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US contractors accused in Abu Ghraib torture suit
2008-05-06 10:07:00
Employees from US military contractors helped torture Iraqi civilians detained at Abu Ghraib prison five years ago, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Monday. Lawyers for Emad Al-Janabi said the 43-year-old blacksmith and other prisoners were subjected to months of abuse while being held at the notorious Baghdad jail following his arrest in September 2003. Al-Janabi was later released without charge in July 2004. According to the lawsuit, Al-Janabi was subjected to physical and mental torture which included being shown a mock execution of his brother and nephew, being repeatedly deprived of food and sleep and threatened with dogs. The lawsuit is lodged against defense contractors CACI International Inc, CACI Premier Technology, L-3 Communications Titan Corporation, and former CACI contractor Stephen Stefanowicz. The complaint alleges that CACI provided interrogators used at Abu Ghraib and that Titan Corp, now owned by L-3, employed translators at the det...
More About: Torture , Contractors , Suit

PARAGUAY: Torture Victim Still Fears Colorado Party ?Mafia?
2008-05-06 10:05:00
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 5 (IPS) - The Colorado Party has become a "criminal mafia" during its 61 years in government in Paraguay , and it will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in spite of its defeat in last month's elections, says Anuncio Martí, a Paraguayan citizen living in exile in Brazil.   Martí said he was abducted and tortured in Asunción in January 2002 by "a paramilitary and parapolice group linked to the government." Since 2003 he has lived as a political refugee in a Brazilian city, along with two fellow members of the Partido Patria Libre (roughly, Free Homeland Party, PPL), Juan Arrom and Víctor Colmán. Martí rejoiced at the victory of opposition candidate Fernando Lugo, a progressive Catholic bishop who was elected president in Paraguay on Apr. 20. But he still has mixed feelings of hope and fear. The election result was "an important step forward for democracy," but "not the beginning of a real process of change," he told IPS. "We hope that at l...
More About: Mafia , Torture

China virus spreads to the capital
2008-05-06 10:03:00
The number of people affected by the deadly EV-71 virus has risen to more than 9,000, including people in Beijing, Chinese officials have said.   Beijing health officials said on Monday that there were 1,482 reported cases of the infection in the capital.   At least 26 children have died so far from the severe form of foot and mouth disease.   Officials said the city health authorities were on high alert and might "suggest" that schools and day-care centres be closed if the situation worsens.   ~ read on... ~  
More About: Virus , China , Spreads , Capital

The looming War for Water
2008-05-06 09:58:00
Water Wars on the Horizon?   Invest in water? One venture capitalist views the situation this way. With the move toward alternate fuels (like bio-fuels) and the increasing costs of oil extraction, water may well become the World's next scarce resource. Biofuels are enormous consumers of water, says Jim Matheson, a general partner at Flagship Ventures, a venture capital firm in Cambridge, MA. And water is not always abundant where it's most needed. "So, increasingly you're going to see water as a scarce resource. I think it's going to drive not just economics but also a lot of geopolitical dynamics. So, we're trying to find technologies that can allow us to plug into this enormous value chain." In the same vein, the State of Pennsylvania has just announced the approval of $72 million in low-interest loans to support water infrastructure projects. Regardless of whether you ascribe to global warming or not, it is a reality that the water resources of...
More About: Water

'Privatizing' volunteerism
2008-05-06 09:49:00
From: Corporate volunteers reaching worldwide Ask John Leiter, who came back a changed man from three months in Uruguay in 2006 under Ernst & Young's corporate social responsibility fellows program. A Boston-based senior manager for the accounting firm, Leiter normally helps companies carry out internal investigations into financial wrongdoing. In the capital of Montevideo, he was assigned to help a 12-year-old information technology company develop its first real five-year strategic plan. That meant doing a new kind of work, at a new firm, while coping with language and cultural differences. For a fast-paced American, even the traditional quarter-hour of chit-chat preceding meetings was a tough adjustment. "I worked out of my comfort zone the entire time," recalls Leiter. Now, back home, he operates differently, trying first to get an overall sense of client needs before starting work. "Oftentimes, we have such a myopic focus, and it doesn't allow us to take a larg...

