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              ΕΕ και ΗΠΑ που λέονται για να ευνοήσουν τις εκλογές πέρα από τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα
Κυριακή, 4η Ιανουαρίου 2009
Οι χώρες λιστών όπου οι εκλογές έχουν αναμιχθεί ρολόι με τη βία και την καταστολή, των ανθρώπινων δικαιωμάτων είπαν τις δυτικές δυνάμεις, ειδικά οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες και η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, έχει δεχτεί εκλογή στις χώρες που φορούν; τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα σεβασμού τ, για πολιτικούς λόγους και όφελος. Η ομάδα είπε ότι η δύση έχει συνεχιστεί στις εύθραυστες δημοκρατίες στηριγμάτων επάνω, ή εκείνοι που ισχυρίζονται να είναι, όπως η Κένυα, όπου τα κύματα των δολοφονιών έχουν ακολουθήσει μια συζητημένη εκλογή, και το Πακιστάν, όπου οι εκλογές εμφανίζονται μετά από τη δολοφονία του ηγέτη Benazir Bhutto αντίθεσης. Η ομάδα επίσης είπε ότι οι χώρες συμπεριλαμβανομένου του Μπαχρέιν, της Ιορδανίας, της Νιγηρίας, της Ρωσίας και της Ταϊλάνδης έχουν πάρει την πεποίθηση ότι οι εκλογές είναι ίσες με τη δημοκρατία. Στην ετήσια έκθεσή της, η ομάδα είπε εκείνη την Ουάσιγκτον, τις Βρυξέλλες και τα ευρωπαϊκά κεφάλαια; παιχνίδι εμπρός; με την έννοια ότι μια χώρα μπορεί να έχει τη δημοκρατία απλά με την πραγματοποίηση των εκλογών. ; Αυτό; το s τώρα εύκολο για τους αυτοκράτορες να μείνουν ατιμώρητος με να τοποθετήσει υποκρίνεται τη δημοκρατία; εν λόγω Κέννεθ Roth, η ομάδα; εκτελεστικός διευθυντής του s. ; Αυτός; s επειδή πάρα πολλές δυτικές κυβερνήσεις επιμένουν στις εκλογές και το αφήνουν σε αυτή.; ; Φορούν; κυβερνήσεις Τύπου τ στα βασικά ζητήματα των ανθρώπινων δικαιωμάτων που κάνουν τη λειτουργία δημοκρατίας - ένας ελεύθερος Τύπος, μια ειρηνική συνέλευση, και μια λειτουργούσα κοινωνία πολιτών που μπορούν πραγματικά να προκαλέσουν τη δύναμη; Roth εν λόγω. Η έκθεση είπε ότι οι σοβαρές καταπατήσεις των ανθρώπινων δικαιωμάτων έχουν τροφοδοτήσει τις ανθρωπιστικές κρίσεις στη Σομαλία και την περιοχή Ogaden στην ανατολική Αιθιοπία, όπου τα εκατομμύρια των ανθρώπων υποφέρουν. Οι τεκμηριωμένοι έκθεση χειρισμοί των εκλογών. Είπε το Τσαντ, το Καζακστάν, τη Νιγηρία και το Ουζμπεκιστάν που δεσμεύθηκαν; ολοκληρωτική απάτη; ενώ οι κυβερνήσεις έλεγξαν τα εκλογικά μηχανήματα στο Αζερμπαϊτζάν, το Μπαχρέιν, τη Μαλαισία, την Ταϊλάνδη και τη Ζιμπάπουε. Η Λευκορωσία, η Αίγυπτος, η Κούβα, το Ιράν και το Ισραήλ στα κατεχόμενα παλαιστινιακά εδάφη εμπόδισαν ή αποθάρρυναν τους υποψηφίους αντίθεσης. Η Ρωσία και η Τυνησία αναφέρθηκαν για τον πνιγμό των μέσων, και η Κίνα και το Πακιστάν υπονόμευσαν το κράτος δικαίου, η έκθεση εν λόγω. ; Πολλές από αυτή την τακτική είναι παράνομες βάσει του εσωτερικού και διεθνούς δικαίου, αλλά σπάνια οι δυνάμεις εξωτερικών όψεων καλούν τις κυβερνήσεις για να αποτελέσουν το; η έκθεση εν λόγω. ; Οι καθιερωμένες δημοκρατίες είναι συχνά απρόθυμες να κάνουν έτσι από φόβο μήπως την απώλεια της πρόσβασης στους πόρους ή τις εμπορικές ευκαιρίες, ή λόγω των αντιληπτών απαιτήσεων την τρομοκρατία.; ; Φαίνεται Ουάσιγκτον και οι ευρωπαϊκές κυβερνήσεις θα δεχτούν ακόμη και την πιό αμφίβολη εκλογή εφ' όσον; victor; είναι στρατηγικός ή εμπορικός σύμμαχος; είπε. In Kenya, rival political sides halted talks over disputed elections and vicious ethnic clashes after the killing of an opposition legislator, but said they would keep talking while would keep killing each other. The country remained tense and volatile and violence continued to reign while political parties have battled for more than a month over who won the presidential elections. Nasser Ega-Musa, a United Nations spokesman, said both parties had ?a general desire to continue the negotiations and a willingness not to be distracted and derailed,? by the shooting death of David Too. The human rights report also said China has clamped down on the media as it is preparing to hold the Summer Olympics Games in August. Foreign journalists who were given the right to interview Chinese have been harassed, detained or intimidated to prevent them from doing reports on the country?s poor human rights records. It said the construction boom to prepare for the Olympic Games has involved an estimated one million construction workers under harsh and unsafe labour conditions, but that trade with China is more important to the US and the EU than human rights. Have Your Say: EU and US said to favour elections over human rights Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Rallies to protest Gaza bombing
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
Tens of thousands of protesters are due to voice their anger at the Gaza bombing blitz in a series of rallies across the UK. Up to 20,000 people - including the singer Annie Lennox and Respect MP George Galloway - are expected to march along the Embankment in London before walking to Trafalgar Square to call for an immediate end to the Israeli attacks. The demonstration is the biggest of at least 18 organised across the country. Former model Bianca Jagger and singer Lennox have backed the protests, calling on American President-elect Barack Obama to speak up against the bombardment. Other rallies will take place at Blytheswood Square, Glasgow; Bedford Square, Exeter; Princes Street, Edinburgh; Bristol city centre; Bold Street, Liverpool; Norwich Forum; Portsmouth’s Guildhall Square; Queen Victoria Square, Hull; Tunbridge Wells town centre; Leeds Art Gallery; All Saints Park, Manchester; Grey’s Monument, Newcastle; Castle Square, Swansea; St Sampson’s Square, York; Morrisons, Caernarfon; Bradford city centre; and Sheffield town hall. Former mayor of London Ken Livingstone and comedian Alexei Sayle also added their support to the campaign to end the violence. Speaking at a press conference in central London, Ms Jagger said: “I would like to make an appeal to President-elect Obama to speak up. “People throughout the world were hopeful when he was elected and we must appeal to him to ask for the immediate cessation of the bombardment of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.” Lennox spoke of her shock at watching scenes of the bombing on television. She said: “A few days after Christmas I came downstairs, put the television on, and saw smoke pyres coming from buildings and I was shocked to the core because I was thinking as a mother and as a human being.” Comedian Sayle said he was speaking out because it was important for Jewish voices to be heard. He said: “I want to feel proud of Israel, I want to be proud of my people but I am ashamed.” Have Your Say: Rallies to protest Gaza bombing Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Guantanamo intake unacceptable, says Malcolm Turnbull
