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News
Leaked files indicate U.S. pays Afghan media to run friendly stories
Tue Jul 27
Buried among the 92,000 classified documents released Sunday by WikiLeaks is some intriguing evidence that the U.S. military in Afghanistan has adopted a PR strategy that got it into trouble in Iraq: paying local media outlets to run friendly stories.
Several reports from Army psychological operations units and provincial reconstruction teams (also known as PRTs, civilian-military hybrids tasked with rebuilding Afghanistan) show that local Afghan radio stations were under contract to air content produced by the United States. Other reports show U.S. military personnel apparently referring to Afghan reporters as "our journalists" and directing them in how to do their jobs.
Such close collaboration between local media and U.S. forces has been a headache for the Pentagon in the past: In 2005, Pentagon contractor the Lincoln Group was caught paying Iraqi newspapers to run stories written by American soldiers , causing the United States considerable embarrassment.
Worst heat ever
No, not now, but in 1896 - as 1,300 died
By MATTHEW SHEPATIN
Don't sweat it, New York.
While this month's sizzling weather may feel unbearable, with the temperature hitting a high of 97 degrees yesterday, tying a record, it pales in comparison to the heat wave that city residents endured in the summer of '96 -- 1896, that is.
In his new book, "Hot Time in the Old Town," historian Edward Kohn details how New Yorkers faced hellish conditions over 10 brutally hot days in early August. Over that time, 1,300 people died in Manhattan alone, making it the worst urban heat-related disaster in US history.
With the city's heat index routinely surpassing 120 degrees and nighttime temperatures never once dropping below 70, the city was transformed into what one local newspaper described as "an inferno of brick and stone."
Without air conditioning or even reliable deliveries of ice, tenements became ovenlike death traps. Almost the entire Lower East Side, around 250,000 people, scrambled up to their roofs to sleep. Those who failed to procure a spot on a sweltering roof were forced to sleep on fire escapes, windowsills and stoops. It was not uncommon to hear of people who rolled over in their sleep, falling to their death. One man even drowned after turning over -- his bed was a Hudson River pier at West 37th Street.
Gaza children shelled by flechette bombs
Adie Mormech writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 27 July 2010
“She came in through the front door and it wasn't clear she was injured. Suddenly a lot of blood came from her nose and she vomited, all of the family saw this — her little brothers were very scared. She had just been playing in the front of the house.”
That is how Nihed al-Massry describes what happened to her daughter, nine-year-old Samah Eid al-Massry, after the Israeli army reportedly shelled and fired four bombs into and around a residential area in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, on 21 July. Samah is now being hospitalized in serious condition, suffering from extensive blood loss and very low haemoglobin. She was hit by shrapnel and flechettes from a nail bomb that landed 100 meters away, causing internal bleeding to the chest and severe head trauma. Nails are now embedded throughout her body.
Shells containing flechettes are illegal under international law if fired into densely-populated civilian areas. Three other children were wounded in the attack.
Two young men were killed; Muhammad al-Kafarneh, 23, suffered severe shrapnel injuries to the back and chest and Kasim al-Shinbary, 19, was wounded by nails embedded in his skull and shrapnel his back. It was unclear earlier whether they were resistance fighters or if they were civilians.
Haitham Thaer Qasem, a four-year-old boy and an only child, was asleep on a hospital bed, occasionally gasping for breath through the apparatus around his nose. He had suffered deep nasal trauma, and flechette darts from the bomb were still embedded in his tiny body, through his back, right elbow and right leg. He was 200 meters from the impact of the bomb.
General Electric pays $23 million to settle Iraq bribery charges
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Raw Story
US industrial titan General Electric has agreed to pay over 23 million dollars to settle allegations that it bribed Iraqi officials, a US financial watchdog said on Tuesday.
GE had been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of being part of "a 3.6 million dollar kickback scheme with Iraqi government agencies to win contracts to supply medical equipment and water purification equipment."
Four subsidiaries of the Connecticut-based company were accused of bribing officials at the Iraqi ministries of health and oil, trading cash, computer equipment and medical supplies to win lucrative contracts.
The SEC said the four GE units -- two of which were not part of the firm when the alleged bribery took place -- earned around 18.4 million dollars as a direct result of the kickbacks.
"Bribes and kickbacks are bad business, period," said Robert Khuzami, the head of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.
The WikiLeaks Afghanistan leak
Sun July 25, 2010
by Glenn Greenwald
The most consequential news item of the week will obviously be -- or at least should be -- the massive new leak by WikiLeaks of 90,000 pages of classified material chronicling the truth about the war in Afghanistan from 2004 through 2009 . Those documents provide what The New York Times calls "an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal ." The Guardian describes the documents as "a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fueling the insurgency."
