Five WikiLeaks supporters arrested in UK were released on Police Bail

The five people arrested in the UK in connection with a spate of online attacks in support of WikiLeaks were today released on police bail, while in the US the FBI has issued search warrants as part of its investigation into online group Anonymous.

The FBI yesterday issued more than 40 search warrants across the US as part of its Anonymous probe, where the distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks the group carried out on the websites of companies including MasterCard and Visa are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Last night Anonymous issued a statement branding the UK arrests "a serious declaration of war" against the group of internet "hacktivists".

Yesterday's arrests are the first in the Metropolitan police's central e-crime unit investigation in the UK.

Three teenagers, aged 15, 16 and 19, were held along with two others in a series of raids in the West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey and London early yesterday. The teenagers have to return to their local police station on 13 April and the two men the following day.

Chris Wood, the 20-year-old Anonymous member who spoke extensively to the Guardian under his online alias Coldblood last month, is understood to be one of those arrested in yesterday's raids.

Police are said to have seized Wood's computers, mobile phones, hard drives and other storage devices in the arrest, and did not disclose when they would be returned.

The five were arrested in connection with the thousand-strong group known as Anonymous, which last month launched a series of crippling attacks on the websites of companies that had withdrawn support for WikiLeaks, along with a number of government sites in Tunisia and Egypt.

DDoS attacks, which bring down sites by bombarding them with repeated requests to load webpages, are illegal in the UK under the Computer Misuse Act and carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a £5,000 fine.

"You can easily arrest individuals, but you cannot arrest an ideology. We are united by a common objective and we can and will cross any borders to achieve that," Anonymous said in its statement.

"So our advice to you, the UK government, is to take this statement as a serious warning from the citizens of the world. We will not rest until our fellow anon protesters have been released."

A Europe-wide investigation being carried out in conjunction with Scotland Yard has so far led to two Dutch suspects being arrested and subsequently released.

Anonymous was catapulted into public spotlight last month when it managed to bring down the websites of some of the world's most powerful financial institutions, including Visa and MasterCard. The group targeted these companies after they cut off ties with WikiLeaks, following the whistleblowers' site's release of confidential US diplomatic cables.

The group is understood to have grown significantly in number and firepower since its support of WikiLeaks, with the overwhelming majority of users simply volunteering their computer to be used in the attacks.

Most of those involved in Anonymous operations do not disguise their internet protocol (IP) address, meaning they can be easily identified by police authorities.

Source: Guardian

Police use CS spray on protestors from UK Uncut - example of new extreme police tactics

Tax avoidance protesters needed hospital treatment today after police used CS spray to break up a demonstration on Oxford Street in central London.

Hundreds of people staged peaceful sit-ins at high street stores around the country as part of the latest UK Uncut day of action, designed to highlight companies it says are avoiding millions of pounds in tax.

In London protesters had successfully closed down Boots in Oxford Street – one of the companies campaigners accuse of tax avoidance – when police tried to arrest a woman for pushing a leaflet through the store's doors. Other demonstrators tried to stop the arrest and at least one police officer used CS spray, which hospitalised three people.

Jed Weightman, one of those who went to hospital, said protesters had joined hands to try and prevent the arrest.

"One police officer sprayed towards us and because I was tall I got a lot of it in my face," he said. "My eyes were streaming and I couldn't see anything."

Earlier this week Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said police could adopt more extreme tactics to counter the growing wave of protests, and hinted that UK Uncut demonstrators could face criminal and civil charges if they invaded shops during today's protests.

Activists reacted angrily to yesterday's events, claiming the police had been "heavy handed and disproportionate."

Anna Williams, who saw the incident, said: "This is yet another example of political policing that is about protecting corporate interests and not those of ordinary people ... We have a right to protest when the government are making unnecessary cuts that will hit the poorest in our society the hardest."

Protesters said staff at Boots had been shocked by the police tactics, and took those who were suffering from the effects of CS spray into the store and offered them free eye wash.

