Afghan resistance kills CIA agents

A SPECTACULAR blow has been struck by the Afghan resistance against the US occupying forces in the final days of 2009.

Reported anti-war.com: "More details have emerged in this morning’s perplexing story, in which a suicide bomber attacked what officials called a 'gym' on a military base in Khost Province, killing eight Americans the military identified as 'civilians.'

"Now US officials admit that all eight Americans slain in the attack were actually CIA agents, adding a reason why the Haqqani network was so quickly blamed, as CIA drones have been bombing the Haqqanis in North Waziristan for over a year.

"Moreover, the 'gym' at the Forward Operating Base was actually being used as a CIA 'operations and surveillance center,' explaining the conspicuous lack of military personnel harmed in the attack.

"One former CIA official was quoted as saying the attack was 'the nightmare we’ve been anticipating since we went into Afghanistan and Iraq,' adding that the CIA agents operating in the warzones often lack adequate protection.

"Exactly how the bomber was able to infiltrate the base and reach a secret CIA facility was unclear, and some suggested that the attacker may have been affiliated with one of the Afghan groups working on the base.

"In addition, five Canadians were killed on patrol in Kandahar Province. The five, four soldiers and an embedded reporter were killed when their armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

"Finally, though details were not readily available, a Jordanian army captain was slain in Afghanistan, the first death among Jordan’s tiny Afghan contingent since the war began."

US plans attack on Yemen

THE US military machine is gearing up to launch a new attack on rebels in Yemen, suggest media reports.

The immediate pretext for the stepping-up of military involvement is the botched bombing attempt on the Delta Airlines flight on Christmas Day that al Qaeda in Yemen claims it organized.

But this attempt has itself been described as a retaliation for recent secret US military involvement in the volatile and strategically crucial Arab state.

American TV news channel CNN reported that two senior U.S. officials told them that the US and Yemen are now looking at fresh targets in Yemen for a potential "retaliation" strike.

It said: "The officials asked not to be not be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. They both stressed the effort is aimed at being ready with options for the White House if President Obama orders a retaliatory strike. The effort is to see whether targets can be specifically linked to the airliner incident and its planning.

"U.S. special operations forces and intelligence agencies, and their Yemeni counterparts, are working to identify potential al Qaeda targets in Yemen, one of the officials said. This is part of a new classified agreement with the Yemeni government that the two countries will work together and that the U.S. will remain publicly silent on its role in providing intelligence and weapons to conduct strikes.

"Officially the U.S. has not said it conducted previous airstrikes in Yemen, but officials are privately saying the Yemeni military could not have carried out the strikes on its own.

"By all accounts, the agreement would allow the U.S. to fly cruise missiles, fighter jets or unmanned armed drones against targets in Yemen with the consent of that government."

Greek insurgents bomb bank

GREEK insurgents have carried out a bomb attack on a financial institution in Athens.

Reports After the Greek Riots: "On Monday night, the group conspiracy of cells of fire posted a communique on Athens Indymedia (greek original here) claiming Sunday night’s attack on the national bank and insurance agency on Sygrou Avenue in Athens.

"The explosion was very strong, marking an upgrading in the group’s capacities – as they themselves note in the communique.

"They send 'comradely greetings' to anarchist bank robber and prisoner Yiannis Dimitrakis, to Chilean anarchists Freddy Fuentevilla and Marcelo Villaruel, to Gabriel Pompo da Silva (who went on hunger strike on December 20 in the prison of Aachen, Germany) as well as Ilias Nikolaou, Polykarops Georgiadis (another two anarchist prisoners in Greece) and finally, Charis Chatzimichelakis and Panayiotis Masouras, as well as the third person in pre-trial detention in connection to the conspiracy of cells of fire case, who they name by initials only."

Corporate media have preferred to name the insurance offices as the target of the attack, perhaps to dampen public sympathy, but, as Reuters India reports, National Insurance is a subsidiary of National Bank, the country's biggest lender.

British police flee snowballs

TWO British police officers were forced to cower in their patrol car after they were surrounded by around 100 teenagers who pelted their vehicle with snowballs.

Reported The Daily Telegraph on December 24: "The gang shouted 'who are ya' and 'got 'em' as they rained the missiles down on the officers' car.

"One of the officers was seen racing to the vehicle and quickly closing the door before the two-minute attack began.

"Hundreds of snowballs were thrown at the vehicle before the officers decided to flee the country park in Crawley, West Sussex.

"They switched on the vehicle's blue flashing lights as they made their hasty exit.

"As the police car – which was marked Crawley Borough – left the car park, the youths continued to bombard the windscreen, windows and panels with snowballs.

"The attack was captured by one of the gang on a mobile phone and posted on YouTube, the video sharing website, where it has been viewed hundreds of times. "

The videos can be seen here and here.

Merry Christmas!

