Burma: Time For Nonviolent Guerilla Warfare

Facebook Group: Support The Monks' Protest In Burma (400,000 Members in 15 days)

Guerrilla warfare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the unconventional warfare and combat with which small group combatants (usually civilians) use mobile tactics (ambushes, raids, etc) to combat a larger, less mobile formal army. The guerrilla army uses defense (draw enemy forces to terrain unsuited to them) and mobility (advantage and surprise) in attacking vulnerable targets in enemy territory. ....... The upper end is composed of a fully integrated political-military strategy, comprising both large and small units

Those Out West: Australia, Japan, Europe, America

Collect and disseminate the news. Launch and grow organizations. Use open and clandestine tools. Raise money, tons of money. Raise money online from whoever. Hold rallies, small and large. Lobby elected officials.

Reach out to the democracy activists in Thailand and India. They are closer to the ground. They can do more. Fund them. Money is key.

Use online tools. Google News, Google's Blogger (you can set it up private or public), Google Talk.

Those In Thailand And India

You are the bridge between the larger diaspora and those inside Burma.

Those Inside Burma

Maintain and strengthen your clandestine network of democracy activists. You need a national network. But Rangoon is going to be the battlefield.

There has to be an inner core of the trusted members. Then there has to be an outer ring of activists who do much of the legwork but who are largely unknown, to the public as well as to the regime. When the telephone is not an option, use teenagers as couriers over short distances from house to house.

There is only one way to do this: by getting millions to come out into the streets.

There has to be a clear political goal, and there has to be clear political action.

What could that goal be? An unconditional release of all political prisoners, and a recognition of the 1990 parliament as the legitimate parliament. That parliament will function as the interim parliament, will draw up an interim constitution, it will get one year to hold elections to a constituent assembly.

What will be the action? You perhaps start by calling for shutting down the country for four days, and holding street rallies during those four days. You build during those four days. On the fourth day you announce the shutdown will be indefinite until the two political demands are met.

Expect a few hundred people to die. Expect a few thousands to get injured. Expect 10,000 to get arrested.

Psychological Warfare

The camera is your gun. The military should be scared of every window in Rangoon. This is war with communications technology.

Momentum

The hundreds who died recently: they did not die in vain. This momentum should not be lost.

Burma: Time For Hyper Action
The World Is Failing Burma
Burma: Than Shwe Is Going To The Hague
Britain Is Betraying Burma
Burma: Time For All Out Sanctions By All Powers
Burma: Momentum Is Key To Victory
In Solidarity With The Burmese People









On The Web

On Guerrilla Warfare
Guerrilla Warfare
[PDF] Guerrilla Warfare CHAPTER I: GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF GUERRILLA WARFARE
PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS IN GUERRILLA WARFARE Guerrilla warfare is essentially a political war. Therefore, its area of operations exceeds the territorial limits of conventional warfare, to penetrate the political entity itself: the "political animal" that Aristotle defined...... In effect,the human being should be considered the priority objective in a political war. And conceived as the military target of guerrilla war, the human being has his most critical point in his mind. Once his mind has been reached, the"political animal" has been defeated, without necessarily receiving bullets....... Guerrilla warfare is born and grows in the political environment; in the constant combat to dominate that area of political mentality that is inherent to all human beings and which collectively constitutes the "environment" in which guerrilla warfare moves, and which is where precisely its victory or failure is defined. ...... This conception of guerrilla warfare as political war turns Psychological Operations into the decisive factor of the results. The target, then, is the minds of the population, all the population: our troops, the enemy troops and the civilian population.
Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare
guerrilla warfare -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
DEVELOP GUERRILLA WARFARE TO NEW HEIGHTS

Michelle's Little Accident: This Looks Bad On Obama 2008

1. Why was a 22 year old driving that van? Why not a seasoned driver?
2. Why was there not a caravan of three vehicles? One in the front, one in the rear?
   
