Mired
deep in financial crisis, the Greek government of
George Papandreou has
sacked the country's military leadership:
In a surprise development, Panos Beglitis, Defence Minister, a close confidante of Mr Papandreou, summoned the chiefs of the army, navy and air-force and announced that they were being replaced by other senior officers.
Neither the minister nor any government spokesman offered an explanation for the sudden, sweeping changes, which were scheduled to be considered on November 7 as part of a regular annual review of military leadership retirements and promotions. Usually the annual changes do not affect the entire leadership.
[more inside]
posted by Jahaza
on Nov 2, 2011 -
152 comments
Today, Mexico announced new, tighter tariffs on American goods,
including restrictions on U.S. chewing gum. Some say it's
because of Teamsters, but the hatred of American chewing gum may harken back to a 19th century military coup. Exiled after numerous attempts to rule Mexico as a military dictator, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (yes, that
General Santa Anna) spent part of his time in exile in -- of all places --
Staten Island. Santa Anna planned to fund his new army with a secret asset: he intended to sell
chicle to the Americans. Although the General thought it had more uses, inventor Thomas Adams found the stuff
fun to chew on. A few years later, Adams flavored his gum, inventing
Black Jack Gum, the oldest continually-made chewing gum in the United States. Sadly, due to recent tariffs, General Santa Anna's army-building Black Jack chewing gum will now cost 20% more to export to Mexico.
posted by AzraelBrown
on Aug 18, 2010 -
16 comments
John L. Perry worked in the Johnson and Carter administrations. He posts once a week at a blog called
Right Angles.
Perry's latest column suggested that a "civilized" military coup to "resolve the Obama problem" should not be dismissed as "unrealistic". Another person who thinks a military dictatorship may be in America's future?
Gore Vidal.
posted by lukemeister
on Sep 30, 2009 -
178 comments
Operation PLIERS. An internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a plan to destabilize Venezuela during the
upcoming constitutional referendum. The plan, titled "OPERATION PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. The full text of the memo will be released soon for verification purposes.
Many previously.
posted by scalefree
on Nov 28, 2007 -
42 comments
Operation Red Dog. "The group of [N]eo-Nazis planned to travel from New Orleans to Dominica on a chartered boat, land at night in rubber boats, meet up with John and his guerrilla force of disgruntled army veterans and Rastafarian rebels, and then lay waste to Dominica's police force and political leaders." Of those Neo-Nazis, Don Black would go on to marry David Duke's ex-wife and
found the notorious racist site Stormfront. Another of the gaggle, Wolfgang Droege, would
get fatally shot by a man who was convinced that he'd installed surveillance and tunnels into his house as revenge for the time he'd laughed at Mr. Droege.
posted by Sticherbeast
on Dec 26, 2006 -
23 comments
Coup leaders urge Thai soldiers to smile Military coup leaders in Thailand — often called the "Land of Smiles" — apparently don't want to ruin that image. They've ordered soldiers to smile. Army radio broadcasts are reminding soldiers to be friendly and courteous, especially to children. Many Thais have described this as the friendliest coup ever seen in a land with a history of violent coups.
posted by dwarfplanet
on Sep 25, 2006 -
45 comments
Now we're faced with a supposedly
democratic Russia where the opposition parties are
established, crushed, united, their leadership changed, all at the behest of the president. China, now clearly
a capitalist state, albeit one without the democratic trimmings, still calls
itself communist. Vietnam has
gone much the same way.
Some things remain the same, though. America's still
meddling in Latin America,
just like it did during the Cold War. The US Army is also fighting a guerilla resistance in Iraq, its leaders apparently ignorant of
the lessons of history, yet accusing others of
exactly that. It's just like the 60s, when it was just as obvious
who had learnt lessons and who hadn't.
posted by imperium
on Aug 30, 2006 -
48 comments
James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper No. 47:
The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many...may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
That extraordinary powers have, under Bush, been accumulated in the "same hands" is now undeniable. For the first time in more than thirty years, and to a greater extent than even then, our constitutional form of government is in jeopardy.
Power Grab
posted by y2karl
on Jun 17, 2006 -
76 comments
Corporate Interest Plot to Overthrow US Government. Approximately
72-years ago, the predecessor to
the House Un-American Affairs Committee, known as the
McCormack-Dickstein Committee, investigated claims made by
Marine Corps General Smedley Butler that a vast right-wing conspiracy funded by the
American Liberty League (
Wiki) (funded by US Steel, Goodyear, DuPont, Morgan-Stanley, Chase-Manhattan, Remington Arms, and others) with
backing from some of America's wealthiest citizens (such as Al Smith and Irene DuPont) and various Wall Street interests (
1930s American Business seemed to be pro-fascism as a hedge against communists and socialists to protect their own wealth in the face of the Great Depression). Their goal was to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and install a military dictatorship in order to stop FDR's New Deal and its "redistribution of wealth" and to enact fascist policies to protect the economy and their investments. [more inside]
posted by rzklkng
on Jan 18, 2006 -
51 comments
Hope and Memory, 1801 - 2004. "This is an archive of 163 US interventions, a multi-faceted catalogue of coups, humanitarian incursions, covert actions, proxy armies, freedom fighters/terrorists and multilateral offensives. Out of this legacy, a complex picture emerges."
