Al-Libi's story is, of course, disturbing enough as evidence of the utter contempt with which the Bush administration's warmongers treated both the truth and the American public.
Joseph C. Wilson IV, The Daily Beast: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney's reemergence on the political stage after his ignominious departure on Inauguration Day, eschewing the traditional handshake with his successor and the new president, is nothing if not ironic. The most secretive individual in American politics is now calling for the selective release of documents that remain classified in one of his own files marked 'Detainees.' We have also learned that a principal reason for having tortured senior al-Qaeda detainees was not, in fact, to defend the Homeland, but rather to build the case for war with Iraq based on alleged ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden."
In advertising terms, Bush was a "brand collapse" whereas Obama, with his toothpaste advertisement smile and righteous clichés, is a godsend. At a stroke, he has seen off serious domestic dissent to war, and he brings tears to the eyes, from Washington to Whitehall.
The first 100 days of Obama’s lies, blunders, gaffes and abuses of liberty
The Humble Libertarian
by W.E. Messamore
04/28/09
“For the first hundred days of President Barack Obama’s administration, here is a complete list of 100 blunders, mistakes, gaffes, and public policies that threaten our freedom...
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Truthout: "Your opinion of Obama's first 100 days depends, of course, on your own vantage point. But we'd argue that as part of his bending over backwards to support the banks and avoid the losers, he has blundered mightily in his choice of economic advisers."
Larry Margasak, The Associated Press: "Congressional Democrats turned up the pressure on the Obama administration Tuesday to start a criminal investigation by a special counsel into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects. It would be a conflict of interest for President Barack Obama's Justice Department to investigate lawyers from the Bush administration, even though they no longer work for the government, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Democrats wrote, 'It is impossible to determine at this stage, and before conclusion of the necessary investigation, whether additional conflicts of interest might exist or arise.'"
Carol J. Williams, The Los Angeles Times: "The president cannot avoid trial of a lawsuit brought by five former CIA captives, who allege they were tortured, by proclaiming the entire case a protected state secret, a federal appeals panel ruled today. Both former President George W. Bush and President Obama's Justice Department lawyers had argued before federal courts that a lawsuit brought by former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed and four others should be dismissed in the interests of national security."
Lecture at Workshop on Hazards of GMOs, Food and Democracy,
5th European Conference on GMO-Free Regions, 25 April 2009, Cultural and Conference Centre Lucerne (KKL), Switzerland
Thank you for inviting me here. I am Director of the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS). Our mission is to provide accessible and critical scientific information to the public and policy makers on a wide range of topics, genetic engineering, climate change, renewable energies, sustainable agriculture, and so on, in a bid to reclaim science for the public good, which is very important as corporations are increasingly monopolising not just seeds and food but scientific knowledge [1] (Corporate Monopoly of Science SiS 42). The ‘public’ includes also scientists trying to understand work done in other disciplines, which is not easy. We are fortunate to have scientists, Peter Saunders and myself, and Joe Cummins, who are polymaths to varying degrees. The ISIS website www.i-sis.org.uk contains many useful resources, and we publish a colourful, beautifully illustrated quarterly magazine, Science in Society.
I first spoke out against GMOs in 1994, when the Third World Network (TWN) (www.twnside.org.sg) asked me to advice on genetic engineering. It was a desperate situation when almost everyone who knew anything about genetic engineering was involved in exploiting it commercially, and safety was simply not an issue. Worse yet, scientists who spoke up for it were vilified and victimised. I want to pay special tribute to Arpad Pusztai, who is in hospital recovering from a stroke. It was Arpad who really alerted the public to the potential hazards of GMOs by telling them the truth about his experiments.
Very soon after working with TWN, I realised that the lack of independent, reliable, and accessible scientific information was much larger than just genetic engineering. That was why my husband Peter Saunders and I co-founded ISIS in 1999. Reliable and independent scientific information is crucial for democracy, not just for food, but right across the board for health, energy, and decisions on science policies that affect our everyday life and that of our children and grandchildren.
The return of Golden Rice
I want to use Golden Rice as the jump off point to talk about the hazards of GMOs, because Golden Rice is presented as the flagship product of the industry, the beneficent, ethical and acceptable face of GMOs; its hazards, therefore, are all the more insidious and dangerous.