3. Was the guy in the motorbike wearing a helmet at least? If not, did he get a ticket?
   

In The News

UN Security Council Blasts Burma Sky News, United Kingdom
Burma man dies under torture The Australian
In Burma, the silent oppression goes on The Age
Junta told that UN 'deplores' Burmese violence Independent
Burma's illegal opium crops extremely alarming: UN ABC Online, Australia
Burma centre of opium production in Asia The Age
Burma sees upsurge in opium production Financial Times
Production of opium doubles over two years Bangkok Post
Burma changing, slowly but surely BBC News, UK
A junta synonymous with horror Bangkok Post
Burmese Monks Regroup for Struggle Against Military Government Voice of America Monks fleeing the military crackdown in Burma say they are regrouping in preparation for more peaceful demonstrations. Many of those monks are going across the border to Thailand where they are gathering support and resources to continue their struggle. ...... to, in his words, tell the outside world that the monks' struggle for democracy and justice in Burma is not over. ...... "The struggle will go on. Now, the people are re-energizing" ....... U Tun Win is a member of the Burmese parliament that was elected in 1990 but blocked from taking office. Members of his group, the Arakan League for Democracy, led protesters who took over the town hall in the western Burmese city of Sittwe last month. ......... Bo Kyi thinks technology and the flow of information will help expose human rights violations in Burma and bring about change. ..... The military has ruled Burma since 1962. It crushed major demonstrations in 1974 and again in 1988.
Burma protest leader blasts UN The Age An organiser of the protest movement in Rangoon has blasted UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari for bowing to the Burmese regime and achieving nothing in his visit to Burma. Surinder Karkar Singh, also known as Ayea Myint and U Pancha (the Punjabi), helped organise the civilian protection circles that ringed the monks as they marched through the streets of Rangoon for eight days. "Nothing was achieved. I am fed up," the Sikh Burmese man said. ....... U Pancha is now in Mae Sot, Thailand, where many Burmese opposition groups in exile are based. He gave a rare insight into the first days of the protest and how the organisers responded as the movement grew. ..... "I participated in 1988, then I retired. I took up the protest again because prices were rising and people were starving around me," he said. "I was not at all frightened. I participated in the forefront. I was prepared to die." ...... "There were only about 100 to start with. We let the monks lead. I was in charge of surrounding the monks for protection. ........ That night we had a hurried meeting because of the support and made three streams of people to go to different points in the city. On the 19th the groups exceeded 100,000." ....... That night, they got word the military had issued a shoot-to-kill edict. After a heated meeting they elected to proceed. ... "In the midst of our marching, Battalion 77 refused to take the order to shoot to kill," he said. ....... From September 21 to 25, the protests were peaceful and the crowds increased. On the night of 25th, the military command changed from 77th battalion to 66th battalion ...... the 26th and 27th as the most bloody days, with bloodshed on the roads. ...... "When three monks went to beg them not to use violence, they started beating the monks and shooting," U Pancha said. .... "On the 26th, I led 100,000, with 5000 to 6000 monks. People were not scared. I thought we were winning. In the midst of flying bullets we were able to march. We had people in side streets with stones and rocks ready to give protection to the protesters." ..... On the 27th, the monks were gone, and the crowd dwindled to 2000 to 3000. "Many people were scared on 27th," he said. "When the Japanese (photographer) was shot, they (knew) the Government would shoot even foreigners." By the 28th, the movement had all but disintegrated. U Pancha waited in Rangoon, in hiding, until October 4 to see the outcome of the UN mission. Bitterly disappointed, he fled to Thailand. He is determined to fight on. "I am still a leader, we have leaders inside and outside," he said. "We are only pausing, not surrendering."
UN issues weak rebuke of Burma violence Bangkok Post, Thailand
UN Envoy to Return to Asia Amid Continuing Burma Crisis Voice of America
Why Burma is not Iraq Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt
India gives no ground on Burma Nation Multimedia
India 'close to Burma port deal' BBC News
Burmese dissident 'tortured to death' Bangkok Post
Tourists trickle into Burma as calm returns Bangkok Post, Thailand
Burmese Crackdown Crushes Local Tourism Industry Voice of America
Burma burning Ha'aretz, Israel At almost every corner there was a group of three or four soldiers with rifles at the ready. Barricades were up at key intersections and coils of barbed wire were ready to be unrolled if needed. The soldiers' presence did not prevent the bustling street life from resuming its former pattern, but the regime's message to the country's citizens was unmistakable. ....... and informed me that I was being deported from the country that evening. ...... the deportation order stated, among other points, that I had met with members of the opposition party, "and that is problem here." ....... I met with them in a variety of places, always fearful of the man standing next to them, across the road, in the adjacent building or in the nearby car. Most of them asked me not to seek them out a second time. ...... The regime, they said, made a considerable effort to get rid of the bodies of the dead. At first they threw them into the river, and after photographs of floating bodies began to appear on the Internet, the soldiers burned the bodies in two crematoria that were built in towns near the capital. Some of the opposition people said that wounded demonstrators were buried alive. ....... In the final days of the demonstrations, opposition figures were seen trying to persuade people on the street to join the random demonstrations, but fewer and fewer did so. ........ to document the unfolding events. The military regime treats images of the demonstrations as a major threat. Not only because they show its crimes and might bring heightened international pressure to bear on the country, but because they also illustrate the scale of opposition to the government. Scenes of large numbers of people demonstrating in the streets might induce the resistance to try again. ........ When the demonstrations began, participants were given leaflets explaining how to upload films on the Internet by means of blogs and file-sharing sites such as YouTube. ....... the violence unleashed in the monasteries was apparently far more brutal than that perpetrated by the soldiers on the streets as the public watched and photographs were taken. The few available photographs of the monasteries show bloodstains on the floor and empty robes scattered about. ........ The heart of the resistance movement in Burma is located in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, four kilometers from the Thailand-Burma border bridge. ...... out of 100,000 refugees in Mae Sot, only 40,000 have legal status. The Thai police carry out frequent raids in the town and expel those who are there illegally. ....... the government sent thousands of troops to the south, for fear that militiamen would enter the cities and assist in the nonviolent struggle of the monks and the NLD. ...... An NLD member of the elected parliament (in the 1990 elections), Win Hlaing, meets with me at his party's headquarters in the town. Now 47, he was one of the leaders of the student uprising in 1988, and left Burma in February of this year together with other party members in an attempt to reorganize the resistance to the regime in more convenient conditions and far from the tentacles of the government. Many of his friends could not tolerate the total social isolation that was forced on them. ........ The four goals of his party at the present time, he says, are: making public full information about the government's suppression in the past few weeks, self-defense against the junta's persecution of the opposition, rallying the public for another round of demonstrations, and strengthening the ties of solidarity between the party and the ethnic minorities in the country, which are fighting the government in the name of self-determination. ........ On the second floor is the party spokesman, Niang We, and another key activist, Han Te. On their desk is the International Herald Tribune and a few other Western papers, rare commodities in Burma, which they receive every day in the mail from the U.S. Embassy. The two emphasized that the party strengthens the monks and is taking part in the struggle, but that its people are definitely not leading the current wave of protests. ........ If you had asked people two months ago whether a protest like this was possible in Burma, they would have laughed at you. No one believed that anything like this could happen in Burma." ....... The demonstrators know that of 100,000 demonstrators, only a few thousand were arrested, so the next time it will be that much easier to get the people into the streets. ....... He says he saw soldiers beating monks to death with blows to the head, and also heard that some monks were burned alive. ....... The monks thought the army would not dare take violent measures against them because of their special status in society. They were wrong. ...... They then tied five of them to electricity poles and beat them before the eyes of the people. In the police station they removed their robes, an act that is considered degrading. ........ a few officials from the Ministry for Religious Affairs came to the monastery in an attempt to work out a reconciliation. The monks locked the officials in a room and burned their cars. They did not release them until the evening. They demanded that the government apologize for its treatment of the monks and threatened that otherwise they would refuse to accept gifts from the members of the government, a move that was liable to undermine the legitimacy of the regime, which considers itself Buddhist. The military junta refused to apologize and the monks performed a ceremony signifying a boycott of government gifts. ........... The monks and nuns who are taking part in the political protest constitute only a minority of their total number in the country - some 400,000 to 500,000 in a population of 50 million. ...... - suffering because of the high prices, which make it impossible to buy food or clothes, suffering from the forced conscription into the army, suffering from the government's repressive measures. ....... Do you think the protest can be renewed? "I cannot say when, but it is inevitable. The smallest event could rekindle the protest. You have to understand that forms of intimidation do not necessarily affect the monks who are demonstrating. So it is like a bomb on a lit fuse, with only the smallest flame missing to set it off." ...... Are you waiting for it? "Yes, and I hope that this time the monks will triumph. I think that my whole life, at least the present one, I was looking for a place where I could meditate quietly. Three years ago the monastery sent me to Canada in order to teach in a monastery there for 18 months. I discovered that it was a Buddhist country, even though no one there is Buddhist. The country is Buddhist in the inhabitants' attitude toward living beings, in the sympathy they show for other people and even for animals."
A history of repression Ha'aretz
The UN must protect Burma’s The Times, South Africa
Burma bloggers return as regime lifts blackout Guardian Unlimited has allowed anti-government bloggers to post for the first time since the height of pro-democracy protests last month. ...... last night the authorities temporarily lifted the restriction on internet access. ..... The move is being seen as a sign of confidence by the regime that it can control the protests. ..... the internet was only accessible during the curfew hours: 10pm to 4am. ...... she posted comments for the first time since September 27, the second day of a bloody crack down on the demonstrations. ...... She pointed out that it is "ironic" that pro-government protesters have been allowed to carry out their demonstrations. She also reveals that people inside Burma are getting news of the crisis from external media. ...... Most internet shops in Rangoon are still closed, according to Mizzima. ...... a hugely popular protest group set up on the social network site Facebook reports that some of its administrators have been sent intimidating emails. ...... The group, which has attracted almost 400,000 members, has been used to spread news about the protests in Burma. ...... Amnesty today launched a campaign called Unsubscribe, aimed harnessing the power of bloggers and social networking to highlight abuse around the world.

The next head of the army BBC patience, diligence, intelligence and sheer determination. ..... Gen Kiani's clan is one of the largest and most powerful in the northern Jhelum area of Pakistan's largest province, Punjab. ....... He is a graduate of army colleges in Quetta and Islamabad, and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in the US. ...... Gen Kiani is president of the Pakistan Golf Association and an avid golfer. ...... He is respected in the army as a professional soldier who deliberately keeps a low profile. ....... Gen Kiani has never been seen a part of President Musharraf's inner circle. But the president has always turned to him when the going gets tough. ........ In his book, In the Line of Fire, President Musharraf writes how the investigations into the attacks initially ran into problems because of inter-agency rivalries. ...... "But these disappeared when I appointed Kiani in charge of investigations," the president wrote. ....... Soon after he was made the head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. ...... Gen Kiani again emerged as a saviour, helping with attempts to broker a power-sharing deal with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. ...... Gen Kiani has patiently bided his time while the names of other potentials were bandied around.
Society in ferment The protests were crushed, but politically Burma has awoken despite the military crackdown, there is still a feeling on the streets of Rangoon that regime change could happen. ...... Rangoon is an untidy place, its colonial-era buildings are mildewed and crumbling, and washing flaps from the windows. ...... Step off the main avenues and you will find streets that are cracked and potholed, filled with cars, motorbikes, bicycles, rickshaws, mangy dogs and crowds of people - Burmese of many ethnic backgrounds... the ethnic majority Burmans, the Indians, the Karen and the Shan, the Chinese, and many others. ........ even a population of Burmese Jews with their own vibrant synagogue. ...... The watchers are everywhere, though you can often spot them for they are conspicuously well dressed. ....... They wear clean and well-pressed shirts and are sleek with good living. Unlike most Burmese, they do not smile back when you smile at them. ....... In the daily newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar - the junta's name for Burma - there are full-page advertisements attacking foreign media, with the BBC singled out for special venom. ...... A secret policeman is in the business of fear. ...... the everyday conversations in markets or at tea stalls, where public rage against the regime was expressed in forceful terms. ........ The protests have been crushed for now, but nobody should make the mistake of believing that the moment has been lost. ...... What I detected more than anything else was a society in ferment, still coming to terms with the unprecedented assault on the clergy, but awakened to its own potential to create change. .......... A time was coming, I thought, when one might walk the streets of Rangoon, past the tea shops and the little restaurants, the sellers of jasmine and incense, and find a familiar face with whom to sit and drink tea and talk of the days of fear, knowing that they belonged to history.
Taleban's backyard Meeting militants roaming unhindered in Pakistan's tribal areas the man who arguably is Pakistan's most feared militant. ....... Baitullah Mehsud ..... The shop is full of customers, many of whom carry AK-47 rifles. ..... Jandola marks the beginning of their territory which extends right up to the Afghan border. ..... The militants drive in cars captured from the army .... Shias are despised by the predominantly Sunni Muslim Taleban. ....... When our contacts finally arrive, the change in the atmosphere is electric as their leader walked in. ....... a harsh, arid terrain, with craggy and forbidding mountains lining the horizon. ........ Fedayeen - literally those who sacrifice themselves - is the Taleban honorific for a suicide bomber. ....... The Taleban take advantage of solar energy ..... Before partition, he says, Mehsud tribesmen ambushed a 200-vehicle British convoy here. ...... not a single man escaped as the British forces were cut down. ........ another invading army - this time in the form of the Pakistani military - is also trying to blunder its way through. ......... in this territory, there is almost a complete absence of Pakistani soldiers: there are only abandoned check posts and fortifications. ...... "We will not tolerate the presence of any armed men other than our own in our territory." ...... we pass through several small villages. The reaction of the people is startling - the children smile and wave, while the adults look on with respect and pride. It appears that local support for the militants is almost universal. ..... What we didn't know at this stage was that Baitullah Mehsud was not here, but away fighting in Afghanistan.