In addition to those two newspapers, WikiLeaks also weeks ago provided these materials to Der Spiegel , on the condition that all three wait until today to write about them. These outlets were presumably chosen by WikiLeaks with the intent to ensure maximum exposure among the American and Western Europeans citizenries which continue to pay for this war and whose governments have been less than forthcoming about what is taking place [a CIA document prepared in March, 2010 -- and previously leaked by WikiLeaks -- plotted how to prevent public opinion in Western Europe from turning further against the war and thus forcing their Governments to withdraw; the CIA's conclusion: the most valuable asset in putting a pretty face on the war for Western Europeans is Barack Obama's popularity with those populations].
The White House has swiftly vowed to continue the war and predictably condemned WikiLeaks rather harshly . It will be most interesting to see how many Democrats -- who claim to find Daniel Ellsberg heroic and the Pentagon Papers leak to be unambiguously justified -- follow the White House's lead in that regard. Ellsberg's leak -- though primarily exposing the amoral duplicity of a Democratic administration -- occurred when there was a Republican in the White House. This latest leak, by contrast, indicts a war which a Democratic President has embraced as his own, and documents similar manipulation of public opinion and suppression of the truth well into 2009. It's not difficult to foresee, as Atrios predicted , that media "coverage of [the] latest [leak] will be about whether or not it should have been published," rather than about what these documents reveal about the war effort and the government and military leaders prosecuting it. What position Democratic officials and administration supporters take in the inevitable debate over WikiLeaks remains to be seen (by shrewdly leaking these materials to 3 major newspapers, which themselves then published many of the most incriminating documents, WikiLeaks provided itself with some cover).
What Makes A Suicide Bomber?
Our Lives After 9/11
9/11, 2010 We Are Change New York events details released.
BP quietly breaks ground on controversial B.C. project
As oil continues to gush from a BP wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico, critics say the company has quietly broken ground on a controversial project in B.C.'s Rocky Mountains.
Opponents of the Mist Mountain project say they were surprised to find that BP Canada, an arm of the BP group of companies, began construction earlier this month on an exploratory well for its coalbed methane project near Fernie, B.C.
The company was granted permission to conduct the experimental drilling in the pristine area in southeast B.C. just a few days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.
And the disaster unfolding in the gulf since then has renewed concerns about the BP subsidiary's plans in the Rockies.
"This is just a reaffirmation of what we've always known and what everyone has known about BP is that they've had the worst environmental record of all oil companies in the world, even before the Gulf disaster," said Ryland Nelson, of the group Wildsight, which opposes the project.
But Hejdi Feick, the director of communications for BP Canada, said British Columbians can be reassured that the company is a good corporate citizen.
"We are absolutely committed to doing this right," she said Tuesday. "We have been very open and accessible over the last three years."
That is little comfort for Nelson, who said BP had promised to consult with the public every step of the way yet he only learned construction was underway when he went to the site Monday.
The phony "withdraw" hype
Lobbyists push use of deadly asbestos in developing nations
By Jim Morris | International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
McClatchy
WASHINGTON — A global network of lobby groups has spent nearly $100 million since the mid-1980s to preserve the international market for asbestos, a known carcinogen that's taken millions of lives and is banned or restricted in 52 countries, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found in a nine-month investigation.
Backed by public and private money and aided by scientists and friendly governments, the groups helped facilitate the sale of 2.2 million tons of asbestos last year, mostly in developing nations. Anchored by the Montreal-based Chrysotile Institute, the network stretches from New Delhi to Mexico City to the city of Asbest in Russia's Ural Mountains. Its message is that asbestos can be used safely under "controlled" conditions.
As a result, asbestos use is growing rapidly in countries such as China and India, prompting health experts to warn of future epidemics of lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma, an aggressive malignancy that usually attacks the lining of the lungs.
The World Health Organization says that 125 million people still encounter asbestos in the workplace, and the United Nations' International Labor Organization estimates that 100,000 workers die each year from asbestos-related diseases. Thousands more perish from exposures outside the workplace.
Report: CIA produced, edited ‘nuke scientist' YouTube videos
July 15, 2010
By Spencer Ackerman
wired.com
Shahram Amiri, the long-missing Iranian nuclear scientist who may or may not have defected to the United States, is headed back to Tehran. But, as a State Department spokesman once joked, he'll forever live on YouTube. And apparently the CIA helped make sure of it.
Recall that people claiming to be Amiri have uploaded at least two videos to YouTube giving alleged first-person accounts of his ordeal. (Amiri has yet to make a public appearance, though once he arrives in Tehran, he's expected to, perhaps as soon as Thursday.)
On one of them, a grainy number broadcast on Iranian state TV, “Amiri” describes being kidnapped by the CIA and the Saudi intelligence service during a spring 2009 trip to Mecca, subjected to mental torture and taken to Tucson. In the other, higher-quality video, “Amiri” wears a tweed-looking jacket and recounts how he's now an exchange student in the United States, not a traitor to Iran — and, implicitly, not a torture victim.
