Calais: Olympic Evictions of Migrant Squats

- June 26th, 2012

The lead up to the Olympics has seen a rapid increase of police brutality against migrant communities in Calais and their supporters. Calais is an ‘Olympic village’ during the Games and in preparation the authorities have begun cleaning up the streets to make Calais ‘migrant free’.

Over the last few months there has been a big sweep of people’s living spaces, evicting and demolishing many of the buildings where people sleep and driving people out of the city.
After the eviction in March this year of the biggest squat, known as Africa House, many people with and without papers have been depending on smaller squats for shelter to avoid sleeping on Calais’ violent streets.
But these spaces have continually been raided and at least another 10 squats have been evicted since, including an Iranian squat, an Eritrean squat, a Somali squat, a Palestinian and Egyptian squat, a Sudanese squat and some mixed ‘global’ squats with people from Sudan, Eritrea, Chad, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq.
All the long-standing squats have also gone within the last few months, including Palestine House, Paradise House and the Villa, which have been home to people for years.

There has also been continued destruction of migrant camps in the jungle, in town, in the parks or under bridges as well as constant evictions of the food distribution area – a concrete yard surrounded by barbed wire where people have resort to sleeping when they have no-where else to go.

It’s not that raiding and evicting sleeping spaces is anything new, but these last months they have gone for everywhere and it has been near impossible for people to find shelter to sleep for any length of time.
It seems obvious this has been a part of a push to clear up the city for the Olympics.

At the end of March there was also a big round up and pre-emptive arrest of migrants and No Border activists during an official Olympic visit by the new UK ambassador Sir Peter Ricketts. People were held in custody for the duration of his visit and some people were badly beaten by the cops. (See http://www.schnews.org.uk/stories/Olympic-Cleansing-in-Calais/ and http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/04/494501.html).

Evictions of squats have largely been illegal. In France residents must be informed beforehand, notices placed in City Hall and on the building set to be evicted, and people should be allowed to contest the decision and how to do this should be included in the notice. The police are also meant to show the judgement when making the eviction. This very rarely happens.

There has been some effort more recently to at least get court orders for a few of the evictions of the bigger squats, but most evictions are still being carried out illegally. The police consistently raid and evict when and how they like.

A social housing organisation, The Office Public de l’Habitat de Calais (OPH), is largely complicit in these evictions. They own a lot of empty buildings and have been authorising the evictions and demolition of these buildings, and showing up whilst police are kicking people out from their buildings onto the street.
For the Olympics the regional council are launching a dual operation, running an artificial ‘Welcome the World’ campaign to boost tourism from passing athletes and spectators whilst at the same time cracking down on migrants, driving out ‘foreigners’ who do not have cash to spend.
Over 100 million euros have been pumped into the area for the Olympics in order to build gymnasiums and boost tourism. There is 34 Olympic and Paralympic training sites in Nord Pas-de-Calais and foreign teams have, and will, be traing there. Last year 47 foreign delegations passed through, including for example from Pakistan and Senegal, visiting to use these facilities.

Last Thursday June 21st Manuel Valls, the French Interior Minister, visited both Calais and London, to discuss the Franco-British security during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In Calais he met with officials to talk about high security and surveillance of the port. In London he met with his counterparts, Theresa May, the Home Secretary and Damien Green, Minister for Immigration, as well as James Brokenshire, Minister for Security and Counter-terrorism, to discuss ‘terrorist’ threats and immigration during for the Olympics.

During this meeting Theresa May also announced plans to hold a G6, bringing together the interior ministers of the six most populous European countries, in London in November 2012.

Security for London Olympics will see police and private security occupying the streets, flyer drones for aerial surveillance, warships docked up in the Thames, ground-to-air missiles on stand-by and snipers on rooftops.
State ‘security’, or in other words the attempt to control people, for ‘immigration’ purposes and against ‘terrorism’ is becoming very much hand in hand, with multinational arms companies and defence industries increasingly expanding into the realm of immigration control and merging surveillance systems.
The ‘clean up’ of cities in London and Calais in the name of keeping the Olympic industry and its spectators secure, is in reality an opportunity for reinforcing the deployment of draconian surveillance systems and arsenal of security measures to protect the privileged and their profit-making.
Call out for the summer: people needed on the ground in Calais to support people with and without papers in the lead up and during the Olympics.
Call out for squatters: supporting people find places to sleep would be much appreciated at the moment!

Drones, Israeli surveillance tech to be used during London Olympic games

Fighter jets thunder above the English countryside. Missiles stand ready. And Big Brother is watching like never before.