Obama: Clinton's vote for Iran measure repeats Iraq mistake CNN Sen. Barack Obama: President could use Iran measure to justify military action ...... Obama says Sen. Hillary Clinton's vote for resolution shows "flawed" judgment ..... Clinton says vote will permit sanctions against Iran, not military action ...... Differences with Clinton will be clear in "next phase" of campaign, Obama says ....... Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday criticized a recent vote by Democratic presidential rival Sen. Hillary Clinton as helping to give President Bush a "blank check" to take military action against Iran. ......... Last month, Clinton voted to support a resolution declaring Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite part of the Iranian military, a foreign terrorist group. (The nonbinding amendment to the Defense Authorization Act passed by a 76-22 vote.) .......... there was embodied in this legislation, or this resolution sent to the Senate, language that would say our Iraqi troop structures should in part be determined by our desire to deal with Iran ......... Earlier this month, Clinton also co-sponsored legislation with Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, that would prohibit military operations against Iran without congressional approval. ....... the fifth anniversary of the 77-23 Senate vote that authorized the president to use force against Iraq.
Clinton engages in heated exchange over Iran
Obama: I'm moving into new phase of campaign Baltimore Sun, United States Obama’s stump speeches have focused heavily on his biography ...... a down day in Chicago to rest and record some new campaign commercials, is appearing on CNN today to say that he is now ready for the “next phase” of his campaign, as he seeks to do a better job of clarifying his differences with Democratic frontrunner Sen. Hillary Hillary Clinton of New York. ....... Obama also suggested he could better unite the country and offer "something new, as opposed to looking backwards and simply duplicating some of the politics that we've become so accustomed to that frankly the American people are sick of” ....... He turned a bit coy when asked whether he would consider Clinton as a running mate, should he win his party’s nomination. .... “Sen. Clinton is a very capable person,” Obama said. “Right now my goal is to make sure I am the nominee and she is still the senator from New York.”
Obama shakes up his campaign staff Chicago Sun-Times, United States reorganizing his campaign, deploying key staff from the Chicago headquarters to Feb. 5 primary states while bolstering the ranks of his top leadership. ....... Obama is pushing to have organizations in place in the more than 20 states holding a primary or caucus vote on Feb. 5, a second wave after the crucial first January votes in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. ......... Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett, the CEO of Habitat Co. and Steve Hildebrand, now the deputy campaign manager. ....... "We're the smartest political people in America because we are actually organizing in the states instead of sitting in the headquarters," Hildebrand said. "This is what a campaign does. You organize where the votes are. This has always been the plan." ...... Eureka Gilkey, who served as Deputy Political Director for the campaign, will be the Georgia State Director ...... reassigned policy chief Mark Alexander to the job of New Jersey State director. ..... Jon Carson moves from Illinois State Director to voter contact director for the Feb. 5 states. Nate Tamarin, who was Carson's deputy, becomes the Illinois State Director.

Can He Save the Planet and Win the Presidency? Washington Post if he has pulled off a unique grand slam for 2007: an Oscar, an Emmy, a bestseller and a Nobel. ........ A great honor, they say, but not something that anyone around him expects to happen. ...... "His mind is trained on solving the global climate crisis; it really is. He's much more likely to view a possible Nobel through that prism than through a campaign for president." .......... Had she run into stronger resistance within the party, the pressure on Gore to jump in might have genuinely increased. To jump in now would be to risk a direct clash. ....... One line of argument has been that Gore still harbors resentment toward the Clintons and believes that the former president's misdeeds contributed to his failure to win the White House in 2000. And that because she backed the resolution authorizing the Iraq war in 2002 and never renounced the vote, Gore would be inclined to lend his support to someone who either opposed it (Barack Obama) or recanted his vote (John Edwards).
Canadian a leading contender for Peace Prize Globe and Mail Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the internationally known Canadian Inuit environmental activist ........ the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN-backed scientific body that has been a crucial source of information on the effects of global warming and ways to prevent it. ....... the message that the world's Inuit face a unique threat to their Arctic home due to global warming. .... Ms. Watt-Cloutier was the former chairwoman of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, a group representing the 150,000 Inuit spread through Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia....... "I do nothing more than remind the world that the Arctic is not a barren land devoid of life but a rich and majestic land that has supported our resilient culture for millennia," she said recently about her work.
Al Gore Called Away Unexpectedly for 'Exciting and Urgent Mission' FOX News

In Iowa, the Candidate's Wife Introduces the 'Real Obamas' Washington Post From Waterloo to Iowa Falls and Fort Dodge to Boone, Michelle Obama picked up her campaign pace this week, telling enthusiastic audiences that her husband can change the nation. She urged a group seated on folding chairs in a library basement here, "Just dream. If you reach into your hearts and act without fear, we can do something special." .... Michelle Obama's role, as she describes it, is to introduce "the real Obamas, not the resumes." In a stump speech that she varies and delivers without notes ...... she met this biracial guy from Hawaii with a funny name who overcame her skepticism by being authentic and principled -- and cute. ....... old Washington hands led the nation into war because of their "inability to see the forest for the trees." ....... Noting that skeptics ask whether he can take the GOP's best shot and still win, she reminded her audience of the political rough and tumble of his adopted town: "Look, we live in Chicago. Need I say more?" ....... her tenth trip to Iowa, but her first campaign overnight without daughters Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, who remain in school in Chicago. She leaves for a London fundraising excursion on Sunday and expects to be a regular in Iowa and New Hampshire, with additional stops in South Carolina and Nevada, in the two and a half months or so before voting begins. ........ she is undaunted by Clinton's lead, remembering her husband's improbable victory in the 2004 Illinois Senate race against well-known and well-funded Democrats backed by the party establishment. ....... Clinton is overplaying her inevitability theme, and will be upbraided by independent-minded Iowa and New Hampshire voters. ...... "This is the beginning of the race. People are just starting to pay attention." ....... workshops with names such as "message training," "policy training," "grassroots organizing" and "caucus activity." ......... Obama, who worked for three years in impoverished South Side neighborhoods after graduating from Columbia University ..... "The real action is not in the last 100 days, it's in the last 30."

Obama’s New Web Ad on War Vote New York Times the day several of his Democratic presidential rivals voted for the war resolution in the early morning hours of Oct. 11, 2002. .... College crowd for Obama off the hot primary track Baltimore Sun the first major election-season event in a state considered more valuable for its campaign donations than its delegates or strategic spot in the primary calendar. ...... In the heart of one of the wealthiest African-American communities in the nation, Obama attracted a diverse crowd that greeted with relish his call for a new energy policy and an end to the Iraq war. ....... College students with identification got in last night for $15. ...... The sophistication of the Obama campaign was on display at the table where volunteers were sold $20 T-shirts and $3 buttons as if at a rock concert. A shirt with Obama's face sold out; "ObamaMama" and "Got Hope?" varieties were also popular. ....... "He's definitely appealing to college students. He's doing things to reach us, and that's appreciated," said Trisha Chakraborty, 18, a freshman at the Johns Hopkins University who drove 40 miles south with several classmates. "I'm looking for someone fresh and new, who's not jaded by the process," she said. ........ "A long resume doesn't guarantee good judgment," said Obama ...... Andrew Frett, 18, who drove 2 1/2 hours from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, called Obama's speech "profound." ..... After the outdoor rally, Obama retreated inside for a reception with wealthier donors, who paid at least $1,000 for the more intimate encounter.
Obama Calls for an End to Arrogance New York Times “We’ve had enough arrogance in this White House.” ...... reprising their disagreement over meeting with foreign dictators.
Obama Campaigns in Maryland The Associated Press he alone has "the experience America needs right now." ..... He has been endorsed by black state lawmakers, including Rep. Elijah Cummings, a recent chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. ..... 2,500 people attended the rally. Some were high school students who had received free tickets.
Clinton Defends Staying on Mich. Ballot The Associated Press
Clinton Faces Men, Glass Ceiling in Iowa The Associated Press the state's tradition of turning a cold shoulder to female candidates. ....... Iowa is one of only two states — Mississippi is the other — that have never sent a woman to Congress or the governor's mansion. ....... "I was so touched the first time I shook the hand of a woman and she reached out and grabbed my hand and said to me, `I'm 95 years old. I was born before women could vote and I'm going to live long enough to see a woman in the White House!'" Clinton said in Dakota City. ...... Clinton now leading in Iowa among Democrats, with 29 percent support, up from 21 percent. ..... Clinton spent two days campaigning with two of Iowa's best known political women — former first lady Christie Vilsack and Ruth Harkin, wife of Sen. Tom Harkin. The trio stopped at a Maid-Rite restaurant for its famous loose meat sandwiches, and Clinton chatted up their server, Anita Esterday. ....... her plan for universal 401(k) accounts. ..... Iowans' desire to vote for a woman is something Roxanne Conlin hears frequently. Conlin is a co-chair of Edwards' Iowa campaign, and lost a close race for governor in 1982. She attributes the defeat to her gender. ..... "Iowa is in some significant ways a very traditional state," Conlin said. "I see so many women who say, `For crying out loud, it's our time. We've waited so long.'"

