Some more news about yesterday

After the announcement of the “beginning” of the dialogue -the socialists have been having contacts with ETA since 5 years ago, when Aznar was President and the Anti-Terrorist and for Freedoms Agreement was signed-, I read this morning that Mr. Zapatero is following very carefully the timing given by ETA terrorist Mikel Antza. In it, it is said:

The projet to abandon the weapons will begin in 2008 with a “indifinite cease-fire” that will take place after a total amnesty for the 570+ ETA terrorists convicted and condemned to prison in Spain. Before that, the doors would be opened to negotiation qith Batasuna acting as intermediary, which would have begun contacts with Basqeu Nationalist Party and Basque Socialists Party in 2004.

These contacts will go on to the next step between Batasuna and Spanish Government to, in Dec 2004, have the first direct contact between the “armed” [terrorist] band and the Executive.

A “National Debate Forum” -a platform built by Batasuna in which all nationalist parties and unions would be represented, except Basque Nationalist Party- must prepare the future “Dialogue Table” between all the different Basque parties.

During the present year, ETA would declare a temporal cease-fire in exchange of what the Government would make a declaration of intentions similar to the one Englis PM John Major and Irish PM, Albert Reynolds, made in 1193, which gave an impulse to the “peace process” in Northern Ireland. After that step, the Spanish Government would try to bring near Basqeu Country all the convicted ETA terrorists and the legalization of Batasuna, and at the same time would apply the necessary measures to minimize the effects of the summary 18/98 which intend -we know that even were denied more prosecutors- to terminate the financial, international and political net of the Terrorist band.

Also during 2005, Antza writes that some contacts should be made with French Socialist Party for them to act as intermediary with French Government. As a good will signature, France also had to bring near Spain the convicted ETA terrorists in French prisons.

That year would also be the scene of the first political agreement between Batasuna, socialist “abertzales” agents and the unions LAB y ELA. 2006 would be the year of the “recognition” of the right of self-determination for Basque Country and Navarra. At the same time, a second political agreement would bring an alliance between “abertzales”, Basque Nationalist Party and Ezker Batúa.

In 2007 they would concede the partial amnesty for terrorists accused of particular crimes. During 2008, ETA would declare an “indefinite cease-fire”, in exchange of what the Government would adopt some “grace measures with all the convicted terrorists of the organization.

For the general elections of 2008, Antza’s plan predicted a union of all Basque political forces. During that year, ETA and the Spanish and French Armed Forces will beg for forgiveness for all the crimes committed during the “time of the conflict”.

During 2009, they would constitute a common organ between Basqeu Country and Navarra, with which they would become united -the plan doe snot say how-. 2010 is the year of the settlment of all the “improvements” adn 2012 will see the “self-determiantion” referendum.

At the same time, the Catalan Generalitat sponsors a summer course, in which Batasuna’s leader Otegi is going to lecture about politics.

A lot of bloggers write about Gara’s editorial (Gara is the Batasuna’s paper), because it is very clear underlining the total surrender of ZP and, as a result, of Spain. In that editorial, it is said:

A historic declaration: it is the first time that a Spanish Government compromises itself and publicly and officially to respect the decision of the Basque citizens about their future, recognising that this political agreement is binding for all the Basque parties and agents by the method that these last ones decide and to carry it afterwards for all the different institutional areas.

There are no more excuses now for all the Euskal Herría’s agents launch the democratic debate to reach an agreement that Madrid and Paris should respect. It is clear that the process began some months ago, because such statements, so important as the permanent cease-fire and the Spanish Government does not come out of nowhere.

Humeando Letras Libres: Gara explains how Spain has surrendered before the cowards of the shot in the neck.

El liberal Vascongado: he quotes the same article but a different paragraph:

“When Zapatero underlines, that “in absence of all the violence and coertion”, he must fix his look in his policial and judicial services. The compromises must be followed by decisions that produce the minimum conditions to let a democratic debate“.

And he comments:

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Chinese mother forced to have an abortion because she is not married

Thanks to Vox galliae and I Like your Style I have known of Wang Liping , a Chinese aged 25, who was forced to have an abortion when he was 7-month pregnant because she is not married! The Police of Familiar Planning has caught and driven her to a hospital to make her have an abortion.

Wang Liping lives in a suburb of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. She became pregnant in November 2004. Because her boyfriend could not afford a wedding, they did not get married right away. She is the oldest sibling in her family, and her parents were excited about having grandchildren. Without a marriage certificate, however, she could not receive a government permit to give birth.

At about 6 p.m. on May 31, 2005, Wang was stopped on the street by a group of people who identified themselves as staff members from the township family planning office. They forced her into their car and took her in turn to the town clinic, an air force hospital, and Tangli Clinic. All three institutions refused to abort her fetus. At about 11 p.m., they took her to Laoyachen Clinic.

Without her consent or any pre-operation tests, the staff from the family planning office and several doctors and nurses held her arms and pushed her to the ground. She screamed for help. They also beat her, stripped off her pants, and injected a syringe of drugs into her abdominal area. She was then taken to a patient room and tied to the bed.

Wang Liping said, “I was both shocked and scared, and lost all strength to fight back. My calls for help were unanswered. I could not believe such a brutal, horrid thing was happening to me.”

She said that at about 3 a.m. on June 2, after violent pains, the infant was born. The infant cried for a few minutes and then became silent and motionless. At that time, no hospital staff was around to help her. Deeply fearful, she shouted for a while before a yawning nurse appeared.

Wang said, “Could you check on my baby?” The nurse walked over to the bed, looked at the baby, and said, “The baby is already dead.” She then tossed the body aside.

Wang was so shocked by the news that she fainted. When she woke up in the morning, a doctor was standing by her bed and asked her to pay a fee to handle the baby’s remains.