The London Olympics are no ordinary games. Not since World War II have Britain and the United States teamed up for such a massive security operation on British soil.

Hundreds of American intelligence, security and law enforcement officials are flying across the Atlantic for the games that begin July 27. Some will even be embedded with their British counterparts, sharing critical intelligence and troubleshooting potential risks. Dozens of Interpol officers will also be deployed.

The unique collaboration is rooted in common threats the partners have faced since the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S. and Britain's own deadly suicide bombings in 2005.

Britain was America's closest ally in Afghanistan and Iraq, making it a prime target of Islamic terror groups. And dozens of recent terror plots, including the 2006 plot to blow up nearly a dozen trans-Atlantic airliners, have been hatched within Britain's sizeable Muslim population, more than 1 million of whom have ties to Pakistan.

Although other Olympics have taken place since 9/11 -- Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin, Beijing and Vancouver -- London poses a different breed of security challenge.

"I'm confident that there is more than adequate security here for these games," Louis Susman, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.K., told The Associated Press. "That said, we live in a tumultuous world, whether that be in New York or London."

Intelligence officials say there has been an expected increase in chatter among extremist groups but there are still no specific or credible threats to the London games. The terror level is labeled substantial, a notch below severe and what it has been for much of the past decade. A substantial threat level indicates that an attack is a strong possibility.

"There is a perception in some quarters that the terrorist threat to this country has evaporated," said Jonathan Evans, head of Britain's domestic spy agency of MI5. "Bin Laden is dead, al-Qaida's senior leadership in Pakistan is under serious pressure and there hasn't been a major terror attack here for seven years. (But) in back rooms and in cars and on the streets of this country, there is no shortage of individuals talking about wanting to mount terrorist attacks here."

The potential threats to the London games are broad and diverse -- a lone wolf attacker such as Norway's Anders Behring Breivik who confessed to killing 77 people; a possible non-Asian Muslim convert who could slip by security with a European passport; a coordinated strike like the Sept. 11 terror attacks or a debilitating cyber-attack.

Although al-Qaida has been weakened by targeted U.S. strikes, its affiliates in places like Somalia and Yemen have stepped up their activity and increased their capabilities. They've even been working on bombs that can go undetected in airport scans.

British security officials fear that dozens of nationals who went to train in Somalia and elsewhere could eventually return.

"Terrorist problems have a long tail," said Evans. "They very rarely just stop."

Up to 1 million visitors are expected for the games, putting added strain on border security agents at airports like London's Heathrow, which has been criticized for its long lines and lack of staff to screen those arriving from other countries.

On site, some 300,000 people are expected to flow into Olympic Park in east London each day during peak times.

One of the key functions for Interpol, the international police organization, will be to speed intelligence data sharing between countries so threats can be deterred. U.K. officials scan Interpol data 130 million times per year, Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble told the AP during an exclusive interview at the agency's Lyon headquarters.

"The truth is, and we know this from Norway, that you can't identify one ethnic group and say that's the ethnic group that should only concern us," Noble said. "But this Olympics -- from all that I know and based on all the information that Interpol has -- should be a safe Olympics."

Shared intelligence, better technology and boosted resources have allowed security officials to crack organized plots before they happen but the possibility of a self-starter extremist who operates below the radar remains one of the biggest fears.

In the case of Breivik, there were few warning signals that the self-styled anti-Muslim fanatic was about to kill 77 people last summer. The same essentially was true for Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent who in March killed three paratroopers, a rabbi and three Jewish school children in southwest France.

Security officials say unless people are already known to authorities, they can go virtually undetected as they plan atrocities.

The overall security numbers are staggering. The games will be protected by some 12,000 police officers during peak times and 23,700 security staff -- a number that includes some 13,500 troops on standby, which is more than the 9,500 British troops currently in Afghanistan. A no-fly zone will also be established over Olympic venues from July 14 to August 15.

More than 100,000 people have applied for jobs at Olympics venues, being vetted for employment history and possible criminal backgrounds. The more rigorous checks are done by the government for accreditation to get into the games, according to Ian Horseman Sewell with G4S, a global company providing most of the training and security staff for the Olympics.

Still, Sewell admits London is different than past games.

"London is a proven terrorist target and it is the first time the summer Olympics have been operated in a post 7/7 environment in a place that isn't a totalitarian state," Sewell said, referring to the 2005 suicide bombings in London and the 2008 Beijing games. "From a security perspective, London is breaking new ground."

