PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, YOU’RE FIRED

You have failed to keep your oath to represent the wishes of the Palestinian people, so…

We the Palestinian People

hereby issue you a notice of termination, and demand the following:

Suspend and terminate the Oslo Accords

Dissolve the Palestinian Authority – Abbas must resign

End the blockade of Gaza

End all security arrangements with Israel

Release Palestinian political prisoners from Palestinian jails

Unify the resistance – Build a national platform upon which to coalesce Palestinian political parties and formations in their resistance to apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing

Notice of termination served on February 28, 2011 4:00-6:00 p.m.
at the General Delegation of the PLO Mission to the U.S.
1320 18th Street, NW, Washington, DC

Issued by the United States Palestinian Community Network-DC

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Arabic News Coverage

Arabs48 coverage
Felesteen.ps coverage

NYC: Feb. 28 Demonstration to Dissolve the Palestinian Authority

Demonstration to Dissolve the Palestinian Authority

Mon. February 28th
4-6pm
Palestinian Permanent Mission to the UN
115 E 65th St btw Park & Lexington
F to 63rd st, 6 to 68th/Hunter College

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190899137599470

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Arabs48 Coverage

**********************************************************************************************************************
Palestinians join with the people of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Algeria in demanding the ouster of its Western Puppets and Strongmen, the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinians will no longer tolerate an illegitimate leadership that kills, oppresses and imprisons its people. The Palestine Papers have exposed the Palestinian Authority’s eager willingness to sacrifice Palestinian refugees, citizens of Gaza and voices of opposition to maintain political and economic control over the Palestinian people.

Abbas, your presidency has long since expired. It’s time for you and your cronies to GET OUT.

*****

Washington, DC Press Release

Washington, D.C.-February 18, 2011, On the heels of a people’s victory for freedom and democracy in Egypt, the US Palestinian Community Network-DC will present the Palestinian Authority with a pink slip terminating its employment as the leadership of the Palestinian people for failure to uphold its duties as a governing body. The event will also include presenting a list of demands that includes terminating the Oslo Accords and unifying Palestinian political forces upon a national platform of resistance.

With great dismay, members of the USPCN have come to know the extent to which the rights of the Palestinian people have been compromised by the current leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The leaked documents from the Negotiations Affairs Department and publicized by Al-Jazeera confirm the PA’s position in negotiations with the Israeli government: renouncing all forms of resistance to Israeli occupation on principle, consistently describing it as “violence”, the PA negotiated with no bargaining power whatsoever.

The radical concessions made by the PA to the Israelis, as confirmed by the documents and demonstrated by the presence of Dayton Forces and a detrimental policy towards Gaza, on territory, sovereignty, Jerusalem, the right of return for refugees, and the integrity of the Palestinian national body, especially that part that lives outside the West Bank and Gaza, is a direct and tragic consequence of this position.

The leadership of the PA acted without proper delegation from the Palestinian people. Their actions echo the dictatorial rule that has typified the rest of the Arab world and however unfortunate, it is no surprise that the PA has suppressed popular Palestinian protests in solidarity with the Egyptian people in the Occupied West Bank. As Arabs move to protest such rule over their lives, from Tunisians, to Egyptians to Yemenis to Jordanians, Libyans, and Bahrainis, we also move as Palestinians of the US, refugees outside our land and an inseparable part, like other Palestinian refugees the world over, of the Palestinian national body, to protest the dictatorial and unrepresentative rule of the PA.

USPCN insists that it is the Palestinian people’s will to continue its resistance to colonization and apartheid in many forms, including boycott, divestment, and sanctions and the non-violent protests to the Apartheid Wall as valiantly led by Palestinian civil society the world over. It believes that popular resistance aimed at establishing international law and human rights norms is necessary for the achievement of a political solution. Negotiating without the leverage of resistance demanding well-established norms will leave the Palestinian national body with all its rights and aspirations exposed to compromise.

