Category Archives: Gun-violence

AMERICA/MEXICO – Children missing in Veracruz: people do not report them for fear of organized crime

Veracruz – “There are many cases of kidnapping. First there was talk of 50 but it seems that at least 400 have disappeared: But most of their families have not reported the kidnappings for fear”, said the father of one of the missing children, victims of drug trafficking and organized crime, who was present yesterday at the Tierra Blanca celebration. Relatives of victims of the missing children gathered at the Virgen del Carmen Parish and then took part in the Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Veracruz, His Exc. Mgr. Luis Felipe Gallardo Martín del Campo, S.D.B.. The Church has become the only point of reference for many families in search of faith and hope.Mgr. Gallardo Martín del Campo read the list of the 23 missing persons in Tierra Blanca in recent weeks. “Some time ago it was known that the armed gang of guerrillas in Sierra Guerrero enlisted people by force. Now the fact that drug trafficking and organized crime have entered in our society there is no control, the justice system has been destroyed, there is violence everywhere. And now the authorities do not know how to stop the problem”, reported the Bishop. “Not even the Church is free of this violence” continued the Bishop. “We have had more than 5 cases of abductions: priests kidnapped and then released in the middle of the fields, simply to steal their car. Two seminarians were kidnapped but luckily found: our parishes have to deal with robberies and extortions on a daily basis”.

Source: AMERICA/MEXICO – Children missing in Veracruz: people do not report them for fear of organized crime

Donald Trump Is the Most Dangerous Man in the World – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Trump Wants A Ruthless America”Believe me, I’ll change things. And again, we’re going to be so respected. I don’t want to use the word ‘feared,'” he told the audience. But that is precisely what Trump wants: to be feared. His bid for the White House, long ridiculed, is a fight for a ruthless, brutal America. Behind his campaign slogan “Make America great again!” is the vision of a country that no longer cares about international treaties, ethnic minorities or established standards of decency.Trump wants to attack head-first again. The 69-year-old embodies a new harshness and brutality, and both a physical and emotional crudeness. Trump has launched an uprising of the indecent, one that is now much bigger than he himself, a popular movement of white, conservative America that after eight years under Democratic President Barack Obama, yearns for a leader who will usher in the counter-revolution.

Source: Donald Trump Is the Most Dangerous Man in the World – SPIEGEL ONLINE

“The Settlers”: New Film Reveals History & Consequences of Israeli Settlements on Palestinian Land | Democracy Now!

As Israel faces international condemnation over its plan to build 153 new settlement homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the watchdog group Peace Now reports Israel’s defense minister has approved the construction of the new Jewish-only homes last week. The plan sparked swift criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who called the settlements “an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community.” In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Ban Ki-moon’s criticism gives “a tailwind to terrorism” and that the “U.N. lost its neutrality and moral force a long time ago.”

Source: “The Settlers”: New Film Reveals History & Consequences of Israeli Settlements on Palestinian Land | Democracy Now!

Sweden investigating Israeli death threats against its foreign minister | The Electronic Intifada

In the article, translated for Mondoweiss by Jonathan Ofir, Zameret lists Bernadotte’s supposed transgressions in the eyes of the Zionist movement and then turns his fire on Wallström: “The Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, with her characteristic covert anti-Semitism, with her arrogance, ignorance, and her interest-bound speculation regarding her future Muslim voters – she too seeks to fight the foundations of the State of Israel. I am convinced and certain that her intentions will smoulder, just as all of the undignified count’s [Bernadotte] intentions did.”Zameret has denied that his article was an implicit endorsement of violence against Wallström, but Swedish officials will be concerned because of high profile assassinations of the country’s political leaders in recent decades.In 2003, Wallström’s predecessor Anna Lindh was murdered while out shopping in Stockholm. Her killer, Swedish citizen Mijailo Mijailović, is serving a life sentence.In February 1986, the country’s Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead while walking home with his wife from a cinema in the Swedish capital.His murder has never been solved, but among the many theories pursued by investigators over the years is that it was linked to South Africa’s apartheid regime, of which Palme was an outspoken international critic at the time.IncitementZameret’s article came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had turned his anger on Wallström.

