Khamenei is Correct: What Happened to George Floyd ‘Is What the US Has Been Doing to The Whole World

Ayatollah: What Happened to George Floyd ‘Is What the US Has Been Doing to The Whole World’

(CNSNews.com) – What a white policeman did to George Floyd “is what the U.S. has been doing to the whole world,” Iran’s supreme leader said on Wednesday, citing American military intervention in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out at the United States during a televised ceremony marking the 31st anniversary of his predecessor’s death.

Officials in the Iranian regime, which is accused of killing up to 1,500 protestors late last year, have been vocally criticizing the U.S. amid the protests over Floyd’s death, and Khamenei is the latest to weigh in.

“A police officer coldly holds his knee on a black man’s neck and pushes until he dies, while the man keeps entreating and begging him to stop,” he said, in reference to the treatment of Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis last week.

The four police officers involved were fired a day after Floyd died. One now faces second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter charges, and the other three have been charged with aiding and abetting the alleged murder.

“This is not a new incident,” Khamenei continued. “It is the nature of U.S. governments. This is what the U.S. has been doing to the whole world.”

“They did the same thing to Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. They did this to many other countries and they did the same to Vietnam before,” he said.

“The people’s slogan of ‘I can’t breathe’ which can be heard in massive protests throughout the U.S., is in fact the heartfelt words of all nations which the U.S. oppressively entered and took action [in].”

Other excerpts of the speech, posted on an official Khamenei website, included the lines:

“By God’s favor and grace, the US has been disgraced as a result of its own actions. Their management of the Coronavirus brought them to disgrace, and their weak handling of the situation caused them to have several times as many casualties as other countries. The American people feel embarrassed and ashamed of their government.”

Khamenei on Thursday posted a clip from the speech on his English-language Twitter account, which has almost 782,000 followers. (He also has accounts in Farsi, Arabic, Russian, French, Spanish and Urdu.)

In another Twitter post earlier this week, Khamenei likened U.S. police officers to ISIS terrorists. He embedded a short clip featuring an excerpt of a 2015 speech, in which he said, “Today, we are as much opposed to the savage and oppressive behavior of ISIS in Iraq and Syria as we are to the oppressive behavior of America’s federal police inside their own country. Both of them are the same.”

Also appearing in the clip, a familiar image of armed ISIS terrorists on the back of pickup trucks was doctored to add American police cruiser lights to one of the vehicles.

The recent tweets have included the hashtags #GeorgeFloyd and #BlackLivesMatter.

Among responses to his latest post, international human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky tweeted, “Stop hijacking #GeorgeFloyd, you miserable tyrant. You have no right to lecture others on racism, let alone America. You still hang kids, stone women, execute gays and call for ‘Final Solution’ against Israel. Just SHUT UP already!”

World leaders condemn George Floyd killing as violence spreads in Babylon

World leaders condemn George Floyd killing as violence spreads in U.S.

North America 22:46, 03-Jun-2020

CGTN

World leaders have voiced condemnation over the May 25 killing of George Floyd by police in the United States, as his death prompted waves of angry and sometimes violent protests in cities across the U.S. and around the world.

U.S. President Donald Trump has faced heated criticism for using force outside the White House to dispel peaceful demonstrators against racial injustice.

Federal police on Monday abruptly fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a peaceful crowd in Lafayette Park outside the White House, permitting Trump to walk through for a brief photo-op at a historic church that had suffered damage the night before.

From Amsterdam to Nairobi, protesters highlighted allegations of abuse of black prisoners by their jailers, social and economic inequality, and institutional racism lingering from the colonial pasts of the Netherlands, Britain and France.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned racism and called for efforts to end inequality and discrimination.

“Racism is an abhorrence that we must all reject… Addressing inequality & discrimination, strengthening support for the most vulnerable and providing opportunities for everyone,” he tweeted.

He also urged law enforcement to “show restraint in responding to demonstrations.”

