World-News

01.12.06

Nach Darstellung des Deutschen Naturschutzrings (DNR) will Bundesminister Horst Seehofer den jährlichen Waldschadensbericht abschaffen. Der Dachverband reagierte gemeinsam mit zahlreichen weiteren Verbänden mit einem Protestschreiben. "Durch Totschweigen wird der kranke deutsche Wald nicht gesunden", kritisierte DNR-Generalsekretär Helmut Röscheisen.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14864



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Seehofer

01.12.06

Der Vorsitzende der Linksfraktion, Oskar Lafontaine, kritisierte am Freitag die geplante Anti-Terror-Datei. "Wir weisen darauf hin, dass nach dem im Gesetzentwurf enthaltenen Terrorismusbegriff auch Mitglieder des Bundestags, der Präsident der USA, George Bush, und der britische Premierminister, Tony Blair, in die Datei aufgenommen werden müssten. Es handele sich bei ihnen um Personen, die - so stehe es im Gesetz - "rechtswidrig Gewalt als Mittel zur Durchsetzung international ausgerichteter politischer oder religiöser Belange anwenden oder eine solche Gewaltanwendung unterstützen". Der Jugoslawienkrieg sei ein Bruch des Völkerrechts "ebenso wie die Kriegführung bis zum heutigen Tage in Afghanistan" gegen das Völkerrecht verstoße.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14867

01.12.06

Die Grünen werfen der Bundesregierung vor, bei der deutschen EU-Ratspräsidentschaft im ersten Halbjahr 2007 die EU-Verfassung auf dem "Weg der Geheimdiplomatie" retten zu wollen. "Europa braucht Öffentlichkeit und mehr Transparenz", sagte der Grünen-Abgeordnete Rainder Steenblock am Freitag in einer europapolitischen Debatte des Bundestages. Der Versuch, hinter verschlossenen Türen Lösungen für die EU-Verfassung zu erarbeiten, müsse scheitern.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14866

01.12.06

Politik wird heute vielfach auch mit Ankündigungen, Symbolen und mit dem Einsetzen von Kommissionen und Sonderbeauftragten gemacht. Bemerkenswert ist eine aktuelle Personalie. So will sich die Bundesregierung in der Umweltpolitik künftig von zwei Klimaschutzbeauftragten unterstützt lassen. Sie sollen die Bundesregierung insbesondere während Deutschlands EU- und G8-Vorsitz im kommenden Jahr beraten, heißt es. Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) und Umweltminister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) stellten die Sonderbeauftragten am Freitag in Berlin der Öffentlichkeit vor: Bei den Beauftragten handelt es sich um den Direktor des Potsdamer Instituts für Klimafolgenforschung, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, und um den Chef des Energie- und Atomkonzerns Vattenfall, Lars Josefsson. "Nun wird der Bock zum Gärtner", kommentierte der ostdeutsche Umweltverband Grüne Liga.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14863

Christopher Dodd, Connecticut's senior US senator, has proposed revamping the newly authorized military commissions to restore habeas corpus protections for terrorism suspects, as well as to curb executive interpretation.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106G.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+commissions
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=habeas+corpus

From pressing for hearings on Iraq to probing no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton, America's first socialist senator aims to give Congress a hard tilt to the left. Bernie Sanders, a 16-year veteran of the House of Representatives who swept 65 percent of the vote in Vermont running as an independent in the November 7 elections, says Congress owes voters an exhaustive probe into the White House.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106E.shtml

The new Democratic leadership faces pressure to end taxpayer-funded pensions to misbehaving members of Congress. Over 20 civic organizations claiming to have millions of members sent a letter to the new Democratic leadership demanding that they immediately pass a law taking away pensions from members of Congress who've been convicted of a felony.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106D.shtml

A Crack in the Stone Wall

"The question of the wiretap program's constitutionality is now making its way through the courts and should ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. Congress should not be satisfied with Mr. Fine's very limited investigation. It should mount its own independent inquiry into how the war on terror, and American civil liberties, are being affected by an eavesdropping program about which we have been told so little," says the New York Times.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=wiretap

http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=SOyXjlABaDO_chJWNWQ0aA..