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
KEVIN Rudd should immediately reverse a decision to allow former Guantanamo Bay inmates to resettle in Australia, the Opposition said today. Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has confirmed that?Australia, along with a number of other countries, has been approached to consider resettling detainees from Guantanamo Bay. “Any determination for an individual to come to Australia would be made on a case-by-case basis,” she?said. “For anyone to be accepted they would have to meet Australia’s strict legal requirement and go through normal rigorous assessment processes.” But Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said?on Macquarie Radio the situation was unacceptable. “It’s only in this morning’s?report in The Australian?that the Rudd government has made clear that it will accept these inmates of Guantanamo Bay,” he said. “One of the things that is most troubling … is whether the Government would do so, accept former inmates from Guantanamo Bay, without disclosing that they have done so. “This is why we need Mr Rudd to immediately and categorically reverse this decision to accept inmates of Guantanamo Bay for resettlement in Australia.” Mr Turnbull said the inmates could arrive in Australia as refugees through existing migration processes. “They cannot be accepted on the basis that they go into custody, because they haven’t committed any crime under Australian law,” he said. “So what (Mr Rudd) has agreed to, with the Americans, is to accept Guantanamo Bay inmates for resettlement in Australia in our community as migrants and that is completely and utterly unacceptable to the Australian people and it’s certainly unacceptable to the Coalition.” Have Your Say: Guantanamo intake unacceptable, says Malcolm Turnbull Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. An Israeli War Crimes Tribunal
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
By Francis A. Boyle The United Nations General Assembly must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a “subsidiary organ” under U.N. Charter Article 22. The ICTI would be organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council. The purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY did for the victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic Regime throughout the Balkans. The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans. Furthermore, the establishment of ICTI by the U.N. General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, Defense Minister Barak , Chief of Staff Ashkenazi and Israel’s other top generals that they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international crimes upon the Lebanese and the Palestinians. Without such a deterrent, Israel might be emboldened to attack Syria with the full support of the Likhudnik Bush Jr. Neoconservatives, who have always viewed Syria as “low-hanging fruit” ready to be taken out by means of their joint aggression. If Israel attacks Syria as it did when it invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran has vowed to come to Syria’s defense. And of course Israel and the Bush Jr administration very much want a pretext to attack Iran. This scenario could readily degenerate into World War III For the U.N. General Assembly to establish ICTI could stop the further development of this momentum towards a regional if not global catastrophe. Have Your Say: An Israeli War Crimes Tribunal Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Amy Goodman: Voices of Resistance Sing On
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Strong voices for peace have left us this year, people who used their art for social change, often at a high personal price. ? Odetta was a legendary folk singer of the civil rights movement. ? Considered the ?Queen of American Folk Music,? Odetta introduced audiences worldwide to African-American folk, blues and gospel music. ? New Year?s Eve was her birthday. She would have been 78. When Rosa Parks was asked which songs meant the most to her, she replied, ?All of the songs Odetta sings.? ? Odetta sang ?Oh, Freedom,? an African-American slave spiritual, at the 1963 March on Washington. Early on, she attracted the interest of Harry Belafonte and Pete Seeger. Her voice, her talent with the guitar and the natural style in which she maintained her hair?later to be dubbed ?afro??set her as an icon of the civil rights movement. She told an interviewer in 2003: ? ?When I first started, I would sing these prison songs … it got to a point where doing the music actually healed me … it was music from those who went before. The music gave them strength, and the music gave us strength to carry it on.? ? She inspired Bernice Johnson Reagon, an early member of the SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) Freedom Singers. She had been suspended from college in Albany, Ga., for civil rights protests, then went on to Spelman College, where historian Howard Zinn and his wife, Roz, took her to folk music concerts by Joan Baez and Odetta. ? Reagon recalls the first time she heard Odetta: ? ?In Georgia, where I grew up in the country, the roads were built by chain-gang labor. I knew the sound, because as the men worked, they sang. But I never thought I?d hear it coming from a concert stage … when she sang prison songs or work songs. … She was just what I needed to begin my life as a freedom fighter and as a Freedom Singer.? ? Reagon later went on to found the women?s a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. ? Another