Source: Sweden investigating Israeli death threats against its foreign minister | The Electronic Intifada

Burns Paiute Tribal Chairwoman Releases Statement on Tuesday’s Death and Arrests of Domestic Terrorists – Native News Online

One day after the death of one of the domestic terrorists and arrest of another eight, including group leader Ammon Bundy, near the remote town of Burns, Oregon, the Burns Paiute Tribe Chairwoman Charlotte Roderique released the following statement to Native News Online:“We are deeply saddened that some of the armed protestors chose violence. It did not have to be this way, but it was their choice. Gun violence has not place in our community. Let’s hope those who remain at the Malheur Refuge will make a difference choice and end this peaceably.

Source: Burns Paiute Tribal Chairwoman Releases Statement on Tuesday’s Death and Arrests of Domestic Terrorists – Native News Online

Armed Occupiers at Oregon Refuge Rejected Offers to Leave or Negotiate | Southern Poverty Law Center

“There doesn’t have to be bloodshed in our community,’’ the Harney County sheriff said.Those who “have issues with the way things are going in our government” have a responsibility as citizens to act in an appropriate manner, Ward said. “We don’t ‘arm up’ and rebel,” he said, but rather should “work through the appropriate channels.”“This can’t happen anymore,” he said in a halting voice. “It can’t happen in America, and it can’t happen in Harney County.”Bill Williams, the U.S. attorney for Oregon, who traveled from Portland to Burns for the mid-day press conference, told reporters the community of Burns and Harney County clearly have been “disrupted by the armed occupation.”“We continue working toward resolution and will do so with the primary goal of restoring normalcy to this community,” the state’s top federal law enforcement officer said in his first public comment on the Malheur occupation.The arrests came a week after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown spoke publicly for the first time about the Malheur occupation after being told by federal officials to remain silent as the FBI said it was taking a “deliberate and measured” response without initially setting up roadblocks.Turning up the heat, the Oregon governor called the White House, the FBI director and the U.S. Attorney General, demanding that the FBI take action and “move quickly to end the occupation and hold all of the wrongdoers accountable.” The following day, an FBI negotiator made contact with Ammon Bundy via cell phone as news reporters listened in on a road near the Burns airstrip where the FBI established a command post. But those negotiations went nowhere when Ammon Bundy wouldn’t participate in a follow-up session with the FBI negotiator.Word of Finicum’s death lit up social media. When the two vehicles were stopped, “everyone obeyed orders to surrender except” Finicum and Bundy’s brother, Ryan Bundy, who was shot and wounded, CNN reported.Already, antigovernment and militia groups — including the Bundy family that was behind a still-unresolved standoff with federal authorities in 2014 — are spouting conspiracy theories that Finicum was unarmed, had his hands up and was shot and murdered.

Source: Armed Occupiers at Oregon Refuge Rejected Offers to Leave or Negotiate | Southern Poverty Law Center

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu calls for execution of Palestinians – PNN

Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported him saying: “Should we leave them alive in order to then free them in another gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas? The fact that they still have a desire to commit terrorist attacks shows that we are not operating strongly enough,” he said.Explaining more about his fatwa, Eliyahu wrote on his facebook page that “The Israel Police officers who do keep terrorist Palestinians alive should be prosecuted under the law.”He went on: “We must not allow a Palestinian to survive after he was arrested. If you leave him alive, there is a fear that he will be released and kill other people.” He added: “We must eradicate this evil from within our midst.”

Source: Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu calls for execution of Palestinians – PNN

Mossad proxy faked violent Facebook anti-Semitism | The Electronic Intifada

An Israeli legal group with intimate ties to the state’s intelligence agencies has admitted to faking an ostensibly pro-Palestinian Facebook page and using it to post anti-Semitic statements including “Death to all the Jews.”The Israeli group has also filed a lawsuit against Facebook, for allegedly permitting Palestinian “incitement.”Shurat HaDin claims to be a “civil rights organization.” Various media reports have described it as an “Israeli non-governmental organization,” an “advocacy group,” or even a neutral-sounding “law center” – the group’s self-description also adopted by The Guardian and PBS.But US embassy cables leaked by Chelsea Manning and published by WikiLeaks tell a very different story.Shurat HaDin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner privately told a US embassy official that her group “took direction” on which court cases to pursue. She claimed that she “receives evidence” from Israel’s international espionage and assassination agency Mossad and from Israel’s National Security Council.Mossad anti-SemitismIn a video published to YouTube last week, Shurat HaDin claimed responsibility for the creation of a Facebook page titled “Stop Israelis” on 29 December.

Source: Mossad proxy faked violent Facebook anti-Semitism | The Electronic Intifada