Russia Defends Syria, Yemen Fights Back
It's seems to happen every year Russia manages to spring a major surprise on the world foiling the schemes of the American Empire of Chaos. Recently Russia have begun to greatly expand their Assistance to the Syrian Government. In 2013 it was the surprise chemical weapons agreement which lead Obama to cancel plans to launch a bombing campaign aimed at destroying Syria and turning the country over to a bunch of genocidal terrorists from Al Qaeda, FSA, Al Nusra, and ISIS. The Neo-con wing of the US retaliated with the coup in Ukraine which began to simmer that very fall. Then came Russia's next big surprise accepting the people of Crimea's nearly unanimous vote to return to Russia and escape newly fascist Ukraine. Putin sent in Spetsnaz to secure Crimea against retaliation preserving Russia's geopolitical position in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. This lead the people of east Ukraine to hope that they too might be allowed to rejoin Russia or at least secede from Ukraine leading to the birth of Novorossia that territory determined to preserve it's independence from Fascist Ukraine. Of course this lead to the Ukrainian Civil War which I've spent the past two years writing about. when the US began to bomb Syria in Fall of 2014 on the excuse that it was trying to destroy ISIS ( a force it created along with it's allies during the war in Iraq and used to attack Syria), At the time Russia seemed too pre-occupied with Ukraine and Cold War 2.0 to provide more help to Syria. I was really desperate for Russia to act to defend Syria at the time but I had little hope. (See My September 2014 Articles "Empire of Lies" and "War on Syria and Iraq "Peace" in Ukraine")
Now it's a year later and the war in Ukraine has cooled down. The kiev regime is still shelling civilians in Novorossia, fascists are still on the rampage, but there have been no major offensives since last spring when Novorossia captured Donetsk Airport, Smashed a Ukrainian offensive and captured Debaltsevo. (See my February 2014 Articles "Debaltsevo and Diplomacy" and "Victory at Debaltsevo") With Novorossia secure Russia has finally decided to act decisively to aid it's ally Syria. Of course Russia has been providing military aid to Syria since the cold war and throughout the current war on Syria but now despite early denials it is clear that Russia is now prepared to take a direct role in the war. It is another brilliant move by Putin. First it has put a stop to the US and Turkish scheme to begin a "No-Fly Zone" in northern Syria aimed at eliminating Syrian and Kurdish forces there and creating an expanded safe haven for NATO's terrorist armies there. Second it will enable Syria to go back on the offensive against ISIS and other groups which were making gains. Third it has exposed the hypocritical schemes of the Empire of Chaos and it's allies which claim to be fighting the very groups they are funding. There are signs that slightly saner heads in the Obama administration may seize the opportunity to back away from their plans to destroy Syria at least until whatever madman or madwoman takes over after the american election circus in 2016. I suspect that they will continue their covert war on Syria but hopefully they may lessen their support. No doubt the US may seek to retaliate in Ukraine ironically that demented madman John McCain (Friend to Al Nusra Terrorists, Ukrainian Nazis and tool of the Israel lobby) is currently in Ukraine. Thus no doubt the Neo-cons are already plotting their revenge just as they did back in 2013 the last time Russia managed to avert the all out NATO war on Syria.
Russia has already sent a big shipment of Tanks, Fighter Jets, helicopters and other equipment. It's expanding the airbase in Lattakia in the north and has sent a couple hundred marines to guard the base and possibly fight. They are now providing their satelite intel to the Syrian Government to counter the intel provided the terrorists by the west which have often helped them to launch their attacks in the past. At this stage is unclear just how far Russia is planning to expand it's aid to Syria. However I think over the next several months Syria should begin to launch some impressive offenses driving back the terrorists from their recent gains and attacking them in their bases. Thanks to the schemes of what Pepe Escobar calls the Empire of Chaos Russia has long experience fighting Terrorirism. It began in the 70's with their disastrous war in Afghanistan, then after the Soviet Union was destroyed Russia fought two long and ugly dirty wars in Chechnya suffering humiliating defeat under Yeltsin but managing to reassert control thanks to the alliance between Putin and Akhmad Kadyrov and later his son Ramzan Kadyrov who currently rules Chechnya. Thus after 30 years Russia has learned the hard way how to fight this sort of war and will hopefully send some veteran intelligence agents and special forces troops to help it's Syrian allies who also have long experience fighting this sort of war. For the moment however what has chiefly been provided is hope at last for the Syrian people who have been fighting this war for more then 4 years with no end in sight. Although they had won many victories they faced the prospect of endless war as Syria died the death of a thousand cuts it's hospitals, schools, history all slowly being destroyed while they faced an endless supply of terrorists. Now once again victory seems possible again and the Syrian people will doubtless return to the struggle with renewed spirit. Syria will survive that seems certain now. Russia has already signaled that it is willing to send whatever aid is necessary to save Syria including troops if Syria should ask for them.
Not only is Russia entering the war it also brings with it the entire CSTO Russia's military alliance with former soviet republics in Central Asia and Belarus. Who knows perhaps even some Novorossiyans may join the fight. After all ISIS has been allied with Ukraine since before the coup and has recently been shockingly open about it with Dmitry Yarosh recently meeting with a Chechen ISIS leader. Some Ukrainian Fascists actually went to fight alongside the Chechen terrorists during the recent Chechen wars. Parts of Ukraine and Chechnya sided with the Nazis during World War 2 of course. By acting to protect Syria Putin is also interfering with plans to funnel terrorists from the Syrian wars into Iraq, Ukraine, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and even China. This is why I call all the various inter-related wars stretching from Central Africa and across Eurasia all the way into China's western frontier World War 4. (World War 3 was the War on the third World during the "Cold" War which killed millions in places like Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia and hundreds of thousands in places like Angola, El Salvador, and Guatemala) These wars should be viewed not separately but as a single war conducted by the US and it's allies upon much of the planet. Their ultimate targets are Russia and China. Hopefully Russia's move signals it is ready to start countering this war on a global scale. Although we shouldn't get our hopes up surely it would be wise to help Yemen indirectly through Iran since it is openly fighting the saudis, the GCC, and their NATO backers the same one's funding the terrorists in Syria. Also the Green Resistance in Libya is bravely fighting ISIS and it would be wise to send them aid. Well I can dream but if Russia wants to survive world war 4 it must return to it's soviet era strategy of providing at least some aid to those battling US imperialism. For now we must simply be grateful for the aid Russia is providing Syria.
Now a brief discussion of the geopolitical scheming going on in the background. First one can't help but wonder if the US is planning to betray it's gulf allies. Some elements may seek to build on the Iran deal allying with Iran and Russia to stabilize Iraq and Syria. There is actually a rumor that Obama secretly suggested Putin make this move into Syria. It's sort of like a serial killer calling the police and saying "stop me before I kill again." Obama a lame duck president is unable to rein in some of the crazier elements who launched plans to destroy Syria before he was even in office. Somewhere there may be slightly saner imperialists who question the wisdom of intentionally reducing large sections of the middle east to utter chaos in the name of creating Oded Yinon Plan style ethnic micro states. Once these states are broken like Libya it will be very difficult to ever restore them to order or control. The Refugee Crisis is no doubt already alienating our european allies who have already had to put up with enough craziness due to the start of Cold War 2.0 last year. Eric Draitser has been making some fascinating points about the refugee crisis which was intentionally expanded by Turkey as an attempt to provoke war with Syria. They forced a mass exodus of their refugee camps. In addition terrorists in Libya, Syria, and Turkey are making huge profits in the Human Trafficking business they will use to fund their terror operations. The goal is also to drain Syria of it's human capital it's well educated population. A very similar scheme was promoted in Iraq once the most educated country of the middle east it's educated classes were intentionally targeted by death squads and forced to flee. Europe is experiencing an Al Qaeda operation paper clip (The mission to smuggle thousands of Nazis west so they could help the US wage it's covert war on the Soviets and eveyone else See my June 2014 Article "Nazis & the CIA" for more) Amid legitimate refugees terrorists and their families are being smuggled west as a reward for trying to destroy Syria. From Europe they will plot more trouble for Syria. No doubt we can expect waves of False Flag terror attacks in Europe over coming years. Gladio B (the FBI's secret name for Al Qaeda and related groups as revealed by Sibel Edmonds) is about to massively expand it's european operations. As if the increasing revival of Fascist Gladio style operations in Ukraine and Croatia were not bad enough. (See my June 2014 Article "Operation Gladio" on both Fascist Gladio A and Al Qaeda style Gladio B) The future for Europe is bleak so long as it remains a slave to the empire of Chaos and it is reaping what it has sewn by funding fascism and terror across the planet. The scenes of refugees usually ignored or invisible in the media flooding across Europe's borders and the ugly treatment they often received were like scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie(Children of Men comes to mind). Europe despite it's pretensions is only a tiny piece of what Mackinder called the World Island Composed of Eurasia and Africa. It thinks it can spread devastation all around the world Island and even within Europe itself (Yugoslavia and Ukraine) with no consequences. Thus Turkey's move backfired by panicking Europe's elite about the disaster they have caused. Thanks to Russia's quick intervention instead of being forced into a war the west is instead considering the consequences the destruction of Syria would actually have. Europe experienced first hand what the empire of chaos is all about and Putin's move to save Syria was doubtless secretly applauded in many capitals. Some in Washington may secretly be relieved that the US will be able to avoid the war on Syria that it has been slowly moving towards since it began it's illegal bombing campaign last fall. However whatever sane elements remain will not be able to prevent "the crazies" (The neo-cons nickname) from carrying out some revenge over this cancelled war.
Novorossia is probably not very happy. They have been hoping for more then a year that Russia would expand it's role instead it has held them in check. Unfortunately for Novorossia it doesn't officially exist and so whatever aid Russia sends both real or imagined is trumpeted in the Media as evidence of a Russian invasion. However in the long run it is doubtless better that the NAF (Novorossiyan Armed Forces) are mostly made up of the people of Novorossia who have already learned to defend themselves quite well. However Russia should step up it's military aid to Novorossia as it is the most likely place the empire of chaos will seek revenge. Doubtless Chechnya and Central Asia where the US has already expanded ISIS like any successful corporate brand new franchises in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and other countries. The countries of the CSTO will be targeted by ISIS but this process had already begun. (See Cristoph Germann's indispensable "new great game round up" in the sources below to follow events in this vital but ignored region) As I mentioned even Novorossia has been targeted by ISIS who have fought alongside the Nazi Azov battalion. However it faces more danger from a renewed assault by Fascist Ukraine. Hopefully the NAF will be able to inflict yet another devastating defeat on Ukraine if it should foolishly decide to launch a big offensive. However as I noted in my introduction there as been a constant pattern of shifting focus between Ukraine and Syria by the empire. Whenever it faces a setback in one it redoubles it's efforts in the other which is how the war in Ukraine started. Of course Ukraine has it's own problems with Fascists continuing their rampage first battling each other in Kiev over the Minsk 2 agreements today they apparently seized the city hall in Kharkov which secretly wishes it was part of Novorossia but where the uprising was crushed early on in the war.
Now I'll turn to the War on Yemen. For Six Months Saudi Arabia and It's GCC allies have been bombing Yemen in an attempt to reinstall their puppet al-Hadi with secret advice from the US of course. Thus they have been carrying out the same coldly criminal sort of bombing campaign the US carried out against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya aimed at completely destroying the infrastructure and intentionally creating a humanitarian disaster. Strangely the BBC reported on one recent incident even calling it a war crime, Abayomi Azikwe Played the segment on his podcast full of hypocrisy since Britain was also involved in the bombing same US bombing campaigns in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. The reporter was shocked to learn that a water bottling plant and a school had been bombed and the saudis like their Israeli, UK and US mentors merely lied and claimed they were storing weapons there. However for whatever reason the reporter decided to investigate and expose the saudis as liars. Even certain elements in the British elite may be re-thinking it's centuries old alliance with the Saudis. They also mentioned the fact that 80% of the population is going hungry. This is the product of the intentional blockade of all supplies similar to the tactics used in Iraq and Gaza to prevent rebuilding or even food or medicine from entering. Yemen has no air defenses and so can do nothing about the bombing campaign which has already killed at least 6,106 people at minimum as of a couple days ago.
