World-News

Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the US and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906Y.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

By MATTHEW DALY

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, who voted in favor of the Iraq war and has supported it ever since, now says the current U.S. war effort is "absurd" and "may even be criminal."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003468687_websmith08.html


Informant: David Diggins



Sen. Smith urges changes in U.S. strategy
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/12/09/a1.smithspeech.1209.p1.php?section=cityregion


Informant: ranger116



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gordon+Smith

In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Senator Gordon Smith, a moderate Republican from Oregon who has been a supporter of the war in Iraq, said the US military's "tactics have failed" and he "cannot support that anymore."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906G.shtml



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

Public housing officials decided Thursday to proceed with the demolition of more than 4,500 government apartments here, brushing aside an outcry from residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina who said the move was intended to reduce the ability of poor black people to repopulate the city. Residents and their advocates made emotional, legal and what they called common-sense arguments against demolition at the housing authority meeting. "The day you decide to destroy our homes, you will break a lot of hearts," said Sharon Pierce Jackson, who lived in one of the now-closed projects slated to be razed. "We are people. We are not animals."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906F.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=New+Orleans

Nearing the end of an era of Republican rule, Congress early today sent to President Bush energy, tax and trade legislation as it prepared to hand over the reins of power to Democrats. In a final burst of activity, lawmakers approved $38 billion in tax breaks and a Vietnam trade measure and voted to open a large section of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906E.shtml



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

"As we look toward January 3, 2007, the day that the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, one of the issues that must be addressed is whether or not the impeachment of President George W. Bush and others in the Bush administration should take place. Regarding the invasion of Iraq and the manner in which information was presented to the American people, did the president and/or members of his administration commit treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors? Many see this as a partisan issue. Most if not all Republicans are against the idea. Some Democrats support impeachment. All Americans who believe in democracy should support it. Impeachment, in this instance, is not a partisan issue; it's a democracy issue," says Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906C.shtml



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

Halliburton Corp., the oil field services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, breached the terms of its multibillion dollar contract to provide US soldiers logistical support in Iraq when one of its subcontractors outsourced security work to Blackwater USA, according to new documents released Friday by Congressman Henry Waxman.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906B.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Halliburton
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Waxman

A message from Kim

Original Message

Please take the action below and forward this to protect our internet. If you are one of our friends living outside the USA please forward this to all your American friends so they can help. Thank you so much.

Bless You All

Catman P.


The FCC is at it again, ignoring the public interest to give handouts to massive corporations. This move could undermine basic freedoms for all Internet users.

Sign On To the Letter Below to urge your members of Congress to step in and save Internet freedom.

http://action.freepress.net/campaign/stop_att_merger

By Tom Stirling

IT'S NOT their fault - that's the verdict of a top lawyer, who has defended Ryedale District Council's handling of a controversial mobile phone mast.

Residents at Sheriff Hutton have threatened legal action after the council said there was nothing it could do to move the Orange mast.

Nigel Giffin QC was called in to look at the council's options.

He concluded the council was not to blame - even though it was its error that prompted the furore.

As revealed in The Press at the time, council bosses failed to submit their written objections to the company within the formal deadline.

Mr Giffin's advice said: "This error has in fact made no difference whatever to the outcome, because there was ultimately no proper basis for refusing prior approval consent in any event.

"Accordingly, whilst it may well be that there are people in Sheriff Hutton who think that the erection of the mast is the result of the council's error, that is not in truth an objectively tenable view of what has happened.

"Rather, the erection of the mast results from the current state of the scientific evidence coupled with the nature of current planning powers and guidance."

Mr Giffin also ruled out spending public money to move the mast.

He said: "It is hard to see that it can be right to expend a substantial sum of public money in order to restore public confidence in the council, when the council is not in fact the author of the problem."

He added: "If the mast remains where it is, the council is entitled to say that it is because it had no power to bring about a different result, and not because it did not use some power which it did have."

John Botting, a prominent anti-mast campaigner at Sheriff Hutton, said: "I can understand where Mr Giffin is coming from, but this means we are totally disenfranchised. If we accept this advice, whenever a phone company wants to put a mast up, there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.

"Are we going to have Sheriff Hutton repeated across North Yorkshire?"

Senior councillor Robert Wainwright said: "The council has left no stone unturned to try to resolve this long-running issue.

"The views of local people have been listened to and we will continue to work with Ryedale residents to ensure that such a situation does not happen again by amended internal procedures and systems."

© Copyright 2001-2006 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/yorknews/display.var.1066229.0.no_blame_for_mast_blunder.php

The US Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday streamlined the way it updates regulations for the nation's worst air pollutants, a move that drew immediate charges that officials are trying to quash scientific review to benefit industry at the expense of public health.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120806HA.shtml

Facing a mandate to slash toxic mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, 23 states are thumbing their noses at a federal cleanup plan and are instead developing their own far tougher plans to deal with mercury.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120806EB.shtml



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

"George W. Bush had a point when he disparaged the Baker-Hamilton commission's plan for gradual troop withdrawals from Iraq by saying 'this business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it whatsoever.' It's now obvious that there can be no exit from Iraq - graceful or otherwise - as long as Bush remains president," writes Robert Parry.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806S.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Baker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Parry

The House ethics committee has concluded that Republican leaders were negligent in protecting male pages from ex-Representative Mark Foley.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806R.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Foley
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP

Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 8 December 2006

HUNDREDS of residents are being urged to oppose plans for a 50-foot mobile phone mast in Archway on the grounds that it is “unsightly” and a potential health hazard.

Hutchison 3G is planning to site the mast on Network Rail land at the corner of Station Road and Junction Road, less than 50 feet from the nearest homes and 120 feet from a proposed new Circle Anglia housing development.

The residents, backed by Labour councillor Janet Burgess, are calling on Islington Council to reject plans for the mast.

IT manager Roger O’Kelly, who lives near the mast site, said: “It will look out of place between two trees in an area that has already lost greenery and it’s too close to homes where there are families with children.

“We want to know if the firm has looked at more suitable areas or was this site the only one available?”

Cllr Burgess said: “There’s an awful lot of concern about this planned mast. There’s a new block of social housing going up very near to the site.

“What these residents want is for this scheme to go to planning committee so they can have a fair hearing.”

A spokesman for the firm said: “A planning application has been submitted for the 15-metre mast with a base station. We’ve been looking for a site in this area for 18 months.

“We examined seven options and this was the most suitable in terms of minimising environmental and visual impact. As regards concerns about emissions, we apply government-instigated World Health Organisation 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/

• Experts have warned that plans to site 32 mobile phone masts at Arsenal’s new Emirates Stadium would make it a high-density area for the devices.

Powerwatch, an independent group which monitors masts, claims there are already almost 100 masts within a two-square-mile radius of the Asburton Grove stadium.

All content © New Journal Enterprises, 2006

http://www.thecnj.co.uk/islington/120806/news120806_09.html

U.S. Justice Department prosecutors subpoenaed more than a dozen banks and insurers three weeks ago, seizing documents from three brokers in a search for evidence of bid rigging. Lawyers say it's the biggest criminal investigation of the almost 200- year-old market, where municipalities have more than $2 trillion of debt outstanding.

http://tinyurl.com/yhsmb9



US subprime loans face trouble:

The failure of a small Californian mortgage lender on Thursrday increased nervousness in the credit derivatives market about the large number of US "subprime" mortgages extended this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20061208/bs_ft/fto120720062004177556



Top-Level Insiders Selling Their Stock:

America's corporate chiefs are unloading their own stocks at one of the boldest paces in 20 years.

http://tinyurl.com/yz686h


From Information Clearing House

Human Rights Watch has renewed its calls for the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to be shut down as inmates were being moved to a new maximum-security jail there.

http://tinyurl.com/ynxdpq


From Information Clearing House



Guantanamo Detainees Going to New Prison

The US military transferred the first group of detainees on Thursday to a new maximum-security prison at Guantanamo Bay. About 430 men are currently held at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban, including about 100 who have been cleared for release and are awaiting transfer to another country. Fewer than a dozen inmates have been charged with crimes.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806T.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

A video of the accused "terrorist" shows he was subjected to unduly harsh treatment, his lawyers claim, leaving him psychologically damaged and unfit to stand trial.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1565798,00.html



U.S. asks judge to bar testimony about Padilla military custody:

Federal prosecutors asked a judge Thursday to prevent terror suspect Jose Padilla's defense lawyers from questioning Defense Department officials or obtaining documents about Padilla's treatment during 3 1/2 years in military custody as an "enemy combatant."

http://tinyurl.com/y5eshn


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Padilla
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

Vietnam traumatised the US but left its power intact; Iraq, however, will be far more serious for the superpower.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1967420,00.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=neocon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam

In a bipartisan Congressional briefing hosted by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) and Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) the authors of the Lancet Study, which found that as many as 650,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the war, will present their full findings to Congress.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/1208-03.htm

--------

650,000 Iraqi Deaths Given Voice In U.S. Congress

Video

Congressional briefing on the Lancet Iraqi casualty study: Speaking were Gilbert Burnham, Les Roberts, and Juan Cole. The briefing was organized by Rep. Kucinich, with the support of Rep. Ron Paul.

http://tinyurl.com/y7jdtj



655,000 Excess Deaths In Iraq Since U.S. Invasion

Francesco Checchi, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, looks at the lambasting a new report on Iraq deaths has got from hostile governments. He has worked on mortality surveys in Angola, Darfur, Thailand and Uganda, and written a publication "Interpreting and using mortality data in humanitarian emergencies" for the Humanitarian Practice Network.

