Editor’s Note: As France and England struggle to regain their footing as colonial/imperial powers in partnership with Washington, the police state and coverups continue to inject their ugly face into the lives of those nations.

Mohamed Merah’s family denies he was Toulouse, France gunman

France’s current head, and wholesale terrorist, Sarkozy, attends funeral of soldiers supposedly killed by Merah (retail terrorist). France’s collusion in imperial adventures with the US and Britain is a stain on her honor. As Merah’s brother, Rachid, said: “You reap what you sow. They kill our children in Palestine, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, they should recognise their responsibility. The minister of the interior has said that Mohamed was a monster….but I reply that they have created this monster which killed children.”—Eds

By Antoine Lerougetel , for WSWS.ORG, a socialist organization.
Thank you, WSWS.ORG

The family of Mohamed Merah, whom French police accused of carrying out a wave of deadly shootings in Toulouse and Montauban between March 11 and 19, has emphatically denied that he was a terrorist or carried out the killings. Merah was killed by an elite police unit after a 32-hour siege of his flat last Thursday.

His half-brother Rachid Merah, who lives in Algeria, told FranceInfo television: “I have no idea of what the media and the politicians are talking about. They say that Mohammed has been in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that he was in contact with Al Qaeda. But I categorically deny it. And I doubt whether he has had any links with Al Qaeda or the Taliban or any terrorist organisation in the world. And proof of that is that France killed him before he could speak in court, when they could have caught him alive.” Read more…

By Alex Lantier, wsws.org

Iranian nuclear scientist Professor Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, was killed yesterday in a bomb blast in Tehran. Witnesses saw motorcyclists attach a magnetic explosive device to his car before the blast.

Roshan’s bodyguard, who was driving, was also killed, and an 85-year-old passerby was reportedly wounded. The motorcyclists escaped into traffic.

BBC journalists in Tehran reported that the bomb was highly specialized, “a targeted, focused device intended to kill one or two people and small enough not to be heard from far away.” Read more…

By Stephen Lendman
 

The image on the left, run on the Christian Science Monitor (a leading US newspaper), has been typical of American press reports on the Russian elections and Putin’s standing among the people. The image is headlined, “Huge protest demanding fair Russian elections hits Moscow.” It adds: “Russian protesters angry at what they say are rigged elections and the authoritarian ways of Vladimir Putin, flooded Moscow today demanding change.” (Dec. 24th)
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Russia’s December 4 elections filled 450 State Duma seats, Russia’s Federal Assembly lower house.

Claims of electoral fraud followed. All elections have irregularities. At issue is whether results are comprised. Election monitor Golos accusations were spurious. America’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funds it. It supports regime change in non-US client states.  It backs opposition groups, conducts propaganda campaigns, and does openly what CIA operatives do covertly to destabilize sitting governments.  Its mission is subverting, not promoting democracy. It operates with State Department funding and direction. It serves US imperial interests destructively against targeted countries. Read more…