But while Yemen is defenseless against the bombing campaign for now, the people of Yemen are fierce and brave Guerrilla fighters who already beat the Saudis once back in 2009. Thus the GCC were very foolish to launch a massively expanded ground invasion in recent weeks. The Houthis and their allies have been inflicting some major punishment on the invaders. They launched a successful ambush in Ma'rib using a Katushya rocket truck they destroyed a bunch of vehicles and killed many invaders. They even managed to kill Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid the son of the Prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. I wish them the best of luck in killing more pampered royals. What an outrage that these rich monarchs and their spoiled children are waging war on the people of the poorest country in the region Yemen. Hopefully many more royals will meet a similar fate in Yemen. Yemeni forces also managed to shoot down a helicopter. Finally Yemeni forces are advancing in the Saudi Province of Jizan where they seized several areas in the city of Al-Khuba. Although under constant bombardment and facing humanitarian disaster the people of Yemen are defiantly determined to maintain their independence. Their heroic struggle may one day bring down the Saudis and the other corrupt monarchs of the GCC especially if the other forces resisting the empire of chaos, Israel, NATO and the GCC seize the chance to send them aid. Yemen could prove a valuable strategic ally and this war is all about geostrategy and is closely linked to the war in Somalia and the pressure being put on Eritrea. It's all about control over the narrow strait separating East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. With or without help however Yemen is determined to resist and hopefully have some wicked surprises waiting for those who have invaded their country. Victory to Yemen!
In Syria the forces of the SAA and their allies have already intensified their war on the endless flow of terrorists their many enemies have flooded the country with (someone needs to come up with an acronym for US UK Israel France NATO and GCC for the sake of us poor bloggers). The Syrian government calls them appropriately "the Conspirators" The Syrian Air Force have redoubled their air offensive inflicting heavy casualties on the terrorists. The terrorists have already started targeting the Russians but that began even before the recent events. They fired an artillery shell at the Russian embassy in Damascus but it didn't explode and the Syrians sent a bomb disposal team to safely remove it. They also launched mortar attacks at the Russian base in Lattakia. Russian marines supposedly counter attacked killing some of them. We can expect dramatic victories in coming months in Syria as more and more reinforcements flow in from Russia and Iran. Iran already began to massively increase it's support for Syria back in May as Eric Draitser reported at the time. (See My June 2015 Long Live Syria) In Coming months hopefully Syria will begin to liberate more and more of it's territory from the terrorist death squads. ISIS, Al Nusra, the FSA, and the hundreds of other names theses groups go by must be eliminated pushed out of Syria once and for all. Only then will the people of Syria once again know peace only then will they be able to rebuild from all the terrible destruction inflicted upon them by "the conspirators". Thanks to Russia and the skillful leadership of Vladimir Putin Syria can now hope for victory and one day peace. Thus I salute Russia for this bold move. I also salute the brave people of Syria who have held out for four years against this ruthless terror campaign winning victory after victory. I also salute their brave allies in Iran, Hezbollah, and Lebanon. And the brave Kurds and their allies who have fought bravely against ISIS. The War in Syria has once again brought home the lesson that in unity there is strength. We can only hope that this alliance will expand and strengthen as time goes on.
World War 4 will continue for years and probably decades. Yet in it's attempt to either Dominate, conquer or destroy every corner of the planet the empire has made powerful enemies around the world. With Russia's bold move in Syria the global balance of power has shifted against the US at least momentarily. More importantly the people of Syria have been saved from becoming the next Libya ruled by constantly warring death squads who kidnap, torture, rape, and kill the populace with impunity. In Yemen the outlook is more grim but it's heroic people are prepared to resist despite all the odds against them. We can only hope they teach the Saudi Invaders a terrible lesson. The GCC monarchs are the most vulnerable part of the empire of Chaos and we can hope that one day they will be toppled.
Sources
Cristoph Germann's New Great Game Roundup site
http://www.christophgermann.blogspot.com
Pepe Escobar Shared this great WikiLeaks cable (Follow Him on Facebook) showing the US State department plotting to destabilize Syria in 2006
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06DAMASCUS5399_a.html
Syria in the 24 Hours 9/22 From Syria 360
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/syria-in-the-last-24-hours-37/
A Great first person account of a Half Russian Half Syrian volunteer in the NDF militia in Syria
https://thewallwillfall.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/a-russian-syrian-volunteer-talks-about-his-experience-in-the-ndf-pro-assad-paramilitary/
Pepe Escobar on Russia and Syria
http://atimes.com/2015/09/peace-in-syria-its-putins-fault-escobar/
Eric Draitser on Africa, Syria Turkey and the Refugee Crisis
http://stopimperialism.org/imperialism-on-the-march-africa-syria-and-beyond/
Eric Draitser interviews Jay Tharapal (recently back from Syria) in the second half of this episode of counterpunch Radio on Syria and the Refugee Crisis
http://store.counterpunch.org/mark-sleboda-jay-tharappel-episode-18/
Recent Reports of the War on Yemen
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/reports-from-the-war-on-yemen-2/
The Syrian Government on the value of the Russian Help
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/russias-participation-in-fighting-terrorism-will-turn-the-tables-on-the-conspirators/
Abayomi Azikwe's podcast the Last Hour is on Yemen the last 25 minutes or so are the BBC report
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/panafricanjournal/2015/09/20/pan-african-journal-special-worldwide-radio-broadcast
Eva Bartlett compiled a series of reports on "Human Rights" groups like Human Rights Watch and phony Charities like Doctors without borders (exposed back in Afghanistan during the 80's as a intelligence front) and their support for the war on Syria
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2015/09/12/human-rights-front-groups-humanitarian-interventionalists-warring-on-syria/
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
The Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction: The Urban Guerrillas of West Germany
For my friend and comrade Luci Frank aka @JustFightX
The Red Army Faction aka The Baader Meinhoff Group or The Badder Meinhoff Gang as the Tabloids called them are not well known in America. This is not surprising as their is an intentional news and historical black out of revolutionary history in general for obvious reasons. However in Germany they are still the object of controversy and were once the objects of tabloid hysteria. I should mention that this article is in part a thank you to all my german readers who surprisingly are my second largest audience after the US. I first came across the Red Army Faction back in 2009 quite by accident I was looking for a movie to watch and ran across the Baader Meinhoff Complex and thus received quite a dramatic introduction to the group. After nearly 8 years of endless war it was quite a thrill to watch them take up arms to directly attack the imperialists of their day. Back then it was Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, that were the scene of apocalyptic destruction although of course this was also the same period that saw the occupation of the west bank and Gaza during the 67 war. Of course in the end the struggle of the Red Army Faction ended in failure it's members killed and imprisoned in a quite similar fashion to what befell the Black Panther Party in the US. Yet their tragic fate only made them more compelling and as you'll see only inspired further resistance. For almost thirty years new members would be inspired by their story and carry on the war against capitalists, fascists, and imperialists in west Germany. However their lasting impact on me would be not their tactics which I wouldn't advise adopting but their ideas, their spirit. In that sense they helped inspire this blog they were above all anti-imperialists. They saw through the lies of bourgeoisie democracy which portrayed itself as civilized and peaceful and saw the bloodthirsty monster beneath. It must be remembered that it was only a little more then 20 years since the defeat of the third reich and they correctly saw that many of the Fascist forces in German Society had merely changed their guise to serve their new american masters.(See my June 2014 Article Nazis and the CIA) They knew all the odds were stacked against them but they hoped their example might inspire a revolution in Germany. Above all they were unwilling to stand by and do nothing when millions were being slaughtered by the empire all over the world. They lived in revolutionary times they were inspired both by radical movements in America and Europe but above all the worldwide revolutionary struggle in the third world. They were inspired by Mao, Che, and the Tupamaros. They took up Che's demand that there must be 2, 3, many Vietnam's if the empire is to be defeated. They managed to cause a lot of trouble carrying out bank robberies, bombings, assassinations, and kidnapping. They catapulted to both fame and infamy vilified in the right wing media while admired by many in radical circles.
Now let me introduce the three Red Army Faction Leaders which will be my primary focus. First there was Andreas Baader smart and a rebel from childhood. He became involved in both small time crime and radical politics. He was a loud foul mouthed defiant character which could often get him into trouble. He was also extremely brave and generous. For example when he and Gudrun were working with juvenile delinquents attempting to turn them into revolutionaries one of them Peter Jurgen Boock remarked that they liked his leather jacket. Baader immediately took it off and gave it to the youth as a gift. Boock would go on to be a co-leader in the "2nd generation RAF(Red Army Faction). Next there was his Co-Leader Gudrun Ensslin daughter of a progressive pastor she was an idealist with an unshakeable sense of integrity. She was also a brilliant theorist. It was her meeting with Baader after at a party celebrating her and 6 others Iconic illegal protest that would set events in motion. The two met smoked some hashish together and fell in love. It was the memorable year of 1968. They would form an unbreakable bond lovers and revolutionaries. Both were anti-war activists. before moving to Berlin Baader had been involved in the "Schwabing Riots when a police attempt to arrest 2 hippies had lead to a youth uprising in which for the first time instead of the police beating the youth up as was their custom the youth managed to turn the tables on them and beat the police. Gudrun had helped radicalize a generation when after the famous June 2nd demonstrations in 1967 when protesters against the Shah were mercilessly beaten by the shahs thugs as the police looked on. Then the police decided to join in beating the demonstrators as was their custom. In the chaos a policeman shot a protestor. Gudrun on hearing the news at a large gathering of protestors declared that they were dealing with the Auschwitz Generation(The Older Generation who had carried out Genocide during WW2) and that the government would kill them all. With these words she no doubt helped give birth to the June 2nd movement another group that would wage armed struggle against the government. It was in this climate of violent police repression that the parts of the student movement began to turn to violent resistance. Another event that radicalized the student movement was the attempted assassination of the anti-imperialist student leader Rudi Dutschke by a fascist who had been reading the Right Wing CIA sponsored Springer Press. The Springer Press is The german equivalent of Fox news and has long since been exposed as being funded in part by the CIA in order to spread anti-communist right wing propaganda. Fortunately Dutschke survived although he was badly wounded. This lead to further riots outside the springer press during which an undercover agent handed out molotov cocktails to the protestors.
This was the climate out of which the RAF were born West Germany was in turmoil. America was reigning death and destruction on Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and Che Guevara were all assassinated that year. The final spark came from Kommune 1 some of who's members would later found the June 2nd movement. They had issued a satirical pamphlet calling for the burning of department stores as a new form of protest against the Vietnam War. They were inspired by an accidental fire in belgium they jokingly issued a pamphlet claiming that the fire had been a new form of anti-war protest and predicting further fires. However despite the fact they were joking the government put them on trial for terrorism although all they really planned was a custard pie attack on american official. However the idea appealed to Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader. While the Vietnamese were being incinerated by american bombs the average german was caught up with consumerism completely oblivious. Of course things are far worse today as back then at least there was a radical mass anti-war movement. For 500 years the west has largely completely ignored the horrors it has inflicted on the planet. Thus Gudrun and Andreas decided that the only way to bring the publics attention to the war in Vietnam was to bring the war to Germany and they decided to target department stores as symbols of mindless consumerism. However they and a couple of others who carried out the attack did not just decide to toss some molotov cocktails. Instead they built time bombs set to go off when the stores were closed to avoid killing anyone. On the same night two department stores went up in flames causing hundreds of thousands in damage. Unfortunately for them the same undercover agent who had been handing out molotov cocktails at the springer protest had already infiltrated the inner circles of the student movement and so they were quickly arrested along with their accomplices.
Now I should mention the third leader of the RAF Ulrike Meinhof.The trial for arson was what brought Ulrike Meinhof into their circle. Her upbringing was ahead of it's time as her father died soon after her birth and her mother instead became involved with a female art student. They were both socialists and after her birth mothers death her other mother continued to raise her. Ulrike was a talented writer and political thinker. She was a bit older then the other RAF members and had risen to prominence in the anti-nuclear weapons movement. She became a famous journalist, a film maker, and political figure but she felt a burning desire to do more. She was there at the Springer Riots attempting to block the newspaper distribution trucks. She wrote of the Riot "If you throw a stone, it's a crime. If a thousand stones are thrown that's political. If you set fire to a car it's a crime; if a hundred cars are set afire that's political." After interviewing Gudrun Ensslin she became enormously impressed with her. Actually she never published the interview since if people knew what Gudrun had told her they would never get out of prison. Ulrike longed to move from words to action. Gudrun had already turned her back long ago on her husband and child for the sake of the revolution. Ulrike still had a career and a family. To skip ahead a little she met Gudrun again along with Andreas this time when they had already been forced underground after the trial and the three of them would spend the night on LSD talking further radicalizing Ulrike. The trial itself made Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin into a cause Celebre many supported the spirit of what they had done if not their action itself. Gudrun's parents actually endorsed their action saying that they had seen an enormous transformation in Gudrun that she was fully self realized. The 60's It was a very different time a fact my generation loved to pretend to hate and secretly envied. Initially the proto-RAF (then only a few people) claimed innocence but during the trial Gudrun read a statement in which she and Andreas assumed full responsibility and admitted that while the attacks themselves had been a mistake they did not regret their choice to take action. They were sentenced to three years but let out on appeal. For community service they worked with Juvenile delinquents who had suffered incredible abuse in state institutions and had already turned to violent resistance in the form of an uprising that was brutally crushed. They loved Andreas Baader a former juvenile delinquent himself and the earlier anecdote shows why. I should mention that at the same time a radical doctor was organizing the patients in a mental hospital along the idea that it was a sick society that was the root of their problem only a revolution could cure them. The patients called themselves the Socialist Patients collective or SPK many of them would go on to join the second generation RAF. These attempts to organize the most marginalized parts of society along revolutionary lines are instructive and in the case of the RAF would allow them to carry on the fight even after their eventual capture.
Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader had no intention of going back to prison they had a revolution to organize. When their appeal was rejected they fled the country. In France they met with Regis Debray Che's old comrade. Eventually were enticed back to West Germany when they learned that back in Germany others were also intent on armed resistance and had already made contacts with the PLO. It was back in Germany that they spent the night with Ulrike Meinhof that I mentioned earlier. However Andreas was arrested due to the same agent as before who had still not been discovered. As an example of Gudrun's courage she actually managed to visit Baader in prison several despite being a fugitive using a disguise and a fake name. Ulrike agreed to help Gudrun break him out of prison. She would pretend to co-write a book with Andreas Baader she even got a contract from a publisher. Andreas was allowed to meet with her at the social research institute to work on the book. They were supervised by armed guards. Gudrun recruited a team consisting mostly of women since they couldn't find men brave enough to join and had to hire help from a petty criminal. Ulrike was supposed to pretend not to be involved. However when they launched the breakout attempt a cop was shot by the petty criminal who panicked during the fight when the cops fought back. Ulrike decided to escape with them. They had a friend with an apartment only blocks away and they managed to hide out there for days under the nose of the police while outside they conducted their massive dragnet. The Media branded them the Baader Meinhof Gang and made up a ridiculous story that Ulrike had done it all for love. The escape became a media sensation and the press churned out reams of nonsense about the group. They were particularly shocked to see such a high proportion of women among the membership. Police posted wanted posters of 19 suspected members.
However the group used it's PLO contacts to sneak into East Germany where the Stasi would prove surprisingly sympathetic over the years. Actually there is a great movie about this topic Legend of Rita if your interested. From East Germany they flew to Lebanon and from there they went to a PLO training camp. There was a bit of a culture clash at the camp and Andreas Baader's rebellious attitude caused friction with their hosts and eventually got him into trouble. However while in Jordan the group were trained with weapons and explosives even learning to fire artillery. When they returned to W. Germany they along with their allies in the June 2nd movement managed to carry out three bank robberies at once on January 15 1971 all within ten minutes in order to finance their future activities. Ulrike wrote up the groups manifesto the Urban Guerrilla Concept which I recommend you read for yourself. Here is the essence in a few a lines:
Without political practice, Marx’s Kapital is just another bourgeois text. Without political practice, making programmatic statements is just twaddle. Without political practice, proletarian internationalism remains just bragging. Accepting the theoretical basis for the proletarian revolution means accepting its practice.
The Red Army Faction is about the primacy of political practice. Whether it is right to organize armed resistance at this moment is dependent on whether it is possible – and it can only be made possible by actually doing it.
The Red Army Faction relied on a network of sympathizers and former friends to hide them and developed a clever system of duplicate license plates to avoid capture. They had to steal materials from government offices to make fake identities. Many members were captured in the manhunt and some were killed. German intelligence supervised a massive operation to capture them no doubt with CIA advice. They set up a massive computer system to engage in what we call today data mining in order to capture them. The police clearly had orders to shoot on sight.
However the leaders were still on the loose and they were determined to launch attacks on their enemies the American Army, the CIA, German capitalists and the W. German government. Half the group was already dead or in jail. Using the funds from the bank robbery they set up a home made bomb factory. Their first target was the army base in Frankfurt which they had discovered was where a secret CIA base was located. On 11 May 1972 Three pipe bombs exploded 13 people were injured and 1 killed. They issued this statement in the name of the Petra Schelm Commando (named for a murdered comrade)
"West Germany and West Berlin will no longer be a safe hinterland for the strategists of extermination in Vietnam. They must know that their crimes against the Vietnamese people have made them new and bitter enemies, that there will be nowhere in the world left where they can be safe from the attacks of revolutionary guerrilla units."
Next they targeted both the Augsburg police headquarters and 2 hours later the Munich regional criminal investigation unit on 12 May 1972. 5 police were injured in the first attack while the second demolished 60 cars in the parking lot and blew the glass out of 6 floors of the building. On 15 May they tried to kill a judge with a car bomb but instead his wife was accidentally killed instead. On 19 May they phoned a warning to the Springer Press to evacuate their building as a bomb was about to go off. The Springer Press ignored the warning as a result 15 people were injured. Finally on 24th May they bombed the US army base in Heidelberg killing 3 soldiers and injuring 5. In response the police launched an even more massive manhunt using helicopters. Every young person in the country was under suspicion as a potential RAF member. It was so out of hand that bumper stickers stating I am not in the "Baader Meinhof Group" became bestsellers. At the same time a poll during the years of the manhunt showed that 25% of the young claimed that they would be willing to help the fugitives.
Unfortunately the leaders luck was about to run out they had been on the run since Baader's escape in 1970. One by one the leaders were captured along with other members. Since this is only a short article I have focused on the 3 leaders so as not to burden the reader with a constantly shifting cast of around 40 characters. However the you should not get the impression that there were not many other important members. I've left out many dramatic tales of capture and escape and shootouts with police. However now within weeks all the leaders were captured. First Andreas Baader was captured June 1st 1972 after a siege and a shootout with police along with another of his comrades. Then on June 7th 1972 Gudrun Ensslin was arrested at a clothing store grabbed before she could reach her gun she managed two knock both the cops to the ground before they were able to subdue her. Finally Ulrike Meinhof was captured on June 15 1972.
However if german intelligence thought the capture of the leaders would put an end to the guerrilla campaign they were sadly mistaken. Their influence had already spread. Members of the socialist patients collective or SPK joined the RAF. Broock the Former juvenile delinquent was also organizing a group. Meanwhile their imprisonment and the trial itself became a political scandal that riveted the publics attention. The kangaroo court trial inspired a movement to battle on behalf of the RAF prisoners rights and some of them would also join the RAF. A second generation RAF was forming on the outside that was determined to free the RAF prisoners by any means necessary. The trial exposed the fact that the prisoners had been held in solitary confinement for years a form of psychological torture still all to common in prisons today in the US. The government was forced to build them a special wing. A very strange part of the story their conditions of imprisonment books have been written about it. A special wing was built at Stammheim Prison just for them which included both male and female members. They were kept under constant illegal surveillance even when they met with their lawyers. They attempted to expose this fact during the trial but were dismissed as paranoids although the government later was forced to admit the truth. Strangely they were also allowed all sorts of dangerous books technical manuals on weaponry, electronics, explosives, as well as huge libraries of revolutionary works. They devised their own codes even their own electronic cell to cell communication system. They maintained secret contact with the 2nd gen RAF forces outside through their legal team. Of course all this was only after the outcry when it was discovered that they had been initially been denied all contact for years. They were able to argue that the psychological damage might make them unfit to stand trial. They were able to turn the trial itself into a political theater that dramatized the illusory character of West German Democracy which like all democracies threw out all concept of due process and civil rights as soon as crisis threatened. They staged dramatic hunger strikes that claimed the life of one of their members Holger Meins during a 140 day hunger strike. In retaliation for Meins death the June 2nd movement killed a judge during a failed kidnap attempt. 200 communists shouted "Revenge" at Meins funeral and Rudi Dutschke spoke. The climate in West Germany at the time was similar to that after 9/11 in the US. There was a massive expansion of surveillance and of the police state. Paranoia reigned and many were afraid to speak the truth for fear of being branded terrorist sympathizers. Actually the RAF remain a polarizing topic in Germany to this day.
The June 2nd movement struck again kidnapping Peter Lorenz and demanding the release of their leaders who unlike the RAF hadn't actually killed anyone. The government actually agreed to release them and paid a huge ransom as well. They were flown to South Yemen then a socialist country. This inspired the second generation of the RAF to launch their own operations aimed freeing the leaders. A group of 2nd gen RAF members who had been in the SPK (Socialist Patients Collective) seized the west german embassy in Stockholm Sweden on April 25th 1975 calling themselves the Holger Meins Commando. They rigged the place with explosives and threatened to execute the hostages unless the RAF members in prison were released. They demanded the police withdraw and shot a military attache when they refused. Back in Germany this time the west german government flatly refused all their demands it was the personal decision of Chancellor helmut Schmidt. They shot the economic attache in retaliation. That night the explosives were accidentally triggered somehow killing one of the RAF members while the others were badly injured in the blast and easily captured. another of them later died from their injuries.
This was to be only the first of a dramatic series of operations by the second generation Red Army Faction members. Like their predecessors they had already made contact with the Palestinian resistance. First they met with the PLO but they had abandoned plans for more attacks and so instead directed them to the PFLP. In South Yemen then an any ally of the Socialist Bloc they made contact with the PFLP and were in fact welcomed with the respect a foreign leader might receive. Back in West Germany a shocking event took place. Ulrike Meinhof was found dead in her cell hanged on 8 May 1976. The Government claimed it was suicide even though this famous writer neglected to leave a note. That fact alone is enough to suspect that she was in fact murdered by the government or perhaps even an allied intelligence agency like the CIA. The RAF prisoners demanded a full investigation but the state wouldn't even consider the possibility of foul play. For the RAF and it's sympathizers it was clear that she had been murdered. Another important development in West Germany was that the prisoners manipulated the state into sending one of their members Brigitte Monhaupt who due to be released in a matter of months to their group prison at Stammheim. There they were able to Carefully groom her to lead the 2nd Gen RAF upon her release. Once free she would continue the RAF tradition of having the group lead by a couple as she immediately began a relationship with Jurgen Peter Boock and the two would co-lead the group. Boock was the Juvenile delinquent who Baader had given his leather jacket to years before.
Their next target was Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback on April 7th 1977 he along with his driver and the head of the motor transport pool were assassinated all by two RAF members on a motorcycle who sprayed them with an automatic weapon. This was in retaliation for the murder of Ulrike Meinhof and so the next day the "Ulrike Meinhof Commando" took responsibility for the attack. On April 28 1977 the surviving RAF leaders were found guilty of murder and attempted murder. The 2nd Gen decided to launch another plan to free them. The next operation was a an attempt to kidnap a rich banker Jurgen Pronto it took place on July 30 1977. He foolishly fought back and was shot during the fight. One of the RAF members involved was a young family friend who had managed to get her RAF comrades invited into the house. This should demonstrate how divided west german society was at the time. The RAF planned to launch an attack on the Federal Prosecutors office using a homemade rocket launcher modeled on the famous Soviet Katusya's during world 2. However Boock who had built the weapon himself changed his mind and secretly sabotaged it so the attack couldn't be carried out Although they had taken control of an apartment across the street temporarily holding the couple inside captive while they set up the rocket launcher and aimed it at the prosecutors office.
Now to turn to the final series of events of that autumn of 77 so infamous in Germany. First there was the kidnapping of Hans Martin Schleyer the president of the German Employers association a wealthy capitalist who worked closely with the Government a powerful and influential man. The government already knew he was a target so he was heavily guarded. On September 3 1977 launched their attempt. The RAF had some sympathizers spying on the employers association building to phone them when he left. Then the 2nd Gen RAF ambushed him near his home they pushed an empty baby carriage into the road. Schleyer's driver slammed on the brakes and their police escort which was following them crashed into the back of his car. The RAF got into a gun battle with his police escort. They were armed with assault rifles and nearly killed schleyer himself in all the chaos but somehow he survived unharmed they drugged him and escaped switched cars in a parking garage leaving their demands in the abandoned vehicle and took Schleyer to an apartment they had rented under a false name. They had demanded the release of the RAF prisoners to an Ant-Imperialist country. The West German Government decided to pretend to go along in the hopes that they could drag matters out and capture the kidnappers. They engaged in a number of delaying tactics and tried to get them to agree on a third party mediator they hoped might lead them to the kidnappers. Meanwhile Schleyer issued pathetic appeals for the government to grant the RAF demands and save his life.