Report: Afghan, Iraq wars teaching US gang members military combat
Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Gang members in the US military are returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan armed with knowledge of military tactics, a fact that could threaten the lives of law enforcement officers in the US and worsen the gang problem, according to a new report from the Chicago Sun-Times .
Jeffrey Stoleson, a Wisconsin corrections officer who has completed multiple tours in Iraq, also told the Sun-Times that civilian contractors are a part of the growing drug-gang problem within the US's overseas wars. Stoleson says he was "involved in destroying a large quantity of drugs confiscated from US contractors in Iraq."
An unnamed Chicago police officer who served in Afghanistan said Bagram Air Base is "covered with Chicago gang graffiti," the Sun-Times reported. That same officer said that, since returning to Chicago, he has arrested gang members who had the Army's combat manual at home.
Official: Seep found near BP's blown out oil well
By COLLEEN LONG and HARRY R. WEBER (AP)
NEW ORLEANS — A federal official says scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane near BP's busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico
Both could be signs there are leaks in the well that's been capped off for three days.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet.
The official is familiar with the spill oversight but would not clarify what is seeping near the well. The official says BP is not complying with the government's demand for more monitoring.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The custom-built cap that finally cut off the oil flowing from BP's broken well held steady Sunday, and the company hopes to leave it that way until crews can permanently kill the leak.
That differs from the plan the federal government laid out a day earlier, in which millions more gallons of oil could be released before the cap is connected to tankers at the surface and oil is sent to be collected through a mile of pipes.
Federal officials wary of making the well unstable have said that plan would relieve pressure on the cap and may be the safer option, but it would mean three days of oil flowing into the Gulf before the collection begins.
WTC 7 NIST Model vs. Reality
When Teachers Unions Back War Escalation
by David Swanson
On July 12th I received an Email from the American Federation of Teachers with a soft pink headline and an image of a heart. It said: "Pink Hearts. Not Pink Slips." That sounded nice. The text continued:
"Now is the time to tell the Senate to put our children first. The House of Representatives approved an emergency spending bill that included $10 billion to save educator jobs and $5 billion for Pell Grants. It is now up to the Senate to do its part and approve the same level of assistance when it returns to Washington, D.C., this week."
That was true, I suppose, in as far as it went, but horribly misleading because of what it left unsaid. Congress had not passed an emergency bill to save teachers' jobs. Congress doesn't treat such things as emergencies. This was a bill that had been sat on for half a year, and the teacher funding was an amendment tacked onto it. The bill itself served primarily to dump $33.5 billion into escalating a war in Afghanistan by sending 30,000 more troops plus contractors. It was called an "emergency" bill purely in order to keep war spending off the books and make the government's overall budget look less imbalanced than it is.
IDF put Arsenic in detained Gaza flotilla volunteer's food
Hillary Clinton's Latest Lies
by Paul Craig Roberts
July 10, 2010
The BBC reported on July 4 that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US ballistic missile base in Poland was not directed at Russia. The purpose of the base, she said, is to protect Poland from the Iranian threat.
Why would Iran be a threat to Poland? What happens to US credibility when the Secretary of State makes such a stupid statement? Does Hillary think she is fooling the Russians? Does anyone on earth believe her? What is the point of such a transparent lie? To cover up an act of American aggression against Russia?
In the same breath Hillary warned of a “steel vise” of repression crushing democracy and civil liberties around the world. US journalists might wonder if she was speaking of the United States. Glenn Greenwald reported in Salon on July 4 that the US Coast Guard, which has no legislative authority, has issued a rule that journalists who come closer than 65 feet to BP clean-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico without permission will be punished by a $40,000 fine and one to five years in prison. The New York Times and numerous journalists report that BP, the US Coast Guard, Homeland Security, and local police are prohibiting journalists from photographing the massive damage from the continuing flow of oil and toxic chemicals into the Gulf.
On July 5 Hillary Clinton was in Tbilisi, Georgia, where, according to the Washington Post, she accused Russia of “the invasion and occupation of Georgia.” What is the point of this lie? Even America's European puppet states have issued reports documenting that Georgia initiated the war with Russia that it quickly lost by invading South Ossetia in an effort to destroy the secessionists.
It would appear that the rest of the world and the UN Security Council have given the Americans a pass to lie without end in order to advance Washington's goal of world hegemony. How does this benefit the Security Council and the world? What is going on here?
Violent Protest or Agent Provocateurs? Toronto G8-G20
REPORTERS FROM NON-MAINSTREAM MEDIA 'BARRED FROM CANADA'
Numerous reports suggest that Canada's border guards have been refusing entry to reporters covering the G8 and G20 summits for non-mainstream news sources.
