18/11/2015

About the Syrian war


Must read.

Nicolas Henin is a brilliant journalist and has been reporting in Syria for years. I met him in Addis four years ago and I'm amazed by his courage.

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I was held hostage by Isis. They fear our unity more than our airstrikes



In Syria I learned that Islamic State longs to provoke retaliation. We should not fall into the trap


 As a proud Frenchman I am as distressed as anyone about the events in Paris. But I am not shocked or incredulous. I know Islamic State. I spent 10 months as an Isis hostage, and I know for sure that our pain, our grief, our hopes, our lives do not touch them. Theirs is a world apart.
Most people only know them from their propaganda material, but I have seen behind that. In my time as their captive, I met perhaps a dozen of them, including Mohammed Emwazi: Jihadi John was one of my jailers. He nicknamed me “Baldy”.
Even now I sometimes chat with them on social media, and can tell you that much of what you think of them results from their brand of marketing and public relations. They present themselves to the public as superheroes, but away from the camera are a bit pathetic in many ways: street kids drunk on ideology and power. In France we have a saying – stupid and evil. I found them more stupid than evil. That is not to understate the murderous potential of stupidity.
All of those beheaded last year were my cellmates, and my jailers would play childish games with us – mental torture – saying one day that we would be released and then two weeks later observing blithely, “Tomorrow we will kill one of you.” The first couple of times we believed them but after that we came to realise that for the most part they were bullshitters having fun with us.
They would play mock executions. Once they used chloroform with me. Another time it was a beheading scene. A bunch of French-speaking jihadis were shouting, “We’re going to cut your head off and put it on to your arse and upload it to YouTube.” They had a sword from an antique shop.
They were laughing and I played the game by screaming, but they just wanted fun. As soon as they left I turned to another of the French hostages and just laughed. It was so ridiculous.
It struck me forcefully how technologically connected they are; they follow the news obsessively, but everything they see goes through their own filter. They are totally indoctrinated, clinging to all manner of conspiracy theories, never acknowledging the contradictions.
Everything convinces them that they are on the right path and, specifically, that there is a kind of apocalyptic process under way that will lead to a confrontation between an army of Muslims from all over the world and others, the crusaders, the Romans. They see everything as moving us down that road. Consequently, everything is a blessing from Allah.
With their news and social media interest, they will be noting everything that follows their murderous assault on Paris, and my guess is that right now the chant among them will be “We are winning”. They will be heartened by every sign of overreaction, of division, of fear, of racism, of xenophobia; they will be drawn to any examples of ugliness on social media.
Central to their world view is the belief that communities cannot live together with Muslims, and every day their antennae will be tuned towards finding supporting evidence. The pictures from Germany of people welcoming migrants will have been particularly troubling to them. Cohesion, tolerance – it is not what they want to see.
Why France? For many reasons perhaps, but I think they identified my country as a weak link in Europe – as a place where divisions could be sown easily. That’s why, when I am asked how we should respond, I say that we must act responsibly.
And yet more bombs will be our response. I am no apologist for Isis. How could I be? But everything I know tells me this is a mistake. The bombardment will be huge, a symbol of righteous anger. Within 48 hours of the atrocity, fighter planes conducted their most spectacular munitions raid yet in Syria, dropping more than 20 bombs on Raqqa, an Isis stronghold. Revenge was perhaps inevitable, but what’s needed is deliberation. My fear is that this reaction will make a bad situation worse.
While we are trying to destroy Isis, what of the 500,000 civilians still living and trapped in Raqqa? What of their safety? What of the very real prospect that by failing to think this through, we turn many of them into extremists? The priority must be to protect these people, not to take more bombs to Syria. We need no-fly zones – zones closed to Russians, the regime, the coalition. The Syrian people need security or they themselves will turn to groups such as Isis.
Canada withdrew from the air war after the election of Justin Trudeau. I desperately want France to do the same, and rationality tells me it could happen. But pragmatism tells me it won’t. The fact is we are trapped: Isis has trapped us. They came to Paris with Kalashnikovs, claiming that they wanted to stop the bombing, but knowing all too well that the attack would force us to keep bombing or even to intensify these counterproductive attacks. That is what is happening.
Emwazi is gone now, killed in a coalition air strike, his death celebrated in parliament. I do not mourn him. But during his murder spree, he too followed this double bluff strategy. After murdering the American journalist James Foley, he pointed his knife at the camera and, turning to the next intended victim, said: “Obama, you must stop intervening in the Middle East or I will kill him.” He knew very well what the hostage’s fate would be. He knew very well what the American reaction would be – more bombing. It’s what Isis wants, but should we be giving it to them?
The group is wicked, of that there is no doubt. But after all that happened to me, I still don’t feel Isis is the priority. To my mind, Bashar al-Assad is the priority. The Syrian president is responsible for the rise of Isis in Syria, and so long as his regime is in place, Isis cannot be eradicated. Nor can we stop the attacks on our streets. When people say “Isis first, and then Assad”, I say don’t believe them. They just want to keep Assad in place.
At the moment there is no political road map and no plan to engage the Arab Sunni community. Isis will collapse, but politics will make that happen. In the meantime there is much we can achieve in the aftermath of this atrocity, and the key is strong hearts and resilience, for that is what they fear. I know them: bombing they expect. What they fear is unity.
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Nicolas Henin is author of Jihad Academy, The Rise of Islamic State