In prison the RAF leaders were consulted on where they might wish to go if released. In the middle east where the 2nd gen leaders Monhaupt and Broock were the PFLP came up with a surprising offer. They were willing to carry out their own attack to put pressure on the stalling west German government and they already had two possible plans. They could capture the West German Embassy in Kuwait or they could Hijack a plane. Although Hijackings went against the RAF philosophy which preferred attacks solely against Imperialists, government officials and capitalists they agreed in desperation. The RAF leaders strongly suspected they were about to be killed and had warned their sympathizers of this fact. Thus they agreed to the plan of the PFLP to Hijack a plane on their behalf to put further pressure for their release. On October 13 1977 the PFLP launched their hijacking seizing a Lufthansa flight LH 181 full of german tourists returning from vacation in Mallorca. It was called operation Kofre Kaddum and was carried out by the martyr Halimeh commando composed of two men and two women from the PFLP. Their leader "Captain Mahmud" Real name Zohair Youssif Akache had assassinated North Yemen's ex prime minister in a previous operation. They seized the plane and demanded the release of the 11 RAF prisoners. The Hostage Crisis would last for 4 days. The plane was allowed to land and refuel and the plan was that it would arrive at south Yemen where a prisoner exchange would take place. Again the german government pretended to agree to their demands. In reality they phoned East Germany which was in charge of training South Yemen's security forces and demanded they intervene. They agreed and suddenly South Yemen refused to allow the plane to land only agreeing when the pilot at gunpoint was forced to land anyway and south Yemen hurriedly moved the fire trucks it was blocking the runway with to avoid killing everyone. The germans meanwhile had sent their rescue team to the airport they got the pilot killed when they grabbed him while he was checking out the condition of the runway. Captain Mahmud Panicked and when the pilot returned before he could explain the delay he was shot. He had earlier been spared after he was caught sending secret messages to the authorities. The plane took off for Somalia which had already been bought off by west Germany with the false promise of aid. In Somalia they claimed they were about to release the prisoners and that they were already on their way while instead their special forces were preparing to storm the plane. West German Special forces managed to recapture the plane shooting all the PFLP members killing 3 of them while none of the hostages were harmed.
On the night of October 17-18 1977 all the remaining RAF leaders along with Jean Carle Raspe and Imrgard Muller were found dead or dying. Muller survived and claimed that they had been attacked and that there had been no plans for a mass suicide. The government claimed it was suicide made to look like murder. While RAF sympathizers claimed that it was murder made to look like a suicide. It remains a controversial topic to this day. However given all the mayhem that been caused in the attempts to free them it is clear the government had a motive to simply kill them to prevent any more attempts to free them. In fact government officials are on record considering the possibility of killing them. Many in Germany suspect that the CIA or Mossad may have been the actual killers. What we do know is that the official report was full of glaring inconsistencies and the West German Government which probably has the whole thing on tape is engaged in a blatant coverup as even mainstream german journalists admit. Thus we will never know what exactly happened but their is cause for suspicion. However getting into this question would involve a whole new article. I suspect murder not suicide but unfortunately the material arguing for this is mostly in german so I can't really research it in depth. Supposedly they had smuggled two pistols into the prison but instead of staging one final showdown the two men shot themselves in the back of the head. Gudrun Ensslin was strangled or hung herself while Muller was stabbed or stabbed herself. People are still trying to discover what actually happened all these years later.
What is certain is that if the West German Government thought killing the prisoners would cause the RAF to give up their struggle they were wrong. In Retaliation for the prisoners death they killed their hostage Schleyer and left his body in a car trunk calling to inform the police of his fate. Their war would continue for another 20 years the RAF was finally disbanded April, 20 1998. Until then they would continue to carry out attacks. They nearly killed infamous deep state operative Alexander Haig who lead the invasion of Cambodia and later was deeply involved in america's ugly covert wars in central america. The attack on Haig was Carried out by "The Andreas Baader Commando" they came very close to killing him. They also launched an attack on those profiteering from the end of socialism in East Germany. Basically this whole period could fill an article or a book in it's own right. They continued to assassinate top capitalists and government officials. They continued to attack American military bases. There were always new generations of recruits inspired by the story of the RAF who joined their doomed war. Thus it is amazing that this group is so little known outside of Germany.
I myself happened to be born during that infamous Autumn of 77 only weeks after the lives of Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader came to a tragic end. Although I wouldn't advise conducting a terror campaign in their memory their example of resolute Anti-Imperialism did help to shape my thinking and I hope will help to inspire you. Side with the enemies of empire and with it's victims not with the smiling hypocrites who rule us and who needless to say have only gotten worse. Also let their story serve as a reminder of all the political prisoners held by the western democracies. Germany should release it's political prisoners. So Should the US which regularly lectures other countries on the subject. In the United States many people are still being held prisoner for their activities in the 60's and 70's. Many more have been locked up since then (most famously Mumia Abu Jamal) and are still being locked up. Hugo "Yogi" Pinell one of George Jackson's comrades Was murdered last month in august for example(Black August named in part For George Jackson's failed prison uprising). George Jackson was also mysteriously killed back in the 70's. Of what really goes on in prisons no outsider can know the sheer brutality. Thus we should also remember all those other millions of non-political prisoners locked up on petty offenses to make fortunes for the prison industrial complex. Solidarity with prisoners everywhere! And Long live the anti-imperialist spirit of the RAF. They resisted the murder of millions in their time. In our time millions are still being killed by the american empire of chaos. We must celebrate those resisting the empire today Whether in Venezuela, Eritrea, Syria, Novorossia to name a few examples. It is in this spirit that I have decided to tell the story of the RAF and their struggle against fascism at home and imperialism abroad. Long live the memory of Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, and Ulrike Meinhof and their many comrades! Long live the memory of the Red Army Faction!
Sources
I relied mainly on Stefan Aust's book "Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F." unfortunately Aust is not only a mainstream journalist which would be bad enough he also has a personal axe to grind with the RAF knowing some of them personally. Thus he began to annoy me during my re-reading of his book starting at the preface where to sell more books he compared them to Al-Qaeda with which they had little in common. I bet the RAF would have hated his book. Instead let me recommend books I wish I'd read (someday) but couldn't afford. J Smith And Andre Moncourt are doing a 3 volume history the first two volumes are already out It's called "The Red Army Faction a Documentary History" Volume 1 is subtitled "Projectiles for the People" Volume 2 is "Dancing With Imperialism." Ulrike Meinhof's writings are also available in english. Also there is a whole sub genre of movies about the RAF. I've already mentioned "Baader Meinhof Complex" and "Legend of Rita" there is also the "Third Generation" and others on a related note there is the inaccurate but excellent "Carlos-The miniseries" 3 Films which I also recommend.
You can Read Ulrike Meinhof's Urban Guerrilla concept yourself for an inside perspective on the origins of the RAF here
http://germanguerilla.com/1971/04/01/the-urban-guerilla-concept/
There is a website dedicated to studying them here
http://germanguerilla.com
There used to be a podcast dedicated to studying the RAF and other similar groups here is the archive
http://www.baader-meinhof.com/baaderblog/
Here are some resources in German
http://www.todesnacht.com/mobile.html
https://www.nadir.org/nadir/archiv/PolitischeStroemungen/Stadtguerilla+RAF/RAF/ulrike_meinhof/iuk/
http://www.todesnacht.com/Buch/index.html
For my friend and comrade Luci Frank aka @JustFightX
The Red Army Faction aka The Baader Meinhoff Group or The Badder Meinhoff Gang as the Tabloids called them are not well known in America. This is not surprising as their is an intentional news and historical black out of revolutionary history in general for obvious reasons. However in Germany they are still the object of controversy and were once the objects of tabloid hysteria. I should mention that this article is in part a thank you to all my german readers who surprisingly are my second largest audience after the US. I first came across the Red Army Faction back in 2009 quite by accident I was looking for a movie to watch and ran across the Baader Meinhoff Complex and thus received quite a dramatic introduction to the group. After nearly 8 years of endless war it was quite a thrill to watch them take up arms to directly attack the imperialists of their day. Back then it was Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, that were the scene of apocalyptic destruction although of course this was also the same period that saw the occupation of the west bank and Gaza during the 67 war. Of course in the end the struggle of the Red Army Faction ended in failure it's members killed and imprisoned in a quite similar fashion to what befell the Black Panther Party in the US. Yet their tragic fate only made them more compelling and as you'll see only inspired further resistance. For almost thirty years new members would be inspired by their story and carry on the war against capitalists, fascists, and imperialists in west Germany. However their lasting impact on me would be not their tactics which I wouldn't advise adopting but their ideas, their spirit. In that sense they helped inspire this blog they were above all anti-imperialists. They saw through the lies of bourgeoisie democracy which portrayed itself as civilized and peaceful and saw the bloodthirsty monster beneath. It must be remembered that it was only a little more then 20 years since the defeat of the third reich and they correctly saw that many of the Fascist forces in German Society had merely changed their guise to serve their new american masters.(See my June 2014 Article Nazis and the CIA) They knew all the odds were stacked against them but they hoped their example might inspire a revolution in Germany. Above all they were unwilling to stand by and do nothing when millions were being slaughtered by the empire all over the world. They lived in revolutionary times they were inspired both by radical movements in America and Europe but above all the worldwide revolutionary struggle in the third world. They were inspired by Mao, Che, and the Tupamaros. They took up Che's demand that there must be 2, 3, many Vietnam's if the empire is to be defeated. They managed to cause a lot of trouble carrying out bank robberies, bombings, assassinations, and kidnapping. They catapulted to both fame and infamy vilified in the right wing media while admired by many in radical circles.
Now let me introduce the three Red Army Faction Leaders which will be my primary focus. First there was Andreas Baader smart and a rebel from childhood. He became involved in both small time crime and radical politics. He was a loud foul mouthed defiant character which could often get him into trouble. He was also extremely brave and generous. For example when he and Gudrun were working with juvenile delinquents attempting to turn them into revolutionaries one of them Peter Jurgen Boock remarked that they liked his leather jacket. Baader immediately took it off and gave it to the youth as a gift. Boock would go on to be a co-leader in the "2nd generation RAF(Red Army Faction). Next there was his Co-Leader Gudrun Ensslin daughter of a progressive pastor she was an idealist with an unshakeable sense of integrity. She was also a brilliant theorist. It was her meeting with Baader after at a party celebrating her and 6 others Iconic illegal protest that would set events in motion. The two met smoked some hashish together and fell in love. It was the memorable year of 1968. They would form an unbreakable bond lovers and revolutionaries. Both were anti-war activists. before moving to Berlin Baader had been involved in the "Schwabing Riots when a police attempt to arrest 2 hippies had lead to a youth uprising in which for the first time instead of the police beating the youth up as was their custom the youth managed to turn the tables on them and beat the police. Gudrun had helped radicalize a generation when after the famous June 2nd demonstrations in 1967 when protesters against the Shah were mercilessly beaten by the shahs thugs as the police looked on. Then the police decided to join in beating the demonstrators as was their custom. In the chaos a policeman shot a protestor. Gudrun on hearing the news at a large gathering of protestors declared that they were dealing with the Auschwitz Generation(The Older Generation who had carried out Genocide during WW2) and that the government would kill them all. With these words she no doubt helped give birth to the June 2nd movement another group that would wage armed struggle against the government. It was in this climate of violent police repression that the parts of the student movement began to turn to violent resistance. Another event that radicalized the student movement was the attempted assassination of the anti-imperialist student leader Rudi Dutschke by a fascist who had been reading the Right Wing CIA sponsored Springer Press. The Springer Press is The german equivalent of Fox news and has long since been exposed as being funded in part by the CIA in order to spread anti-communist right wing propaganda. Fortunately Dutschke survived although he was badly wounded. This lead to further riots outside the springer press during which an undercover agent handed out molotov cocktails to the protestors.
This was the climate out of which the RAF were born West Germany was in turmoil. America was reigning death and destruction on Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and Che Guevara were all assassinated that year. The final spark came from Kommune 1 some of who's members would later found the June 2nd movement. They had issued a satirical pamphlet calling for the burning of department stores as a new form of protest against the Vietnam War. They were inspired by an accidental fire in belgium they jokingly issued a pamphlet claiming that the fire had been a new form of anti-war protest and predicting further fires. However despite the fact they were joking the government put them on trial for terrorism although all they really planned was a custard pie attack on american official. However the idea appealed to Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader. While the Vietnamese were being incinerated by american bombs the average german was caught up with consumerism completely oblivious. Of course things are far worse today as back then at least there was a radical mass anti-war movement. For 500 years the west has largely completely ignored the horrors it has inflicted on the planet. Thus Gudrun and Andreas decided that the only way to bring the publics attention to the war in Vietnam was to bring the war to Germany and they decided to target department stores as symbols of mindless consumerism. However they and a couple of others who carried out the attack did not just decide to toss some molotov cocktails. Instead they built time bombs set to go off when the stores were closed to avoid killing anyone. On the same night two department stores went up in flames causing hundreds of thousands in damage. Unfortunately for them the same undercover agent who had been handing out molotov cocktails at the springer protest had already infiltrated the inner circles of the student movement and so they were quickly arrested along with their accomplices.