While peaceful protesters joined the Black Lives Matter march in Hyde Park in London, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the killing of the unarmed African-American man by police.

“I think what happened in the United States was appalling, inexcusable,” Johnson told MPs in parliament, in his first public comment on the case. “We all saw it on our screens and I perfectly understand people’s right to protest what took place,” he added. “Obviously I also believe that protests should take place in a lawful and reasonable way.”

But Johnson avoided answering questions as to whether he had raised the matter with Trump.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the police killing shows the “true face” of the United States and its oppression of the peoples of the world, including its own.

“The fact that a policeman has cold-bloodedly pressed his knee on the throat of a black man until he died and that other policemen watched on without doing anything is nothing new,” Khamenei said in a televised speech on Wednesday.

“It is the true face of America, it’s what it has always done all over the world – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries, and before that in Vietnam… It is the normal course of action of the United States, it’s the true face of their regime,” Khamenei said.

“These are realities that have always been camouflaged or hidden, but they are not new,” he said.

Asked about Trump’s threat to use military force against protesters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paused for 21 seconds and took aim at social injustice.

“We all watch in horror and consternation at what is going on in the United States,” he said. “It is a time to pull people together … it is a time to listen. It is a time to learn, when injustices continue despite progress over years and decades.”

But he avoided directly criticizing Trump’s handling of the situation.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called the anti-racism protests “understandable and more than legitimate.”

“I hope that these peaceful protests won’t slide further into violence, but even more than that I hope that they will make a difference in the United States,” Maas said.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

(Cover: People wearing protective face masks hold up signs during a protest against the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, London, Britain, June 3, 2020. /CCTV)

Antichrist Calls for Baghdad Protests (Revelation 13:18)

 
Shiite leader calls for Baghdad protests after Eid

By RUDAW 15 hours ago

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Shiite firebrand leader Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis and his party’s followers to resume demonstrations against the Iraqi government after the Eid of Sacrifice ends tomorrow.

“Next Friday, Iraqis should pour into streets to call for the implementing of reforms and reiterate their demands from the government,” said Sadr in a statement on Saturday.

He added: “We call on all Iraqis to abide by the demonstration laws to secure the lives of protesters.”
In the past, Sadr has called on his followers to take to the streets in protest. On August 24, the prominent Shiite leader officially called on his people to demonstrate in the capital.
“We announce to all people, and to the Sadrists in particular, the need to participate in protests this Friday in Baghdad,” a Sadr spokesperson said. “The Sadrist participants should merge with the other protesters in a single, national Iraqi crucible.”

Protesters in Baghdad took to the streets about four months ago, demanding the government fight corruption and punish officials guilty of graft.

Following the protests, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced a series of cost-cutting reforms, slashing deputy positions in the presidency and premiership as well as in government. He also reduced the excessive number of official bodyguards.

Antichrist Soon To Lead Iraq Through Civil War (Rev 13:18)

Iraq’s popular protests are at risk of being hijacked
 
Protesters chant slogans in support of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi during a rally in Tahrir Square in Baghdad. Khalid Mohammed / AP


Faisal Al Yafai Aug 31, 2015

In September 2014, the streets of Sanaa were convulsed by protests. The government of Abdrabu Mansour Hadi had reformed fuel subsidies, leading to a rise in petrol prices – and to thousands of protesters on the streets of the capital.

Within weeks, Sanaa had fallen to the Houthi rebels from the north. It was the mass protests by Yemenis of all political stripes against the rise in fuel subsidies that opened the door to the Houthi takeover of Sanaa and then to the group’s attempts to take over the entire country.

A similar window has just opened in Iraq. If Iraq’s government is not careful, it is possible that the popular anger of Iraqis could be hijacked for an assault on the state itself.

Iraqis today are justifiably angry. War and corruption have taken a brutal toll on daily life in the country. Large parts of the country are under the control of ISIL. But, as with Lebanon, it was something more prosaic, and thus essential, that pushed thousands to protest – a lack of electricity during the heat of summer.

