|
|
Blog Feeds
Anti-Empire
The SakerA bird's eye view of the vineyard
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international edition
|
Web / Press / Offsite Media Updates: May 10th - May 17th international |
miscellaneous |
other press
 Sunday May 16, 2004 23:13 by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland
 This weblog for Other Media contains information on updated websites, new issues of journals and newspapers, videos available on the net etc. A similar page will be published each week. Use the comments to add a new link with a summary. Please add your information here. Include direct links if you have them, or details on where the print publication is available, if not. This is not a normal newswire page and has different editorial rules. It will stay at the top of the wire no matter how many stories are published in the meantime. It is also designed as a pointer to other sites, so please do not (a) post full articles, or (b) add comments that don't consist of information on new content in the paper/website/whatever. This means that comments on who did what to whom, which party got more votes, what you think of a particular author or article, whose hamster was eaten by Freddie Starr , or anything else, will be hidden. If you are upset by an article linked to, you can add a comment or an (original and more-than-a-single-line) article as a standard newswire story. This is a page for links and updates only. The normal practice of hiding links to sites that are racist, discriminatory etc. will be followed. |
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Gab
Twitter
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (51 of 51)
Jump To Comment: 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Dear Sir,
We would like to introduce ourselves as a leading gloves manufacturing
company.
"Danial Industries" is manufacturing concern of all kinds of leather gloves and we would
like to let you know that our company is mainly making:
Walking poles strips
Cross country gloves
Dress gloves (sheep skin, goat skin & cow hide)
Winter gloves
Ski gloves
Mechanics gloves
We produce the fine quality gloves and would like to have some good business
relation with your esteemed organization and would like to export our fine
quality gloves to you.
Would you please like to spare a few moments in considering our offer andconfirm us any choice.
It will be pleasure for us to serve you.
Looking forward top hear from you soon.
Thanks & best regards,
Atta Ullah
Danial Indstries.
P.o.box no. 1499, Daska road,Hashim Pura
Sialkot-Pakistan.
Tel: +92-432-562704
Fax: +92-432-561613
E.mail: export@danialind.com
info@danialind.com
Visit us at http://www.danialind.com
To shine a spotlight on some of the important international issues and developments that often do not get sufficient media attention, the United Nations Department of Public Information presents a new initiative - "Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About."....
Uganda: Child soldiers at centre of mounting humanitarian crisis
Central African Republic: a silent crisis crying out for help
AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa: a looming threat to future generations
The peacekeeping paradox: as peace spreads, surge in demand strains UN resources
Tajikistan: rising from the ashes of civil war
Women as peacemakers: from victims to re-builders of society
Persons with disabilities: a treaty seeks to break new ground in ensuring equality
Bakassi Peninsula: Recourse to the law to prevent conflict
Overfishing: a threat to marine biodiversity
Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation
RIGGS BANK FINED FOR LAX OVERSIGHT OF SAUDI MONEY, WHICH MIGHT HAVE GONE TO TERRORISTS
According to the 5/14/04 New York Times, Federal regulators fined the Riggs National Corporation, the parent company of Riggs Bank, $25 million yesterday for "failing to report suspicious activity, the largest penalty ever assessed against a domestic bank in connection with money laundering. The fine stems from Riggs's failure over at least the last two years to actively monitor suspect financial transfers through Saudi Arabian accounts held by the bank." The 5/14/04 Wall Street Journal reported that of particular concern, Riggs failed to monitor "tens of millions of dollars in cash withdrawals from accounts related to the Saudi Arabian embassy," including "suspicious incidents involving dozens of sequentially numbered cashier's checks and international drafts written by Saudi officials, including Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan." According to the 4/18/04 Washington Post, Saudi Prince Bandar's wife, Princess Haifa al-Faisal, "may have used a Riggs account to donate money to a charity that then gave some of it to the Sept. 11 terrorists." According to the Washington Post, federal regulators "called Riggs actions a "'willful, systemic' violation of anti-money-laundering law." Riggs officials have "acknowledged years of deficiencies in reporting to law enforcement hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious financial transactions by foreign customers, particularly those connected with the embassies of Saudi Arabia."
PRESIDENT BUSH'S UNCLE IS A CHIEF EXECUTIVE AT RIGGS BANK
According to the nonprofit Texans for Public Justice, Jonathan Bush is the President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management - a major arm of Riggs Bank. He is also the uncle of President George W. Bush. The President "credits the investors sent his way by this banker uncle as a key to his 'success' in the Texas oil industry in the early '80s." According to Public Citizen, the uncle Jonathan was a Bush Pioneer, having raised more than $100,000 for his nephew in 2000.
Secretary of State Colin Powell emphatically said yesterday that if the incoming Iraqi interim government ordered the departure of foreign troops after June 30, they would pack up without protest, but emphasized he doubted such a request would be made.
Powell said the United States believes a U.N. resolution passed last year and Iraqi administrative law provide necessary authority for coalition forces — currently numbering about 170,000 — to remain even beyond the scheduled June 30 handover of limited sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.
"We're there to support the Iraqi people and protect them and the new government," Powell said at a news conference with other foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations. "I have no doubt the new government will welcome our presence and am losing no sleep over whether they will ask us to stay."
But were the new government to say it could handle security, "then we would leave," Powell said.
Powell said he was "not ducking the hypothetical, which I usually do," to avoid confusion on the extent of the new government's authority.
The first FWF collective mix is about "Conscious Rhymes & Rebirth of Speech" because music isn't just about fun, it's also a tool for social change.