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/116066724942.htm



Full Report

A publication "Interpreting and using mortality data in humanitarian emergencies" [PDF]

http://tinyurl.com/v87fr


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=650,000
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=655,000

"The prospects of all-out civil war and even a regional conflict have become much more real" since the secretary-general's last report, issued three months ago, Annan said. "Therefore, the challenge is not only to contain and defuse the current violence but also to prevent escalation."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22210409.htm


From Information Clearing House

The main authors of the report that aims to change US strategy in Iraq have urged President George Bush to follow all of their recommendations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6220022.stm



A Turning Point for a Panel: 4 Harrowing Days in Iraq

For some members of the Iraq Study Group, the turning point came during four days in Baghdad in September. They found the trip so harrowing, they said, that they wondered if they could afford to wait to speak out about the disaster in Iraq.

http://tinyurl.com/y6v3d2


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

Pentagon generals believe that the Iraq Study Group's military recommendations are unrealistic.

http://tinyurl.com/yc8kvg


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

At least 32 U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month, according to the Defense Department. Eleven died Wednesdayt. Another soldier wounded Wednesday died Thursday, the military said.

http://tinyurl.com/y37x85


From Information Clearing House

By David Swanson

How often do we hear the voices of Iraqis in American journalism? How many of us know their stories? We've killed 650,000 of them, measured as excess deaths above the level of deaths our sanctions were causing each year before the war. Since the Spring of 2004 most Iraqis have viewed America as their primary enemy. But what do we know about their lives?

http://tinyurl.com/y3hvaq


From Information Clearing House



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

http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt247.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com%2Fengelhardt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt

CONFERENCE STUDIES GLOBAL WARMING

By Sarah Moses
indiancountry.com
December 8, 2006

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414127

SOMERTON, Ariz. - As the sun rose over the mountains of Yuma, the clouds broke and light peered through the pale blue sky.

''Us Native Americans take everything, such as the land, the air and the waters, as sacred,'' said Edmund Domingues, a councilman of the Cocopah Indian Tribe.

''But maybe one of these days we won't be able to see the sunrise,'' he said as he welcomed tribal leaders and climate scientists from across the country to the first-ever Tribal Lands Climate Conference.

The conference, which was co-sponsored by the tribe and the National Wildlife Federation, was held on Dec. 5 and 6 at the Cocopah Casino. Over two days, tribal leaders from 55 nations and representatives from various environmental organizations met to discuss the effects of global warming on tribal lands.

''Our goal here is to begin a dialogue and establish lines of communication within and among tribes on the issue of climate change,'' said Steve Torbit, tribal lands conservation program director for the NWF. ''What we hope to do here is learn from each other.''

Torbit said the conference was for tribes and about tribes.

''The goal of the National Wildlife Federation Tribal Lands Conservation Program is to ensure the well-being of wildlife and habitat on and near tribal lands by working in partnership with tribal and nontribal governments and tribal organizations, environmental staff and members, while respecting tribal culture and sovereignty,'' Torbit said.

At the conference, Robert Corell, chair of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, gave an overview of the effects of global warming.

''Climate change and global warming are no longer simply an environmental issue, it's an economic and human well-being issue,'' Corell said.

He said science is now showing evidence of the effects of global warming that indigenous villages around the world have noticed for decades.

''As salmon people we see what's changing in the landscape; we see what's changing with the resources that are important to us like the salmon,'' said Terry Williams, Tulalip. ''Looking at that, we've drawn upon our traditional knowledge and we've also drawn upon science.''

Williams said his tribe has seen the loss of animals and fish, which can no longer survive in the changing environment.

''The federal government has put limits on us with reservations and boundaries,'' he said. ''And as the species migrate off our land we don't have the legal rights to follow them. And that's going to affect our culture and it's going to affect our health.''

The NWF has relationships with more than 100 tribes, including the Cocopah Tribe. In 2002, the foundation partnered with the tribe to preserve the 22 miles of the limitrophe section of the Lower Colorado River. The area, which is culturally significant to the tribe, is home to several species of wetland birds and plants. The Colorado River holds great cultural significance to many other Indian nations and has faced many climate threats to its river system.

The NWF's programs promote environmental and economic justice for American Indians and seek empowerment for tribes at the local, state and national levels. Programs geared towards education help empower tribal educators and students.

Wahleah Johns, Navajo, said programs that educate the youth are important because it gives them the ability to take the information back to their elders in their community.

''I can't leave here with the knowledge that I have gained and not tell anyone,'' said Johns, who works with the Black Mesa Water Coalition. ''I need to go to the elders in my community and explain to them what is going on.''

The conference gave tribes the ability to share the problems that they were facing. Many of the tribes realized the impact that global warming was having in their community was also affecting communities thousands of miles away.

''Mother Earth nourishes all of our relatives; whatever happens to the bears, whatever happens to the fish, will eventually happen to us,'' said Caleen Sisk-Franco, leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.

Sisk-Franco called for traditional Natives to remember what they were taught about the Earth and to remember the lessons they were taught about sacred places.

''As a Hopi woman, my environment is very important to me,'' said Cynthia Naha. ''And as a people, we need to come together and bring forth a powerful statement of change.''


Informant: NHNE



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Black+Mesa

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1208-31.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Hayden
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Baker

9 December 2006

A VICAR has sparked fury with a plan to ditch the cross on top of his church - for one holding a mobile phone mast.

Rev Todd Gile said the deal with phone giant 3 would bring in vital cash.

He said: "The church is in the business of worshipping God. This is a legitimate fundraiser to support the ministry.

"It won't be an eyesore and will look just like the existing cross."

But some locals in Peterlee, Co Durham, are outraged. Cllr Ted Hall said: "It's totally repugnant. The cross should remind people to speak to the Lord rather than phone their mother."

http://tinyurl.com/y4ry5z

This week US President George Bush became almost the last man on earth to support a failed Middle East strategy. The conservative-leaning “Iraq Study Group” - including top figures from Bush's own Republican Party - has just released its long awaited recommendations and condemned virtually every aspect of America’s current approach to the Middle East.

The report is not perfect, but it echoes almost every call to action the Ceasefire Campaign has made since we began in August: it calls for Bush and other leaders to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to talk to Iran, and switch to a diplomatic strategy for stabilizing Iraq that includes the withdrawal of US troops.

The global pressure on Bush to change course is now intense, but he is still holding out. Click below to add your voice to the chorus calling for Bush to adopt the report's key recommendations for change:

http://www.CeasefireCampaign.org

Our last petition on Iraq, signed by almost 80,000 Ceasefire Campaigners, was covered by US media in key outlets, and our ad was published in papers in London and Washington. A major response from people around the world at this critical moment is likely to get press attention in the US, and up the pressure on President Bush.

With the release of Iraq Study Group report, every sensible voice from across the political spectrum is now pleading with Bush to change course.

Please add your voice here:
http://www.CeasefireCampaign.org

There are enormous dangers and challenges in Middle East, but there is also great opportunity. A strong diplomatic effort can reverse the cycle of conflict, and Bush is the last man on earth left to convince.

With hope,

Ricken, Galit, Rachel, Tom, Amparo and the rest of the Ceasefire Campaign Team.



Thanks for adding your voice to the global wave of pressure on President Bush to finally change course in the Middle East. You can make a greater impact by making sure that your friends, family, co-workers, fellow activists, and anyone else who might like to hear from you know about your effort. The only way we will reach the kind of numbers that can increase the pressure on President Bush is through spreading the word. Just forward the email below with a short personal message from you above it.

Best to you,
The Ceasefire Campaign Team


This week US President George Bush became almost the last man on earth to support a failed Middle East strategy. The conservative-leaning Iraq Study Grou - including top figures from Bush's own Republican Party - has just released its long awaited recommendations and condemned virtually every aspect of America's current approach to the Middle East. The report is not perfect, but it echoes almost every call to action the Ceasefire Campaign has made since we began in August: it calls for Bush and other leaders to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to talk to Iran, and switch to a diplomatic strategy for stabilizing Iraq that includes the withdrawal of US troops. The global pressure on Bush to change course is now intense, but he is still holding out. Click below to add your voice to the chorus calling for Bush to adopt the report's key recommendations for change: www.CeasefireCampaign.org Our last petition on Iraq, signed by almost 80,000 Ceasefire Campaigners, was covered by US media in key outlets, and our ad was published in papers in London and Washington. A major response from people around the world at this critical moment is likely to get press attention in the US, and up the pressure on President Bush. With the release of Iraq Study Group report, every sensible voice from across the political spectrum is now pleading with Bush to change course.