When Wang said that she had no money, the doctor put the body in a plastic bag, put it on her bed and said, “If you have no money, it’s easy, just take the body and handle it yourself.”

Note: According to articles circulating on some Chinese web sites, some restaurants cook aborted fetuses and sell them as a tonic.

Well, I am SHOCKED and DISGUSTED, whatever a commenter in this blog thinks about this.

Tags: China, Pro-Life issues

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Catalan nationalists reject some bottles of water

because their label was in Spanish.

This great success of the Catalan nationalist folly took place in an extraordianry reunion of the Executive Council of Catalan Republican Left (ERC, in Spanish). When they noticed the bottles of water the hotel had served them had the labels in Spanish, they rejected it and asked to be served others whose labels were in Catalan.

Found in Spanish Catalan blog Criterio.

Tags: Carod-Rovira, ERC, Puigcercós

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Quick links

From Le Monde:

1. Slovak left (SMER), winner of last elections, forms a coalition with far-right extremists (SNS) and with nationalistic party (HZDS). They are excluding the Christian-democrats and the SMK (center-right) and they are going to fulfill a “leftist agenda”. SMER, affiliated to European Socialist Party, won thanks to a campaign against liberal reforms: its leader, Robert Fico, is going to increase taxes for individuals and for firms, especially for Banks and great societies and he only has promised to lower the taxes for the most necessary goods.
2. The negotiations of Turkey’s adhesion to European Union can be in danger. And everything because of the customs duty, if Ankara does not apply it to all 25 countries and especially to Cyprus.

“This is not a menace”, has said the Finnish FM, Erkki Toumioja -wow, he is just trembling…-.

Ankara has refused to recognise the authotity of Cyprus (Nicosia) and does not authorise ships or airplanes from that country in its ports and airports.

“The end of the year is the end of the time for this”, he has added. But he has not said if that end-time is about the text’s ratification, the momment in which it should be applied or simply the end to the restriction to the ports and airports.

 

Tags: Slovakia, Turkey, European Union

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Zapatero has announced the “official” start of ETA talks

We will maintain the principle of resolving political decisions with the legitmate representants of the popular sovereignty.

The Government will respect the decisions that the Basque citizens adopt freely, respecting the democratic methods, the rights and freedoms of the citizens in a climate of absence of violence and coaction”.

The future of Euskadi demands a great agreement of political co-existence, but I do not rely on PP for that.

These are the words pronounced by Mr. Zapatero in a conference to MSM in the building of Parliament but not to the Parliament. The journalists had not made any questions -it was forbidden…-. ZP has said it is the Government the one who has to choose the way of the announcement.

The Terrorism Victims Association has made an official communiqué (del blog de Anghara):

Not taking into account the lament of the terrorism victims and of the society in general, who had 4 times asked Rodríguez Zapatero with several demonstrations, not to negotiate with the people who despise our State of Law, the President has preferred not to consider the popular lament and he is going to consider as speaker the most bloody assassins of the history of our country “.

“So our Government is going to give into the demands of Arnaldo Otegi, Josu Ternera, Txapote or Idoia López Riaño “The Tigress”, not considering the sacrifices of the people who died for the defense of freedom in this country”.

“For the terrorism victims it is tremendously discouraging to see how our government gives continously into the ETA blackmail, and lets that the people who had caused so much pain and suffering to the Spanish society are called “defenders of peace”, while the victims are insulted continuosly, even accusing them, miserably and vilely of not wanting peace”.

[…] If ETA has killed phisically to nearly 1000 Spanish citizens and injured more than 8000, José Luis has killed their memory, leaving without sense their death and their injures“.

People has been summoned to go to the Congress to tell Zapatero what we think of the Process.

Bloggers:

1. Adam Selene: From now on, 1000 murders give more legitimacy than 10.000.000 votes.
2. Batiburrillo: Without the Official Secrets’ Commision being summoned, without the Anti-terrorist Agreement being summoned, but in front of the journalists, Zapatero has fulfilled the calendar ETA gave him about announcing this in June.
3. Cambiemos el mundo: The treason to Spain is carried out: the dialogue with ETA begins.
4. El Liberal Vascongado: Zapatero has surrendered to ETA.
5. El Paraíso Perdido: Article 472 Spanish Penal Code: The crime of treason is commited: (d) by declaring the independence of a part of the national territory”.
6. En Defensa de Occidente: Eta has won, it’s official.
7. Etimologías: I hope ETA is not given a prize for not killing people.
8. Ferblog: The political negotiation with ETA is an error, because it is inconvienient to the goals of the State. Because there were efficient ways to eliminate terror and it has been the result of a change in the antiterrorist policy that Zapatero has not really explained.
9. Incompetencia.com: Have they really checked all they have to check? I am of the opinion that ETA could have been finished with judicial and policial measures. The own members of the Band wrote each other saying the situation was very bad. But that was 2 years ago. Now the hydra has grown and has a lot of heads to cut.
10. Labore Solis: Negotiation in my name: NO!
11. Óptica libre: Game over.
12. Prevost: Today is very unhappy day: Long live to Spain! and even if it sounds strange: Long life to freedom!
13. ZP no es bueno: We have to ask: Has ETA ended their killings? Yes. Has ETA leave the extorsion? NO. Has the killers been sent to prison by Justice? NO. Has condemned the illegal Batasuna the hundreds of murders of Eta? NO.