Google Tops Charts in Global Search PC World
Report: Google phone coming soon CNNMoney.com
Blinkx challenges Google in video ad arena AFP

Amitabh's early years Rediff

Special session of the House begins NepalNews
MPs raise grave concern over journalist Shah's abduction
Maoist proposal won’t resolve deadlock: MK Nepal

Ready to run the movie again? The Economist (she is forever bursting out laughing, whether it is appropriate or not, to counteract the idea that she has no sense of humour). ....... If George Bush senior reminded women of their first husband, Mrs Clinton reminds men of their first wife. ......... the presidential field is full of people who are “different” in some way, from John McCain, the oldest man to run for president, to Rudy Giuliani, the most divorced man to run for president, to Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon, to Dennis Kucinich, who is, well, Dennis Kucinich. ........ Mrs Clinton now exudes an overwhelming air of competence. Mr Bush is widely regarded as one of the most incompetent presidents in American history—a man who rushed blind into Baghdad, who filled his administration with lacklustre cronies, who bungled the handling of Hurricane Katrina and who famously claimed that he could not think of a single mistake he had made. Mrs Clinton is the anti-Bush: a woman who speaks in clear sentences, who has a formidable command of the facts, and who, on health care, is willing to learn from her mistakes. ........... Over 100m Americans have never known anybody but a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. ....... Mrs Clinton will bring back the same cast of characters that everybody wearied of in the 1990s, from slick money-raisers like Terry McAuliffe to professional conservative-haters like Sidney Blumenthal. ........ Mr Clinton remarked that he once told Hillary, when they were both students at Yale, that “I have met all the most gifted people in our generation and you're the best.” .......... Mrs Clinton is still surrounded by the same fanatically loyal and combative staff that she had in the 1990s. America will be stuck not just in the same tired culture war, but also in the same culture war fought by the same characters. ......... All told, she looks likely to translate this into both the Democratic nomination and a victory in November 2008. But whether a Clinton restoration will be good for America is a much more difficult question.

Obama's wife in van hit by motorcycle USA Today
Michelle Obama's van involved in Iowa crash Chicago Tribune
Michelle Obama not hurt in Iowa car crash Chicago Sun-Times
Michelle Obama's van involved in Iowa crash Chicago Tribune
Briefs: Motorcycle hits Obama van Chicago Daily Herald, IL

A hot date briefly takes Obama off campaign trail Baltimore Sun, United States his 15th wedding anniversary. ..... Obama has repeatedly made it clear that he prefers the South Side White Sox.
Michelle Obama: 'He swept me off my feet' Chicago Sun-Times, United States Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama had been dating for a couple of years, and she was tired of his endless debates about whether marriage still meant anything as an institution. ....... So when Obama launched into one of those discussions yet again over dinner at a fancy restaurant in 1991, Robinson lit into her boyfriend, lecturing him on the need to get serious in their relationship. ....... Then dessert came. On the plate was a box. Inside was an engagement ring. ..... "He said, 'That kind of shuts you up, doesn't it?' " Michelle Obama recounted years later. ........ Everybody at the firm had been buzzing about the smart, first-year Harvard Law School student, so she was expecting him to be "nerdy, strange, off-putting." ...... because of their professional relationship, Michelle Robinson tried to fix Obama up with her friends
Could A "Hidden" Youth Vote Propel Obama? CBS News, NY greater media attention, campaign cash, and support from the political establishment. ...... barely one in five potential voters usually shows up to their caucus. ..... "The voters tend to be older, less well educated, and less affluent generally than primary voters in larger states." ...... about 100,000 Iowans participated in the Democratic caucuses -- it doesn't take a huge number of new supporters to swing the vote in a candidate's favor. ..... "In all my many years of political activity I have not seen a candidate with Obama's talent. I have not seen young people as excited about a candidate, including Dean. He's just on a different level. He's so energized young people, and it's not just young people -- there's minorities, independents, even some Republicans, people who don't normally caucus." ........ "The campaign has told me that they're looking at young people as the icing on the cake, but they're still baking the cake," he says. "They're working very, very hard with traditional caucus goers, whatever their age." ..... Obama spent much of September in Iowa ...... Iowans tend to reward candidates who spend time in the state, shaking hands with locals and engaging in retail politics. They also reward a good statewide organization
Obama Hopes to Surprise Clinton in Iowa ABC News Barack Obama's hopes for the Democratic nomination hinge on getting hundreds of thousands of new voters fired up enough to actually turn out and on spending a good chunk of his $80 million at the very end of a front-loaded campaign. ......... Continue building Obama's support among both traditional and nontraditional voters. ...... blacks and young people even high school seniors. ...... "If they show up every Wednesday night to volunteer in your local office, do you think they aren't going to show up on election night?" ....... While Dean, like Obama, attracted a lot of out-of-staters to Iowa to volunteer, the Obama campaign is careful to make sure that locals are leading the outreach to residents. ........ much more methodical about counting votes ...... taking a page from Edwards' 2004 strategy by concentrating on rural areas ..... put Obama in as many rural counties as possible before Clinton can get there and to line up prominent farmers and rural leaders early. And each time Obama visits a rural county, he records a thank you message to the community that is played on local radio an inexpensive way to advertise.
See Dick Morris Seethe About Hillary FOX News Two years ago, Dick took the position that only Condi Rice could beat Hillary. ........ his kids aren’t speaking to him, 9/11 survivors and relief workers are attacking him, and his wife is calling him in the middle of speeches. ....... To succeed in a presidential campaign, you have to have a very well-lit fire in your belly. Without it, you step back, become too cautious, and don’t move.
Obama Campaigns in Maryland The Associated Press
Obama Raises Cash in Affluent Black Washington Suburb MyFox Washington DC a Washington suburb that is among the nation's wealthiest majority-black counties. ....... Prince George's County, a majority black jurisdiction ....... Rep. Elijah Cummings, a black Baltimore Democrat who recently was chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. Cummings is hosting the Wednesday event along with Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler.
Barack Obama: World's Worst Negotiator Huffington Post, NY
Obama Urges Schwarzenegger to Let Illegal Immigrants Get Aid Chronicle of Higher Education
Barack Obama minus the audacity to be himself Daily Star - Lebanon, Lebanon John F. Kennedy was "graceful" precisely in his unscripted moments of irreverence and wit. Ronald Reagan, too, mastered the art of controlled spontaneity; people accused him of reading his lines, but his real gift was an actor's ability to improvise. ......... He may be the smartest candidate in either party this year, and also the most visionary. But traveling with him, you get the sense that he's tight as a tick. He's Mr. Cool, holding himself back, wary of letting audiences see either his passion or his vulnerability. .......... RFK is such an icon now that we forget how cold and calculating he had been through most of his career, the opposite of his elegant and witty older brother. ........ A turning point was a speech at Kansas State University the day after the brooding Kennedy finally announced he would run. "His voice flat and stammering, his right leg shaking, Kennedy began tentatively, but then cut loose," Thomas writes, and an aide said "the field house sounded like it was inside Niagara Falls." Thomas quotes campaign reporter Jules Witcover on how Kennedy fed off the roiling response: "He himself seemed to be pulled up on it like a small boy on a towering seaside breaker, riding it willingly, daringly, with evident exhilaration." ......... It's not a bad book, but it has been leached of emotion. ....... In private, you sense that he has a self-deprecating wit and a sense of the absurd. But it rarely surfaces in public, where he often displays an earnest self-seriousness that makes Al Gore seem lighthearted. ...... When Bobby Kennedy finally put all the pieces together in the 1968 California primary, he became a different candidate. His adviser Richard Goodwin wrote, "The change in Kennedy was startling. The frantic sense of the early campaign, the harsh, punched lines, defensively seeking assurance in assertion and command of fact, were gone. There was now an easy grace, a strength that was unafraid of softness."
Obama goes to ground in Georgia Atlanta Journal Constitution, USA The Obama campaign will open a staff headquarters in Atlanta on Nov. 1 - just three months before the Feb. 5 presidential primary in Georgia. ...... Georgia serves as an excellent source of manpower for its efforts in South Carolina.
Obama to add offices to Nevada organization Las Vegas Sun a total of 50 field workers in the state. ...... "Our focus has really been on building an organization precinct by precinct in Nevada" ....... Democratic campaigns have been building organizations, but have devoted very limited candidate attention and almost no media spending to the state. ...... Clinton has not campaigned in Nevada for nearly eight weeks .... State polls have shown Clinton with a firm lead over both Obama and Edwards. Candidate visits and grassroots organizing don't appear to have changed that. ..... Bill Richardson, the candidate who has dedicated the most time to retail politics in Nevada

