NEWS RELEASEBy Jose Percival Estocada, Jr. CommandNPA-Central Panay21 October 2013
61st Infantry Battalion suffers numerous casualties in NPA attacks
Six were killed and not less than three were wounded from the troops of the 61st Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army in two succeeding ambushes launched by the units of the New People’s Army under the Jose Percival Estocada, Jr.
NEWS RELEASEBy Jose Percival Estocada, Jr. CommandNPA-Central Panay21 October 2013
61st Infantry Battalion suffers numerous casualties in NPA attacks
Six were killed and not less than three were wounded from the troops of the 61st Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army in two succeeding ambushes launched by the units of the New People’s Army under the Jose Percival Estocada, Jr.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the International League of Peoples’ Struggles-U.S.
The International League of Peoples’ Struggles-US chapter condemns the cowardly arrest of 65 year-old Palestinian leader, Rasmea Yousef Odeh. Odeh, Associate Director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), was arrested at her home by agents from the Department of Homeland Security on October 22, 2013. Odeh was charged with an alleged immigration violation on a decades-old application.
This latest attack against Odeh, a deeply respected elder and community leader in both the Palestinian and Arab-American communities in Illinois, is part and parcel to the brutal US-Zionist occupation and assault against the Palestinian people (both in Palestine and in the diaspora). Being a Palestinian immigrant Odeh has called many places home but no matter where she lived she always dedicated her life to serving the people.
Over the last decade her advocacy had a special emphasis on the empowerment of immigrant Arab women in Chicago. Having survived years of persecution and torture as a political prisoner in the hands of the US-Zionist state in occupied Palestine, Odeh shines as a beacon of strength and hope for millions of Palestinians and freedom-loving people around the world who dare to dream and struggle for self-determination.
The persecution of Rasmea Odeh and other Palestinian activists here shows the hypocrisy of the US administration’s sweet words about peace in the Middle East and recognizing Palestinian self-determination. On the ground in Palestine, the Zionist-Israeli terror forces murder people daily with the weapons they get from the United States. The so-called US budget crisis has interfered with neither the FBI’s attack on free speech and civil liberties of Palestinians and Arab Americans here nor the endless flow of US weapons to the Israeli apartheid state.
This arrest is part of the on-going political witch hunt targeting all peoples standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and other oppressed peoples around the world fighting for self-determination. Just like the US government’s coordinated FBI-raids targeting 23 international solidarity activists in 2010, her arrest and persecution is nothing less than a violation of civil, political and human rights. It is also a maneuver intended to silence activism and pre-empt people from seeking justice.
In both situations, the US-government criminalizes both our inalienable and collective human right to self-determination and international covenants that guarantee civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The right to self-determination is a fundamental right, enshrined in both the United Nation Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The ILPS-US recognizes that is not merely a right, but a necessity, that peoples assert their collective rights to wage struggles for self-determination and national liberation in order to defeat free themselves from oppression by imperialist-backed and-financed tyranny.
The ILPS-US recognizes that one of our most powerful actions against political repression in the United States is solidarity. Solidarity that is seen and heard in the streets. We stand in solidarity with just struggles for peace and freedom around the world, and we stand in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh.
ILPS-US calls on all its member organizations and allies to defend Rasmea Odeh.
The ILPS-US stands in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh and demands that the charges be dropped immediately!
The ILPS-US supports the call to action of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression for mass mobilizations on November 1.
Hands Off Rasmea Odeh and all Palestinian activists!
Drop the Charges Against Rasmea Odeh Now!
End All US Aid to the Racist State if Israel!
Stop the Repression against all activists!