Please add your voice here: http://www.CeasefireCampaign.org

There are enormous dangers and challenges in Middle East, but there is also great opportunity. A strong diplomatic effort can reverse the cycle of conflict, and Bush is the last man on earth left to convince.


Informant: Dances Alone



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

In what was likely her final legislative act in Congress, outgoing Georgia representative Cynthia McKinney announced a bill Friday to impeach President Bush.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806Z.shtml



A Closing Call for Impeachment

"President George W. Bush has failed to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States; he has failed to ensure that senior members of his administration do the same; and he has betrayed the trust of the American people," Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney explained in remarks prepared to accompany her submission on Friday of articles of impeachment against Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. McKinney, in her last legislative act before leaving the House at the end of her current term, represented not merely a final thrust by the Georgia Democrat against the Bush administration that she has so consistently opposed but a challenge to the new House Democratic leadership to pay more than lip service to its Constitutionally-mandated duty to check and balance the executive branch. Read the full text of McKinney's remarks.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906A.shtml

--------

McKinney, Smith, Bush, and Impeachment

By David Swanson.

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has introduced articles of impeachment [ http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/mckinneyarticles.pdf ]against George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice. In doing so, she alone has spoken for the 51 percent of Americans who Newsweek says want Bush impeached. A considerably higher percentage of Americans would, if asked, almost certainly acknowledge that the abuses with which McKinney charges Bush et al. have, in fact, been committed by them and are impeachable offenses. That is to say, there are those who recognize the grounds for impeachment but don't want to see them pursued. There are even those who want impeachment pursued but wish it were not being pursued by McKinney

McKinney charges that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld manipulated intelligence and lied to justify war, and that Bush has engaged in illegal domestic spying. The former charge has been extremely well documented, [ http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/keydocuments ] and the latter proudly confessed to. The former charge was central to the concern of those who included impeachment in the U.S. Constitution. The latter charge is one of openly violating a law that was established in response to President Richard Nixon's impeachable offenses.

So, why aren't all impeachment advocates thrilled? Because McKinney's courage and leadership are overpowered, in their minds, by their own fears. They're afraid that impeachment will be painted as radical and that other people less insightful than themselves will, as a result, oppose it. They fail to recognize that silence is more damaging to the cause of justice than are attacks by its opponents, and that other Americans are just as smart (although just as scared) as they are. McKinney has put impeachment where Speaker-Designate Nancy Pelosi said it could not go: on the table. This can only benefit the cause of impeachment.

The media attacks on McKinney have begun, and rather than joining in them by condemning her for bravely doing what we know needed to be done, we should be defending her with a barrage of letters to editors and phone calls to radio shows. [ http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=9196431&type=ME ] And we should be urging every member of Congress to join her. [ http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/petition ] Associated Press reporter Ben Evans has published a vicious attack on McKinney in which he alleges that

"The legislation has no chance of passing and serves as a symbolic parting shot."

But in which Evans does not comment on public support for the action or the merits of the case. Instead, he suggests that McKinney has launched an attack directed as much at Pelosi as at Bush. But McKinney said nothing about Pelosi and accused Bush of the highest possible crime.

Where are Evans' priorities?

Evans does not even say what the charges against Bush are. Rather he launches into an attack on McKinney:

"McKinney, a Democrat who drew national headlines in March when she struck a Capitol police officer, has long insisted that Bush was never legitimately elected. In introducing her legislation in the final hours of the current Congress, she said Bush had violated his oath of office to defend the Constitution and the nation's laws."

And she said nothing of the legitimacy of his election. McKinney was tried and convicted in the press, and was never indicted.

Evans later writes:

"McKinney … has increasingly embraced her image as a controversial figure."

How has she done that? By acting on behalf of a majority of Americans using a tool that appears centrally and in six places in our Constitution, a tool that has been vital to U.S. and British democracy for 700 years?

Evans isn't done yet:

"She has hosted numerous panels on Sept. 11 conspiracy theories…"

McKinney hosted a day-long briefing that included academics, authors, and former government and intelligence professionals, some of whom questioned the work of the 9-11 Commission, but none of whom presented theories.

"…and suggested that Bush had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks but kept quiet about it to allow friends to profit from the aftermath."

McKinney asked about the reports that over a dozen foreign intelligence agencies had provided early warnings. She did not say that Bush kept it quiet to allow friends to profit. She asked whether his associates were making a profit, as of course many of them are through the "war on terror." Greg Palast has produced a film called "American Blackout," which addresses the media's misquoting and misrepresenting of Congresswoman McKinney on this issue.

Evans keeps going:

"She introduced legislation to establish a permanent collection of rapper Tupac Shakur's recordings at the National Archives and calling for a federal investigation into his killing."

The Tupac Amaru Shakur Records Act did not establish a permanent collection of his music at the Archives or create an investigation, but required the release of all government records relating to his life and death at federal, state, and local levels.

Evans persists:

"But it was her scuffle with a Capitol police officer that drew the most attention. McKinney struck the officer when he tried to stop her from entering a congressional office building. The officer did not recognize McKinney, who was not wearing her member lapel pin."

A Grand Jury heard these charges and dismissed them.

Evans says as much, but twists this fact with the words that follow:

"A grand jury in Washington declined to indict McKinney over the clash, but she eventually apologized before the House."

Now, what does any of that have to do with whether our President used fraud to take us into the current war? Nothing, of course. But in the U.S. corporate media it is only those who supported the war who have the right to speak against it. If you opposed the war from the start, if you saw through the lies while it still mattered, you are disqualified now from commenting further.

Matthew Daly, another Associated Press reporter, wrote an article on Friday that contrasted with the one by Evans. The headline was "Smith says Iraq war may be 'criminal'". And the article began:

"Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, who voted in favor of the Iraq war and has supported it ever since, now says the current U.S. war effort is 'absurd' and 'may even be 'criminal.'"

Of course, it is. But Smith called it such in the vaguest of terms. McKinney laid out the evidence in an Article of Impeachment. Look at the treatment the AP gave Smith:

"In a major speech on the Senate floor, the Oregon senator called for rapid pullouts of U.S. troops from Iraq and said he would have never voted for the conflict if he had known the intelligence that President Bush gave the American people was inaccurate."

Why was his speech "major"? Because he supported a criminal war on the basis of evidence that millions of us and half the Democrats in Congress saw through at the time.

The article went on to quote Smith on his reasons for charging that the war is criminal, but added nothing about his embracing controversy, splitting with the Republican party, or having done anything unpopular in the past:

"Citing the hundreds of billions of dollars spent and the nearly 3,000 American deaths, Smith said, 'I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. So either we clear and hold and build or let's go home.'"

This treatment continued for seven more paragraphs.

Congresswoman McKinney is not only a more intelligent and responsible public servant than Senator Smith, but she is also someone who foresaw the current attacks on her record and forged ahead anyway. She understands her role as public servant to involve serving the public. And, in the long run, she is serving the interests of the Democratic Party, whether everyone in that party grasps the point or not. She's stuck her neck out for us, for our democracy, for the rule of law under our Constitution. Now, we need to support her.

Sunday, December 10th, is Human Rights Day, the 58th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that lays out, in 30 short articles, rights that every human should have protected. Eleven out of the 30 have clearly been violated in the United States by President Bush and his administration, rights including:

Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence….

This Human Rights Day, many of us have worked to organize rallies for impeachment all over the country. They will now also be rallies to honor and thank Cynthia McKinney. Find an event near you:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/december10

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Impeachment Day: Sunday December 10

Wow! We asked you to organize Impeachment Forums around the country, and boy did you come through - over 60 events are scheduled!

Don't miss the event nearest you. (New York City leads the way on Saturday.)

If you can't make it, please join your Congressional District Impeachment Committee: http://democrats.com/cdic-find

Be sure to sign our petition: http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88?ad=d1

And call your favorite talk shows and urge everyone to help us impeach Bush and Cheney at: http://impeachforchange.org

Contact the Media About Impeachment Coverage

The Bush Administration has ignored the Constitution. Impeachable offenses need to be investigated. These are two statements that are true, yet are rarely heard via the mainstream American media. We have all seen what complacency in the media can bring. The Iraq War could not have been executed without it. Impeachment is being framed as a distraction or as revenge. It is time for the media to discuss the real evidence that supports Impeachment and leave the opining to the citizens of this country. http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=9196431&type=ME


Public Petition Signature Gathering Next Weekend
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/petition


Forward this message to everyone you know!

