The Free Syrian Army boasts of receiving new weapons shipments that could “change” the course of the war—amid revelations that the US has been arming them secretly for a year.
Survivors of the 1976 massacre in Vitória, Spain, marked the anniversary by demanding official recognition of the incident, excised from the history of the post-Franco transition.
Spanish national Angel Carromero, sentenced to four years in Cuba for the car accident that killed dissidents Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, will serve out his sentence in Spain.
A “European Day of Action and Solidarity against Austerity” marked the first time strike action was held simultaneously across four countries: Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal.
Spanish national Angel Francisco Carromero gets four years in the automobile accident that killed well-known dissident Oswaldo Payá—but Cuba and Spain may make a deal.
The European Union is singularly undeserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. A global call must be raised for this year’s prize to be transferred to the truly heroic Malala Yousafzai.
Spanish police fired rubber bullets and baton-charged "indignado" protesters holding an "Occupy Congress" action against a new round of announced austerity measures.
A Turkish court sentenced a former British soldier to seven-and-a-half years for alleged links to Syria's Kurdish YPG militia, considered a "terrorist" group by Ankara. Joe Robinson of Leeds was arrested in Turkey last year after he apparently posted photos of himself in camouflage, posing beside fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. The Afghanistan veteran was among many volunteers who joined the YPG's campaign against ISIS. A court in Turkey's western city of Aydin sentenced the 25-year-old for "membership in a terrorist organization." Robinson is currently on bail and planning an appeal. His Bulgarian fiancée Mira Rojkan, arrested along with him, was sentenced to two years for "terrorist propaganda." (Photo via Defense Post)
In Episode Eight of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes the bitter historical irony: In April of 1937, the aerial bombardment of the Spanish town of Guernica by the Nazi Luftwaffe shocked the world. Today, what happened there is a near-daily occurrence in Syria (as well as Yemen and elsewhere around the world), and we are so inured to it that the "anti-war" people are actually on the side of the authors of aerial terror. During the Spanish Civil War, the left heroically opposed Generalissimo Francisco Franco's drive to establish a fascist dictatorship with the aid of German military intervention. Today, it cravenly abets Bashar Assad's drive to re-establish his fascist dictatorship with the aid of Russian military intervention. Even as Russia scrambles to block any investigation into the Douma chemical attack and other war crimes in Syria, "leftists" shamefully echo Russian propaganda denying any responsibility by Assad. Weinberg again urges that any legitimate anti-war position must begin with opposition to the genocidal regime of Bashar Assad, and with solidarity for the Syrian Revolution. Listen on SoundCloud. (Photo of Aleppo ruins from UNHCR)
