[version]

Gotta love protests against war-mongers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3606338.stm

[vmarks]

They protest the Iraq war and Colin Powell by carrying -what-? Palestinian flags?
True, Iraq supported Palestinian terrorism, but this is a pretty cerebral choice of protest display.

[Logic]

Originally posted by vmarks:
They protest the Iraq war and Colin Powell by carrying -what-? Palestinian flags?
True, Iraq supported Palestinian terrorism, but this is a pretty cerebral choice of protest display.

English is your first language right? Did you miss this in the article linked above?

The demonstrators were marching against the US' policies in the Middle East.

Or do you not consider Palestine/Israel to be a part of the M.E.?

[version]

Ah well, he cancelled going now anyway. Something to do with a busy schedule.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3607242.stm

[PacHead]

Oh jeez, a couple of hundred commies (and radicals) were marching around someplace, holding up silly cardboard signs, and thinking that they really matter in the big scheme of things.

If these imbecilles wanted to be truly useful, they could have at least helped to fill up some of their country's tragically empty olympic seats.

[Troll]

I don't get what the fuss is. Powell thinks Old Europe is irrelevant anyway. So why would he want to be welcomed here?

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by Troll:
I don't get what the fuss is. Powell thinks Old Europe is irrelevant anyway. So why would he want to be welcomed here?

Does the article anywhere indicate he cares about this protest?

And anyway, Greek public opinion (and their government) sided with Slobidan Milosovic in the Kosovo war. Great judgment.

[Logic]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
And anyway, Greek public opinion (and their government) sided with Slobidan Milosovic in the Kosovo war. Great judgment.

Do you really want to start talking about what nations, dictators and tyrants nations have supported in the past? I can think of a few the US really liked that will probably go down in history as some of the most brutal human beings ever........

[angaq0k]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
Does the article anywhere indicate he cares about this protest?

And anyway, Greek public opinion (and their government) sided with Slobidan Milosovic in the Kosovo war. Great judgment.

Yep.

Let's rely on good'ol American judgement!

[version]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
Does the article anywhere indicate he cares about this protest?

Does it matter? What people will remember is that he was meant to go, there were protests, and he never went.

Job done.

And anyway, Greek public opinion (and their government) sided with Slobidan Milosovic in the Kosovo war. Great judgment.

Is that an attack on the mental state of the Greek nation?
The British and Serbs were allies during WW2. The US suported Saddam in the 80s, what's your point? Except maybe to highlight that maybe good judgement isn't an exclusive club. It serves its purpose, depending on which side of the fence you are currently sitting on.

[lil'babykitten]

[Spliffdaddy]

Nobody else attended the Olympic games in Athens. Why should Powell?



Heck, looks like a lot of folks stayed home.

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
Nobody else attended the Olympic games in Athens. Why should Powell?



Heck, looks like a lot of folks stayed home.

Yeah, the real joke is on the Greeks. They got stuck with the bill.

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
Nobody else attended the Olympic games in Athens. Why should Powell?



Heck, looks like a lot of folks stayed home.

[Spliffdaddy]

Newsflash:

Powell attends Athens Olympic games. Attendance up 50%.

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
Newsflash:

Powell attends Athens Olympic games. Attendance up 50%.

Tonight at Olympic Stadium: All the WMDs that secretly shipped from Iraq to Athenes during construction!!!!

[Troll]

Originally posted by Logic:
Do you really want to start talking about what nations, dictators and tyrants nations have supported in the past? I can think of a few the US really liked that will probably go down in history as some of the most brutal human beings ever........

You don't even need to go as far as Iraq to talk about US support for dictators. You can just look at the singlemost important event in Greek contemporary history! The Greeks know all about the US supporting tyrants and dictators. Ask any Greek what he thinks of the United States and they'll mention the Polytechnic and November 17. Not many Westerners actually know what happened in the country that invented democracy.