Now I should mention the third leader of the RAF Ulrike Meinhof.The trial for arson was what brought Ulrike Meinhof into their circle. Her upbringing was ahead of it's time as her father died soon after her birth and her mother instead became involved with a female art student. They were both socialists and after her birth mothers death her other mother continued to raise her. Ulrike was a talented writer and political thinker. She was a bit older then the other RAF members and had risen to prominence in the anti-nuclear weapons movement. She became a famous journalist, a film maker, and political figure but she felt a burning desire to do more. She was there at the Springer Riots attempting to block the newspaper distribution trucks. She wrote of the Riot "If you throw a stone, it's a crime. If a thousand stones are thrown that's political. If you set fire to a car it's a crime; if a hundred cars are set afire that's political." After interviewing Gudrun Ensslin she became enormously impressed with her. Actually she never published the interview since if people knew what Gudrun had told her they would never get out of prison. Ulrike longed to move from words to action. Gudrun had already turned her back long ago on her husband and child for the sake of the revolution. Ulrike still had a career and a family. To skip ahead a little she met Gudrun again along with Andreas this time when they had already been forced underground after the trial and the three of them would spend the night on LSD talking further radicalizing Ulrike. The trial itself made Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin into a cause Celebre many supported the spirit of what they had done if not their action itself. Gudrun's parents actually endorsed their action saying that they had seen an enormous transformation in Gudrun that she was fully self realized. The 60's It was a very different time a fact my generation loved to pretend to hate and secretly envied. Initially the proto-RAF (then only a few people) claimed innocence but during the trial Gudrun read a statement in which she and Andreas assumed full responsibility and admitted that while the attacks themselves had been a mistake they did not regret their choice to take action. They were sentenced to three years but let out on appeal. For community service they worked with Juvenile delinquents who had suffered incredible abuse in state institutions and had already turned to violent resistance in the form of an uprising that was brutally crushed. They loved Andreas Baader a former juvenile delinquent himself and the earlier anecdote shows why. I should mention that at the same time a radical doctor was organizing the patients in a mental hospital along the idea that it was a sick society that was the root of their problem only a revolution could cure them. The patients called themselves the Socialist Patients collective or SPK many of them would go on to join the second generation RAF. These attempts to organize the most marginalized parts of society along revolutionary lines are instructive and in the case of the RAF would allow them to carry on the fight even after their eventual capture.
Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader had no intention of going back to prison they had a revolution to organize. When their appeal was rejected they fled the country. In France they met with Regis Debray Che's old comrade. Eventually were enticed back to West Germany when they learned that back in Germany others were also intent on armed resistance and had already made contacts with the PLO. It was back in Germany that they spent the night with Ulrike Meinhof that I mentioned earlier. However Andreas was arrested due to the same agent as before who had still not been discovered. As an example of Gudrun's courage she actually managed to visit Baader in prison several despite being a fugitive using a disguise and a fake name. Ulrike agreed to help Gudrun break him out of prison. She would pretend to co-write a book with Andreas Baader she even got a contract from a publisher. Andreas was allowed to meet with her at the social research institute to work on the book. They were supervised by armed guards. Gudrun recruited a team consisting mostly of women since they couldn't find men brave enough to join and had to hire help from a petty criminal. Ulrike was supposed to pretend not to be involved. However when they launched the breakout attempt a cop was shot by the petty criminal who panicked during the fight when the cops fought back. Ulrike decided to escape with them. They had a friend with an apartment only blocks away and they managed to hide out there for days under the nose of the police while outside they conducted their massive dragnet. The Media branded them the Baader Meinhof Gang and made up a ridiculous story that Ulrike had done it all for love. The escape became a media sensation and the press churned out reams of nonsense about the group. They were particularly shocked to see such a high proportion of women among the membership. Police posted wanted posters of 19 suspected members.
However the group used it's PLO contacts to sneak into East Germany where the Stasi would prove surprisingly sympathetic over the years. Actually there is a great movie about this topic Legend of Rita if your interested. From East Germany they flew to Lebanon and from there they went to a PLO training camp. There was a bit of a culture clash at the camp and Andreas Baader's rebellious attitude caused friction with their hosts and eventually got him into trouble. However while in Jordan the group were trained with weapons and explosives even learning to fire artillery. When they returned to W. Germany they along with their allies in the June 2nd movement managed to carry out three bank robberies at once on January 15 1971 all within ten minutes in order to finance their future activities. Ulrike wrote up the groups manifesto the Urban Guerrilla Concept which I recommend you read for yourself. Here is the essence in a few a lines:
Without political practice, Marx’s Kapital is just another bourgeois text. Without political practice, making programmatic statements is just twaddle. Without political practice, proletarian internationalism remains just bragging. Accepting the theoretical basis for the proletarian revolution means accepting its practice.
The Red Army Faction is about the primacy of political practice. Whether it is right to organize armed resistance at this moment is dependent on whether it is possible – and it can only be made possible by actually doing it.
The Red Army Faction relied on a network of sympathizers and former friends to hide them and developed a clever system of duplicate license plates to avoid capture. They had to steal materials from government offices to make fake identities. Many members were captured in the manhunt and some were killed. German intelligence supervised a massive operation to capture them no doubt with CIA advice. They set up a massive computer system to engage in what we call today data mining in order to capture them. The police clearly had orders to shoot on sight.
However the leaders were still on the loose and they were determined to launch attacks on their enemies the American Army, the CIA, German capitalists and the W. German government. Half the group was already dead or in jail. Using the funds from the bank robbery they set up a home made bomb factory. Their first target was the army base in Frankfurt which they had discovered was where a secret CIA base was located. On 11 May 1972 Three pipe bombs exploded 13 people were injured and 1 killed. They issued this statement in the name of the Petra Schelm Commando (named for a murdered comrade)
"West Germany and West Berlin will no longer be a safe hinterland for the strategists of extermination in Vietnam. They must know that their crimes against the Vietnamese people have made them new and bitter enemies, that there will be nowhere in the world left where they can be safe from the attacks of revolutionary guerrilla units."
Next they targeted both the Augsburg police headquarters and 2 hours later the Munich regional criminal investigation unit on 12 May 1972. 5 police were injured in the first attack while the second demolished 60 cars in the parking lot and blew the glass out of 6 floors of the building. On 15 May they tried to kill a judge with a car bomb but instead his wife was accidentally killed instead. On 19 May they phoned a warning to the Springer Press to evacuate their building as a bomb was about to go off. The Springer Press ignored the warning as a result 15 people were injured. Finally on 24th May they bombed the US army base in Heidelberg killing 3 soldiers and injuring 5. In response the police launched an even more massive manhunt using helicopters. Every young person in the country was under suspicion as a potential RAF member. It was so out of hand that bumper stickers stating I am not in the "Baader Meinhof Group" became bestsellers. At the same time a poll during the years of the manhunt showed that 25% of the young claimed that they would be willing to help the fugitives.
Unfortunately the leaders luck was about to run out they had been on the run since Baader's escape in 1970. One by one the leaders were captured along with other members. Since this is only a short article I have focused on the 3 leaders so as not to burden the reader with a constantly shifting cast of around 40 characters. However the you should not get the impression that there were not many other important members. I've left out many dramatic tales of capture and escape and shootouts with police. However now within weeks all the leaders were captured. First Andreas Baader was captured June 1st 1972 after a siege and a shootout with police along with another of his comrades. Then on June 7th 1972 Gudrun Ensslin was arrested at a clothing store grabbed before she could reach her gun she managed two knock both the cops to the ground before they were able to subdue her. Finally Ulrike Meinhof was captured on June 15 1972.
However if german intelligence thought the capture of the leaders would put an end to the guerrilla campaign they were sadly mistaken. Their influence had already spread. Members of the socialist patients collective or SPK joined the RAF. Broock the Former juvenile delinquent was also organizing a group. Meanwhile their imprisonment and the trial itself became a political scandal that riveted the publics attention. The kangaroo court trial inspired a movement to battle on behalf of the RAF prisoners rights and some of them would also join the RAF. A second generation RAF was forming on the outside that was determined to free the RAF prisoners by any means necessary. The trial exposed the fact that the prisoners had been held in solitary confinement for years a form of psychological torture still all to common in prisons today in the US. The government was forced to build them a special wing. A very strange part of the story their conditions of imprisonment books have been written about it. A special wing was built at Stammheim Prison just for them which included both male and female members. They were kept under constant illegal surveillance even when they met with their lawyers. They attempted to expose this fact during the trial but were dismissed as paranoids although the government later was forced to admit the truth. Strangely they were also allowed all sorts of dangerous books technical manuals on weaponry, electronics, explosives, as well as huge libraries of revolutionary works. They devised their own codes even their own electronic cell to cell communication system. They maintained secret contact with the 2nd gen RAF forces outside through their legal team. Of course all this was only after the outcry when it was discovered that they had been initially been denied all contact for years. They were able to argue that the psychological damage might make them unfit to stand trial. They were able to turn the trial itself into a political theater that dramatized the illusory character of West German Democracy which like all democracies threw out all concept of due process and civil rights as soon as crisis threatened. They staged dramatic hunger strikes that claimed the life of one of their members Holger Meins during a 140 day hunger strike. In retaliation for Meins death the June 2nd movement killed a judge during a failed kidnap attempt. 200 communists shouted "Revenge" at Meins funeral and Rudi Dutschke spoke. The climate in West Germany at the time was similar to that after 9/11 in the US. There was a massive expansion of surveillance and of the police state. Paranoia reigned and many were afraid to speak the truth for fear of being branded terrorist sympathizers. Actually the RAF remain a polarizing topic in Germany to this day.
The June 2nd movement struck again kidnapping Peter Lorenz and demanding the release of their leaders who unlike the RAF hadn't actually killed anyone. The government actually agreed to release them and paid a huge ransom as well. They were flown to South Yemen then a socialist country. This inspired the second generation of the RAF to launch their own operations aimed freeing the leaders. A group of 2nd gen RAF members who had been in the SPK (Socialist Patients Collective) seized the west german embassy in Stockholm Sweden on April 25th 1975 calling themselves the Holger Meins Commando. They rigged the place with explosives and threatened to execute the hostages unless the RAF members in prison were released. They demanded the police withdraw and shot a military attache when they refused. Back in Germany this time the west german government flatly refused all their demands it was the personal decision of Chancellor helmut Schmidt. They shot the economic attache in retaliation. That night the explosives were accidentally triggered somehow killing one of the RAF members while the others were badly injured in the blast and easily captured. another of them later died from their injuries.
This was to be only the first of a dramatic series of operations by the second generation Red Army Faction members. Like their predecessors they had already made contact with the Palestinian resistance. First they met with the PLO but they had abandoned plans for more attacks and so instead directed them to the PFLP. In South Yemen then an any ally of the Socialist Bloc they made contact with the PFLP and were in fact welcomed with the respect a foreign leader might receive. Back in West Germany a shocking event took place. Ulrike Meinhof was found dead in her cell hanged on 8 May 1976. The Government claimed it was suicide even though this famous writer neglected to leave a note. That fact alone is enough to suspect that she was in fact murdered by the government or perhaps even an allied intelligence agency like the CIA. The RAF prisoners demanded a full investigation but the state wouldn't even consider the possibility of foul play. For the RAF and it's sympathizers it was clear that she had been murdered. Another important development in West Germany was that the prisoners manipulated the state into sending one of their members Brigitte Monhaupt who due to be released in a matter of months to their group prison at Stammheim. There they were able to Carefully groom her to lead the 2nd Gen RAF upon her release. Once free she would continue the RAF tradition of having the group lead by a couple as she immediately began a relationship with Jurgen Peter Boock and the two would co-lead the group. Boock was the Juvenile delinquent who Baader had given his leather jacket to years before.