Sur la Syrie - le point de vue du journaliste français Nicolas Hénin




Un point de vue indispensable :



A l'heure où la France, notamment, bombarde Raqqa, le bastion du groupe Etat islamique en Syrie, le journaliste et ancien otage de l'EI Nicolas Hénin juge que ces frappes sont contre-productives.

Nicolas Hénin a été détenu durant un an par le groupe Etat 

islamique.

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Pour Nicolas Hénin, la France, les Etats-Unis et la Russie font fausse route en optant pour une solution martiale. Dans une interview mardi dans l'émission Forum, le journaliste estime qu'il faut plutôt tirer les leçons du 11 septembre 2001: "L'administration américaine a décidé d'envahir l'Afghanistan et l'Irak, d'émettre le Patriot Act et d'ouvrir (la prison) de Guantanamo. Tout cela, c'était des pièges. Il faut être absolument stupide pour imaginer que l'on a puni Ben Laden ou Al-Qaïda (avec de telles mesures)."

Il faut par conséquent se méfier des actions prises sous le coup de l'émotion, avertit Nicolas Hénin: "Ces frappes sont contre-productives. Elles nous aliènent les populations locales (en Syrie), alors que la clé pour résoudre ce défi que représente l'Etat islamique est de se mettre les populations locales de notre côté".

Or, ajoute le journaliste, "le discours de François Hollande (lundi) a été particulièrement mal reçu par la population syrienne qui pourtant avait marqué - sur les réseaux sociaux - des témoignages fabuleux de solidarité envers les victimes de vendredi".

Création de zones de sécurité, "une priorité"

Nicolas Hénin préconise la création de zones d'exclusion aérienne et des lieux sûrs au sol: "A partir du moment où l'on aura créé ces zones dans lesquelles les civils sont en sécurité, on aura d'une part réduit le défi posé par les flux de réfugiés et créé de l'espoir (...)  Il faut désescalader cette violence".

"Les 130 morts de Paris sont absolument abominables, mais il faut garder à l'esprit qu'il y a, en moyenne, 200 morts chaque jour en Syrie depuis quatre ans", avertit enfin le journaliste, selon qui la propagande du groupe EI se poursuit aujourd'hui sur la base d'images de civils massacrés.

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L'interview de Nicolas Hénin avec la radio suisse RTS :


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Suivre Nicolas Hénin :




17/11/2015

About False Flags


Nations All over the World CONFESS to Carrying out False Flag Terrorism






Sources:

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/54-admitted-false-flag-attacks.html

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/nations-all-over-the-world-confess-to-carrying-out-false-flag-terrorism_032015



Not Theory … Admitted Fact


There are many documented false flag attacks, where a government carries out a terror attack … and then falsely blames its enemy for political purposes.