Two days before the April 1967 election, George Papadopoulos seized power in a military coup. Papadopoulos had been on the CIA payroll since 1952. He was trained in the U.S. by the OSS and CIA. During World War II, he was a captain in the Nazis' Security Battalion that hunted down Greek resistance fighters. The US decided that there was a risk of Soviet expansion into Greece so they short-circuited elections that might make Greece become communist (unlikely) and helped a brutal military junta seize power. They then propped it up with arms and support. Of the five junta officers, four were connected to either the CIA or the U.S. military in Greece. The military junta decreed martial law followed by censorship, arrests and beatings. In the first month, 8,000 civilians were victims of the oppressive policies. In 1968, Papadopoulos became prime minister.

Testimony to the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, revealed connections between the junta and Richard Nixon's campaign. Vice President Spiro Agnew, who was of Greek descent, angered many Greeks when he visited in 1971, embraced the junta leaders and called them the country's best leaders since Pericles ruled ancient Athens.

In 1969, the European Commission of Human Rights - consisting of 18 European countries - found Greece guilty abusing human rights. The commission refuted the government's claim that it had used oppressive measures because the country was on the verge of a communist takeover. Despite this, the US continued to support the military junta including supplying it with military equipment increasingly used against the Greek population.

In November 1973, Greek students barricaded themselves in Athens Polytechnic to protest against the CIA-backed right-wing junta that was viewed in US intelligence circles as a crucial bulwark against the Soviet Union's expansion into the Mediterranean. The colonels sent in tanks supplied by the US and massacred the students. Despite alleged CIA involvement in the massacre itself, the pressure on the dictatorship became too much to bear and soon collapsed under the pressure of public anger. The polytechnnic massacre lead to the formation of the November 17 movement.

In November 1973, Papadopoulos was forced out of power in a military shake-up. He was replaced by Colonel Demetrios Ioannidis, commander of the military police, who had been trained in torture and subversive techniques by the CIA. He named a new prime minister, A. Androutsopolous, who had been on the CIA payroll following World War II. Only in 1999 did the US admit its role.

In short, Powell should never have expected to be welcomed to Greece! Of course, he probably just had too much work to do. He cited Sudan as a preoccupation so maybe we'll see that sorted out next week (holds breath).

[Logic]

Originally posted by Troll:
(holds breath). [/B]

Please don't

Thanks for the information. I didn't know that.

[angaq0k]

Originally posted by Troll:
You don't even need to go as far as Iraq to talk about US support for dictators.(...) (holds breath).

Wasn't there a movie about this?

That also reminded me of Kisinger's support for Pinochet at about the same time.

[vmarks]

November 17 and Kent State - products of the same administration indirectly and must be viewed in context of the time period, no?

[Capt.McDuff]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
Nobody else attended the Olympic games in Athens. Why should Powell?



Heck, looks like a lot of folks stayed home.

There were Olympics recently? Hadn't noticed, didn't care. Boring.

[Troll]

Originally posted by vmarks:
November 17 and Kent State - products of the same administration indirectly and must be viewed in context of the time period, no?

I don't think the Greeks see the big picture and forgive the US because it was all part of the Cold War.

Besides, in true democratic tradition, if they wanted to become communist through a free and fair general election, then they should have been allowed to do that. What resulted was as at least as anti-democratic as what they would have wound up with voting for communism.

[ambush]

Originally posted by vmarks:
True, Iraq supported Palestinian terrorism,.

nice lie.

little racist jew.

[placebo1969]

Originally posted by ambush:
nice lie.

little racist jew.

WTF??

[angaq0k]

Originally posted by ambush:
nice lie.

little racist jew.

Hey.

vmarks IS right on this.

You are out of line.

[ThinkInsane]

Originally posted by ambush:
nice lie.

little racist jew.

I know it's a lot to ask of one so young, but grow up.

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by angaq0k:
Hey.

vmarks IS right on this.

You are out of line.

He is correct; Saddam paid money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

[vmarks]

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
He is correct; Saddam paid money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

To elaborate, Hussein paid money to Arafat with the intent that it go to support the families of suicide bombers.

The money largely never made it there: Arafat funneled it to either his own pockets, or to his wife in Paris. Of the millions of dollars that Hussein gave Arafat, only about 70 dollars a month made it to the family of a so-called-martyr.