Two reporters from Chicago Indymedia were reportedly accused of being protesters and denied entry. Reporters from WeAreChange were detained for at least four hours by border officials before being denied entry. A reporter from the InfoWars news site was also denied entry . Two activists from CodePink were also barred from entering Canada.
Activists have accused Canadian officials of using heavy-handed tactics in preparation for protests at the G8 and G20 summits. On Friday, it emerged that the government of the province of Ontario had secretly changed a law to allow police to arrest anyone near the G20 meeting who doesn't identify themselves.
My G20 Toronto Arrest Statement - Minutes After Release
Charlie Veitch G20 Toronto Riot Police
New York Times reporter calls Zionist terrorism ‘romantic'
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
A little-noticed comment in a New York Times interview with Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni has critics arguing that it shows the media has a "double standard" when it comes to terrorism.
In an interview published Tuesday, Livni, the leader of Israel's centrist Kadima party, boasted that her parents, both members of the Zionist militant group Irgun in the 1940s, were the first couple to be married in the newly-formed state of Israel.
"Both of them were in the Irgun," Livni said . "They were freedom fighters, and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons."
To which New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon responded: "It was a more romantic era."
"I've met interviewer Deborah Solomon -- smart lady," writes Philip Weiss , who brought attention to the comment on his blog. "I wonder whether she was inoculated, as I was, by Zionism, and to what degree. This is typically one-sided."
Weiss points out that Irgun, which was fighting for the creation of a Jewish state, was responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946. That attack killed 91 people, including US and British nationals, and is believed to remain to this day as the most deadly militant attack in the history of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors.
Irgun's membership was absorbed into the Israeli Defence Force after the creation of Israel. Its political arm is a predecessor to today's Likud party, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prime minister of Israel.
Matt Duss at ThinkProgress goes even further than Weiss in his criticism of the Times ' portrayal of Irgun.
"What's amazing here is not only does Solomon neglect to challenge Livni's characterization of her parents' membership in a terrorist group as 'freedom fight[ing],' Solomon herself volunteers further assistance in the whitewash," he opines.
Duss points out that, at the time of Irgun's attacks, the Times itself referred to the group's activities as "terrorism."
"Can you imagine any mainstream American journalist performing this service in regard to Hamas terrorism? I doubt it," Duss writes.
INVESTIGATE 9/11! (What To Wear When You Know News Cameras Will Be Round)
Gaza Flotilla - Facts vs Israel Fiction
Another hate crime hoax falls flat on its face.
Attack on Iran
Man arrested for taking picture of cop in his own home
By Raw Story
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
A Texas man has sued his local police department, saying he was arrested for taking a picture of a police officer when the officer entered his home without permission.
According to the lawsuit (PDF), Sgt. Justin Alderete of the Sealy, Texas, police department arrived at the home of Francisco Olvera in October, 2009, apparently responding to a noise complaint. Olvera had been playing music on his computer speakers while working outside on his patio.
The sergeant asked Olvera for identification. When Olvera went inside his home to grab his ID, Sgt. Alderete followed him inside. Believing the officer didn't have a right to enter his home without permission, Olvera picked up his cellphone and took a photo of the officer. At that point, the lawsuit states, Alderete accused Olvera of "illegal photography" and arrested him.
Olvera was charged with "loud music" and "public intoxication" -- the officer had seen a beer can on the kitchen table, the lawsuit asserts.
In January, Olvera was acquitted of all charges.
WeAreChangeLA sends Karl Rove and his B.S. packing
Canada: Israel's new defender
Muted support for Palestine, funding cuts for Arab groups, now a ban on the phrase 'Israeli apartheid': what's going on in Canada?
At a time when many countries are becoming more critical of Israel's policies, Canada seems to be moving in the opposite direction. A general reluctance to engage in open debate about the Palestinian issue is exacerbated by pro-Israel groups' efforts to shut down discussion and the federal government's unprecedented penchant for defending Israeli actions.
Since the beginning of 2010, the federal government has systematically cut funding to Arab-Canadian organisations and to UN relief works in Gaza . In March, the Ontario provincial legislature issued a unanimous condemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week , while the federal government considered introducing a similar motion.
However, self-censorship reached new heights last month when Toronto's Pride Committee – which organises one of the world's largest gay pride celebrations – announced it would be banning use of the term "Israeli apartheid" at the festivities.
WikiLeaks New Video Worse Than Iraq Massacre
The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change misled the press and public into believing that thousands of scientists backed its claims on manmade global warming, according to Mike Hulme, a prominent climate scientist and IPCC insider. The actual number of scientists who backed that claim was “ only a few dozen experts ,” he states in a paper for Progress in Physical Geography, co-authored with student Martin Mahony.
“Claims such as ‘2,500 of the world's leading scientists have reached a consensus that human activities are having a significant influence on the climate' are disingenuous,” the paper states unambiguously, adding that they rendered “the IPCC vulnerable to outside criticism.”