In the following 54 instances, officials in the government which carried out the attack (or seriously proposed an attack) admit to it, either orally or in writing:


(1) Japanese troops set off a small explosion on a train track in 1931, and falsely blamed it on China in order to justify an invasion of Manchuria. This is known as the “Mukden Incident” or the “Manchurian Incident”. The Tokyo International Military Tribunal found: “Several of the participators in the plan, including Hashimoto [a high-ranking Japanese army officer],have on various occasions admitted their part in the plot and have stated that the object of the ‘Incident’ was to afford an excuse for the occupation of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army ….” And see this.

(2) A major with the Nazi SS admitted at the Nuremberg trials that – under orders from the chief of the Gestapo – he and some other Nazi operatives faked attacks on their own people and resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of Poland.

(3) Nazi general Franz Halder also testified at the Nuremberg trials that Nazi leader Hermann Goering admitted to setting fire to the German parliament building in 1933, and then falsely blaming the communists for the arson.

(4) Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev admitted in writing that the Soviet Union’s Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila in 1939 – while blaming the attack on Finland – as a basis for launching the “Winter War” against Finland. Russian president Boris Yeltsin agreed that Russia had been the aggressor in the Winter War.

(5) The Russian Parliament, current Russian president Putin and former Soviet leader Gorbachev all admit that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered his secret police to execute 22,000 Polish army officers and civilians in 1940, and then falsely blamed it on the Nazis.

(6) The British government admits that – between 1946 and 1948 – it bombed 5 ships carrying Jews attempting to flee the Holocaust to seek safety in Palestine, set up a fake group called “Defenders of Arab Palestine”, and then had the pseudo-group falsely claim responsibility for the bombings (and see thisthis and this).

(7) Israel admits that in 1954, an Israeli terrorist cell operating in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including U.S. diplomatic facilities, then left behind “evidence” implicating the Arabs as the culprits (one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to identify the bombers, and several of the Israelis later confessed) (and see this andthis).

(8) The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950′s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister.

(9) The Turkish Prime Minister admitted that the Turkish government carried out the 1955 bombing on a Turkish consulate in Greece – also damaging the nearby birthplace of the founder of modern Turkey – and blamed it on Greece, for the purpose of inciting and justifying anti-Greek violence.

(10) The British Prime Minister admitted to his defense secretary that he and American president Dwight Eisenhower approved a plan in 1957 to carry out attacks in Syria and blame it on the Syrian government as a way to effect regime change.

(11-21) The former Italian Prime Minister, an Italian judge, and theformer head of Italian counterintelligence admit that NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and CIA, carried out terror bombings in Italy and other European countries in the 1950s and blamed the communists, in order to rally people’s support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism. As one participant in this formerly-secret program stated: “You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security” (and see this) (Italy and other European countries subject to the terror campaign had joined NATO before the bombings occurred). And watch this BBC special. They also allegedly carried out terror attacks in France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the UK, and other countries.
False flag attacks carried out pursuant to this program include – by way of example only (and depending on how you count them):

(12) bombings in Portugal (1966)
(15) the Peteano bombing in Italy (1972)

(22) In 1960, American Senator George Smathers suggested that the U.S. launch “a false attack made on Guantanamo Bay which would give us the excuse of actually fomenting a fight which would then give us the excuse to go in and [overthrow Castro]“.

(23) Official State Department documents show that, in 1961, the head of the Joint Chiefs and other high-level officials discussed blowing up a consulate in the Dominican Republic in order to justify an invasion of that country. The plans were not carried out, but they were all discussed as serious proposals.

(24) As admitted by the U.S. government, recently declassified documents show that in 1962, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan to blow up AMERICAN airplanes (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. See the following ABC news reportthe official documents; and watch this interview with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.

(25) In 1963, the U.S. Department of Defense wrote a paper promotingattacks on nations within the Organization of American States – such as Trinidad-Tobago or Jamaica – and then falsely blaming them on Cuba.