Accordingly, the USPCN demands the dismantling of the PA and the termination of all its employees and that the PLO be reformed to reflect the will and aspirations of the Palestinian people. The following steps need to be taken immediately:

• Suspend and terminate the Oslo Accords
• Terminate the Palestinian Authority—Mahmoud Abbas must resign
• End the blockade of Gaza
• End all Palestinian Authority security arrangements with Israel
• Release all Palestinian political prisoners from Palestinian jails
• Unify the resistance–Build a national platform upon which to coalesce Palestinian political parties and formations in their resistance to apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing

The US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) is a grassroots community network with over twenty democratically-elected chapters. The network affirms the right of Palestinians in the Shatat (exile) to participate fully in shaping our destiny. USPCN is anchored in the following objectives:

• Self-determination and equality for the Palestinian people;
• The right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes, lands, properties and villages (an inalienable right supported by international law and UN Resolution 194);
  
• Ending Zionist occupation and colonization of Palestine.
  

USPCN is an arena and platform for Palestinian communities to come together, coordinate, refine strategies, link efforts, plan united actions, and inform one another and the community about their work for Palestine.www.palestineconference.org

Muammar Gaddafi’s planned resignation speech

P U L S E

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

‘Muammar Gaddafi’s planned resignation speech,’ as seen by Tariq Ali.

“It’s raining outside which is why I cannot address you. Sorry. It seems to be raining inside my tent as well. Can this be rain? No. It’s dogs polluting the uniforms of my bodyguards. No respect for women. Benghazi. I hate that city. Once I accidentally addressed my friend Berlusconi as Benghazi. Drunkards, pimps and religious extremists. I will bomb them again before I leave. I wish we had bought some drones so I could press button myself. My relations with the people are informal, based on friendship and fear. Why have they become so noisy and combative? I have many children. The British Foreign Office adopted one of them, my dear Saif, and wanted to put him on the throne, but that would have no effect on the intellectual landscape of the Jamahiriya.

I just received a tweet from Venezuela: ‘Have you read The Autumn of the Patriarch by G.G. Marquez?’ Why should I read this shit? Has G.G. Marquez read my science-fiction short stories ‘Escape from Hell’ that are even better than my little Green Book which is very nutty? They are set in an imaginary country with an imaginary ruler who kills his people and they rise and get rid of him. It’s very funny story. It is popular in Arab lands. I met them, these jokers and stray dogs of Europe. Blair, Berlusconi, they are my friends, but now they ask me to go. Why? Did they not go? It’s always raining in London. And that Roman pimp is always raining on his people. I will go when my time comes. When Allah summons me to discuss the political conjuncture. I like pizzas. Once there was a good pizza place in Tripoli. Much better pizzas than in Benghazi, but now all these shops are burning. Is it still raining? No? OK. Then I will go. Bury me in a colored shroud, not white. Bill Clinton. His penis should have been chopped off and fed to swine for letting Monica play with him when he was talking to heads of state. Men will be men, but that still upsets me. I never did that. Nor did Blair or Berlusconi.

I ruled this place for 42 years. And now it’s raining. I’m sorry not to rule for 50 years. Mubarak was a stray dog, Ben Ali a pimp. Why they compare those rascals to me. I struggled against my own military dictatorship. I am not a rootless pot of excrement. What do you think? I will ask the people, but I need an umbrella. Who is raining? Am I raining on my own people? Just one last point, I need to address to my people. Remember this: States are counter-Being. Similarly, being is counter-state. Being is the activity of being alive, free, agile and uncontained. Being, when pursued rigorously, state(s) would wither away like Clinton’s penis. States exist by ‘neutralising’ being. “State of being” is a moronic condition. However, ’normally’ we exist in the moronic conditions. I am proud to be the Chief Moron in a moronic state. I will neutralise you all.”

i

Empire – Information wars

Stay in Your Home You Will Be Safe

Pulse

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

From our anonymous eyes and ears in Tripoli.