The first FWF collective mix is about "Conscious Rhymes & Rebirth of Speech" because music isn't just about fun, it's also a tool for social change. This mix features hip-hop, breaks and drum'n'bass tracks (including 3 tracks by FWF members) and Mr Jo at Harmonica. Play-List was made by Protesta, Bun-Zer0 and Red Ant
Download it in mp3 here
Play-List:
1. Red Ant feat. MC Rebelbase : BushKilla part. 2.
2. Krs One : Sound Of Da Police.
3. Consolidated : Friendly Fascism.
4. Meat Beat Manifesto : God O.d.
5. Gunshot : World War 3.
6. Red Star : Stranger Fruit.
7. Aquasky & Masterblaster feat. Daddy Freddy : War.
8. Saul Williams : Not in my name (Spooky Remix).
9. DJ Mutiny : Mic On Fire (Deep Impact Remix).
10. Protesta feat. MC Rebelbase : Grabbin The Mic.
11. Shut Up And Dance & DJ Hype : Reclaim The Streets.
12. Uk Apache & Shy Fx : Original Nuttah.
13. Cypress Hill & Roni Size : Child Of The West.
14. Cymande : The message - Ed rush & Optical mix vs. Grandmaster Flash : The message - Accapella. (Protesta's Bootleg).
15. The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy : Music And Politics.
Download it in mp3 here
Will listen to the song tomorrow.
Have read Hermann Hesse 'Siddhartha' but haven't read 'Steppenwolf ' yet.
oh go on.
give them copyright for 2004 as well.
this is China copyright free year.
by Richard Carter
EUobserveer
Brussels, Belgium
10 May 2004
BRUSSELS - Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt today (10 May) called for the G8 group of rich countries to be replaced with a group of regional unions, including the EU, the African Union and South American trade bloc Mercosur.
Speaking at the Annual Worldbank Conference on Development Economics in Brussels, Mr Verhofstadt said, 'We need a global political response capable of rivalling the globalised market in which we are living. One way to achieve this goal is to replace the G8 of rich countries with a G8 of regional groupings'.
'[...] This group would make up a forum favouring, without discrimination, co-operation between the main continental structures: the European Union, the African Union, Mercosur, Asean and the North American Free Trade Agreement', he continued.
Copyright EUobserver 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
Piers Morgan has just handed over the letter of resignation.
with less nobility than the DGN!
his paper :-
http://www.mirror.co.uk/
his Channel 4 program. worth a quick look.
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/I/importance_of_being_famous/
or has he?
his paper was against the War.
he worked there 9 years.
ACLU Was Forced to Revise Release on Patriot Act Suit
Justice Dept. Cited Secrecy Rules
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 13, 2004; Page A27
When a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that the American Civil Liberties Union could finally reveal the existence of a lawsuit challenging the USA Patriot Act, the group issued a news release.
But the next day, according to new documents released yesterday, the ACLU was forced to remove two paragraphs from the release posted on its Web site, after the Justice Department complained that the group had violated court secrecy rules.
One paragraph described the type of information that FBI agents could request under the law, while another merely listed the briefing schedule in the case, according to court documents and the original news release.
The dispute set off a furious round of court filings in a case that serves as both a challenge to, and an illustration of, the far-reaching power of the Patriot Act. Approved by Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the law gives the government greater latitude and secrecy in counterterrorism investigations and includes a provision allowing the FBI to secretly demand customer records from Internet providers and other businesses without a court order.
From Salon.com:
In 1992, General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, awarded the prize for the "best strategy essay" at the National Defense University to Lt Col Charles Dunlap for "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012." His cautionary tale imagined an incapable civilian governent creating a vacuum that drew a competent military into a coup disastrous for democracy.
The military , of course, is bound to uphold the constitution. But Dunlop wrote, "The catastrophe that ooccurred on our watch took place because we failed to speak out against policies we knew were wrong. It's too late for me to do any more. But it's not for you."
'The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012' is today circulating among top US military strategists.
found at
http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes/2004/05/american_milita.html
download 'The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012'
http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/esi/2002/CivilLiberties/Projects/Origins.pdf
While on missions in Iraq last year, 35-year-old Todd Drobnick was attacked by small-arms fire, grenades and makeshift bombs. Yet he continued to go out day after day, until he died in a vehicle crash on his way from one U.S. military base to another. For his loyalty and dedication, he was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Thousands of Americans in Iraq have received such honors, but Drobnick's case was unusual: He wasn't a soldier. He was a private contractor working with a translation company.
"He died in the service of his country and the gratitude of his comrades is deep and lasting," U.S. Army Col. Gary L. Parrish, assistant chief of staff of intelligence, wrote in a letter to Drobnick's family after his death.
Several other contractors have received battlefield commendations in Iraq, too, but the military says it was a mistake. Only active-duty soldiers are eligible for the awards and those received by civilians are being rescinded.
"This is not to say that what the contractors did wasn't valorous or wasn't important, but legally we aren't supposed to give them these awards," said Shari Lawrence, an Army spokeswoman.
The confusion demonstrates that in many situations soldiers and civilian contractors have become virtually indistinguishable -- and interchangeable -- in postwar Iraq.
Top Pentagon officials conceded on Thursday some of the interrogation methods approved for use by the U.S. military on Iraqi prisoners may violate the Geneva Convention governing treatment of war prisoners.
The admission came as Senators investigated revelations of sexual and psychological abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad which prompted outrage around the world and undermined U.S. efforts to stabilize the occupied country.
