Stung by Amnesty International's condemnation of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and elsewhere overseas, the administration of President George W. Bush is reacting with indignation and even suggestions that terrorists are using the world's largest human rights organization.
''For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously,'
-Dick Cheney
''I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world,''
-George W. Bush
''It seemed like (Amnesty) based some of their decisions on the word and allegations by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people had been trained in some instances to disassemble (sic) -- that means not tell the truth.....And so it was an absurd report. It just is''.
-George W. Bush
Friday, June 03, 2005
ZIMBABWE
Telegraph: Mugabe's Raids Leave Townships In Tatters
- Desperate people picked through the wreckage of their homes yesterday after Zimbabwe's police raided Harare's townships, destroying "illegal shelters" and leaving 10,000 homeless.
- Riot police conducting "Operation Drive Out the Rubbish" were accused of bringing misery to the urban poor, the latest target of President Robert Mugabe's campaign of terror.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
NETHERLAND: NO TO EU CONSTITUTION
Interventionmag: Commentary: Dutch Reject European Constitution
An overwhelming number of Dutch voters rejected the proposed European Constitution that the Establishment has been promoting with vigor and self-confidence, giving thumbs down to the elite's dream of a “United States of Europe.” While 63 percent voted against the Constitution, only 37 percent favored the proposal. It was a real stomping.
An overwhelming number of Dutch voters rejected the proposed European Constitution that the Establishment has been promoting with vigor and self-confidence, giving thumbs down to the elite's dream of a “United States of Europe.” While 63 percent voted against the Constitution, only 37 percent favored the proposal. It was a real stomping.
USA: VOTING MACHINES HACKED
Blackbox Voting: Tallahassee, FL: "Are we having fun yet?"
This is the message that appeared in the window of a county optical scan machine, startling Leon County Information Systems Officer Thomas James. Visibly shaken, he immediately turned the machine off.
Diebold's opti-scan (paper ballot) voting system uses a curious memory card design, offering penetration by a lone programmer such that standard canvassing procedures cannot detect election manipulation.
The Diebold optical scan system was used in about 800 jurisdictions in 2004. Among them were several hotbeds of controversy: Volusia County (FL); King County (WA); and the New Hampshire primary election, where machine results differed markedly from hand-counted localities.
New regs: Counting paper ballots forbidden
Most states prohibit elections officials from checking on optical scan tallies by examining the paper ballots. In Washington, Secretary of State Sam Reed declared such spontaneous checkups to be "unauthorized recounts" and prohibited them altogether. New Florida regulations will forbid counting paper ballots, even in recounts, except in highly unusual circumstances. Without paper ballot hand-counts, the hacks demonstrated below show that optical-scan elections can be destroyed in seconds.
This is the message that appeared in the window of a county optical scan machine, startling Leon County Information Systems Officer Thomas James. Visibly shaken, he immediately turned the machine off.
Diebold's opti-scan (paper ballot) voting system uses a curious memory card design, offering penetration by a lone programmer such that standard canvassing procedures cannot detect election manipulation.
The Diebold optical scan system was used in about 800 jurisdictions in 2004. Among them were several hotbeds of controversy: Volusia County (FL); King County (WA); and the New Hampshire primary election, where machine results differed markedly from hand-counted localities.
New regs: Counting paper ballots forbidden
Most states prohibit elections officials from checking on optical scan tallies by examining the paper ballots. In Washington, Secretary of State Sam Reed declared such spontaneous checkups to be "unauthorized recounts" and prohibited them altogether. New Florida regulations will forbid counting paper ballots, even in recounts, except in highly unusual circumstances. Without paper ballot hand-counts, the hacks demonstrated below show that optical-scan elections can be destroyed in seconds.
ISRAEL
Guardian: Top Israeli News Anchor Attacks Occupation
- The revered anchor of Israel's Channel One news programme for more than three decades has caused controversy by making a personalised documentary in which he concludes that Jewish settlements are endangering the country and that the occupation of Palestinian land is a crime.
- "Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people," Haim Yavin, who was a founder of Channel One and once its chief editor, says in the programme.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
RUSSIA
Pravda: Yukos case ends with 9 years for its former CEO
Mikhail Khodorkovsky evaded to pay about 55 million rubles of taxes and insurance fees during only one year
The trial on the former head of the Russian oil giant Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his accomplices, finally ended with a sentence. Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, have been found guilty of fraud and tax evasion charges and thus sentenced to nine years in jail.
ISRAEL: SPYING
BBC: Israeli firms 'ran vast spy ring'
Police in Israel say they have uncovered a huge industrial spying ring which used computer viruses to probe the systems of many major companies.
Police in Israel say they have uncovered a huge industrial spying ring which used computer viruses to probe the systems of many major companies.
At least 15 Israeli firms have been implicated in the espionage plot, with 18 people arrested in Israel and two more held by British police.
Among those under suspicion are major Israeli telecoms and media companies.
Police say the companies used a "Trojan horse" computer virus written by an Israeli to hack into rivals' systems.
OUTBREAK
Rense: Deaths In New Delhi, India And Qinghai, China Linked Via H5N1?
- The 121 reported deaths linked to the bird flu deaths at the Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve have not been addressed by announcements out of China. There have been blanket denials of human H5N1 cases, which have specifically mentioned a lack of pneumonia deaths. However, the 121 fatalities in 18 communities in Gangcha county have not been pneumonia deaths. The reported cases had fever and vomiting, but did not have respiratory problems.
- Earlier reports of H5N1 deaths in Vietnam included cases that did not initially present as respiratory cases. There was one case well described, in the New England Journal of Medicine, with neurological involvement. Such involvement with H5N1 in poultry and laboratory mice and ferrets is well known, and recent reports on the tiger deaths in Thailand decribed neurologic involvement of H5N1..