Golden Rice was created 10 years ago as a public relations exercise for the biotech industry that was failing to convince people to accept GMOs. Ingo Potrykus appeared on the cover of Time magazine (7 August 2000), with the headline: “This Rice could save a million kids a year” (from blindness due to vitamin A deficiency). The rice was genetically engineered to produce pro-vitamin A or b- carotene. The ploy was thoroughly exposed in our ISIS report [2] (see The 'Golden Rice', An Exercise in How Not to Do Science, ISIS Report), by Greenpeace, and others. But Golden Rice did not go away.
Last year, it staged a come back with a special feature in Science journal [3], “Tough lessons from Golden Rice”. And it transpired that Tufts University in Boston, United States, has been carrying out ‘clinical trials’ of Golden Rice on children. More than 30 senior scientists and academics signed an open letter condemning the work [4] (Scientists Protest Unethical Clinical Trials of GM Golden Rice). The trials were in breach of the Nuremberg Code of Ethics brought in at the end of the Second World War to prevent repetition of experiments conducted by Nazi scientists including many on children.
WEDNESDAY 3PM: Campaigners won another battle in the fight to stop Vodafone building a mobile phone mast in Melton.
The telecomms giant turned up on the corner of Grange Drive and Sapcote Drive early on Thursday morning with the police on hand to keep public order.
Lyn Summerland said: "It was a brilliant result. We are really pleased with the number of people who turn out on these occasions, the more people we have the more people there are to chase them off."
Nach einem Einbruch der Konjunktur erwartet die Bundesregierung für das nächste Jahr wieder ein leichtes Wirtschaftswachstum. Dazu erklärt der Bundesgeschäftsführer Dietmar Bartsch:
Jede Woche hört man von der Bundesregierung neue Prognosen. Das ist unseriös, zumal die Koalition damit optimistischer in die Zukunft blickt als führende Wirtschaftsinstitute. Statt Zweckoptimismus ist Regierungshandeln gefragt. Die Bundesregierung muss endlich die Zuschauertribüne verlassen und rein in die Manege der Auseinandersetzung. In Zeiten der Konjunktur haben Union und SPD das Wirtschaftswachstum als ihren Erfolg reklamiert. Jetzt in der Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise legen sie die Hände in den Schoß und richten ihre Politik auf den Wahltag und nicht an den Erfordernissen des Landes aus. Die Koalition soll nicht nur Konjunkturpakete benennen, die den Namen nicht verdient haben, sozial unausgewogen sind, zu spät wirksam werden und im Umfang nicht ausreichen, sondern für die Sicherung und Schaffung von Arbeitsplätzen und die Konjunkturbelebung aktiv werden. Mit der Botschaft „Nach der Wahl wird alles besser“ können die Folgen der Krise nicht beseitigt werden. Auch 2005 wurden die Wählerinnen und Wähler mit der Mehrwertsteuerlüge betrogen.
A GROUP of angry Willingdon residents have criticised a phone mast built near their homes as an 'eyesore'.
Mobile phone firm Orange was given the go-ahead to put up the mast on Willingdon Road by a government planning inspector – despite two local councils refusing to give it permission.
Both Wealden District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council turned down the mast but Orange won an appeal last October.
Residents of nearby Shortlands Close, who can see the telegraph pole-style mast from their homes, said they were stunned when it appeared over the Easter weekend.
Sharon Smith-Taylor said, "I just feel they should have informed us it was going up. It's an eyesore. We had a lovely view of the Downs but now we look out of our windows and we've got this mast.
"We're disappointed that after all the effort we put in to get it stopped has not really been listened to."
Remember when Barack Obama made that big announcement at Camp Lejeune about how all US combat troops were going to be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by June 30? Liberals jumped around with joy, praising Obama for ending the war so that they could focus on their ‘good war’ in Afghanistan. Of course, the celebrations were and remain unwarranted. Obama’s Iraq plan is virtually identical to the one on Bush’s table on January 19, 2009. Obama has just rebranded the occupation, sold it to liberals and dropped the term ‘Global War on Terror’ while, for all practical purposes, continuing the Bush era policy (that’s why leading Republicans praised Obama’s plan)...
In the space of a week, the torture debate in America has been suddenly transformed. The Bush administration left office resting its case on the claim it did not torture. The gruesome photographs from Abu Ghraib, it had said, were the product of ‘a few bad apples’ and not of government policy. But the release of a series of grim documents has laid waste to this defense. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s report — adopted with the support of leading Republicans senators John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsey Graham — has demonstrated step by step how abuses on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan had their genesis in policy choices made at the pinnacle of the Bush administration. A set of four Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memoranda from the Bush era has provided a stomach-turning legal justification of the application of specific torture techniques, including waterboarding...