MSM:

1. BBC: Spain PM ready to open Eta talks.
2. Corriere della Sera: The announcement of Zapatero: “I dialogue with ETA”.
3. El Confidencial Digital: Zapatero winks at ETA: The Government will respect the decisions that the Basque citizens adopt freely.
4. El Mundo: Zapatero anounces the beginning of the dialogue with ETA, “without paying any political price”. [This title sound like he hasn’t paid a political price yet].
5. FOX News: Spain: Formal peace talks with ETA to begin soon.
6. GEES: Rendition process: the announcement. According to the conditions stated by the Parliament, for that announcement it was required that the terrorists have shown unequivocally their will of abandonning theit criminal activitiy. It has been made without debate or a votation that really would show the support the Government has for this risky adventure. It is also irrelevant because the Government has been negotiating with ETA for long. If he had been honest, he would have said “the contacts continue”. But now he has worn off his mask to recognise openly that he is treating with terror.
7. La Razón: Zapatero informs about the beginning of the dialogue with ETA.
8. Libertad Digital: “The Government will respect the decisions that the Basques will take“.
9. Rajoy has answered: If there is a political negotiation, ETA would have won. With ETA or Batasuna no one can talk about Spain, Navarra or the Basque Country“.

Sent to Dumb Ox , Blue Star Chronicles, Bacon Break: Torrential Midweek/Birthday OTA. Conservative Cat, Imagine Kitty,.

Tags: AVT, ETA, PSOE, terrorism, terrorist organisations, Zapatero

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Light blogging

I am going to be somewhat busy these days, so I apologise in advance for the lack of posting. If I have some free time, though I would post something.

Yesterday, Mr. Zapatero did not announce the “beginning” of the conversations ETA-Government because Spain lose on soccer with France. BUt he will announce them today.

 

Tags: AVT, ETA, terrorism, terrorist organisations, Zapatero

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Carrillo, a moderate?

Spain has had a very turbulent history specially in the last centuries. Now, we were having the first 30 years with freedom and yet with peace. Are those two terms so impossible to stay compatible in Spain? Looks like that they are.

When the transition -so praised abroad- was made every man and woman were consciuos of the singularity and of the great aim of peace that was necessary. Of course, there was ETA, Grapo and several other terrorists groups but were regarded as somethign absolutely rare and condemned to end and to oblivion as peace and freedom had come to Spain.

So a lot of criminals of the two “Spains” were forgiven and could get on with their lives as any other Spanish citizen. [I do not agree with this by the way. All the people who had committed this kind of crimes, whatever the side, should have been judged]

But now it seems that this “utopic reality” is coming to an end. Carrillo -above in the Civil War-, the Secretary General of Communists in the Civil War, the author of the killings of Paracuellos -approx. 7.000 people killed and 7 common tombs made, something he has repeatedly denied, but aby of the cruel dictators that have existed have announced this to no one…-, has made in several consecutives days these statements:

1. “Whatever ETA crimes are, they are showing much more sense of responsibility that those leaders of the Popular Party that only want that in Spain people go on killing, murdering and with no peace“.
2. “The right now is just as the clerical right of 1936“. He also diminished the importance of the people who had injured PP militants and politicians in Catalonia but called “louts encouraged by known political parties the ones who insulted him when he presented his new book“.
3. “There are people inciting for the murder of Mr. Zapatero“, after being insulted by people before beginning his speech at the university of Seville. “Any idiot who listens from politic leaders that Mr. Zapatero is a traitor to the law or that he is serving ETA, can feel himself committed to kill him“. Oh, yes, right-wingers had been sooooooooooooooo barbaric and violent that, till today, no PSOE/IU/ERC, etc, offices had been attacked/thrown manure/drawn targets with their names on it,etc. or their leaders called assasins/murderers. But we all know what happened with Aznar, PP and Iraqi war, right? And then PSOE called that “spontaneous expressions of anger and pain“, right?

His own repentance is not very convincing. It is true that he collaborated with the dictatorship’s rulers puting the bases of the new regime. Even if he was living in exile, and everyone was very interested in obtaining peace from the process, he apparently had renounced violence. And there were people that believed him –I was not the exception-.

And I say apparently because in an interview with international journalist Oriana Fallaci published in L’Europeo, he told her (10/10/1975):

“I do not condemn violence. I accept it when it is necessary. And if in the revolution that is going to take place in Spain -Franco died on Nov 20th 1975, ten days after- violence is needed, as it’s been needed in other countries, I will be quick to practise it“.

Just as a remembrance of the all the people who was unjustly killed there, and who have had no recognition from any political regime or party, I post this photo:

Common burial number 2 from Paracuellos del Jarama

Some of my relatives were killed there. But I don’t hate this man, even when what he did and what he is doing is despicable. How on earth someone at his age (91) is thinking with such hate for other people?

También en: Ser Libre, Todo un hombre de Estado, Totum Revulutum.

Pope Benedict XVIth has authorised this Monday the order by which 148 consacred men and woman and 1 secular woman are recognised as martyrs after being killed by communists in 1936 and 1937.

 

Tags: Carrillo, Civil War, Paracuellos, Zapatero

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China’s calendar sponsors

I have found through Spanish blog El Cerrajero that there are some huge Western Comparies who are sposoring a calendar in which “members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, government departments and leaders” are shown.

The firms are

Marvellous eh?

The author of the blog asks:

what are now doing these famous Western corporations in China?

The same that Google and Yahoo do. The calendar is for sale and costs between $45 and $70 .

Tags: ABB, AMD, China, freedom of expression, Hewlett Packard, HP, Human Rights, Siemens, United technologies, Western hipocrisy, Yahoo

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North Korea: their real aim (UPDATED)

I wrote yesterday about US giving misile to North Korea. Noisy Room.Net has a link to Captain’s Quarters Blog about the same topic:

The Japanese have spent the post-war period trying to live down their militaristic past. That past includes some quite a history on the Korean Peninsula, where their actions still reverberate to this day. Make no mistake; Kim Jong-Il’s threat against the Japanese comes not just from ideological motivations but also from a strong sense of vengeance for Japanese atrocities in the not-so-distant past. While Japan has changed tremendously since those final days of empire, they have yet to live down their actions in that region.