Their next target was Federal Prosecutor Siegfried Buback on April 7th 1977 he along with his driver and the head of the motor transport pool were assassinated all by two RAF members on a motorcycle who sprayed them with an automatic weapon. This was in retaliation for the murder of Ulrike Meinhof and so the next day the "Ulrike Meinhof Commando" took responsibility for the attack. On April 28 1977 the surviving RAF leaders were found guilty of murder and attempted murder. The 2nd Gen decided to launch another plan to free them. The next operation was a an attempt to kidnap a rich banker Jurgen Pronto it took place on July 30 1977. He foolishly fought back and was shot during the fight. One of the RAF members involved was a young family friend who had managed to get her RAF comrades invited into the house. This should demonstrate how divided west german society was at the time. The RAF planned to launch an attack on the Federal Prosecutors office using a homemade rocket launcher modeled on the famous Soviet Katusya's during world 2. However Boock who had built the weapon himself changed his mind and secretly sabotaged it so the attack couldn't be carried out Although they had taken control of an apartment across the street temporarily holding the couple inside captive while they set up the rocket launcher and aimed it at the prosecutors office.
Now to turn to the final series of events of that autumn of 77 so infamous in Germany. First there was the kidnapping of Hans Martin Schleyer the president of the German Employers association a wealthy capitalist who worked closely with the Government a powerful and influential man. The government already knew he was a target so he was heavily guarded. On September 3 1977 launched their attempt. The RAF had some sympathizers spying on the employers association building to phone them when he left. Then the 2nd Gen RAF ambushed him near his home they pushed an empty baby carriage into the road. Schleyer's driver slammed on the brakes and their police escort which was following them crashed into the back of his car. The RAF got into a gun battle with his police escort. They were armed with assault rifles and nearly killed schleyer himself in all the chaos but somehow he survived unharmed they drugged him and escaped switched cars in a parking garage leaving their demands in the abandoned vehicle and took Schleyer to an apartment they had rented under a false name. They had demanded the release of the RAF prisoners to an Ant-Imperialist country. The West German Government decided to pretend to go along in the hopes that they could drag matters out and capture the kidnappers. They engaged in a number of delaying tactics and tried to get them to agree on a third party mediator they hoped might lead them to the kidnappers. Meanwhile Schleyer issued pathetic appeals for the government to grant the RAF demands and save his life.
In prison the RAF leaders were consulted on where they might wish to go if released. In the middle east where the 2nd gen leaders Monhaupt and Broock were the PFLP came up with a surprising offer. They were willing to carry out their own attack to put pressure on the stalling west German government and they already had two possible plans. They could capture the West German Embassy in Kuwait or they could Hijack a plane. Although Hijackings went against the RAF philosophy which preferred attacks solely against Imperialists, government officials and capitalists they agreed in desperation. The RAF leaders strongly suspected they were about to be killed and had warned their sympathizers of this fact. Thus they agreed to the plan of the PFLP to Hijack a plane on their behalf to put further pressure for their release. On October 13 1977 the PFLP launched their hijacking seizing a Lufthansa flight LH 181 full of german tourists returning from vacation in Mallorca. It was called operation Kofre Kaddum and was carried out by the martyr Halimeh commando composed of two men and two women from the PFLP. Their leader "Captain Mahmud" Real name Zohair Youssif Akache had assassinated North Yemen's ex prime minister in a previous operation. They seized the plane and demanded the release of the 11 RAF prisoners. The Hostage Crisis would last for 4 days. The plane was allowed to land and refuel and the plan was that it would arrive at south Yemen where a prisoner exchange would take place. Again the german government pretended to agree to their demands. In reality they phoned East Germany which was in charge of training South Yemen's security forces and demanded they intervene. They agreed and suddenly South Yemen refused to allow the plane to land only agreeing when the pilot at gunpoint was forced to land anyway and south Yemen hurriedly moved the fire trucks it was blocking the runway with to avoid killing everyone. The germans meanwhile had sent their rescue team to the airport they got the pilot killed when they grabbed him while he was checking out the condition of the runway. Captain Mahmud Panicked and when the pilot returned before he could explain the delay he was shot. He had earlier been spared after he was caught sending secret messages to the authorities. The plane took off for Somalia which had already been bought off by west Germany with the false promise of aid. In Somalia they claimed they were about to release the prisoners and that they were already on their way while instead their special forces were preparing to storm the plane. West German Special forces managed to recapture the plane shooting all the PFLP members killing 3 of them while none of the hostages were harmed.
On the night of October 17-18 1977 all the remaining RAF leaders along with Jean Carle Raspe and Imrgard Muller were found dead or dying. Muller survived and claimed that they had been attacked and that there had been no plans for a mass suicide. The government claimed it was suicide made to look like murder. While RAF sympathizers claimed that it was murder made to look like a suicide. It remains a controversial topic to this day. However given all the mayhem that been caused in the attempts to free them it is clear the government had a motive to simply kill them to prevent any more attempts to free them. In fact government officials are on record considering the possibility of killing them. Many in Germany suspect that the CIA or Mossad may have been the actual killers. What we do know is that the official report was full of glaring inconsistencies and the West German Government which probably has the whole thing on tape is engaged in a blatant coverup as even mainstream german journalists admit. Thus we will never know what exactly happened but their is cause for suspicion. However getting into this question would involve a whole new article. I suspect murder not suicide but unfortunately the material arguing for this is mostly in german so I can't really research it in depth. Supposedly they had smuggled two pistols into the prison but instead of staging one final showdown the two men shot themselves in the back of the head. Gudrun Ensslin was strangled or hung herself while Muller was stabbed or stabbed herself. People are still trying to discover what actually happened all these years later.
What is certain is that if the West German Government thought killing the prisoners would cause the RAF to give up their struggle they were wrong. In Retaliation for the prisoners death they killed their hostage Schleyer and left his body in a car trunk calling to inform the police of his fate. Their war would continue for another 20 years the RAF was finally disbanded April, 20 1998. Until then they would continue to carry out attacks. They nearly killed infamous deep state operative Alexander Haig who lead the invasion of Cambodia and later was deeply involved in america's ugly covert wars in central america. The attack on Haig was Carried out by "The Andreas Baader Commando" they came very close to killing him. They also launched an attack on those profiteering from the end of socialism in East Germany. Basically this whole period could fill an article or a book in it's own right. They continued to assassinate top capitalists and government officials. They continued to attack American military bases. There were always new generations of recruits inspired by the story of the RAF who joined their doomed war. Thus it is amazing that this group is so little known outside of Germany.
I myself happened to be born during that infamous Autumn of 77 only weeks after the lives of Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader came to a tragic end. Although I wouldn't advise conducting a terror campaign in their memory their example of resolute Anti-Imperialism did help to shape my thinking and I hope will help to inspire you. Side with the enemies of empire and with it's victims not with the smiling hypocrites who rule us and who needless to say have only gotten worse. Also let their story serve as a reminder of all the political prisoners held by the western democracies. Germany should release it's political prisoners. So Should the US which regularly lectures other countries on the subject. In the United States many people are still being held prisoner for their activities in the 60's and 70's. Many more have been locked up since then (most famously Mumia Abu Jamal) and are still being locked up. Hugo "Yogi" Pinell one of George Jackson's comrades Was murdered last month in august for example(Black August named in part For George Jackson's failed prison uprising). George Jackson was also mysteriously killed back in the 70's. Of what really goes on in prisons no outsider can know the sheer brutality. Thus we should also remember all those other millions of non-political prisoners locked up on petty offenses to make fortunes for the prison industrial complex. Solidarity with prisoners everywhere! And Long live the anti-imperialist spirit of the RAF. They resisted the murder of millions in their time. In our time millions are still being killed by the american empire of chaos. We must celebrate those resisting the empire today Whether in Venezuela, Eritrea, Syria, Novorossia to name a few examples. It is in this spirit that I have decided to tell the story of the RAF and their struggle against fascism at home and imperialism abroad. Long live the memory of Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader, and Ulrike Meinhof and their many comrades! Long live the memory of the Red Army Faction!
Sources
I relied mainly on Stefan Aust's book "Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F." unfortunately Aust is not only a mainstream journalist which would be bad enough he also has a personal axe to grind with the RAF knowing some of them personally. Thus he began to annoy me during my re-reading of his book starting at the preface where to sell more books he compared them to Al-Qaeda with which they had little in common. I bet the RAF would have hated his book. Instead let me recommend books I wish I'd read (someday) but couldn't afford. J Smith And Andre Moncourt are doing a 3 volume history the first two volumes are already out It's called "The Red Army Faction a Documentary History" Volume 1 is subtitled "Projectiles for the People" Volume 2 is "Dancing With Imperialism." Ulrike Meinhof's writings are also available in english. Also there is a whole sub genre of movies about the RAF. I've already mentioned "Baader Meinhof Complex" and "Legend of Rita" there is also the "Third Generation" and others on a related note there is the inaccurate but excellent "Carlos-The miniseries" 3 Films which I also recommend.
You can Read Ulrike Meinhof's Urban Guerrilla concept yourself for an inside perspective on the origins of the RAF here
http://germanguerilla.com/1971/04/01/the-urban-guerilla-concept/
There is a website dedicated to studying them here
http://germanguerilla.com
There used to be a podcast dedicated to studying the RAF and other similar groups here is the archive
http://www.baader-meinhof.com/baaderblog/
Here are some resources in German
http://www.todesnacht.com/mobile.html
https://www.nadir.org/nadir/archiv/PolitischeStroemungen/Stadtguerilla+RAF/RAF/ulrike_meinhof/iuk/
http://www.todesnacht.com/Buch/index.html
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Libya & Syria Resist
Libya and Syria Resisting the American Empire of Chaos
Although for years the west has ignored the plight of it's victims in Africa and the middle east It has recently been forced to pay some attention to the streams of refugees desperate to escape to Europe. Predictably they have been treated as criminals. As a result they are dying not just by drowning in the Mediterranean but within Europe itself. In a recent incident 71 refugees including an infant girl suffocated to death in a freezer truck in Austria. This occurred soon after 100 refugees perished at sea. These deaths are the result of the wests war on the planet which has turned nation after nation into apocalyptic disaster areas from which millions are forced to flee.
By funneling billions of dollars to terrorist death squads they destroyed Libya and are trying to destroy Syria. Yet even with all the horrors they have endured their people refuse to surrender. In a recent article (August 2015 Wars on Syria Libya and Yemen) I happened to mention the heroic resistance of the people of Sirte and Bani Walid during the 2011 war. I also discussed the recent kangaroo trial and death sentence of Saif al Islam Gaddafi son of Libya's martyred leader Moammar Gaddafi along with 20 other former government officials. This sparked protests of support for Saif and the Libya Jamahiriya it's former government. Yet even I was surprised when days later Sirte itself rose in a brief heroic but doomed rebellion. Meanwhile throughout Libya protests by those still loyal to the memory of Moammar Gaddafi only expanded. Libya was awash in a sea of green flags symbolizing their support for the green resistance which hopes to one day throw out the death squads that reign in Libya reestablish order and rebuild their country. This story was completely ignored in the media. Yet it was a sign that all hope is not lost in Libya the people's will to resist is still alive. We can only hope that the Libyan resistance will continue to strengthen. Meanwhile in Syria the war continues with all it's intensity. Whatever schemes Turkey and the US are currently hatching the Syrian people refuse to surrender refuse to become the next Libya. The imperialist war on Syria once again showed it's purely destructive nature when the terrorists once again targeted humanity's cultural heritage. Apparently it's not enough to destroy modern civilization any trace of ancient civilization any memory of Syria's rich cultural heritage must be destroyed. Thus in the ancient city of Palmyra ISIS terrorists attempted to blow up the Temple of Bel built during the time of the roman empire. This temple has survived Two thousand years of history including countless wars but has now been targeted for deliberate destruction. I'd say the west was returning to it's barbarian roots if it wasn't an insult to the barbarians who had more respect for the relics of the classical world. To avoid a tangent I'll merely direct the curious to read Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the Unabridged version which also contains a classic description of the Syrians in Roman times famous for their education, wit and pleasure loving ways. How terrible to see the worlds cultural heritage targeted for deliberate destruction. And how terrible to see Syria itself targeted for destruction only the heroic resistance of the Syrian people has allowed it to survive.