The rise of Islamic Banking
2008-05-06 09:12:00
Islamic Banking by A.L.M. Abdul Gafoor 4.1.1 Interest-free banking as an idea Interest-free banking seems to be of very recent origin. The earliest references to the reorganisation of banking on the basis of profit sharing rather than interest are found in Anwar Qureshi (1946), Naiem Siddiqi (1948) and Mahmud Ahmad (1952) in the late forties, followed by a more elaborate exposition by Mawdudi in 1950 (1961). Muhammad Hamidullah?s 1944, 1955, 1957 and 1962 writings too should be included in this category. They have all recognised the need for commercial banks and the evil of interest in that enterprise, and have proposed a banking system based on the concept of Mudarabha - profit and loss sharing. In the next two decades interest-free banking attracted more attention, partly because of the political interest it created in Pakistan and partly because of the emergence of young Muslim economists. Works specifically devoted to this subject began to appear in this period. T...
More About: Islamic , Rise

Eustace Mullins - Murder by Injection
2008-05-06 08:33:00
Part 1 of 3~ more ~
More About: Murder , Injection

On Land Titles, Property and the State
2008-05-06 08:22:00
From: What is Political Economy Trace the origin of land titles back through the centuries and you will invariably find them based upon force or fraud. While not able to articulate ground rent or the law of rent, sovereigns and would-be rulers recognized ownership of land as the source of wealth and power. As the German sociologist, Franz Oppenheimer, put it so well in his opus THE STATE, they were engaged in the political means for obtaining wealth rather than the economic means. John Locke recognized the distinction between property in land and property in the product of labor. In the Second Treatise on Civil Government he wrote; Though the earth and all inferior creatures be common to all men, yet every man has property in his own person; this nobody has any right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work of his hands we may say are properly his. Whatsoever, then, he removes out of the state that nature hath provided and left it in, he hath mixed hi...
More About: Property , State , Land , The State , Titles

A pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia
2008-05-06 07:53:00
 A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged.A series of emails by members and associates of the pro-Israel group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), provided to The Electronic Intifada (EI), indicate the group is engaged in what one activist termed a "war" on Wikipedia.A 13 March action alert signed by Gilead Ini, a "Senior Research Analyst" at CAMERA, calls for "volunteers who can work as 'editors' to ensure" that Israel-related articles on Wikipedia are "free of bias and error, and include necessary facts and context." However, subsequent communications indicate that the group not only wanted to keep the effort secret from the media, the public, and Wikipedia administr...
More About: History , Plan

Twits
2008-05-06 07:32:00
British planners feared tea shortage after nuclear attack Never mind the radiation: British contingency planners worried there would be a dramatic shortage of tea in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, recently declassified documents showed Monday. The shortfall of the staple British beverage would be "very serious" if the country were to come under attack with atomic and hydrogen bombs, said according to a memo drafted between 1954 and 1956. "The tea position would be very serious with a loss of 75 percent of stocks and substantial delays in imports and with no system of rationing it would be wrong to consider that even one ounce (28 grams) per head per week could be ensured," it said. "No satisfactory solution has yet been found."

President Kennedy's Foreign Policy
2008-05-06 07:04:00
From Real History Blog :   Kennedy was inaugurated three days after Lumumba was killed in the Congo. Kennedy was known to be a supporter of Lumumba, and was devastated when he learned of his assassination.As Gerard Colby so brilliantly noted in "Thy Will Be Done": Within a month of Kennedy's election, some of Nelson [Rockefeller]'s closest allies ... were meeting in the White House's Cabinet Room or heading key offices in the new administration. Swiftly and quietly, they began implementing many of the changes in government structure and policy that Nelson advocated. This secret victory [for Rockefeller] was the outcome of Kennedy's inexperience. Kennedy had spent the past five years running for office. He knew politicians, but not men who could run the government of a world power.Kennedy turned to Robert Lovett, a former Truman administration veteran. Lovett was also a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.So right from the start, without rea...
More About: President , Policy , Foreign Policy , Foreign

