Maoist Rebel News February 14th, 2009

U.S. Soldier Who Refused Service Returns From Canada

Cliff Cornell's tough exterior dissolves into tears as he reflects on his return to the Army four years after he fled to Canada to avoid the war in Iraq.

"I'm nervous, scared," Cornell said, wiping puffy eyes beneath his sunglasses Monday at a Savannah hotel after a three-day bus ride from Seattle. "I'm just not a fighter. I know it sounds funny, but I have a really soft heart."

Cornell, 29, of Mountain Home, Ark., planned to turn himself in to military police Tuesday at nearby Fort Stewart, where he'll likely face criminal charges for abandoning his unit before it deployed to Iraq in January 2005.

He said he fled because he doesn't think the war has improved the lives of Iraqis, and he couldn't stomach the thought of killing.

"During my training, I was ordered that, if anyone came within so many feet of my vehicle, I was to shoot to kill," said Cornell, who enlisted in 2002 but never deployed to war. "I didn't join the military to kill innocents."

The Army artillery specialist made it to Canada in 2005 and soon started a new life working at a grocery store on Gabriola Island in British Columbia.

Cornell's exile ended last week when he crossed the U.S.-Canada border into Washington state. He left voluntarily to avoid deportation.

"There are probably another three or four who are imminently under threat of deportation, and we're trying hard to fight that," Robidoux, spokeswoman for the Toronto-based War Resisters Support Campaign said.

The lower house of Canada's Parliament passed a nonbinding motion in June urging that U.S. military deserters be allowed to stay in Canada, but the Conservative Party government has ignored the vote.

During the Vietnam War, thousands of Americans took refuge in Canada, most of them to avoid the military draft. Many were given permanent residence status that led to Canadian citizenship, but the majority went home after President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty in the late 1970s.

The Army has listed Cornell as a deserter since a month after he left, but he hasn't been formally charged with any crimes, said Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson.

After returning to Fort Stewart, Cornell could be placed into a unit or be held at a local jail. The unit Cornell was assigned to when he fled - the 1st Battalion, 39th Field Artillery Regiment - disbanded in March 2006.

Cornell's attorney said he hopes the Army shows some leniency since Cornell avoided the war because of his political convictions.

"This is different from someone leaving for selfish reasons," Branum said. "This is someone who said, 'I'm not going to kill civilians."'

It is disgusting how Canada can deport a war resister who refuses to fight a war because the war is illegal, but know it refused to fight that same war for the same reason.


Brazil Indians Suspected of Cannibalism

Police in Brazil's Amazon rain forest are investigating three native Indians suspected of murdering and eating a 21-year-old handicapped man in a rare case of cannibalism, local authorities said on Tuesday.

The Indians of the Kulina tribe near the Peruvian border are accused of having killed and eaten the insides of Ocelio Alves de Carvalho, a 21 year-old student in the town of Envira in Amazonas state.

"The body was quartered and then carved up with more than 100 cuts -- we think they ate his insides," Sgt. Osmildo Fereira da Silva of the state police in Envira told Reuters.

The three Indians apparently boasted of eating Carvalho's heart and liver to relatives in a reservation called Aldeia do Cacau, Fereira said.

Police interrogated a suspect but did not arrest anybody, Fereira said.

The Kulina do not practice cannibalism and police suspect the three Indians were drunk or took drugs.

"Alcoholism is widespread among Indians throughout the region," said Inspector Pablo Souza, with the Federal Police in the state capital Manaus.

"This is not usual in the region, it seems like an isolated case of homicide," he said.

There are nearly 1 million native Indians in Brazil, whose lands make up 12 percent of the country's vast territory.

While some live on large reservations in the rain forest, many are cramped in ghetto-like reservations in Mato Grosso do Sul state, which borders Bolivia and Paraguay.

I'm wondering if this "news story" is even true, or if it has anything to do with the recent attemps to push the Native Indians off their land. Propaganda against a people a government is trying to get out of the way almost never fails.


US Seeks to Rework Foreign Ties

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden has outlined some of the key points of the new U.S. administration's foreign policy, including what he calls the collective effort needed to fight global terrorism and Washington's willingness to talk to Iran about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The United States is willing to talk to Iran, but he warned that Tehran must abandon its "illicit nuclear program" and "support for terrorism" or it will continue to face pressure and isolation, Biden said in a speech Saturday to world leaders attending the Munich Security Conference.

"The Iranian people are a great people. The Persian civilization is a great civilization. But Iran has acted in ways that are not conducive to peace in the region or to the prosperity of its people; its illicit nuclear program is but one of those manifestations," he said. "Our administration is reviewing policy toward Iran, but this much is clear: We will be willing to talk."

"President Obama has made clear that he will seek a new way forward, based on mutual interests and mutual respect," Biden said.

"In the Muslim world, a small and I believe very small, number of violent extremists are beyond the call of reason. We will and we must defeat them. But hundreds of millions of hearts and minds in the Muslim world share the values we hold dearly. We must reach them," he said.

A number of world leaders have expressed concerns that Iran may try to develop nuclear weapons, although the country's president has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Oh yea here comes that Iran is a threat bullshit again. I'm still wondering what happened to that 22 year veteran CIA agent that sued the government. I'm not sure people remember him, he was the one that was fired for refusing to falsify his reports. He sued the government to declassify his reports that showed Iran has no nuclear weapons. He was also the same guy who said Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, and we all know how that turned out. I'm wondering if this guy was still alive. He was mentioned on Countdown with Keith Olbermann a few months ago, but I was unable to find any recent information on him. I hope he is still among the living.