Hulme, Professor of Climate Change in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia – the university of Climategate fame — is the founding Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and one of the UK's most prominent climate scientists. Among his many roles in the climate change establishment, Hulme was the IPCC's co-ordinating Lead Author for its chapter on ‘Climate scenario development' for its Third Assessment Report and a contributing author of several other chapters.
Hulme's depiction of IPCC's exaggeration of the number of scientists who backed its claim about man-made climate change can be found on pages 10 and 11 of his paper, found here .
Financial Post
LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
Lawrence Solomon is executive director of Energy Probe and the author of The Deniers .
‘Discovery' of Afghan riches a pro-war PR scam?
A New York Times report announcing the US has found $1 trillion-worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan has some observers wondering if the news is part of a public-relations effort to bolster support for the Afghanistan war as the mission's death toll continues to climb.
An article in Sunday's New York Times announces that "previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe."
The article cites an "internal Pentagon memo" as saying Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium" -- the mineral used in the production of rechargeable batteries, such as those found in cell phones and laptops. It cites "a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists" as having made the discovery.
While the dollar estimate -- $1 trillion -- may be new, it's hardly news that Afghanistan sits on rich mineral deposits. In a 2007 press release , the US Geological Survey announced that Afghanistan possesses "significant amounts of undiscovered non-fuel mineral resources." And, as Marc Ambinder reports on his Atlantic blog, the Soviet Union was aware of Afghanistan's mineral potential as early as 1985.
“The ‘discovery' of Afghanistan's minerals will sound pretty silly to old timers,” a "retired former senior US official" tells Politico's Laura Rosen . “When I was living in Kabul in the early 1970's the [US government], the Russians, the World Bank, the UN and others were all highly focused on the wide range of Afghan mineral deposits. Cheap ways of moving the ore to ocean ports has always been the limiting factor.”
Canada investigating US officials over torture: report
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Canada's Mounties have been quietly running an investigation into US and Syrian officials linked to the arrest and deportation of a Canadian citizen who was tortured in a Syrian prison, and could lay criminal charges in the matter, sources report.
The news comes the same day that the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal brought by Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian engineer who was detained at New York's JFK Airport in 2002 on suspicion of terrorist links and flown to Syria, where he was tortured for the better part of a year.
A long and expensive inquiry into the matter held by the Canadian government exonerated Arar, finding that Canadian officials had given US authorities incorrect information linking Arar to terrorism. In 2007 Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Arar and offered him a $10.5 million settlement.
Italian flotilla journalist: My credit card was used after IDF confiscated it
Journalist Manolo Luppichini has written Netanyahu, Peres, Barak, Lieberman and Israel's ambassador in Italy over the matter.
By Dimi Reider
An Italian journalist who was detained by the Israel Defense Forces following the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla says his credit card was used to purchase items after it was confiscated by the Israeli authorities.
Manolo Luppichini was aboard the Sfintoni-8000, one of the smaller boats in the flotilla, when the naval commandos took it over. "Nobody was killed on our boat," Luppichini said in a telephone call from Italy. "We tried a little passive resistance around the boat's bridge. The soldiers fired paint balls and two people were hurt by stun [taser] guns."
After the Israel Navy took over the boat, he said, the soldiers searched every passenger and confiscated everything they found. "They took two cameras, microphones, a stand and other equipment from me and my photographer. They took one of the cameras as I was taking photographs," says Luppichini, who was working for Italy's RAI-3 television and an Italian-Swiss television channel when he was detained.
"Afterward they took my wallet, passport, bag and all personal effects on the boat," he says.
Luppichini was taken to Ashdod port and then transferred to a Be'er Sheva prison compound, where he says he received a form saying his passport had been impounded.
On June 2 he was taken to an Immigration Authority compound and on the following day was deported. Although he showed the document proving Israel had confiscated his passport, he says he was deported without receiving any of his property or identification papers back.
A few days ago Luppichini discovered that while he was confined in Be'er Sheva and after he was back in Italy - a day after his deportation - purchases were made with his credit card, which the Israeli authorities had confiscated.
One purchase was from a vending machine in Tel Aviv for about NIS 10 on June 2, he says. Another purchase, for NIS 240, was made in Gedera's Village Market - while Luppichini himself was in Bologna, Italy
Israeli soldiers murdering Peace Activist on The Freedom Flotilla
Doctors group says Bush Administration conducted medical experiments on detainees
By John Byrne
Monday, June 7th
A new report by the watchdog group Physicians for Human Rights alleges Monday that the Bush Administration experimented on terrorism suspects during their enhanced interrogation program put in force starting in 2002.
The group's review, which examined Bush-era documentation, asserts that the administration violated laws set up in the wake of the Holocaust to prevent medical testing on prisoners of war. (Nazi doctors sometimes experimented on their prisoners.)