Now Japan may have to face the irony of re-militarization as a consequence of the atrocities of their grandfathers. It appears they have little choice, with North Korea wanting to make a habit out of launching missiles as “tests” over their territory. They agreed to send a small but significant force to Iraq, a singular event for a nation that had resolved to keep its military for strictly home defense. Now, with Pyongyang threatening their security, they may have to consider nuclearization as at least a negotiating tactic and possibly as a MAD strategy. Without doubt, they will need to make themselves part of the American umbrella against missile attacks, a defense that had been so controversial just a few years ago.

Japanese will start to produce their Patriot missiles according to Defense Industry Daily.

 

Well, really we must not worry about Kim Song Il, but about USA, Murtha dixit:

American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to a crowd of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.

Read at Tangled Web.

The Big Picture comments about this:

What does the average person make of a headline like this, from the Arizona Daily Star?

Murtha says US poses top threat to world peace.

La Russofobe points to a possible visit of Kim Song Il to Russia:

South Korean newspaper Choson ilbo yesterday reported that Kim Jong-il’s special armored train crossed the border of Russia. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and frontier and railway administration said they don’t know anything about Kim Jong-il’s arrival. Experts believe the visit is quite likely, especially because North Korean leader has urgent problems to discuss with the Kremlin.

Choson ilbo informed that several witnesses saw Kim Jong-il’s special armored train cross Russian border. The date was not specified. Foreign Affairs Ministries of Russia and South Korea said they have no information concerning Kim Jong-il’s visit to Russia.

Foreign Affairs Ministry of China and US Department of State refrained from giving comments. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said that Japanese government is now clearing up the situation. Press Secretary of Far East Railroad’s Vladivostok branch Alexander Artamonov stated that his “department does not have any information on North Korean leader’s trips to Russia.”

Also DNA India has published this.

Regime Change Iran quotes a NYT article about the similar strategy Iran and North Korea are pursuing:

it has become clear that the two countries are also pursuing similar diplomatic strategies. North Korea’s threat to launch a long-range ballistic missile seems a clear echo of Iran’s recent strategy of resuming production of nuclear fuel. Iran was aiming to extract concessions from the Bush administration, and it has already won some modest diplomatic gains.

[By the way, the photo is marvellous, eh?]

If finally North Korea launches the missile, Japan could impose sanctions.

And it’s possible than the missile test could take place. Enzo Reale, from 1972, have sent me by email his article in Italian newspaper L’Opinione, in which he says that the presence of fuel in the surroundings of the missile-launcher. I translate the most important ideas -from my point of view-:

in 1998, a Taepodong I flied over Japan causing alarm and the reaction of the US Senate. It was next year when the moratory over the missile testing was signed. Pyongyang [as in that momment] does not confirm or deny anything, a tactical movement which is revelled as triomphant over Western diplomacy.

[…] Pyongyand has been succesful, because he has come again to the first place of the international scene and can then suppose that he is going to be granted more concessions in the new multilateral talks about the nuclear question. Assuming the nature of Him’s Goulag, no one can even imagine that he does not know the consequences of this king of movements.

[…] The test of the Taepodong 2 is in the end the last proof to consider that North Korea possess the know-how to develop the following version of the missile, the Taepodong 3, with power to fire into the interior of the US territory.

More as ever, in Occidentality. It contains the demand by US Senators to demand the White House to speak directly with N.Korea -I do not know how they are going to convince the other 4 negotiatiors- and Bush statement.

Also in: The Astute Blogger, Blue Star Chronicles -from which I have taken the cartoon, hehe-, Hyscience, Hyscience, Gateway Pundit, JunkyardBlog,

UDPATE: Hugo Chávez has announced he will visit Pyongyang to finish agreements on technology and scientific matters, but he did not give more details. Sean McCormack, Speaker of the US State Department, has said that he is not sure of what Chávez wants, but that “giving N. Korea’s aim, it is somewhat worrying“.

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Global Warming

The other day I saw this video in Ajopringue:

I have founded this post -marvellous one- about Global Warming from Darwin Catholic. Enjoy.

 

Tags: Al Gore, Global warming

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“Bombs with mobiles”

ONe of the things that stroke more the investigators of the March 11th bombings in Madrid was how they were carried out. The fact that the bombs were detonated with mobiles was a “new” way of causing death. EL MUNDO has been making a very important journalist investigation about the “black holes” of the political and judicial investigation. Today they have published that ETA had made temporisers with mobiles back in 2002:

ETA had used mobile phones for terrorist attacks, but as a radio-command, But, the members of the Special Group for Deactivation of Explosives (GEDEX) of the Civil Guard localised in the apartment of the Piamonte St. some notes in esukera in which they described the proofs made by the Txirrita command to use the mobiles as temporizers, as the terrorists did in March 11th bombings.

The difference beetween the two classes is very easy to explain, although, it has several important consequences. When the mobiles is used as radio-command, what the terrorist want is that the bomb explodes after he makes a call. That means he has to be very near the place where it has to explode, because what he wants is to cause the maximum damage possible when the objective is near it. ETA has used them a lot against members of the Spanish Security Forces.

But if you use the mobile as temporizer, it is not necessary for the terrorist to be near the bomb. What the terrorist wants is to activate it without any interference (for example, the ones caused by machines used for inhibit frequency) in a pre-arranged momment. In this case, what it’s programmed is the alarm-clock (which it’s activated even when the mobile is off). So when the alarm goes on, it trasmit all the necessary energy to make the detonator explode. That is the way the culprits of Madrid bombings used the mobiles.