Now kids, all of you,
all hands on deck like,
for a moment,
signal man are you listening?
ok.
Rumsfeld is not the King.
We are to take this piece off the board, but we are not to presume that this "check" is the last.
33 years ago, serving a paranoid, psychotic, maleable, very fucked-up wookie president Nixon, Rumsfeld who then needed not the fire of viagra in his veins, told the War Machine to leave Vietnam.
Now we are being allowed too much space through our Western Front's lines to divert attention from another paranoid, psychotic, malealbe, very fucked-up wookie president Bush.
We do not have a Iraqgate potential.
So hard tack, please, head due course for Condolence, now and the next week. We are not such carrion birds that will settle our accounts on the weakend hawks now.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/93206/index.php
of the Yankee Dixie Nazi regime staring out at you?
FUCK OFF!
the lot of you.
rumsfeld, roosevelt, bush, reagan, all of you
just FUCK OFF!
there will always be fields of Europe
that are forever Europe.
if I had tried over 10 different searches with a trans-national search engine with the words Viagra and Rumsfeld.
all of them have given me the same info.
I don't need viagra.
I don't want viagra.
So I type Rumsfeld in.
I get a pop up fucking banner.
FUCK OFF!
US Defence Secretary enquires into the size of the problem
Donald Rumsfeld indicated his determination to show sensitivity to Iraqi feelings on his surprise visit to Iraq today. "We are winning hearts and minds", he said, as he asked Iraqi prisoners to line up for a free medical inspection.
Asked if his job was on the line, Rumsfeld replied, “I don’t know about that, but one thing I can assure you, I am not going to lose my head over this”.
old man viagra man hawkish man their man
rich man noble man rumsfeld
"it's a body blow against the states"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3710327.stm
People have died in Iraq.
You don't need these videos to know People have died in Iraq.
Armies torture prisoners.
You don't need videos to know armies torture prisoners.
But their completely discredited system needs these videos to continue it's power.
Yet the continuance of such undermines their power.
This is called
Catch 23.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61131&condense_comments=false#comment46785
the last few posts were moved here by another editor. should have deleted the comments if it was being moved to this thread.
.
Rabitte looking for transfers is probably true but to a certain extent what Rabitte is talking truth. SF with theri 5 TDs have doen fuck all in comparison to Joe Higgins. But either has Labour! how many TDs do they have!
SP voters shoudl not endorse either Labour or SF. Vote Higgins No1 and DO NOT transfer! SF and Labour both have histories of implementing anti working class rule and both have patchy records in their opposition to Bin charges and war in Iraq
It's all about where Joe Higgins' transfers will go. Rabbittee is courting SP supporters for their 2nd preferences. SP transfers could decide who gets elected between Labour, Greens and Sinn Fein.
The following article is taken from the ‘Irish Examiner’ (12/05/04) newspaper. It shows that even the Labour Party cannot fail but to be impressed with the role of Joe Higgins. Rabbitte, contrasts Joe with Sinn Féins five TDs.
'One Joe Higgins more effective than five Sinn Féin TDs'
Just one Joe Higgins is immensely more effective than all five of the Sinn Féin TDs, according to Labour leader Pat Rabbitte. Attacking Sinn Féin's track record, Mr Rabbitte said the party works hard at getting elected but had no policies to speak off, apart from issues to do with the North. He also questioned whether the republicans posed a threat to his party.
Michael O'Farrell and Fionnán Sheahan, ‘Irish Examiner’ (12/05/04)
"I don't know. I don't see it on the ground," he said.
"It is a myth that Sinn Féin are supposed to work harder than the rest of us," Mr Rabbitte added.
Challenging anyone to name one Sinn Féin achievement in Dáil Éireann [Irish Parliament] or at local government level, Mr Rabbitte said if he was a constituent he would rather have one Joe Higgins fighting his corner than all five Sinn Féin TDs.
"Their effectiveness in local Government is outside of the chamber rather than inside the chamber," the Labour leader said.
But Mr Rabbitte conceded that there were areas where voters were so alienated with the current Government that they might choose to vote for the most extreme option.
"I think the public have to reflect carefully on where they use their vote," he warned.
Labour's environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore added that Sinn Féin did not put forward a single amendment to the Government's recent Residential Tenancies Bill.
He added that the lack of action was despite constant complaints in the republican newspaper, An Phoblacht, about rights for tenants in private accommodation.
Commenting on the drafting of the Dublin City Development Plan, councillor Dermot Lacey added that Sinn Féin had tabled no amendments compared with Labour's 82 and the Green Party's 30
The media's questionable Vietnam analogies are just one reason Mr. Bush does not pay much attention to press coverage of his administration.
"I don't watch the nightly newscasts on TV, nor do I watch the endless hours of people giving their opinion about things," the president said. "I don't read the editorial pages; I don't read the columnists."
Yet Mr. Bush regularly monitors the news pages of a select few daily publications.
"I get the newspapers -- the New York Times, The Washington Times, The Washington Post and USA Today -- those are the four papers delivered," he said. "I can scan a front page, and if there is a particular story of interest, I'll skim it."
The president prides himself on his ability to detect bias in ostensibly objective news stories.
"My antennae are finely attuned," he said. "I can figure out what so-called 'news' pieces are going to be full of opinion, as opposed to news. So I'm keenly aware of what's in the papers, kind of the issue du jour. But I'm also aware of the facts."