Unless you’ve been smart enough to avoid the news entirely for the last few weeks, you know that tomorrow marks President Obama’s first 100 days in office. But you may not know that the ‘100 days’ phrase didn’t start with FDR, but with Napoleon. William Safire’s Political Dictionary tells us that it originally marked the period between the little dictator’s escape from Elba and rampage across Europe before his final defeat at Waterloo. So perhaps the question to ask about presidents’ first 100 days is, how much damage has our new Emperor done?
Arlen Specter, The New York Review of Books: "In the seven and a half years since September 11, the United States has witnessed one of the greatest expansions of executive authority in its history, at the expense of the constitutionally mandated separation of powers. President Obama, as only the third sitting senator to be elected president in American history, and the first since John F. Kennedy, may be more likely to respect the separation of powers than President Bush was. But rather than put my faith in any president to restrain the executive branch, I intend to take several concrete steps, which I hope the new president will support."
The Obama administration and congressional leaders assure us that the government can protect us from the ’systemic risk’ posed by big banks, insurance companies, and hedge funds. But who will protect us from the government? In light of all we’ve learned about the national government’s conduct in both domestic and foreign affairs over recent years, there is clearly no greater risk to American society than the government itself...
Five men who claim to have been kidnapped and tortured at the direction of CIA agents are entitled to their day in court to expose alleged U.S. government abuse of war-on-terror captives, a federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday. Both former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama had invoked their state secrets privilege in urging courts to dismiss a lawsuit in which the prisoners detailed interrogations involving beatings, electric shocks and laceration by scalpel.
Attac kritisiert einen "Privatisierungswahn" trotz der Finanzkrise
Das globalisierungskritische Netzwerk Attac kritisierte die 8. Jahrestagung zu Public Private Partnership (PPP), die am Dienstag (28. April) in Frankfurt am Main stattfand. "Es handelt sich um eine reine Lobbyveranstaltung der deutschen Bau-Industrie und der Beraterfirmen. Kritiker müssen draußen bleiben", kritisierte Mike Nagler von Attac. Mitveranstalter der Tagung sind Price Waterhouse Coopers, Bilfinger Berger, Linklaters und Clifford Chance. "Die Finanz- und Weltwirtschaftskrise ist die Folge dramatisch aufgeblähter Finanzmärkte und eines globalen Privatisierungs-Wahnsinns", meint Attac-Ratsmitglied Carl Waßmuth. "Public Private Partnership als die kommende Variante von Privatisierung gehört nicht gefördert, sondern gesetzlich gestoppt." Schattenhaushalte und außer der Bilanz geführte Risiken hätten einen wesentlichen Anteil am Ausbruch der Krise. Public Private Partnership sei dasselbe in grün, bezogen auf Kommunen.
No Biomass/No Burning! Truly renewable energy must be defined as including no energy production or climate mitigation claims from food based agrofuels, live plants and ecosystems, or burning biomass of any type.
BRIEF BACKGROUND: As the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is belatedly gaining recognition within the United States, a suite of policy initiatives, including the Markey-Waxman "American Climate and Energy Security Act 2009" (ACESA), are being considered to promote biomass such as tree plantations, and forest and agricultural 'waste', as renewable energy. Given well known issues of sustainability regarding industrial agriculture and land mismanagement, the need to more clearly define just what "renewable" means is clearly shown. It is vitally important that renewable energy be defined, within the context of federal energy and climate policy, in strictly ecological sustainability terms, including renewable energy and low carbon fuel standards.
In an alarming trend, burning and refining of plant biomass and also toxic municipal waste (or for that matter anything that burns) is being falsely promoted as renewable and of benefit to reducing emissions that cause climate change. Humans already consume a large amount of the energy represented in annual biological growth. To try to consume more of Earth's primary productivity is clearly unsustainable land use. Even partial replacement of fossil fuels with fresh plant biomass energy is absolutely impossible for more than a few years. Trying will denude Earth and make a very different planet, that is hostile and uninhabitable to human life.