Several modified mobiles were found on 2002 and even a book with notes written in euskara, possibly by ETA terrorist Balbino Sánchez Olarra, who was electronic engineer. In the same register, Spanish Police found nearly 100 kilos of sodic clorate; 14 kilos of sulfur to make cloratite; 88 kilos of Tytadine Dynamite; 10 meters of detoning cable; 64 detonators and several temporisers. AND 3 MOBILE PHONES ALCATEL ONE TOUCH.

Even when they founded that, this information was kept hidden from the Judge. Even the Socialist Interior Minister, Rubalcaba, supported this idea in the Parliament, when was asked about the bombings.

Everything was discovered, though, by a report issued by Sánchez Manzano, from the Central Unity of Explosives’ Deactivation, who was sent last april to Judge Del Olmo.

This is the photo of the temporisers of ETA:

It’s written “Segurtasun Temporizadorea”, mark normally used by ETA in their temporisers.

Ex-Interior Minister Acebes has said that he was not informed about these facts.

Today we have been informed that the police found other temporiser, manipulated just teh way ETA did it. This time was in the house of Mohammed Almallah, one of the accused for the March 11th bombings who belonged to PSOE after the first time he was detained. In the summary of the March 11th bombings there are no mentions to this temporiser. In the same appartment was also obtained a notification from the Courts of Madrid issued to Maussili Kalaji, the policemen who freed the mobile phones of March 11th bombings, in a shop of his own.

Blogs treating this issue: Anghara, DOCE DOCE, zetapolleces, Apolo, Kickjor.

 

UPDATE: More photos:

The photo says: “the first image shows the manipulation on the mobile phone’s vibrator, for being able to weld the cables, while the second shows the perforation in the outer part to extract them and join them to the explosive. Both photos were taken by the Civil Guard“.

Mobil phone found in the Piamonte St. to Txirrita Command, prepared to be used as temporiser for bombs.

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Aznar, Batasuna-ETA and the negotiations

Yesterday, Aznar was given the prize Jesús María Pedrosa (with video), who remembers the PP Councilman of that name murdered by ETA in June 4th 2000. The reason for it is “his support and compromise with terrorism’s victims in all his political life“.

He was insulted by some “abertzale” youths who were at the entrance of the hotel where the prize was given. Their shouts were mixed with the “freedom, freedom” that was shouted by PP militants who were also at the entrance. One of them even has intended to go near the “batasunos”.

In his speech, Aznar called Batasuna “ETA’s Trojan Horse for cheating the defenses of both the State of Law and the constitutional order”.”To negotiate politically with the illegalized party is a “mocking of legality and it means the submission of the political future of the Basque Country, in particular, and of Spain, in general, to the terrorists’ capacity of coertion”. He has called also for a rebelion, similar to the one who existed against nazism, fascism and communism. Mr Zapatero would answer he wants the Nobel Prize for the ending of ETA terrorism as the own terrorists were saying in a phone call, intervened by police, last March, 2005.

In the investigation of the payments to ETA, today is going to declare Javier Arzalluz and tomorrow will declare Gorka Aguirre. Judge Grande-Marlaska has freed the 2 businessmen detained because they paid ETA, because the prosecutor’s office has not accused them formally. The judge’s accusation was based in the declarations of the businessmen who put on the record at the payment they were doing it “because they wanted, that is was voluntarily made to benefit the “peace process”“.

PSOE is critisizing -as ever- Judge Grande-Marlaska and PP are critisizing them: yesterday was Rajoy, who said the Judge is only “doing his job”. But also Enrique Múgica, Socialist, whose brother was killed by ETA, told reporters yesterday “we cannot labeled this as a “peace process”, when the murderers, that is, ETA terrorists, do not show any repentance“. “We cannot compare this with Northern Ireland, there are no civil war here between bullies, here the bullies were only from a side and have killed more than 900 people“. And the Basque Government has asked the General Prosecutor of the State, to act against the Judge (HT: Apolo).

The businessmen from Basque Country and Navarra are going to unify their efforts to fight the terrorists by building an association. Its goal will be to denounce their defenceless state and speak aloud against ETA extorsion and the negotiation. But not all of them will stand out: they fear violence and attacks from the “abertzale leftists“.

Yesterday two ETA terrorists tried to be expelled from their trial by kicking the bullet-proof cristal which protects them from the public attending the process. They also said: “We are not going to answer any question, we are proud of belonging to ETA”. They are accused of killing a Civil Guard who intended to identify them (December 17th 2002), when they were going to Madrid for bombing several establishments of “El Corte Inglés”, a famous Spanish department store, on December 31th of that same year. They were carrying 130 kg of explosives.

As it’s presumed that tomorrow Mr. Zapatero will announce the beginning of the negotiation, the victims are going to give him their signatures against negotiation collected today in a vigil in Paseo del Prado (Madrid).

But the real problem is that we are going into a new State, without ANY vote -anything similar to Italy and its vote over the federalism is just a mere coincidence- and who consists in imposing a new social model, from the revision of the role of the Catholic Church -today PP MP, Mr Cuesta, has proposed to eliminate the public finance of the Church and last week to eliminate in Andalucía the crucifixes from public shools– and the historical memory, to the new Education Law or the gay marriage -yesterday was presented the first demand to obtain the divorce of a gay couple HT: Liberal Ripense-. In the new “social model“, the ETA negotiation is so important, because we do not know if the “aim of peace” justifies for him the methods for achieving it.

Bloggers writing about this: Etimologías, Prevost, Prevost,

NOTE: I am in favour of the Church’s self-financing: that way, this band of thugs peaceful-loving-respectful-caring-amiable people that we have for Government would not be one day and the next menacing with its financing. They have also said “the assistance activities of the Church will not be menaced by the new financing“. They are absolutely FEARFUL of what is going to happen, as the Catholic Church in Spain is the most important “holding” for assistance and help. I will post some day numbers of its labour.

Sent to Linkfest haven by D.Ox.

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Forum Filatélico- Afinsa: a financial scandal?

