Terrorism or Tragicomedy
Giorgio Agamben
Free the Tarnac Nine

On the morning of November 11, 150 police officers, most of which belonged to the anti-terrorist brigades, surrounded a village of 350 inhabitants on the Millevaches plateau, before raiding a farm in order to arrest nine young people (who ran the local grocery store and tried to revive the cultural life of the village). Four days later, these nine people were sent before an anti-terrorist judge and “accused of criminal conspiracy with terrorist intentions.” The newspapers reported that the Ministry of the Interior and the Secretary of State “had congratulated local and state police for their diligence.” Everything is in order, or so it would appear. But let’s try to examine the facts a little more closely and grasp the reasons and the results of this “diligence.”

First the reasons: the young people under investigation “were tracked by the police because they belonged to the ultra-left and the anarcho autonomous milieu.” As the entourage of the Ministry of the Interior specifies, “their discourse is very radical and they have links with foreign groups.” But there is more: certain of the suspects “participate regularly in political demonstrations,” and, for example, “in protests against the Fichier Edvige (Exploitation Documentaire et Valorisation de l'Information Générale) and against the intensification of laws restricting immigration.” So political activism (this is the only possible meaning of linguistic monstrosities such as “anarcho autonomous milieu”) or the active exercise of political freedoms, and employing a radical discourse are therefore sufficient reasons to call in the anti-terrorist division of the police (SDAT) and the central intelligence office of the Interior (DCRI). But anyone possessing a minimum of political conscience could not help sharing the concerns of these young people when faced with the degradations of democracy entailed by the Fichier Edvige, biometrical technologies and the hardening of immigration laws.

As for the results, one might expect that investigators found weapons, explosives and Molotov cocktails on the farm in Millevaches. Far from it. SDAT officers discovered “documents containing detailed information on railway transportation, including exact arrival and departure times of trains.” In plain French: an SNCF train schedule. But they also confiscated “climbing gear.” In simple French: a ladder, such as one might find in any country house.

Terrorizing Dissent, New Documentary on RNC Repression Release

The Glass Bead Collective, Twin Cities Indymedia, and other independent media activists will release a new film, Terrorizing Dissent: Election Cut, an expose of events at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Featuring first-person accounts and footage from more than forty cameras on the streets, "Terrorizing Dissent" focuses on the story of dissent suppressed. People charged with "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism" speak out against the government's campaign to manipulate media coverage and label civil disobedience and community organizing as terrorism.

Cut from hundreds of hours of donated footage, "Terrorizing Dissent: Election Cut" will be released for free on the Internet in HD, FLV and Quicktime formats, under the Creative Commons / CopyLeft license, and its producers encourage everyone to share this important film.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Now Is the Time? Now Is the Time!"

The Potential of the Gulf Coast Crisis:
Points for Discussion and Intervention



We wrote this text because we felt the level of discussion regarding the aftermath of hurricane Katrina needs to move beyond the rhetoric of cheering or condemning looters, cheering or condemning the authorities, or simply crying for the victims. "Oh my god, I can't believe this is happening," or "I told you so," or "People are dying!" just send us talking in circles. We want the U.S. (and possibly the world) to launch into the unknown — the total breakdown of the social order — and then continue pushing for a self-organized society.



In wanting this, we encourage drawing out and publicly defending the liberatory activities of the last 6 days and deepening this social rupture by refusing to confine it to the Gulf Coast. Our idea of how: implement concrete forms of solidarity that do not just focus on defense, but on attack.

Anonymous Comrade writes
Algeria: Anniversary riots amidst political disarray
A report from Kabylia on the double anniversary of the Black Spring of 2001 and the Berber Spring of 1980
MPRSND Algeria Correspondent
21 April 2005

The restive region of Kabylia remained relatively calm on the double anniversary of the Black Spring of 2001 and the Berber Spring of 1980. The day was marked by a series of peaceful marches, meetings, and galas throughout the region to comemmorate the martyrs of the past 25 years of struggle in the Berber regions of Algeria.