great liberation singer we lost this year was Miriam Makeba of South Africa, known as ?Mama Afrika.? She sang against apartheid, then went into exile for decades. Belafonte helped her, too, gain recognition. ? In 1968, she married SNCC-leader-turned-Black-Panther Stokely Carmichael, for which she was blacklisted in the U.S. until the 1980s. ? Soon after her death, I asked the Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu about Makeba. The South African archbishop smiled: ?Her singing, her voice, helped many people to know a little bit more about the vicious apartheid system. She was just a tremendous human being, a great loss to us and to Africa.? ? Also blacklisted in 1968 was singer and actress Eartha Kitt, who died at age 81 on Christmas Day. In 1968, she was invited to a celebrity luncheon at the White House by Lady Bird Johnson, who asked Kitt about urban poverty. Kitt replied: ?You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They don?t want to go to school because they?re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.? The first lady reportedly burst into tears. For years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas and was investigated by the FBI and CIA. ? Born out of the Deep South and South Africa, these women?s voices sang out, from concert halls to protest rallies. Another voice we just lost sang out from the written page. Harold Pinter died on Christmas Eve in London. Though too sick to travel to Stockholm to collect his Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, he sent a video address: ?The majority of politicians … are interested not in truth but in power. … To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance. … What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies.? Pinter was referring to U.S. policy from Guantanamo to Iraq. ? As these icons are laid to rest, their voices continue to inspire millions. Barack Obama will soon take the reins of the most powerful nation on Earth, promising change. But it will now take the actions of those millions, heeding these echoes of the past and transforming them into their own voices, to effect real change. ? Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. Have Your Say: Amy Goodman: Voices of Resistance Sing On Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Private firm may track all email and calls
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
By Alan Travis and Richard Norton-Taylor | The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone’s calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary. A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses. But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in the long run and warned it would prove a “hellhouse” of personal private information. “Authorisations for access might be written into statute. The most senior ministers and officials might be designated as scrutineers. But none of this means anything,” said Macdonald. “All history tells us that reassurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the first security crisis the locks would loosen.” The home secretary postponed the introduction of legislation to set up the superdatabase in October and instead said she would publish a consultation paper in the new year setting out the proposal and the safeguards needed to protect civil liberties. She has emphasised that communications data, which gives the police the identity and location of the caller, texter or web surfer but not the content, has been used as important evidence in 95% of serious crime cases and almost all security service operations since 2004 including the Soham and 21/7 bombing cases. Until now most communications traffic data has been held by phone companies and internet service providers for billing purposes but the growth of broadband phone services, chatrooms and anonymous online identities mean that is no longer the case. The Home Office’s interception modernisation programme, which is working on the superdatabase proposal, argues that it is no longer good enough for communications companies to be left to retrieve such data when requested by the police and intelligence services. A Home Office spokeswoman said last night the changes were needed so law enforcement agencies could maintain their ability to tackle serious crime and terrorism. Senior Whitehall officials responsible for planning for a new database say there is a significant difference between having access to “communications data” - names and addresses of emails or telephone numbers, for example - and the actual contents of the communications. “We have been very clear that there are no plans for a database containing any content of emails, texts or conversations,” the spokeswoman said. External estimates of the cost of the superdatabase have been put as high as ?12bn, twice the cost of the ID cards scheme, and the consultation paper, to be published towards the end of next month, will include an option of putting it into the hands of the private sector in an effort to cut costs. But such a decision is likely to fuel civil liberties concerns over data losses and leaks. Macdonald, who left his post as DPP in October, told the Guardian: “The tendency of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile. We must avoid surrendering our freedom as autonomous human beings to such an ugly future. We should make judgments that are compatible with our status as free people.” Maintaining the capacity to intercept suspicious communications was critical in an increasingly complex world, he said. “It is a process which can save lives and bring criminals to justice. But no other country is considering such a drastic step. This database would be an unimaginable hell-house of personal private information,” he said. “It would be a complete readout of every citizen’s life in the most intimate and demeaning detail. No government of any colour is to be trusted with such a roadmap to our souls.” The moment there was a security crisis the temptation for more commonplace access would be irresistible, he said. Other critics of the plan point to the problems of keeping the database secure, both from the point of view of the technology and of deliberate leaks. The problem would be compounded if private companies manage the system. “If there is a breach of security in that database it would be utterly devastating,” one said. Have Your Say: Private firm may track all email and calls Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Why You Should Delete Your MySpace Account