G4S will also help secure venues outside of the park and protect athletes.

Some specific teams from places like Belarus, Belgium, New Zealand and Vietnam will be training in northern France to keep costs down -- a move that prompted a joint Franco-British security exercise earlier this year.

Protecting athletes has been a concern since a terror attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.

"Israeli athletes will be staying away from the others in a more secluded area and with more security," a senior Israeli intelligence official told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job. "But a repetition of what happened in Munich is considered unlikely because Israel is ready and also because it isn't the kind of attack Palestinians would want now."

Technology has also advanced from past games.

Special Israeli surveillance technology has been rolled out for the Olympics across Britain, a country already known for its 4 million closed-circuit television cameras. Even more cameras have been installed at the Olympic Park.

Advanced facial and image recognition software will be used to identify suspects and connect multiple crime scenes. Cameras will be used to capture suspicious behavior. And special drones will be used for crowd surveillance, according to a salesman at an Israeli company who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

And remember the movie "Speed" where a bomb would allegedly go off if a bus went slower than 50 mph (80 kph)? Hundreds of public transport vehicles and VIP buses being used in the London games have already been equipped so authorities can tell if a driver is acting erratically -- something that might happen in a hijacking.

Authorities will also be able to stop a vehicle remotely or keep it going at a certain speed -- technology that could be useful if a terrorist were carrying explosives and threatening to crash a bus full of athletes into a crowded venue.
The British military has already made headlines with the weapons it will have available -- surface-to-air missiles, RAF Typhoon combat aircraft and an aircraft carrier docked on the Thames, the river that cuts across London close to several Olympic sites.

Security officials had worried that Irish dissidents could target the games, but those fears have dissipated.

Despite the U.S.-U.K. collaboration, there will still be differences in how the London Olympics is policed. Most of the security personnel will be unarmed -- a striking difference to operations in the United States.

Adding to security issues, leaders from around the world will want to visit during the Olympics. The American delegation will be led by first lady Michelle Obama while President Barack Obama focuses on his re-election campaign.

"I've not heard any American who has said they were concerned about security here," said Susman, the ambassador. "London has made an effort to showcase London for the world and I think it's going to be terrific."

Defend Our Right to Protest: the Olympics and Beyond

Tuesday 26th June, 7 - 9pm
Harmony Hall, Truro Road, Walthamstow, E17 7BY

Speakers include:
Simon Moore: Campaigner and recipient of Olympic ASBO
Alfie Meadows: Student charged with violent disorder after his skull was fractured by police
Caroline Day: Save Leyton Marsh Group
Speaker from Newham Monitoring Project
Brian Richardson: Barrister & author of ‘Tell it Like it is – How Schools Fail Black Children’

Our campaign against the theft and destruction of Leyton Marsh has been handled by the authorities in the most punitive manner possible. As a result of our protest to try and save our marsh against unnecessary destruction for the Olympics, we have been served with 3 High Court injunctions, three peaceful protestors and a local journalist have been jailed and the first ever Olympic ASBO has been issued.

Leyton Marsh and our campaigners have fallen victim to the most commercial and militarised Olympics ever. Worse is to come. East London will soon see over 20,000 police, 21,000 private security staff, MOD staff & FBI descend on our streets armed with a host of new powers to supress dissent.

All this follows the criminalisation of students following last year’s protests. It is becomingly increasingly difficult to protest against injustice in any meaningful way; any protest with an impact is banned and criminalised.

This meeting will to be an opportunity to discuss the issues, share experiences and build solidarity between groups and individuals who wish to defend our civil liberties in the face of this Olympic assault.

SAve Leyton Marsh
e-mail: saveleytonmarsh@hotmail.co.uk
Homepage: www.saveleytonmarsh.wordpress.com

G4S security undercover: London Olympics is wide open to terror or false flag

Exclusive interview with investigative journalist Lee Hazledean who is training undercover as a security guard for the London olympics with private security firm G4S. The olympics start in 4 weeks time.