Those facts are extracted from news stories each day and presented to the president by a half-dozen aides, Mr. Card among them.
"Since I'm the first one to see him in the morning, I usually give him a quick overview and get a little reaction from him," Mr. Card explained. "Frequently, I find that his reaction kind of reflects [first lady] Laura Bush's take."
Indeed, the president often cites articles that Mrs. Bush flags for greater scrutiny, even when he has not personally slogged through those stories. Mrs. Bush routinely delves more deeply into the news pages than her husband, who prefers other sections.
"He does not dwell on the newspaper, but he reads the sports page every day," Mr. Card said with a chuckle.
Given the considerable amount of right-wing material distributed by Disney, much of it openly promoting Republican candidates and issues, it's impossible to believe that Disney is preventing Miramax from distributing Fahrenheit 911 because, as a Disney executive told the New York Times (5/5/04), "It's not in the interest of any major corporation to be dragged into a highly charged partisan political battle." Disney, in fact, makes a great deal of money off of highly charged partisan political battles, although it generally provides access to only one side of the war.
So what is the real reason it won't distribute Moore's movie? The explanation that Moore's agent said he was offered by Eisner-- that Disney was afraid of losing tax breaks from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush-- is more persuasive than Eisner's obviously false public rationale. But more relevant may be Disney's financial involvement with a member of the same Saudi family whose connections to the Bush dynasty are investigated by Moore. Prince Al-Walid bin Talal, a billionaire investor who is a grandson of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, became a major investor in Disney's Eurodisney theme park when it was in financial trouble, and may be asked to bail out the troubled project again.
It's not unprecedented for Disney to respond favorably to a political request from its Saudi business partner; when Disney's EPCOT Center planned to describe Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in an exhibit on Israeli culture, Al-Walid says that he had personally asked Eisner to intervene in the decision. That same week, Disney announced that the pavilion would not refer to Jerusalem as Israel's capital (BBC, 9/14/99).
The Central Intelligence Agency has used coercive interrogation methods against a select group of high-level leaders and operatives of Al Qaeda that have produced growing concerns inside the agency about abuses, according to current and former counterterrorism officials.
At least one agency employee has been disciplined for threatening a detainee with a gun during questioning, they said.
In the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a high-level detainee who is believed to have helped plan the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, C.I.A. interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a technique known as "water boarding," in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.
These techniques were authorized by a set of secret rules for the interrogation of high-level Qaeda prisoners, none known to be housed in Iraq, that were endorsed by the Justice Department and the C.I.A. The rules were among the first adopted by the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 attacks for handling detainees and may have helped establish a new understanding throughout the government that officials would have greater freedom to deal harshly with detainees.
is it a plenypotenchary?
Well last year (or was it the year before) I asked (approved by me at least)
nice- young- well spoken- very decent- had a steady girlfriend- hard hitting- European Parliament Candidate Eoin Dubksy
if he had a TopHat.
Because we know he speaks French.
& we reckon he speaks it well, you know, "smoothly"...
and thus I made him "my personal pleni-potentiary". But for the benefit of foreign readers to whom our ways may seem quaint especially since we've gone wetting our selves in the last 48 hours since confirming that the Chinese like us.
Pleni-potentiaries caused the whole Irish Problem to begin with.
Because nobody for the life of them could figure out what a plenypotenchary was or could be trusted to do.
The result was Micheal Collins.
and no he wasn't a great big mon.
over in Catalanland, the largest exporter of propaganda in the world (after China) the okupes are reminding everyone that squatting is a viable option.
check the lovely new site:-
http://www.sindominio.net/okupesbcn/opcions.html
even if it's in that language you know "catalan". The man who melds from the picture of Smeagol is Josep pique the commander of the Maulets the army of Catalanland who are being funded by the USA to the tune of 450,000,000$ a month, in a bid to restore democracy to the tiny and mostly illiterate people of this mountainous land of mid Asia.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64985&condense_comments=false#comment74079
anyways, Pat the Cox came yesterday and admired the graffiti and said Catalan is going to be official, just like Gaeilge, not like UlsterScots. So there.
can we break off diplomatic relations with Mexico now that we are so cuddly with China?
http://politics.ie/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4984
being a link to the unusually intelligent list of diplomatic shuffles. Lordy Lordy, am I impressed?
Yes I am impressed.
okupe
resisteix
The former US Ambassador to the UN and now new US Ambassador to Iraq - his full official title is...
''John D. Negroponte, of New York, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Iraq.''
source:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=2&vote=00085#position
- - - -
what the heck is a 'Plenipotentiary'??!
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Plenipotentiary
'Invested with or conferring full powers'
wow.
Protecting the System
Wednesday, May 12, 2004; Page A22
THE BUSH administration still seeks to mislead Congress and the public about the policies that contributed to the criminal abuse of prisoners in Iraq. Yesterday's smoke screen was provided by Stephen A. Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Mr. Cambone assured the Senate Armed Services Committee that the administration's policy had always been to strictly observe the Geneva Conventions in Iraq; that all procedures for interrogations in Iraq were sanctioned under the conventions; and that the abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison were consequently the isolated acts of individuals. These assertions are contradicted by International Red Cross and Army investigators, by U.S. generals overseeing the prisoners, and by Mr. Cambone himself.
10 May 2004 – The last 10 days have seen one of the most intense periods of destruction by the Israeli military in Gaza since the start of the Intifada, with more than 100 homes flattened and 1,100 people left homeless, the main United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees said today.
