Follow RT’s LIVE UPDATES on the protests in Turkey “Clearing Gezi Park is my duty,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the cheering crowds of supporters. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader addressed his supporters at Kazlicesme Square as part of the party‘s official launch of the local elections campaign, which is set to be held in March next year. “Those who wonder about what’s going on in Turkey should better look at Kazlicesme, at Istanbul,” said Erdogan. He also slammed the international media for showing a ‘false’ picture of Turkey and called on the Turkish citizens not to believe ‘lies’ of the foreign media. “We will determine social media provocateurs one by one,” the Prime minister also warned with reference to protesters as quoted by local Anadolu news agency. Outside the square, police continued to use intense tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters trying to gather in neighborhoods close to Taksim Square. From the window of an 5th floor apartment at Abdi Ipekci St.,Istanbul (quite far away from Taksim) #occupyistanbul pic.twitter.com/djWGYLk6hE — meldanar (@meldanar) June 16, 2013 Fierce clashes in Nişantaşı and Teşvikiye neighborhoods in central İstanbul. — Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) June 16, 2013 The protests started almost three weeks ago initially against the refurbishment of Gezi park. Since then, in the wake of the harsh police response, the demonstrations grew into anti-government rallies with protesters accusing Erdogan of becoming authoritarian during his 10 years in power. It’s extraordinary,everywhere I see people on their balconies with whistles, pots, pans, tambourines anything banging them against #erdogan — Bel Trew – بل ترو (@Beltrew) June 16, 2013 Dozens of protesters were detained on Sunday, Hurriyet Daily said. The city line ferries between the Anatolian and Asian sides of Istanbul have been reportedly partially canceled in compliance with a direction from the Istanbul Governorate. “You cannot hold a rally wherever you wish,” said Erdogan explaining the extensive use of force by the riot police, adding that the demonstrations must be held “where it is allowed.” As the protests reach almost three weeks of violence, the prime minister acknowledges that the popular Gezi Park has been “cleared and handed back to its people” adding “real environmentalists are now at work in Gezi, planting flowers”. … Read More
New president: Iran preps for 11th election since 1979 Islamic Revolution
Speaking on the last day of a subdued campaign, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on voters to turn out in big numbers on Friday, pointing out that the “strong presence of the Iranian nation will disappoint the enemy.” “It is possible that some people, for whatever reason, do not want to support the Islamic Republic’s establishment, but they do want to support their country. They should also come to the polls. Everyone should come to the polls,” Khamenei said in a speech on Wednesday, reported on his website. The winner in the 11th presidential election since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution will replace the current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is not eligible to run for a third term. Among the problems to tackle will be high unemployment and inflation, as well as international sanctions imposed over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. “We started presidential elections three decades ago, we had a monarchy in Iran. So it’s all new. We are learning and trying to make everything better and better every year,” Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, campaign director of one of the presidential hopefuls Hasan Rouhani, told RT. A number of people on the streets of Tehran told RT they are proud of the upcoming elections, regardless of their outcome. “No Islamic State, not Saudi Arabia nor Kuwait would ever have elections like we have. In those countries it’s more like someone has appointed them to a post,” said one local. Some Iranians complain they are simply tired of ‘conventional politics’, however. “Politicians become more and more distanced from the people. The gap is wider and wider. And whole elections look more and more like an appointment. This is why I will not vote,” another Iranian remarked. Others may fear going to vote because of possible violence. Mass protests that followed the 2009 disputed elections are still fresh in the memories of people when between 30 and 70 people were killed, hundreds others injured, and thousands arrested during the unrest in what became the worst domestic unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranians staged rallies calling into question Ahmadinejad’s ‘sweeping victory’ with a majority of 60 percent. Six hundred and seventy-eight people registered as candidates have been barred from standing in the election on June 14, giving rise to criticism from the West. The Iranian presidential vote itself may seem somewhat different to the Western eye, in terms of election campaigns and tactics, as RT’s Maria Finoshina reports from the Iranian capital. “If people see a campaign poster, they’ll start thinking ‘they spend lots of money on that! Where does it all come from?’ And they will draw the conclusion that someone – a bank or an organization – funds the candidate. This means that when a candidate takes power, he will have to give back the money, he will owe them. And with such strings attached, he’ll never be free. People will never vote for a politician like that,” Reza Moghadasi, from news agency MEHR, told RT. Therefore, you won’t see numerous banners or posters scatted across Iran ahead of the country’s 11th presidential vote, but not because they have been banned. Candidates prefer to run low-cost grass-roots campaigns, with their supporters handing out fliers on the streets, advertising different political programs. Candidates these days also seek alternative support among Iranian internet users. “Twelve million people are now using the internet. It is much easier to communicate with them. But the people in more rural areas, we need more trying to get to them, this is our weak point,” Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said. The golden rule is not to go against the norms and traditions deep-rooted in the Iranian society. The fact remains that key Iranian policies, such as its controversial uranium enrichment program and Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, are still decided by one person, Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei. “A candidate cannot go against our religious or cultural traditions; you cannot change the way women wear hijabs. And as for taboos on foreign policy issues – you cannot come out and say, ‘Iran will become a friend of the US or Israel’,” director of newspaper Mohamed Pirali explained. Pirali says these restrictions are aimed at protecting the national character of the elections. “You cannot go against values, even democratic countries can’t do that… but perhaps if we weren’t under so much pressure from foreign countries that only want to change the government of Iran our campaign could be different,” he added. The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term. If no candidate rakes in 50 per cent of the ballots cast in the first round, a runoff vote will be held in two weeks, on June 21. In the second round, the candidate with the most votes will become the winner and will take office after approval by the Guardian Council. … Read More
UK lobbying EU to allow GM crops despite public skepticism
In the thrust of the speech that has been leaked to the Independent, the Conservative minister is expected to say that Britain risks being “left behind” if it fails to adopt increasingly widespread GM crops. “What we want to do is start a dialogue within Europe on GM based upon the science,” a senior source told the newspaper. “The point about GM is not simply about food production. There are wider potential environmental and economic benefits to the technology both in the UK and internationally.” Specifically, Paterson will argue that bioengineering could be used to create disease-resistant wildlife and develop new pharmaceuticals. The speech appears to be part of a concerted government campaign to overturn the EU’s strict reluctance to issue commercial licenses for GM crops, following a similar statement made by Science Minister David Willetts on Tuesday. “We believe that GM crops can help make agriculture more efficient and also just as importantly more sustainable, by, for example, reducing the use of pesticides and the use of fossil fuels,” he said. “There are just too many 21st-Century technologies that Europe is just being very slow to adopt… one productive way forward is to have this discussion as part of a wider need for Europe to remain innovative rather than a museum of 20th century technology.” Currently, each genetically-modified crop has to be authorized by an EU commission. As of now, Monsanto’s MON810 maize and BASF’s Amflora potato are the only two plants permitted for commercial cultivation in the bloc. Despite a large Europe-wide scientific report in 2010 concluding that bioengineered food poses no special hazard, eight EU member states have also banned the cultivation of genetically-modified crops altogether, with Italy expected to become the ninth. Less than 0.2 per cent of all food grown in Europe is genetically-modified, while 12 percent of all arable land around the world is planted with GM seeds. While previously low demand from consumers and farmers were cited as reasons for avoiding scientifically-engineered varieties, ministers are likely to use a just-published poll of 600 British farmers, 61 percent of whom say they would like to plant GM seeds. “Farmers are becoming more and more aware that climate change doesn’t mean a gradual rise in temperatures but rather a stream of extreme weather events. GM technology is one possible way of mitigating this,” said Martin Haworth, director of policy at the National Farmers Union. But the public remains skeptical. A YouGov poll released Wednesday shows that only 21 per cent of Britons are in favor of growing GM crops, with 35 per cent explicitly opposed to the technology. An estimated two million people, many of them in Europe, turned out for global anti-GM protests last month. Producers of bioengineered foods, which are often made by manipulating the DNA of plants and introducing foreign organisms into it, say that they increase yields, better resist disease, and decrease the need for pesticides. Opponents claim that they pose health risks and contaminate the environment. They also believe that patents on prominent GM crops give excessive power to corporations that develop them, primarily market leader Monsanto. … Read More
Ron Paul fears US might assassinate NSA leaker Snowden
Speaking to Fox Business News on Tuesday, the former Republican congressman from Texas said, “I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile.” “I mean, we live in a bad time where American citizens don’t even have rights and that they can be killed. But the gentleman is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on,” Paul said. Rep. Paul, who retired from Congress earlier this year after an unsuccessful bid at the presidency, has been outspoken in regards to both the Obama White House’s drone program and the need to protect whistleblowers. On the campaign trail last year he hailed Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks source behind hundreds of thousands of sensitive files, and earlier this week he threw his weight behind supporting Snowden. “The Fourth Amendment is clear,” the Washington Times reports Paul said earlier this week. “We should be secure in our persons, houses, paper and effects, and all warrants must have probable cause. Today the government operates largely in secret, while seeking to know everything about our private lives – without probable cause and without a warrant.” “The government does not need to know more about what we are doing. We need to know more about what the government is doing,” he said. “We should be thankful for individuals like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald who see injustice being carried out by their own government and speak out, despite the risk. They have done a great service to the American people by exposing the truth about what our government is doing in secret.” Adding to Fox Business, Paul said, “It’s a shame that we are in an age where people who tell the truth about what the government is doing gets into trouble.” Previously, Paul had harsh words for the drone program after an unmanned aerial vehicle was used to execute three US citizens in Yemen in 2011. “Now we know American citizens are vulnerable to assassination,” he said during a GOP debate last year. But despite Rep. Paul’s