More than two-thirds of British companies plan to cut or freeze their workers' salaries this year, the British Chambers of Commerce said yesterday, as it warned that private sector employers face a desperate battle to survive the recession.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned credit crunch losses could reach $4 trillion (£2.75tn), damaging the financial system for years to come.
The IMF says this represents "by far the deepest post-World War II recession" with an actual decline in output in countries making up 75% of the world economy.
I don't know about you, but from my reading of this story, a number of the highest-ranking officials in the Bush administration need hauling up before the courts as soon as possible
It has long been clear that the CIA used the Szymany military airbase in Poland for extraordinary renditions. Now there is evidence of a secret prison nearby.
Truth commission to proceed despite Obama's wishes
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) plans to proceed with a special commission to investigate alleged Bush administration abuses of power, despite lacking President Barack Obama's support, according to a report Tuesday.
Francois Brousseau, Le Devoir: "In this torture scandal the American government inflicted on its real or presumed enemies after September 11, 2001 - a scandal that has been shaking Washington the last two weeks - it's necessary to see clearly how bare-faced lying and the practice of extreme tortures were two facets of one and the same policy."
Not only do Congressional Democrats have blood on their hands - but so do we, the American people. And CIA agents may be about to be sacrificed to assuage their - and our - actual and associative guilt.
NEW TAMPA - Sase Persaud has always had a passion for fiction and poetry writing, but his newest fight to stop Hillsborough County School District support for school cell towers comes in a close second.
Since the beginning of the year, Persaud has directed much of his ink toward elected officials, school administrators and cell phone executives.
He has written letters and sent e-mails urging them to write off Hillsborough school campuses as ideal locations for cell towers. He asked a local T-Mobile executive to reconsider leasing space on a new tower at Pride Elementary.
So far, his pleas have gone unanswered, but Persaud is determined to fight on, with the power of the pen.
"If you send a letter, there is a record," Persaud said. "There is a paper trail, in effect. Emissions from cell towers are harmful. That's a fact."
With all the sensationalized news about the so-called swine flu flying around, I figured we'd better set all the facts straight.
1. So far, only 82 cases of so-called swine flu have been definitively identified worldwide, mostly in Mexico (26 confirmed, 7 deaths) and the U.S.(with 40 confirmed, no deaths). (Though about 1600 suspected cases, including 159 deaths, are reported in Mexico.) That does not add up to a pandemic swine flu outbreak.
2. This virus has nothing to do with swine. In fact, it hasn't been seen in a single animal. And you can't possibly get it from eating pork.
3. No existing vaccines can prevent this new flu strain. So no matter what you hear – even if it comes from your doctor – don't get a regular flu shot. They rarely work against seasonal flu…and certainly can't offer protection from a never-before- seen strain.
4. Speaking of this strain, it doesn't seem to have come on naturally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this particular strain has never before been seen in pigs or people. And according to Reuters, the strain is a 'genetic mix' of swine, avian and human flu. Was it created in a lab? We don't know yet.
5. The drug companies are getting excited…and that's never a good thing. According to the Associated Press at least one financial analyst estimates up to $388 million worth of Tamiflu sales in the near future – and that's without a pandemic outbreak.
6. Let's not forget that Tamiflu comes with its own problems, including side effects like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, fatigue, cough…the very symptoms you're trying to avoid. And let's not forget that Japan banned this drug for children back in 2007, after links to suicidal behavior.
7. Vaccines for this flu strain probably won't have to jump through all those annoying hurdles like clinical trials for safety and effectiveness. That won't, however, stop the government from mandating the vaccine for all of us – a very likely scenario. And if the vaccines are actually harmful…killing people, for example…the vaccine makers will be immune from lawsuits.
Homeland Security Issues Alert On Mandatory Quarantine Procedures
BATF and FBI to forcibly detain Americans despite only 7 confirmed swine flu deaths in Mexico and none in U.S.
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Department of Homeland Security has sent out an alert to health care providers outlining how BATF, FBI, and U.S. Marshals will be called upon to impose mandatory quarantines in the event of a widespread swine flu outbreak in the U.S., despite the fact that the virus has only caused seven confirmed deaths in Mexico and none whatsoever in the U.S.
First death in U.S. is Mexican toddler, prompting questions about why only hispanics have died despite outbreak spreading to at least ten countries
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The first swine flu death in the United States has been confirmed, but the victim is a Mexican toddler. Serious questions must now be asked about why a virus that has spread across at least 10 countries and is suspected in many others has only killed hispanics, and whether a race-specific bio-weapon is being beta-tested.