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/index.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=NSA+spying

US-Regierung bewertet das Risikopotenzial aller Ein- und Ausreisenden

Von CAPPS 2 zum Automated Targeting System (ATS): Vom US-Kongress beanstandete Überwachungsprogramme werden, auch mit der bereitwilligen Zulieferung der Flugdaten europäischer Reisender, unter anderem Namen weitergeführt.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24116/1.html

Trading Human Rights
http://ga3.org/ct/3120pgF1QzEv/

The editors of the New York Times write: "President Bush's news conference yesterday with Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq had an even greater than usual sense of unreality about it, with Mr. Bush insisting that Mr. Maliki is 'the right guy for Iraq' and that American troops will stay 'until the job is complete,' while Mr. Maliki asserted that his country is a democracy and he is not a captive of Shiite militias."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106L.shtml



Talks on Iraq Produce No Major Shift

President Bush and Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, met yesterday for the first time since sectarian killings in Iraq surged to record levels, but offered no new blueprint for quelling the chaos, thwarting the hopes of those pushing for a dramatic shift in US policy.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106M.shtml

--------

Bush is irrelevant

The Price of Liberty
by Michael Gaddy

12/06

President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki met in Jordan to discuss the steadily deteriorating situation in Iraq; neither has faced the reality that as far as controlling future events in Iraq are concerned, both are irrelevant. Bush, like many other factional leaders in Iraq, has his own militia, arguably no longer the largest, but is in the unenviable position of being the one all the others see as occupiers and targets of opportunity. Prime Minister al-Maliki has nothing but his status as a puppet for the most hated entity currently involved in the debacle that is Iraq. In reality, Bush lost whatever control of events he had in Iraq somewhere between 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Bring Them On'...

http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/06/12/11/gaddy.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Maliki

Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106K.shtml

Jason Leopold reports: "President Bush outright rejected calls for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq Thursday, setting the stage for what will likely be a bitter showdown between the White House and the new Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress, who insist that the cornerstone of US policy in Iraq going forward must include a firm timetable by the administration for when US soldiers will return home."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106J.shtml

Paperless electronic voting machines used throughout the Washington region and much of the country "cannot be made secure," according to draft recommendations issued this week by a federal agency that advises the US Election Assistance Commission. The assessment by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, one of the government's premier research centers, is the most sweeping condemnation of such voting systems by a federal agency.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106Z.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=electronic+voting
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=vote
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=election

Hawaii Reporter
by James Jay Carafano and Robert Quartel

11/28/06

In Tom Clancy’s 'The Sum of All Fears,' terrorists obtain a nuclear bomb, ship it to Baltimore and detonate it. Policymakers in Washington want to make sure that piece of fiction doesn’t become fact. Some politicians want to require inspectors to look inside each container before it’s shipped to U.S. ports. Supposedly, this would prevent terrorists from smuggling in a weapon of mass destruction or a 'dirty' bomb (a large, conventional explosive laced with radiological material). But in reality, we’d be wasting our time and money...

http://tinyurl.com/y5konv


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Heartland Institute
by Alfred E. Kahn

12/01/06

The advocates of network neutrality have become distressingly, stridently apocalyptic, rallying all good liberals against (the following is a fair composite quote): 'Those with the deepest pockets ... corporations, special-interest groups, major advertisers, and especially the billion-dollar telephone and cable companies that now dominate the business of providing broadband connections to the public--who want to control what you read, see, or hear online would be able to pay the new fees, while little-guy sites could be shut out.' Now wait just a minute...

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=20209


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Orange County Register
by staff

11/30/06

Semantics aside, nearly two dozen militias roam Baghdad, and the government is impotent As one expert put it to us Wednesday, the postponed meeting between President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is 'like dancing on the decks of the Titanic as the ship is going down.' If Larry Diamond, a scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University who worked in Iraq as an official of the Coalition Provisional Authority, was exaggerating, it wasn't by much. ... And if the real events are uncertain and indicate instability, consider the lack of agreement regarding the words being used to describe them. The administration has termed 'terrorists' what others call 'insurgents.' Some major news outlets are calling the chaos and violence afflicting Iraq today a 'civil war,' while the president says not so...