Thursday, January 1st, 2009
Today I am deleting all the content from my Myspace account and leaving only this notice. I?ve been inspired by the Franklin Street Statement and Identi.ca and I realize that a free/libre/open source internet is still possible, but it will require us to stop supporting corporate websites such as myspace. Here are some good reasons to delete your Myspace page, and support alternatives not run by corporations. 1. I?m tired of being free labor for the Fox corporation. The right wing Fox news corporation owns myspace, and I?m not going to support them any longer by giving them my content, my writing and images and information about who my friends are, for free. I don?t support war, the way the Fox corporation has, and I don?t want to provide them with more money to spread more pro-war propaganda. According to their license, Myspace has full rights to use my content things like advertisements for Myspace. 2. I actually care about my friends, and don?t want to screw them over my making them a ?friend? on Myspace. By using myspace, I?m forcing my friends to sign up for a corporate owned, ad ridden, heteronormative web service if they want to stay in touch with me. The way that we don?t want to delete our accounts because we want to stay in touch with friends or fans of our bands just shows how dependent we already are on Myspace?s corporate controlled environment. We?re forced into a compulsory relationship we don?t want because we want to ?keep in touch? with our friends? 3. I?m tired up updating so many websites because Myspace refuses to be interoperable with other websites. Myspace and sites like it do not allow you to download your data or automatically send it to other social networking sites because they want to force you into the jail of their website. Why? Why don?t we demand open social networking standards and the ability to download our own content? 4. I have a good Free/Libre/Open Source alternative, my own blog. You can read about what I?m up to at http://technotrannyslut.com , free of ads for bad movies and music, free of binary gender choices and heteronormative options for your relationships. Sites like Identi.ca provide ethical, non-corporate controlled alternatives to sites like Twitter. You can keep up with my status on Identi.ca, and sign up for your own microblog, here: http://identi.ca/djlotu5 Help create a well known list of alternatives like Identi.ca/Twitter , Opensim/Secondlife, if you now of any, by posting a comment here: Actually, even better than deleting your account, just delete all the content and post a notice like this one. This is just the beginning, I?m planning on getting off of Facebook and other web services as well, and I hope you do too. We can have an internet that is Free/Libre/Open Source, but only if we stop supporting the corporate, locked down options we?ve been using all of these years. As these services become more a part of our lives and get into our phones and our everyday communications, it is critical that we fight for our freedom. The Free/Libre/Open Source movement needs to expand from just writing software, into creating networks of servers and services, like Indymedia has done for so many years. Software alone is not enough in a networked service ecology, where servers, cables, wireless networks, infrastructure that we all control is essential if we want freedom. I hope to see you back on the Free/Libre/Open Source internet. Bye. Have Your Say: Why You Should Delete Your MySpace Account Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Government considers Wales as ID card guinea pigs
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
By Hywel Trewyn CALLS to put Welsh on new ID cards are at last to be considered by the Government. The U-turn follows pressure from language campaigners who say it would be an insult if English-only cards were issued in Wales. The Welsh Language Board yesterday welcomed an announcement that UK Border Agency officials will at least review the idea of producing bilingual cards available for Wales. It is a reversal on policy from earlier this year, when the Home Office said it had ?no intention to include Welsh on identity cards?, arguing the language ?was not an official language of the EU.? But the WLB has always argued including Welsh on cards issued in Wales was essential ? the same as for driving licences and passports. And they are sending a clear message to the Government that Welsh people would see it as an insult if a Welsh option was excluded from the cards, which will eventually be distributed to every British citizen. WLB chair Meri Huws said: ?If the Welsh language does not appear on Identity Cards, I don?t believe they will reflect the true identity of the people of Wales, and their linguistic identity in particular. ?Therefore it is essential that all ID cards issued in Wales are fully bilingual, as is the case with driving licences. ?I welcome the fact that the Home Office is now considering how to include the language on cards issued in the future, and look forward to hearing a statement on this issue soon.? And the WLB stance was supported by Caernarfon Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams: ?The first drafts of the proposed ID cards had the Union Jack on them. This would have been wholly unacceptable to people living in Wales. I understand now there?s not going to be the Union flag.? Mr Williams has tabled a number of questions asking the Government what steps have they taken to provide bilingual ID cards in Wales and the rest of the UK and for Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy about which steps he has taken to guarantee that Welsh will