Lee Hazledean exclusive undercover report - mp3 13M

Lee Hazledean is a filmmaker and investigative TV journalist. He has also been involved in major stories on the IRA and how British Army infiltrated the organisation and carried out false flag operations. He has managed to get undercover as part of the security team at the 2012 Olympics with G4S. He has found there is a media black out on all major news outlets to do with the Olympics unless the story is broken in a news paper or foreign news agency it’s unlikely to see the light of day. Security training and officers are so appaling that the safety and security of the London 2012 Olympics are in jeopardy. A few example’s: The security training is woefully inadequate run by a training company called Contemporary International. Lee has been assigned to work in a PSA (Pedestrian Screening Area) the main security for the stadiums. During an exercise he was asked to pose as a would-be terrorist and managed to get knives, guns and IED’s through security screening on every occasion and every exercise. The X-Ray operators have only two days of training, they aren’t trained properly and miss the most obvious prohibited items gun’s, knives, IED’s, ammunition etc. Bag and physical searchers again are missing dangerous weapons, trainees can’t use vital security equipment like the HHMD (Hand Held Metal detectors) they can’t even communicate properly with the public on a basic level. Worryingly the ‘Rapiscan’ walk through metal detectors don’t work properly and aren’t sensitive enough to pick up large knives, ammunition and other metallic threats. He was told that they would be set to go off only after 50 people have walked through to limit queuing time and to get spectators into the venue. So a Terrorist if they basically queued up would probably get through wearing a suicide vest. G4S are dragging the job centres to recruit the long term unemployed for security officers regardless of how suitable they are for the role. In classes there are drug deals going down, people can’t speak any English whatsoever and others who find people with disabilities offensive and are constantly making disabled jokes. People with no security experience are being rushed through training for their SIA licenses. People who haven’t even completed their SIA licenses yet are being picked to be Team Leaders over highly trained security officers, ex soldiers and ex police. Being a team leader is an important role as the first and last line of defence. Lee is concerned that weapons or worse will be getting into the games. However, what’s more disturbing is that uniforms are already going missing or being stolen from the uniform distribution centre/training facility. The training facility is an accurate mock-up of the actual security measures at the Olympic venues. Lee has witnessed several people taking photos on their mobile phones in the training facility and whilst they have been a few people caught by trainers most aren’t noticed. Even when they are caught they are just told to delete the photos and they continue on the training. We know that terrorists take surveillance photos to gain intelligence. Contemporary International claim that they have mobile phone ‘jammers’ in the facility, however trainers admitted to Lee that there were no ‘jammers’ at all, it was a verbal deterrent. The training facility is a non sporting Olympic venue and a terrorist target. Therefore G4S can’t even secure a school let alone the Olympic Venues.
Also there are plans for the evacuation of London G4S are going to be at the forefront, as well as 100,000 troops coming in via Woolwich barracks made up of regular British Forces, American regular army and European troops. Lee was not told why there would be any need for an evacuation of the whole of London, they just said it was to be a “defining moment in the history of London”. This could just be a precaution but the public should be made aware of the foreign invasion which is taking place right now. The troops are being held across London in various barracks once they’ve been through Woolwich barracks. I also have this information confirmed by an army doctor who was shocked at all the foreign troops coming into London. There is also a shipment of what are being described as casket linings, each casket can hold four or five people and 200,000 casket linings have been delivered we believe from America. This could all be precautionary in the event of a major terrorist attack. Also we were shown videos of drones attacking targets in Afghanistan and were told that drones will be patrolling the sky’s over London during the Olympics carrying out surveillance and search and destroy missions if necessary. Lee believes there is something fundamentally wrong with how the security for the Olympics is being implemented by G4S. With exactly 4 weeks to go until the games Lee feels he needs to expose the inadequate security in place in the hope that it can be improved so that the London 2012 Olympics can be a safe environment for spectators and Athletes alike, and not a cause for national and international embarrassment for Great Britain.

high quality
London olympics security 'wide open', undercover exclusive
 http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/60932

Friday Drivetime
Homepage: http://bcfm.org.uk/2012/06/22/17/friday-drivetime-76/18658

UK police chiefs are expecting more riots during the Olympics. There is large military personnel stationed in London. And still the media do not wish to dwell on why London must become a war zone.

This is John Robles, you are listening to an interview with Tim Summers – a political activist and the former national campaign’s officer of the Green Party of England and Wales in the UK. He is also a former political cartoonist.

Hello Tim! How are you today?

I’m very well, thank you John.

It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you. What can you comment about scant coverage by the BBC and the British media regarding unrest in the country and in particular about the riots of last year?

Well, rather grim news about that, really John. The riots started early August last year in Tottenham of London when the local riot spread of the shooting by a police of a young unarmed black man Mark Duggan on the 4th of August. And even today as I speak the 31 police involved including the gunman are refusing interview with the circled Independent Police Complaints Commission. And the media has largely ignored that whole origin of the August riots. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is already a notorious cover-up crimes organization regarding its cover up of the murder by a police of Jean Charles de Menezes.