Right after Friday prayers, people started to leave the mosque which is a two-minute walk from my building. I could hear that gunfire had already started in another area before the people finished their prayers. As the peaceful protestors left the mosque, they started to chant: La Ellaha Ela ALLAH, Qaddafi Adouaa Allah – “There is no god but God, Qaddafi is the enemy of God”. The moment I saw that scene I was so happy, proud, and speechless!

The gunfire in my area, and in Souk Jomaa, Mayzaran, Siyahiya, Dahra and elsewhere, was random and didn’t stop until around 5 pm.

A short time after the protestors passed by my street, an open car with 5 armed thugs parked in front of my building. They opened fire in the air, and then one of them said loudly, “Whoever doesn’t like Qaddafi, get out of your house now!” Then he said, “As long as you stay inside your homes you will be safe, and whoever comes out will be immediately killed.”

While I was witnessing this terrifying moment, I slowly opened my window and took 2 quick pictures of them; unfortunately I failed to take a video because they were many and armed and their eyes were wide open around the whole street, and above all they were in front of my building.

The world needs to know that what’s happening in Libya is no longer a response to protest; it’s genocide. Qaddafi’s forces shoot civilians from ambulances using anti-aircraft guns! People are struggling against heavy weapons with stones. And now Qaddafi has once again showed up with more bloodcurdling threats to turn Libya into “embers of fire.”

Now Qaddafi is making efforts to bribe the unified tribes and corrupt the cities (especially Zawiya and Misurata) with billions of dollars. He is still delusional that his filthy endeavors will work to gain back his full power over Libya and its courageous Libyans. Qaddafi yesterday told his foolish backers to “sing and dance and get ready to face the fight!”

Thank you, Mr. Colonel (and your retard son Saif). Now the whole world knows who is mentally affected with the drugs you constantly talk about in your lame speeches. Well, I too would like to see singing and dancing in the streets of Tripoli and all Libya, and I intend to dance myself, when my country gets rid of you.

I have received confirmed information that Qaddafi’s thugs are abducting injured people from Tripoli’s hospitals and transporting them to unknown locations. They also kidnap the bodies of the martyrs, either from the streets or the hospitals, to hide every trace of Qaddafi and his sons’ massacres. Saif Qaddafi said to the press, “Soon you will discover that all that you heard about Libya regarding the number of deaths was a big joke.” My friend told me that the families no longer put the bodies of their martyrs in the hospitals; they keep them in their houses and use  fans on them so they don’t decompose until they can bury them.

A few moments ago, I received a very emotional call from my friend telling me that one of the martyrs – who was shot in Tripoli protests and sadly died after some hours – said, “Tell my mother that if I die, I have died happily for my country.”

May the Martyrs of Libya rest in peace. And may the Revolution of February 17th prevail.

Written by pulsemedia.org

February 26, 2011 at 11:16 pm

Posted in Libya

 

The Egyptian divers’ protest

We are all Khaled Said During the Egyptian revolution, Egyptian divers in Red sea resorts protested against Mubarak just like Egyptians everywhere. The only difference is that Egyptian divers protested under the water.

I assume this is the first ever underwater protest in the history of Mankind. If it is, then this is yet another Egyptian inv…ention 🙂

Qaddafi and Queen EII

In today’s speech delivered by phone, the colonel compared himself to EII. (from AJ: Gaddafi argued that he was a purely “symbolic” leader with no real political power, comparing his role to that played by Queen Elizabeth II in England.)

In this photo: @ahmadsabbagh (Ahmad Sabbagh)@alazaat (Hussein Alazaat)
Qaddafi the Queen – Designed by Ahmad Sabbagh, calligraphy by @Alazaat @SyntaxDesign #Libya #Gaddafi #Feb17

Damascus : in front of the Libyan embassy

yazan :

Beautiful to see people in the heart of Damascus singing that.