be on the cards. Now, following a consultation period, it seems there is a glimmer of hope that they will be bilingual. A UK Border Agency spokesperson said: ?There will be no Welsh headings on the first wave of identity cards to be issued to workers in critical locations in Manchester and London City airports. International Civil Aviation Organisation rules state that travel documents must have headings written in English and French. ?As we roll out ID cards across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, we will review the inclusion of Welsh on the cards.? A previous linguistic battle was won after the census was forced to include a Welsh tick box for Welsh people. The first identity cards were distributed to foreign residents living in the UK last month and will then be distributed to the general population of the UK in stages, dependent upon status, over the next three years. People working in ?sensitive? jobs like at airport employees will be given the cards first, then young people who want them from 2010 and from 2011 they will be available to everyone. Have Your Say: Government considers Wales as ID card guinea pigs Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. 1978: Labour opposed ID cards to curb illegal immigration
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
By
The comments were in a draft statement due to be given to the Commons by Merlyn Rees, the Home Secretary, who wrote that the introduction of identity cards ?would require major changes in practices and powers reaching far beyond immigration control?. He added: ?In the past such changes have been contemplated only in war: the Government does not believe they could be justified on immigration grounds alone.? The comments were later edited out of the final speech he delivered to the House, as a struggling Labour Government tried to resist the calls from Opposition leader Margaret Thatcher for more draconian measures to tackle illegal immigration. In a secret discussion between Prime Minister Callaghan and the Whips on March 8 1978, a Downing Street aide wrote: ?It was claimed that many Asian immigrants were very frightened. ?There was bitter opposition to the tactics adopted by Mrs Thatcher… and that resentment should be exploited by the Government.? Ministers stuck by their pledge not to introduce quotas on immigration as they did not want the ?objectionable? measure of requiring everyone to carry identification papers. The confidential Government documents also discussed ways to expose ?the fraudulent nature of Mrs Thatcher?s approach?, although a personal note written by Mr Callaghan warned that the Government?s response to Select Committee recommendations was too lacklustre. He said: ?We seemed to be accepting few recommendations ? mostly ones to do nothing.? Have Your Say: 1978: Labour opposed ID cards to curb illegal immigration Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. US, Japanese Researchers Mix Samples of 1918 Flu Pandemic to Recreate Deadly Code
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Lori Price Researchers recreate 1918 flu pandemic virus –Why? And, why is no one *asking* why? 29 Dec 2008 Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly — a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs. The discovery, published in Tuesday’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain. Most flu experts agree that a pandemic of influenza will almost certainly strike again. No one knows when [the US unleashes it] or what strain it will be but one big suspect now is the H5N1 avian influenza virus. US and Japanese researchers crack flu pandemic’s deadly code 30 Dec 2008 The genetic code that made the 1918 killer flu so deadly has finally been cracked, claim US and Japanese researchers, who say their discovery may lead to new drugs able to keep foment future outbreaks in check. By experimenting with genetic material recovered from preserved lung tissues of three victims of the so-called Spanish influenza, a team led by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka claims the virus landed a lethal one-two punch. First, it disrupted normal immune reactions, as previously known. But then it infected its victims’ lungs with deadly consequences. Ordinary flu bugs infect just the nose and throat.
Have Your Say: US, Japanese Researchers Mix Samples of 1918 Flu Pandemic to Recreate Deadly Code Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Fisk: Leaders Lie, Civilians Die, and Lessons of History are Ignored
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
The Independent?- We’ve got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don’t care any more ? providing we don’t offend the Israelis. It’s not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel’s side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs ? who, as we all know, only understand force. Ever since 1948, we’ve been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis ? just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist “death wagon” will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be “liberated”. And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise “restraint” ? as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas’s home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course. The blood-splattering has its own routine. Yes, Hamas provoked Israel’s anger, just as Israel provoked Hamas’s anger, which was provoked by Israel, which was provoked by Hamas, which … See what I mean? Hamas fires rockets at Israel, Israel bombs Hamas, Hamas fires more rockets and Israel bombs again and … Got it? And we demand security for Israel ? rightly ? but overlook this massive and utterly disproportionate slaughter by Israel. It was Madeleine Albright who once said that Israel was “under siege” ? as if Palestinian tanks were in the streets of Tel Aviv. By last night, the exchange rate stood at 296 Palestinians dead for one dead Israeli. Back in 2006, it was 10 Lebanese dead for one Israeli dead. This weekend was the most inflationary exchange rate in a single day since ? the 1973 Middle East