Judge Suspends Key Bush Effort in Immigration New York Times
Federal judge puts brakes on illegal immigration crackdown San Jose Mercury News
Putin Sees No Proof of Iran Arms Plans New York Times
Nepal Ponders Monarchy's Fate Amid Security Concerns Voice of America
Student, 14, Shoots 4 and Kills Himself in Cleveland School New York Times
Missing Atlantic City Mayor Resigns New York Times
House Panel Raises Furor on Armenian Genocide New York Times A House committee voted on Wednesday to condemn the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in World War I as an act of genocide, rebuffing an intense campaign by the White House and warnings from Turkey’s government that the vote would gravely strain its relations with the United States. ...... the politically influential Armenian-American population ..... California, New Jersey and Michigan, with their large Armenian populations ..... A total of 1.5 million Armenians were killed beginning in 1915 in a systematic campaign by the fraying Ottoman Empire to drive Armenians out of eastern Turkey. Turks acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died but contend that the deaths, along with thousands of others, resulted from the war that ended with the creation of modern Turkey in 1923. ............. about 70 percent of all air cargo sent to Iraq passed through or came from Turkey, as did 30 percent of fuel and virtually all the new armored vehicles designed to withstand mines and bombs. ...... Turkey severed military ties with France after its Parliament voted in 2006 to make the denial of the Armenian genocide a crime. ....... a 92-year-old question. ....... Parliamentary approval would bring Turkey the closest it has been since 2003 to a full-scale military offensive into Iraq. ...... “Memories of Turks, however, are not that easy to erase once it hits sensitive spots.”
2 Women Killed in Security Shooting Are Buried in Iraq New York Times
Obama Says Clinton Giving 'Revisionist History' on Iraq Washington Post a different critique: Clinton as a flip-flopper. ....... she indicates she was only authorizing only inspectors or additional diplomacy." ....... and not waffle," Obama said. ...... who got the most important foreign policy discussion since the Cold War right and who got it wrong."
Clinton Switches Gears for NH Washington Post after being introduced at a town hall meeting by Kedar Gupta, one of the founders of the company. ..... the giant banner with "Rebuilding the road to the middle class" emblazoned across it to remind audiences of this week's theme.
Obama Runs Energy Ad in NH The Associated Press
Obama Says Rivals Have Failed The Associated Press He said active trading is a key way to keep the United States competitive. ........ "We're not going to draw a moat around the United States' economy. If we do that, then China is still trading, India is still going to be trading" ...... not because I have some perfect solution that every other expert and every other candidate has somehow missed, but because I believe the American people are ready for a president who can unite us around a common purpose," he said. ....... a president who has spent most of his time in office denying the very existence of global warming, suggesting that it might be a hoax," Obama said. ....... he would not pledge to stop all new nuclear power plants.
Running mate not only job Clinton could offer Obama Chicago Tribune "Conventional thinkers like to make this sound risky, pairing a woman and a black man on the ticket," Quindlen wrote in her open letter to Clinton. "But ... anyone who would be put off by Obama isn't going to vote for you [Clinton] in the first place." .......... there are few factors that are harder to predict than race and gender. ........ if elected president, Clinton would offer Obama a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Clinton Unveils Her Retirement Savings Plan New York Times
Giuliani, Romney Try to Make 2-Man Race The Associated Press
Hate-Crime Investigation at Columbia New York Times A hangman’s noose was found hanging on the door of a black professor’s office at Columbia University Teachers College ..... Madonna Constantine, 44, a prominent author, educator and psychologist....... The discovery of the noose — a widely reviled symbol of black lynchings in the South and elsewhere — sparked anger and fierce debate across the campus. ........ “Jena at Columbia” ...... a major opportunity for Columbia to begin the process of dealing directly and honestly with race and racism. It’s a hot button issue that is representative of the larger community and society.” ......... “At the beginning, we were shocked that something like this would happen. Then, we felt angry.”
'Bihar needs Central fund' Times of India A single index of backwardness in any state is its per capita power consumption. But in a state like Bihar the per capita power consumption is 75 KW as against a national average of 600 KW.
India’s communists confident of blocking nuclear deal Daily Times The deal will allow energy-hungry India to buy civilian nuclear technology while possessing atomic weapons and despite not having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In exchange, India must put selected nuclear facilities under international safeguards, including inspections. ....... The left-wing alliance is worried that traditionally non-aligned India is getting too close to Washington, and that the government may be compromising the future development of the country’s nuclear weapons programme. Singh and Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi however insist that the deal is crucial for future growth and bring the country into the mainstream of global nuclear commerce.
Tiananmen generation could rule China Telegraph.co.uk One of the two, Li Keqiang, 52, mixed in his student days with future leaders of the Tiananmen Square protest movement, and in 1989 was a senior official in the Communist Youth League, which defended the demonstrators as "patriots". .......... In the 60 years the party has been in power, potential successors have often been purged – or worse. ........ Both were "sent-down youths" – teenagers sent to the countryside in the Cultural Revolution to do manual labour. ...... discussed democratic ideals with future leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests, some now in exile.
Supporters of Gore Lead a Movement That Lacks a Candidate New York Times Mr. Gore’s representatives say he has no plans to run or interest in doing so. ...... The former vice president has undergone an extraordinary metamorphosis, after all, publicly evolving from likely president-elect to stunning loser to lost soul to national and even international hero. ...... has earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize ...... “Hopefully,” Mr. Alexander said, “the euphoria of winning the Nobel Peace Prize, plus all this other positive stuff, will be enough for him to say: ‘O.K., this thing is taking off. We’re ready to run.’”
Gore, Climate Activists, Head Contenders for Nobel Peace Prize Bloomberg 181 nominations for the 10 million-krona ($1.5 million) prize ........ The most likely candidates to win are Al Gore and Sheila Watt-Cloutier ...... An award to an environmentalist would mark a shift in how the five-member Nobel committee defines peace work. The prize has often gone to people working to end armed conflicts or fighting for democratic and human rights. Kenya's Wangari Maathai was the first environmentalist to get it, in 2004. ........ Of the 181 nominees for this year's award, 46 were for organizations and the rest for individuals. ..... Previous winners, parliaments and governments, university chancellors and leaders of peace research institutes can propose candidates. ....... Thich Quang Do, who is held under house arrest in Vietnam, Chechnyan lawyer Lida Yusupova or Chinese dissident Rebiya Kadeer
Blinkx challenges Google in video ad arena Inquirer.net blinkx founder and chief executive Suranga Chandratillake.
Big B turns 65 today : The other Bachchan Daily News & Analysis Deepak Sawant, who has been Amitabh’s make-up man for the last 36 years...and still counting. ..... As Bachchan turns 65 today, it is the prankster in him that Sawant remembers the most. ..... he has always been a workaholic, speaking very sparingly, and only when absolutely required. But he also a naughty side that people who have been around him know and love. ...... he’s been rock steady through the years. ..... penchant for punctuality ..... “He always arrives before time on shoots, reads the paper, and only then does he call me in to start make-up” ....... a fetish for being very, very neat. Things will always be in place when he is around. ..... “In this industry, there are people who try to create misunderstandings. We were both hurt by what happened and decided to go separate ways. But we were destined to work together. After a few years passed, we met and sorted our differences — it was as if nothing had changed. ....... he asked, “Why can’t anyone else do make-up like you?” ...... Amitabh walked out of Lilavati straight to the sets of Sawant’s Bhojpuri film — a project that would have broken him had it remained incomplete. ..... His father Harivansh Rai Bachchan had first considered naming him Inquilab before settling for Amitabh ..... At home, he was fondly referred to as Munna ..... He burnt his left hand during Diwali in 1983. He kept his injured hand in his pocket through the shooting of ‘Sharabi’.
Big B still rules the roost NDTV.com Of all the top actors, Amitabh had the maximum number of releases this year. While Salman had three, Shah Rukh one and Aamir Khan none, Amitabh had six releases in 2007. ..... Eklavya - The Royal Guard, is India's official entry for the Oscars this year. He also received the National Award for best actor from President Pratibha Patil last month for his role in Black. ..... "Hollywood, which has power and strength, has destroyed local film industry in Europe and Britain. Now they are coming to India. But we welcome competition." ....... preparing for his first world tour with son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya. .... The Unforgettable Tour, a series of stage shows next year in 18 cities across the world
Pope Blesses Italian Soccer Team The Associated Press
Dell Launches Thin Client Alternative To Traditional Desktops InformationWeek machines that run off a central server delivering the operating system, applications, and data. ....... can reduce IT labor costs by 56%. The new product is targeted at large and midsize commercial and institutional organizations, such as call centers and education computer labs. ...... some experts aren't so sure that the new system would save much money, given the upfront cost of replacing a company's current infrastructure. Also making thin clients less attractive is the low-cost of business PCs, which Dell sells for less than $400
Dell says he'll be ready with PC alternatives Computerworld
State and county STD rate soars Los Angeles Times An estimated 1 million young Californians had a sexually transmitted disease in 2005, including 1 in every 4 or 5 young people in Los Angeles County ....... the large number of new cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea -- which are associated with HIV and are considered to be among the most serious STDs -- among people age 15 to 24 ..... "We don't have young people using protection when they are having sex." ...... the direct cost of treating the new infections is more than $1 billion per year.
Hospital Workers Punished for Peeking at Clooney File New York Times

Burma: Time For Hyper Action

"Thanks for your work. I do appreciate it greatly. Burma's neighbours including India are largely responsible for the prolong dictatorship and repeated the blood shed in Burma."

