pieceinthepuzzlehumanity:

The image of federal agents on downtown streets far from McCormick Place — in battle gear, weapons slung — three weeks before the summit is certain to have a chilling effect on those who live and work in the Loop. It also calls into question Host Committee Executive Director Lori Healey’s oft-repeated message that Chicago will remain “open for business” during the summit.

On Thursday, Healey found herself in the difficult position of having to convince the public that a scary headline that blindsided even her is not an indication that the feds are bracing for weeks of trouble.

“A lot of us were surprised to read that. Obviously, the federal government doesn’t consult with the city when they do this. Everybody was unaware of this,” she said.

“It’s common practice for the federal government to have protection around their own buildings. Everybody plans extensively … for lots of different events. This is just getting an undue amount of attention. I would guarantee you they do it for all sorts of events. It’s just that they decided to publicly release it.”

Asked whether Mayor Rahm Emanuel was also blindsided by the Red Zone decision, City Hall offered a one-line response.

“This was a security decision and we were not involved,” the mayor’s communications director Sarah Hamilton wrote in an email to the Sun-Times.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported this week that the plan for “Operation Red Zone” kicks into high gear next week to protect a vast area in the Loop where thousands of federal employees and dozens of government offices are located.

The Federal Protective Service will deploy additional personnel beginning May 1, bringing in more people from out of town and outfitting them in “battle dress uniform.” They will be carrying “non-lethal” long guns — bean bag weapons — in a show of force that at the same time will allow people to move in and out of the zone freely, federal employees were told.

Healey called the news “a little bit distracting,” but not alarming. She stressed that the protective bubble was being created by the “landlord” for government buildings — not by the intelligence arm of the federal government.

The U.S. Secret Service plans to release its logistics plan — including specific boundaries of the security perimeter around McCormick Place — next week, she said. That’s when all the speculation about the inconvenience to everyday life in Chicago will finally be put to rest.

[Read More]

(via pieceinthepuzzlehumanity-deacti)

(via pieceinthepuzzlehumanity-deacti)

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

By Ryan O’Neill

2011 has proven to be yet another year that we in the west can be proud of, that has presented us with more examples of humanity and our ability to overcome brutality and abuses of human rights by fulfilling our moral duty to intervene and succeed. Libya can now be seen as yet another success story in the history of western intervention and all of us who supported it can sit back and pat ourselves on the back. I mean, who could argue against the proven track record of what we have achieved when we look at Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya. Where next? Who else can we save?

On closer inspection however, it becomes clear that none of these interventions have ever been about human rights at all. ‘Humanitarianism’ is how it was sold to the masses to gain popular support and once again, like a spoilt child who hates their parents that has to be lied to in order to convince them to do what they want, the left have been far too easily duped and have backed the imperial goals of their masters.

Many Socialist organisations, StopTheWar Coalition, The TUC, The Green Party have all shown how they are nothing more than cheerleaders for an imperial crusade that has succesfully bribed them to back it. If any of these organisations want to retain any credibility and evoke anything other than laughter when they claim to oppose injustice, they need a serious rethink about their actions in destroying the aspirations of the third world, stop patting eachother on the back about what a fine morality they all exude and start pointing the finger at themselves for their role in the massacres that are taking place in Libya at the hands of NATO and their contras.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Claims that the Libyan government was employing African mercenaries against the rebels were given credence in some left-wing media as well, even after information contradicting the claims began to surface.