War? The 1967 Six Day War? The 1956 Suez War? The 1948 Independence/Nakba War? It’s obscene, a gruesome game ? which Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, unconsciously admitted when he spoke this weekend to Fox TV. “Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game,” Barak said. Exactly. Only the “rules” of the game don’t change. This is a further slippage on the Arab-Israeli exchanges, a percentage slide more awesome than Wall Street’s crashing shares, though of not much interest in the US which ? let us remember ? made the F-18s and the Hellfire missiles which the Bush administration pleads with Israel to use sparingly. Quite a lot of the dead this weekend appear to have been Hamas members, but what is it supposed to solve? Is Hamas going to say: “Wow, this blitz is awesome ? we’d better recognise the state of Israel, fall in line with the Palestinian Authority, lay down our weapons and pray we are taken prisoner and locked up indefinitely and support a new American ‘peace process’ in the Middle East!” Is that what the Israelis and the Americans and Gordon Brown think Hamas is going to do? Yes, let’s remember Hamas’s cynicism, the cynicism of all armed Islamist groups. Their need for Muslim martyrs is as crucial to them as Israel’s need to create them. The lesson Israel thinks it is teaching ? come to heel or we will crush you ? is not the lesson Hamas is learning. Hamas needs violence to emphasise the oppression of the Palestinians ? and relies on Israel to provide it. A few rockets into Israel and Israel obliges. Not a whimper from Tony Blair, the peace envoy to the Middle East who’s never been to Gaza in his current incarnation. Not a bloody word. We hear the usual Israeli line. General Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the Israeli army’s “research and assessment division” announced that “no country in the world would allow its citizens to be made the target of rocket attacks without taking vigorous steps to defend them”. Quite so. But when the IRA were firing mortars over the border into Northern Ireland, when their guerrillas were crossing from the Republic to attack police stations and Protestants, did Britain unleash the RAF on the Irish Republic? Did the RAF bomb churches and tankers and police stations and zap 300 civilians to teach the Irish a lesson? No, it did not. Because the world would have seen it as criminal behaviour. We didn’t want to lower ourselves to the IRA’s level. Yes, Israel deserves security. But these bloodbaths will not bring it. Not since 1948 have air raids protected Israel. Israel has bombed Lebanon thousands of times since 1975 and not one has eliminated “terrorism”. So what was the reaction last night? The Israelis threaten ground attacks. Hamas waits for another battle. Our Western politicians crouch in their funk holes. And somewhere to the east ? in a cave? a basement? on a mountainside? ? a well-known man in a turban smiles. Have Your Say: Fisk: Leaders Lie, Civilians Die, and Lessons of History are Ignored Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. The Qassam rockets myths
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
I warned you months ago: the magic word is ‘Sderot’. Any amount of barbarism can be justified by the frankly risible rocket attacks on southern Israel. The Israeli propaganda line, repeated with dogged fanaticism by its apologists everywhere, is that Israel performed an immense act of goodness in withdrawing its colonies from Gaza, and the native ingrates actually responded by sending a spray of Qassam rockets aloft in celebration. To add insult to injury, the bleeders even used former ’settlement’ buildings to launch the rockets from. Such beliefs have to be encouraged to justify such outrageous proposals as the levelling of Gaza. Before this gets out of hand and people start using the rockets to justify some sort of “holocaust”, let us at least bear the facts in mind for a while. The Qassam rockets were being used as one component of an array of military tactics deployed by Gazan groups before the pull-out, the Gush Katif colonies being the prominent target. This was a response to a wave of violence and expulsions in which, for example, 13,350 residents of Rafah had their homes and life belongings destroyed in the year preceding the withdrawal, courtesy of Israeli tanks and Caterpillar bulldozers. Parts of Gaza came to resemble Grozny. The Israelis frequently attacked ambulances, at one point using the argument that UNRWA had allowed Qassam rockets to be loaded on board one such vehicle (this turned out to be a lie, but it is still repeated on many a media outlet and website). The vast majority of casualties from their use date back to the period of formal colonialism. After the withdrawal, the rate at which these were used diminished dramatically. Their use has spiked in response to serial atrocities against Palestinians, such as the slaughter of the Ghaliya family on the Gaza beach, (in which Hamas broke an eighteen month unilateral ceasefire). There were few such rockets fired during the six-month ceasefire, even though Israel didn’t respect its terms, but their use was increased again as Israel broke the truce on November 4th (burn that date into your brain and remember it next time someone tells you that those nasty Hamas thugs wouldn’t renew the ceasefire). Now, there are legitimate arguments about both the efficacy and ethics of using such weapons. To my mind, they have very little going for them as a tactic of resistance. But the apparently widespread belief that Qassam rockets are the vindictive and jubilant response of sneering Palestinian jihadists to Israeli mushiness is not justified by any evidence. In fact, if the aim were truly to end Qassam rocket fire, the logical option would to be engage in a unilateral ceasefire and invite Hamas to enter into a process of dialogue. But that brings us to another myth, the myth of Hamas rejectionism, which is for another post. Have Your Say: The Qassam rockets myths Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. What Will Obama Do About Cannabis?