In Libya the sentencing of former government officials by an ISIS controlled court lead to protests throughout the country. This in itself was a dangerous form of resistance since in Libya any sign of support for the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya usually leads to being murdered or being locked up and facing years of torture at the hands of death squads who control the "prisons." In a sane world it would be the current "governments" of Libya that would be on trial for destroying the country and unleashing years of rape, murder, and torture upon the people of Libya. In a just world all the western leaders who waged the war on Libya would also be tried for genocide and crimes against humanity for the deliberate destruction of Libya. Unfortunately we don't live in a just world we live in the empire of chaos. Under Moammar Gaddafi's leadership Libya moved from the poorest to the richest country in Africa with free Health Care, Housing and Education for all Libyans. The remnants of this government have been sentenced to death when clearly it would be much more fitting to immediately release them and put them in charge of rebuilding the country. Instead it is those who are responsible for destroying Libya who put those who defended it on trial. This injustice is what caused the people of Libya to rise in open revolt across the country refusing to give in to intimidation by ISIS death squads and flying green flags in solidarity with the prisoners. The protests continued despite sometimes being attacked by death squads firing submachine guns into the crowds as I discussed in my previous article. In Fact they only grew larger and spread to more and more cities. We can only hope that the Green Resistance have received many new recruits in recent weeks. Long live Libya's Green Resistance!
The people of Sirte was invaded and occupied by ISIS death squads earlier in the year and ISIS are clearly being used as part of a plan to terrorize former loyalist strongholds into submission. During the 2011 war on Libya Sirte waged an epic months long battle against NATO's death squads and despite being under constant assault by NATO bombers. While the mainstream Media was trumpeting the birth of a free and democratic Libya after the fall of Tripoli it of course completely covered up the fact that NATO was busy trying to bomb the cities of Sirte and Bani Walid into submission so they could be captured by NATO's terrorist proxy army. A war begun based on the lie that Gaddafi "was bombing his people" had immediately escalated into a bombing campaign by NATO targeting, the army, the infrastructure and the people. The battles at of Sirte and Bani Walid were merely the final shameful chapter of that war not a single scrap of Libyan territory was to be left free. It was in these two cities that green Libya waged it's final tragic battle to survive. Although they lost in the end they sent thousands of terrorist scum to their deaths on the outskirts of the city. (For those interested check out the archive on Libya 360 of stories from 2011) Finally both cities fell after being bombed for months and under constant assault by an army of terrorists. Moammar Gaddafi was brutally murdered outside of Sirte and Hillary Clinton made her infamous joke "we came, we saw, he died." Bani Walid and Sirte had both earned the titles of heroic cities to borrow a phrase from World War 2 that is now being used to describe places like now occupied Slavyansk or still independent Donetsk in Novorossia that valiantly resist fascism.
Recently Sirte proved that it is still a heroic city. The city is under occupation by ISIS who attempt to kidnap and kill anyone who dares to oppose them and anyone still loyal to the former government. They attempt to make the locals swear loyalty to them. Recently they have demanding that anyone who served in the former government, the police or army publicly sign repentance papers in front of them. One courageous local religious leader the Imam Khalid bin Rajab Ferjani said that this would go against islam as ISIS do not represent the religion of islam (since they a pack of murderous criminals and terrorists). In retaliation ISIS murdered this heroic and decent man which proved to be a big mistake. This is because the Imam belonged to the Ferjani tribe the largest local tribe and they rose in rebellion along with the much of the rest of the city. Amazingly the locals managed to quickly seize back control of most of the town killing ISIS members and forcing them to retreat. They hoped they might receive help from one of the rival governments who claim that they want to liberate the town but whatever help they received arrived to late. Instead ISIS who controls a large amount of territory in the area called in reinforcements armed with tanks and artillery shelling the town and even a local hospital. After recapturing the town they began executing any Ferjani tribe member they could find and executed many of the brave young defenders of the city in the most gruesome manner possible. Sirte's brief rebellion ended in failure and it's people live again under the reign of terror of ISIS. Yet it had proved once again that Sirte is still a heroic city and will hopefully inspire future more well planned attempts to liberate Libya from the reign of terror the US and it's NATO allies have put in place there. The Libyan Green Resistance is growing in strength and hopefully what happened in Sirte will give Libya's terrorist rulers pause before they dare to carry out their death sentences on Saif al Islam and the other prisoners who have doubtless suffered tortures for years. The people of Libya will take their revenge four years of horror and hunger have not been enough to break their spirits.
Syria thankfully is still unconquered although many of it's people have like the Libyans suffered untold horrors and parts of the country are occupied by Al Qaeda death squads. Syria is being attacked by 100,000 mercenaries from 87 countries according to one report. However the SAA (Syrian Arab Army), Hezbollah, and the NDF (National Defense Forces local militias fighting to defend the country) have never stopped fighting. They have won many victories in this war but unfortunately the sinister alliance of the US, Israel, KSA, Turkey, France, UK, NATO the GCC etc have managed to find an endless supply of brainwashed dupes to funnel into the countries insuring that no matter how many victories Syria wins the war will continue endlessly. Thus the SAA, Hezbollah, the YPG, YPJ (militias made up of kurds and other minorities in northern Syria) and the NDF have been fighting to restore control of the borders. Earlier in the year the YPG and YPJ captured the strategic town of Tel Abayd an ISIS stronghold vital for supplying ISIS. (See my June 2015 Long Live Syria! ) This is what lead Turkey to escalate it's increasingly open involvement in the war. Now on the border with Lebanon after months of fighting the SAA and Hezbollah are finally nearing victory in al Zabadani another terrorist stronghold vital for supplying NATO's proxy armies attempting to destroy the country. The terrorists now control only a tiny piece of territory there in Al Balad neighborhood. In the past 48 hours the SAA and Hezbollah made dramatic advances and members of the FSA and Ahrar Al-Sham were encircled and forced to surrender in large numbers.
The war in Syria takes place on many fronts and involves many long ongoing battles. However I'd like to briefly mention Kuwayris airbase which has been surrounded and under siege for two years supplied by air it's defenders have managed to fight off wave after wave of attackers and has been under heavy assault of late. It has managed to inflict humiliating defeats this past week as terrorists have attempted in vain to break through the bases perimeter. Kuwayris the heroic airbase. Also there is the plight of the tiny towns of Foua and Kafarya Independent Journalist Eva Bartlett produced such a heartbreaking report on the plight of the two towns that it turned me into an instant fan of her work. Her website is https://ingaza.wordpress.com I'll put a link to the article below. These brave people are constantly being terrorized by NATO's proxy army shelled constantly and with maniacal inventiveness. Apparently mortars weren't destructive enough so the terrorists have been using "hell cannons" which can hurl much bigger bombs on the people. The people there can sometimes barely breathe from all of the smoke of the firebombs. As if all this wasn't bad enough the town is under siege food and medicine are running short and humanitarian crisis looms. However their plight has been completely ignored by the mainstream media which is instead producing manufactured accounts of a "Dhouma Massacre" that attempt to portray the SAA's legitimate attacks on terrorists who are actively shelling Syrian civilians as attacks by the SAA on civilians. In other words they are engaged in cheap war propaganda masquerading as news business as usual for the corporate media. It is actually quite amusing to see the dance the media have to do to avoid recognizing the fact that the west is sponsoring ISIS. Explaining America's allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia's role is particularly embarrassing for them for example. Usually I just completely ignore them but I couldn't resist seeing how they were trying to explain the current situation in Syria. Needless to say I had a good laugh.
However the situation is Syria remains an ongoing tragedy as the plight of Koua and Karfaya reveal. The attempted destruction of the temple of Baal Shamin "the Pearl of the Desert" with explosives was a cultural tragedy although the temple itself is still standing. Not only is ISIS deliberately destroying Syria's heritage while selling part of it on the black market it is also murdered the leading archaeologist of the Palmyra area. They killed Khaled al Assad who was 82 and had dedicated his entire life to studying and preserving the area. ISIS Killed him and publicly displayed his corpse. Another of the 250,000 people killed in the war. I'm reminded of the invasion of Iraq both the destruction and looting of it's cultural heritage and the intentional murder of it's educated classes. There seems no end to the barbarism the american empire is capable of. Syria's cultural heritage is just another target to be destroyed for the covert war planners. They also target food storage facilities, water, electricity, hospitals, schools and everything else a society needs to function. Thus it is absurd to pretend that they don't foresee the final result of these wars the deliberate creation of failed states when they so ruthlessly target everything human beings need to survive. The deliberate destruction of countries infrastructures is all part of their strategy as is made clear by studying the bombing patterns in places like Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Libya. In Syria they have slowly begun to carry out the same sort of bombing campaign but most of the destruction has been wrought year by year by their terrorist proxies.
Yet for all the destruction that has been wrought in Libya and Syria only to names on a long list of the nations targeted for destruction by the american empire and it's allies. Really in the 21st century one should speak of an imperial network an enormous global alliance that covers much of the world. This network is destroying the world with it's war on the planet. Yet resistance is also growing all over the world in Latin America, Russia, China, and other nations. Syria is currently the central battle in this global war on the world. After the defeats Novorossia managed to inflict on Ukraine the conflict there is stalled in the sense that Ukraine hasn't dared to order another large scale offensive in a while although the people of Novorossia still suffer under constant shelling. Thus the empire of chaos has clearly turned it's attention to escalating the war on Syria. Thankfully the brave people of Syria have continued their successful resistance and have recently made major gains in Al Zabadani. Meanwhile in Libya resistance is growing and the long war to take back their country continues. The Green Resistance are on the Rise. I didn't even have time to go into amazing bravery of the people of Yemen under siege by Saudi Arabia. They are preparing to resist a major invasion. The resistance is alive around the world. The whole world must join the struggle to end these wars aimed at spreading horror, chaos, destruction, poverty ignorance, and every other ill they can think to dish out. Demand compassion for those thousands of refugees trying to escape. And remember the brave people of Libya, and of Syria as they battle the Empire of chaos.
Sources
As my regular readers will know I stole the phrase "Empire of Chaos" from the always entertaining Pepe Escobar. He has a great book by that title. (See My June 2014 article "Empire of Chaos" whose title I unconsciously plagiarized)
Eva Bartlett's website
https://ingaza.wordpress.com
Abayomi Azikwe on the recent refugee deaths
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/mass-migration-deaths-caused-by-imperialist-foreign-policy/
Some photos and videos of early protests against the unjust sentences in Libya
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/protests-in-libya-international-condemnation-of-al-qaeda-sentencing-of-jamahiriya-officials/
Eric Draitser shared this video of Green Libya Rising
https://m.facebook.com/EricDraitser1/posts/793164734126233
An archive of articles on the Massacre in Sirte
https://vivalibya.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/genocide-in-sirte/
The uprising in Sirte
https://jamahiriyanewsagency.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/daesh-brutally-crushes-sirte-uprising/
The SAA and Hezbollah make important gains in al Zabadani
http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/hezbollah-and-the-syrian-army-assert-fire-control-over-al-zabadani/
Read some reports on a single day of the war in Syria from the essential Syria 360 site
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/syria-in-the-last-24-hours-23/
Eva Bartlett on the Siege of Foua and Kafarya
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/foua-and-kafarya-two-northwestern-syrian-villages-under-siege-by-natos-terrorists/
Eric Draitser on Dhouma massacre
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/21/the-douma-market-attack-a-fabricated-pretext-for-intervention/
The Hands off Libya Save Saif al Islam Campaign
https://vivalibya.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/u-s-nato-hands-off-libya-stop-the-execution-of-saif-al-islam-gaddafi/
Although for years the west has ignored the plight of it's victims in Africa and the middle east It has recently been forced to pay some attention to the streams of refugees desperate to escape to Europe. Predictably they have been treated as criminals. As a result they are dying not just by drowning in the Mediterranean but within Europe itself. In a recent incident 71 refugees including an infant girl suffocated to death in a freezer truck in Austria. This occurred soon after 100 refugees perished at sea. These deaths are the result of the wests war on the planet which has turned nation after nation into apocalyptic disaster areas from which millions are forced to flee.
By funneling billions of dollars to terrorist death squads they destroyed Libya and are trying to destroy Syria. Yet even with all the horrors they have endured their people refuse to surrender. In a recent article (August 2015 Wars on Syria Libya and Yemen) I happened to mention the heroic resistance of the people of Sirte and Bani Walid during the 2011 war. I also discussed the recent kangaroo trial and death sentence of Saif al Islam Gaddafi son of Libya's martyred leader Moammar Gaddafi along with 20 other former government officials. This sparked protests of support for Saif and the Libya Jamahiriya it's former government. Yet even I was surprised when days later Sirte itself rose in a brief heroic but doomed rebellion. Meanwhile throughout Libya protests by those still loyal to the memory of Moammar Gaddafi only expanded. Libya was awash in a sea of green flags symbolizing their support for the green resistance which hopes to one day throw out the death squads that reign in Libya reestablish order and rebuild their country. This story was completely ignored in the media. Yet it was a sign that all hope is not lost in Libya the people's will to resist is still alive. We can only hope that the Libyan resistance will continue to strengthen. Meanwhile in Syria the war continues with all it's intensity. Whatever schemes Turkey and the US are currently hatching the Syrian people refuse to surrender refuse to become the next Libya. The imperialist war on Syria once again showed it's purely destructive nature when the terrorists once again targeted humanity's cultural heritage. Apparently it's not enough to destroy modern civilization any trace of ancient civilization any memory of Syria's rich cultural heritage must be destroyed. Thus in the ancient city of Palmyra ISIS terrorists attempted to blow up the Temple of Bel built during the time of the roman empire. This temple has survived Two thousand years of history including countless wars but has now been targeted for deliberate destruction. I'd say the west was returning to it's barbarian roots if it wasn't an insult to the barbarians who had more respect for the relics of the classical world. To avoid a tangent I'll merely direct the curious to read Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the Unabridged version which also contains a classic description of the Syrians in Roman times famous for their education, wit and pleasure loving ways. How terrible to see the worlds cultural heritage targeted for deliberate destruction. And how terrible to see Syria itself targeted for destruction only the heroic resistance of the Syrian people has allowed it to survive.