Andrew J. Bacevich, TomDispatch.com: "In a recent column, The Washington Post's Richard Cohen wrote, 'What Henry Luce called "the American Century" is over.' Cohen is right. All that remains is to drive a stake through the heart of Luce's pernicious creation, lest it come back to life. This promises to take some doing."
Steve Weissman, Truthout: "Asked what he thought of Western civilization, the nonviolent Mahatma Gandhi famously replied, 'I think it would be a good idea.' Unless millions of Americans now demand better, we can say the same of the rule of law. What a good idea it would have been, but - like the tooth fairy - it will not exist, not when competing priorities get in the way. The balancing - and trimming - is well on its way."
Kornhaber in Apples and Oranges, Council Meeting Mania
Spencer Kornhaber / OCW
Remember that brouhaha last Thursday about a cell tower being built next to a Huntington Beach elementary school? Remember the outcry from parents, the indignation from school officials, and the petition from the kid who expressed an interest in having T-Mobile pay for his future cancer bills? Remember how the community around Harbour View park and Harbour View Elementary School weren't notified that a big ole' fake tree would be built on city property literally feet away from a kindergarten classroom?
- La réalité du Grenelle : NKM parle, parle et Bernard Accoyer l'homme clé verrouille tout !
- France 2 4 Vérités: "Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet et le Grenelle 2009".(Haute Définition 16/9e).
Tyler E. Boudreau, Truthout: "I am a veteran of the war in Iraq. Like many, I came home bearing an unexpected skepticism toward our operations there and a fresh perspective on America's use of military power. And also like many, I found myself emotionally and psychologically harried by my experiences on the battlefield. But unlike many, I landed after discharge in a community where criticism for the war was both socially acceptable and, in fact, quite common, leaving me free to process a distress which was directly connected to US foreign policy. I was, literally and figuratively, right at home. So, I couldn't help noticing how the political dissent of my community was facilitating my mental healing. That has given me reason to consider all the ways in which politics has corresponded with and influenced the understanding and acceptance of combat stress. And while combat stress survivors have, in some ways, benefited from this relationship; they have suffered from it as well."
Polizei und Justiz gehen verstärkt gegen Antimilitaristen vor. Proteste gegen Bundeswehr und deutsche Kriegsbeteiligung unterschiedlichster Art nehmen zu. Artikel von Markus Bernhardt in junge Welt vom 23.04.2009 http://www.jungewelt.de/2009/04-23/047.php
Hochschulen forschen für den Krieg
„Im Jahr 2008 hat die Bundesregierung 1,1 Milliarde Euro dafür gezahlt, dass an Hochschulen und in so genannten An-Instituten Rüstungsforschung betrieben wird. Das Bundesministerium für Verteidigung (BMVg) vergab Aufträge für bundeswehrrelevante und wehrtechnische Forschung an Hochschulen in zehn Bundesländern. Insgesamt führen 27 Hochschulen derartige Projekte durch. Daneben erhielten auch einschlägige Forschungseinrichtungen wie die Forschungsgesellschaft für Angewandte Naturwissenschaften (FGAN), das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft – und Raumfahrt (DLR) oder die Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Aufträge. Im Rahmen des 7. Forschungsprogramms der EU wird an Hochschulen auch im „Forschungsprogramm für die zivile Sicherheit“ gearbeitet, dessen Ergebnisse teils ebenfalls „sicherheitsrelevant“ sind. Gleichzeitig ist 2007 das deutsche Forschungsprogramm zur „zivilen Sicherheit“ gestartet. Sarah Nagel stellt in ihrer IMI-Studie "Hochschulen forschen für den Krieg" diese Aspekte der Militarisierung von Forschung und Lehre dar und geht auch auf Versuche von Angestellten und Studierenden ein, sich dagegen zu wehren. Die Studie enthält auch eine Liste aller Universitäten, von denen bekannt ist, dass sie u.a. Rüstungsforschung betreiben. Siehe die Studie von Sarah Nagel bei IMI (pdf) http://imi-online.de/download/SN-Studie07-2009-Forschung.pdf
Widerstand gegen die EU-Politik der Überwachung und Grenzschließung ist nötig!