Monday, December 29th, 2008
By NORM KENT He picked for Vice President one of the major architects of the Drug War. He picked for Chief of Staff one of the chief opponents of medical marijuana. He is talking about picking for the Drug Czar spot a conservative candidate who has been a congressional leader fighting drug reform. He has promised to put an end to raids on medical dispensaries in California, but he has not said he will broadly support the Hinchey-Rohrbacher Amendment which would let states decide the issue. He has moved from once supporting marijuana decriminalization to publishing comments that he cannot overuse ?political capital? on the issue. He has now appointed for Attorney General a candidate who has a long history of opposing drug policy reforms and who has in court supported mandatory minimum sentencing and civil forfeiture. Allen St. Pierre, the Executive Director of NORML, summed it up best about Mr. Obama?s appointments thus far: ?So Far, Not So Good:? His thought-provoking article appears on the NORML.com website at its blog. From summarizing why the selection of Joe Biden as Vice President caused him ?digestive tumult? to tracing Rahm Emanuel?s anti-drug policies for the past decade, the article captures a snapshot of what was routine politics as usual for the players soon to be in power. When it comes to our 44th President, some of his positions on marijuana were once encouraging. But as Mr. Obama has moved towards the national limelight, there is a new found frustration for reformers. It seems the President to be is moving from the left to the middle. And as Loudon Wainwright once wrote in a popular song, the only things you see in the middle of the road are dead skunks and yellow lines. Still, I am not alarmed yet. It is way too early, and there is still room and reason for optimism. Commencing your administration in the face of a national economic crisis at home while American soldiers are at war abroad can focus your priorities on other issues outside the need for weed. We have seen what happened to Bill Clinton when he tried, too early in his administration, to advance the cause of gay rights by banning discrimination against homosexuals in the military. He started a firestorm which burnt up valuable first months of his presidency. We do know this though, and it is a challenging start. Rather decisively, on the official administration website, at www.change.gov, the following statement appears: ?President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana. What can we then expect of Mr. Obama once he becomes President? I think there are many encouraging things. First, in his past he has acknowledged the broad failures of the drug war, declaring in 2004 that it was an ?utter failure? which needs to be rethought. Second, as an African-American in an urban community, few people will be as sensitive as Mr. Obama to the exhaustive legal toll this drug war exacts on minority communities. The arrests come quicker, the prosecutions are more frequent, and the sentences are longer. Drug arrests have been tools to deny poor people driver?s licenses, scholarships and federal welfare benefits, causing innocuous conduct to endure catastrophic consequences for otherwise decent people. Third, the President is ?with it?. His telling comments to a group of students when asked whether he ?inhaled? marijuana were ?Of course, I thought that was the whole purpose.? Those remarks are a reflection of the candor and commitment of Mr. Obama to address the issue in a new light. He did not play a game of Clintonian holier-than-thou cover-up. With the same self-deprecating qualities that he shared with the nation when he called himself a ?mutt,? Mr. Obama implied in tone and substance that marijuana may not be as bad as we have been hearing from the government for too many decades. Last week, the website Change.gov asked the public to provide them with a list of the top public policy questions facing America. Visitors to the site were then asked to vote on which questions should take priority for the incoming administration. After receiving nearly 100,000 total votes on more than 10,000 separate public policy issues, the most widely voted on question for Obama is: ?Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.? Maybe Rahm Emanuel has turned a corner as well. Rahm is politically smart if nothing else, so I hope that he?ll follow his boss? lead in the area of criminal justice reforms. Also, to his credit, after voting years against Hinchey-Rohrbacher Amendment in 2007, as member of Congress from Illinois, Rahm voted in favor of holding back federal funding from law enforcement (read DEA) to raid or harass medical marijuana cultivators and dispensaries. I know I have been unsuccessful in getting my own liberal Congresswoman from South Florida, Debbie Wasserman-Schulz, to even support this effort. Maybe Mr. Emanuel will influence her and dozens of others. It will take leadership from the oval office. That can only happen when the people in office are looked upon as enlightened reformers rather than being weak on crime. Politically, I know such polls as the one the administration inaugurated here are instrumental in turning mindsets. If we can show politicians that it is ?safe? to support drug reform, even popular, we can suddenly find them on our side. To their credit, outstanding philanthropists like Peter Lewis and George Soros have been national leaders in helping bring public opinion out of the closet. These are men whose voices may be heard by the new administration. And I am here for them too if they need me. My number is listed. So too is Barney Frank, the influential Massachusetts congressman who has long supported decriminalization legislation. The truth is that people who support decriminalization have always been a silent majority afraid to speak out. But give them a secret ballot box, and in state after state, you see massive support for medical marijuana and a more enlightened approach to marijuana reform. Perhaps the President, in his own unique disarming way, can lead a new path. He has surrounded himself with educated leaders who also have been willing to speak candidly in favor of decriminalization including new Cabinet nominee Bill Richardson. We do not need a new Drug Czar, either. This is America. Czars are for Russia. What we need is the appointment of an educator, a scientist, a doctor, a constitutional rights lawyer to pave the way to a new era of drug enlightenment. At the last NORML Board of Directors meeting, one issue we raised was one many of us within the drug reform movement can support. It has been three decades since the Shafer Commission released its national study on marijuana, which Nixon immediately trashed. Perhaps a new Blue Ribbon Commission, with decades more research behind it, and years of medical marijuana evidence, can look into new recommendations for the 21st century. On one hand, such a Presidential panel would buy time for the