ecopolis

LabforCulture is pleased to announce the names of the renowned theorists and artists participating in the Victims’ Symptom project, curated by Ana Peraica (Croatia/The Netherlands) and commissioned by LabforCulture.org.

Victims’ Symptom focuses on the concept of the victim as it is practically used in politics and journalism, but also as it is explored theoretically in victimology and in psychiatry and psychotherapy, as well as in the field of cultural studies. The project features critical texts, documentation, commissioned artworks and reflections by the curator and a number of other theorists and artists throughout the project.

A specially designed online space for Victims’ Symptom will be launched at the end of March 2008 featuring texts by theorists and curators Sezgin Boynik (Kosovo), Adila Laidi-Hanieh (Palestine), Stevan Vukovic(Serbia) and Geert Lovink (The Netherlands).

In April 2008, Victims’ Symptom will present a series of online artworks specifically commissioned for this project by Mauricio Arango (Colombia/USA), Alejandro Duque (Colombia/Switzerland), Andreja Kuluncic(Croatia), Marko Peljhan (Slovenia) and Martha Rosler (USA).

Visitors to the project website will also be invited to comment on the artworks and texts as well as participate in a live online debate supported by expert consultants Tihana Jendricko, psychiatrist and Tina Peraica, psychotherapist, from the Center of Psychotrauma, Zagreb, Croatia. There is also an opportunity for site visitors to submit their artistic work that relates to the subject, Victims’ Symptom, which will be discussed by the invited participants of the project.

Exploring different concepts including self-victimisation, “collateral victims”; “ideal victims”, the bureaucracy of death and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), but also “cultural engineering of victims”, Victims’ Symptom delves deeply into our misconceptions of culturally engineered victims and actual victims.

Ana Peraica is a freelance curator, theorist and post-academic researcher of art theory and new media. Marko Stamenkovic (Serbia/The Netherlands), a curator currently participating in the Curatorial Training Program of De Appel (Amsterdam) is assisting Peraica with moderation on http://victims.labforculture.org. Together they have also conducted a series of interviews as a run-up to the project with artists, experts and thinkers such asNeery Melkonian, Anur Hadziomerspahic, Enrique Arroyo, Sue Golding (aka Johnny de Philo) and Noam Chomsky.

LabforCulture commissioned Victims’ Symptom to celebrate its first year anniversary in the summer of 2007. Ana Peraica’s curatorial project was selected by a panel made up of Annet Dekker (former Head of Exhibitions and Artlab, Netherlands Media Art Institute and currently Programme Manager at the Virtueel Platform, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Kelli Dipple (Webcasting Curator, Tate Modern, London, UK), as well as LabforCulture staff.

For more information on Victims’ Symptom, go to:
http://victims.labforculture.org

For more information on the artists and theorists, go to:
http://www.labforculture.org/content/view/full/22876

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR ARTISTS, CURATORS and INSTITUTIONS involved in the exhibition EXCEPTION: Contemporary art scene from Prishtina, scheduled to be open on the 7.02.2008 in Belgrade, Kontekst Gallery

The statement is a reaction to the fact that the exhibition EXCEPTION, Contemporary art scene from Prishtina (Kosova) that was scheduled to open on 7 February 2008 (and to be on display until 15 February 2008) at KONTEKST Gallery in Belgrade WAS FORCED TO CLOSE JUST BEFORE THE OPENING.

The Serbian police that had to intervene just before the opening as they estimated that they cannot guarantee safety to the curators and the public, after an organized group of Serbian nationalist forcesattacked the gallery space and even destroyed Dren Maliqi’s work Face to face.The artists taking part in the exhibition are Artan Balaj, Jakup Ferri, Driton Hajredini, Flaka Haliti, Fitore Isufi Koja, Dren Maliqi, Alban Muja, Vigan Nimani, Nurhan Qehaja, Alketa Xhafa and Lulzim Zeqiri.

On 8 February 2008, the curators of the project Vida Knezevic, Kristian Lukic, Ivana Marjanovic and Gordana Nikolic asked PUBLICLY the Ministry of culture of Serbia and the city of Belgrade to react firmly against such nationalist forces in order to protect the exhibition in the future. The curators insist on the right to present the project in Belgrade in the near future.