(26) The U.S. Department of Defense even suggested covertly paying a person in the Castro government to attack the United States: “The only area remaining for consideration then would be to bribe one of Castro’s subordinate commanders to initiate an attack on Guantanamo.”

(27) The NSA admits that it lied about what really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 … manipulating data to make it look like North Vietnamese boats fired on a U.S. ship so as to create a false justification for the Vietnam war.

(28) A U.S. Congressional committee admitted that – as part of its “Cointelpro” campaign – the FBI had used many provocateurs in the 1950s through 1970s to carry out violent acts and falsely blame them on political activists.

(29) A top Turkish general admitted that Turkish forces burned down a mosque on Cyprus in the 1970s and blamed it on their enemy. Heexplained: “In Special War, certain acts of sabotage are staged and blamed on the enemy to increase public resistance. We did this on Cyprus; we even burnt down a mosque.” In response to the surprised correspondent’s incredulous look the general said, “I am giving an example”.

(30) The German government admitted (and see this) that, in 1978, the German secret service detonated a bomb in the outer wall of a prison and planted “escape tools” on a prisoner – a member of the Red Army Faction – which the secret service wished to frame the bombing on.

(31) A Mossad agent admits that, in 1984, Mossad planted a radio transmitter in Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli, Libya which broadcast fake terrorist transmissions recorded by Mossad, in order to frame Gaddafi as a terrorist supporter. Ronald Reagan bombed Libya immediately thereafter.

(32) The South African Truth and Reconciliation Council found that, in 1989, the Civil Cooperation Bureau (a covert branch of the South African Defense Force) approached an explosives expert and asked him “to participate in an operation aimed at discrediting the ANC [the African National Congress] by bombing the police vehicle of the investigating officer into the murder incident”, thus framing the ANC for the bombing.

(33) An Algerian diplomat and several officers in the Algerian army admitthat, in the 1990s, the Algerian army frequently massacred Algerian civilians and then blamed Islamic militants for the killings (and see this video; and Agence France-Presse, 9/27/2002, French Court Dismisses Algerian Defamation Suit Against Author).

(34) The United States Army’s 1994 publication Special Forces Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces – updated in 2004 – recommends employing terrorists and using false flag operations to destabilize leftist regimes in Latin America. False flag terrorist attacks were carried out in Latin America and other regions as part of the CIA’s “Dirty Wars“. And see this.

(35) Similarly, a CIA “psychological operations” manual prepared by a CIA contractor for the Nicaraguan Contra rebels noted the value of assassinating someone on your own side to create a “martyr” for the cause.  The manual was authenticated by the U.S. government. The manual received so much publicity from Associated Press, Washington Post and other news coverage that – during the 1984 presidential debate – President Reagan was confronted with the following question on national television:

At this moment, we are confronted with the extraordinary story of a CIA guerrilla manual for the anti-Sandinista contras whom we are backing, which advocates not only assassinations of Sandinistas but the hiring of criminals to assassinate the guerrillas we are supporting in order to create martyrs.


(36) An Indonesian fact-finding team investigated violent riots which occurred in 1998, and determined that “elements of the military had been involved in the riots, some of which were deliberately provoked”.

(37) Senior Russian Senior military and intelligence officers admit that the KGB blew up Russian apartment buildings in 1999 and falsely blamed it on Chechens, in order to justify an invasion of Chechnya (and see this report and this discussion).

(38) According to the Washington Post, Indonesian police admit that the Indonesian military killed American teachers in Papua in 2002 and blamed the murders on a Papuan separatist group in order to get that group listed as a terrorist organization.

(39) The well-respected former Indonesian president also admits that the government probably had a role in the Bali bombings.

(40) As reported by BBC, the New York Times, and Associated Press, Macedonian officials admit that the government murdered 7 innocent immigrants in cold blood and pretended that they were Al Qaeda soldiers attempting to assassinate Macedonian police, in order to join the “war on terror”.

(41) Senior police officials in Genoa, Italy admitted that – in July 2001, at the G8 summit in Genoa – planted two Molotov cocktails and faked the stabbing of a police officer, in order to justify a violent crackdown against protesters.

