In Germany, on February 12, former RAF member Brigitte Mohnhaupt had her bid for parole approved by a court in Stuttgart, and may be released in March:
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) — A German court on Monday ordered the release of Brigitte Mohnhaupt, a former member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) who has spent 24 years in prison for her involvement in multiple kidnappings and murders in the 1970s.
The decision, which came after a request by Mohnhaupt for early release, is likely to cause a storm in the country, notably because she has expressed no remorse for a murderous RAF campaign which shook West Germany’s new democracy to its core…
At the same time, Italian police have arrested 15 people in northern Italy accused of making plans — of the sort that one might expect “extreme left-wing domestic terrorists” to make — and of having ‘links’ to the Red Brigades. “Police conducted 80 searches, mainly of gathering places for leftists”, according to AP (Italian police arrest 15 in raids against terror group with Red Brigades links, International Herald Tribune, February 12, 2007), which action parallels the activities of their Greek comrades, who recently arrested 60, or perhaps 50, or perhaps 70, people in raids in Exarchia, “a known hangout for anarchists”.
In the United States, 8 men were arrested on January 23, accused of the murder, in 1971, of a policeman, John V. Young, as part of a campaign against ‘law enforcement’ conducted by the Black Liberation Army, “a violent offshoot of the Black Panther Party”. Interestingly:
Several of the men charged Tuesday have already served jail time in connection with the case.
Brown, Boudreaux, Jones and Taylor were jailed in 2005 for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury investigating Young’s death.
Three men, including Taylor, were charged in Young’s attack in early 1975, but those charges were dismissed by a San Francisco judge because of an earlier ruling that evidence was obtained by torture.
Also in the US, a person (or persons) has been sending letter-bombs to investment firms. According to Frank Main (Is bomb from ‘Bishop’? Investment firm here latest to get threat, Chicago Sun-Times, February 10, 2007):
The person who recently mailed an unarmed pipe bomb to a Loop investment firm fits the description of The Bishop, the nom de guerre of someone who has sent threatening letters to Midwest companies since 2005, according to a security expert…
In 2005, The Bishop started sending anonymous, threatening letters to financial services companies in the Midwest demanding the targeted companies take action to move specific stocks to a predetermined price, often $6.66, the report said. The letters were signed “The Bishop.”
On Feb. 2, a mail bomb was discovered at Perkins, Wolf, McDonnell & Co., 311 S. Wacker, police said. The package originally was mailed to Janus Capital Group Inc. in Denver and forwarded to the Chicago firm, which handles Janus business, officials said.
According to a law enforcement source, the letter accompanying the Chicago bomb said: “The only reason you’re alive is I didn’t attach one wire,” adding, “There’s nothing the police or anybody can do, so don’t contact them.”
- Above : A brave US soldier working hard to end terror in Iraq. What’s not to love?
Oh, and apparently there’s some kinda ‘war’ going on in some place a long way away called Iraq, which may involve some degree of violence. (Rumours abound that some people, including one Australian soldier, may even have been died as a result of the conflict.) Meanwhile, John HoWARd, the Australian Prime Minister — who is not a terrorist — was interviewed by prominent Murdoch sock-puppet Laurie Oakes on Channel Nine’s program Sunday… on Sunday. Fatbastard asked him about Iraq and some black fella named Barack Obama:
LAURIE OAKES: On that subject, Senator Barack Obama’s announced overnight he’s running for the Democrat Presidential nomination, and he says if he gets it he has a plan to bring troops home by March, 2008 and his direct quote is “Letting the Iraqis know we’ll not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunies [sic] and Shiah [sic] to come to the table and find peace”. So, basically he’s agreeing with the Labor Party.
JOHN HOWARD: Yes, I think he’s wrong, I mean, he’s a long way from being President of the United States. I think he’s wrong. I think that would just encourage those who wanted completely to destabilise and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for Obama victory. If I was running Al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats.
LAURIE OAKES: If he wins, and you’re still there, bad news for the alliance.
JOHN HOWARD: Well I tell you what would be even worse news for the fight against terrorism, if America is defeated in Iraq. I mean, we have to understand what we are dealing with. We’re dealing here with a situation where if America pulls out of Iraq in March 2008. It can only be in circumstances of defeat. There’s no way by March 2008, which is a little over a year from now, everything will have been stabilised so that America can get out in March 2008. And, if America is defeated in Iraq, the hope of ever getting a Palestinian settlement will be gone. There’ll be enormous conflict between the Shi’a and the Sunnis throughout the whole of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Jordan will both be (destabilised), Al-Qaeda will trumpet it as the greatest victory they’ve ever had and that will have implications in our region because of the link, the ideological link at the very least, between the Al-Qaeda and JI.
A good colonialist. And mad as a cut snake.