The report states that, "Medical personnel were required to monitor all waterboarding practices and collect detailed medical information that was used to design, develop and deploy subsequent waterboarding procedures." Notes the Associated Press :
For example, the report said, doctors recommended adding salt to the water used for waterboarding, so the patient wouldn't experience hyponatremia, "a condition of low sodium levels in the blood caused by free water intoxication."
The report interpreted that doctor-recommended practice of using saline solution as "Waterboarding 2.0."
TODAY IN HISTORY: USS Liberty (June 8th 1967)
Two More Gulf Spills?
Jun 8 2010
The BP oil spill is still dominating headlines, 50 days after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. But how much oil leaks into the Gulf on any other day of the year? Satillite images and photographs from the region indicate that there may be two other offshore drilling units leaking oil into the ocean.
John Amos, head of the West Virginia-based nonprofit SkyTruth , was looking at satellite images of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon site when he noticed what appeared to be another small slick of oil about 11 miles off the coast of Louisiana and about 40 miles from the major spill. Amos' group uses the images to assess environmental problems; he was among the first independent experts to point out that the spill estimates from BP and the government were far too low , which has now been confirmed . Amos reported a "small but persistent leak or oily discharge" at a second site in the Gulf, one that appeared to be coming from platform 23051 in the Gulf of Mexico. It can be seen on multiple satellite images of the region. Minerals Management Service (MMS) records indicate that the platform belongs to Taylor Energy Company.
Mutant cows die in GM trial
Saturday May 1, 2010
Genetically modified cows were born with ovaries that grew so large they caused ruptures and killed the animals.
The bungled experiment happened during a study by AgResearch scientists at Ruakura, Hamilton, to find human fertility treatments through GM cows' milk.
AgResearch is studying tissue from one of three dead calves to try to find out what made the ovaries grow up to the size of tennis balls rather than the usual thumbnail-size.
Details of the deaths - in veterinary reports released to the Weekend Herald under the Official Information Act - have reignited debate over the ethics of GM trials on animals.
AgResearch's applied technologies group manager, Dr Jimmy Suttie, said he did not see the deaths as a "big deal", and they were part of the learning process for scientists.
Gordon Campbell hobnobs with world elite at private meeting
By JONATHAN FOWLIE
VICTORIA — Premier Gordon Campbell spent his weekend rubbing shoulders with some of the world's leading political and business figures at the 58th annual Bilderberg Meeting in Sitges, Spain.
The secretive invite-only meeting — dubbed by London's The Independent as an "annual cabal of the world's elite" — pulls together top international names to discuss issues such as foreign affairs and the economy.
"We talked about the economy, we talked about trade, we talked about health care and the challenges that health care presents to all economies with the changing demographic," Campbell said in a brief interview Monday, not going into specific detail about what was discussed.
"We talked about how is it possible to feed the world and what are the barriers that are in the way of us actually accomplishing that goal," he added.
Premier Gordon Campbell attends Bilderberg 2010 meeting
Numerous Web sites have published a list of delegates attending the Bilderberg 2010 conference in Spain between June 3 and June 6.
It's an annual invitation-only meeting of some of the world's most influential leaders in government, banking, business, and the media.
The Bilderberg conference has attracted the interest of conspiracy theorists, in part because of its secrecy.
The list includes the usual heavyweights, such as Bill Gates , Google CEO Eric Schmidt , Richard Holbrooke (President Barack Obama's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan), Henry Kissinger , former U.S. Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker , Obama's top economic adviser Lawrence Summers , former U.S. treasury secretary Robert Rubin , and Richard Perle , a U.S. neocon best known as a chief cheerleader of the 2003 attack on Iraq.
The are also a couple of surprising Canadian names on the list: B.C. premier Gordon Campbell and CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge .
"Bilderberg's only activity is its annual Conference," states a news release on the Bilderberg site. "At the meetings, no resolutions are proposed, no votes taken, and no policy statements issued. Since 1954, fifty-seven conferences have been held. The names of the participants are made available to the press. Participants are chosen for their experience, their knowledge, and their standing; all participants attend Bilderberg in a private and not an official capacity."
Canadian activist hid photos from flotilla
Mon Jun 7
By Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press
VICTORIA - A Canadian activist detained when Israeli soldiers raided a flotilla of ships off the Gaza coast says he smuggled photos of the raid off the ship by hiding his memory card in his underwear and other parts of his body.
Some of Kevin Neish's photos were published Monday in the Turkish English-language newspaper, Hurriyet, and other media outlets throughout the Muslim world.
"I hid it here, there and everywhere," Neish, who arrived back in Victoria on the weekend, said at a news conference Monday.
"In my pocket, in my hand. It was quite a dance. It was in my mouth. It was in my underwear, the cheeks of my ass. It went all over the place."