(42) The U.S. falsely blamed Iraq for playing a role in the 9/11 attacks – as shown by a memo from the defense secretary – as one of the main justifications for launching the Iraq war. Even after the 9/11 Commissionadmitted that there was no connection, Dick Cheney said that the evidence is “overwhelming” that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein’s regime, that Cheney “probably” had information unavailable to the Commission, and that the media was not ‘doing their homework’ in reporting such ties. Top U.S. government officials now admit that the Iraq war was really launched for oil … not 9/11 or weapons of mass destruction. Despite previous “lone wolf” claims, many U.S. government officials now say that 9/11 was state-sponsored terror; but Iraq was notthe state which backed the hijackers. (Many U.S. officials have allegedthat 9/11 was a false flag operation by rogue elements of the U.S. government.). 

(43) Although the FBI now admits that the 2001 anthrax attacks were carried out by one or more U.S. government scientists, a senior FBI official says that the FBI was actually told to blame the Anthrax attacks on Al Qaeda by White House officials (remember what the anthrax letterslooked like). Government officials also confirm that the white House tried to link the anthrax to Iraq as a justification for regime change in that country.

(44) Former Department of Justice lawyer John Yoo suggested in 2005 that the US should go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, having “our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps, and fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within al-Qaeda’s ranks, causing operatives to doubt others’ identities and to question the validity of communications.”

(45) United Press International reported in June 2005:

U.S. intelligence officers are reporting that some of the insurgents in Iraq are using recent-model Beretta 92 pistols, but the pistols seem to have had their serial numbers erased. The numbers do not appear to have been physically removed; the pistols seem to have come off a production line without any serial numbers. Analysts suggest the lack of serial numbers indicates that the weapons were intended for intelligence operations or terrorist cells with substantial government backing. Analysts speculate that these guns are probably from either Mossad or the CIA. Analysts speculate that agent provocateurs may be using the untraceable weapons even as U.S. authorities use insurgent attacks against civilians as evidence of the illegitimacy of the resistance.

(46) Undercover Israeli soldiers admitted in 2005 to throwing stones at other Israeli soldiers so they could blame it on Palestinians, as an excuse to crack down on peaceful protests by the Palestinians.

(47) Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest were actually undercover Quebec police officers (and see this).

(48) At the G20 protests in London in 2009, a British member of parliament saw plain clothes police officers attempting to incite the crowd to violence.

(49) Egyptian politicians admitted (and see this) that government employees looted priceless museum artifacts in 2011 to try to discredit the protesters.

(50) A Colombian army colonel has admitted that his unit murdered 57 civilians, then dressed them in uniforms and claimed they were rebels killed in combat.

(51) The highly-respected writer for the Telegraph Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says that the head of Saudi intelligence – Prince Bandar – recently admitted that the Saudi government controls “Chechen” terrorists.

(52) High-level American sources admitted that the Turkish government – a fellow NATO country – carried out the chemical weapons attacks blamed on the Syrian government; and high-ranking Turkish governmentadmitted on tape plans to carry out attacks and blame it on the Syrian government.

(53) The Ukrainian security chief admits that the sniper attacks which started the Ukrainian coup were carried out in order to frame others. Ukrainian officials admit that the Ukrainian snipers fired on both sides, to create maximum chaos.
(54) Britain’s spy agency has admitted (and see this) that it carries out “digital false flag” attacks on targets, framing people by writing offensive or unlawful material … and blaming it on the target.



So Common … There’s a Name for It


The use of the bully’s trick is so common that it was given a name hundreds of years ago.
“False flag terrorism” is defined as a government attacking its own people, then blaming others in order to justify going to war against the people it blames. Or as Wikipedia defines it:

False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one’s own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy’s strategy of tension.

The term comes from the old days of wooden ships, when one ship would hang the flag of its enemy before attacking another ship. Because the enemy’s flag, instead of the flag of the real country of the attacking ship, was hung, it was called a “false flag” attack.

Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement fornavalair and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks. Specifically, the rules of engagement state that a military force can fly the enemy’s flag, imitate their markings, or dress in an enemy’s clothes … but that the ruse has to be discarded before attacking.
Why are the rules of engagement so specific? Obviously, because nations have been using false flag attacks for many centuries.  And the rules of engagement are at least trying to limit false flag attacks so that they aren’t used as a false justification for war.
In other words, the rules of engagement themselves are an admission that false flag terrorism is a very common practice.


Leaders Throughout History Have Acknowledged False Flags


Leaders throughout history have acknowledged the danger of false flags:

“A history of false flag attacks used to manipulate the minds of the people! “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death”.
– Adolph Hitler
“Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
– Hermann Goering, Nazi leader
“The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened”.
– Josef Stalin

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple





Mon nouvel article pour Toutelaculture.com : un vendredi 13 au théâtre



LE RETOUR AU DÉSERT : 

KOLTÈS ET LA GUERRE D’ALGÉRIE VUE DE FRANCE … UN 13 NOVEMBRE 2015



http://toutelaculture.com/spectacles/theatre/le-retour-au-desert-koltes-et-la-guerre-dalgerie-vue-de-france-un-13-novembre-2015/

Avant sa présentation au Théâtre de la Ville à Paris, en janvier 2016, Le Retour au désert de Koltès, mis en scène par Arnaud Meunier, a été présenté au Théâtre Jean Vilar de Vitry-sur-Seine, vendredi 13 novembre. Une soirée difficilement oubliable : deux grands acteurs, Catherine Hiegel et Didier Bezace se font face sur le thème de l’Etat d’urgence, intime comme politique.




Un vendredi soir doux et automnal de novembre, une navette attend près du Théâtre de la Ville les futurs spectateurs de la nouvelle pièce de la grande salle parisienne dont la première a lieu à Vitry-sur-Seine, ce 13 novembre.
Le public est enthousiaste. La salle bondée. La pièce de Bernard-Marie Koltès a été créée au Théâtre Renaud-Barrault en septembre 1988 dans le cadre du Festival d’automne à Paris, et jouée à la Comédie Française en 2007. Elle traite de la Guerre d’Algérie vue de France à travers des retrouvailles familiales houleuses, dans une ville de province. Le frère, Adrien, vit dans une villa cossue et prospère grâce à l’héritage de son père, dont l’usine peu éloignée. Lorsque sa sœur, Mathilde, revient d’Algérie en 1960, il est obligé de reconnaître les règles édictées par le testament paternel : s’il possède bien l’usine, la maison revient à sa sœur aînée. Mais bientôt ce problème devient le cadet de leurs soucis. Mathilde a deux enfants, Edouard et Fatima, qui ont grandi en Algérie et qu’elle est loin d’avoir élevés comme Adrien a élevé son fils, Matthieu, prostré entre la maison et jardin. A l’image de cette éducation étriquée, toute la ville ressemble pour ces « Algériens » à un carrefour de l’ennui.
Après cette installation, la femme de maison, Mme Queuleu, et l’homme de ménage, Aziz, voient l’équilibre de leurs paisibles journées bouleverser par les querelles incessantes de la sœur et du frère. La où Mathilde, merveilleusement portée par la grande Catherine Hiegel, est flamboyante, colérique et plus que vivante, Adrien – interprété par Didier Bezace – est petit joueur, prudent voire peureux. Mais surtout, à l’image de la France de cette époque, les deux pans de la famille voient leurs valeurs s’antagoniser de plus en plus. Adrien croit en la France des villes de province, dans les normes sociales et le pouvoir absolu de la richesse. Il est ainsi répugné lorsqu’il découvre le prénom de la fille de sa sœur : Fatima. Il se propose d’emblée de la rebaptiser ‘Caroline’. Mathilde, chassée de la maison à la découverte de sa première grossesse, hait quant à elle cette cité de garnison, où les jardins ne sont jamais sûrs la nuit parce que les soldats peuvent sauter par dessus les murs censés les protéger… Mais la situation se complique encore quand Matthieu doit être envoyé au front, en Algérie.

Une Guerre qui ne dit pas son nom, entre tragédie et comédie

Tragi-comédie familiale, mise ici en scène par un Arnaud Meunier plein d’énergie et amoureux du texte, Le Retour au désert est une chronique des conséquences de ce que personne n’ose à l’époque appeler la ‘Guerre d’Algérie’ sur la France métropolitaine. Alors qu’Edouard trompe sa nostalgie de l’Algérie dans le Café Saïfi, où il entraîne bientôt Matthieu, Fatima se meurt de froid, parle au fantôme de la femme d’Adrien, et se noie dans les regrets. Pendant ce temps, le patriarche Adrien et les grands bourgeois de la ville préparent un attentat contre ce même café, « rempli d’arabes »…
Il est autour de 21 heures 30, ce vendredi 13 novembre 2015, lorsque retentit sur la scène du Théâtre Jean Vilar l’explosion orchestrée contre le Café Saïfi. La principale victime en sera Aziz, le domestique arabe sans avenir. Pendant ce temps, à Paris, d’autres attaques sont perpétrées réellement contre des lieux de vie quotidienne : le Stade de France, le Bataclan et des terrasses de café. La réalité dépasse parfois la fiction. Ou la fiction prédit trop bien la réalité… Quand elle est inspirée d’une histoire trop souvent, trop vite, enterrée.
Bernard-Marie Koltès a expliqué en 1988 que cette pièce est inspirée de souvenirs d’enfance, liés au retour de son père, officier, de la même guerre, et à son regard de jeune adolescent sur les attentats de l’OAS. « Il y avait cette violence-là, à laquelle un enfant de douze ans est sensible et à laquelle il ne comprend rien. C’est probablement ce qui m’a amené à m’intéresser davantage aux étrangers qu’aux Français. J’ai très vite compris que c’était eux le sang neuf de la France, que si la France vivait sur le seul sang des Français, cela deviendrait un cauchemar, la stérilité totale sur le plan artistique et sur tous les plans », a-t-il conclu.

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Le Retour au désert, De Bernard-Marie Koltès, Mise en scène par Arnaud Meunier. En tournée en salles cet automne. Au Théâtre de la Ville du 20 au 31 janvier 2016.
visuel : photo officielle DR

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France / US / Syria: Our duties as journalists


 In the middle of the latest global events, France has started bombing massively Raqqa, a Syrian city where member if ISIS / Daesh have many basis.

We, as journalists and as French citizens specifically, have a moral duty to keep on informing about the fighting and the evolution of this strategy.

We don't want to let commit let alone commit ourselves any more war crime.

Here is the latest from the Reuters news agency:

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Syrians in Raqqa fear new warplanes in crowded skies