Nyunt Than
Burmese American Democratic Alliance

This is the lull, the time for reflection before more action. There are lessons to be learned.

Lesson number one is the only thing that will do the trick is mass action. That mass action has to be total, daily and ovewhelming. Nothing else will work.

Mass action alone will not work. The world powers must step in. The peoples of the world must step in. The democracy movement in Burma needs money. Give direct funding.

The Burmese diaspora must get super organized and must make up for the fact that those inside Burma do not have the liberty to organize half as freely. So those who can freely organize must get super organized. The highest forms of sophistication must be achieved.

This is not over yet.

Than Shwe

He has a few options. He could go live in exile for the rest of his days. He could go to Laos, to China. That option should be like a safety valve. If doing that means fewer people get killed in the streets, we do it.

The real effort has to be to depose him and to have him arrested and then to try him for crimes against humanity.

The virus has mutated. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King will not work on this guy. We need to come up with new antibiotics. If the threat of taking him out in an air raid will work, that threat should be tried.

How To Aid Mass Action

Build a stealth organization. Easier said than done. Smuggle cameras into Rangoon. That is where the primary action will take place. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have to be raised to hand over directly to the democracy activists.

Millions of people coming out into the streets risking a few hundred deaths, a few thousand arrests, in every town, every city of Burma, day after day after day, until the military regime collapses. That is the only way out. And the time is now.

The World Is Failing Burma
Burma: Than Shwe Is Going To The Hague
Britain Is Betraying Burma
Burma: Time For All Out Sanctions By All Powers
Burma: Momentum Is Key To Victory
In Solidarity With The Burmese People

Next Stop: Zimbabwe


On The Web

Than Shwe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia He also obtained a seat on the ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party's Central Executive Committee. ...... On 23 April 1992, Saw Maung unexpectedly resigned, citing health reasons, and Than Shwe replaced him as Chairman of the Council, head of state, Secretary of Defence and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. ........ The convention for the so called "Discipline Democracy New Constitution" was convened from 9 January 1993 to 3 September 2007, a period of more than 14 years and 8 months. ....... his economic policies have been often criticized as ill-planned. ...... maintains a low profile. He tends to be seen as being sullen and rather withdrawn, a hardliner and an opponent of the democratization of Burma ...... rarely talks to the press ...... in recent years, he has been consolidating his power over the country. When he reached the mandatory retirement age of 60, he simply extended it, which has led to suggestions that he may remain as head of state for the rest of his life. ........ Than Shwe has been linked to the toppling and arrest of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, which has significantly increased his own power. ....... A 10-minute video of the couple's marriage was posted on Youtube in November to the fury of Burmese people. The ceremony reputedly cost more than three times the state health budget; the tally of gifts, which reportedly include luxury cars and houses, were worth a total of $50m. The bride was dressed opulently, with glittering jewelled clusters in her hair, diamond ear-studs, and "at least six thick strings of what appear to be diamonds" ........ known to be a diabetic .... rumoured to have intestinal cancer. ...... rarely makes public appearances ...... Than Shwe's wife and children fled the country on September 27, 2007, possibly to Laos
Reporters sans frontières - Burma began his career in psychological warfare, which gave him a strong taste for controlling ideas and the media. ....... Dozens of military officers staff the country’s censorship bureau checking the content of all newspapers, books and films before they appear. ...... the new national capital, Naypyidaw, which he has founded in a remote mountain area to guard against a supposed US attack and after consulting an astrologer. ....... is 74, makes very few public appearances and most Burmese have never heard him speak.
Sullen, unresponsive and boring he may be, but Than Shwe is Burma ... In 1993 Than Shwe set up a National Convention to draft a new constitution. The process is still in the works today. When Saw Lwin, head of the National Convention Convening Committee, cracked a about the endless discussions and meetings, mild jokeThan Shwe promptly showed him the door. ....... ‘Whenever he gave a speech, it could go on and on for almost two hours,’ recalls a former aide. ‘But he never really said anything.’ ..... warned: ‘Lessons from history teach us to act with caution – forever.’ ...... 8/8/88 .... Than Shwe, already a junta member, locked up his family at home, complaining that they were ‘scared to death’. ....... in 1990 the deluded junta provided for an election to confirm itself in power ...... began his working life delivering mail. ...... By the age of 50, he was handed command of the Southwest Region. .... His children rode to school in army trucks instead of the luxury sedans used by other generals’ kids. He spent his time reading Time magazine, playing golf or dressing up in traditional Burmese outfits, invariably attended by bodyguards with betel nuts for him to chew. He was, as he remains, sullen and unresponsive. ........ His most dreaded political weapon was his ability to bore everyone else into submission. ........ has proved adept at achieving its only real aim, which is to stay in power ...... done so, in the name of ‘national unity’, by preying genocidally upon the cultural diversity of the country’s 50 million people, reducing them to impoverishment, slave labour, displacement and exile, thereby creating what is arguably the most deranged of all the world’s political regimes. ........ Enriched by oil, gems, narcotics, logging – and by the transnational corporations of one sort or another who deal in them – the junta has managed to evade any effective response from the so-called ‘international community’. ......... India considers the junta an ally in the suppression of the ethnic ‘insurgencies’ which plague both countries along their shared border. China is a generous supplier of weaponry, finance and diplomatic support. The US favours economic sanctions, while the European Union has confined itself to restricting the trade in pineapple juice. ........ banned every kind of freely reported news, including the Burmese death toll from the tsunami. ........... an unknown number of political prisoners – for whom torture is routine ...... 50 foreign journalists blacklisted. ...... Former friends and associates apparently express surprise at the ‘new and different Than Shwe’. Power and paranoia, they say, may have corrupted the once ‘simple and honest soldier’. Others might point, once again, to the banality of evil.
Burmese outraged at lavish junta wedding | Special reports ... the gifts, which reportedly include luxury cars and houses worth a total of $50m (£26m). ...... the rush to buy jewels as presents and decorations pushed up the price of precious stones in the run-up to the wedding. The wedding video appears to have been filmed with the approval of the the married couple and guests. It is unclear how it was leaked on to the internet ....... mindless indulgence - smiling, well-fed guests wrapped in their finest clothing and most expensive jewels ........ the incompetence and brutality of the country’s military leadership ..... Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based magazine, popular among Burmese exiles. ...... “Than Shwe was the one who accused other top leaders of corruption whenever he wanted to remove them. It’s the pot calling the kettle black.” ........ “In the seating arrangement, Than Shwe and his deputy were on one table and all the other junta members were on a very distant table. That tells you a lot about the hierarchy”
Dictator Slays Millions In Last-Minute Push To Be Time's Man Of ...
Than Shwe Burma (Myanmar): The World's Worst Dictators--2007 ... One of the most secretive world leaders ...... Among the numerous “offenses” for which Burmese have been arrested are selling tapes of CNN and BBC coverage of the 2004 tsunami and for “hiding in the dark.”
Profile: Senior General Than Shwe - Telegraph has ruled the country for the last 15 years, during which he has made no concessions to the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi. ......... firm hardliner and nationalist ...... is said to despise her with such passion that his aides are forbidden to mention her name in his presence. ...... Like many despots, he blames his country’s woes on foreigners .... the junta would “crush, hand-in-hand with the entire people, every danger of internal and external destructive elements obstructing the stability and development of the state” ....... A reclusive individual, he is rarely seen in public or even mentioned by state media, except at official occasions. ....... he has manoeuvred among the factions of the military to give himself a firm grip on power. ....... Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, who was open to talks with Ms Suu Kyi and perceived as a rival centre of authority within the dictatorship, was ruthlessly purged and convicted of corruption, along with many of his supporters.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Burma leader's lavish lifestyle aired a rare glimpse into a lavish lifestyle. ..... "It's outrageous, just outrageous, especially when you consider that most Burmese live in extreme poverty," Aung Zaw, the editor of Irrawaddy, a publication run by Burmese journalists in exile, told Reuters news agency. ...... Than Shwe himself is seen in the video, walking stiffly at his daughter's side in traditional Burmese dress - a rare glimpse of him out of military uniform.
Asia Times Online :: Southeast Asia news - The man behind the madness the dictator who rules the country with an iron fist, General Than Shwe, 74, is still obscure, often grimly hidden behind dark sunglasses and a military uniform decorated with medals. ....... the major stumbling block to national reconciliation and the restoration of democracy. ....... his jowls framing a plump, sullen face. ..... widely known to suffer from health problems, for which he frequently seeks medical care in Singapore ....... whether he still has the mental facilities and political judgment ....... recently sent his close family members to Bangkok in case the protests spiral out of control. ...... forced regime change. .... forced labor, torture, systematic rape and the ill-treatment of many of the country's estimated 1,200 political prisoners. ...... Than Shwe could be held directly responsible in an eventual international tribunal. ........ introverted and superstitious leader ...... bizarre decision to move the national capital 400 kilometers north ....... aim of re-establishing the country's long-abolished monarchy as part of a broader political transition where Than Shwe would assume a newly established throne. ....... Than Shwe, a high-school dropout, does not have particularly aristocratic roots ...... his regime's still-frequent warnings that Britain and the United States support subversive elements ......... relentless truth-twisting, severe censorship, endless sloganeering, and rampant jingoism ....... has the credentials for national thought control, based on his work dating back to the 1950s in the army's Psychological Operations Department, when he was involved in churning out nationalistic propaganda. ......... his well-established shoot-to-kill instincts, particularly in counterinsurgency campaigns against minority ethnic-Karen guerrillas in the country's eastern regions, earned him a promotion to captain in 1960. ........ quickly ingratiated himself to the military's top brass by helping General Ne Win seize power in a 1962 military coup, ending the country's short post-independence experiment with democracy. ........ steadily climbed the ranks ...... Than Shwe favors a heavy-handed response over possible negotiations. ....... Ne Win died under house arrest in 2002. ...... whether another ambitious soldier may use the current chaos as pretext to eclipse the ailing Than Shwe and seize power for a new military faction. ..... hosted an unusually lavish wedding for his daughter. ..... the utter disparity in wealth between the military elite and the impoverished general population. ......... Myanmar, along with Somalia, as the most corrupt country in the world in the group's 180-country index for 2007. ....... has been the isolationist counter-force to moderates in the military leadership who have favored more engagement with the outside world and perhaps a more conciliatory approach to the political opposition. ....... known to harbor a personal grudge toward .. Suu Kyi ...... a "notoriously paranoid general" who keeps himself virtually mummified from his own countrymen in the new capital ...... the reclusive general seldom leaves his personal villa and rarely personally addresses the SPDC leadership. ...... "makes very few public appearances, and most Burmese have never heard him speak" ...... "His militaristic speeches, harshly attacking the pro-democracy opposition, are read for him on the government radio and TV, and are given prominence by all government media."