The Devil's in the details
2008-05-05 13:52:00
666 an infamous mark of state lottery fix in 1980It took awhile before April 24, 1980, became recognized as a historic date. The 6 million Pennsylvanians watching the Pennsylvania Lottery's Daily Number drawing that night never knew that the fix was in for the $3.5 million jackpot. The winning combination of 6-6-6 was rigged by Nick Perry, a Pittsburgh broadcast pioneer, and Edward Plevel, a lottery official. Rumors of a fix quickly surfaced. By June, state officials moved the lottery telecast out of Pittsburgh, and within a year Perry and several others were convicted. Pennsylvania's is the only known U.S. state lottery-fixing scandal. The fix caused big change for lotteries, which stopped using Ping-Pong balls to draw numbers for big jackpot games because they were vulnerable to tampering, said Charles Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which oversees Powerball. DOT employees arrested for bribery(MCALLEN, Texas) - An indictment char...
More About: Details

The awfully nice guys allowing US torture at Guantanamo Bay
2008-05-05 09:13:00
The thing is ? they knew. It was the US government's explicit policy to wipe away the Geneva conventions and subject the supposedly most dangerous captives to what were euphemistically called "aggressive" interrogation techniques ? techniques that flouted international law. The people behind the policy are therefore, according to the British human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, criminals who may well face charges should they choose to take a holiday in, say, France or Germany. And who are they, these people? Top government lawyers who ? at the behest of Donald Rumsfeld, the then defence secretary ? cooked up a means of bypassing Geneva and in effect allowed the interrogators on the tip of Cuba to do whatever the hell they wanted. And, at Guantanamo Bay , lowly, inexperienced lawyers on the ground who were left isolated to provide the legal regulation for what might constitute humane treatment and what might not. Meanwhile some of the top military brass, including General...
More About: Guys , Torture , Nice

Former President Carter To Be Tried For Peace Crimes (satire)
2008-05-05 07:51:00
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND?An international peace-crimes tribunal commenced legal proceedings against former U.S. President Jimmy Carter for alleged crimes against inhumanity Monday. "Jimmy Carter's political career includes a laundry list of anti-war-making offenses," said chief prosecutor Charles B. Simmons. "Carter's record of benevolence, diplomacy, and respect for human life is unrivaled in recent geopolitical history. For millions, the very sight of his face evokes memories of his administration's reign of tolerance." The former president, whom Simmons described as "relentless in his naked pursuit of everlasting global peace," has been sought by peace-crimes officers in the international war-making community for decades. Police apprehended Carter on July 25 in South Florida, where he was building low-income housing as a part of a Habitat For Humanity project. Shortly thereafter, he was extradited to Geneva, where he will be prosecuted for "grossly humane acts against ...
More About: Peace , Satire , Crimes

The Film they Tried to Ban: 'On the Verge'
2008-05-05 07:35:00
www.smashedo.org.uk The new Smash EDO Campaign Movie is currently on tour. Police forces around the country have attempted to stop screenings of the film visiting venues and citing licensing laws to try to get screenings of the film pulled. Despite the repression the tour is going ahead.   Trailer for 'On the Verge' - The Smash EDO Campaign film   Verge on the road as SMASHEDO movie tour goes ahead despite censorship attempts SchNEWS and SmashEDO have combined forces to bring the world "the film they tried to ban" - On the Verge, the story of the four -year campaign against EDO MBM, Brighton's favourite bomb-builders. Determined to beat the censorship imposed by Sussex Police and their allies (See SchNEWS 625), SchMOVIES have taken the show(ings) on the road. The first leg of the tour over the last week has taken in Oxford, Bath, Hereford and finished up at Bristol's Kebele social centre. According to movie director Steve Bishop, "The whole things ...
More About: Film