[Via wood s lot.]
posted by homunculus
on Jul 29, 2005 -
18 comments
In 1934, the only thing standing between a
fascist coup and democracy in the United States was the courage and honor of one
man.
posted by euphorb
on Jul 29, 2004 -
50 comments
Aristide Says He Was Kidnapped From Democracy Now:
Aristide says he was "kidnapped" and taken by force to the Central African Republic. Congressmember Maxine Waters said she received a call from Aristide at 9am EST. "He's surrounded by military. It's like he is in jail, he said. He says he was kidnapped," said Waters. "He did not resign.... He was abducted by the United States in the commission of a coup." Robinson says he spoke to Aristide on a cell phone that was smuggled to the Haitian president. Will this revolution be televised? (Accounts in ogg and mp3)
posted by ao4047
on Mar 1, 2004 -
105 comments
"I don't think that there's any question about the fact that the weapons that they have did not come from Haiti," says Kurzban. "They're organized as a military commando strike force that's going from city to city."
Parts of the rebellion's leadership,
such as head of military operations Louis Chamberlain, were leaders in the attempted 1994 Hatian coup that resulted in the use of 20,000 U.S. troops. A coup which, according to the U.N. Human Right Commission, was
supported and aided by the CIA. In other words, this wouldn't be the first time that the U.S. has played on both sides of a Haitian military uprising.
Meanwhile, Bush refuses to protect President Aristide's life - and perhaps the lives of thousands of Hatians - citing
the opposition's refusal of a U.S. peace plan. Silmultaneously, he issued a harsh pronouncement warning refugee Hatians off from American shores.
"It is clear that the right wing in this country does not support that democracy,"
said Jesse Jackson, today. "(Bush) is, in fact, supporting overthrow of this government in this hemisphere."
posted by kaibutsu
on Feb 26, 2004 -
22 comments
Dictators and their demises: a miscellany.
Saddam and the Destruction of Civil Society in Iraq is the timely find, and deals with the entire history of Iraq since the Ba'ath party takeover, including a detailed ideological history of the party and the increasingly totalitarian aspects of Saddam's rule in Iraq.
To ask whether democracy, even in a non-Western sense, has a chance in Iraq is to jump one step ahead of the game. The fundamental questions we need to answer first are: What was the nature of Iraqi civil society before the Ba`thist regime destroyed it? How did the Ba`th oliberate it? And can Iraqi civil society be rebuilt after Saddam has left the stage? [more inside]
posted by dhartung
on Apr 9, 2003 -
19 comments
Revelations regarding Venezualen Coup Greg Palast, who's been at the front of this story ever since predicting it, gives enlightening details behind the events of Apil. It barely had anything to do with the protests and riots - Chavez was tipped off by an OPEC minister days before the coup was launched. He hid loyal soldiers in the Presidential palace and once Carmona was installed he became as much a hostage as Chavez. Chavez also says he has photos, videos and the names of American officers who entered the coup plotters' headquarters.
posted by raaka
on May 13, 2002 -
30 comments
Venezuela's Chavez deposed with the military claiming control for now. The end of a sometimes cringe-inducingly entertaining era. What next? Civilian constitutional rule restored by lunchtime, or not? Will the strike end, allowing oil exports to resume?
posted by dhartung
on Apr 11, 2002 -
11 comments
Echelon rumored to be used in NZ spying on Fiji
Echelon, as seen on TV, is suggested to monitor gobzillions of electronic communications. People are starting to wonder if New Zealand used Echelon to monitor the progress of the May 2000 coup and hostage taking in Fiji, in addition to the tradition undercover operations. Memorable quotation: "It is not a question of if others are spying on Fiji but of who, how and, to a much lesser extent, why."
posted by rschram
on Jun 11, 2001 -
8 comments
I know it's short notice but if you're in one of these cities, and agree that the popular vote of the people should be honored and upheld, there's gonna be a lot of spontaneous protests happening tomorrow afternoon.
posted by ZachsMind
on Nov 10, 2000 -
19 comments
Deal Announced To End Hostage Standoff in Fiji President's spokesman Joe Brown announced yesterday that a deal has been reached for the release of hostage MPs, and the former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. The release is set for 11 a.m. (Fiji Time) today. Additionally, amnesty has been granted to the seven men who led the coup in Fiji on May 19.
The hostages have been held for the past five weeks, leading to the declaration of martial law, the suspension of the country's constitution, and plans for an interim government. Military officials conceded that George Speight, leader of the hostage-taking, has won most of his demands from the government, including enshrining native Fijian political hegemony in any new constitution.
posted by rschram
on Jun 23, 2000 -
0 comments