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Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney Introduces Articles of Impeachment
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/cynthia


Informant: Jennifer Van Bergen

From ufpj-news

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No American Is Above The Law
http://www.rense.com/general74/above.htm

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney Introduces Articles of Impeachment, Faces Vicious Attacks by Media
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/16234

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Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney Makes the Case for Impeachment

Here is McKinney's case for impeachment and for the history books, a case that says to historians, "Look, I knew what needed to be done, and I failed for years but I admitted it on my last day." A case that says to us: "Here is your mission: awaken currently serving Congress members to this case or kiss your democracy goodbye."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010607D.shtml


Cynthia McKinney Speech





McKinney Grills Rumsfeld




Informant: ranger116



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McKinney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Swanson

Although Liberation entitled its news review of the Baker report "Bush Wins the War of Lies," its new editor in chief, Laurent Joffrin, argues that the report demonstrates that "the strategy of lying is collapsing," while Le Monde sees the report as a "spectacular slap across Mr. Bush's face."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806G.shtml

Paul Krugman writes: "Now, only a few neocon dead-enders still believe that this war was anything but a vast exercise in folly. And those who braved political pressure and ridicule to oppose what Al Gore has rightly called 'the worst strategic mistake in the history of the United States' deserve some credit."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806F.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=neocon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Krugman

Lawyers representing Mr. Rumsfeld and three US Army commanders are set to appear in federal court here Friday in response to a lawsuit charging that the defense secretary authorized torture and other illegal abuse of military detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq - including at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806B.shtml

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In Torture Case Against Rumsfeld, Lawyers Cite “Widespread Pattern” of Abuse, Need for Accountability

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/1208-09.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Rumsfeld
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

Click:



Whether it's cold season or pollen season on your side of the planet, please don't blow your nose with Kimberly-Clark's tissue products. You might be helping to wipe away ancient forests.

Kimberly-Clark is destroying ancient forests like the magnificent North American Boreal forest to create tissue products, including the Kleenex brand, that are used once then thrown away.

This month, Greenpeace activists protested at the entrance of Kimberly-Clark's largest mill facility in North America. With a banner between them reading “Kleenex=Ancient Forest Destruction,” two activists locked their arms into the giant tissue box. The North American action followed a blockade set up the week before at the company's headquarters in Turin, Italy.

The blockades have been taken down, but you can still take action.

Help us send a message to Kimberly-Clark's CEO that you won't buy its products until the company stops destroying ancient forests and starts using more recycled fiber.

Send a letter to Kimberly-Clark’s CEO, Thomas Falk and Vice President for the Environment, Ken Strassner. http://kleercut.net/en/sendtokc

Down load Boreal animal stickers to stick on Kimberly-Clark branded products in supermarkets and stores. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/assets/binaries/kleercutstickersletterpdf

(Remember: never, never, never sticker anyone else's property without asking permission and read the warnings from our lawyers.)

Find a list of Kimberly-Clark products in your country here: http://www.kimberly-clark.com/ourbrands/consumer_brands.aspx


Thanks,
Ginger Cassady
Campaigner Greenpeace USA

HLV INFO 129/AT

8-12-2006

In den n-tv Fernsehmorgen-Nachrichten von heute erfolgte zwischen dem n-tv Moderator und der stellvertretenden Vorsitzenden von Transparency International (TI) in Deutschland, Sylvia Schenk, anlässlich des Anti-Korruptionstages, der am Samstag weltweit begangen wird, ein Interview basierend auf einer Umfrage von Gallup International über Schmiergeldaffären und Korruption in Deutschland bezüglich Politik, Wirtschaft und Medienlandschaft.

Die Zahlen sprechen für sich!

Eine der Reflexionen findet man nicht umsonst in der Mobilfunkszene.

Den vollständigen Bericht gibt es leider nur in Englisch, Französisch und Spanisch.

Die englische Version ist als pdf-Datei beigefügt.
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/global_corruption_barometer_2006_report[1].pdf

Siehe auch PM Kurzdarstellung nachfolgend.

HLV Redaktion

AT


http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/gcb/2006

Heute veröffentlicht: GLOBAL CORRUPTION BAROMETER 2006

Donnerstag, 7.12.2006

Transparency International stellt heute in Brüssel das Global Corruption Barometer 2006 vor. Es untersucht in einer repräsentativen Meinungsumfrage, wie Menschen über 18 Jahren in 62 Ländern Korruption in unterschiedlichen Sektoren wahrnehmen. Die Umfrage hat Gallup International für Transparency Deutschland durchgeführt. Die Presseerklärung, den Report und die Daten finden Sie auf der

Homepage des internationalen Sekretariats von Transparency International (englisch).


n-tv

Freitag, 8. Dezember 2006
http://www.n-tv.de/742100.html

Bestechung von Abgeordneten
Transparency fordert Strafen

Die Bestechung von Abgeordneten muss nach Ansicht von Transparency International (TI) auch in Deutschland grundsätzlich unter Strafe gestellt werden. Bisher sei lediglich der Stimmenkauf strafbar, kritisierte die stellvertretende TI-Vorsitzende in Deutschland, Sylvia Schenk, anlässlich des Anti-Korruptionstages, der am Samstag weltweit begangen wird. Dies sei jedoch bei weitem nicht ausreichend.

Eklatante Fälle von Vorteilsnahme auf kommunaler Ebene könnten nicht verfolgt werden, weil sie vom deutschen Strafrecht nicht abgedeckt würden. Dies sei auch der Grund, warum Deutschland seit drei Jahren die UN-Konvention gegen Korruption nicht ratifizieren könne, bemängelte Schenk.

"Bei der zur Zeit in Jordanien stattfindenden Konferenz zu dieser Konvention muss Deutschland deshalb am Katzentisch sitzen, während 80 andere Staaten darüber entscheiden können, wie die Konvention gegen Korruption wirksam umgesetzt und kontrolliert wird", erklärte sie.

Der Generaldirektor von OLAF, dem Europäischen Amt für Betrugsbekämpfung, Franz-Hermann Brüner, warnte vor einem Rückfall Westeuropas sogar hinter Entwicklungsländer, was den Kampf gegen die Korruption angehe. "Da müssen wir noch einiges in Westeuropa nachholen", betonte er. Die deutsche Staatsanwaltschaft etwa sei für internationale Korruptionsermittlungen nicht optimal ausgestattet.

Nach einer Umfrage von Transparency International ist das Vertrauen der Deutschen in die Integrität der Unternehmen im vergangenen Jahr gesunken. Dies ist nach Einschätzung der Organisation vermutlich eine Reaktion auf die jüngsten Korruptionsaffären bei deutschen Firmen. 46 Prozent der Befragten halten die Wirtschaft danach für korrupt oder sehr korrupt im Vergleich zu 37 Prozent im Vorjahr.

Den letzten Platz hinter der Wirtschaft belegen in der Umfrage erneut die Parteien, bei denen 56 (59) Prozent der Befragten Korruption vermuten. Weit hinten lagen auch das Parlament und die Medien. Auf den vorderen Plätzen landeten dagegen mit einer hohen Integrität Zulassungs- und Lizenzverfahren von Behörden, das Bildungssystem, die Polizei, das Steuerwesen und das Militär. Für das Korruptionsbarometer befragte Transparency nach eigenen Angaben knapp 60.000 Menschen in 62 Ländern.

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Wissenschaft per Nachrichtenagentur
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3050728/

Seltsamerweise gibt es keinen Aufschrei, wenn nach einem neuen Gesetz der Verfassungsschutz von Nordrhein-Westfalen auch ohne richterliche Anordnung über das Internet in Computer zum Ausspähen eindringen dürfte - auch im Bundesinnenministerium plant man ähnliches.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24168/1.html

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Der trojanische Polizist
http://quintessenz.at/d/000100003754

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Durchsuchung online. Bei konkretem Tatverdacht hat die Polizei Zugriff auf die PCs der Bürger - das soll nun auch das BKA dürfen.

