mix of suggested tweets, blog comments, and newspaper article feedback. Each items includes instructions for what should be done and quick link to the target site. For example, users are asked to respond on Twitter to re-tweets of an op-ed by Dalhousie law professor Graham Reynolds. The suggested response is “As an employee in entertainment, this Bill will protect your livelihood” or “The discussion around DRMs is largely fear mongering.” Other suggested twitter activity includes twittering in support of James Moore and his comment that the Chamber of Commerce represents the best interests of consumers or to start following MPs on Twitter (in the hope they will follow back and later see astroturfed tweets).

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Funny, haven’t seen this in the Canadian media, at least not yet. But it merely confirms what we’ve known for some time, adding to a mounting pile of evidence that operations in Pakistan are not what they seem, not by a long shot. Read the report here.

Related: U.S. officials say Pakistani spy agency released Afghan Taliban insurgents | Arrested Terrorist Leader Exposes Extensive CIA Connections | CIA admits Blackwater presence in Pakistan | Taliban: Blackwater to blame for Pakistan attacks | How the US Funds the Taliban | Taliban Chief Blames Blackwater, ISI for Peshawar Blast | Ex-CIA agent confirms US ties with Jundullah | Iranian commanders assassinated, Iran fingers Western intelligence | Madsen: CIA collusion with “Al Qaeda” financiers and attack planners | Whistleblower Who Linked “Taliban” Leader To US Intelligence Is Assassinated | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | The Main Result of the “War on Terror”: The Destabilization of Pakistan | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Key Benazir Bhutto assassination witness shot dead | CIA, Pakistani ISI have long, complicated relationship | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Report: U.S. Gave Green Light For Taliban Prison Attack | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Press TV
June 13, 2010

A new report claims there are direct links between Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A new report has suggested that Pakistan’s intelligence agency is supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan, providing them with funds and training.

The report released Sunday by the London School of Economics (LSE) says that support for the Taliban is the “official policy” of Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) and the body provides funds and sanctuary for the militant group on a larger scale than previously thought.

LSE, which is deemed a leading British institution, also suggests that support for the Taliban “is approved at the highest level of Pakistan’s civilian government.”

“Pakistan appears to be playing a double-game of astonishing magnitude,” said the report’s author, Matt Waldman, after allegedly speaking to several militants in Afghanistan as well as Western and Afghan security officials.

Almost all of the Taliban militants interviewed in the report believed that the ISI was represented on the Quetta Shura, the Taliban’s supreme leadership council based in Pakistan.

“Interviews strongly suggest that the ISI has representatives on the (Quetta) Shura, either as participants or observers, and the agency is thus involved at the highest level of the movement,” the report said.

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Here we go again – another pair of angry young men radicalized under the patronage of the secret police and ready to jet off to some mythic shining world of jihad to fight epic battles of good and evil (in their view). It’s already a matter of public record that this fits the pattern of previous state-run terror cells with manipulable misfits inducted in the ways of terror paintball and wild boasts of violence. Almonte and Alessa were certainly big talkers and the police had been crawling all over them for four years. The question here is, was it the police informant that was encouraging their youthful, fevered dreams as in the cases of the Oz 5, 4 New Yorkers in May 2009, the Fort Dix plotters, and our own Toronto 18 – to name a few? It has come out that he hosted hand-to-hand combat training sessions at his home in New Jersey. But he may not have even had to do the heavy lifting to drive these two towards militancy, as they were apparently fans of Adam Gadahn and Anwar al-Awlaki. Pages could be written here about Gadahn and Awlaki, but suffice it to say that Gadahn (grandson of an ADL director, he beat up muslims in his youth yet experienced a dramatic conversion to Islam a couple of years back only to be trumpeted as the ‘American Al-Qaeda’ in the media) and Awlaki (who, despite his connections to the 9-11 hijackers experienced an amazing freedom of movement in the US and London, including having a warrant for his arrest rescinded upon being caught at JFK in 2002 and passed over for extradition when Yemen offered him up in 2006) are suspect in their own right. This is already shaping up to be a cookie-cutter case of manufactured terror for the domestic press. How long, do you figure, before the Pentagon cranks up its presence in Somalia? Stay tuned…

Related: Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Jordanian teen to plead guilty in Dallas bomb case | Alt-Media Predictions Borne Out: FBI Agent Discovered at Center of Alleged Hutaree Conspiracy | Times Square Bomber Linked With CIA-Controlled Terror Group | Toronto 18 star witness grilled (again), accused of egging on gullible youngsters | Alleged second NYC subway bomb plotter Ahmedzay to plead guilty | Mumbai Terrorist Headley Was US Agent | Undercover policeman reveals how he infiltrated UK’s anti-racism activists | Arrested Terrorist Leader Exposes Extensive CIA Connections | Toronto 18 conspirator Shareef Abdelhaleem ‘not entrapped’, despite evident entrapment: judge | 5 Muslims jailed for Australian terror plot | Crotch Bomber Mutallab’s Visa Approved by State Department | Authorities Quietly Reverse Underwear Bomber Official Story | Walkom: Mole crucial to terror trial | Mumbai suspect is US double agent, India claims | Sears Tower ‘bomb plot’ ringleader sentenced to 13 years | Despite provocation taint, absence of plan, five men convicted of ‘terror plot’ in Australia’s longest trial | Links to ‘Al-Qaeda’, Pakistani training camps linger after ‘Toronto 18′ member imprisoned | Australian Army Base Terrorism Case ‘Exaggerated’ | Evasive Australian police quizzed whether covert operative was planted among terror suspects | ‘Imminent’ terror strike foiled in Australia | How MI5 blackmails British Muslims | New York “Terror Plot” Another Government Provocateured Set-Up | All 11 men arrested during anti-terror raids released without charge | Toronto 18 Terror case: RCMP agent Shaikh was instigator who broke law: defence | Five muslims face life for Fort Dix ‘terror plot’ orchestrated by FBI | Third Mole Surfacing in Toronto Terror Trial? | Australian ‘Terror Plot’ Case Bears Remarkable Similarities to ‘Toronto 18′ | FBI Informant in British terror trial given immunity, proceedings raise question of what MI5 knew about 2005 London bombings | Terror accused refuses to discuss links to Pakistan secret service, family threatened | British ‘Terror Suspects’ Were in Contact With MI5

Bruce Shipkowski, Matt Apuzzo, The Associated Press
June 6, 2010

Officials stop two New Jersey men bound for Somalia at New York’s JFK Airport

They were recorded talking jihad against their fellow Americans. But they hadn’t talked the jihadists into accepting them.

When the two New Jersey men tried to fly out of New York’s Kennedy Airport in hopes of getting terror training in Somalia, investigators who had been following them for years were waiting for each of them at the gate, officials said Sunday.

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, were arrested Saturday before they could board separate flights to Egypt and then continue on to Somalia, federal officials in New Jersey and the New York Police Department said.

They are the latest of several U.S. Muslims accused of joining or trying to join terrorist groups, radicalized with help from fellow Americans preaching violent jihad over the Internet.

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Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist the Mavi Marmara was full of terrorist sympathizers spoiling for a fight as he rejects an international inquiry into the events of that bloody morning. Iran, meanwhile, has stupidly offered military escort to any future aid convoys to Gaza, fueling paranoia that Gaza will become a beachhead and weapons drop for Iranian forces. Bay of Pigs, anyone?

Update: It came to light today as well that Israel has admitted to editing (not doctoring) the audio released of ship-to-ship communications prior to the attack. Sharp-eared citizens online had already commented on the audio disconnects between communications of known persons on the aid flotilla and anti-semitic comments, which Free Gaza accuses the Israeli government of inserting. While Israel denies this, it admits it is unable to confirm the source of the comments since the channel used was an open channel, and so any vessel in the water, or anyone on land within range, could have jumped in with a comment.

Related: Israel’s seizure of Gaza aid boat Rachel Corrie sparks further condemnation | Autopsy: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Gaza flotilla attack: British activists tell of abuse by Israelis | Israel to reject UN call for flotilla raid probe, MV Rachel Corrie under steam | IDF: ‘Activists threw stun grenades’ | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Ex-Mossad agent: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’ | Knesset member and eyewitness: Israel fired before boarding ship | Protests in Middle East, Europe, follow deadly Israeli attack on flotilla as UN convenes emergency session | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | Israeli navy prepares for action as activists’ flotilla nears Gaza | George Galloway, on aid mission to Gaza, is deported from Egypt | Cynthia McKinney Demands Immediate Release After Her Gaza-Bound Boat is Seized by Israeli Navy | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference

Catrina Stewart, The Independent
June 6, 2010

Protesters say Israel had an assassination list. Israel says soldiers fired only in self-defence. So what really happened on 31 May?

Jamal Elshayyal, a journalist with al-Jazeera, woke with a start to the opening salvos of an Israeli assault that would transform the decks of the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish vessel bound for Gaza, into a bloodbath.

From the ship’s position deep in international waters, satellite images of Israeli speedboats and helicopters approaching the vessel were beamed across the globe before communications were abruptly cut off, leaving the events on the Marmara to unfold away from the eyes of the world.

Six days after the bloody assault that left nine foreign protesters, mainly Turks, dead, nobody can recount with any conviction precisely what happened that night. The convoy of ships, whose passengers included writers, politicians and journalists, had been expected for weeks, with organisers loudly broadcasting their plans to run Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and draw international attention to the situation there.

From the beginning, it was clear that Israeli forces were concentrating in their largest numbers on the Marmara, a ship carrying some 550 peace activists. The remaining five boats were much smaller and easily commandeered. After the Marmara was subdued, the passengers silenced, and their recording equipment confiscated, Israel disseminated a carefully choreographed account of the events that night that would dominate the airwaves for the first 48 hours.

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Flashback: Autopsy: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Gaza flotilla attack: British activists tell of abuse by Israelis | Israel to reject UN call for flotilla raid probe, MV Rachel Corrie under steam | IDF: ‘Activists threw stun grenades’ | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Ex-Mossad agent: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’ | Knesset member and eyewitness: Israel fired before boarding ship | Protests in Middle East, Europe, follow deadly Israeli attack on flotilla as UN convenes emergency session | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | Israeli navy prepares for action as activists’ flotilla nears Gaza | George Galloway, on aid mission to Gaza, is deported from Egypt | Cynthia McKinney Demands Immediate Release After Her Gaza-Bound Boat is Seized by Israeli Navy | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference

Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian
June 5, 2010

Nobel peace laureate Máiread Corrigan among 11 passengers held following ‘violent act’ in international waters

Israel risked a fresh wave of international condemnation yesterday as its troops detained a boat carrying humanitarian aid attempting to break the blockade of Gaza and forcibly diverted it to the port of Ashdod.

Five days after the botched assault on a six-boat flotilla ended with Israeli troops shooting dead nine activists, naval commandos boarded the MV Rachel Corrie in international waters about 20 miles from the coast of Gaza.

Yesterday’s operation was mounted despite growing calls for Israel to ease significantly its siege of Gaza. The US, Israel’s staunchest ally, pointedly repeated that the blockade was “unsustainable and must be changed” — a call Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, again rejected. Israel said it had met no resistance in stopping the 1,200-tonne Rachel Corrie.

However, Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement, an organisation behind the flotilla, said passengers and crew had four times refused to accede to Israeli demands to voluntarily divert to Ashdod, resulting in the raid. “There’s no way that 20 people are going to resist a fully armed force,” she said. “The fact that Israel boarded a civilian boat in international waters is a violent act.”

She expected that the 11 passengers — including Nobel peace laureate Máiread Corrigan — and nine crew would be treated “with kid gloves. The world is watching.” There had been no contact with the boat since early yesterday, she added.

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