So, when 31 police refuse an interview with the IPCC it really does not looks good for them, and particularly when riots are expected again this summer. Last August it broke out from London, it spread all over London and then all across England, a lot of places. There were market towns circled, Croydon was the worst hit. And riots became awesome and militant as they tend do but this followed not with a careful examination but with a huge crackdown and very heavy jailing sentences to create a sort of moral panic by the Government and by the media in intention.

And the causes which I think I’ll go into have not been addressed. Several weeks ago six rioters in eastern Birmingham had shot handguns at police and were jailed for totally 124 years, that’s over 20 years each. That’s a measure of how serious the riots were and how serious the sentencing is. But instead of them asking the obvious political and economic questions a huge sycophantic media coverage of the monarch’s diamond jubilee party fortnight ago or the coverage of this great sensational Olympics showcase that diverts the masses consciously from all kinds of questions of social policy.

Unemployment for example is up, particularly regarding youth and black people. The gap between rich and poor has widened and continue to widen wiht years. Private rents, house prices go up, wages stay static, the Government’s austerity cuts (20% so far) have removed grants to formers, cut housing benefit, cut mental health services, huge amounts of public sector jobs, cut social housing, all this is causing very deep grief beneath the surface not reflected in the corporate media’s reporting. Particularly the relations between the youth and police continue to deteriorate. Many young people hate the police because police are the only interface between them and the Government they have come across. And these increased complaints of police racism, hardly twelve have been investigated. Homelessness has risen by 13% just during the first three months of this year.

So, it is becoming very hard social conditions and therefore the police chiefs are expecting more riots during the Olympics. They are stationing a huge national police force in London throughout the Olympics. But the Olympics charter of the young elected International Olympics Committee declares no kind of demonstrational political or religious propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas. But what are these other areas the media won’t tell us. This is a recipe for absolute chaos.

The London Olympics has deliberately gone out to invite the sponsorship of major corporations – McDonald’s, Coca Cola and even Dow Chemical whose chemical pollution caused 25 000 deaths in Bhopal in 1984. And now Dow Chemical are making wraps for the Olympic Stadium and there is a ban on demonstrations. This is really absurd. Protests are inevitable and are already planned. So, the police have stockpiled 10 000 plastic bullets ready for their forces in London. The mass media and the corporations are related and allied to the British Government. This is coming out every week in the Leveson Inquiry where Rupert Murdoch’s News International Corporation is being exposed for its links with the Government and its direct influences.

Are they similar to the BBC, I mean Murdoch’s coverage, was it in line with the BBC coverage in the country?

Murdoch’s line is even more harsh, particularly in terms of warmongering of the Iraq war, he really tells governments what to do. And the BBC hasn’t been so exposed yet but there is something really bland about the BBC which just blanks out all the important questions and just gives you daily echoing of very sort of sycophantic coverage.

They won’t tell you why the London Olympics has become a war zone, why there is 3 500 military personnel stationed in London over the Olympics, snipers in helicopters. Listen to this – six ground-to-air anti-aircraft missile bases are around London. Typhoon jet fighter planes at Northfield Airbase. An unknown force of American armed paramilitaries will be around in London plus 10 400 G4S Private Security Guards, 3 000 students to it, a whole navy battleship packed with marines more than London's pool, 8 000 volunteer systems raised by Mayor Brois Johnson. And still the media do not wish to dwell on why London must become a war zone.

And why is that?

Well, I think we must assume that some retaliation for Britain’s recent resource wars and war crimes is imminent but that could mean Afghanistan or Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Uganda and recently Britain supplied arms to Syria via Saudi Arabia and Qatar. That’s possible retaliation of these deeds but you find them listed in the corporate media in Britain which as I say is so absolutely embed with the Government.

So, if you add all this together – you have the riots, the war retaliations as expected, the protests, the war zone, add to that 11 million extra visitors. Many of London's main roads are being closed as VIP lanes, overloaded public transport all for the huge over heated, vain, glorious, unsustainable spectacle and you have one thing apart Olympics signifying and showcasing the whole global decline of the Western powers. Please take my warning because you won’t find it in Britain's media.

Alright! Thank you very much Tim for agreeing to speak with me.

It’s really been my pleasure, any time John.

Ok, thank you Sir. We appreciate it.

You were listening to an interview with Tim Summers – the former national campaign’s officer with the Green Party of England and Wales in the UK and the former political cartoonist and a political activist.