„Den meisten Computernutzern ist es nicht klar: Aber wenn sie im Internet surfen, können Verfassungsschützer oder Polizei online bei ihnen zu Hause auf die Festplatte zugreifen und nachschauen, ob sie strafbare Inhalte dort lagern - zum Beispiel Kinderpornographie oder auch Anleitungen zum Bombenbau…“ Artikel von Annette Ramelsberger in Süddeutsche Zeitung vom 07.12.2006 http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt5m5/computer/artikel/965/93872/


Online-Durchsuchung von PCs durch Strafverfolger und Verfassungsschutz

„Was der nordrhein-westfälische Innenminister Ingo Wolf bereits als fertigen Plan vorschlug und Bundesinnenminister Wolfgang Schäuble in seinem 132 Millionen Euro schweren Programm zur Stärkung der inneren Sicherheit nur angedeutet hatte, soll nun konkret werden: Das BKA soll auch Zugriff auf die PCs der Bürger über das Internet erhalten…“ Meldung mit vielen weiterführenden Links bei heise news vom 07.12.2006 http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/82154


Lauschangriff auf Festplatten

„Seltsamerweise gibt es keinen Aufschrei, wenn nach einem neuen Gesetz der Verfassungsschutz von Nordrhein-Westfalen auch ohne richterliche Anordnung über das Internet in Computer zum Ausspähen eindringen dürfte – auch im Bundesinnenministerium plant man ähnliches. Gestern fand im Landtag Nordrhien-Westfalens die zweite Lesung des neuen Verfassungsschutzgesetzes statt. Offenbar weitgehend unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit, die noch gar nicht bemerkt hat, wie hier FDP-Innenminister Ingo Wolf eine neue Stufe auf dem Weg zum Überwachungsstaat beschreitet. Der Verfassungsschutz soll "Emails auf Festplatten" lesen dürfen). Die SPD-Fraktion sah immerhin noch Klärungsbedarf, nur beim Lauschangriff auf Wohnungen, weswegen es noch eine dritte Lesung geben wird. Wirklich neu ist jedoch, dass nach dem Gesetz der Verfassungsschutz berechtigt wäre, über das Internet in Computer einzudringen und dort die Dateien auszuspähen. Damit würde ebenso wie beim Lauschangriff in die Wohnung eingedrungen. Ähnliches will wohl Bundesinnenminister auf Bundesebene durchsetzen, mit der Antiterrordatei gehen die Informationen auch an die Polizei weiter…“ Artikel von Florian Rötzer in telepolis vom 08.12.2006 http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24168/1.html


Die Polizei als Hacker

„Wenn die Polizei wissen will, was ein vermeintlicher Terrorist, Betrüger oder Kinderpornograf auf seiner Festplatte gespeichert hat, muss sie den Computer beschlagnahmen oder zumindest eine Kopie der Festplatte anfertigen. Das alles geschieht offen und nach Möglichkeit im Beisein des Betroffen. Seit einigen Jahren nutzt die Polizei aber immer wieder auch den heimlichen Weg…“ Artikel von Christian Rath in der taz vom 11.12.06 http://www.taz.de/pt/2006/12/11/a0060.1/text


Aus: LabourNet, 12. Dezember 2006

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"Der Staat als Hacker": Kontroverse im Bundestag über "Durchsuchungen" privater Computer per Internet (13.12.06)

Im Bundestag ist es am Mittwoch zu einer heftigen Kontroverse um die Zulässigkeit so genannter "Online-Durchsuchungen" privater Computer durch Ermittlungsbehörden gekommen. Während Links-Fraktion und Grüne ein solches Vorgehen entschieden ablehnten, verwies die CSU-Abgeordnete Daniela Raab darauf, dass die Polizei technisch "auf Augenhöhe mit Terrorverdächtigen ermitteln" können müsse. Die FDP fordete klare Rechtsgrundlagen für Online-Durchsuchungen.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=14944

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Polizei als Hacker beschäftigt die Juristen

„Der Bundesgerichtshof ist sich uneinig darüber, ob die Polizei heimlich Zugriff haben soll auf Computer von Verdächtigen. Nun muss der 3. Strafsenat entscheiden, ob der Staat zum Hacker werden darf. Die Politik verfolgt gebannt den Rechtsstreit…“ Artikel von Steffen Hebestreit in Frankfurter Rundschau vom 18.12.2006 http://www.fr-aktuell.de/in_und_ausland/politik/aktuell/?em_cnt=1033879


Aus: LabourNet, 19. Dezember 2006

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Juristisches Neuland

Gespräch mit dem Juristen Fredrik Roggan, der die Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen das NRW-Verfassungsschutzgesetz vorbereitet, nach dem den Verfassungsschützern das heimliche Hacken von privaten Computern über das Internet ermöglicht wurde.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24358/1.html

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»Das ist ein voller Zugriff auf das Privatleben«

Nordrhein-Westfalen will über Sicherheitslücken in Computersystemen künftig Internetnutzer ausspionieren. Ein Gespräch mit Frank Rosengart, Mitglied im Chaos Computer Club in Berlin, von Sebastian Wessels in junge Welt vom 23.12.2006

http://www.jungewelt.de/2006/12-23/023.php



Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen NRW-Verfassungsschutzgesetz angekündigt

„Die Mülheimer Autorin Bettina Winsemann alias Twister hat Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen das heute beschlossene Gesetz angekündigt, das dem Verfassungsschutz in Nordrhein-Westfalen weitreichende neue Befugnisse erteilt…“ Artikel in heise news vom 20.12.2006

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/82834


Aus: LabourNet, 4. Januar 2007

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Datenschützer warnt vor schrankenloser Ausforschung durch Online-Durchsuchung

„Der Berliner Datenschutzbeauftragte Alexander Dix hat sich vehement gegen die Schaffung einer Rechtsgrundlage für "Online-Durchsuchungen" ausgesprochen…“ Meldung vom 10.02.2007 bei heise online http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/85078


Kein Erfolg für die Bürgerrechtsbewegung

Interview von Peter Nowak in telepolis vom 13.02.2007 mit Sönke Hilbrans, Vorsitzender der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Datenschutz, über die Entscheidung des Bundesgerichtshofs zur heimlichen Online-Überwachung http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24633/1.html


Schäubles Daten-Exhibitionismus gefährdet die Sicherheit der Europäer

„Zum Europäischen Polizeikongress, der diese Woche in Berlin stattfinden wird, erklären die Bürgerrechtsorganisationen Netzwerk Neue Medien, STOP1984 und FoeBuD: Laut Pressemitteilung vom 26.1. will der Bundesinnenminister den USA verstärkten Zugriff auf persönliche Daten von Deutschen gewähren. Diesen Daten-Ausverkauf lehnen wir entschieden ab. Stattdessen müssen sich Deutschland und die EU dafür einsetzen, dass Daten von Europäern in den USA gesetzlich geschützt werden und dass wir vor den amerikanischen Gerichten gegen Missbrauch und Fehlentscheidungen der amerikanischen Sicherheitsbehörden und Geheimdienste klagen können…“ Pressemitteilung vom 12.02.2007 http://www.daten-speicherung.de/?p=143


Aus: LabourNet, 13. Februar 2007

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Kein Erfolg für die Bürgerrechtsbewegung

Sönke Hilbrans, Vorsitzender der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Datenschutz, über die Entscheidung des Bundesgerichtshofs zur heimlichen Online-Überwachung.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24633/1.html

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Heimliche Überwachung: Strafverfolgungsbehörden wollen Online-Durchsuchung

Die Strafverfolgungsbehörden ungeachtet von Bedenken seitens der Politik auf die Online-Durchsuchung privater Computer zurückgreifen. Die Strafverfolgungsbehörden ungeachtet von Bedenken seitens der Politik auf die Online-Durchsuchung privater Computer zurückgreifen. Allerdings stieß eine entsprechende Forderung von Polizei und Bundeskriminalamt am Dienstag erneut auf scharfen Widerspruch von Bundesjustizministerin Brigitte Zypries (SPD). Zypries machte auf dem 10. Europäischen Polizeikongress in Berlin Probleme beim Datenschutz und einen möglichen Verstoß gegen rechtsstaatliche Grundsätze geltend. "Das Eindringen in Festplatten hat eine andere Qualität, weil die Überwachung heimlich geschieht", betonte sie. Der Präsident des Bundeskriminalamtes, Jörg Ziercke, wies diese Kritik zurück.

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=15337

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Wie verlässlich sind digitale Beweise?

Der Fall eines Hamburger Autors zeigt eine bisher unberücksichtigte Problematik von Online-Durchsuchungen auf.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24638/1.html

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Präsident des Bundeskriminalamtes ärgert sich über Wortwahl "staatliche Hacker"

Der Streit zwischen Bundesjustizministerin Brigitte Zypries (SPD) und dem Präsidenten des Bundeskriminalamtes (BKA), Jörg Ziercke, um Online-Durchsuchungen privater Computer verschärft sich. Zypries wies am Freitag die Kritik Zierckes zurück, der sich über ihre Äußerung zu "staatlichen Hackern" verärgert gezeigt hatte. Die Ministerin habe diesen Ausdruck ganz bewusst in Anführungszeichen gesetzt, sagte ein Ministeriumssprecher. "Die Kritik von Herrn Ziercke an der Äußerung von Frau Zypries geht deshalb an der Sache vorbei." Ziercke hatte Zypries' Äußerungen zu "staatlichen Hackern" in scharfer Form kritisiert.