Forum offered credits to their clients to buy the stamps, although the plans also served for paying the mortgages -in Spain most people have mortgages-. Finance Minister, Pedro Solbes denied on March 17th, that these kind of credits had a “financial nature”, what would have risen the supervision from both Spanish Central Bank and the National Assets Market Commision (CNMV) and also the guarantees to the investors, who would have had a Deposit Fund. He had denied that cualification when the firms assured a yearly minimum interest of 5-6.5%, which was qualified by the experts of the Tax Bureau -dependant from the Financial and Economy Ministry- as a “financial activity“.

Wikipedia explains this much more clearly:

As with equity investment, investment in tangible goods is not protected by a mandatory warranty fund under Spanish law (available only to registered financial institutions, which allowed the victims of the earlier Banesto and Gescartera scandals to recover a small part of their assets). Such investment is overseen by the Consumption departments of the regional governments instead of the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores. Customers of Afinsa affected by the situation have formed several associations, as have customers of Forum.

As the majority owner of NASDAQ traded company Escala Group, the scandal deeply affected Escala’s share price, which plummeted more than 85% in the days after the arrests before recovering slightly.

They went up again after (103%) the Spanish authorities assured Escala was not affected.

The Times:

Investors were told they may not recover their money after the raids. Afinsa is not registered as a financial institution and is not subject to the same regulatory guidelines affecting other companies. Under Spanish law, Afinsa simply acts as an intermediary to buy investments for its clients.

As a result investors are not entitled to the same standard of protection as if they had bought shares or put their money in a bank.

Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the Interior Minister, said yesterday the police operation was important and had been carried out with the co-operation of some of the alleged victims.

Feelings were running high among worried investors outside the companies’ offices. One investor, who gave his name as Felix, protested outside the offices of Fórum Filatélico in Madrid. He had looked forward to cashing in profits from his stamp investment when he retires in August. “My whole life is here,” he said. “Clearly I am nervous, but this is not the only reason. My wife is going to kill me. She wanted to take my money out of the company.” Another investor, called Roberto, said: “I have put a lot of money into this. This could ruin my life. I want my money back now.”

PP has accused the Government of leaving the affected unprotected. But Elena Salgado, Minister of Health and Consumption, has denied the consitution of a Fund, which was requested by PP and the affected, because “it would be unjust, because it would mean that the contributors ahould be ready to finance the haigher risk united to a higher interest rate these inversions have“. This proposal has been critisized hardly because of the conception of State that this happens to be based upon: a nanny State who provides about everything. The affected people have demonstrated in front of Central Offices of PSOE in Madrid.

More than 350.000 people are affected because of this fraud, who were eager to invest, as the rate was, in some cases between 14 and 16%, when the normal rates in other pension plans were 7,22%. The total compromised inversion was about the 10% of all the inversion in pensions plans at the end of 2005. The most affacted are people with very low income and self-workers, but the Government is going to give a very low payment for the affected people who are retired and do not have any other pension.

To pay the accumulated debt the Judges had to ask for help to determinate the real value of the stamps. But the operation is going to be difficult and if all the stamps they own are sold in the market, the price will fall completely as these two firms moved 80% of Spanish stamp’s market. Any of them determinated the value according to Edifil and Manfilsa’s catalogs. This has produced various abuses: Afinsa’s stamps have a value 10 times higher than the ones any other stamp collector would have payed for them.

The fact that the Financial Ministry had the proofs for the intervention of the societies 9 months ago and the proximity to the debate of the Statute of Catalonia and to the prosecution of 3 policeman for illegal detention of 2 PP militants -who had been accused of an inexistent aggression to Defense Minister Bono-made a lot of people guess this was not a mere “coincidence”. Although the Anti-Corruption prosecutor said that a lapse of 9 months is normal to ionvestigate this kind of cases, this margin was sufficient for Fórum to pick up 16.000 more investors. In the first report, the Tax Bureau pointed out that “the stamps were valued for more than 13 times its market value“. But the investigation went further to detect that the firms were destroying stamps for a total value of 5 million of euros and buying others for a much larger quantity than the ones accounted. Both are signs of a possible transfer of actives to foreign countries.

So the process for the liquidation of Afinsa has begun with the appointing of its administrators during this process. Afinsa’s ex-president and 3 of the members of the Management Council were freed.

And today it has begun the process for the liquidation of Fórum Filatélico, which has a financial hole of 2.700-3.400 millions of euros. The total compromises of the firm were between 3.500 and 4.200 millions of euros but its assets were only 410 millions. This is one of the causes of opposition to the provisional freedom of the ex-president of the company, Mr. Briones, now in prison, and other three members of the Mangement Council. They are accused of aggravated swindle, unloyal management, punishable bankruptcy, fraud against Public Treasury and money laundering -although it’s not clear this last one and they have risen the prohibition of the banks account’s disposal of several of the accused-.

The two of the have a “financial hole” of 4.166 euros, greater than the one discovered in Banesto in 1993.

The prosecutors have said that the firms were lying twice to the investors: first, when they were selling at prices much higher than real and then, by telling them, the rates came from a rise in their value, which was non-existent.

When Madrid is far the most affected city of all, Time.com choses Barcelona’s affected to finish its article with “I am ashamed to be Spanish“. As if Enron or Clearstream never existed eh???

And the Portuguese are worried about the scandal.

The bitter critics is for the Consumer’s Associations who did not make any move till today, when they are demanding the affected investors to affiliate themselves and, as a result to pay the respective fee.

Libertad Digital asks other questions. Among others:

1. Why Socialist Minister Rubalcaba filtered this operation when the offices of the firms had not even begun?
2. Why if the auditors alerted about some irregularities in Afinsa’s documents and the assurance firm Lloyds did not renew the insurance policy, no one raised the alarm about the stamps’ value?
3. Can two societies like Afinsa and Fórum set up a swindle that last 25 years without any authority taking notice of it?
4. How on earth a firm whose objective is to attract savings is under the control of the Health and Consumer Ministry.