"The staff at Boots were fantastic and took us inside and gave us free treatment," said Gordon Maloney, 20, one of the other protesters who was hit by the CS spray. "My eyes were really streaming and my face hurt but I was most struck by the violence used by the police. I have been on a lot of demonstrations and have not seen anything like this before."

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said officers had arrested a woman for damaging the door of Boots and confirmed CS spray had been used. He said he was unaware of anyone needing hospital treatment.

The London demonstration was one of around 30 taking place aroundthe UK today as part of a wider campaign against corporate tax avoidance and the government's cuts.

Using the Twitter hashtag #ukuncut, the fast-expanding group has become a rallying point for protesters and past campaigns have closed down scores of high street stores accused of avoiding tax.

At today's London demonstration protesters dressed in surgical masks and bloody bandages claimed Boots was avoiding huge sums of money by being registered in Switzerland, where taxes are far lower.

A Boots spokeswoman said it had registered in Switzerland because "in the longer term we believe it will better reflect the increasingly international nature of our wider group".

"If we had registered in Switzerland purely for tax reasons there are many other countries that we could have considered."

She added that the company had contributed to the UK's finances through increased business rates and national insurance contributions resulting from the expansion of the brand.

Source : Guardian

International League of Peoples' Struggle salutes and congratulates the people of Egypt

WE SALUTE AND CONGRATULATE THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT

FOR RISING UP TO OVERTHROW THE MUBARAK REGIME

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Chairperson

International League of Peoples' Struggle

January 30, 2011

The mass uprisings sweeping several Arab countries have shifted their focus from Tunisia to Egypt, a country much bigger in terms of land size, population (more than 80 million) and strategic value in the conflict between the US-Zionist combine on the one hand and the Palestinian and Arab peoples on the other hand and in the US global war of terror unleashing state terrorism, wars of aggression, occupation and the rendition of US foes to the torture chambers of Egypt.

Since January 25 tens of thousands of people have poured out into the streets of major cities of Egypt in order to demand the ouster of President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak and his ruling clique. They have defied the police and military forces even as more than 150 of the protesters have been killed and hundreds have been injured by US-made weapons. In a vain attempt to appease the people, Mubarak has reshuffled his cabinet and is maneuvering to stay in power or glide into a less disgraceful exit by a promise to allow new elections according to the US formula of transition to sham democracy.

At any rate, Mubarak is apparently on the verge of losing power. His ruling party headquarters has been burnt down. He has sent out of Egypt his closest relatives and a major part of their bureaucratic loot. The police have begun to abandon their posts in several cities. And various military units are showing either a friendly or hostile face to the people in the streets. There are indications that behind the scenes the US and the generals are trying to engineer a new arrangement.

We, the International League of Peoples' Struggle, salute and congratulate the people of Egypt for rising up and striving to overthrow the US-supported Mubarak regime which has long oppressed and exploited them. The people have courageously acted to repudiate the regime for its oppressiveness, its servility to US imperialism and its conformity to the US-dictated “neoliberal” economic policy which has brought about the high rate of unemployment, decline of the economy and breakdown of social services.

While the mass uprisings have been successful at isolating and debilitating the long hated oppressive regime, the US-controlled military machinery is intact and is poised to play a key role in rearranging the political setup in the interest of the US and local exploiting classes. The Egyptian state is dependent on a wide range of economic, financial and political relations with the US and other imperialist countries. Since 1975 the US alone has poured more than USD 50 billion into Egypt in order to coopt its rulers and use them as tools of US hegemonism,

The Egyptian military is dependent on a huge amount of US military assistance amounting to more than USD 1.38 billion, which is next in size only to that given to Israel. The US also gives economic assistance amounting to more than USD 800 million. The US is highly interested in the restabilization of the situation in Egypt in order to forestall the rise of anti-imperialist forces and thus maintain a balance of forces in favor of the US-Zionist combine in the region.

At any rate, through the mass uprisings, the people are asserting and exercising their sovereign power. They are opening the way to further advances and further possibilities in the struggle for national liberation, democracy, development and social justice. The revolutionary forces have the chance to expand and consolidate their strength.