Monday, May 30, 2005
THE DOWNING STREET MEMO
downingstreetmemo.com
The Downing Street "Memo" is actually a document containing meeting minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002—a full eight months PRIOR to the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003. The Times of London printed the text of this document on Sunday, May 1, 2005, but to date US media coverage has been limited. This site is intended to act as a resource for anyone who wants to understand the facts revealed in this document.
The contents of the memo are shocking. The minutes detail how our government did not believe Iraq was a greater threat than other nations; how intelligence was "fixed" to sell the case for war to the American public; and how the Bush administration’s public assurances of "war as a last resort" were at odds with their privately stated intentions.
When asked, British officials "did not dispute the document's authenticity." and a senior American official has described it as "absolutely accurate." Yet the Bush administration continues to simultaneously sidestep the issue while attempting to cast doubt on the memo’s authenticity.
The Downing Street "Memo" is actually a document containing meeting minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002—a full eight months PRIOR to the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003. The Times of London printed the text of this document on Sunday, May 1, 2005, but to date US media coverage has been limited. This site is intended to act as a resource for anyone who wants to understand the facts revealed in this document.
The contents of the memo are shocking. The minutes detail how our government did not believe Iraq was a greater threat than other nations; how intelligence was "fixed" to sell the case for war to the American public; and how the Bush administration’s public assurances of "war as a last resort" were at odds with their privately stated intentions.
When asked, British officials "did not dispute the document's authenticity." and a senior American official has described it as "absolutely accurate." Yet the Bush administration continues to simultaneously sidestep the issue while attempting to cast doubt on the memo’s authenticity.
BILDERBERG
Counterpunch: Infiltrating Bilderberg 2005
The annual secret meeting of the Bilderberg group determines many of the headlines and news developments you will read about in the coming months. But the Establishment media completely black it out. With the exception of half-a-dozen high ranking members of the press who are sworn to secrecy, few have ever heard of the exclusive and secretive group called The Bilderbergers.
Mainstream news organizations boastful about their no-holds barred investigative exploits, have been strangely reluctant to lift the blackout curtain hiding a major event: the Bilderberg group's secret annual meeting for the world's most powerful financiers, industrialists, and political figures.
The annual secret meeting of the Bilderberg group determines many of the headlines and news developments you will read about in the coming months. But the Establishment media completely black it out. With the exception of half-a-dozen high ranking members of the press who are sworn to secrecy, few have ever heard of the exclusive and secretive group called The Bilderbergers.
Mainstream news organizations boastful about their no-holds barred investigative exploits, have been strangely reluctant to lift the blackout curtain hiding a major event: the Bilderberg group's secret annual meeting for the world's most powerful financiers, industrialists, and political figures.
FRANCE: NO TO EU CONSTITUTION
The Independent: Crisis For Europe As France RejectsEU Constitution
France has resoundingly rejected the proposed European Union constitution, plunging the EU into crisis and French politics into confusion.
The result of the referendum was a massive 56 per cent for the "no", against 44 per cent for the "yes", according to Dominique de Villepin, the Interior Minister. An unusually high turnout of 70 per cent of the 42 million voters had briefly raised hopes that the great legion of "undecided" might still tip the outcome to the "yes".
France has resoundingly rejected the proposed European Union constitution, plunging the EU into crisis and French politics into confusion.
The result of the referendum was a massive 56 per cent for the "no", against 44 per cent for the "yes", according to Dominique de Villepin, the Interior Minister. An unusually high turnout of 70 per cent of the 42 million voters had briefly raised hopes that the great legion of "undecided" might still tip the outcome to the "yes".
TERROR MADE IN THE USA
Rense: Sick Strategies For Senseless Slaughter
By John Kaminski
The murderous fools are not trying to end the war -they're trying to keep it going as long as they can
Globalresearch: The Provocateur State:
Is the CIA Behind the Iraqi "Insurgents"--and Global Terrorism?
by Frank Morales
The requirement of an ever-escalating level of social violence to meet the political and economic needs of the insatiable "anti-terrorist complex" is the essence of the new US militarism.
What is now openly billed as "permanent war" ultimately serves the geo-political ends of social control in the interests of US corporate domination, much as the anti-communist crusade of the now-exhausted Cold War did.
Back in 2002, following the trauma of 9-11, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld predicted there would be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. How could he be so sure of that? Perhaps because these attacks would be instigated on the order of the Honorable Mr. Rumsfeld. According to Los Angeles Times military analyst William Arkin, writing Oct. 27, 2002, Rumsfeld set out to create a secret army, "a super-Intelligence Support Activity" network that would "bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception," to stir the pot of spiraling global violence.
By John Kaminski
The murderous fools are not trying to end the war -they're trying to keep it going as long as they can
Globalresearch: The Provocateur State:
Is the CIA Behind the Iraqi "Insurgents"--and Global Terrorism?
by Frank Morales
The requirement of an ever-escalating level of social violence to meet the political and economic needs of the insatiable "anti-terrorist complex" is the essence of the new US militarism.
What is now openly billed as "permanent war" ultimately serves the geo-political ends of social control in the interests of US corporate domination, much as the anti-communist crusade of the now-exhausted Cold War did.
Back in 2002, following the trauma of 9-11, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld predicted there would be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. How could he be so sure of that? Perhaps because these attacks would be instigated on the order of the Honorable Mr. Rumsfeld. According to Los Angeles Times military analyst William Arkin, writing Oct. 27, 2002, Rumsfeld set out to create a secret army, "a super-Intelligence Support Activity" network that would "bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception," to stir the pot of spiraling global violence.
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