Sunday, January 22, 2006
Europe continues to sink. Will this actually be allowed to happen, or will other Europeans do something about it? (H/T to the anonymous commenter)
BBC: Danish T-shirts 'to fund rebels'
The T-shirts have as logos the initials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The firm, Fighters and Lovers, says it will donate 5 euros (£3) for each T-shirt it sells.
The Colombian government has protested to the Danish authorities over the sale of the T-shirts.
"Financing terrorist groups is unacceptable and goes against all the international norms," Colombian Foreign Minister Carolina Barco told private Caracol Radio on Friday.
"Yesterday our ambassador contacted the Danish government, we sent a protest note and have demanded an explanation."
The designers say Palestianian militant Leila Khaled and Colombian rebel leader Jacobo Arenas were among their inspirations.
Money from the sale of the T-shirts will help finance Farc radio stations in Colombia and a graphics studio in the Palestinian territories...
See also: YNet: T-shirt firm funds terror groups
Before anyone says, "Oh, it's just for a graphics studio" -- that means propaganda, that means money freed up to be spent elsewhere. There is absolutely no legitimate reason for a group like the PFLP to exist, and no reason for it to get money from anyone for anything.
Leila Khaled used to hijack airplanes for the PFLP. Here is a worshipful article on her that apparently appeared in The Guardian five years ago: 'I made the ring from a bullet and the pin of a hand grenade'
Update: Daniel in Brookline has pictures of the shirts.
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Dear God in Heaven. They honestly believe that their donations will pay for "radio stations and graphics workshops"... and their T-shirts feature Kalashnikovs. (They even celebrate the image of the "classic stylish coolness" of Leila Khaled.) Cogniti... Read More
yanno...i *really* want a new planet because of things like this.
How sweet of them. Do they make Al Quida T-shirts too? They should denifitelly try it. It must be a hit in New York, Madrid and London!
No, they don't make al-Qaeda T-shirts. But you can get them elsewhere... and cheaper, too!
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Well if one of those groups is proven to be a terrorist organisation (I know they are) couldn't the fashion firm be done for aiding and abetting terrorism?
You would think, wouldn't you? Maybe the situation is defferent in Denmark?
"Terrorist" is a term applied to persons and organizations often not on bases citing coercive actions but instead to justify the application of excessive military force in order to secure a region or territory. Often this term is applied by US and allies to organizations not friendly to economic policies supported by US. It is all too well known that agencies applying this term are frequently guilty of those actions which the accusation is intended to denounce. The PFPL and PLO, Hamas etc are denounced as terrorist because they use methods within their means in an attempt to secure a political/social situation that is not overtly supported by or beneficial to the accusing agencies (viz. US, Israel, etc). It is important to understand media occurrences of the term "terrorist" and read through to the nature of this term and how it has come to be used.
André Glucksmann, the French philosopher, defines terrorism as
“a deliberate attack by armed men on unarmed civilians. Terrorism is aggression against civilians as civilians, inevitably taken by surprise and defenseless. Whether the hostage-takers and killers of innocents are in uniform or not, or what kind of weapons they use—whether bombs or blades—does not change anything; neither does the fact that they may appeal to sublime ideals. The only thing that counts is the intention to wipe out random victims. The systematic resort to the car bomb, to suicide attacks, randomly killing as many passersby as possible, defines a specific style of engagement."
I think Santiago Khaled's comment above is meant to create a false analogy between those who deliberately attack civilians and those who defend civilians from such attacks. It's a well known tactic in the mitigation for and exoneration of terrorists from their deliberate, pre-meditated murders. It also takes a dim view of the reader who has some knowledge of history and the more recent history of the I/P conflict.