According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the Israeli military has demolished or damaged beyond repair 131 residential buildings since the start of May, bringing to 17,594 the total number of people who have lost their homes in Gaza.
The majority of the demolitions have taken place in Rafah in the south, where 11,215 people have already been made homeless by demolitions since the beginning of the current strife in September 2000, and in the region of the Kissufim Road, where a Palestinian attack on 2 May left an Israeli mother and her four children dead.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BBUYE33X3QYTKCRBAEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=5120834
weird.
flying west, from the general area of Camp X (1) which is for your info found between Haiti and Cuba.
Cuba is next to Dixie.
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=195004&Template=GALERIE&Objet=6000
thought it might be cheerier!
Stills on yahoo/AP from alleged video of execution by "Al Qaeda" associated Iraqi group. Surprisingly intrusive photos of his family.
Mick Doyle, the former couch of the Irish Rugby team has died in a collision between his car and an articulated lorry this afternoon in county Tyrone between Omagh and Dungannon.
He will be remembered for his triple crown victories. He was 67 years of age.
He probably won't be remembered for bringing the Lions to Apartheid South Africa in 1968.
http://www.lions-tour.com/history/southafrica1968.asp
The British Lions were founded in 1888.
Today there are both British and Irish Lions.
Mr Doyle will be missed and eulogised over the forthcoming days.
**************************
read this 3 sentance blog on indymedia.ie :-
w.stumbleupon.com/url/www.indymedia.ie/
**************************
there has been an explosion at a plastic component factory in Glasgow. The area is sealed off, two are dead, lots are injured, the company makes really small bits of specialisd plastic. And it's order books peak in May.
http://www.applegate.co.uk/results/cob/18064.htm
***************************
Aunty Beeb, the BBC is pissed off about the mortgage and the rent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bob/estateagents/
"brassed righ' off mate"
***************************
lovely:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indymedia.ie
***************************
even lovlier:-
the article #1417 on politics.ie that named Eoin Ryan FF TD c/f here # 74709 as being holder of an offshore bogus account.
coz it's a sign of such wide horizontal co-operation ¿no?
except that right now it is being "washed".
file number 1417 entitled "FF TD Named as holder of bogus non-resident account Friday, September 26" has just been pulled.
who would have thought eh?
They don't even do that on Slugger.
I used take the piss out of the IAWM and RBB and co. for going offline and washing their records, in the finest East European style, something which we in Indymedia can not do.
Because kids, "WE ARE THE RECORD", spots, zits, jokes, code and all.
they will learn.
***************************
IBM are giving Santry loads of jobs and money. That's cool isn't it? and Bertie and the Mammy and ltd.co. have lost many hundreds of millions today, causing a mid afternoon sale of the money that would have gone into Mammy Harney's quite trumpeted new cross border biotech girth widening thing.
Sure you know.
You're in my sights.
& I have never missed.
yet.
But you're not as big as the other fucking pests messing up the garden and thrashing the gazebo, so you've time yet, your day will come after DixieYankee or is it YankeeDixie?
hope IBM are green in Santry:-
thoughts on how "green" your computer has to be from aunty Beeb...
http://zgp.org/linux-elitists/Xine.LNX.4.44.0403071903001.20530-100000@thoron.boston.redhat.com.html
Apartheid-era killers hired by U.S. firm to protect Iraqi oil
By: Henry Hamilton III
Milwaukee Courier
http://www.milwaukeecourier.org/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=42342&sID=16
Ever wonder how the money to rebuild Iraq is being spent? Well, a portion is being spent to employ ruthless South African apartheid-era killers.
It appears that Halliburton and Bechtel are not the only American companies living large off your tax dollars. SAS International, an American based private security company, has joined the group. In August 2003, Erinys International, a British security company, was awarded an estimated $ 39.5 million contract to guard Iraqi oil wells. Seeking assistance, Erinys subcontracted SAS International.
On January 28, 2004, a van disguised as an ambulance exploded outside the Shaheen Hotel in Baghdad. Francois Strydom was among the dead. Deon Gouws was among the injured. Strydom and Gouws were revealed to be former apartheid-era killers from South Africa employed by SAS International.
Graph from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3703751.stm
------
The Media, Politics, and Censorship
by Bill Moyers
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0510-10.htm
On Friday a week ago on Nightline, Ted Koppel read the names of the dead and showed their photographs. But their faces and names were blacked out on ABC stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair accused Koppel of "...doing nothing more than making a political statement."
But what about Sinclair's own political agenda? With 62 stations the company is the biggest of its kind in the country and has lobbied successfully in Washington for permission to grow even bigger. Its executives are generous contributors to the Republican party.
After 9/11, there were reports their on-air talent had been required to read statements affirming a station's 100% support for the President. And the company's Vice President for Corporate Communications, Mark Hyman, doubles as the on-air commentator on The Point, a daily commentary segment that airs in cities across the country via Sinclair's News Central channel. Hyman is known to regularly "stimulate public discourse" with statements like, "Clinton was too busy chasing skirts to chase terrorists."
[....]
Rupert Murdoch's a big Washington winner, too. Congress and the Republican controlled Federal Communications Commission let him off the hook even though his News Corp. owned more stations than the rules allowed.
Murdoch also controls Fox News, another big cheerleader for American policy in Iraq, the New York Post. For a week, the Post refused to publish photographs of those tortured Iraqi prisoners saying the pictures would "reflect poorly" on the troops risking their lives there.
Again, it's their right. Freedom of the press, it has been famously said, is guaranteed only to those who own one.