On 8 February, these violent nationalist forces attacked again, they threw stones in the windows of the KONTEKST gallery and broke them and as well they destroyed gallery’s sign on the door.

All of us signed under this statement are expressing our support TO ARTISTS, CURATORS and INSTITUTIONS involved in the exhibition EXCEPTION: Contemporary art scene from Prishtina.

http://www.kontekstgalerija.org/html/main_en.htm

Petition is directed to Ministry of Culture of Republic of Serbia, Secretariat for Culture of City of Belgrade, as a demand for express and direct support to the organizers for opening of this exhibition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/odstupi/petition.html

These are the only images of the 6 terrorists accused of realizing 9/11.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Walid bin Attash

Mustafa al Hawsawi

Mohammed Al-Qahtani

Ramzi Binalshibh

Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali

The Air Force Cyber Command (Provisional)(AFCYBER) is the newest United States Air Force major command whose development was announced by the Secretary of the Air Force on November 2, 2006.

Designated to stand up around Summer 2007 (announced March 21 in Congress), the AFCYBER will draw upon the personnel resources of the 67th Network Warfare Wing as well as other resources of the Eighth Air Force; it will be placed under the command of Major General William T. Lord. Secretary Wynne summarized the mission of the AFCYBER: “The aim is to develop a major command that stands alongside Air Force Space Command and Air Combat Command as the provider of forces that the President, combatant commanders and the American people can rely on for preserving the freedom of access and commerce, in air, space and now cyberspace,”

On Wednesday, September 12th, 2007, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne spoke at the Horseshoe Casino Riverdome in Bossier City, Louisiana. “Here we are, close to the birthplace of Cyber Command, which this will be. We are going to establish on the birthday of the Air Force the interim command of Cyber Command right here, provisionally,” he said. Wynne was referring to the Eighth Air Force and Barksdale Air Force base specifically, as the provisional home of Cyber Command.
8th Air Force named as cyberspace command

Release Number: 011106

11/2/2006 – ARLINGTON, Va. — Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne announced today that the 8th Air Force is now the service’ s lead command for cyberspace.

The command’s new responsibility is a potential step to becoming an Air Force major command, Wynne said.

The “Mighty Eighth” was made famous during the Combined Bomber Offensive over Europe in World War II. “The mission of bombers now within the 8th Air Force will remain,” he said.

The move accompanies the service’s ever-increasing reliance on operations within the cyberspace domain, Wynne explained. “The capital cost of entry to the cyberspace domain is low. The threat is, that a foe can mass forces to weaken the network that supports our operations,” he said. Wynne noted that the traditional principles of war as taught to young officers apply fully in cyberspace, and he stressed that cyberspace operations can include far more than computer network attack and defense. He cited the use of improvised explosive devices in Iraq, terrorist use of Global Positioning Satellites and satellite communications, Internet financial transactions by adversaries, radar and navigational jamming, and attacking American servers as just a few examples of operations that involve the cyberspace domain. “This new way of war is data-dependent. We need to protect our data while detecting adversary data and then deny, disrupt, dissuade or destroy the source of that data or transmission as appropriate,” he said.

Led by Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, 8th Air Force will develop the cyberspace force by reaching across all Air Force commands to draw the right people and capabilities.

The cornerstone of the cyberspace command will be the leading-edge capabilities already resident in 8th AF to include command and control, electronic warfare, net warfare, and surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Wynne called the move “good stewardship” and said it was necessary to ensure the cyberspace domain receives the emphasis required. The 8th Air Force will be responsible for training, organizing and equipping the service for cyberspace operations and managing career planning to grow cyberspace professionals from among the active duty, guard, reserve, and civilian ranks.

“There will be careers and a strong future for the Airmen whose work is in the cyberspace domain. Air Force military and civilian experts are working now forming the career and school paths that will ensure a full career with full opportunities for advancement to the highest ranks of the Air Force,” he said.