Yemen was in this position last year. Popular protests started over something prosaic and vital, but were soon hijacked by Houthi rebels. Firstly speaking in the name of all Yemenis, the Houthis organised protest camps in the capital. It was only later that it became clear their real intention was not to change the subsidies law, but to change the government itself.

Here is the danger in Iraq. The protests in Iraq show no sign of abating. Even the announcement by Haider Al Abadi two weeks ago of widespread reforms has not calmed them – on the contrary, the protests have increased, offering support for Mr Al Abadi to push those reforms through.

But having raised the expectation of a swift resolution through far-reaching changes, it isn’t immediately obvious that Mr Al Abadi will be able to reform quickly enough to placate the Iraqi protesters.

Already, the situation in Iraq is escalating. Last Friday was the first time that supporters of Muqtada Al Sadr, a powerful Shia cleric, joined the protests. The protests in Baghdad swelled to be the biggest this summer, with Al Sadr supporters also rallying in Najaf and the southern port city of Basra.
The danger is that the entry of Al Sadr’s supporters (and members of his Al Sadr Brigades) could change the tone of the protests from being about Iraq as a whole to being merely about one sect.

At the moment, the protests have not been about sect, nor about political party, but about Iraq as a whole. The protesters have rallied in support of the prime minister, who is Shia, and have been supported by Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the country’s top Shia cleric. But the protests have not been sectarian.

The entry of Al Sadr raises the possibility that the protests could turn from supporting Mr Al Abadi to expressing anger against him, especially if reforms stall or face unexpected opposition. What happens then?

What happened in Yemen was that the Houthi rebels were able to piggyback on the genuine popular anger and argue that only by reforming Mr Hadi’s government could the necessary changes take place. “Reforming” soon became replacing, and eventually Mr Hadi was placed under house arrest, and the Houthis declared themselves in charge and launched an assault upon Aden.

None of that is inevitable. But a space in Iraq’s politics of protest has opened with the expansion of protests. Were the protests to turn confrontational or violent, the momentum of Mr Al Abadi’s administration would be sidetracked. The government’s attention, and that of the protesters, would then be taken up by the confrontations themselves, rather than on the reform package recently announced.

Unsurprisingly, the sidetracking of those reforms would be welcomed precisely by those who stand to lose – in particular former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, who will lose his position as one of three vice-presidents.

Mr Al Maliki has also been named by an Iraqi report as a senior official who should stand trial over the loss of Mosul to ISIL last summer. Since it will be Mr Al Abadi, Mr Al Maliki’s rival for their political party, who has the power to enforce or ignore that report, it would clearly be in the interests of Mr Al Maliki to ensure the prime minister’s reforms are not carried out.

There is great anger in Iraq. As long as it remains focused on reforming Iraq’s political system, there is a chance those reforms will go through, even against the wishes of the dominant political class. But if that popular anger is sidetracked, the result could be worse than merely political inaction.
falyafai@thenational.ae

Antichrist Organizes Million Man March In Baghdad (Revelation 13)

Pro-government million march organized in Baghdad
 
By David Fisher on August 28, 2015

– Both in parliament and in the streets, political pressure is rising in Iraq

By Abdullah Saad

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Last week, the influential Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr called on his supporters to take part in mass anti-corruption protests in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday.
For the past three weeks, Baghdad and other cities in central and southern Iraq have witnessed demonstrations demanding government reforms, the prosecution of those stealing public money and the provision of basic services to the public.

Amidst this popular movement, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi proposed a package of reforms that were quickly approved by parliament earlier this month.

The Liberal Bloc, a parliamentary group inside the Iraqi parliament, were called on by Sadr to organize a million-man march in Baghdad last Monday – the first call of its kind at a popular level.
The demonstration aims to ease the pressure being put on Abadi by political forces opposed to his reforms.