An Innovative Communications System
It may be hard to believe, but the indigenous rebels here in the jungle have an extraordinary communication system: radio communication between the five caracoles, several towns with internet access, parabolic antennas installed at strategic points, computers, and communications committees to oversee all of it. They all work in total secrecy.
There is also Radio Insurgente (97.9 FM), broadcasting from four o’clock in the morning to nine o’clock at night. Radio Insurgente lets the Zapatistas hear messages, communiqués, and music, from traditional Mexican corridos to contemporary protest music.
The Zapatistas wake up, and as they go about their activities, listen to the radio almost all day long, turning it off only before they go to sleep. They call it “horizontal” media.
Sometimes the signal is not very clear, other times it’s barely audible, or there is no transmission at all, but the insurgents know that they have their own media.
They told us that the radio station is portable. One day it could be installed in one place, and another day broadcast from somewhere else. But always in the highlands, both for security and to reach the largest audience.
Politics.ie has launched an information campaign to highlight that people only have fourteen days to ensure they are able to vote in the forthcoming local and European elections and the citizenship referendum.
“The Supplemental Register of Electors will take applications for inclusion on the register right up until May 24th”, according to Politics.ie Editor, David Cochrane.
“Fourteen days is a short time, but its enough time to make sure that you are able to exercise your rights, and make sure that your voice is heard on Election and Referendum Day on June 11th.”
“To get onto the Supplemental Register, all you need to do is contact your local Council, Garda Station, Library or Post Office and ask for the necessary forms and send them off.”
Recent surveys have highlighted the lack of interest by young people in politics, however Cochrane disagrees - “it’s not about young people not being interested in politics, it’s that politicians are not interested in them, it’s a turning wheel, younger people don’t vote, so politicians don’t need to care for their votes”.
Politics.ie will be running an information campaign on its website over the next two weeks, and is encouraging everyone to ensure their friends and family know that there are only two weeks left, to ensure that on June 11, you can “Use Your Voice, by Using Your Vote”.
For a 'New Imperialism'
By Sebastian Mallaby
What's needed is a new style of imperialism, legitimized by international institutions and to some extent enforced by them. We need to make sure that the next time we go into a place like Iraq, we have an undisputed international mandate and backing from international nation-building experts. That means we need a fresh debate: Internationalist imperialism can't work without better international institutions.
This won't be a short debate. But we need, at a minimum, a way of legitimizing wars of preemption that is not so hostage to veto: The U.N. Security Council should have a weighted system of voting, so that players like Russia or France get a reasonably big say but not the ability to block everything. And we need an international institution that pools nation-building expertise. When a financial crisis breaks out, we have the International Monetary Fund. When a security crisis demands nation-building, we need an International Reconstruction Fund.
With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters worse."
[....]
Although it is still largely undocumented if any of the contractor named in the report of General Antonio Taguba were associated with the Israeli military or intelligence services, it is noteworthy that one, John Israel, who was identified in the report as being employed by both CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, and Titan, Inc., of San Diego, may not have even been a U.S. citizen. The Taguba report states that Israel did not have a security clearance, a requirement for employment as an interrogator for CACI. According to CACI's web site, "a Top Secret Clearance (TS) that is current and US citizenship" are required for CACI interrogators working in Iraq. In addition, CACI requires that its interrogators "have at least two years experience as a military policeman or similar type of law enforcement/intelligence agency whereby the individual utilized interviewing techniques."
Speculation that "John Israel" may be an intelligence cover name has fueled speculation whether this individual could have been one of a number of Israeli interrogators hired under a classified contract. Because U.S. citizenship and documentation thereof are requirements for a U.S. security clearance, Israeli citizens would not be permitted to hold a Top Secret clearance. However, dual U.S.-Israeli citizens could have satisfied Pentagon requirements that interrogators hold U.S. citizenship and a Top Secret clearance. Although the Taguba report refers twice to Israel as an employee of Titan, the company claims he is one of their sub-contractors. CACI stated that one of the men listed in the report "is not and never has been a CACI employee" without providing more detail. A U.S. intelligence source revealed that in the world of intelligence "carve out" subcontracts such confusion is often the case with "plausible deniability" being a foremost concern.
A Wretched New Picture Of America
Photos From Iraq Prison Show We Are Our Own Worst Enemy
By Philip Kennicott
The American leaders' response is a mixture of public disgust, and a good deal of resentment that they have, through these images, lost control of the ultimate image of the war. All the right people have pronounced themselves, sickened, outraged, speechless. But listen more closely. "And it's really a shame that just a handful can besmirch maybe the reputations of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers and sailors, airmen and Marines. . . . " said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sunday.
Reputation, image, perception. The problem, it seems, isn't so much the abuse of the prisoners, because we will get to the bottom of that and, of course, we're not really like that. The problem is our reputation. Our soldiers' reputations. Our national self-image. These photos, we insist, are not us.
[....]
But these photos are us.
[....]
These photos show us what we may become, as occupation continues, anger and resentment grows and costs spiral. There's nothing surprising in this. These pictures are pictures of colonial behavior, the demeaning of occupied people, the insult to local tradition, the humiliation of the vanquished. They are unexceptional. In different forms, they could be pictures of the Dutch brutalizing the Indonesians; the French brutalizing the Algerians; the Belgians brutalizing the people of the Congo.
The second issue of www.threemonkeysonline.com is online now. It includes articles on the May Day smear campaign and the scramble for Iraq's oil.
dwells on the US priority to maintain military superiority in space.