Inconclusive Election Puts Israel, Peace in Limbo

Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu each claimed victory in an inconclusive general election that has both sides looking for possible partners in a coalition government.

With almost all the votes counted on Wednesday morning, Livni's Kadima party has claimed 28 seats, only one more than Netanyahu's conservative Likud party. Avigdor Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beteinu party had a strong showing, gaining four seats to finish with 15 seats. Defence Minister Ehud Barak's Labour party, Israel's ruling party for years, had its worst ever showing, winning just 13 seats. The Orthodox Shas party won 11 seats.

Several hours after polls closed, Livni and Netanyahu staged rival victory rallies.

"With God's help, I will lead the next government," Netanyahu told cheering Likud activists early Wednesday.

An hour later, Livni told her supporters that "the people have spoken, and they have chosen Kadima."

Livni called on Netanyahu to join a coalition government that she will lead.

Both Kadima and Likud will have to make alliances with other smaller parties in order to form a coalition government in the Knesset, the 120-seat parliament.

None of this matters really because the Palestinians are still going to be slaughtered.

Saturday Janauary 7th, 2009

Colombian court denies extradition request
from the U.S. for a kidnapper

The Colombian Supreme Court has denied a request from the U.S. to extradite a guerrilla captured during last year's rescue of three American mercenaries.

The court said its decision is not subject to appeal.

U.S. Embassy officials had no immediate comment.

The court says Alexander Farfan, alias "Gafas," or glasses, cannot be extradited on kidnapping and terrorism charges because the crimes for which he is wanted were committed in Colombian territory.

The court said its decision was based on careful consideration of Colombian law and multilateral treaties such as the 1979 International Convention against the Taking of Hostages.

President Alvaro Uribe had no immediate comment.

However, Uribe's close adviser, Jose Obdulio Gaviria, called the ruling "a political decision."

"It means to say that from now on the court can't extradite anyone," he told The Associated Press. "I think it's a decision that should be reconsidered."

On July 2, Colombian military agents posing as members of a humanitarian mission spirited to safety U.S. captives Marc Gonsalves, Tom Howes and Keith Stansell, along with French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

Farfan and a second rebel from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Gerardo Antonio Aguilar, or "Cesar," were captured during the operation.

Both were indicted and the United States requested their extradition a week later.

(Alexander Farfan is guilty of terrorism for kidnapping a mercenary? A mercenary who's paid to kill people in a foriegn land, has no right to be there and is breaking the law by operating there? Please, this mercenary should be on trial for terrorism charges, not Alexander Farfan)


Israeli navy Impounds Lebanese aid boat enroute to Gaza Strip

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says the Israeli navy has intercepted a ship carrying activists and supplies from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.

Barak says the navy is towing the vessel to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The ship had set sail on Wednesday in a bid to defy Israel's blockade of Gaza.

Reporters from Arab TV stations Al-Jadeed and Al-Jazeera who were on the vessel said the Israelis fired at the ship before boarding it and beating the crew.

They said they were unable to show pictures of the incident as the Israeli force smashed their broadcast equipment.

The Israeli military says it never fired at the ship.

(Yea sure you didn't, just liek those UN aid stations you bombed, or those UN aid convoys you kept destroying? Where the hell is the spineless UN? Why are they not charging Israel with war crimes for the things they keep doing over and over again?)


Greek group vows to launch deadly attacks on police, other targets

A previously unknown group that has claimed responsibility for a shooting and grenade attack against an Athens police station is vowing to kill police officers and expand its targets to prominent Greeks.

The group, which calls itself Sect of Revolutionaries, issued a statement on a computer disk left on the grave of a teenager whose shooting by police in December sparked Greece's worst riots in decades.

An anonymous caller tipped off the local daily Ta Nea to the disk's location, and the paper published the statement Thursday.

The group claimed it had been "unlucky" not to kill a police officer during a pre-dawn attack Tuesday against the police station in the western suburb of Korydallos, in which three assailants in hoods and helmets opened fire and threw a hand grenade that failed to explode. Nobody was injured.

"Our aim was to execute them," the statement said of the police officers, adding: "They were lucky, we were unlucky, next time they will not have luck on their side."

The group also vowed to target other prominent Greeks.

"To those who are already wondering why we chose some random cops and not a high-ranking official, a prominent journalist, a state functionary or at least a capitalist, we answer that their turn will come," the statement said.

Police spokesman Panayiotis Stathis said Wednesday that authorities were taking the statement seriously, and that the group seemed to be following the methods of the Revolutionary Struggle extremists who shot and seriously wounded a riot policeman last month.

"It seems to be genuine; it's a group that has not appeared before but the methodology seems to be the same as that of Revolutionary Struggle," Stathis said.

Although the anti-authoritarian rioting sparked by the teenager's death subsided before Christmas, attacks on police targets have increased.

Small cooking gas canisters exploded outside the office of a minister in charge of police in central Athens early Thursday, causing minor damage and no injuries.

Last month, Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for a Jan. 5 shooting that seriously wounded a 21-year-old riot policeman in central Athens. The group is best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade into the U.S. Embassy in Athens in 2007, and the U.S. is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the capture of a group member.