DNA database plans for children who 'could become criminals'
2008-05-05 07:22:00
Primary school children should be put on the national DNA database if their behaviour suggests they will become criminals, a senior Scotland Yard expert said yesterday.   Gary Pugh, the director of forensic science and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, called for a debate on the measures required to identify future offenders. He said: "If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large. "We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society." But critics said this was a step towards a police state that would risk stigmatising youngsters who had yet to commit a criminal act. The details of more than 4.5 million people, including about 150,000 children under the age of 16, are held on the Government's database, making it the largest system of its kind in the world. ~ more... ~  
More About: Children , Database , Plans , Criminals

'Cinderella' files to trap crooks by their shoes
2008-05-05 07:18:00
Criminals who leave footprints behind when committing crimes will be more likely to get caught from next month when a national database of footwear evidence is launched. Police officers will be able to compare marks left by shoes and boots at crime scenes with records taken from those arrested on suspicion of previous offences. The Footwear Intelligence Technology system - the first of its kind - will speed up the traditional linking of footprint evidence to individuals through a centralised computer base. As well as using shoe types and sizes to identify suspects, it will also record information on the angle of footfall and weight distribution ? solving the problem of suspects claiming to have lent their footwear to others. Experts at the Forensic Science Service who are developing the database have called it "Cinderella analysis". Partial or full footprints are thought to be left behind at close to 40 per cent of crime scenes and the markings are behind only DNA and bl...
More About: Shoes , Crooks , Files , Trap

Protecting Yourself From Suspicionless Searches While Traveling
2008-05-05 07:14:00
From: Electronic Frontier Foundation   The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling (pdf) in United States v. Arnold allows border patrol agents to search your laptop or other digital device without limitation when you are entering the country. EFF and many civil liberties, travelers' rights, immigration advocacy and professional organizations are concerned that unfettered laptop searches endanger trade secrets, attorney-client communications, and other private information. These groups have signed a letter asking Congress to hold hearings to find out what protocol, if any, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) follows in searching digital devices and copying, storing and using travelers' data. The letter also asks Congress to pass legislation protecting travelers' laptops and smart phones from unlimited government scrutiny. If privacy at the border is important to you, contact Congress now and ask them to take action! In the meantime, how can international travelers pro...
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US arms to Pakistan both ?big ticket?, terror related
2008-05-05 07:05:00
From Pakistan Link :   Pentagon says military sales to Pakistan worth $4.55bn during 2002-07 By Khalid Hasan WASHINGTON: Major government-to-government arms sales and grants to Pakistan since 2001 have included items useful for counter-terrorism operations, along with a number of "big ticket" platforms more suited to conventional warfare, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Not a great deal has changed since November 2007 except for the increased value of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for maritime patrol aircraft and the increased value of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) for F-16 armaments. Negotiations on Hawkeye AEW remain inconclusive. Military sales: In dollar value terms, the bulk of purchases is made with Pakistani national funds. The Pentagon reports total FMS agreements with Pakistan worth $4.55 billion for finance years 2002-2007. In-process sales of F-16 combat aircraft and related equipment account for about three-quarters of this ...
More About: Terror , Arms , Related , Ticket

Harvard study shows positive impacts of Muslim hajj
2008-05-05 06:39:00
From Middle East Online :   Study finds that Muslim pilgrimage experience promotes peace, harmony, women's rights. HARVARD, Massachusetts ? A study on the longer-term effect of participating in the Islamic pilgrimage found that Muslims communities have become more open in many ways after the Hajj experience. The study, published by Harvard 's Kennedy School of Government, says that hajj ? Muslim pilgrimage - urges equality and harmony. "It increases belief in equality and harmony among ethnic groups and Islamic sects and leads to more favorable attitudes toward women, including greater acceptance of female education and employment," the study found. Entitled 'Estimating the Impact of the Haj: Religion and Tolerance in Islam's Global Gathering', the study also found that the hajj experience promotes peaceful coexistence. "Increased unity within the Islamic world is not accompanied by antipathy toward non-Muslims," stressed the Harvard study, adding that "Hajjis...
More About: Positive

