Military

Then They Came For The Revolutionaries

June 17, 2014 Bel Trew, www.foreignpolicy.com Strategize! Activists, Egypt, Law, Military, Police, Prison, Revolution

Every night when Egyptian activist Mohamed Kamel goes home, there is a man outside his building who follows him until he enters the doorway. The figure doesn't speak; he doesn't leave his post. He just keeps watch. "I smile at him and tell him, 'Please do come up and have dinner with me,'" said the 38-year-old, Cairo-based high school manager. "What else can I do?" Kamel is part of April 6 Youth Movement, a revolutionary group founded in 2008 to support striking industrial workers. Its members, estimated by the organization to number in the tens of thousands, were also a driving force behind the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak. But now, despite having supported the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, the group finds itself under fire from the military-backed government in Cairo. Last week, an Egyptian court outlawed the movement after a lawsuit accused it of espionage and tainting the image of the state. The group's most prominent voices, meanwhile, have been thrown in jail. In December, founder Ahmed Maher, 32, and Mohamed Adel, 25, were sentenced to three years in prison for participating in an illegal rally and allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Egypt’s April 6 Youth Movement Fears New Military Rule

June 14, 2014 Louise Osborne, www.occupy.com Resist! Egypt, Military, Protest, Revolution, Youth

In a quiet cafe in Cairo’s hip Zamalek quarter, Ahmad Abd Allah sits on a sofa hunched over a laptop. A shisha pipe in hand, the 34-year-old types quickly, peering intensely at the computer screen. His mobile buzzes and he picks it up distractedly, his eyebrows furrowed as he types a message before taking another puff on the pipe. “We’re having a protest tonight,” he explains, adding that around 5,000 youth are expected to attend the demonstration despite the threat of arrest and imprisonment under Egypt's new anti-protest law. Allah is a member of the April 6 Youth Movement that was instrumental in ousting dictator Hosni Mubarak three years ago. Now, the rush of those heady days has faded to disappointment. On June 8, former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was inaugurated as Egypt's president, a position he won by a landslide in a vote that many viewed as a sham – and others saw as a victory of stability over freedom. The resurgence of the military in Egypt has also made Allah and his fellow youth activists outlaws. In the run-up to the late May election, an Egyptian court banned the April 6 movement on charges of espionage and defaming the government – what Allah says are trumped up excuses to silence the opposition. “It’s crazy," he said.

Brazil Puts Missiles On Apartment Buildings

June 11, 2014 Revolution News, www.revolution-news.com Resist! Brazil, Military, Protest, world cup

Today people of Rio de Janeiro, residing in the area of the Maracanã World Cup stadium, woke up to find out that missiles have been placed on the roofs of their bloc of flats. Not just missiles, but actual military bases have been set up over night on their homes. The Navy of Brazil are “positioning airspace surveillance and air defense equipment” on the terrace of a building with 15 floors and 90 apartments in Tijuca north of Rio, 600 meters from the Maracanã. They want to “defend the anti-aircraft Maracana.” Residents of the building Chateau Grenoble have noticed army soldiers on their roof. Retired economist Almir Gomes Cardoso, 72, says he was shocked to see the marines on the roof. “They (the military) confirmed that they will install a missile on the roof,” said Cardoso, who lives on the top floor. Just like that. Nobody asked him anything: “The landlady did not report anything. It was a fait accompli.” The military say the missiles are meant to defend the “airspace” on an area of 13 to 15 km around the stadium Maracana, as well as around the other 12 stadiums where the games for the cup will take place. But the reality is that from the roofs of the building they will be actually spying on and monitoring protestors on the ground – this is their main concern. A state army of 200,000 uniforms, a third of which are army soldiers, are deployed for FIFA’s most expensive show ever — and the biggest theft from Brazil’s public budgets: -> ”A gigantic theft of public resources would take place. For us that was clear from the beginning. But we had not anticipated that the fraud would be as big as he is now! Beginning it was said that the Copa (World Cup) would make do with a budget of 2 billion U.S. dollars. Now, over 10 billion U.S. dollars spent been! That’s why the people are outraged!

Brazilian Military Deployed Two Days Before World Cup

June 10, 2014 The Real News, www.therealnews.com Resist! Brazil, Military, Protest, world cup

The Brazilian government has launched one of the largest Military operations since the 1950s. Over 200,000 troops have been deployed all over Brazil in preparation for the World Cup. Meanwhile, around Salvador's Fonte Nova stadium, security forces have been tasked with forcibly removing the homeless. As workers continue to intensify their actions, Amnesty International warns the Brazilian government's response to protests and strikes could lead to indiscriminate violence.

War Gear Flows To Police Departments

June 10, 2014 Matt Apuzzo, www.nytimes.com Educate! Military, Police, SWAT

NEENAH, Wis. — Inside the municipal garage of this small lakefront city, parked next to the hefty orange snowplow, sits an even larger truck, this one painted in desert khaki. Weighing 30 tons and built to withstand land mines, the armored combat vehicle is one of hundreds showing up across the country, in police departments big and small. The 9-foot-tall armored truck was intended for an overseas battlefield. But as President Obama ushers in the end of what he called America’s “long season of war,” the former tools of combat — M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more — are ending up in local police departments, often with little public notice. During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft. The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units. Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs. Masked, heavily armed police officers in Louisiana raided a nightclub in 2006 as part of a liquor inspection. In Florida in 2010, officers in SWAT gear and with guns drawn carried out raids on barbershops that mostly led only to charges of “barbering without a license.”

‘Hunger Games’ Salute Used As Protest In Thailand

June 4, 2014 Jake Coyle, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Arts, Military, Protest, Thailand

The three-finger salute from the Hollywood movie “The Hunger Games” is being used as a real symbol of resistance in Thailand. Protesters against the military coup are flashing the gesture as a silent act of rebellion, and they’re being threatened with arrest if they ignore warnings to stop. Thailand’s military rulers said Tuesday they were monitoring the new form of opposition to the coup. Reporters witnessed the phenomenon and individuals were captured on film making the raised-arm salute. “Raising three fingers has become a symbol in calling for fundamental political rights,” said anti-coup activist Sombat Boonngam-anong on his Facebook page. He called on people to raise “3 fingers, 3 times a day” — at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. — in safe public places where no police or military are present.

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