The militarisation of Space is illegal under many UN resolutions.
THis hasn't stopped them.
" few years ago, retired Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, the godfather of military space, issued a warning: America’s superiority in space, the cornerstone of US military power, was not secure. “We have almost no means to deny usage of space to an adversary,” said Schriever, “let alone protect our own usage.”
http://www.afa.org/magazine/May2004/0504edit.asp
And a reminder at this link you will find a photo of the first Saudi Prince astronaut.
about half way down.
http://www.bu.edu/remotesensing/Faculty/El-Baz/FEBactivities.html#Honorary%20Appointments
But while responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership.
The entire affair is a failure of leadership from start to finish. From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and isolated. The message to the troops: Anything goes.
In addition to the scores of prisoners who were humiliated and demeaned, at least 14 have died in custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army has ruled at least two of those homicides. This is not the way a free people keeps its captives or wins the hearts and minds of a suspicious world.
How tragically ironic that the American military, which was welcomed to Baghdad by the euphoric Iraqi people a year ago as a liberating force that ended 30 years of tyranny, would today stand guilty of dehumanizing torture in the same Abu Ghraib prison used by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen.
One can only wonder why the prison wasn’t razed in the wake of the invasion as a symbolic stake through the heart of the Baathist regime.
According to this BBC report, it is now the turn of Irish troops to get a dressing down. Allegations from the Eritrian government include Irish trops engaging in paedophilia, making porn, and all kinds of other things.
A far cry then, if this is true, from our distinguished record in peacekeeping...
The Bush administration's hopes for a major NATO military presence in Iraq this year appear doomed, interviews with allied defense officials and diplomats show.
The Western military alliance had expected to announce at a June summit that it would accept a role in the country, perhaps by leading the international division now patrolling south-central Iraq. But amid continuing bloodshed and strong public opposition to the occupation in many nations, allies want to delay any major commitment until after the U.S. presidential election in November, officials say.
[....]
U.S. officials had hoped that NATO could be convinced to accept a role through the influence of a core group of NATO members — Spain, Poland, Italy and Britain, with encouragement from the United States. Many European leaders believed opposition to sending troops would recede in their countries if the United States transferred sovereignty to a new Iraqi government and gave the United Nations a leading role in the effort.
But the U.S. hopes faded after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, which upended the political equation in Europe by motivating voters to elect a Spanish government that sided with Germany and France, which opposed the invasion of Iraq and have been skeptical about the Iraq war and the occupation. The death of one of several Italian hostages taken by insurgents has made it more difficult for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to argue for a NATO mission that would increase Italy's commitment.
And Why Democrats and Republicans refuse to accept debate
Latest articles and headlines from Frontlines, the newspaper of the Left
Frontlines
The Newspaper of the Left
http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Come visit us often as we publish daily
Latest Articles:
How the US Lost the War in Iraq and Why Republicans and Democrats Refuse to Accept Defeat
By Carlos Petroni
Monday, May 10, 2004
"The United States is not what is wrong with the world" -- Donald Rumsfeld
"Perish the Universe, provided I have my revenge" -- Cyrano de Bergerac
Let’s face it, George W. Bush and the US have already lost the war and occupation of Iraq. The only thing remaining is to find out how many more people, both Iraqis and US soldiers, will need to die before the US Armed Forces are chased out of Iraq for good and the Bush administration – along with their Democratic and Republican supporters in Congress – admit their failure.
Read more...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=520&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
------
500 Delegates, 35 Political Parties, form Moderate Anti-occupation Coalition Emerges in Baghdad, Rejects Collaborators
Al-Dhari has rejected the IGC (Iraqi Governing Council) calling it a US-imposed group
A pan-Iraqi group has been formed to oppose the occupation of Iraq and has immediately called for a meeting with UN envoy al-Akhdar al-Ibrahimi in a direct challenge to the country's US-appointed leadership.
About 500 Iraqis met in Baghdad on Saturday to set up a national political force free of US influence to push for a handover of sovereignty under the auspices of the United Nations.
Reads Read more...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=519&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
------
Washington Post: U.S. May Be Winning Battles in Iraq, Losing the War, Some Officers Say
Read More...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=518&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
------
"Private Contractor" Torin Nelson, professional interrogator, speaks about his job in Abu Ghraib
by Julian Borger in Washington
Read more...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=511&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
------
Ralph Nader's Presidential bid: The Power of a Peace Candidate
By Jackson Diehl
Why should voters choose Nader? Because Kerry, Nader told the reporters, "is stuck in the Iraq quagmire the same way Bush is." That leaves the independent as the sole choice for "the peace movement in this country."
A Washington Post/ABC News poll showed him at 3 percent in early March, about equal to the 2.8 percent he polled in 2000. Five weeks later he was at 6 percent in the same poll and 5 percent in the New York Times and CNN polls. According to those polls, almost all his support has been drawn from Kerry.
46% of Americans now think the US should leave Iraq immediately and the number is going nowhere but up.
Read more...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=502&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
------
NED: Exporting Bi-Partisan Imperialized "Democracy"
What is the NED -- National Endowment for Democracy -- up to?
By Benjamin Duncan in Washington, DC
Haiti anti-Aristide groups, Venezuelan opposition and Middle East collaborators among those to receive NED money
Recent media reports triggered accusations that NED may have indirectly contributed to political unrest in Venezuela by providing grants to organizations that oppose the Chavez government.