Syrians living under Islamic State rule in its de facto capital of Raqqa fear they will pay the price for the group's Paris attacks with more air strikes.
The town, already being bombed by Russia and a U.S.-led alliance, came under heavy French air raids in the immediate aftermath of the killings in Paris that left 129 dead on Friday evening.
Twenty bombs were dropped, hitting a recruitment and training area and arms depot, the French defense ministry said.
Activists and a group monitoring the Syrian war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the French air strikes appeared accurate, reporting no casualties.
The French air strikes had been preceded by an attack by warplanes from Russia, whose air force has pounded the city several times since September in its own campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"The skies of Raqqa were crowded with warplanes yesterday," said a member of the group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently.
"Several sides targeted the city, creating a state of terror among the citizens, who expect to be the ones who will pay the price for what Daesh did," said the activist, who was contacted by Reuters.
Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
"The waves of air strikes started with the Russians, who during the day targeted a residential neighborhood in the city, leaving five civilian martyrs including one child," said the activist, whose group opposes both Islamic State and the Syrian government.
The activist declined to be identified for security reasons.
The flow of information from Raqqa is highly restricted by Islamic State, which has sought to control communication and movement by its residents, activists say. Movement in the city has been further restricted since the French strikes.
French warplanes carried out nearly 30 raids which hit several city districts and their surroundings, activists said.
EXPLOSIONS
"The sounds of the explosions rocked the city and lit up the sky," said another Raqqa resident contacted by Reuters. "The coalition strikes are much more precise, but the Russian strikes are like the regime's strikes -- indiscriminate," said the resident, contacted by Skype.
Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently posted a video with audio of the rumble of jets overhead which it said was from inside Raqqa. It said the strikes hit two Islamic State centers in Raqqa and an area where Kayla Mueller, a U.S. hostage, had been held before being killed earlier this year.
More than 30 explosions were heard in the Raqqa city area overnight, said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict using a network of sources on the ground.
Raqqa was the first city to fall to rebels fighting to overthrow Assad in 2013 and was controlled by a variety of groups until Islamic State rose to dominance and rapidly eliminated rival insurgents.
Islamic State's foreign fighters, together with their families, now form a sizeable section the city's population, according to a second Raqqa resident contacted by Reuters.
"Many of the residents of the city have fled, but at least 30 to 40 percent of its original inhabitants are still here," said the second resident.
Islamic State, which carries out regular beheadings and corporal punishment in Raqqa, also provides basic services, pays salaries and runs nearly all public institutions in the city, which has helped it gain some local support.
There are signs Islamic State has been planning for impending attacks. It has dug trenches around the city, laid mines and distributed ammunition, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently has reported.
The Raqqa Revolutionaries Front, a Syrian rebel group which is part of a new U.S.-backed alliance in northern Syria, has announced plans for an imminent ground offensive against Islamic State in Raqqa province.
The second resident said: "It’s only during the raids that people get panicky, otherwise life goes on normally. People have become used to this over the past year and a half."
(Writing by Sylvia Westall and Tom Perry; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Giles Elgood)

Read more at Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/17/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKCN0T50OS20151117#jjcIZUf4XdOv1xvE.99 

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You can also read about US President Barack Obama's declaration at the G20 in Turkey, yesterday, here:  

Obama rules out Syria ground invasion in passionate defence of Isis strategy

President responds angrily to mounting pressure to put ‘boots on the ground’ in wake of Paris attacks and warns against toll of repeated US interventions

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/16/obama-rules-out-syria-ground-invasion-paris-attacks


Extracts:

A visibly emotional Barack Obama rejected growing clamour for a US-led ground invasion of Syria on Monday in the most passionate defence yet of his strategy of trying to contain Islamic State extremists rather than treating them as a conventional enemy.

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Obama also launched a savage attack on “shameful” Republican candidates and eastern European politicians who argued Muslim refugees must be kept out of Europe or the US, saying: “We do not have religious tests for our compassion.”

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He added: “We do not have a religious test for people who are fleeing from persecution. It is very important that we do not close out hearts to those victims of such violence.
“When I hear folks say that ‘maybe, well, we should just admit the Christians and not the Muslims’, I hear political leaders suggesting there would be a religious test for which a person fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution – that’s shameful.”
Praising German chancellor Angela Merkel for showing compassion and leadership on the issue of refugees, Obama urged the world to remember the biggest victims of violence in Syria by President Bashar al-Assad were Muslims.

Speaking at a close of G20 press conference in southern Turkey, Obama said: “The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism. They are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife. They are parents. They are children. They are orphans and it is very important ... that we do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism.”
Saying “I will do what is required to keep America safe”, he said defeating Isis would always take time and there will be setbacks, adding Paris was “a terrible setback”.
“There will be an intensification of the strategy that we put forward, but the strategy that we put forward is the strategy that ultimately is going to work,” Obama told reporters. “But ... it is going to take time.
“It is not just my view, but the view of my closest military and civilian advisers, that [boots on the ground] would be a mistake,” the US president added.
He said US intelligence agencies have been concerned about a potential attack on the west by Isis militants for over a year but they did not pick up specific threats about an attack on Paris that would have enabled officials there to respond effectively to deter the assault.
“There were no specific mentions of this particular attack that would give us a sense of something that we could provide French authorities, for example, or act on ourselves,” he said.
He claimed progress was being made in the diplomatic front with Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, on securing a long political transition in Syria, but he added: “There are a number of ways that this diplomatic initiative would falter.”