new administration to get settled in with more pressing priorities. But it would also give drug reformers a national platform to address so many issues that have been, forgive me, cultivated- since the Shafer Commission, from forfeiture laws to raids on dispensaries, from the THC content of marijuana to medicinal initiatives. It is time to look again at marijuana with a scholarly and clinical eye instead of with SWAT teams and law enforcement raids. Correspondingly, it is also time for the national drug reform organizations to speak with a singular voice and work together for a common purpose. There needs to be a unity of purpose, and leaders from the Marijuana Policy Project, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the Drug Policy Alliance, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, and a host of other respected reform organizations, too many to mention here, should hold their own meeting to develop a common theme with a collective initiative. We need to work together to send a message that is enlightened and progressive, convincing legislators and the executive branch that we are responsible and right.. The drug reform movement needs to act in a way that President-elect Obama has asked all of us to move towards: not to be tied to the politics of the past and the way things have always been done, but to engage hope by broadening our constituency and reaching out to others. Within the drug reform movement, fratricide must come to an end. We must bury the hatchet on our own rivalries, and move forward with a common purpose. We defeat ourselves by ourselves when we do not. Our cause is just, and our goals have always been righteous. We may have only ourselves to blame if we cannot achieve now what we have fought so long for. I would say our time is now, but I thought that in 1976 when the Attorney General of the United States, then Ramsey Clark, said we should see an end to unjust marijuana laws before the end of the decade. I think we are overdue. Together, let us do better than we have already done. We have a President who is willing to listen, a Congress that is willing to learn, and a public that is salivating for a better solution. Norm Kent is a criminal defense lawyer from Fort Lauderdale who serves on the Board of Directors for NORML www.norml.com He can be reached at Norm@normkent.com, and his law office website is www.normkent.com Have Your Say: What Will Obama Do About Cannabis? Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Ch?vez: Capitalists Have Manipulated the Message of Christ to Exploit the Poor
Monday, December 29th, 2008
By Venezolana de Televisi?n “The Kingdom of Heaven is not a kingdom or life in the clouds. Either it exists here or else it exists nowhere,” President Ch?vez issued a wake-up call during the last Sunday program of 2008. “It’s on earth, and that is why Christ came here and was born among the poor, in the manger.” The head of state in Venezuela noted that the capitalist system throughout its history has distorted Jesus’s message to the poor about the Kingdom of Heaven, with the sole purpose of exploiting the impoverished majorities in favor of the minorities who enjoy the wealth of the world. The Christ child was born on earth, poor and human, to fight and make this planet truly the kingdom of heaven, of equality and justice, not to be poor in life and to win glory in the afterlife, Comandante Ch?vez said during the last Al? Presidente broadcast of the year, speaking from El Valle where he inaugurated a new People’s Clinic. “The message of Christ, who said the Kingdom of Heaven is that of the poor, has been very often manipulated. In this way they have for centuries manipulated the poor of the world, to make them quietly accept exploitation.” “Christ was born to call on us to create, here on earth, the Kingdom of Love,” Ch?vez explained, adding that this kingdom has no other name than socialism. The president reminded the audience that socialism comes from what is social, as capitalism proceeds from capital. “Socialism is the doctrine, science, of development of what is social. Capitalism is the immoral art, science, and technology of development of capital or growth of capital — (for capitalism) what matters is that even while people die of hunger capitalists accumulate capital.” The president stressed that therein lies the key to understanding the confrontation that began again, in which Venezuela has become the center of the battle between socialists and capitalists, “between people becoming more politically conscious every day and those who exploited them forever.” He said that that is why the issue of the constitutional amendment is of vital importance as it will allow Venezuela to go farther on the socialist path, the truly human and democratic path, for the happiness of the Venezuelan people. To conclude the last Al? Presidente of the year, the president wished the best for Venezuelan families, urging them to enjoy Christmas and New Year’s Eve with love, moderation, and simplicity so they can continue in 2009 the work of making Venezuela a great nation of justice and equality. Have Your Say: Ch?vez: Capitalists Have Manipulated the Message of Christ to Exploit the Poor Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Over 300 Killed in Gaza as Attacks Continue
Monday, December 29th, 2008
The first day of what Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak assures us will be a ?long and difficult? war in the Gaza Strip has come and gone, leaving at least 300 Gazans dead, over 700 wounded, and one Israeli civilian killed and four wounded in retaliatory strikes. The number of Gaza civilians dead is not currently known, but the attacks centered around police stations and killed a large number of Palestinian security forces. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak hit out at calls to cease the attacks and renew the ceasefire, saying ?for us to be asked to have a ceasefire with Hamas is like asking you to have a ceasefire with al-Qaeda.? Except of course that up until a week ago Israel did have a six month long ceasefire with Hamas which Minister Barak repeatedly defended from the more hawkish opposition members. But the time for an unpopular peace is over in Israel, and police are being dispatched to crack down on those protesting against the unpopular war that has followed. Meanwhile, as Gazans count their dead and tend to their wounded in a chaotic scene, Hamas and the assorted militant factions that reside in the strip are vowing revenge. Hamas says ?all options are open? in responding to the attacks, while Islamic Jihad is ordering all its fighters to respond to ?the Israeli slaughter.? Those still calling for peace between the belligerent factions appear for now to have little traction, and the war is liable to continue to escalate. ? Have Your Say: Over 300 Killed in Gaza as Attacks Continue Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
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