There are other obscure things in this case: never has any Autonomous Community renounced to a exclusive competence of the granted to them by the Constitution. Well, in this case they have.

Last news are that Escala Group is going to sue Spanish Government for unjustified alarm.

More information: The Guardian, Fox News, Think Spain, Forbes.com, Cinco Días,

Blogs treating this:

1. ZP no es bueno: Gestynsa, the auditor firm of Afinsa, is owned by Francisco Blázquez Ortiz, father of Jorge Blázquez, who works with Miguel Sebastian, Chief of Economical Office of Mr Zapatero’s Government. Mr. Blázquez pressured the Institute of Accountancy and Business Administration (ICAC, in Spanish) not to begin any process -administrative- against Gestynsa.
2. Óptica libre.
3. Santiandanzas.
4. Nescencia Necat: the post about the scandal by an affected of it. Compares this scandal with RUMASA, holding expropriated to its owner, Ruiz Mateos.

 

Tags: Afinsa, Fórum Filatélico, Financial scandals, Spain, Zapatero

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More on North-Korean Crisis (UPDATE)

ABC News:

Japan and the United States have agreed to deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles on U.S. bases in Japan for the first time, officials said Monday.

The agreement earlier this month came amid concerns that North Korea may be about to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile.

The U.S. plans to deploy the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles designed to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or aircraft as soon as possible, a Japanese Defense Agency spokeswoman.

The spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with agency policy, said the sites and timing for the deployment have not yet been decided.

The plan was first reported Monday in Japan’s largest newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. It said the U.S. military would deploy three or four batteries of the surface-to-air missiles on the southern island of Okinawa by the end of the year and send 500-600 additional U.S. troops there.

BBC News:

The deployment would mark the first time the US has deployed surface-to-air missiles in Japan.

As part of ongoing diplomatic efforts to avert the North’s test launch, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was due to visit China on Monday.

He said he would ask Beijing to play a constructive role to resolve the issue.

China is one of North Korea’s few remaining allies, and still has some influence in Pyongyang.

[…] These PAC-3 missiles are designed to intercept ballistic or missiles, as well as aircraft.

The missiles would be deployed on the southern island of Okinawa, according to a report in Japan’s largest newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.

An additional 500-600 troops would also be deployed, the newspaper said.

Recently US Navy was succesful in intercepting a medium-range test missile (Read at Captain’s Quarters).

UPDATE: The Dumb Ox links to two important news about this issue:

• Former Defense Sec. Perry Wants N. Korean Missile Destroyed (Perry was Defense Secretary with, err, Bill Clinton).
• Former VP Mondale also favors pre-emptive strike against North Korea. Mondale was VicePresident with that imitation of politician that is Jimmy “Dhimmi” Carter.

UPDATE 2: From Occidentality, an article from NYT about North Korean defectors -with its rational critic, we all now how is the NYT-:

[…] for much of her life she at least enjoyed an open media, and had the opportunity to see more than the apparatchiks had previously allowed. In fact, she learned some of her English from MTV. The North Koreans stumbling into the light of the South had few such opportunities, and it is remarkable that any manage the transition at all.

To hear North Koreans tell it, South Korea is bewildering precisely because it is at once familiar and alien. The South and North share a common language, but in half a century of division, South Koreans have adopted so many foreign words that the newcomers spend hours learning the language spoken in the South.

“Only after 10 years did I understand how the South Korean society works,” said Lee Joon Ho, 41, who arrived in South Korea in 1993, before the current wave of defectors.

UPDATE 3: Occidentality posts an interview with Mr. Chang, author of Nuclear Showdown: N. Korea takes on the world:

Where does China figure in all this? Is it losing control over North Korea?

It’s very possible that China and North Korea are in on this together. And essentially what they’re doing is this: Kim Jong-il will create a crisis, and China will ‘step in and solve it’.

You think it’s a bit of a charade?

You can’t discount the possibility that it is a very big charade. Over the long term, China is trying to use North Korea to keep Japan and the US off balance. But for the China too, it’s a losing game. Because over the long term, China is losing control over North Korea.

Sent to Mark My Words’ Open Monday Trackback.

 

 

Tags: China, Japan, North Korea, USA

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ETA asks Zapatero for money to continue existing

According to on-line newspaper El Confidencial Digital, the last operation of Spanish Judge Grande-Marlaska and French Judge Le Vert, against the extortion net of ETA, is going to provoke dificulties to ETA and its “surroundings” –I should say this is good-. ETA needs a lot of money, because it has to pay the leaders, the assassins and the detained and imprisoned members but also to the rest of the people who live of the terrorist band.

So the Government is searching for a solution to give the quantities that ETA needs to survive. [I say, NOT WITH MY MONEY].

So in the contact phase, someone from ETA said Mr Zapatero: “President, the ETA problem is solutioned with some few measures. But do not forget that this band needs money to survive. And we will have to camouflage the millions of euros that we need for this people to have means to live, because they do not know but to live of the extorsion“.

Well, just do not maintain them and let them disappear. They should learn to live as all the other people in this country. Peacefully and reasonably.

Julen Madariaga, the historical leader of ETA, the man who founded it and also detained by Grande-Marlaska, said: “We have a problem of survival. With 20 or 22 millions of euros till the end of 2007 we can try to go on living, because at our age, we cannot even have a job“.

This is the most despicable shameless person I have ever read. So as you cannot maintain yourself, you are asking for 20 or 22 millions of euros to the “oppresive State”, and to the same society who has lived throughout more than 30 years havng to cope with your murders! If you do not have money to live, go to charity and see if they can give you something. But of course, for a “manager” of ETA -that is the way he defines himself, as if ETA was a dolls’ firm-, this must be a difficult stage, eh?