In December 2005, the Air Force mission statement was amended to include cyberspace as an operational domain along with air and space. The service stood up the Cyberspace Task Force in January, led by military strategist Dr. Lani Kass. The task force, composed of Airmen from across the Air Force, has spent the past ten months gathering data and exploring how the service operate effectively in cyberspace. Recently Air Force leaders tasked the commanders of Air Combat Command and Air Force Space Command to submit a proposal for establishing an operational command for cyberspace.

Over the last week, four major undersea cables have been disrupted (three were cut, with two of those co-located, and a fourth was malfunctioning). The damage so far includes reduced Internet service for most of the Middle East and a short term brown out of connectivity for India (which impacted India’s outsourcing business). Rerouting and repairs should clean up the damage in the next week or so.

Some observations from Global Guerrillas:
Vulnerability. All of the same network vulnerabilities we see other infrastructures are in force with the Internet’s long haul systems (the network analysis of systempunkts applies). If this was a real attack rather than a series of accidents (the geographical concentration is interesting in this regard), then this was likely a capabilities test that yielded data on response times, impact, and duration.
Means. Attacks on undersea cables are within the capacity of small groups to accomplish. With precise mapping (these cables take very circuitous routes), a cable could be cut with as little as an anchor. However, nation-states are the most capable in this sphere (including, a growing number of micropowers). Why would a nation-state do this? Deterrence. Disconnection from the global communications grid is very likely become a form of economic/social coercion in the future (for standard national security reasons all the way down to an inability/unwillingness to crack down on rampant Internet crime, which is growing into a HUGE global problem).

Precision. It’s very hard to precisely target an attack’s damage. Regional impacts are unavoidable (collective punishment for everyone that connects to the target country?). Here’s a final point to consider: closed systems like China’s that route traffic through firewall choke-points, or other closely held infrastructure, are likely very vulnerable to an attack of this type.

Suharto (born June 8, 1921), died on 27th janury. He was a former Indonesian military and political leader. He served as a military officer in the Indonesian National Revolution, but is better known as the long-reigning second President of Indonesia, holding the office from 1967 to 1998.

In 2001 he was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison for corruption, because he embezzlied dlrs 243.6 million through a scam involving a state forest mapping project during the early 1990s.
At that time was also member of the Olympic Committee.

Quite discussed political figure was also accused of genocide, as InsideIndonesia reports:

In the thirty years of President Suharto’s control, at least two sets of events amount to crimes against humanity and/ or genocide in an ordinary meaning of the terms.

First, President Suharto’s rule was founded when he led the holocaust that destroyed the Indonesian Communist Party. Between mid-October 1965 and the end of the following year, the Indonesian armed forces planned, orchestrated and in part carried out the murder of between 200,000 and one million Indonesian citizens. Virtually all were unarmed.

Most victims were alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) or its allied community organisations. Some were targets of anti-Chinese hatred fostered by army propaganda. Hundreds of thousands were shot by the military. Comparable numbers were clubbed and hacked to death by their neighbours, directed, equipped and incited by the armed forces.

Much about the anti-communist killings remains unknown even today, since the subject has been unspeakable in Indonesia. Yet no serious historian doubts that hundreds of thousands of Indonesians were killed. One of the first tasks a UN Special Rapporteur or Committee of Experts faces is to examine the existing evidence as to the scale of the crimes.

Title: No End In Sight
Director: Charles Ferguson
Year: 2007
Country: USA
Language: English / Arabic
Runtime, min: 102
Genre: Documentary

The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality. Based on over 200 hours of footage, the film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003) as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts.

NO END IN SIGHT examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, and the disbanding of the Iraqi military largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today. How did a group of men with little or no military experience, knowledge of the Arab world or personal experience in Iraq come to make such flagrantly debilitating decisions?

NO END IN SIGHT dissects the people, issues and facts behind the Bush Administration’s decisions and their consequences on the ground to provide a powerful look into how arrogance and ignorance turned a military victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war.

Benazir Bhutto told to Al-jazeera that Omar Sheikh killed Osama Bin Laden. It was 2th of november 2007. Now she’s dead.

The same Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh that, using the alias “Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad” had sent about $100,000 from the United Arab Emirates to Mohammed Atta. “Investigators said Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida in the weeks before the deadliest acts of terrorism on U.S. soil.