Official reports say nine people lost their lives last week when the Israeli's boarded the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla of ships bound for supplies to Gaza, which is currently under an Israeli blockade.
Neish said he believes 16 people died in the raid.
George Galloway announces new convoys to break the siege of Gaza
Five hundred vehicles and 60 ships to break the criminal siege of Gaza
Viva Palestina founder George Galloway , speaking to a crowd of around 20,000 protesting outside the Israeli embassy in London, revealed the latest plan to bring about the end of the siege on Gaza.
Two simultaneous convoys – one by land the other by sea – will set forth on SUNDAY 12 SEPTEMBER bound for Gaza. Viva Palestina, the International Committee to break the Siege on Gaza and any allies who will join us will organize the two convoys.
IDF admits doctoring audio of raid on Gaza flotilla
Sunday, June 6th, 2010
The Israeli Defense Force has issued a "clarification" admitting it manipulated audio of its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
On Friday, the IDF released audio of what it said was an exchange between Israel Navy officers and the crew of the Mavi Marmara , the main vessel in the flotilla. In it, voices could be heard telling the Israeli soldiers to "go back to Auschwitz" and "we're helping Arabs go against the US -- don't forget 9/11, guys."
But flotilla passengers quickly began disputing the veracity of the audio clip.
Investigative journalist Max Blumenthal reports that the head of the Free Gaza movement, Huwaida Arraf, could be heard on the videotape asserting the flotilla's right to enter Gaza territory. But Arraf says she wasn't on board the Mavi Marmara , and was actually on board another ship, the Challenger One . Another flotilla member whose voice can be heard on the audio, Ali Abunimah, also said he wasn't aboard the Mavi Marmara .
According to a news report from the Palestinian news agency Ma'an, Arraf suggests the audio of her that appeared in the clip came from an earlier exchange between her and Israeli forces, but she admits she "could not be sure" she didn't repeat her assertion during exchanges with the IDF during the raid.
Israel Bans the Basics of Life
'Israelis threw 4 injured into the sea'
Activist Idris Simsek, who was on board one of the six ships of the Freedom Flotilla during the Israeli attack, claims that four wounded activists were thrown into the sea.
The Israeli troops also put immense psychological pressure on the activists of the Freedom Flotilla, the Turkish daily Today's Zaman quoted Simsek as saying in an article published on Saturday.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard offers to escort future Gaza aid vessels
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are ready to provide a military escort to cargo ships trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday.
"Iran's Revolutionary Guards naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities," Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's representative inside the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Any intervention by the Iranian military would be considered highly provocative by Israel which accuses Iran of supplying weapons to Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza.
Bad Blood | 2nd Edition
Ali The Don - Arab Blood - Music Video | Re - edited version.Ali's The Don's debut music video for his hard hitting single "Arab Blood" Track produced by Moe Music. www.myspace.com/moemusiclive
US used cluster bombs on Yemen civilians: Amnesty
Published: Sunday June 6, 2010
A US cruise missile carrying cluster bombs was behind a December attack in Yemen that killed 55 people, most of them civilians, Amnesty International (AI) said on Monday.
The London-based rights group released photographs that it said showed the remains of a US-made Tomahawk missile and unexploded cluster bombs that were apparently used in the December 17, 2009 attack on the rural community of Al-Maajala in Yemen's southern Abyan province.
"Amnesty International is gravely concerned by evidence that cluster munitions appear to have been used in Yemen," said Mike Lewis, the group's arms control researcher.
"Cluster munitions have indiscriminate effects and unexploded bomblets threaten lives and livelihoods for years afterwards," he said.
Hypothesis Trailer
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Global Day of Action: Saturday, June 5
Please forward widely
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Global Day of Action: Saturday, June 5
On Saturday, June 5 , human rights and community organizations will mobilize to join an emergency Global BDS Day of Action called by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC). In Vancouver, join us to protest the fatal attacks by apartheid Israel on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip (please see full BNC call-out below).
RALLY & MARCH
Date: Saturday, June 5
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery (Georgia Side) - 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC
June 5 also marks the 43rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Our action aims to draw the world's attention to Israel's continuing illegal occupation, its refusal to abide by international law, and its massacre of innocent humanitarian workers.
Please join us, and stand with Palestine!
Tell your friends and family. Bring Palestinian flags.
Organized by:
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – UBC
Canada Palestine Association
Independent Jewish Voices
Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet)
Boycott Israel Apartheid Campaign (BIAC)
No One Is Illegal-Vancouver
To endorse, please email sphr.ubc@gmail.com or call 604-379-4050
Call for Action by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) 1 June 2010
Palestinian civil society calls for intensifying boycott and sanctions as Israel massacres humanitarian relief workers and international solidarity activists
Occupied Palestine, 1 June 2010 - The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) strongly condemns last night's fatal attack by the Israeli navy on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. The BNC conveys Palestinian civil society's condolences to the families and friends of those killed by the Israeli assault and warmly salutes the principled solidarity and moral commitment of all those involved in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
In response, the BNC calls on international civil society to:
• Mobilize for an emergency Global BDS Day of Action on Saturday 5 June 2010 -- the 43rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
• Pressure governments to start implementing trade sanctions and arms embargoes.