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=15375

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Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen Online-Durchsuchungen

Der Text der Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen das Gesetz zur Änderung des Gesetzes über den Verfassungsschutz in Nordrhein-Westfalen.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24727/1.html

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Verfassungsschutz Ex-Innenminister Baum klagt gegen Online-Durchsuchungen

Der frühere Bundesinnenminister Gerhart Baum (FDP) klagt vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht gegen die neuen Möglichkeiten des nordrhein-westfälischen Verfassungsschutzes zur Durchsuchung privater Computer. Baum legte in Karlsruhe Beschwerde gegen die vom Landtag im Dezember vergangenen Jahres verabschiedeten Änderungen des Verfassungsschutzgesetzes ein, wie er am Freitag in Köln mitteilte. Nach der Neuregelung darf der Verfassungsschutz über das Internet heimlich in private Computer eindringen.

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=15460

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Der Staat als Einbrecher: Heimliche Online-Durchsuchungen sind möglich

Wie der geplante Bundestrojaner technisch funktionieren und wie man sich gegen ihn schützen könnte.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24766/1.html

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Durchsuchung online

"Die Volkszählung war nichts dagegen"

„Technologieexpertin Constanze Kurz fordert eine Bürgerrechtsbewegung gegen die drohende Überwachung unserer Computer per Internet. Wenn eine Überwachungstechnik erst zugelassen sei, werde sie mehr und mehr angewandt…“ Interview von Daniel Schulz in der taz vom 1.3.2007 http://www.taz.de/pt/2007/03/01/a0202.1/text


Aus: LabourNet, 8. März 2007

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Technische Optionen für die Online-Durchsuchung

„Datenschützer schlagen Alarm: Die von Politikern und anderen geforderten Online-Durchsuchungen könnten Kollateralschäden bei der allgemeinen Computersicherheit produzieren, die in keinem Verhältnis zur technischen Maßnahme der Ermittler stehen würden, warnte kurz vor der Konferenz der Datenschützer diese Woche Johan Bizer, der stellvertretende Leiter des Unabhängigen Landeszentrums für Datenschutz in Schleswig-Holstein. Und in einer Entschließung der Konferenz selbst wenden sich die Datenschützer gegen "staatliches Hacking". Die Privatsphäre dürfe nicht ausgehöhlt werden, hieß es…“ Artikel in heise news vom 1.03.2007 http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/86537


Bundestrojaner: Geht was – was geht

Die technischen Optionen eines möglichen Bundestrojaners und die sich daraus ergebenden Konsequenzen erläutert Jürgen Schmidt, Chefredakteur von heise security, in einem Know-how-Artikel: http://www.heise.de/security/artikel/86415/0


Aus: LabourNet, 12. März 2007

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Online-Durchsuchungen: SPD signalisiert Zustimmung zu Computer-Überwachung

Die SPD signalisiert Zustimmung zum heimlichen Ausspionieren von Rechner-Daten über das Internet. Auch in der SPD gebe es keine generelle Ablehnung der heimlichen Sichtung und Auswertung von Computerdaten zum Zwecke der Kriminalitäts- und Terrorbekämpfung, schreibt die "Rheinische Post". Online-Durchsuchungen seien Verhandlungssache in der Koalition, sagte der Vorsitzender des Bundestags-Innenausschusses, Sebastian Edathy (SPD), der Zeitung. http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=15526

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Verantwortung für den Bundestrojaner abgelehnt
http://www.ccc.de/press/releases/2007/20070320/

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Durchsuchung online

"Das Internet ist eine Welt, in der jede Sauerei stattfindet". Politiker wollen Online-Durchsuchungen, BKA-Chef Ziercke warnt davor, dass das Netz "zunehmend zum eigentlichen Speicherplatz wird, nicht mehr der häusliche PC".

„Obwohl der SPD-Innenexperte Dieter Wiefelspütz nicht auf dem Podium saß, konnte er sich alsbald nicht mehr bremsen. Die durch das Internet entstandenen Gefahren machten Online-Durchsuchungen für eine Demokratie einfach notwendig. Man wolle den Terrorismus und nicht den Journalismus bekämpfen. "Ich finde das Internet ist eine wunderbar neue Welt, da finden sie fantastische Sachen, aber es ist eben auch eine Welt, in der jede Sauerei stattfindet, und ich muss doch in der Lage sein, diese Sauereien zu bekämpfen. Es ist doch nicht so, als hätten wir den Journalismus zum Ziel, das ist doch ein Hirngespinst", engagierte sich der Koalitionspolitiker auf der Diskussionsveranstaltung des Bundesverbandes Deutscher Zeitungsverleger im Berliner Haus der Presse …“ Artikel von Thomas Klatt in telepolis vom 21.03.2007 http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24904/1.html


Verfassungsschutz darf Computer ausspionieren

„Das heimliche Ausspionieren von Computern, das der Polizei gerichtlich verboten wurde, ist dem Verfassungsschutz nach Einschätzung der Bundesregierung erlaubt. Das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz habe "die Befugnis, zur Erfüllung seiner Aufgaben (...) auch so genannte Online-Durchsuchungen durchzuführen", heißt es in der am Mittwoch in Berlin veröffentlichten Antwort auf eine parlamentarische Anfrage der FDP…“ dpa-Meldung in Stuttgarter Zeitung vom 21.03.2007 http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/page/detail.php/1385827


Aus: LabourNet, 22. März 2007

--------

Bundestrojaner in ELSTER-Software entdeckt

Seit dem 19. März 2007 wird die aktuelle ELSTER-Software für das Jahr
2006/2007 in der Version 8.1.0.0 [1] für den Steuerbürger bereitgestellt. Schon von Anfang an hegten Experten Zweifel an der Integrität der 18 MB großen .exe-Datei. Nach einer mehrtägigen intensiven Analyse fand der Chaos Computer Club (CCC) nun deutliche Hinweise, dass über die fragwürdige Software der sog. Bundestrojaner [2] verbreitet wird.

Der Bundestrojaner, kürzlich als neues Werkzeug des Überwachungsstaates in die Schlagzeilen geraten, soll das Ausspähen der gesamten steuerpflichtigen Bevölkerung ermöglichen. Jeder Bürger mit eigenem Einkommen wird in Zukunft verpflichtet, die Steuererklärung mittels ELSTER-Software abzugeben. Dass es dem CCC nach wenigen Tagen gelang, den Trojaner ausfindig zu machen, spricht nicht eben für die Qualität der Spitzelsoftware.

Die Analyse zeigte verschiedene verdächtige Module, wie z. B. wte0104-brsjm.digit, das u. a. vorhandene Mikrofone und Kameras in modernen Computern einschalten kann. Weitere Routinen dienen der Durchsuchung der auf dem Rechner gespeicherten Dateien. Eine Funktion sendet Daten vom Benutzerrechner ferngesteuert an den BKA-Rechner mit der IP-Adresse 217.7.176.25 [3].

Der Trojaner tauscht offenbar auch einige Systemdateien aus, um sich unabhängig vom ELSTER-Programm auf dem System einzunisten. Die Schadsoftware erzwingt danach einen Neustart des Rechners. Auf dem Bildschirm des betroffenen Computers erscheint dazu die Fehlermeldung: "Systemfehler 70797976 - Neustart erforderlich."

Pikanterweise wird ein Port auf dem infizierten Rechner geöffnet, der es erlaubt, neue Suchbegriffe nachzuladen. Das ist insofern problematisch, da die Suchfunktion eine Schwachstelle enthält, die es einem Angreifer erlaubt, nicht nur Suchbegriffe, sondern beliebige Daten und ausführbaren Code auf dem Rechner zu platzieren. "Damit ist der unbemerkten Manipulation aller Daten Tür und Tor geöffnet." sagte CCC-Spezialexperte Jens-Thorben Janckiewozki.

Eine erste Ausnutzung dieser Nachladeschwachstelle wurde auch schon in der freien Wildbahn beobachtet. Ein schwer zu analysierender, auf Schwachstellen des Bundestrojaners aufsetzender Wurm dient wahrscheinlich dem Abfangen von PIN- und TAN-Eingaben von Onlinebanking-Benutzern der Postbank. Auch erste Zusammenschlüsse von gekaperten Rechnern zu sogenannten Botnetzen wurden im Verlaufe des Samstags beobachtet. Der Chef des BSI hatte unlängst Botnetze als größte Gefahr im Internet ausgemacht.

Bisher war weder das BKA noch das Bundesinnenministerium für eine Stellungnahme zu erreichen. Unter der Hand gab ein Techniker des BKA jedoch zu, dass in den eigenen Reihen niemand den Trojaner programmiert hätte. Dafür mussten schon aus Kostengründen im Ausland Fachkräfte angeworben werden. Die großen Antivirenhersteller haben mittlerweile ebenfalls mit der Analyse begonnen und hoffen in den nächsten Tagen entsprechende Updates zu verbreiten.

