Charlie Hebdo murders, hypocritical politicians and aftermath

This video says about itself:

Paris Unity March – Where Hypocrites Of The World Unite!

13 January 2015

After the Charlie Hebdo attack, dozens of world leaders marched arm in arm with President Francois Hollande during a unity march in Paris. But many of these leaders aren’t exactly supporting free speech and a free press back home. So what’s the deal?

Those horrified by the gunning down of Charlie Hebdo’s staff and the subsequent murder of hostages must not allow the blanket media coverage and hypocritical denunciations of “senseless evil” to blunt their critical faculties: here.

Governments throughout Europe have responded to the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in France by moving quickly to push through a raft of anti-democratic measures. They are exploiting the shock and confusion generated by the event in Paris to take actions that have long been prepared, but that have so far encountered resistance: here.

By Bill Van Auken:

A Potemkin gathering of world leaders in Paris

14 January 2015

A photograph posted on social media has revealed that the “world leaders” who had supposedly led the march in Paris on January 11, in the aftermath of the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, were in reality assembled for a massive staged photo-op.

While in the media, photos and video of the leaders were almost invariably angled to give the appearance of massive crowds in their wake, one shot taken from above shows them standing bunched tightly together in barely a dozen rows in an empty street, cordoned off from the marchers by a heavy ring of security.

Nothing could more accurately symbolize the reactionary character of this assemblage of state officials and the fraud of their attempt to posture as defenders of human liberties.

At the center of those participating in the photo was French President François Hollande, whose approval ratings in recent months have plumbed new depths—around 15 percent at the end of last year. The president no doubt hopes that the events surrounding the attack on Charlie Hebdo will buttress his government as it pursues unpopular policies at home and abroad.

Aside from Hollande and his fellow European imperialist heads of state, their hands dripping with blood from the Middle East, to Africa to Ukraine, the marchers included Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose government has imprisoned more journalists than any on the planet, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, whose regime has massacred thousands and imprisoned tens of thousands of political opponents.

Also posing for the cameras (and in one shot waving to what was apparently a non-existent crowd) was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose regime has butchered thousands of Palestinians, while ruthlessly repressing Palestinian media.

Among the other champions of democratic rights on hand was the King of Jordan, who recently sent a writer to prison for 15 years for the crime of criticizing his monarchy. Also present was the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to France Mohammed Ismail Al-Sheikh, who represents a dictatorial monarchy that imposed a sentence of 1,000 lashes—50 of which were meted out Friday—and 10 years in prison on Raif Badawi, a blogger accused of insulting the state-sponsored Wahhabi school of Islam.

In both their political aims and the social interests they defend, all of the officials assembled for the staged photograph on Sunday stand in direct opposition to the masses of working people in France and all over the world. This is why they had to be huddled together under intense police protection in the photo-op staged at safe distance from the Paris marchers.

While among the millions who marched throughout France over the weekend, there were no doubt many moved by feelings of horror and sorrow over the killing of the 12 people in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the assembled heads of state and high officials were there for very different reasons. They were brought together by a common desire to exploit the shock and confusion over the attack to further the “war on terror,” a state conspiracy to promote unending war abroad and police state suppression of democratic rights at home.

Notably absent in the photograph was President Barack Obama or any high-ranking head of state from the US, a fact that has become the focus of a political controversy within the American state apparatus. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was in Paris at the time, also did not attend, with the United States represented instead by US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley, appointed recently for her service as a campaign contribution bundler for Obama.

The White House explanation for the failure to send anyone to Paris last Sunday was that it would have involved such a massive deployment of US security as to make the march itself virtually unworkable. Given the real circumstances of the “rally,” one wonders if the Secret Service would have insisted on strip searching the assembled heads of government and their security personnel.

Whatever the reasons for Obama’s absence, his attendance would have only been the capstone to the cynical charade. The presence of Obama or any other senior representative of a US administration that constitutes the number one practitioner of state terror on the planet would have only added to the grotesque hypocrisy of the “selfie” staged by the so-called world leaders on a heavily guarded street in Paris.

See also here.

To conduct an effective fight, one has to put oneself first into the shoes of the fanatics and try to understand the dynamic that pushes young local-born Muslims to commit such acts. Who are they? What do they think? What are their feelings? In what circumstances did they grow up? What can be done to change them? After decades of neglect, that is hard work. It takes time and effort, with results uncertain. Much easier for politicians to march in the street in front of the cameras: here.

UK puts military on standby after Charlie Hebdo attack: here.

Coinciding with Wednesday’s publication of the first issue of Charlie Hebdo since last week’s terrorist attack, the French interior minister announced legal proceedings against 54 individuals accused of “glorifying terrorism”: here.

After a cabinet meeting yesterday morning at the Elysée presidential palace, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls unveiled a draconian new anti-terror law: here.

French dissenters jailed after crackdown on speech that glorifies terrorism: here.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government have responded to last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris by ratcheting up their efforts to strengthen the national-security apparatus and legitimize Canada’s participation in the new US-led war in the Middle East: here.

This weekend, police and military forces were deployed across Europe on an unprecedented scale. Security forces in France, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Britain are continuing a crackdown on suspected Islamists, arresting dozens of people, after the January 7 attack on the editorial offices of the weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris: here.

Secret US cybersecurity report: encryption vital to protect private data. Newly uncovered Snowden document contrasts with British PM’s vow to crack down on encrypted messaging after Paris attacks: here.

The former head of Britain’s intelligence agency MI5, Lord Evans, has added his voice to demands for a clampdown on the Internet and e-communications in the wake of the terror assaults on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris and a Jewish supermarket, in which 17 people were killed: here.

Like the ruling elites in the West, the governments of Eastern European states are deliberately using the attack on Charlie Hebdo to restrict democratic rights and persecute refugees. Muslims in particular have been declared the enemy, strengthening extreme right-wing forces: here.

Paris is a warning: there is no insulation from our wars. The attacks in France are a blowback from intervention in the Arab and Muslim world. What happens there happens here too: here.

British Muslim school children suffering a backlash of abuse following Paris attacks: here.

Eight year old boy arrested for glorification of terrorism: here.

Related articles

• China media: Charlie Hebdo march
• Jon Stewart Explains What’s Wrong With World Leaders Who Censor the Press Claiming #JeSuisCharlie
• Terrorist atrocity in Paris, pretext for more violence and oppression
• Comics Legend Art Spiegelman & Scholar Tariq Ramadan on Charlie Hebdo & the Power Dynamic of Satire
• Muslims held to a double standard