We call specifically on transport and dock workers and unions around the globe to:
• Refuse to load/offload Israeli ships and airplanes, following the historic example set by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban in February 2009 and endorsed by the Maritime Union of Australia (Western Australia).
The Flotilla, which was attacked in international waters in violation of international law, was carrying relief supplies that Israel has persistently prevented from entering Gaza, including medical supplies, cement and food. Israel's siege is considered a form of collective punishment, a war crime under Article 33 of the Geneva Convention. All of the relief workers and activists on board the Gaza Flotilla ships were unarmed.
In legal terms, Israel's military assault against the Flotilla is an act of aggression against the countries whose flags the ships were carrying; politically, it is an assault against human decency and all people of conscience around the world who support freedom and justice.
Israel's impunity is the direct result of the international community's failure to hold it accountable for its ongoing occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people. Israel's most recent war crimes committed in Gaza and documented in the Goldstone Report as well as crimes committed in 2006 against the Lebanese people did not trigger any UN or official sanctions, entrenching Israel's feeling of being above the law.
In fact, Israel's grave violation of international law was recently rewarded when the OECD voted unanimously to accept its membership. The BNC urges international civil society to end this deep and fatal complicity.
The BNC also welcomes and affirms the call of the UN expert on human rights Prof. Richard Falk who stated, “It is time to insist on the end of the blockade of Gaza. The worldwide campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel is now a moral and political imperative, and needs to be supported and strengthened everywhere.”
The UN Security Council has, unsurprisingly, failed to hold Israel accountable for its aggression against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The BNC calls upon the UN General Assembly, the European Union, the Arab League and their member states to undertake practical measures which will end Israel's impunity for its massive and systematic violation of international law, including by:
• Immediately ending all collusion with Israel's unlawful blockade of the Gaza Strip and pressuring Israel to guarantee unrestricted humanitarian access and freedom of movement of people and products into and out of the Gaza Strip.
• Bringing to justice all Israeli officials and military personnel who took the decision and/or implemented this latest massacre as well as earlier war crimes.
• Pressuring your government to immediately suspend arms trade with Israel, and to implement trade sanctions and arms embargos against Israel.
• In particular, we call on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the Mercosur to suspend the FTA, India to reverse the decision to hold negotiations around an India-Israel FTA and to stop arms deals with Israel, and Turkey to impose an arms embargo on Israel.
The BNC also calls on people of conscience and citizen groups all over the world to intensify BDS campaigns against Israel as the most effective means of holding it accountable to international law and ending its fatal impunity.
see article
TEN Facts about Israel's Massacre against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
1.The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is an
international aid project whose
objective is to end the three-year-long
Israeli blockade that has created a vast
humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Palestine. It is
made up of 750 individuals from more than 40
countries traveling on 7 ships and carrying
10,000 tons of relief supplies.
2.On the night of May 31, a coordinated
naval and air attack by Israeli military
forces killed at least 10 international
aid activists and wounded as many as 50
others.
3.The main attack was on the lead
ship, the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish
ship carrying 600 people.
4.The attack was an act of piracy that
took place in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, 40
miles off the coast of Gaza, in clear violation of
international law.
5.In a classic propaganda ploy, the Israeli
government is outrageously attempting
to portray its commandos who carried
out the murderous attack on the Gaza Freedom
Flotilla as “victims” who were “attacked” rather
than perpetrators of the attack. This ludicrous
version of what happened is being dutifully reported by the corporate media in the U.S. and Israel.
6.Israel's latest massacre and blatant
act of piracy has created a wave of
international outrage and protest
which is spreading around the world,
including in the U.S. where many
demonstrations are planned in the following
days.
7.The U.S. government continues to send billions of dollars annually to fund Israel's occupation, settlements
and murderous acts against the Palestinian
people and their international supporters. The
Obama administration recently promised to
send Israel $30 billion in military aid over the
next 10 years.
8.The U.S. government has given its
full backing to the criminal
blockade of Gaza, which it could break unilaterally if it chose to do so.
9.The convoy was carrying, along with
other forms of aid, construction
materials. More than 6,400 homes
in Gaza which were destroyed or severely
damaged by Israel's brutal assault on Gaza
17 months ago have yet to be rebuilt.
10.Due to the Israeli blockade and
occupation, 71% of the Gaza
Palestinians depend on food aid.
ANSWERcoalition.org
Roberts: 'AIPAC purchases US elections'