To any extent that their struggle is frustrated, derailed or hijacked by their enemies, the people of Egypt can raise the level of their fighting consciousness and capabilities and go through various forms of revolutionary struggle until they muster the strength to smash the bureaucratic and military machinery of the ruling classes.

The conditions for advancing the revolutionary struggle are more fertile than ever before on the scale of Eqypt, North Africa and the Middle East and the entire world because of the grave crisis of the world capitalist system and depredations of the US-instigated policies of neoliberal globalization, state terrorism and aggression.

It has been repeatedly demonstrated in recent history that particular despotic regimes can be overthrown, such as those of Duvalier, Marcos, Somoza, Pinochet, Mobutu and Suharto. But the subsequent false facade of democracy can only be fleeting for as long as the US and the local exploiting classes can rule through a bureaucratic and military machinery beholden to them.

We, the International League of Peoples' Struggle, are in solidarity with and support the people of Egypt in their great cause to build their revolutionary strength and wage various forms of mass struggle against imperialism and reaction. They need to defeat the armed counterrevolution and accomplish the people's democratic revolution. Thus they can move forward on the path of national liberation and social revolution.

ElBaradei being groomed for power by United States has Democracy and Class Struggle predicted

ElBaradei, Muslim Brotherhood Offer Political Path Out of Egyptian Confrontation

Mohamed ElBaradei. (Photo: Remy Steinegger / World Economic Forum)

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Eryan said today that Egyptian opposition groups have agreed to back former IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei to negotiate with the government. Al Jazeera reports:

Egypt's opposition groups have agreed to support
opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei to negotiate with the government, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood said on Sunday.

"Political groups support ElBaradei to negotiate with the regime," Essam el-Eryan told Al Jazeera.

January 30, 2011

Cairo - The banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, told the German Press Agency dpa they are in talks with other anti-government figures to form a national unity government without President Hosny Mubarak and his ruling party.


Gamal Nasser, a spokesman for the Brotherhood, told dpa that his group was in talks with Mohammed El Baradei - the former UN nuclear watchdog chief - to form a national unity government without the National Democratic Party of Mubarak.


The group is also demanding an end to the draconian Emergency Laws, which grant police wide-ranging powers The laws have been used often to arrest and harass the Islamist group.


Nasser said his group would not accept any new government with Mubarak.

The United States is "losing credibility by the day" in calling for democracy in Egypt while continuing to support Mubarak, ElBaradei told CBS on Sunday. 


"On one hand you're talking about democracy, rule of law and human rights, and on the other hand you're lending still your support to a dictator that continues to oppress his people," he said.

ElBaradei serves on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group.

International Crisis Group is a shadowy NGO (non-governmental organization) that enjoys an annual budget of over $15 million and is bankrolled by the likes of Carnegie, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Soros himself serves as a member of the organization’s Executive Committee. In other words, this is a major geopolitical steering group for the global elite.

The fact that their man El Baradei is being primed to head up the post-Mubarak government should set alarm bells ringing in the ears of every demonstrator who is protesting in the name of trying to wrestle Egypt away from the clutches of US Imperialism and Global Capitalism and the neo-Liberal elite.

Roots of the Egyptian Revolutionary Movement

PFLP Salutes the Egyptian people and struggle

Comrade Maqdesi salutes the Egyptian people and their struggle

Comrade Khalil Maqdesi, member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine expressed in an interview today, January 27, 2011, his salutes for the people of Egypt and their struggle for democracy and social justice, as centrally important for all Arab people.

Comrade Maqdesi said that the PFLP has a long history of comradeship and struggle alongside the national movement of the Egyptian people, and that Egypt has a long and proud history of leadership in the Arab nation. This relationship between the PFLP and the Egyptian movement, he noted, was particularly strong and abiding throughout the Nasser era. However, since the beginning of the attempted liquidation of the Nasserist project and the signing of the Camp David accords between Egypt and our enemy, Israel, Egypt became subject to imperialist and capitalist plunder, and the people of Egypt were isolated from the rest of the Arab nation at the hands of the new regime. The PFLP has always had a clear position in strong opposition to Camp David and the regimes it bred, held in place not by popular support or legitimacy but instead at the financial and military hand of U.S. imperialism. Sadat was assassinated but his regime continued; three decades have passed and new generations have been born under the dictatorship of the U.S.-allied regime, said Comrade Maqdesi.