ذا الشعب يوما أراد الحياة, فلا بد أن يستجيب القدر, ولابد لليل أن ينجلي, ولا بدّ للقيد أن ينكسر

 

Gaddafis’ hidden billions: Dubai banks, plush London pads and Italian water

Libya’s oil wealth has been siphoned out of the country by a powerful elite – including Gaddafi and his nine children

An oil well in Shahara, Libya, 2004. Libya is Africa’s fourth-largest oil producer, but analysts say much of the wealth from its reserves has been stolen. Photograph: Benjamin Lowy/Corbis

The Gaddafi family could have billions of dollars of funds hidden in secret bank accounts in Dubai, south-east Asia and the Persian Gulf, much of it likely to have come from Libya‘s vast oil revenues, according to analysis by leading Middle East experts.

Professor Tim Niblock, a specialist in Middle Eastern politics at the University of Exeter, has identified a gap of several billion dollars a year between the amount Libya makes from its oil reserves and government spending – a shortfall he expects has contributed greatly to the wealth of Muammar Gaddafi and his nine children.

“It is very, very difficult to work out with any degree of certainty just how much they have because the ruling elite hides it in all sorts of places,” said Niblock, who is also vice president of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES). “But at the very least it would be several billion dollars, in whatever form and it could potentially be a lot higher although I wouldn’t want to predict just how much it might be.”

Alistair Newton, senior political analyst at Nomura, the Japanese bank and president of BRISMES, agreed that it was difficult to establish the extent of the Gaddafis’ wealth but said he “would be surprised if it didn’t run into billions”.

Where the Gaddafis have hidden their vast funds is anybody’s guess, although Niblock expects that most of it is “in bank accounts and liquid assets in Dubai, the Gulf and south-east Asia” rather than in relatively transparent countries such as the UK, where the Libyan state has invested in London properties and in companies such as Pearson Group, owner of the Financial Times.

In addition to squirrelling away much of their income, the Gaddafis have spent fortunes over the years propping up various African regimes, with Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, widely acknowledged to be one of the recipients, Niblock said.

In the 1990s Gaddafi is thought to have given money to the Zaghawan tribe in Darfur, “and I suspect some of them are among the African mercenaries fighting the civilians in Libya”, Niblock added.

Libya’s breakneck growth has enabled the country to build up myriad investments overseas. In addition to the Gaddafis’ private holdings, the state is thought to have invested close to £61.8bn in assets across the globe.

Their investments in the UK include an eight-bedroom home in Hampstead, north London, with a swimming pool and suede-lined cinema room. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s second son, bought it in 2009 for £10m.

Most of the state’s investments are made by the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), a “sovereign wealth fund” set up in 2006 to spend the country’s oil money, which has an estimated $70bn of assets. LIA bought 3% of Pearson last year for £224m, making it one of the group’s biggest shareholders, and had a 0.02% stake in RBS, although this was recently sold.

Its UK property investments include Portman House, a 146,550 sq ft retail complex in Oxford Street, London, which houses retailers such as Boots and New Look, and an office at 14 Cornhill, opposite the Bank of England in the City.

Aside from the Hampstead home, which is not primarily an investment, the only two direct investment projects that the Gaddafi family are known to be involved with both involve water.

In 2009, when Silvio Berlusconi hosted the summit of G8 leading economies, he invited the Libyan leader as a special guest. Speeding towards the earthquake-stricken city of L’Aquila, which Berlusconi had chosen as the venue, Gaddafi’s motor cavalcade stopped in a remote town by a river at the bottom of a deep gorge.

Not many people find their way to Antrodoco, let alone a “Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution”. Such was the welcome he received that shortly afterwards a Libyan delegation returned to the town to announce that the colonel wanted to plough money into it.

Agreement was reached on a complex involving a luxury spa hotel and water bottling plant. Last September, Antrodocoís mayor, Maurizio Faina, said the €15m (£12.7m) scheme was “firming up”.