Abdul Azeez al-Dhalimi, a member of the bloc, told Anadolu Agency: “Al-Sadr previously expressed his support for the demonstrations across many governorates demanding services to the public.”
“The call to organize a million-man march in Baghdad is in compliance with the position of the religious authority in Najaf (referring to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s highest Shia authority), which supports the popular movement,” he said. “It supports al-Abadi and his government in removing the pressure that he is facing from certain political parties that are working to obstruct the reforms.”

Despite the federal Iraqi government announcing its support for the demonstrations, it has not hidden its fear of the protests spiraling out of control and turning into an armed conflict or attacks on public property, such as in Karbala and Babel.

The Supreme Islamic Council, led by Ammar al-Hakeem, is considered one of the most prominent parties participating in the government.

Through his spokesman Hameed Mali, al-Hakeem said there were indicators of external agendas aiming to derail the popular movement, which had started by demanding rights and reforms, but ended by targeting political and religious figures with hostile banners.

Ali al-Alaq is an MP with the State of Law Coalition, which is close to al-Abadi and his government.
He told Anadolu Agency that the “million-man march on Friday will be like all the other demonstrations that other governorates have witnessed, which the government dealt with positively and respected the demonstrators and provided them with protection.”

“Freedom of demonstration is a guaranteed right, and no one can stand in the face of the demonstrations – so long as they maintain their peaceful and civilized nature, express legal demands within the confines of the law and constitution, and preserve security and the public interest,” al-Alaq said.

Al-Abadi is now facing pressure from the other end of the political spectrum, with some political parties criticizing him for not committing to a deadline for the implementation of the reforms.

The most prominent criticism came from the State of Law Coalition’s Hanan al-Fatlawi last Sunday, when she demanded to know why al-Abadi had not yet issued an order to cancel the positions of Iraq’s three vice-presidents as his reforms had pledged.

Both in parliament and in the streets, political pressure is rising in Iraq.

Antichrist Followers Protest Against Iraqi Government (Rev 13:18)

Sadr calls on Iraqis to pour into streets against corruption

By RÛDAW yesterday at 11:06

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Shiite firebrand leader Moqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to stage a massive demonstration against official corruption this week, urging authorities to heed public demands for clean government.

“Muqtada al-Sadr calls on the followers of his party and the people of Iraq to pour into streets to fight corruption and punish the corrupt on Friday,” said a statement read in a televised speech by spokesman Salah al-Obeidi in the holy city of Najaf.

“Sadr has urged the government to hear the people’s demands,” he said.
“We announce to all people, and to the Sadrists in particular, the need to participate in protests this Friday in Baghdad,” Obeidi said. “The Sadrist participants should merge with the other protesters in a single, national Iraqi crucible.”

Obaidi said that demonstrators should refrain from accusing individuals and focus instead on calling for improvements in basic services such as electricity, water and education.

Protesters in Baghdad took to the streets about a month ago, demanding the government fight corruption and punish officials guilty of graft.

Following the protests, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced a series of cost-cutting reforms, slashing deputy positions in the presidency and premiership as well as in government. He also reduced the excessive number of official bodyguards.

Antichrist Calls on Followers to Join Protests (Rev 13:18)

 

Iraq’s Moqtada al-Sadr Calls on Followers to Join Friday Protests in Baghdad

SourcesReuters | Updated: Aug 24, 2015 17:05 IST

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s powerful Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose opinion holds sway over tens of thousands of supporters, called on his followers today to participate in Friday protests in Baghdad.
The capital and many southern cities have witnessed demonstrations in recent weeks calling for government reforms, provision of basic services and the trial of corrupt politicians – which in part led Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to launch a major reform campaign earlier this month.

“We announce to all people and to the Sadrists in particular the need to participate in protests this Friday in Baghdad“, Sadr said through a televised speech by spokesman Salah al-Obeidi in the holy city of Najaf.

© Thomson Reuters 2015