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Draft Joint Statement on the Acquittal of the Convicts of Laxmanpur bathe dalit massacre for endorsement
We the undersigned are extremely distressed and outraged by the Patna High Court judgement on the 9th of October acquitting the murderers of the infamous and shocking Laxmanpur Bathe Dalit masacre in
http://www.tehelka.com/haryanas-bestial-rape-chronicles-or-where-a-rapist-is-considered-a-real-man/?singlepage=1 Where a rapist is considered ‘a real man’ Sai Manish Priyanka Dubey BEYOND THE chowmein and the Om Prakash Chautala jokes, the scourge of rapes is very real in Haryana. So real that it’s hair-raising. So real, it even makes one wonder whether calling Haryana the rape capital is politically incorrect. Sample this. On […]
http://www.tehelka.com/haryanas-bestial-rape-chronicles-or-where-a-rapist-is-considered-a-real-man/?singlepage=1 Where a rapist is considered ‘a real man’ Sai Manish Priyanka Dubey BEYOND THE chowmein and the Om Prakash Chautala jokes, the scourge of rapes is very real in Haryana. So real that it’s hair-raising. So real, it even makes one wonder whether calling Haryana the rape capital is politically incorrect. Sample this. On […]
Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations From the independence right up to the last year, we have witnessed a consistent decline in carrying out the death sentence. This year, however, marks the breakup from previous practice. The President has rejected mercy petitions of 24 persons. Two of them already have been hanged. The matter of 22 […]
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 23 statement from the Arab American Action Network. We urge all our readers to participate in the national call in day.
Statement from the Arab American Action Network
The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) condemns the politically-motivated arrest and indictment of Rasmea Yousef Odeh, our beloved Associate Director. The sixty-five year old was arrested at her home yesterday by agents from the Department of Homeland Security, alleging an immigration violation on a 20-year-old application. Rasmea, who has made it her life’s work to serve and help empower Palestinian and Arab families, is the victim of another witch-hunt by our federal law enforcement agencies, which continue to violate the civil rights of Arabs and Muslims with impunity, particularly those who are critical of U.S. support for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
Rasmea is a leading member of Chicago’s Arab and Muslim communities, and her decade of service here has changed the lives of thousands of people, particularly disenfranchised Arab women and their families. She has been with the AAAN since 2004, and as Associate Director, is responsible for the management of day-to-day operations and the coordination of our Arab Women’s Committee, which has a membership of close to 600 and leads our work in the areas of defending civil liberties and immigrant rights. She is a mentor to hundreds of immigrant women, as well as many members of our staff and board, and is a well-known and respected organizer throughout Chicagoland, the U.S., and the world.
Earlier this year, Rasmea received the “Outstanding Community Leader Award” from the Chicago Cultural Alliance, which described her as a woman who has “dedicated over 40 years of her life to the empowerment of Arab women, first in her homes of Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon, where she was an activist and practicing attorney, and then the past 10 years in Chicago.”
Rasmea is a community icon who recently completed a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Governors State University. She overcame vicious torture by Israeli authorities while imprisoned in Palestine in the 70s, and is a proud reminder of the millions of Palestinians who have not given up organizing for their rights of liberation, equality, and return.
It is appalling that our government is now attempting to imprison her once again. We condemn this attack on our friend and colleague Rasmea, as well as the broader pattern of persecuting Arabs and Muslims who are outstanding and outspoken leaders in their communities in the U.S.
We ask all of our supporters to call Barbara McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, at 313.226.9501 or 313.226.9100, on Friday, October 25th, from 8 AM to 4 PM CST, to demand that she Drop the Charges Now!
We will also be mobilizing to support Rasmea at her next hearing in Detroit on November 1st. Details coming soon.
And for more information, email the Coalition to Protect People’s Rights at cppr@aaan.org
Lal Salam (Urdu: لال سلام, Hindi: लाल सलाम, Bengali: লাল সলাম, meaning ‘Red Salute’) is a salute, greeting or code word used by communists in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, which is used when both hello and goodbye would be used in English.
In Hindi and Urdu (as well as in several other South Asian languages). Lal means red, the color of communism, and Salam is an Arabic/Persian
See also:
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/russiavolgograd-terror-acttack.html
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/terror-in-central-asia-how-nato.html