Whether it survives the current turmoil in Libya, however, remains to be seen. A similar question mark hangs over the established, if struggling, spa town of Fiuggi, south of Rome where pope Boniface VIII, among others, took the waters. In January, the Corriere della Sera reported that Gaddafi’s family had formalised a proposal to sink €250m (£211m) into a conference centre with an airstrip and a complex that, once again, involved a spa and a water bottling plant.

The paper said the deal was being brokered, not through Libyan channels, but by the Italo-Iraqi chamber of commerce. Fiuggi’s mayor, along with his counterpart from Antrodoco, was a guest at a party thrown by Silvio Berlusconi in honour of the Libyan leader when he visited Rome last September.

Gaddafi and Berlusconi have a famously warm personal relationship. Less well-known, however, is the fact that Berlusconi is in business with one of the Libyan state’s investment vehicles.

In June 2009, a Dutch-registered firm controlled by the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, took a 10% stake in Quinta Communications, a Paris-based film production and distribution company. Quinta Communications was founded back in 1990 by Berlusconi in partnership with Tarak Ben Ammar, the nephew of the late Tunisian leader, Habib Bourguiba.

The Italian prime minister has a 22% interest in the company through a Luxembourg-registered subsidiary of Fininvest, the firm at the heart of his sprawling business empire. Last September, the Libyans put a director on the board of Quinta Communications to sit alongside Berlusconiís representatives.

Libyan investors already hold significant interests in several strategic Italian enterprises. They reportedly own around one per cent of Italy’s biggest oil company, Eni; the LIA has an acknowledged 2% interest in the aerospace and defence group, Finmeccanica; Lafico is thought to retain more than 2% of Fiat and almost 15% of a quoted telecommunications company, Retelit.

The Libyans also own 22% of the capital of a textile firm, Olcese. Perhaps their best-known investment is a 7.5% stake in the Serie A side Juventus. But undoubtedly the most controversial is another 7.5 per cent interest in Italyís largest bank, Unicredit.

Last September, the bank’s chief executive, Alessandro Profumo, walked out after a row over his willingness to let the Libyans build up that stake. The Northern League, Berlusconi’s key allies in Italy’s rightwing government, was known to be particularly queasy about the emergence of such a powerful Libyan presence.

Experts say if Gaddafi is overthrown, the investments made by Libya’s state funds would probably be unaffected, since a new government would have more pressing matters to attend to, and any sudden movements could damage their reputation.

However, it is thought more likely that a new regime in Libya could look to freeze the assets of the Gaddafi family, as the new government in Egypt did with the assets of deposed Hosni Mubarak and his family. Since most of these are held in liquid form – and in country’s outside Europe and the US – this would have no significant ramifications for business, they argue.

UK interests

About 150 British companies have established a presence in Libya since the US and Europe lifted economic sanctions in 2004, after the country renounced terrorism, ceased its nuclear weapons programme and handed over two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing case.

The most high profile have been the oil companies, keen to tap Libya’s vast reserves of fossil fuels. In a deal brokered in 2007 by Tony Blair, BP signed a £560m exploration agreement allowing it to search for oil and gas, offshore and onshore, in a joint venture with the Libya Investment Corporation. Shell is also exploring for oil in Libya as western companies seek to capitalise on a country with the largest oil reserves in Africa and substantial supplies of gas.

High street retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Next, Monsoon and Accessorize have also set up in the country to serve the growing middle-class population, as oil revenues have “trickled down” into the broader Libyan population.

Companies such as AMEC, an engineering firm, and Biwater, a waste treatment company, have supplied services to Libya, which is using its oil revenues to reshape the country through an infrastructure spending spree that will cost about £310bn over the next decade.

British exports to Libya have soared to about £930m in recent years, while the business momentum in post-sanctions Libya is so great that the economy managed to grow by about 5% last year, while much of the rest of the world struggled.

Many British and foreign companies – including M&S, BP and Shell – are evacuating staff from Libya and it could be some time before they return.

Tom Bawden

source

Second Moroccan February 20th Campaign Video

http://ahref=