Read more...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=496&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
------
British Petroleum withdraws from Iraq, cites security and political troubles
Chief oil industry executive cites security and political fears
Read more...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=485&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
------
US soldiers opposed to the war in Iraq, fled to Canada, ask for political asylum
'Soldiers of Conscience' Take Sixties Route to Canada
by Marcus Warren
Two American soldiers opposed to the war in Iraq have abandoned their units and fled to Canada in a desertion evoking the exodus of young men north of the border during the Vietnam era.
The two soldiers are seeking asylum as refugees, arguing that they face persecution for their beliefs - and in theory the death penalty - if they return.
Read more...
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=482&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
------
San Francisco Metroscope
Deceivingly Local News
· Counterpunch: Ron Jacobs blasts SF Bay Guardian pro-war position of voting Kerry
· San Francisco cops attempt coup d'etat against civilian, elected officials
· Carole Migden, other Democrats and the Bay Guardian dump $$$ to influence the Green Party primaries
· Matt Gonzalez quits re-election bid. Is it all over for Greens and progressive leftists?
Read them at:
http://www.sf-frontlines.com
------
US News & Reports:
· Washington Post: U.S. May Be Winning Battles in Iraq, Losing the War, Some Officers Say
· Rumsfeld Under Fire, Testify amidst Protests by Code Pink and others
· Iraq: Cracks in the Empire's façade pre-announces its fall
· Should the Green Party mollify the Democrats?
Read them at:
http://www.sf-frontlines.com
------
International Newswire:
· An Illegal and Immoral War: Betrayed by Images of Our Own Racism
· How to Get Out of Iraq
· Jailed Iraqis Hidden from Red Cross, Says US Army . At least 25 prisoners were murdered while in US custody
· "What's the Difference Between Them & Saddam?" Iraqis: Disgusted, But Not Surprised at Torture
· Mercenaries Implicated in Iraqi Prison Abuse Remain on the Job
· Iraqi Editor, journalists from US-funded Al-Sabah newspaper quit, join opposition to the occupation
· The U.S. Has Lost the Battle of the Photographs
· US Defeat in Fallujah
· Why Antarctica will soon be the only place to live - literally
· New Yorker: Torture at Abu Ghraib
Read them at:
http://www.sf-frontlines.com
The Election Is Kerry's To Lose
By John Zogby
I have made a career of taking bungee jumps in my election calls. Sometimes I haven't had a helmet and I have gotten a little scratched. But here is my jump for 2004: John Kerry will win the election.
Have you recovered from the shock? Is this guy nuts? Kerry's performance of late has hardly been inspiring and polls show that most Americans have no sense of where he really stands on the key issues that matter most to them. Regardless, I still think that he will win. And if he doesn't, it will be because he blew it. There are four major reasons for my assertion....
A leading military newspaper editorialized that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld set the tone for the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq (news - web sites) by refusing to give captives rights due prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
"This was a failure that ran straight to the top," said the editorial appearing in the May 17 edition of the Military Times weeklies.
"Accountability here is essential -- even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war," it said.
The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing, according to British military sources.
The techniques devised in the system, called R2I - resistance to interrogation - match the crude exploitation and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad.
One former British special forces officer who returned last week from Iraq, said: "It was clear from discussions with US private contractors in Iraq that the prison guards were using R2I techniques, but they didn't know what they were doing."
[....]
A number of commercial firms which have been supplying interrogators to the US army in Iraq boast of hiring former US special forces soldiers, such as Navy Seals.
"The crucial difference from Iraq is that frontline soldiers who are made to experience R2I techniques themselves develop empathy. They realise the suffering they are causing. But people who haven't undergone this don't realise what they are doing to people. It's a shambles in Iraq".
The British former officer said the dissemination of R2I techniques inside Iraq was all the more dangerous because of the general mood among American troops.
"The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11".
By requesting that CBS delay its report on prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib by two weeks [news story, May 4], Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, deprived the country of a full and forthright oral argument before the Supreme Court on the rights of U.S. citizens whom the government has detained as "enemy combatants."
Oral argument in those cases, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Padilla v. Rumsfeld, ended about noon April 28. CBS aired the report eight hours later. Had the report aired the previous week, the government's responses to certain questions at oral argument would certainly have been different. Specifically, it would have been clear what abuses could be perpetrated under the government's theory that "enemy combatants" have no rights.
As it happened, the justices asked Principal Deputy Solicitor General Paul D. Clement what in the law would check the executive branch from torturing prisoners. He responded that the government would honor its obligations under the "convention to prohibit torture and that sort of thing."
He also explained that as a practical matter torture is not the best means of extracting information from prisoners, because one "would wonder about the reliability of the information you are getting"; the "way you get the best information from individuals is that you interrogate them, you try to develop a relationship of trust. . . ." Mr. Clement said that it is "the judgment of those involved in these processes, that the last thing you want to do is torture somebody." He concluded in response to a question about checks on the executive branch's authority to engage in torture: "You have to recognize that . . . where the government is on a war footing, you have to trust the executive ..."
As the abuses at Abu Ghraib show, one cannot simply trust the executive branch to protect human rights under U.S. criminal law, the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions. For the sake of our security and for the protection of human rights everywhere, we believe the court should agree.
JAMES F. FITZPATRICK
Washington
The writer, a partner at the law firm Arnold & Porter, filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the Supreme Court in the Hamdi and Padilla cases on behalf of Global Rights, a Washington-based international human rights group that he chairs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7016-2004May6.html
more info and commentary at
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/5/10/113239/665