Arab Guerillas
“If the United States sends troops to Jordan,” Yasser Arafat (leader of Al-Fateh, Palestinian guerilla organization) commented after the announcement that the 82nd Airborne had been placed on alert, “then we say welcome to another Vietnam.”
In the last month a lot of shit has been coming down in the Middle East. In Jordan, the CIA-supported right-wing of the government tried to come down hard on the Palestinian guerillas, and thus sparked an insurrection. Fighting continued for quite a few days. The guerillas even held dozens of Americans, German, and British at one point.
Amman, the capital, was almost totally under control of the Palestinians and their Jordanian compatriots. U.S. troops were nearly called in. But finally the Jordanian government gave in. It dismissed anti-guerilla units. If it hadn’t, the city would have probably been completely taken over by the guerillas.
About two weeks later, Israeli tanks invaded Syria, which has a moderately left-wing government. This has mobilized Palestinians against the Israeli government even more.
Smash The Embassies
Firebombs hit four Latin American embassies in Washington, D.C. on July 2, the seventh day of the first general assembly of the Organization of American States. The U.S.-run organization was going to meet in the Dominican Republic, but couldn’t because of riots.
A group called the Revolutionary 7 took credit for a pipe bombing the night before of the Inter-American Defense Board.
These actions show a clear solidarity with revolutionary forces in Latin America. When the OAS cannot meet in Washington without big hassles, you know the Empire’s days are numbered.
Usually the American Embassy in Sweden is open on July 4. This year it was not, because 4,000 demonstrators surrounded the building chanting, “Nixon murder”, “U.S. get out of Sweden” and “Free the Panthers.”
Meanwhile, in Denmark, a former-Danish government minister criticized U.S. intervention in Vietnam and quoted from Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver at an American Independence Day celebration, attended by that old honk governor of Michigan, George Romney.