In Libya the sentencing of former government officials by an ISIS controlled court lead to protests throughout the country. This in itself was a dangerous form of resistance since in Libya any sign of support for the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya usually leads to being murdered or being locked up and facing years of torture at the hands of death squads who control the "prisons." In a sane world it would be the current "governments" of Libya that would be on trial for destroying the country and unleashing years of rape, murder, and torture upon the people of Libya. In a just world all the western leaders who waged the war on Libya would also be tried for genocide and crimes against humanity for the deliberate destruction of Libya. Unfortunately we don't live in a just world we live in the empire of chaos. Under Moammar Gaddafi's leadership Libya moved from the poorest to the richest country in Africa with free Health Care, Housing and Education for all Libyans. The remnants of this government have been sentenced to death when clearly it would be much more fitting to immediately release them and put them in charge of rebuilding the country. Instead it is those who are responsible for destroying Libya who put those who defended it on trial. This injustice is what caused the people of Libya to rise in open revolt across the country refusing to give in to intimidation by ISIS death squads and flying green flags in solidarity with the prisoners. The protests continued despite sometimes being attacked by death squads firing submachine guns into the crowds as I discussed in my previous article. In Fact they only grew larger and spread to more and more cities. We can only hope that the Green Resistance have received many new recruits in recent weeks. Long live Libya's Green Resistance!
The people of Sirte was invaded and occupied by ISIS death squads earlier in the year and ISIS are clearly being used as part of a plan to terrorize former loyalist strongholds into submission. During the 2011 war on Libya Sirte waged an epic months long battle against NATO's death squads and despite being under constant assault by NATO bombers. While the mainstream Media was trumpeting the birth of a free and democratic Libya after the fall of Tripoli it of course completely covered up the fact that NATO was busy trying to bomb the cities of Sirte and Bani Walid into submission so they could be captured by NATO's terrorist proxy army. A war begun based on the lie that Gaddafi "was bombing his people" had immediately escalated into a bombing campaign by NATO targeting, the army, the infrastructure and the people. The battles at of Sirte and Bani Walid were merely the final shameful chapter of that war not a single scrap of Libyan territory was to be left free. It was in these two cities that green Libya waged it's final tragic battle to survive. Although they lost in the end they sent thousands of terrorist scum to their deaths on the outskirts of the city. (For those interested check out the archive on Libya 360 of stories from 2011) Finally both cities fell after being bombed for months and under constant assault by an army of terrorists. Moammar Gaddafi was brutally murdered outside of Sirte and Hillary Clinton made her infamous joke "we came, we saw, he died." Bani Walid and Sirte had both earned the titles of heroic cities to borrow a phrase from World War 2 that is now being used to describe places like now occupied Slavyansk or still independent Donetsk in Novorossia that valiantly resist fascism.
Recently Sirte proved that it is still a heroic city. The city is under occupation by ISIS who attempt to kidnap and kill anyone who dares to oppose them and anyone still loyal to the former government. They attempt to make the locals swear loyalty to them. Recently they have demanding that anyone who served in the former government, the police or army publicly sign repentance papers in front of them. One courageous local religious leader the Imam Khalid bin Rajab Ferjani said that this would go against islam as ISIS do not represent the religion of islam (since they a pack of murderous criminals and terrorists). In retaliation ISIS murdered this heroic and decent man which proved to be a big mistake. This is because the Imam belonged to the Ferjani tribe the largest local tribe and they rose in rebellion along with the much of the rest of the city. Amazingly the locals managed to quickly seize back control of most of the town killing ISIS members and forcing them to retreat. They hoped they might receive help from one of the rival governments who claim that they want to liberate the town but whatever help they received arrived to late. Instead ISIS who controls a large amount of territory in the area called in reinforcements armed with tanks and artillery shelling the town and even a local hospital. After recapturing the town they began executing any Ferjani tribe member they could find and executed many of the brave young defenders of the city in the most gruesome manner possible. Sirte's brief rebellion ended in failure and it's people live again under the reign of terror of ISIS. Yet it had proved once again that Sirte is still a heroic city and will hopefully inspire future more well planned attempts to liberate Libya from the reign of terror the US and it's NATO allies have put in place there. The Libyan Green Resistance is growing in strength and hopefully what happened in Sirte will give Libya's terrorist rulers pause before they dare to carry out their death sentences on Saif al Islam and the other prisoners who have doubtless suffered tortures for years. The people of Libya will take their revenge four years of horror and hunger have not been enough to break their spirits.
Syria thankfully is still unconquered although many of it's people have like the Libyans suffered untold horrors and parts of the country are occupied by Al Qaeda death squads. Syria is being attacked by 100,000 mercenaries from 87 countries according to one report. However the SAA (Syrian Arab Army), Hezbollah, and the NDF (National Defense Forces local militias fighting to defend the country) have never stopped fighting. They have won many victories in this war but unfortunately the sinister alliance of the US, Israel, KSA, Turkey, France, UK, NATO the GCC etc have managed to find an endless supply of brainwashed dupes to funnel into the countries insuring that no matter how many victories Syria wins the war will continue endlessly. Thus the SAA, Hezbollah, the YPG, YPJ (militias made up of kurds and other minorities in northern Syria) and the NDF have been fighting to restore control of the borders. Earlier in the year the YPG and YPJ captured the strategic town of Tel Abayd an ISIS stronghold vital for supplying ISIS. (See my June 2015 Long Live Syria! ) This is what lead Turkey to escalate it's increasingly open involvement in the war. Now on the border with Lebanon after months of fighting the SAA and Hezbollah are finally nearing victory in al Zabadani another terrorist stronghold vital for supplying NATO's proxy armies attempting to destroy the country. The terrorists now control only a tiny piece of territory there in Al Balad neighborhood. In the past 48 hours the SAA and Hezbollah made dramatic advances and members of the FSA and Ahrar Al-Sham were encircled and forced to surrender in large numbers.
The war in Syria takes place on many fronts and involves many long ongoing battles. However I'd like to briefly mention Kuwayris airbase which has been surrounded and under siege for two years supplied by air it's defenders have managed to fight off wave after wave of attackers and has been under heavy assault of late. It has managed to inflict humiliating defeats this past week as terrorists have attempted in vain to break through the bases perimeter. Kuwayris the heroic airbase. Also there is the plight of the tiny towns of Foua and Kafarya Independent Journalist Eva Bartlett produced such a heartbreaking report on the plight of the two towns that it turned me into an instant fan of her work. Her website is https://ingaza.wordpress.com I'll put a link to the article below. These brave people are constantly being terrorized by NATO's proxy army shelled constantly and with maniacal inventiveness. Apparently mortars weren't destructive enough so the terrorists have been using "hell cannons" which can hurl much bigger bombs on the people. The people there can sometimes barely breathe from all of the smoke of the firebombs. As if all this wasn't bad enough the town is under siege food and medicine are running short and humanitarian crisis looms. However their plight has been completely ignored by the mainstream media which is instead producing manufactured accounts of a "Dhouma Massacre" that attempt to portray the SAA's legitimate attacks on terrorists who are actively shelling Syrian civilians as attacks by the SAA on civilians. In other words they are engaged in cheap war propaganda masquerading as news business as usual for the corporate media. It is actually quite amusing to see the dance the media have to do to avoid recognizing the fact that the west is sponsoring ISIS. Explaining America's allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia's role is particularly embarrassing for them for example. Usually I just completely ignore them but I couldn't resist seeing how they were trying to explain the current situation in Syria. Needless to say I had a good laugh.
However the situation is Syria remains an ongoing tragedy as the plight of Koua and Karfaya reveal. The attempted destruction of the temple of Baal Shamin "the Pearl of the Desert" with explosives was a cultural tragedy although the temple itself is still standing. Not only is ISIS deliberately destroying Syria's heritage while selling part of it on the black market it is also murdered the leading archaeologist of the Palmyra area. They killed Khaled al Assad who was 82 and had dedicated his entire life to studying and preserving the area. ISIS Killed him and publicly displayed his corpse. Another of the 250,000 people killed in the war. I'm reminded of the invasion of Iraq both the destruction and looting of it's cultural heritage and the intentional murder of it's educated classes. There seems no end to the barbarism the american empire is capable of. Syria's cultural heritage is just another target to be destroyed for the covert war planners. They also target food storage facilities, water, electricity, hospitals, schools and everything else a society needs to function. Thus it is absurd to pretend that they don't foresee the final result of these wars the deliberate creation of failed states when they so ruthlessly target everything human beings need to survive. The deliberate destruction of countries infrastructures is all part of their strategy as is made clear by studying the bombing patterns in places like Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Libya. In Syria they have slowly begun to carry out the same sort of bombing campaign but most of the destruction has been wrought year by year by their terrorist proxies.
Yet for all the destruction that has been wrought in Libya and Syria only to names on a long list of the nations targeted for destruction by the american empire and it's allies. Really in the 21st century one should speak of an imperial network an enormous global alliance that covers much of the world. This network is destroying the world with it's war on the planet. Yet resistance is also growing all over the world in Latin America, Russia, China, and other nations. Syria is currently the central battle in this global war on the world. After the defeats Novorossia managed to inflict on Ukraine the conflict there is stalled in the sense that Ukraine hasn't dared to order another large scale offensive in a while although the people of Novorossia still suffer under constant shelling. Thus the empire of chaos has clearly turned it's attention to escalating the war on Syria. Thankfully the brave people of Syria have continued their successful resistance and have recently made major gains in Al Zabadani. Meanwhile in Libya resistance is growing and the long war to take back their country continues. The Green Resistance are on the Rise. I didn't even have time to go into amazing bravery of the people of Yemen under siege by Saudi Arabia. They are preparing to resist a major invasion. The resistance is alive around the world. The whole world must join the struggle to end these wars aimed at spreading horror, chaos, destruction, poverty ignorance, and every other ill they can think to dish out. Demand compassion for those thousands of refugees trying to escape. And remember the brave people of Libya, and of Syria as they battle the Empire of chaos.
Sources
As my regular readers will know I stole the phrase "Empire of Chaos" from the always entertaining Pepe Escobar. He has a great book by that title. (See My June 2014 article "Empire of Chaos" whose title I unconsciously plagiarized)
Eva Bartlett's website
https://ingaza.wordpress.com
Abayomi Azikwe on the recent refugee deaths
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/mass-migration-deaths-caused-by-imperialist-foreign-policy/
Some photos and videos of early protests against the unjust sentences in Libya
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/protests-in-libya-international-condemnation-of-al-qaeda-sentencing-of-jamahiriya-officials/
Eric Draitser shared this video of Green Libya Rising
https://m.facebook.com/EricDraitser1/posts/793164734126233
An archive of articles on the Massacre in Sirte
https://vivalibya.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/genocide-in-sirte/
The uprising in Sirte
https://jamahiriyanewsagency.wordpress.com/2015/08/14/daesh-brutally-crushes-sirte-uprising/
The SAA and Hezbollah make important gains in al Zabadani
http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/hezbollah-and-the-syrian-army-assert-fire-control-over-al-zabadani/
Read some reports on a single day of the war in Syria from the essential Syria 360 site
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/syria-in-the-last-24-hours-23/
Eva Bartlett on the Siege of Foua and Kafarya
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/foua-and-kafarya-two-northwestern-syrian-villages-under-siege-by-natos-terrorists/
Eric Draitser on Dhouma massacre
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/21/the-douma-market-attack-a-fabricated-pretext-for-intervention/
The Hands off Libya Save Saif al Islam Campaign
https://vivalibya.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/u-s-nato-hands-off-libya-stop-the-execution-of-saif-al-islam-gaddafi/
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