„Das Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie, eines der Gründungsmitglieder des "European Civil Liberties Network" (ECLN), ruft gemeinsam mit diesem zur öffentlichen Diskussion des "Stockholm Programms" der EU auf. Das "Stockholm Programm", der neue Fünfjahresplan zum Ausbau der "Zone für Freiheit, Sicherheit und Recht" der EU, soll Richtlinien für die europäische Innen- und Justizpolitik sowie die Politik der Inneren Sicherheit für 2010 bis 2014 definieren. Die Erklärung des Europäischen Bürgerrechtsnetzwerks kritisiert den Plan und nennt drei zentrale Bereiche: (1) Möglichkeiten zur totalen Überwachung sollen installiert werden. (2) Die Grenzkontrollen, die zur Bekämfpung der Migration ausgebaut wurden und werden und die bereits jetzt eine "tödliche Realität" an den Außengrenzen geschaffen haben, können leicht zu weitergehenden Kontrollen aller Bürger ausgebaut werden. Die wuchernden Datensammlungen unterstützen dies. (3) Es findet ein Prozess der Militarisierung der Sicherheit stat. Auf soziale und wirtschaftliche Probleme wird nicht inhaltlich sondern mit militärisch-sicherheitspolitischen Mitteln reagiert…“ Pressemitteilung des Grundrechtekomitees vom 27.04.2009 http://www.grundrechtekomitee.de/ub_showarticle.php?articleID=315
Leuchtende Zukunft. Nächste Runde beim Aufbau des EU-Staats
„Ende 2009 läuft das Haager Programm "zur Stärkung von Freiheit, Sicherheit und Recht" aus. Bis dahin sollen die Staats- und Regierungschefs der EU, der Europäische Rat, einen neuen Fünfjahresplan für die Innen- und Justizpolitik beschließen. Die Vorarbeiten dazu leistete die "Zukunftsgruppe"…“ Aufsatz von Heiner Busch und Peer Stolle in: Bürgerrechte & Polizei/CILIP 91 (3/2008) http://www.cilip.de/ausgabe/91/jha-zukunft.htm
Kritik am "Stockholm Programm". Im Juli wird das neue "Mehrjahresprogramm für Justiz und Inneres" der EU festgelegt, das im Dezember endgültig verabschiedet werden soll
„Nach Tampere 1999 und Den Haag 2004 soll unter diesjähriger schwedischer EU-Präsidentschaft ein neues "Mehrjahresprogramm" zur Zukunft europäischer Innenpolitik der nächsten fünf Jahre beschlossen werden ("Quantensprünge" europäischer Sicherheitszusammenarbeit). Während die Richtlinien des Haager Programms in den meisten EU-Mitgliedsstaaten ratifiziert worden sind (darunter Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Schaffung von Frontex, Interoperabilität von Datenbanken, mehr Kompetenzen für Europol etc.), soll im neuen "Stockholm Programm" wieder der "Kampf gegen Terrorismus und organisierte Kriminalität" Pate stehen für den Ausbau polizeilicher, militärischer und geheimdienstlicher Zusammenarbeit und die Implementierung neuer technischer Maßnahmen zur Überwachung und Kontrolle…“ Artikel von Matthias Monroy in telepolis vom 15.04.2009 http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/30/30127/1.html
Dokumentation zum Stockholm-Programm im Special The "Stockholm Programme" - "The Shape of Things to Come" bei Statewatch Observatory http://www.statewatch.org/future-group.htm
We’ve learned much, much more about America and torture in the past five years. But as Mark Danner recently wrote in The New York Review of Books, for all the revelations, one essential fact remains unchanged: ‘By no later than the summer of 2004, the American people had before them the basic narrative of how the elected and appointed officials of their government decided to torture prisoners and how they went about it.’ When the Obama administration said it declassified four new torture memos 10 days ago in part because their contents were already largely public, it was right. Yet we still shrink from the hardest truths and the bigger picture: that torture was a premeditated policy approved at our government’s highest levels; that it was carried out in scenarios that had no resemblance to ‘24;’ that psychologists and physicians were enlisted as collaborators in inflicting pain; and that, in the assessment of reliable sources like the F.B.I. director Robert Mueller, it did not help disrupt any terrorist attacks...