Greece had faced a domestic insurgecy threat for decades, but authorities cracked down on violent left-wing groups before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The country's deadliest group, November 17, killed 23 people in targeted shootings and bombings between 1975 and 2002 before a botched bombing led police to capture key group members.

In its annual report on terrorism last year, the U.S. State Department said it believed Revolutionary Struggle and November 17 could be linked. Revolutionary Struggle has carried out at least six bombings since 2003, targeting police stations, government ministries, a bank and a courthouse.

(I see when you fight the power of the government its called terrorism. But when you are govenerment that helps Israel committ genocide against Palestinians, its called, "doing NATO's job".)


Canada Should Pursue 'Buy Canadian' Strategy: Jack Layton

Canada should adopt a "Buy Canadian" strategy in response to the "Buy American" clause included in the proposed U.S. stimulus package, NDP Leader Jack Layton urged Tuesday.

The NDP or New Democratic Party was the party started by former Communist Party member Tommy Douglas

During question period in the House of Commons, Layton said that there's a "golden opportunity" to boost slumping domestic sales with a "perfectly legal and appropriately designed 'Buy Canadian' strategy."

"The United States has had a 'Buy American' act for 76 years," Layton said. "It's perfectly legal under the World Trade Organization, and, in fact, under NAFTA, governments are allowed to buy at home in order to use taxpayers' money to create jobs for workers and to support communities and their industries.

"Mexico, China, Japan, South Korea, they all have national procurement policies, and it would be a good idea for Canada. Can the prime minister tell us what's wrong with a 'Buy Canadian' policy as permitted under continental and global trade rules?"

The controversial provision, part of the $819-billion US financial stimulus package before the U.S. Congress, would require all public works projects funded by the stimulus package to use only U.S.-made iron and steel.

During question period, Prime Minister Stephen Harper shot back that the specific proposals before the U.S. Congress violate trade obligations and that Layton is suggesting the government respond by starting a trade war with the U.S.

"That is not advice that we will be taking," Harper said.

The Tory government has called on Congress to remove the controversial clause in the stimulus package. In a letter to senior U.S. Senate leaders, the Canadian ambassador in Washington, Michael Wilson, said the clause could spark protectionist measures in other countries.

"The leader of the NDP asked the question, 'What would be wrong with policies that have us just buy here?' What's wrong with it is we are a world trading leader," Harper said. "We can compete with the best in the world; we can sell around the world. We want to sell around the world, and that's what our policy is designed to have us do."

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives approved the economic stimulus package in a vote last week, and the Senate began debating it on Monday.


Obama Imposes Pay Cap on Executives

President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure."

Obama announced the dramatic new government intervention into corporate America at the White House, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at his side. The president said the executive-pay limits are a first step, to be followed by the unveiling next week of a sweeping new framework for spending what remains of the $700 billion financial industry bailout that Congress created last year.

The executive-pay move comes amid a national outcry over huge bonuses to executives heading companies seeking taxpayer dollars to remain afloat. The demand for limits was reinforced by revelations that Wall Street firms paid more than $18 billion in bonuses in 2008 even amid the economic downturn and the massive infusion of taxpayer dollars.

"This is America. We don't disparage wealth. We don't begrudge anybody for achieving success," Obama said. "But what gets people upset — and rightfully so — are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers."

(I assume this is a shot at us. We don't hate anyone for doing well either. Although they keep saying we do. The problem is the system and means by whihc a person generates wealth, not that they do generate wealth.)

The pay cap would apply to all institutions that have negotiated agreements with the Treasury Department for "exceptional assistance." Those would include American International Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., and Citigroup Inc.

Firms that want to pay executives above the $500,000 threshold would have to use stock that could not be sold or liquidated until they pay back the government funds.

Generally healthy institutions would have more leeway. They also face the $500,000 limit if they're getting government help, but the cap can be waived with full public disclosure and a nonbinding shareholder vote.

Obama said that massive severance packages for executives who leave failing firms are also going to be eliminated. "We're taking the air out of golden parachutes," he said.

(Which is a tremendous idea considering. It angers me that all those people who caused the problems are actually going to profit off of them. While the working class is left with the problem.)

Other new requirements on "exceptional assistance" will include:

—The expansion to 20, from five, the number of executives who would face reduced bonuses and incentives if they are found to have knowingly provided inaccurate information related to company financial statements or performance measurements.

—An increase in the ban on golden parachutes from a firm's top five senior executives to its top 10. The next 25 would be prohibited from golden parachutes that exceed one year's compensation.

—A requirement that boards of directors adopt policies on spending such as corporate jets, renovations and entertainment.

The administration also will propose long-term compensation restrictions even for companies that don't receive government assistance, Obama said.

Those proposals include:

— Requiring top executives at financial institutions to hold stock for several years before they can cash out.

— Requiring nonbinding "say on pay" resolutions — that is, giving shareholders more say on executive compensation.

— A Treasury-sponsored conference on a long-term overhaul of executive compensation.

(I propose an amendment to this bill that would place anyone who recieved a bouns after destroying working class live to be thrown in jail and have all their assests seized.)

Nkunda Arrested

Nkunda was arrested on the 22nd of January. The DR Congo, in collaboration with Rwanda, will be working to wipe out all hostile militias in the area. It came as a surprise when Rwanda supposedly pulled the plug on the CNDP.