Furthermore, said Comrade Maqdesi, it is because of the structure of Camp David and subservience to imperialism that the Egyptian regime has taken Zionist and U.S. dictates in its approach to Palestine, participating in the siege of Gaza, denying access to solidarity and Arab delegations seeking to support the people of Gaza and provide humanitarian aid, and shutting down the tunnels that provide a lifeline to a people under siege. At the same time that the regime has taken these policies, the Egyptian people have retained their clear voice of solidarity and common struggle with their Arab sisters and brothers in Palestine, said Comrade Maqdesi.

Comrade Maqdesi said that, if we look back upon the Iranian revolution that toppled the Shah in 1979, it came almost at the same time as the signing of the Camp David accords. Since that time, Egypt has not entered any war; however, Iran was subjected to eight years of unjust war, he said. Yet, he said, if we look today at these two countries that have many similarities, we can clearly see the huge gap between the economic strength, influence, and geostrategic position of the two countries. In Iran, popular classes benefit from the wealth of the nation and there are democratic processes, despite the flaws and problems that exist, he said, and Iran has become a center for the development of science and technology as well as an important regional and international power. On the other hand, accomodation with Zionism and imperialism have led Egypt into economic and social devastation, in which 60% of people are under the poverty line, unemployment and underemployment are rampant, and Egyptian industry, commerce, and science is controlled by a small clique and the great wealth of Egypt held in the hands of less than 1000 people.

In addition, said Comrade Maqdesi, if we look at the region today, we see three major powers: Turkey, Iran and Israel. Despite the vast differences between the three powers, what is missing entirely is a strong Arab power that demonstrates leadership and legitimacy. The people of Egypt, he said, are convinced that the historical and geographical position of Egypt will be restored only through a real and drastic change in Egypt. Comrade Maqdesi also pointed out that what happened in Tunisia has quickened the process in Egypt, but all the conditions in Egypt have provided a context that is ripe for social and political revolution.

Today, the people of Egypt have entered the streets to claim their country for their own, said Comrade Maqdesi. This, he noted, is a critically important struggle for the Egyptian people, the Palestinian people, and the entire Arab nation. The Egyptian people are in the streets, calling for democracy, for dignity, for justice, and for bread. They are marching, he said, against Camp David and all it stands for and means for Egypt and the Arab nation - subservience, submission, dictatorship and silence. He said that the PFLP is proud to stand beside the popular classes of Egypt, who are an inspiration to the Arab world who hold the potential of ending the era of Camp David, the era of defeat and submission, not only in Egypt, but throughout the Arab nation.

Class Dismissed by Def for the Revolution - MLM Class analysis vital for liberation

Marxist Leninist Maoist Class analysis is vital at the moment wherever the struggle - in Egypt and the Arab world the comprador class's needs public exposure along with the wavering elements of the national bourgeoisie.


The finance capitalists or monopoly finance capitalists the authors of the current global financial crisis are trying to make the working class and oppressed minorities pay - the working class and all oppressed groups must unite to overthrow parasitic Imperialism the monopoly stage of capitalism.


Who are our friends who are our enemies is answered by MLM class anaylsis in your country and globally.


When you carry out your MLM class analysis base it on production relations not consumption relations - those pseudo leftists who want to base class on consumption relations come out with the counter revolutionary theory of three worlds to divide the working class in Imperialist countries from those oppressed by Imperialism.


Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite !

The Egyptian Army and the Uprising

Mubarak the Stubborn Donkey or silly Ass ?

El Baradei In Mubarak Out - US Imperialism planning cosmetic makeover for Egyptian Elite

WASHINGTON — The White House is praising Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed El Baradei and saying the government's policy of keeping him under house arrest has to change.

El Baradei was confined after joining the protests that have erupted this week against President Hosni Mubarak