Aung San Suu Kyi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Her father, Aung San, negotiated Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, and was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. ....... Suu Kyi was educated in English Catholic schools for much of her childhood in Burma. ....... graduating from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi in 1964. ..... She continued her education at St Hugh's College, Oxford, obtaining a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics in 1969 and a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1985. ..... In 1972, Aung San Suu Kyi married Dr. Michael Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture, living abroad in Bhutan. ...... Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to take care of her ailing mother. By coincidence, in that year, the long-time leader of the socialist ruling party, General Ne Win, stepped down, leading to mass demonstrations for democratisation on August 8, 1988 (8-8-88, a day seen as favorable), which were violently suppressed. A new military junta took power. ........... Heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence ....... entered politics to work for democratisation, helped found the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988 ........ She was offered freedom if she would leave the country, but she refused. .......... It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. ........... used the Nobel Peace Prize's 1.3 million USD prize money to establish a health and education trust for the Burmese people. ...... When her husband, Michael Aris, a British citizen, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, the Burmese government denied him an entry visa. Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma, and never again saw her husband, who died in March 1999. She remains separated from her children, who live in the United Kingdom ......... on 30 May 2003, a government-sponsored mob attacked her caravan in the northern village of Depayin, murdering and wounding many of her supporters. Aung San Suu Kyi fled the scene with the help of her driver, Ko Kyaw Soe Lin, but was arrested upon reaching Ye-U. The government imprisoned her at Insein Prison in Yangon. After she underwent a hysterectomy in September 2003, the government again placed her under house arrest in Yangon. ....... Suu Kyi's house arrest term was set to expire 27 May 2006, but the Burmese government extended it for another year ....... On 9 June 2006, Suu Kyi was hospitalised with severe diarrhea and weakness ...... According to Gambari, Suu Kyi seems in good health but she wishes to meet her doctor more regularly. ....... On 18 January 2007, the state-run paper The New Light of Myanmar accused Suu Kyi of tax evasion for spending her Nobel Prize money outside of the country. ...... On May 16, 2007, 59 world leaders released a letter demanding Myanmar's military government free Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. The signatories include all three surviving former US presidents, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton; the former UK prime minister, Margaret Thatcher; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa; as well as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, amongst many others. ....... On Tuesday 25 September 2007 British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband in a speech to the UK Labour Party Conference 2007 said: "Wasn’t it brilliant to see Aung San Suu Kyi alive and well outside her house last week? It will be a hundred times better when she takes her rightful place as the elected leader of a free and democratic Burma." ........ Suu Kyi's struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades. ..... In June of each year, the US Campaign for Burma organizes hundreds of "Arrest Yourself" house parties around the world in support of Aung San Suu Kyi. At these parties, the organizers keep themselves under house arrest for 24 hours, invite their friends, and learn more about Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi - Biography 1964-67: British "parents" are Lord Gore-Booth, former British ambassador to Burma and High Commissioner in India, and his wife, at whose home Suu Kyi meets Michael Aris, student of Tibetan civilisation. ......... 1969-71: She goes to New York for graduate study, staying with family friend Ma Than E, staff member at the United Nations, where U. Thant of Burma is Secretary-General. Postponing studies, Suu Kyi joins U.N. secretariat as Assistant Secretary, Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. Evenings and weekends volunteers at hospital, helping indigent patients in programs of reading and companionship. ........ 1972: January 1. Marries Michael Aris, joins him in Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where he tutors royal family and heads Translation Department. She becomes Research Officer in the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ....... 1977: While raising her children, Suu Kyi begins writing, researches for biography of father, and assists Michael in Himalayan studies. ....... 1985: also books on Nepal and Bhutan ...... 1986: On annual visit to grandmother in Rangoon, Alexander and Kim take part in traditional Buddhist ceremony of initiation into monkhood. ........ 1988: August 15. Suu Kyi, in first political action, sends open letter to government, asking for formation of independent consultative committee to prepare multi-party elections. ...... August 26. In first public speech, she addresses several hundred thousand people outside Shwedagon Pagoda, calling for democratic government. Michael and her two sons are there. ........ Parliamentary elections to be held, but in expectation that multiplicity of parties will prevent clear result. ....... September 24. National League for Democracy (NLD) formed, with Suu Kyi general-secretary. Policy of non-violence and civil disobedience. October-December. Defying ban, Suu Kyi makes speech-making tour throughout country to large audiences. December 27. Daw Khin Kyi dies at age of seventy-six. ........ 1989: January-July. Suu Kyi continues campaign despite harassment, arrests and killings by soldiers. ..... February 17. Suu Kyi prohibited from standing for election. .... April 5. Incident in Irawaddy Delta when Suu Kyi courageously walks toward rifles soldiers are aiming at her. ........ 1990: May 27. Despite detention of Suu Kyi, NLD wins election with 82% of parliamentary seats. SLORC refuses to recognise results. ......... 1993: Group of Nobel Peace Laureates, denied entry to Burma, visit Burmese refugees on Thailand border, call for Suu Kyi's release ...... regularly denounced in the government-controlled media, and there is concern for her personal safety. ...... she told that Norway will be the first country she will visit when free to travel. ....... Suu Kyi discourages tourists from visiting Burma and businessmen from investing in the country until it is free. ...... On March 27, 1999, Michael Aris died of prostate cancer in London. He had petitioned the Burmese authorities to allow him to visit Suu Kyi one last time, but they had rejected his request. He had not seen her since a Christmas visit in 1995. The government always urged her to join her family abroad, but she knew that she would not be allowed to return. This separation she regarded as one of the sacrifices she had had to make in order to work for a free Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Aung San Suu Kyi Winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Peace
USCB : Aung San Suu Kyi : Biography was educated in Burma, India, and the United Kingdom. Her father was assassinated when she was only two years old. ....... The military regime responded to the uprising with brute force, shooting and otherwise killing up to 10,000 demonstrators — student, women, children, and others — in a mater of months. Unable to maintain its grip on power, the regime was forced to call for a general election in 1990. ....... Suu Kyi has been in and out of arrest ever since. She was held from 1989-1995, and again from 2000-2002. She was again arrested and placed behind bars in May 2003 after the Depayin massacre, during which up to 100 of her supporters were beaten to death by the regime's cronies. ........ She has called on people around the world to join the struggle for freedom in Burma, saying "Please use your liberty to promote ours."
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi For the Burmese people, Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, represents their best and perhaps sole hope that one day there will be an end to the country's military repression. ........ During these periods of confinement, Aung San Suu Kyi has busied herself studying and exercising. ...... She has meditated, worked on her French and Japanese language skills, and relaxed by playing Bach on the piano. ....... during her early years of detention, Aung San Suu Kyi was often in solitary confinement .... has often said that detention has made her even more resolute to dedicate the rest of her life to represent the average Burmese citizen. ...... UN envoy Razali Ismail has said privately that she is one of the most impressive people he has ever met. ..... In 1960 she went to India with her mother Daw Khin Kyi, who had been appointed Burma's ambassador to Delhi. ........ After stints of living and working in Japan and Bhutan, she settled down to be an English don's housewife and raise their two children, Alexander and Kim. ....... But Burma was never far away from her thoughts. ...... "I could not, as my father's daughter remain indifferent to all that was going on," she said in a speech in Rangoon on 26 August 1988. ...... was soon propelled into leading the revolt against then-dictator General Ne Win. ...... Inspired by the non-violent campaigns of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and India's Mahatma Gandhi, she organised rallies and travelled around the country, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections.