Earth as electrical resonator
2008-04-27 22:42:00
From: Schuman Resonance by L. Oliver Duffy The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second at last measurement. The circumference of the Earth is about 24,000 miles. That means that an electrical impulse from a lightning strike will travel around the Earth approximately 7.8 times in one second (186/24 = 7.75). The background base resonance is measured daily by the Navel Research Labs and is posted somewhere on the web. I have looked it up in the past. It has not changed at any time since it has been measured and is not changing now. The laws of physics still work the same way today as they have always worked. Because the Earth has a magnetic field and it is a spherical resonator, it forms what is known as a circulator. This means that radio waves (and this is what we are talking about here) travel from West to East with less attenuation than they do from East to West. The difference is about 3 decibels more loss per 1000 miles from East to West. That is to say ...
More About: Electrical

Orthodox Easter greetings
2008-04-27 20:41:00
And peace to all!Forever EnchantedShirley Verrett sings "Exultate jubilate" by MozartAgnes Baltsa - Carmen - Seguidille
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The Merovignian ancestry of the 2008 presidential candidates
2008-04-27 08:10:00
From: /*All in the Dragon Family <http://watch-unto-prayer.org/dragon-l ineage.html>*/With the presidential election proceeding as planned, the United States is as polarized as ever and, once again, many conservative Christians are under the false impression that it matters who is elected in November. This report is an effort to demonstrate in practical terms that, at this point, it makes no difference who wins the presidential election. Fears about a Bush-Clinton dynasty which could rule the United States for 28 years, or more, become even more unsettling with the discovery that /all/ of the presidential candidates belong to the same dynasty. It is called the Merovingian dynasty and it claims to have a long history, being nearly has ancient as the human race. The good news is that God destroyed this evil dynasty once before, in the Great Flood (Gen. 7), and He is about to do it again (Rev. 19).The term "Merovingian" is said to derive from Merovee who was King of the ...
More About: Presidential , Candidates , Ancestry , 2008

'Turmoil in global credit markets is hindering the Bank of Canada's efforts
2008-04-26 11:11:00
From: Carney warns rate relief will be slow to reach consumers Turmoil in global credit markets is hindering the Bank of Canada's efforts to reduce borrowing costs for individuals and companies. In its latest assessment of the economy, the central bank warned that even if it continues to lower its benchmark rate, rates lenders charge on mortgages and loans may rise. Commercial lenders are paying more to get credit themselves in markets that remain reluctant to share money, the Bank of Canada said in its Monetary Policy Report. Since the credit crisis kicked off last summer, banks have recovered only about three-quarters of their increased borrowing costs by charging higher rates to their customers. That's not likely to last, Governor Mark Carney said. "We do expect that to ultimately be passed on ... unless their funding costs come down sharply," Mr. Carney said at a press conference. The report reinforced economists' expectations that the bank will continue to ...
More About: Credit , Markets , Global

Global recession to be 'longer, deeper and wider' than 1970s
2008-04-26 11:09:00
The deputy chairman of one of Singapore's sovereign wealth funds explained to staff at the weekend the US crisis has now spread the world ? increasing the chance of a global crisis. Tony Tan, of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, also explained recent investments in UBS and Citigroup ? worth $11 billion (£5.5 billion) and $6.88 billion (£3.5 billion) respectively ? would be long-term investments. "We could be facing a recession which is longer, deeper and wider than any recession that we have encountered in the last 30 years. "The financial contagion has now spread beyond US shores, increasing the likelihood of a global financial crisis and recession," said Mr Tan. He added the current volatility, fueled by the credit crunch, was set to continue in coming years.   ~ full article ~  
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Hunter S. Thompson documentary closes festival
2008-04-26 10:49:00
Hunter S. Thompson luxuriated in being the center of attention. Imagine how the late journalist would have strutted, knowing that a documentary all about him was closing the San Francisco International Film Festival . He'd be first in line for "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," wearing his trademark fisherman's hat and tinted aviator glasses, and brandishing a cigarette holder with ashes piling up - never mind the ban on smoking. The only thing that would have made him happier is if "Gonzo" were opening the festival Thursday. It somehow seems appropriate to end a 15-day marathon of 105 movies and special programs with a tribute to this occasional San Franciscan and master of gonzo journalism. He came up with "gonzo" to describe his freestyle, drugs- and booze-fueled writing found in books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." Chunks of both were composed in the Bay Area. While Thompson's home w...
More About: Hunter , Documentary , Hunter S Thompson