http://tinyurl.com/yfjxjz


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Boston Globe
by Nikolas Gvosdev & Ray Takeyh

11/30/06

The 'transformational presidency' of George W. Bush was supposed to reinvigorate America's global leadership and enhance its ability to project power throughout the world. Instead, debilitated by the quagmire in Iraq, America is increasingly disrespected by its adversaries and mistrusted by its allies. Gone are the days when the United States could almost single-handedly cut a recalcitrant country off from the global economy or raise a truly multinational coalition to take military action against a rogue state. How has such a reversal taken place, especially after the outpouring of support following 9/11?

http://tinyurl.com/yllp3y


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Kenai Peninsula Clarion

11/30/06

Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals. The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years. The scores are assigned to people entering and leaving the United States after computers assess their travel records, including where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered...

http://tinyurl.com/ycstp9


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Campaigners are to go into battle again over plans for a mobile phone mast close to Preston College and two secondary schools.

In June the college joined forces with locals to get a bid for an 11.8m mast thrown out by Preston Council planners.

But mobile phone giant Orange has submitted a revised application to erect a mast on land off St Vincent's Road in Fulwood, near Archbishop Temple CE High School and Corpus Christi Catholic Sports College.

The only significant amendments are that the mast will be of different design and sited 50cm to the right of the previous application.

Planning officials, who have recieved 19 objections to the new application, will consider the proposal in January.

A spokesman for Preston College said: "We are objecting to the mast again, due to its proposed location being in close proximity to the college and the health risk this poses to our staff, students and residents."

A local mother-of-two, who did not wish to be named, said said: "No matter how many reports Orange throw at us saying it is safe, they are not going to convince me there is no risk at all."

Orange spokesman Duncan McGraw insisted a mast was necessary for the area after the company was ordered to take a mast off the roof of nearby Sharoe Green Hospital.

He added: "We understand the concerns of residents, but we can assure them radiation levels are 1000s of times lower than international guidelines."

Omega read "Base Stations, operating within strict national and international Guidelines, do not present a Health Risk?" under: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/771911/

01 December 2006

All rights reserved © 2006 Johnston Press Digital Publishing.

http://www.lep.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=73&ArticleID=1909359

FYI, the list of legislative recommendations to ensure the integrity of our democracy has been slightly revised today.

I want to thank the folks of the Open Voting Consortium discussion list and to several other wonderful election integrity activists for helping to reword and add details to my original 13 recommendations and to add two new recommendations to bring the number up to 15.

http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/EI-FederalLegislationProposal.pdf

The revisions include the addition of a few details in the "Public Election Records" recommendation, a couple of details and reference to an ACM study in the "Prohibit Practices that Disenfranchise Voters" recommendation, and various small edits to improve clarity.

Next we'll create a list of experts who would be able to assist Congress with specific details of the 15 recommendation.

Here is the final version of our legislative recommendations to ensure the integrity of our democracy:

http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/EI-FederalLegislationProposal.pdf

I'm glad it's done.

Thank you all for your help spreading the word and for pushing crucial election integrity legislation through this upcoming Congressional session!


Kathy Dopp
http://electionarchive.org



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kathy+Dopp

Public opinion polls unanimously show that trust in mainstream media - the institution most responsible for keeping us all informed and aware - is at an all-time low. How did we get here, and more importantly, how can we repair the damage?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/113006U.shtml

In 1974, when income inequality was at its lowest point, the top 10 percent of U.S. households had incomes 31 times that of the poorest 10 percent and four times greater than median-income households. Twenty years later, these numbers had inflated to 55 times the poorest and six times the median.

http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/strat.html


From Information Clearing House

A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutional and vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15941646/


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=executive+order

The Parliament's draft report concludes "member states had knowledge of the programme of extraordinary rendition and secret prisons."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/1245_secret_cia.html



The case of Mohammed El Zari and Ahmed Agiza

Violations of fundamental human rights by Sweden confirmed
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGEUR420012006


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=secret+CIA+flights
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=rendition
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=secret+prisons

Russia's electricity giant head and architect of the 1990s reforms said the mystery illness of his reformer colleague was linked to the recent killings of an investigative journalist and an ex-spy.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20061129/56157431.html



Doctors suspect ex-PM was poisoned

Doctors treating former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, who is gravely ill, believe he was poisoned, an aide said today.

http://tinyurl.com/ylendg


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Litvinenko
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Politkovskaya

Perilous Power is a dialogue about U.S. policy in the Middle East between two of the most astute analysts of this part of the world: Noam Chomsky and Gilbert Achcar.