efforts to turn the drone program on its ear, the White House has continued to order strikes against suspected terrorists, an issue that it has only really began to discuss in public in recent months after the congressman’s son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) demanded the administration justify the killing of Americans. “America cannot take strikes wherever we choose – our actions are bound by consultations with partners, and respect for state sovereignty,” President Barack Obama said during a national security address in Washington, DC last month in which he admitted that drones have killed four US citizens between 2009 and 2011. “America does not take strikes to punish individuals – we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people, and when there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat. And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set,” he said. Samir Khan, Jude Kenan Mohammed, Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki — were all executed by US drones. Attorney General Eric Holder admitted last month that only the elder al-Awlaki was targeted to strike, adding at least three Americans to the list of collateral damage causalities created in the name of the drone war. According to the Center for Responsive Politics’ website OpenSecrets.org, Snowden made two contributions totaling $500 to the presidential campaign of then-Rep. Ron Paul during 2012. … Read More
Zimbabwe – Opposition also threatens media
Reporters Without Borders expresses its grave concern for freedom of information in Zimbabwe and the safety of local journalists after threats and attacks by members of the Movement for Democratic Change. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai leads the MDC, which is the opposition party. “The ruling Zanu-PF party is not alone in showing hostility to the media and in opposing press freedom,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Members of the opposition are also responsible for a climate of (…) … Read More
‘People who didn’t know extent of this kind of spying now woke up’
Josh Levy, internet campaign director at Free Press, spoke to RT about the actions that could result from any subsequent public pressure. RT: The US Government has opened up a criminal investigation – how far will they go do you think? Is Snowden going to end up like WikiLeaks or Bradley Manning? Josh Levy: I can’t really speculate on what his fate is – I think that lies instead with the US government. I think that there’s a lot of support for Snowden and there’s a lot of public support in the way that there never really was for Bradley Manning, and I think that’s in part because people are seeing more moral authority in the case of Snowden – they’re seeing that he really did do the right thing as far as he’s concerned and many millions of others are concerned, and he didn’t put any lives in danger. So people are being very careful to differentiate him, and I think for that reason, and because of all that public support I think it’s going to be harder for the US government to press forward with the case in silence. RT: The extent of the program has drawn anger from European officials – will it hurt security ops on both sides of the Atlantic? JL: It’s hard for me to comment on that too. My concern is not actually whether it will hurt cooperation between large governments talking back and forth. But what it means for the broader movement to protect their freedoms and their online rights –and I actually think that Snowden’s work in releasing all of this information has been a boon to people who have been working for years to try to get the word out about government surveillance programs and the harms that they present to regular everyday people who are trying to use the internet for communications and to actually engage in democracy and political action. RT: Your experience dealing with internet freedom issues -will his revelations embolden other countries to act in a similar way? JL: It’s possible – I suppose we’ll have to wait and see. I think, again, it may embolden governments to act in certain ways but it will embolden regular internet users to stand up for their rights and to actually be more protective of things they realize are slipping away from them every day. RT: Now Edward Snowden says that he exposed the program in the hope that by informing the public he would close it down. But will it be successful? How likely is this? JL: Well, I think it’s more likely today than it was last week – that’s for sure. A) Because we know the program exists and B) because of all of the momentum that this has given to movements that have been around for a long time – I think a lot of people who didn’t know the extent of this kind of spying have now woken up to it and are outraged – they’re shocked that their own governments are engaging in these practices that reminds a lot of us of the Cold War and things that were going on in places like East Germany during that time, and I don’t think any of us want to see that happen now, so I think that yes. It’s more likely that these will get shut down, or at least certain laws that allow these widespread surveillance programs to exist will be reformed to protect people’s privacy. RT: But the president and his chief of intelligence defend the surveillance, saying that it helps protect the country. Does it enhance security? JL: I’m not a security analyst so I can’t really answer that question – all I can say is that it makes a lot of sense that the president and others in his administration would defend the program – it’s a program that they’ve been overseeing that inherited from the Bush administration – they obviously believe in it because they’ve been executing it all these years – it doesn’t mean it’s right, and it doesn’t mean that it can’t end, and it doesn’t mean the president is immune from public pressure. So I think that we’re going to see a lot of public pressure starting up in the days to come – tomorrow I think you’re going to see a lot of pressure coming from the grass roots specifically, and he’s going to be forced to respond to it somewhere. … Read More
Netanyahu Says it’s Anti-Semitism to Accuse Israel of War Crimes or Violating Human Rights
Shir Hever: At the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism, the Israeli
military and political leadership’s attacks on critics reflects Israel’s isolation
and the strength of the boycott campaign … Read More
