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Rick Rozoff: The NATO Summit + US will use heavy-handed tactics to curb NATO protesters

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with Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
May 8, 2012

by James Corbett
The Corbett Report
May 8, 2012

Tonight we are joined once again by Rick Rozoff of Stop NATO to discuss the upcoming NATO summit, which will be held in Chicago on May 20th and 21st. We talk about NATO as an extension of the Pentagon, its role as a global expeditionary force, the Chicago no-fly zone, the NATO missile shield and Why We March.

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May 11, 2012 by

Ever since its inception there have been those who have warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, far from offering a simple “collective security” pact to ensure the integrity of its member nations’ borders, would in fact be used as an offensive tool of imperial adventurism and conquest. Since the NATO-led Kosovo bombing campaign of 1999 at the very least, those fears have appeared more and more justified.

Since that time, NATO has continued to take a lead role in more and more overtly offensive campaigns of aggression in theatre after theatre. By now it is commonly understood to be an extension of the Pentagon itself, a convenient international military instrument for Washington to wield whenever the pretense of an international consensus cannot be achieved at the UN Security Council.

Find out more in this week’s GRTV Backgrounder on Global Research TV

The Chicago NATO Summit: Preview and Perspective

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US will use heavy-handed tactics to curb NATO protesters

PressTV
May 12, 2012

Interview with Rick Rozoff, Manager of Stop NATO, Chicago.‎

Thousands of peaceful anti-war protesters are expected to face off with armed riot police and sound cannons at the May NATO Summit to be held in Chicago.

Press TV has interviewed Rick Rozoff, Manager of Stop NATO in Chicago about ‘overkill’ preparations by the authorities to counter expected massive popular peaceful demonstrations opposing the upcoming Summit of NATO. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: I’d like to get your opinion first of all on the military-style tactics that will be deployed to confront protesters as these anti-riot police continue to amass equipment in the days to come.

Rozoff: Yes, you’re raising a good point. We have to keep in mind the nature of the Summit that’s going to occur in Chicago on May 20th and 21st.

This is a Summit of the worlds largest and the worlds only military bloc. It’s an organization that exists solely for the reason of preparing for and conducting war and the protesters who I hope will be in the tens of thousands are peaceful citizens of Chicago and citizens from other cities including peace groups, labor groups, religious groups and so forth.

So the irony that the City of Chicago’s police department of has ordered as of two month ago at least 8,500 police face masks or face shields have as you mentioned rumored to have acquired long range acoustic devices; the sort that Israel used against peaceful Palestinian protesters last year; and that the city of Pittsburg Pennsylvania used against peaceful American protesters in 2009 against the backdrop of the G20 Summit.

There was an incident last month where several black hawk helicopter gunships flew over Chicago. No residents of the city were informed about that of course and must have struck terror into the residents affected by it.

So what we are seeing is quite in character of a military bloc that as of last year waged war in three continents – in Europe, in Asia and Afghanistan and in Libya last year in North Africa – they’re acting true to form; they’re using coercive and threatening and potentially violent methods.

The long range acoustic device you point out is a battlefield weapon. It was tested to be a non-lethal battlefield weapon against armed opponents. And that this would be employed against peaceful protesters in Chicago is a travesty.

Press TV: Tell us a bit more about the protest itself come the conference – What does your organization as well as the many protesters you’re expecting to ascend on Chicago, what are they hoping to achieve from this protest?

Rozoff: This is only the second there has been a NATO Summit in the US. The last time was thirteen years ago in Washington DC. But this is the first time a NATO Summit is being held right in the heart of the US in the mid west in Chicago.

What it is going to be is a referendum where the people of Chicago, the people of the US and through them the people of the world are going to give a definitive ‘No’ to the world’s only military bloc; one that has waged wars of aggression in several parts of the world in the last 13 years.

But I think even more important than that is the fact that the people of Chicago and those in solidarity with us around the world are going to say, “21 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a quarter of a century after the Cold War, there is no justification for a military bloc like NATO; there is no justification for solving international disputes through acts of military aggression” and that this is not only calling for the dismantling, the abolition of NATO, it’s calling for an end to war now and forever.

Press TV: Is there any justification for preparing for the protests that are to come in Chicago later this month with the type of equipment that we’ve just outlined?

Rozoff: No. It’s definitely overkill and it’s meant also I should add as intimidation. The more the city divulges or announces that it’s bringing… There was an article in Crain’s ‘Chicago Business’ perhaps two months ago talking about the Federal government – Washington sending in marksmen, which is to say, snipers.

And reports of this sort are meant to intimidate or scare people away from protests. They will not have their desired effect.

There is going to be a massive protest on Sunday May 20th in Chicago and it’s going to be a peaceful protest by peaceful people against a violent organization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Let’s be very clear about who is violent and who is peaceful.

see

White House Touts War-Tested Global NATO Force by Rick Rozoff

Rick Rozoff: NATO missile shield has potential as first strike system + Bruce Gagnon: U.S. surrounding Russia

Partners Across The Globe: NATO Consolidates Worldwide Military Force by Rick Rozoff

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2 thoughts on “Rick Rozoff: The NATO Summit + US will use heavy-handed tactics to curb NATO protesters”

  1. Pingback: NATO Summit Kicked Off with Massive Demonstration + We want NATO ended « Dandelion Salad

  2. Pingback: Pro-NATO VS NATO Protesters Debate with Rick Rozoff « Dandelion Salad

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