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=11512&sectionID=11


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Noam+Chomsky

„Jeder Geräteschuppen benötigt in Deutschland eine Genehmigung. Tausende Mobilfunkmaste werden jedoch ohne Auflagen aufgestellt. Dabei ist der Wissenschaft seit langem bekannt, dass die von den Mobilfunkantennen ausgehende Strahlung besonders kleinen Kindern gefährlich werden kann. Trotz mehrfacher Aufforderung hält sich die Saarländische Landesregierung mit einer Stellungnahme zurück“, so der Vorsitzende der Landeselternvertretung (LEV) Grundschulen im Saarland, Jörg Dammann.

Die LEV fordert erneut im Vorfeld der Montage einer Mobilfunkantenne eine Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung (UVP) und eine 2 Kilometer Sicherheitszone zwischen Antennenstandort, Grundschulen und Kindergärten.

Bereits am 29. September 2006 wurde die saarländische Landesregierung wegen der Problematik angeschrieben und um Stellungnahme gebeten. Gleich vier Ministerien (Umwelt, Gesundheit, Familien und Wirtschaft) wurden mit dem Thema konfrontiert. Eine Antwort blieb jedoch bis heute aus. Ein weiteres Schreiben an Ministerpräsident Peter Müller blieb ebenfalls unbeantwortet.

Da Informationsbedarf bestand, hatten die Eltern eine eigene Aufklärungskampagne zu dem Thema gestartet. Zudem hat der LEV-Vorsitzende die zuständigen Bundesminister kontaktiert und ebenfalls um Stellungnahme gebeten.

http://saarland.uebergebuehr.de/de/aktuell/news/meldung/ansicht/2006/12/lev-fordert-umweltvertraeglichkeitspruefung-vor-errichtung-von-mobilfunkmasten/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Landeselternvertretung
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Landeselternvertretung

http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt243.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Elizabeth+de+la+Vega

http://www.lewrockwell.com/chartier/chartier46.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=655+000

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1130-21.htm

Don’t Just Ask Gates Questions; Dig Deep
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1130-22.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Gates
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Rumsfeld

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1130-05.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=stay+the+course

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1130-01.htm



Text Of Secret U.S. Security Adviser’s Iraq Memo

classified secret

Following is the text of a Nov. 8 memorandum prepared for cabinet-level officials by Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and his aides on the National Security Council. The five-page document, classified secret, was read and transcribed by The New York Times.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15780.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1130-03.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=vote
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=election

http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1939916,00.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gore

news.com.au
November 29, 2006

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20840754-23109,00.html

Scientists working in Antarctica fear the Ross Ice Shelf, an ice platform the size of France, could collapse quickly and trigger a rapid rise in sea levels.

A research team drilling in the frozen continent has recovered three million years of climate history, New Zealand newspaper The Press reported today.

An analysis of sea floor samples near Scott Base suggested the Ross Ice Shelf had collapsed before, probably suddenly.

Scientist Tim Naish said the sediment record gave crucial evidence about how the Ross Ice Shelf would react to climate change.

"If the past is any indication of the future, then the ice shelf will collapse," he told the newspaper.

"If the ice shelf goes, then what about the West Antarctic Ice Sheet? What we've learnt from the Antarctic Peninsula is when once buttressing ice sheets go, the glaciers feeding them move faster and that's the thing that isn't so cheery."

Antarctica stores 90 per cent of the world's water, with the the West Antarctic Ice Sheet holding an estimated 30 million cu km.

In January, British Antarctic Survey researchers predicted that its collapse would make sea levels rise by at least 5m, with other estimates predicting a rise of up to 17m.

Mr Naish, a sedimentologist with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, said the team was retrieving a detailed history of the ice shelf.

"We know from the Larsen Ice Shelf (which collapsed on the Antarctic Peninsula in 2002) that they go extremely quickly," he said.


Informant: NHNE