Anonymous Comrade writes

"Peasant Time Bomb"
Pepe Escobar, Asia Times Online

"There is chaos under heaven and things could not be better." — Mao Zedong

"The biggest danger to the Party since taking over has been losing touch with the masses." — Hu Jintao

SHANGHAI — Everywhere in developed, urban China — Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou — the message was the same. The next "counterrevolutionary rebellion" — as the Communist Party defined the student uprising in Tiananmen Square in 1989 — if it happens, will be a peasant revolution. Foreign diplomats and Chinese scholars in Beijing or young, urban, 'Net-connected professionals in Guangzhou have told Asia Times Online in unmistakable terms: nobody from the party's "fourth generation" leadership wants to go back to the Maoist model of economic autarky and foreign-policy isolation.

Frankie writes

I received a snailmail letter today from my friend Barrilee Bannister dated July 24th. Many of you know Barrilee from her work in Arizona. Barrilee was put into segregation (solitary confinement) last week because of alleged horseplay with a fellow inmate. She could be in "the hole" for as long as 120 days for an incident that, had it occurred in a girl's dormitory, would have been written off as young women roughhousing a little.

She asked me to let you all know that "we both have asked that the whole situation be put under investigation. Raquel [her friend, also accused] and I are both rallying up outside support to call the warden here at Coffee Creek Correctional Institution -- Superintendent Hoefil -- to request that he have someone investigate the incident to the fullest extent.
The phone number is 1-(503) 570-6400.

Barrilee adds that "the only time anyone listens to us inmates around here is when outside support calls in and makes inquiries. So, if you have a minute and want to help a really good prison activist get out of 'the hole' so that she can continue reading and writing and furthering her education, please make that call, ok?

Thanks. Frank Kross

Anonymous Comrade writes
«Alarmstufe Rot» in Athen angelaufen
Deutsche Presse Agentur

Athen (dpa) - 19 Tage vor Beginn der Olympischen Spiele hat in Athen die «Alarmstufe Rot» begonnen. Dies ergibt sich aus einem als «geheim» eingestuften Schreiben des Polizeipräsidenten Griechenlands, Fótios Nasiákos, das die Zeitung «To Wíma» veröffentlichte.

Demnach nehmen am bislang umfangreichsten Sicherheitsprogramm allein in Athen 19 502 Polizeibeamte und 10 422 Militärs der eigens zu diesem Zweck gebildeten Olympia-Division teil. Der Plan unter dem Code-Namen «Polydeukes» beschreibt die Schutzmaßnahmen für rund 6 000 offizielle Besucher, Mitglieder der Olympischen Familie, 10 500 Athleten und 20 000 Journalisten.

"US 'May Delay Vote If Attacked'"

BBC News

The Bush administration is reported to be investigating the possibility of postponing the presidential election in the event of a terror attack.

US counter-terrorism officials are examining what steps would be needed to permit a delay, Newsweek reports.

Occupation Gunfire Kills 20 Iraqi Shiite Protesters:

Angry Shiites Demand the End of the U.S.-Led Occupation

IslamOnLine.net

AN-NAJAF, Iraq, April 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) — At least 20 Iraqi Shiites were killed and a hundred others wounded Sunday, April 4, when occupation troops opened fire randomly at thousands of supporters of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr in this southern holy city in the most dangerous confrontation between the occupation and Iraq's majority community.

"The al-Zawahiri Fiasco"

Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, March 23, 2004

It featured all the trappings of a glorified video
game. Thousands of Pakistani army and paramilitary
troops played the hammer. Hundreds of US troops and
Special Forces, plus the elite commando 121, were ready
to play the anvil across the border in Afghanistan.
What was supposed to be smashed in between was "high-
value target" Ayman al-Zawahiri, as Pakistani President
General Pervez Musharraf enthusiastically bragged --
with no hard evidence -- to an eager CNN last Thursday.
But what happened to this gigantic piece of psy-ops?
Nothing. And for a very simple reason: al-Qaeda's brain
and Osama bin Laden's deputy was never there in the
first place.