Colombian poor occupy state office

MORE than 5,000 indigenous, AfroColombian and farming community members are occupying the community center of Piñuña Negro (pictured above) in the department of Putumayo, Colombia, reports Narco News.

They are calling for an end to the US-backed Plan Colombia and the triple threat of military and paramilitary repression and cocoa eradication programmes.

Says the site: "Using tactics of nonviolent resistance, a crowd of all ages has gathered at the highest government office in the area—the Police Inspector’s office—to demand negotiations with local and national government representatives.

"The affected communities say that after three years of unfulfilled promises and unanswered calls for dialogue, there have been no lasting efforts by the government to develop replacement crops, markets and the infrastructure to get crops to markets.

"Instead, community leaders and residents are being falsely accused of being operatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-FARC) and subjected to ongoing repression.

"With no means to earn a livelihood, rural communities are enduring widespread malnutrition, disease and lack of educational or economic opportunity.

"The local population has been subjected to rampant abuses by the military, including unprovoked and random armed assaults against civilian populations, the forced procurement of crops and other resources, occupation of homes and farms and a military blockade prohibiting the entry of food and other daily necessities into the area.

"Paramilitary death squads have operated with impunity, threatening the population and, worse, committing assassinations and other acts of violence. "

The occupation is calling for:

· An end to coca eradications in Putumayo until authorities have negotiated and enacted a plan with Colombian authorities that includes an adequate and just crop replacement component;

· A guarantee of safety for protest leaders and community negotiators;

· An end to Plan Colombia and the triple threat of military and paramilitary repression and eradication programs that are the root causes of displacement of indigenous, AfroColombian and farming communities.

Bankers alarmed at anarchist resurgence

NEO-LIBERALS are scared that a growing anarchist movement in Europe will thwart their economic plans for the continent.

That is the opinion of Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, international business editor of the right-wing Daily Telegraph in London.

Says his December 20 article: "It is becoming dangerous to associate with economic and ideological power in Southern Europe, or what Europol calls the 'Mediterranean triangle' of anarchist violence."

He explained: "Southern Europe is being ordered to carry out IMF-style austerity, without the IMF-style devaluation required to rectify the massive imbalances that have built up between North and South under the euro. The victims are caught like France and Germany under the Gold Standard of the early 1930s, when society was broken on a wheel of deflation decrees. "

Listing examples of what he calls a "hard-Left resurgence", he records that Greece's Revolutionary Struggle detonated a car bomb at the Athens Stock Exchange in September and Citigroup's branches have been targeted twice this year.

In Milan, the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) planted 2kg of dynamite last week at Bocconi University, the symbol of the free market in Italy.

The FAI left a note threatening a "bloodbath" for capitalists. Security forces have issued alerts for the Milan bourse, Unicredit, and Barclays. Italians have begun to ask whether their country is returning to the 1970s, the "years of lead" when the Red Brigades murdered ex-premier Aldo Moro.

He adds: "The FAI is no friend of Europe either. It sent letter bombs earlier this decade to the heads of the Commission and the European Central Bank and to the European Parliament.

In Spain, Barcelona's anarchists have been conducting a low-level campaign against bank cash machines, supermarkets, and firms such as Manpower. Valencia and Galicia have seen a wave of attacks. "

And he quotes Europol as saying: "Activities by left-wing and anarchist terrorists and extremists are increasing in quantity and geographical spread in the EU."

Chavez warns of US-Dutch attack

THE USA and the Netherlands are planning military aggression against Venezuela from the Dutch Antilles, Hugo Chavez has warned.

The Venezuelan leader was speaking at a meeting with trade unions, political organizations, and social movement leaders in Copenhagen, reports Venezuela Analysis.

Said Chavez: “I am accusing the Kingdom of the Netherlands together with the Yankee empire of preparing a military aggression against Venezuela.

“The islands of Aruba and Curacao, both of which belong to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, have permitted the installation of United States military equipment on their soil, placing Venezuela under the watch of the United States,” Chavez explained.

“It would be good for Europe to know that the North American empire is arming these islands Aruba and Curacao to the teeth, filling them with war planes, war ships, and CIA spies.”

“Since the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a member of the European Union, I would like to see what the European Union has to say about this,” Chavez declared.

He stressed that the U.S. military presence in the Dutch Antilles, which are located approximately one hundred kilometers off the Venezuelan coast, is only part of broader U.S. strategy to expand its military power in Latin America in order to crush the rise of anti-US governments in the region.

Last year, the U.S. military re-activated the Fourth Naval Fleet of its Southern Command. In October of this year it signed a military pact to use seven Colombian military bases as a launching pad for “full spectrum operations” across the South American continent, according to U.S. Air Force budgetary documents.

“This new Yankee military deployment that is now in full scale development threatens not only Venezuela,” but also other countries whose governments openly support socialism and are members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), Chavez said.

Several of the nine ALBA member countries, including Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, sent representatives to Thursday’s meeting with social movements in Copenhagen as well.