In The News

The Battle Over Burma: What can be done to solve the problem? Foreign Affairs Over the past decade, Burma has gone from being an antidemocratic embarrassment and humanitarian disaster to being a serious threat to its neighbors' security. ....... U.S. policy toward Burma is stuck. .... advocated applying pressure through diplomatic isolation and punitive economic sanctions ....... most Asian states moved to expand trade, aid, and diplomatic engagement with the junta, most notably by granting Burma full membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997. ...... neither sanctions nor constructive engagement has worked ....... Regimes like the SPDC do not improve with age ........ Since 1996, when the Burmese army launched its "four cuts" strategy against armed rebels -- an effort to cut off their access to food, funds, intelligence, and recruits among the population -- 2,500 villages have been destroyed and over one million people, mostly Karen and Shan minorities, have been displaced. Hundreds of thousands live in hiding or in open exile in Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. ........... moved the seat of government .... reportedly on the advice of a soothsayer and for fear of possible U.S. air raids ...... The narcotics trade, human trafficking, and HIV/AIDS are all spreading through Southeast Asia thanks in part to Burmese drug traffickers who regularly distribute heroin with HIV-tainted needles in China, India, and Thailand. ......... Burma accounts for 80 percent of all heroin produced in Southeast Asia ...... the regime has had an interest in following the model of North Korea and achieving military autarky by developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons ........ Political liberalization in Indonesia and growing activism in Malaysia and the Philippines ....... last January, ASEAN members prepared a new charter for the twenty-first century that champions democracy promotion and human rights as universal values ....... the slowdown in Japan's economic power and the rise in China's ..... an "arc of freedom and prosperity" from the Baltics to the Pacific and touting Tokyo's commitment to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. ......... In September 2006, Tokyo finally agreed to support a discussion on Burma in the UN Security Council. ...... 43 other former heads of state in an open letter calling on the SPDC to unconditionally release Suu Kyi. ....... Japan's assistance in helping the country throw off British colonial rule in the 1940s ...... China and India could be the greatest obstacles to efforts to induce reform in the country. China has many interests in Burma. ........ billions of dollars in trade and investment and more than a billion dollars' worth of weapons sales ...... access to ports and listening posts, which allow its armed forces to monitor naval and other military activities around the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea. ..... preferential deals for access to Burma's oil and gas reserves. ....... funds and materiel to pay off Burmese military elites ..... In early 2007, China and Russia cast their first joint veto in the UN Security Council in 35 years to block a measure that would have sanctioned the SPDC. ....... the recent change in Beijing's approach to another wayward neighbor: North Korea ..... It will also be a challenge getting India on board. ... Suu Kyi continues to cite Mohandas Gandhi as a model for nonviolent resistance. ...... Like China, India is hungry for natural gas and other resources and is eager to build a road network through Burma that would expand its trade with ASEAN. ...... India is now Burma's fourth-largest trading partner. ...... for Washington to lead the five key parties -- ASEAN, China, India, Japan, and the United States -- in developing a coordinated international initiative ........ the Burmese military's traditional paranoia. ....... any process of reform and national reconciliation in Burma will have to begin with the immediate release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, including other members of the National League for Democracy and ethnic leaders, and involve their full participation in the institution of democracy. .......... Than Shwe's erratic behavior, his decision to imprison former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and thousands of Khin Nyunt's military associates, and his efforts to create a Kim Il Sung-like cult of personality are signs of brittleness and division within the junta. ........ China and India, currently the SPDC's greatest enablers ....... Washington could make China's Burma policy another test of its readiness to be a "responsible stakeholder," much as it has already done in regard to Darfur ........ a new coordinated, multilateral approach that neither Beijing nor New Delhi would be able to ignore. ...... U.S. sanctions regarding trade and investment should remain in place ..... The United States will need to reconsider its restrictions on engaging the SPDC; ASEAN, China, and India will need to reevaluate their historical commitment to noninterference; Japan will need to consider whether its economics-based approach to Burma undermines its new commitment to values-based diplomacy. ...... In addition to humanitarian principles, there are strategic grounds for stepping up diplomatic efforts on Burma: it is now the most serious remaining challenge to the security and unity of Southeast Asia. Of course, change will eventually come to Burma. But without the coordinated engagement of the major interested powers today, that change will come at a great cost: to the stability of Southeast Asia, to the conscience of the international community, and, most important, to the long-suffering Burmese people, who languish in the shadows as the rest of the world concentrates its energies elsewhere.

Google syndicates YouTube videos Telegraph.co.uk generating revenues that Google will share with the website owners and creators of the videos. ...... The service will at first only select video from around 100 media companies, such as Expert Village, which produces how-to videos. These will be accompanied by small text and banner advertisements relevant to the content of the video and webpage. It is currently only available for US AdSense partners.
Google knocks Adsense into Youtube VNUNet.com

Obama has got to step on accelerator Seattle Post Intelligencer he draws huge, cheering crowds; Oprah loves him; he symbolizes generational and philosophical change; he was against the war in Iraq before his major rivals were; he has raised giant amounts of campaign cash; younger voters think he is cool. And he's serious about winning. .......... Obama's biggest problem is convincing Democrats that with only two years in the Senate he has the gravitas to be president. No one is in the mood for another greenhorn who needs on-the-job training. ........ to most whites he is a black man, but many blacks wonder if he is "black enough." ....... Concern about his biracial identity irritates Obama and his wife, Michelle ........ Initially, Obama appealed to many by promising a new campaign style -- one that would be based on intellectual discussion rather than crude sloganeering. In his February announcement, he denounced "our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle big problems." .......... Women, once thought to disapprove of her, are also now in her camp -- 62 percent to 34 percent. Obama is still Obama, a very attractive political figure. But if he is to win this race he's got to step on the accelerator. Very soon.
Obama's Wife's Vehicle in Collision The Associated Press None of the campaign staff in the vehicle with Mrs. Obama were hurt. ..... The vehicle was hit by the motorcycle as it attempted a left turn just south of Hampton, where Michelle Obama was due at a rally. ..... She later told the crowd the event would be rescheduled.
Motorcyclist hits Michelle Obama's van on way to rally Chicago Sun-Times The Illinois senator's wife was among five people in a van that was hit by a motorcycle as the van attempted a left turn ....... The motorcyclist, whose name has not been released, was injured and a medical helicopter was at the scene.
Michelle Obama's van involved in Iowa crash Chicago Tribune Timothy Emerson, 41, of Iowa Falls, Iowa, was injured and airlifted to a hospital. ....... Emerson was treated and released. ...... Neither Michelle Obama nor any members of the campaign staff were injured; the minivan was apparently totaled. ..... about 3:35 p.m. on a two-lane road roughly four miles south of Hampton, Iowa ....... the van was driven by David Whichard, 22, of Greenville, N.C. . ...... Michelle Obama suspended her campaign activities for the rest of the day
Clinton's Democratic rivals try to stop momentum CNN "She's looking more inevitable, and the more inevitable she looks, the easier it is to raise money. People want to be with a winner" ..... her strategy of acting like the presumptive nominee ....... On Monday, Obama tried to argue that what many view as one of Clinton's received strengthens -- her Washington experience -- was actually a liability. .......... On Sunday, Edwards argued that Clinton was not committed to ending the war. Clinton has said she would withdraw a "vast majority" of the combat troops from Iraq but would leave some troops to conduct anti-terrorists operations.