I think we can have a reasonable discussion about whether CIA officials who were ‘just following orders’ should be held accountable for law-breaking. But what do we say of the people who gave the orders? Even they might be able to make a case that what they were doing was not illegal, but then let’s have them make that case — in front of a federal judge. I don’t automatically assume that some Bush administration officials were breaking the law by giving the go-ahead to torture. I think they were breaking the law, but I’m not sure. But when there’s a fair amount of evidence to suggest that someone might have broken the law, the usual next step (I’m not a lawyer, so forgive me if I’ve missed a step) is to put the case before a grand jury to decide whether or not to go forward and prosecute. Even if the grand jury, true to form, has very low standards for deciding whether to prosecute, why should politicians be exempt from living in the same legal world that the rest of us inhabit?
If [US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates] has his druthers, the next military budget will look much like this one: It will still serve excessive objectives. We will still defend allies that can defend themselves, fight in other people’s civil wars in a vain effort to ‘fix’ their states, and burn tax dollars to serve the hubristic notion that US military hegemony is what keeps the world safe. To really keep us safe, we should slash defense spending. Americans should prepare for fewer wars, not different ones. Far from providing our defense, our military posture endangers us. It drags us into others’ conflicts, provokes animosity, and wastes resources. We need a defense budget worthy of the name. We need military restraint. And that would allow us to cut defense spending roughly in half...
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "With the election of Barack Obama, it has been argued that not only will the social state be renewed in the spirit and legacy of the New Deal, but that the punishing racial state and its vast complex of disciplinary institutions will, if not come to an end, at least be significantly reformed. From this perspective, Obama's presidency not only represents a post-racial victory, but also signals a new space of post-racial harmony. While 'post-racial' may mean less overt racism, the idea that we have moved into a post-racial period in American history is not merely premature - it is an act of willful denial and ignorance."
The government will take on a mountain of risk while trying to create an artificial market for the loans and debt securities. Critics worry about possible fraud and further banking system damage.
At the end of spring meetings in Washington, the two Bretton Woods institutions on Sunday told their 185 member countries that the worst global slump in generations had already driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty.
Without accepting full responsibility for torture - and illegal, pre-emptive wars - and without accountability, there can be no catharsis in America. Obama is enough of a smart operator to know that if his "going forward" is perceived like "look the other way", this whole thing will come back to haunt and even destroy his presidency. And if it walks and talks like a whitewash, that's because it must be ... a whitewash.
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis...It's a scintillating stratagem."
Obama Taking Up Where Bush Left Off. It is truly amazing how much news the American news media chooses to ignore. If one wants to discover what is actually going on in the world, he or she often has to go to the foreign press. This has again been the case with a story that every American should be extremely interested in, but which has been totally ignored by the American news media. I found this story in Russia Today. According to RussiaToday.com, "The personal computer may soon be not-so-private, with the U.S. and some European nations working on laws allowing them access to search the content held on a person's hard drive.......
Concerned by the dangers of electromagnetic waves, the City of Hérouville St. Clair has decided to apply a precautionary principle towards the antennas.
By the end of the school year, all Wi-Fi equipment will be removed in primary schools. An information campaign will also be conducted with residents to raise awareness of the risks associated with mobile telephony.
The City also has become a member of Robin roofs and the CRIIREM two associations fighting for the safety of people exposed to new technologies for wireless telecommunications.
These structures are independent will be responsible for undertaking measures to determine the degree of harmfulness of waves emitted by the antennas. Depending on the results, the municipality may require operators to limit its emissions, or even remove their antennas.
Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "Last week found Iraq swimming in blood once again. Attacks last Thursday brought the worst violence Iraq has seen in over a year, with at least 96 Iraqis killed and 157 wounded in two massive suicide bombings. Over 35 bombings have rocked Baghdad this month alone. There appears to be no end in sight for the escalating violence."
- La diffusion de la Next-up News nr 832 a été très perturbée, nouvelle diffusion :
- Appel de 50 Médecins Hollandais au Gouvernement: "Réduire l'exposition aux CEM"
Trump and His Allies...
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/21/trump-and-his-allies-are-clear-and-present-danger-american-democracy?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_op
rudkla - 22. Jun, 05:09
The Republican Party...
https://truthout.org/articles/the-republican-party-is-still-doing-donald-trumps-bidding/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=804d4873-50dd-4c1b-82a5-f465ac3742ce
rudkla - 26. Apr, 05:36
January 6 Committee Says...
https://truthout.org/articles/jan-6-committee-says-trump-engaged-in-criminal-conspiracy-to-undo-election/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=552e5725-9297-4a7c-a214-53c8c51615a3