[NOTE: El Confidencial Digital was the first paper who wrote about a policeman tipping ETA, something which is now under judicial investigation].

So the leader of the Basque Socialists, Patxi López -he had to change his name because his is really “Francisco”, but that did not sound enough nationalist 😦 – has said that “the dialogue with ETA must begun, even without PP” -that is good: PP is not going to take part in this mascherade- because “Zapatero has done everything required to sum up PP support and its about time to continue with this. I hope, though, that PP will finish by addind themselves to it“.

Zapatero by the way is going to ask this same week for the parliamentary support for beginning the dialogue with ETA terrorists. It is probable he will ask for it in the next parliamentary session on Wednesday. Vice-President, De la Vega, has said “the Government will fulfill all the compromises he has with all the political forces and will continue working with all the Democrats for the future “peace process”“.

So can we consider Batasuna as a political force? Mr Zapatero is trying to legalize it. If he has a compromise with Batasuna he has one with ETA, because Batasuna is the political wing of ETA.

Of course, Mr Zapatero has said that he is looking for a great political agreement, who will involve all the plurality of Euskadi. So the Constitution of 1978 is not valid, isn’t it? It’s curious that only Batsuna and ETA are not represented AFTER Batsuna was illegalised for praising the violence…

Judge Grande-Marlaska continues with the investigation of the extortion net by interviewing the businessmen who payed the “revolutionary tax”. They are accused of a crime of collaboration with armed band. The judge has also decreed freedom without fine, but with weekly appearences in court for Ignacio Aristizábal Aguirre.He also ordered inconditional prison for Jean Pierre Harocarene, aka “Txampiñón”, and José Carmelo Luquín, for alleged integration in armed band -that is, terrorist band-. Guess who are critizicing him? Nationalists and socialists.

I read the other day who was Harocarene, an anchorman of Cadena Ser -one of the MSM from leftist holding PRISA- and is terrifying really. Written by one of the councilman of Irún, Spanish-Basque city where the family of Harocarene lives, a letter tells about him that he shouted once and again “Gora ETA” -that is: “Long live to ETA”- and that he was related with ETA in his youth. And she continues:

But everyone can evolution and here people thinks: well, this is very unoffensive. I remember that in the bar his father owned in Benobia a Civil Guard was killed in the early 80’s and it was said they have informed the band where to find him.

And I remember also when Borja Sémper presented himself to Basque MP, he was terribly beaten in the street. The “youths” intended to kill him that way, but Borja was defended by some of his family who lived there. When one of his cousing entered the Harocarene’s bar to ask him to call the police, because if not Borja was going to be killed, he just said “Fuck him”.

We are asked now by PSOE to forget and to be generous, because if not we are vengeful and rancourous. More than we have already been? We have believed that the people would change and maintained a normal relationship. But we are informed at last that we have done all this to aid financially to your murderers for them to be succesful (Borja has survived to 3 frustrated attempts, and I have been alerted by the National Police that they were after me and have survived to the frustrated terrorist attack in Zarauz).

The National Court judges tomorrow ETA terrorist Celaya for the murder of a taxi driver 30 years ago. You know, taxi drivers in Spain are soooooooooooo important in the “repression of the State”, you have to kill them to finish it. Oh, what a bunch of idiots are the foreign journalists, such as the Christian Science Monitor -Raid on ETA shadows peace process with terror group-, Euronews – ETA puts pressure on Spanish government over talks-, Nouvel Observateur -ETA wants to negotiate peace-, etc. They do not see but the slogan “we have been fighting against Franco and for democracy“. Well, then why they have been killing people AFTER Franco’s death? And peace? Peace can only be built on justice.

Le Monde published on June 23rd a note saying “ETA wants to involve Paris in the political process” –take note: they do not call here “peace process”, but “political process”-. We have known that for some time. And it’s very important what the French policial forces say:

[They] remember the truce of 1998, which let ETA rebuild their killing power. “From a geopolitical point of view, ETA is in a war with France sice 40 years ago, but its priority was Spain. [that is, as Spanish people were killed, they were “freedom fighters” and we were not very interested, but now that they are menacing us directly, uuhuhuh, then we are much more interested.. .] The truce does not prevent them for rearming [ and they are going to use our taxes to pay them…]. And with the punishment’s reduction most of their activists will be out by 2010 [note: they are activists, not terrorists]

I beg your pardon, but I can only say Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

But it is even worse what the French leader of Batasuna says. I copy it:

“Là-bas, les discussions n’ont pas commencé il y a deux mois mais il y a deux ans, remarque Peio Etcheverry-Ainchart, porte-parole de l’organisation Abertzaleen Batasuna. La légalisation de Batasuna, la sortie des prisonniers gravement malades ou en fin de peine, le regroupement des autres, tout cela est déjà ficelé. Le vrai pas inédit serait l’évocation de l’autodétermination.”

Translation: “There, the discussions have not begun 2 months ago, but 2 years ago. The legalization of Batasuna, the exit of the ill prisoners or the ones just at the end of their punishment, the reagroupment of the prisoners, all of that is already tied up. The true step will be the evocation of the self-determination”.

So no compromises, eh? You’re no more than a bunch of liars.

The State of Justice in Spain, by Spanish cartoonist Mingote.

Lastly we have to congratulate the Catholic Church for the election of José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre, Basque priest, for Bishop of Palencia. He has distinguish himself in the fight against ETA terrorists, preaching in masses “corpore in sepulto” -that is, for people who are just going to be buried- for the ETA victims. Those are good news for all Spanish Catholic people. Just as me.

Sent to Mark My Words’ Open Monday Trackback.

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