* [1] https://www.elster.de/
* [2] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundestrojaner
* [3] http://www.ripe.net/whois?searchtext=217.7.176.25

--------

Online-Durchsuchungen: Rechtsgutachten stellt NRW-Verfassungsschutzgesetz in Frage

Die Opposition im Düsseldorfer Landtag macht weiter Front gegen das neue nordrhein-westfälische Verfassungsschutzgesetz. Ein von SPD und Grünen in Auftrag gegebenes und am 15. Juni vorgestelltes Rechtsgutachten bewertet das Gesetz als verfassungswidrig. Beide Parteien wollen nun vor dem Verfassungsgerichtshof in Münster juristisch gegen das Gesetz vorgehen und ein so genanntes Normenkontrollverfahren einleiten. Das von zwei Juristen erstellte Gutachten bemängelt insbesondere die mit dem Gesetz neu geschaffene Möglichkeit für den Verfassungsschutz, heimlich Online-Durchsuchungen privater Computer durchzuführen.

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=16141



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vorratsdatenspeicherung
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Online-Durchsuchungen
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Trojaner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Meinungs-+und+Pressefreiheit

by Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation

The ISG believes the U.S. can support a nonexistent Iraqi government and bolster its viciously sectarian armed forces.

http://ga3.org/ct/J720pgF1JRyy/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Dreyfuss

A message from Linda

Original Message

GWEN,

WLD U MIND FORWARDING. THIS BABY IS A SPECIAL AS MANY OF US ON CARE2.CON WORKED TO HAVE THIS DONE.

COLLEEN


Signed

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/863064852

Members of Congress and privacy advocates on Thursday questioned the legality of Automated Targeting System, or ATS, risk assessments that have been assigned to millions of Americans and foreigners who entered or left the United States over the past four years.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806P.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Automated+Targeting+System

Louis Fisher writes: "Advocates of unchecked presidential power in the post-9/11 period rely heavily on the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936). In dicta, Justice George Sutherland cited a statement in 1800 by then-Representative John Marshall (the future Supreme Court chief justice) that the president 'is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations.' By this statement, Marshall meant merely that when the United States enters into a treaty with an extradition provision, it is the president's duty under the Constitution to see that the treaty is faithfully carried out. He meant that, and nothing more."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806M.shtml

President Bush moved quickly to distance himself on Thursday from the central recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, even as the panel's co-chairmen opened an intensive lobbying effort on Capitol Hill to press Mr. Bush to adopt their report wholesale. One day after the study group rattled Washington with its bleak assessment of conditions in Iraq, its Republican co-chairman, James A. Baker III, said the White House must not treat the report "like a fruit salad."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806L.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

Kelpie Wilson points out that frogs have a "propensity to cook to death when placed in a pan of cold water that is slowly heated to boiling. Because the heating is slow, they never react by jumping out of the pan. Their world goes from cozy, to hot tub on-high, to full rolling boil before they can do anything about it. This frog story has also became the standard explanation for why humans are not reacting with appropriate speed to climate change - the heating is coming on too slowly to raise the alarm and make us do something."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120806J.shtml

The American Prospect
by Spencer Ackerman

12/06/06

Given the specific lineup of the 10 wise men and women serving on the Iraq Study Group, the most conspicuous absence is that of supermodel Heidi Klum. Sure, she has no relevant experience in foreign policy, nor any real knowledge of Iraq -- but neither do commissioners Sandra Day O'Connor, Vernon Jordan, Alan Simpson, or Edwin Meese. What Klum does have to offer is a lesson completely lost on the commission, one taught each week on her hit reality show Project Runway: you're either in, or you're out. When it comes to Iraq, it's good advice. From the commission's perspective, however, such advice would represent a dangerous breakdown of Washington's most enlightened foreign-policy tradition -- that is to say, bipartisanship...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12280



Baker-Hamilton hedges

Tom Paine
by William Hartung

12/07/06

Yesterday's release of the Iraq Study Group report raises as many questions as it answers. A few highlights of the report and its 79 recommendations follow. Despite some early headlines suggesting that the Iraq Study Group would be calling for a withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the beginning of 2008, a look at the fine print suggests otherwise. The group's recommendations look more like an exercise in 'bait and switch' than an actual commitment to U.S. withdrawal. Trainers embedded with Iraqi forces should be considered combat forces, as should the armed U.S. personnel that would be present to protect them in their efforts. These troops could remain in the tens of thousands after an alleged 'withdrawal'...

http://tinyurl.com/yylsod


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

Truthout
by Ray McGovern

12/07/06

At Tuesday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Robert Gates to be secretary of defense, I felt as though I were paying last respects to the Constitution of the United States. ... It was a sorry spectacle Tuesday, as pretentious, patrician manners trumped courage and vitiated the advise-and-consent prerogative carefully honed by the framers of our Constitution for the Senate. ... antiwar activists told me before the hearing began that they had come prepared with a chant: You won the elections. Now ask real questions! I later learned that the activists left after only an hour, unable to stomach the courtly fawning, as troops and Iraqi civilians get blown up in Baghdad...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120706J.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

CounterPunch
by Maureen Webb

12/07/06

The story which broke on Friday about a traveler risk scoring system called the Automated Targeting System, or 'ATS,' evokes an image of an Orwellian world in which the State compiles a secret dossier on every individual and sorts the population according to secret criteria, assigning each person a 'risk score.' The individual has no recourse to challenge his risk rating, and he has no way of correcting any false or incomplete information about him. In fact, he will never know what information is being used against him, or even the criteria on which he has been judged a risk to the State. It is a disturbing image, and the fact that the government has been conducting the ATS program in secret for four years has shocked many people. However, the ATS is hardly a surprise to those who have been keeping track of similar programs...

http://www.counterpunch.org/webb12072006.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Automated+Targeting+System
http://tinyurl.com/ss72n

New York Daily News
by Albor Ruiz

12/07/06

In the midst of the growing carnage in Iraq, the much-anticipated Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report was released yesterday. Even so, after nine months of studying the disastrous situation in the country, the study group fails to make a clear-cut recommendation to end the war. Military Families Speak Out, a nonpartisan group of more than 3,100 military families who are opposed to the war in Iraq, is among many individuals and organizations disappointed with the study group's conclusions. The grassroots group is concerned that even if the document says U.S. troops should begin withdrawing from combat, and Washington should launch a diplomatic and political push to halt a 'grave and deteriorating' crisis in Iraq, in reality the report could provide a cover for prolonging the war instead of ending it and bringing home the troops...

http://tinyurl.com/ycnq6k


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=redress

Click:

Liberty For All
by Clark Walter

The birth of this Nation signaled the dawn of a new day in the history of Mankind's struggle against the bondage of class distinctions and tyrants. We cannot today fully appreciate the tremendous impact of this event. Mankind had finally broken the shackles that had destined him to be a slave since the dawn of time. America would prove that equality of opportunity, coupled with the protection of our unalienable rights granted equally by our Creator, would inspire men and women to achieve a freedom that they, themselves, never dreamed was possible... (written 07/13/02; posted 12 07/06)

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=412


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cato Institute
by Jim Harper

12/08/06

When the Department of Homeland Security put into effect its Automated Targeting System this week, it added to a growing list of programs that use information about ordinary Americans to seek after terrorists. An outgrowth of systems used to track cargo, ATS now assigns a 'risk score' to Americans crossing the border, using data about them from a wide variety of databases. ATS appears to use data mining to single out people as suspected terrorists or criminals. If data mining worked to catch terrorists, a program like ATS would deserve widespread endorsement. Unfortunately, data mining does not have this capability...

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6832


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=data+mining

AlterNet
by Michael T. Klare

12/07/06

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, foreign policy analysts have struggled to find a term to characterize the epoch we now inhabit. Although the 'Post-Cold War Era' has been the reigning expression, this label now sounds dated and no longer does justice to the particular characteristics of the current period. Others have spoken of the 'Post-9/11 Era,' as if the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were defining moments for the entire world. But this image no longer possesses the power it once wielded -- even in the United States. I propose instead another term that better captures the defining characteristics of the current period: the Post-Abundance Era...

http://www.alternet.org/story/45160/



Recession 2007

Independent Institute
by Dominick T. Armentano

12/07/06

Are we headed for an economic recession? Probably. What can we do about it? Not much. The 5-year economic expansion initiated by tax reductions and lower interest rates has just about run its course. My guess is that the recession should begin in the first or second quarter of 2007 and run, if history is any guide, for about 18 months. Unfortunately for the Republicans, that would put the bulk of the decline well within the 2008 presidential race...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1866


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

MSNBC

12/07/06

On Friday, the U.S. District Court in Washington will be the scene of a parting shot at outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Former detainees represented by human rights groups accuse him -- along with a top general of the Iraq war, a former commander of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and a commander of U.S. military intelligence and police forces -- with 'derelictions of duty and command' and promoting the practice of inflicting 'physical and psychological injuries' on civilians held by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16099926/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Rumsfeld
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

http://vierpfoten-de.m3plus.net/website/output.php?id=1209&idcontent=2171&language=1