Publicity Stunt with Blackwater

The contract between Washington and Blackwater Co. expires in May. Obama doesn't plan on renewing the contract. However, we must keep in mind that Obama still has a few months to use Blackwater.

There are two other groups just like Blackwater currently operating in Iraq. So cutting ties with one company is just a publicity stunt. Obama will use the other two companies to commit America's war crimes.


Iraqi "Democracy"

The elections of the US puppet government in Iraq have been called a success by Washington and the Baghdad puppets. There are questions about the fairness of these elections, and the UN said there must be an investigation into the accusations. Voter turnout was lower than expected at just over 50%.


Colombian Rebels to Free Hostages

The International Red Cross says a helicopter has departed to pick up four hostages that Colombia's leftist rebels promised to free.

Three police officers and a soldier are among six hostages the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia says it is freeing unilaterally.

The police and soldier have been held for two years or less. The two politicians set to be released Monday and Wednesday have been held far longer.

The Red Cross says those picked up Sunday will be flown to the provincial capital of Villavicencio in Colombia's eastern lowlands.

The unilateral releases are the guerrillas' first in nearly a year, but analysts say chances for a peace dialogue with Colombia's government are far off.


Israel Vows 'Disproportionate' Response to Hamas Rocket Fire

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened on Sunday a "disproportionate" response to the continued rocket and mortar fire into Israel from the Hamas-elected Gaza Strip.

Shortly after Olmert spoke, three Israelis were wounded by mortars, medics and the Israeli army said. The wounded included two soldiers and the first Israeli civilian hurt since a January 18 truce ended Israel's 22-day offensive in the coastal enclave.

Two rockets struck southern Israel earlier on Sunday, causing no damage or casualties. A wing of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group belonging to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for that attack.

No group made an immediate claim for the mortar shootings.

"The government's position was from the outset that if there is shooting at the residents of the south, there will be a harsh Israeli response that will be disproportionate," Olmert said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

"We will act according to new rules which will ensure that we will not be drawn into a war of incessant shooting on the southern border, which would deprive the residents of the south of a normal life," he said, without elaborating.

A spokesman for the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip condemned what he described as Olmert's "aggressive statement."

But the spokesman, Taher al-Nono, also urged all Palestinian factions to "respect the national consensus" on the ceasefire the Islamist group declared two weeks ago after Israel announced it was halting the Gaza offensive.

Israel was criticized internationally for the deaths, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, of more than 1,300 Palestinians, including at least 700 civilians.

Critics said Israel had responded disproportionately, in its air and ground offensive in heavily populated areas, to cross-border rocket attacks over the previous eight years that killed 18 people.

During the Gaza campaign, 10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed.

Since the truce, in addition to Sunday's injuries, an Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded when a bomb exploded next to their patrol. Israeli air strikes since January 18 have killed three Palestinians and wounded 10.

Israel said Hamas militants bore responsibility for civilian deaths in Gaza by operating inside its towns and refugee camps.

Egypt has been trying to broker a long-term ceasefire that would end Hamas weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip and also lead to a reopening of Gaza border crossings, one of the Islamist group's main demands.

Olmert's comments were echoed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a candidate for prime minister in Israel's February 10 election. Olmert, who quit in a corruption scandal in September but stayed on as caretaker prime minister, is not running.

"Israel will respond," said Livni, who replaced Olmert as head of the ruling, centrist Kadima party. "This is my position. It was clear before, during and after the operation, and this is how I will conduct myself as prime minister."

Opinion polls in the final stretch of an election campaign dominated by security issues and promises by candidates to keep Hamas at bay, suggest the right-wing Likud party of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will win the most votes.


Obama Calls Wall St. Bonuses 'Shameful'

A Democratic senator closely allied with President Obama said Friday she was introducing legislation to cap compensation for employees of companies taking U.S. government aid during the economic downturn.

Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri announced the action a day after Obama said he was outraged by a report of some $18 billion in Wall Street bonuses paid at a time taxpayer money was being used to shore up the crumbling financial system.

Obama called the bonuses "shameful," adding the actions of Wall Street represented the "height of irresponsibility."

Under the bill by McCaskill, an early endorser of Obama's presidential candidacy, employees would not be able to make more money than the U.S. president -- $400,000 a year -- until their companies no longer relied on government aid, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program that bails out banks.

"We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer," an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate. "They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out 18 billion dollars in bonuses."

McCaskill's proposed compensation limit would cover salaries, bonuses and stock options.

Jesus Christ could you get anymore of an obvious theft? Could there be anymore of a blatant slap in the face to the people of America? Could there be any bigger of a "Fuck You" and a middle finger to the working class? Could you get anymore of a sign of contempt from these people?

This is the very essence of capitalism. The accumulation of wealth by any means possible and a big screw you on top of it. The very wealth that the people struggled to obtain. (Poor unprivlidged middle class we're told.) This could not be any better of fact slapped in your face that capitalism was meant to bilk you out of YOUR money.

And people think that this executive order by Barak Obama will put a stop to that. No it won't, because the damage is done and it will not be undone. I gaurentee you that in like a month there will be a lawsuit by finnancial executives. Probably paid for by the bailout money, claiming that placing a salary cap on them violates the consitiution. That same consitution that was not there to prevent the theft to begin with.

I'm reminded for something I said last year:

"The more things appear to have changed, the more they stay the same."

In other words, nothing really changes. So I think of Mao:

"Change must come through the barrell of a gun."

Special Comment: Wall Street Bailout

18 billion dollars hua? 18 billion dollars. What really pisses me off the most about this is the shear hypocritical nature of this bailout. Every argument that every capitalist gives against communism is along the lines of refusing to give money for state enterprises because “it’s my money, I made it”. Yet here we are. The largest and most powerful supporters of capitalism and all the diseases it causes begging with their hands out for public money. That same money they say shouldn’t even be public money because “they” earned it.

What supposedly makes capitalism so great? The fact that we can succeed or fail by our own virtues. People with ambition can do good things for everyone, because there is a supposed virtue to selfishness. If you spend public funds to help people they will never help themselves. They need to be self-sustaining, they need to have personal responsibility, and you succeed or fail in the market of your own abilities. Competition, it brings out the best in all of us! Ha!

If the federal government gives even a dollar to a public works sector, or a single dollar to fight urban poverty, these same people are right there to scream “Communism”! If even one dollar goes to helping regular people they scream how us Reds are taking over and going to kill everyone. They even scream about how Obama is a communist, and their idiot supporters believe them! Anyone with half a god damn brain, or a shred of intelligence can see how bullshit all of this is.

For all their dogma about “free markets”, individualism and personal profits; I can’t help getting this vision in my head. A vision of little Oliver Twist in an Armani suit walking back to the man dishing out the gruel pot filled with money and begging, “Please sir, my I have some more?”

And they ask on a FOX Business Network in a segment: “Should Wall Street Get Bonuses?”

I think we should all be asking ourselves if we should be taking to the streets with rifles and taking our money back. I think we should be storming Wall St. and taking away their possessions, taking away their homes the way others are having theirs taken away because of the actions of these Wall St. Scumbags.

It’s all based on personal ability. Survival of the fittest or some social Darwinist bullshit like that. Unless of course you work on Wall St.

And in the end, you Wall street monstrosities have managed to give us proof that violent revolution is necessary, to remove scum like you.

Arctic's Thaw Brings Security Risks

NATO will need a military presence in the Arctic as global warming melts frozen sea routes and major powers rush to lay claim to lucrative energy reserves, the military bloc's chief said Thursday.

NATO commanders and lawmakers meeting in Iceland's capital said the Arctic thaw is bringing the prospect of new standoffs between powerful nations.

"I would be the last one to expect military conflict — but there will be a military presence," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters. "It should be a military presence that is not overdone, and there is a need for political cooperation and economic cooperation."

The opening up of Arctic sea routes once navigable only by icebreakers threatens to complicate delicate relations between countries with competing claims to Arctic territory — particularly as exploration for oil and natural gas becomes possible in once inaccessible areas.

De Hoop Scheffer said negotiations involving Russia, NATO and other nations will be key to preventing a future conflict. The NATO chief is expected to meet Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov next week for talks.

The United States, Russia and Canada are among the countries attempting to claim jurisdiction over Arctic territory alongside Nordic nations. Analysts say China is also likely to join a rush to capture energy reserves.

"Several Arctic rim countries are strengthening their capabilities, and military activity in the High North region has been steadily increasing," de Hoop Scheffer told delegates.

Some scientists predict that Arctic waters could be ice-free in summers by 2013, decades earlier than previously thought. De Hoop Scheffer said trans-Arctic routes are likely to become an alternative to passage through the Suez or Panama canals for commercial shipping.

"Climate change is not a fanciful idea, it is already a reality, a reality that brings with it certain new challenges, including for NATO," de Hoop Scheffer said.

The NATO chief said an upsurge in energy exploration — and the likelihood of more commercial ships needing emergency rescue — would require a larger NATO presence in the Arctic.

"The end of the Cold War resulted in a marked reduction in military activity in the High North — Iceland would like it to stay that way," Iceland's outgoing Prime Minister Geir Haarde told the conference.

Haarde tendered his resignation Monday amid the country's economic crisis and said the one-day conference was among his final duties before he steps down on Saturday.

Lee Willett, head of the maritime studies program at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based military think tank, said that as routes open up, warships from nations seeking to defend claims on energy resources will follow.

"Having lots of warships, from lots of nations who have lots of competing claims on territory — that may lend itself to a rather tense situation," Willett said. "We may see that flash points come to pass there more readily than elsewhere in the world."

Russia and Canada have already traded verbal shots over each other's intentions in the Arctic, and Canada has beefed up its military presence in the region, announcing plans to build a new army training center and a deep-water port in contested Arctic waters. Norway, the U.S. and Denmark also have claims in the vast region, while Russian President Dmitry Medvedev seeks to lay claim to Arctic territory the size of France.

Six people were arrested on Wednesday outside the Reykjavik conference venue — two for burning a NATO flag. Many Icelanders oppose the volcanic island's membership in the military bloc, fearing it compromises the nation's independence.

Such attempts to miltarize the north is obvious. Global warming has been a concern since the 1980s. However this militarization of the north only comes during the race for the claim over the natural resources located in the Arctic. This is just another power play, placing military power where it is not needed in order for nations to fight over resources. We at the Maoist Rebel news call on Iceland's people to refuse the NATO Agreement (which never had real purpose) in order to maintain their own sovereignty.


Obama reverses Bush-era policies to 'level playing field' for organized labour

President Barack Obama signed a number of executive orders Friday that he said should "level the playing field" for labour unions in their struggles with management.

Obama also used the occasion to announce formally a new White House task force on the problems of middle-class Americans, with Vice-President Joe Biden as chairman.

Union officials say the new orders by Obama will undo Bush administration policies that favoured employers over workers. The orders will:

-Require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.

-Reverse a Bush administration order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.

-Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

"We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests," Obama said during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

"I do not view the labour movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution," he said. "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labour movement."

Signing the executive orders was Obama's second overture to organized labour in as many days. On Thursday, he signed the first bill of his presidency, giving workers more time to sue for wage discrimination.

"It's a new day for workers," said James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who attended the ceremony with other union leaders.

"We finally have a White House that is dedicated to working with us to rebuild our middle class. Hope for the American Dream is being restored."

Of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, Obama said, "We're not forgetting the poor. They are going to be front and centre, because they, too, share our American Dream."

He said his administration wants to make sure low-income people "get a piece" of the American pie "if they're willing to work for it."

"With this task force, we have a single, highly visible group with one single goal: to raise the living standards of the people who are the backbone of this country," Biden said.

Obama set several goals for the task force, including expanding opportunities for education and training; improving the work-family balance; restoring labour standards, including workplace safety, and protecting retirement security.

The president and vice-president said the task force will include the secretaries of commerce, education, labour and health and human services because those cabinet departments have the most influence on the well-being of the middle class.

It also will include White House advisers on the economy, the budget and domestic policy.

Biden pledged that the task force will conduct its business in the open, and announced a website, www.astrongmiddleclass.gov, for the public to get information.

He also announced that the panel's first meeting will be Feb. 27 in Philadelphia and will focus on environmental or "green jobs."


Blagojevich ousted as Illinois gov.; Quinn sworn in

After weeks of shocking twists and turns, the conclusion of Rod Blagojevich's tenure as Illinois governor offered no surprises at all.

Blagojevich addressed his Senate impeachment trial and offered familiar lines: He was innocent. The trial rules were unfair. His goal always was to help people.

Then the Senate did what was expected and voted to throw Blagojevich out of office. And on an identical 59-0 roll call, it barred the two-term Democrat from ever again holding public office in the state.

"He failed the test of character. He is beneath the dignity of the state of Illinois. He is no longer worthy to be our governor," said Sen. Matt Murphy, a Republican from suburban Chicago.

Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, becomes the first U.S. governor in more than 20 years to be removed by impeachment.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, one of Blagojevich's critics, was promptly sworn in as governor. "The ordeal is over," declared Quinn, 60.

Blagojevich's troubles, however, are not over. Federal prosecutors are drawing up an indictment against him on corruption charges.

Outside his Chicago home Thursday night, Blagojevich vowed to "keep fighting to clear my name," and added: "Give me a chance to show you that I haven't let you down."

Blagojevich, 52, had boycotted the first three days of the impeachment trial, calling the proceedings a kangaroo court. But on Thursday, he went before the Senate to fight for his job, delivering a 47-minute plea that was, by turns, defiant, humble and sentimental.

"You haven't proved a crime, and you can't because it didn't happen," Blagojevich told lawmakers. "How can you throw a governor out of office with insufficient and incomplete evidence?"

The verdict brought to an end what one legislator branded "the freak show" in Illinois. Over the past few weeks, Blagojevich found himself isolated, with almost the entire political establishment lined up against him. The crisis paralyzed state government and made Blagojevich and his helmet of lush, dark hair a punchline from coast to coast.

Many ordinary Illinoisans were glad to see him go.

"It's very embarrassing. I think it's a shame that with our city and Illinois, everybody thinks we're all corrupt," Gene Ciepierski, 54, said after watching the trial's conclusion on a TV at Chicago's beloved Billy Goat Tavern. "To think he would do something like that, it hurts more than anything."

In a solemn scene, more than 30 legislators rose one by one on the Senate floor to accuse Blagojevich of abusing his office and embarrassing the state. They denounced him as a hypocrite, saying he cynically tried to enrich himself and then posed as the brave protector of the poor and "wrapped himself in the constitution."

Blagojevich did not stick around to hear the vote. He took a state plane back to Chicago.

He did, however, use his last day in office to grant clemency to a prominent Chicago real estate developer and a former drug dealer, just hours before the vote to oust him.

The verdict capped a head-spinning string of developments that began with his arrest by the FBI on Dec. 9. Federal prosecutors had been investigating Blagojevich's administration for years, and some of his closest cronies already have been convicted.

The most spectacular allegation was that Blagojevich had been caught on wiretaps scheming to sell an appointment to Obama's Senate seat for campaign cash or a plum job for himself or his wife.

"I've got this thing and it's (expletive) golden, and I'm just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing. I'm not gonna do it," he was quoted as saying on a government wiretap.

Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago Democrat, mocked Blagojevich during debate: "We have this thing called impeachment and it's bleeping golden and we've used it the right way."

Prosecutors also said Blagojevich illegally pressured people to make campaign contributions and tried to get editorial writers fired from the Chicago Tribune for badmouthing him in print.

Obama himself, fresh from his historic election victory, was forced to look into the matter and issued a report concluding that no one in his inner circle had done anything wrong.

"Today ends a painful episode for Illinois," the president said in a Thursday night statement. "For months, the state had been crippled by a crisis of leadership. Now that cloud has lifted."

Even as legislators were deciding whether to launch an impeachment, Blagojevich defied the political establishment by appointing a former Illinois attorney general, Roland Burris, to the very Senate seat he had been accused of trying to sell. Top Democrats on Capitol Hill eventually backed down and seated Burris.

As his trial got under way, Blagojevich launched a media blitz, rushing from one TV studio to another in New York to proclaim his innocence. He likened himself to the hero of a Frank Capra movie and to a cowboy in the hands of a Wild West lynch mob.

The impeachment case included not only the criminal charges against Blagojevich, but allegations he broke the law when it came to hiring state workers, expanded a health care program without legislative approval and spent $2.6 million on flu vaccine that went to waste. The 118-member House twice voted to impeach him, both times with only one "no" vote.

By Thursday night, Blagojevich's name and picture had disappeared from the state's official Web site. Instead, an unobtrusive "Pat Quinn, Governor" was in the upper right corner.

Never before has a man who is blatantly guilty acted as a persecuted victim. This man was caught red-handed undermining democracy. Undermining the spirit of the fore fathers. This man could not be more guitly. It is sickening for this man who say he is being judged unfairly. It is a true testiment to the shear BS of the Conservative to try to find a way to blame Obama.

There has never been one piece of evidence to link Obama to this scandal. The fact they can out right lie saying he is, after 8 years of George Bush destroying democracy, show what kind of people Conservatives really are.

Special Comment: China is Not Communist

It is an incorrect statement often repeated by those who know little or nothing at all. It’s also the favourite lie of any educated capitalist. One they know very well is not true. A lie propagated by them in an effort to keep the people’s revolution from achieving victory. It covers up the true effects of capitalism every time it is spoken. A lie that is always repeated even by popular liberals Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.

China is a Communist country.

The statement is laughable to us Communists, socialists, anarchists and libertarians. But apparently not the general uninformed public.

China's industry is almost completely privatized. The government runs virtually nothing at all. The means of production are all in the private businessman's hands. Citizens can own stock in private companies.

If we are looking for evidence of communism in China, the first and most important place to look is at the economy. The economy in China is now decidedly capitalist. Chinese citizens can start their own businesses and put their income into private bank accounts. Chinese citizens can buy stocks in companies and enjoy the revenues or suffer the losses. As of just a few years ago, private property rights have been greatly enhanced in China. Let us not forget about the heavy international investment that has been permitted in China which has played a major role in fuelling this developing and booming economy. As a result, there are very rich people and very poor people in China as well as a small emerging middle class.

A good many of the businesses in China are wholly dependent on foreign investment in order to operate. Their entire demand comes from another country. There are entire industries in China that depend on foreign trade. This is not Communism at all, not even close.

Everyone notices that there is no democracy in China. Always Communism is blamed for their being no democracy. But what say these people now? Clearly there is no Communism, but also no democracy. Is capitalism blamed for the lack of democracy?

No, you don't have to admit that capitalism is to blame. You can lie and keep saying that it is Communism. Even when it is obviously not there.
The have to lie in order to continue to make us look bad. So when you hear someone say China is a Communist country... Say... "No its not you idiot." Or in the case of someone who already knows, "Stop lying you propaganda whore."

Maoist Rebel News January 28th, 2009

U.S. war resister and mother of three scheduled for deportation Tuesday

A U.S. war resister living in Toronto is scheduled to be deported Tuesday after losing a recent appeal to remain in Canada.

Kim Rivera served in Iraq with the American military in 2006 but moved to Canada the following year after she refused redeployment. She has been living in Ontario with her husband and three children, including a six-week-old girl who was born in Canada.

Rivera told her appeal hearing earlier this month that her experience in Iraq left her emotionally scarred and unable to face another tour of duty.

Last week, Christopher Teske - who had been living in British Columbia for two years -
exhausted his last appeal and was ordered to leave Canada.

War resisters sent back to the U.S. fear a fate like the one that awaited Robin Long, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison after being deported.

We at The Maoist Rebel News are disapointed in Canada for breaking its tradition of supporting war resisters. We here are just wondering if it has anyhting to do with the Conservative goverment and its history of blindly supporting Bush administration wishes. Canada is supposed to be haven for thse who resist violence and war. Now it appears that is no longer so.

Man, 93, Freezes to Death in Home

A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills, officials said.

Marvin Schur died "a slow, painful death," said Kanu Virani, Oakland County's deputy chief medical examiner, who performed the autopsy.

Neighbours discovered Schur's body on Jan. 17. They said the indoor temperature was below zero Celsius at the time, the Bay City Times reported Monday.

"Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly," Virani said. "It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning."

Schur owed Bay City Electric Light & Power more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills, Bay City manager Robert Belleman told The Associated Press on Monday.

A city utility worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at Schur's home on Jan. 13, Belleman said. The device limits power reaching a home and blows out like a fuse if consumption rises past a set level. Power is not restored until the device is reset.

The limiter was tripped sometime between the time of installation and the discovery of Schur's body, Belleman said. He didn't know if anyone had made personal contact with Schur to explain how the device works.

Schur's body was discovered by neighbour George Pauwels.

"His furnace was not running, the insides of his windows were full of ice the morning we found him," Pauwels told the newspaper.

Belleman said city workers keep the limiter on houses for 10 days, then shut off power entirely if the homeowner hasn't paid utility bills or arranged to do so.

He said Bay City Electric Light & Power's policies will be reviewed, but he didn't believe the city did anything wrong.

"I've said this before and some of my colleagues have said this: Neighbours need to keep an eye on neighbours," Belleman said. "When they think there's something wrong, they should contact the appropriate agency or city department."

Schur had no children and his wife had died several years ago.

Bay City is on Saginaw Bay, just north of the city of Saginaw in central Michigan.

This is disguesting, this is in human. To think a humanbeing died simply because they were unable to pay a bill. A god damned human life for a hydro bill. A human being who couldn't even work. You know I can hear the capitalist defenders now, "if we let this guy off the hook they will all start doing it."

This Bay City Electric Light & Power should burn in hell. Or freeze would be better.

Issue of Peguis First Nation accepting $118M settlement up in air

In Winnipeg A vote on whether to accept the largest land claim settlement in Canadian history was declared invalid Sunday because not enough ballots were cast.

The Peguis First Nation has 4,234 band members who were eligible to participate in the weekend referendum, but only 1,470 showed up. That represented 38 per cent of the population, and federal rules said that 51 per cent needed to vote.

Chief Glen Hudson said he was disappointed, though the results were overwhelmingly in support of accepting the treaty, 1368 votes in favour to 102 against.

"Now we have more time to talk to people and obviously to hear their concerns on the agreement itself," he said.

At issue was whether they wanted to accept a $127 million settlement with the government of Canada that included individual payments of $1,000 to eligible, adult band members.

The First Nation as a whole would receive $118 million in tightly controlled community trusts for education, business loans and community infrastructure projects.

But many band members said they deliberately chose not to vote - some because they felt they didn't have enough information and some because they believed children in the community should also get their cut of the individual payments.

"Don't Vote: Stand up for the Children," read one sign on the side of a house on the reserve, 220 km north of Winnipeg.

"It's forgetting about the children, the ones that are under 18," band member Stuart Stevenson told a national news agency. "I think it should be about the children - the younger generation."

But Darlene Bird, a band councillor, said she hopes the deal will eventually go through.

"It's an economic opportunity - we can address housing, we can address education," she said. "It's not just the children right now. It's the children of generations to come."

Grand Rapids Chief Ovide Mercredi, who is a lawyer, said he thinks the band members should hold out for a better deal.

"The value of the land is more than what the government is offering. This was prime property at the time that the treaty was made, and the value of the land has increased over the years."
Hudson said another vote will be scheduled for July, adding he hopes it will give people on the reserve more time to understand the deal.

He said each month that the deal goes unsigned, the band loses $500,000 in interest.
The Peguis territory was seized by Ottawa following unresolved land disputes between 1874 and 1906.

Band members were forced to leave the former St. Peter's reserve near Selkirk, Man., an area estimated to be 31,566 hectares.

NDF-EV: Waging revolution the best alternative to deteriorating conditions of calamities, corruption, foreign domination and war under Arroyo regime

The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today expressed distress at the increasingly dire straits of the people this 2009 under the Arroyo regime and said that waging revolution is the best way for fundamental changes. Even in the first month of this year, the real plight of the people is glaringly clear,” said NDF-EV spokesperson Fr. Santiago Salas. The people of Northern Samar and Eastern Samar have been wallowing for two straight months in the misery of natural calamity, compounded by the ineptitude of the Arroyo regime. Such calamities were also in the first place made possible or at the very least worsened by unsound, pro-imperialist and anti-people policies being pushed by the regime.

The NDF-EV extends the deepest sympathies to the people of Northern and Eastern Samar who are suffering from widespread flooding. The revolutionary movement is helping those affected, especially within the scope of the people's democratic government. We go among the people to know their real conditions, help in organizing relief and rehabilitation efforts, and advise the people to struggle against the conditions that lead to and aggravate such natural calamities.

Fr. Salas added that recent pronouncements of the Arroyo government show that the people's ordeal is not over but could only turn for the worse. Natural calamities are made worse by man-made conditions, as well as add further grief to the people who are already suffering under a government that is corrupt, subservient to foreign interests and warlike. The Arroyo government's economic policies lead to social and environmental degradation. There is the push for widespread mining and logging, as well as an agricultural program promoting plantation farming of crops for export. These have long been criticized for leading to landlessness and the ransacking of the national patrimony, as well as environmental destruction that has led to thousands of deaths in the region in various natural disasters beginning with the 1991 Ormoc flashflood.
The NDF-EV spokesperson also assailed the Arroyo government's ineptitude as shown by the marked failure to prepare as well as respond to calamities. “Dozens of storms pass the region every year. Yet the reactionary government is woefully unprepared because it is more used to robbing and abusing the people rather than helping them. Such disasters worsen the people's poverty and misery, in a region that is materially rich but where the majority of the people are landless and jobless. The peak of the government's callousness is expressed in the military's recruitment drive to increase the paramilitary CAFGU for a bloody all-out war, even while the people in wide swathes of Samar are still struggling to recover from disaster.

The people's abject conditions further inflame them against the Arroyo regime, which they already want to end and bring to justice, as well as strengthen their desire to wage revolution and achieve genuine change.

Reference:Roy Santos, NDF-EV
Media OfficerContact: NDF-EV