Activists make last-ditch effort to save orphans from Israeli state terror
2008-04-26 10:42:00
From The Palestinian Information Center : Palestinian leaders and Christian peace activists as well as representatives of human rights organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories on Thursday made an impassioned appeal to "all men and women of conscience all over the world" to help stop Israeli army plans to close down and take over several orphanages and boarding schools sheltering thousands of orphans and impoverished students. Many of the orphans' parents had been killed by the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish terrorists, also known as "settlers." The appeal was made during a press conference at the main Girl Orphanage in downtown Hebron. The Israeli army has repeatedly raided the orphanages, boarding schools and affiliated institutions, vandalizing property, seizing food, cloths and shoes and confiscating several buses and cars. The Israeli army accuses the Islamic Charitable Society, the largest and oldest in occupied Palestine, of teaching...
More About: Terror , State , Make , Orphans , Save

Niger: Radio Station Shut Down for Broadcasting Military Brutalities
2008-04-26 10:40:00
Sahara FM, a privately-owned radio station based in Agadez, the largest city in the northern part of Niger , was on April 22, 2008, shut down indefinitely by the media regulator, the High Communications Council (CSC) for allegedly "inciting ethnic hatred and undermining the morale of the Army". Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)'s correspondent reported that the closure followed a complaint by the authorities over broadcast of testimonies of victims of military brutalities on Sahara FM between April 13 and April 17. Several of the victims claimed in a series of interviews, that they had suffered brutalities at the hands of Nigerien soldiers. The complaint was filed by the Agadez Governor and Commissioner of Police and on April 18, Raliou Ahmed Assaleh, Director of Sahara FM and correspondent for Radio France International (RFI) in Agadez, was summoned to Niamey to answer the accusations The soldiers had been deployed in Agadez's region to curb the ongoing rebellion ...
More About: Military , Station , Broadcasting

Making a 'Killing' on the 'War on Terror'
2008-04-26 10:09:00
From Consortium News :   Editor's Note: One of George W. Bush's long-lasting legacies may be what President Dwight Eisenhower might have called the "terror-industrial complex," a vast web of interlocking corporations, government agencies and consultancies that have turned the shock of 9/11 into a blank check against the U.S. Treasury.   In this guest essay, the Independent Institute's Ian S. Lustick looks at the ever-expanding size of this leviathan that is devouring tax dollars and American liberties: Nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, what accounts for the vast discrepancy between the terrorist threat facing America and the scale of our response? Why, absent any evidence of a serious domestic terror threat, is the War on Terror so enormous, so all-encompassing, and still expanding? The fundamental answer is that al-Qaeda's most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes, but to hijack our political system. For a multitude of politician...
More About: War On Terror , Killing

FBI wants widespread monitoring of 'illegal' Internet activity
2008-04-26 10:07:00
The FBI on Wednesday called for new legislation that would allow federal police to monitor the Internet for "illegal activity." The suggestion from FBI Director Robert Mueller, which came during a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, appears to go beyond a current plan to monitor traffic on federal-government networks. Mueller seemed to suggest that the bureau should have a broad "omnibus" authority to conduct monitoring and surveillance of private-sector networks as well. The surveillance should include all Internet traffic, Mueller said, "whether it be .mil, .gov, .com--whichever network you're talking about." (See the transcript of the hearing.) In response to questions from Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, Mueller said his idea "balances on one hand, the privacy rights of the individual who are receiving the information, but on the other hand, given the technology, the necessity of having some omnibus search capability utilizing filters...
More About: Illegal , Monitoring