Stopfleber: Tierquälerei vom Feinsten
http://vierpfoten-de.m3plus.net/website/output.php?id=1209&idcontent=2167

Petition gegen Stopfleber-Produktion in Ungarn
http://www.vier-pfoten.org/aktionen/petition/0611/index.php?&lang=de

An agreement on a tax package Thursday moved Congress closer to opening a vast area in the Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles south of Florida's panhandle, to oil and gas drilling.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/politics/story/3441163p-12619225c.html


From Information Clearing House



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

In a "sneak peak" revealing a grim side effect of future warmer seas, new NASA satellite data found that the vital base of the ocean food web shrank as the world's seas got warmer.

http://tinyurl.com/y624qh



Exxon Spends Millions to Cast Doubt on Warming

The world's largest energy company is still spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund European organisations that seek to cast doubt on the scientific consensus on global warming and undermine support for legislation to curb emission of greenhouse gases.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2054654.ece


From Information Clearing House



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

The modern-era Bush family dynasty goes back four generations and was connected to the military-industrial complex of its day during and after WW I much like the most recent two Bush generations are to the present one.

http://tinyurl.com/yxzmtz


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military-industrial+complex

"A directive signed by President Bush granting the CIA the authority to set up detention facilities outside the United States and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees," the civil liberties union said, based on its review of published accounts.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/15/news/intel.php


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogating
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

A documentary called “The Secret War” has revealed that a group of 31 Taliban militants were tortured in Kandahar in the custody of U.S. soldiers after they had been captured in 2002 by Danish troops serving as part of the NATO forces in Afghanistan.

http://tinyurl.com/y5lfew


From Information Clearing House



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

A more devastating indictment of the strategy of a sitting American president could not be imagined. The cross-party Iraq Study Group's recommendations on future US policy in that blighted country were made public yesterday. Gone are the illusions of "progress" and "victory" peddled by George Bush.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2054579.ece



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

"I think this report was written in the first place to generate agreement among the Americans themselves and to find cooperation between the Democrats and the Republicans in order to achieve U.S. interests," Mahmoud Othman said. "The absence of an Iraqi representative on the panel is a shortcoming."

http://tinyurl.com/u4koa



Cautious words conceal the true savagery of life in Iraq

The cautious words of the Baker-Hamilton report stand in sharp contrast to the savagery and terror that dominate everyday life in Baghdad. Many of the terrible disasters it fears may occur in future are in fact already happening.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2054593.ece


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

By Fair.org

Host Glenn Beck threatens Muslims with concentration camps.
http://tinyurl.com/y74nab


From Information Clearing House



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

Video
http://tinyurl.com/w63d2


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Confessions+of+an+Economic+Hit+Man

http://tinyurl.com/y4r3ot


From Information Clearing House



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

By ROBERT BURNS

U.S. military and intelligence officials have systematically underreported the violence in Iraq in order to suit the Bush administration's policy goals, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group said.

http://tinyurl.com/saeqa


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/oped/ci_4794574


Informant: NHNE



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

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts186.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Craig+Roberts
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com%2Froberts

http://www.lewrockwell.com/pilger/pilger46.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Pilger
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com%2Fpilger

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/1207-12.htm

--------

EPA SCRUBBING LIBRARY WEBSITE TO MAKE REPORTS UNAVAILABLE

peer.org
December 7, 2006

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=791

Washington, DC - In defiance of Congressional requests to immediately halt closures of library collections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is purging records from its library websites, making them unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of its shuttered libraries, including the hurried auctioning off of expensive bookcases, cabinets, microfiche readers and other equipment for less than a penny on the dollar.

In a letter dated November 30, 2006, four incoming House Democratic committee chairs demanded that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson assure them ³that the destruction or disposition of all library holdings immediately ceased upon the Agency's receipt of this letter and that all records of library holdings and dispersed materials are being maintained.² On the very next day, December 1st, EPA de-linked thousands of documents from the website for the Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA¹s Washington D.C. Headquarters.

Last month without notice to its scientists or the public, EPA abruptly closed the OPPTS Library, the agency¹s only specialized research repository on health effects and properties of toxic chemicals and pesticides. The web purge follows reports that library staffers were ordered to destroy its holdings by throwing collections into recycling bins.

³EPA¹s leadership appears to have gone feral, defying all appeals to reason or consultation,² stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that Congress has yet to review, let alone approve, the library closures. ³The new Congress convening in January will finally have a chance to decide whether EPA will continue to pillage its library network.²

Meanwhile, in what appears to be an effort to limit Congressional options, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of the several libraries that it has already completely shuttered. In its Chicago office, which formerly hosted one of the largest regional libraries, EPA ordered that all furniture and furnishings (down to the staplers and pencil sharpeners) be sold immediately. Despite an acquisition cost of $40,000 for the furniture and equipment, a woman bought the entire lot for $350. The buyer also estimates that she will re-sell the merchandise for $80,000.

³One big irony is that EPA claimed the reason it needed to close libraries was to save money but in the process they are spending and wasting money like drunken sailors,² Ruch added, noting EPA refuses to say how much it plans to spend digitizing the mountains of documents that it has removed from library shelves. ³While the Pentagon had its $600 toilet seat and $434 hammer, EPA has its 29 cent book case and file cabinets for a nickel.²

In spite of its pleas of poverty, EPA is spending millions on a public relations campaign to improve the image of its research program, as well as a $2.7 million program (more than its estimated savings from library closures ) to digitize all employee personnel files, in a program called ³eOPF.²

³No one believes that EPA is closing libraries and crating up irreplaceable collections for fiscal reasons,² Ruch concluded. ³Instead, the real agenda appears to be controlling access by its own specialists and outside researchers to key technical information.²


For Specific Information About What The EPA Has Been Doing: http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=791 http://www.peer.org/campaigns/publichealth/epa_library/index.php

EPA Scientists' Letter Of Protest To Congress: http://www.peer.org/docs/epa/06_29_6_union_library_ltr.pdf

Sign Petition To Stop Closures: http://tinyurl.com/l63op


Informant: NHNE

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1207-30.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Helen+Thomas

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1207-21.htm



Click:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1207-20.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Baker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ira+Chernus

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1207-33.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Amy+Goodman

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1207-32.htm



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

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1207-08.htm



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

Seitdem Sean Bell am Tage seiner geplanten Hochzeit von der New Yorker Polizei mit 50 Schüssen in Notwehr (?) getötet wurde, macht das Wort Todesschwadron wieder die Runde. Der (englische) Beitrag "From Diallo to Sean Bell NYPD's Death Squads" von Jared Rodriguez und Brian Jones im Magazin "Counterpunch" vom 7. Dezember 2006 schildert ausserdem Bells Beerdigung als Treffen von Eltern getöter Jugendlicher - alle farbig, alle Opfer des NYPD: http://www.counterpunch.org/rodriguez12072006.html


Aus: LabourNet, 8. Dezember 2006



http://tinyurl.com/y4orww

Ende Oktober wichen 25 Kilometer von der Stätte des Industrieverbrechens vom Bhopal vor 22 Jahren Gase aus Lagerstätten - und die Regierung des indischen Bundesstaates Madhya Pradesh bzw ihr Sonderbeauftragter konnten in ihrem Bericht dazu nur feststellen, dass die Unternehmen des industriebezirks Mandideep keinerlei Verantwortung trügen, und ohnehin keine Gefahr bestanden habe. Ganz anders sehen das 4 Organisationen, die mit der Aufarbeitung der Vorfälle vom Dezember 1984 befasst sind. In der (englischen) Pressemitteilung "SURVIVORS' ORGANISATIONS CASTIGATE MP GOVERNMENT FOR FAILURE TO PREVENT CHEMICAL ACCIDENTS" vom 18. November 2006 kritisieren sie den Bericht der Landesregierung und führen ihrerseits Fakten an, warum dieser Zwischenfall darauf hin weist, dass eine neuerliche grosse Katastrophe möglich ist - auch, weil keinerlei Konsequenzen gezogen wurden: http://www.labournet.de/internationales/in/bhopal06.html


Aus: LabourNet, 8. Dezember 2006



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

http://www.lewrockwell.com/floyd/floyd44.html

Just as he ignored accurate intelligence on Iraq, Bush will dismiss the Baker Commission's tough-minded proposals for salvaging his botched war.

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/salon041.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com%2Ffloyd
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sidney+Blumenthal

http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers54.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com%2Fakers

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/martin-p1.html



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

http://www.peace-action.org/PeaceBlog/wordpress/?p=287


Informant: Dances Alone

by Katherine Albrecht & Liz McIntyre

"No-swipe" or "contactless" credit cards contain RFID microchips that communicate account information silently and invisibly by radio waves. These microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because the information they contain can be read without an individual's knowledge or consent......

http://www.newswithviews.com/McIntyre/Liz15.htm

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5381/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil