Web / Press / Offsite Media Updates: August 2nd - August 8th

by redjade Tue Aug 03, 2004 12:37

A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition forces are holding more than 100 children in jails such as Abu Ghraib. Witnesses claim that the detainees – some as young as 10 – are also being subjected to rape and torture

[....]

It’s not certain exactly how many children are being held by coalition forces in Iraq, but a Sunday Herald investigation suggests there are up to 107. Their names are not known, nor is where they are being kept, how long they will be held or what has happened to them during their detention.

Proof of the widespread arrest and detention of children in Iraq by US and UK forces is contained in an internal Unicef report written in June. The report has – surprisingly – not been made public. A key section on child protection, headed “Children in Conflict with the Law or with Coalition Forces”, reads: “In July and August 2003, several meetings were conducted with CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) … and Ministry of Justice to address issues related to juvenile justice and the situation of children detained by the coalition forces … Unicef is working through a variety of channels to try and learn more about conditions for children who are imprisoned or detained, and to ensure that their rights are respected.”

[....]

Although most of the children are held in US custody, the Sunday Herald has established that some are held by the British Army. British soldiers tend to arrest children in towns like Basra, which are under UK control, then hand the youngsters over to the Americans who interrogate them and detain them.

Between January and May this year the Red Cross registered a total of 107 juveniles in detention during 19 visits to six coalition prisons. The aid organisation’s Rana Sidani said they had no complete information about the ages of those detained, or how they had been treated. The deteriorating security situation has prevented the Red Cross visiting all detention centres.

by redjade Tue Aug 03, 2004 12:42

By Robert Fisk

But don’t think we’re going to learn much more about Saddam’s future court appearances. Salem Chalabi, the brother of convicted fraudster Ahmad and the man entrusted by the Americans with the tribunal, told the Iraqi press two weeks ago that all media would be excluded from future court hearings. And I can see why. Because if Saddam does a Milosevic, he’ll want to talk about the real intelligence and military connections of his regime – which were primarily with the United States.

by redjade Tue Aug 03, 2004 13:58

The Muslim chaplain in the Army who was once accused of being a spy at the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay Navy Base submitted a letter of resignation yesterday saying that he had never received an apology for being locked up for 76 days before the case against him collapsed and that his personal belongings in Cuba were not returned.

Army Captain James Yee notified his commanding officer that he will seek a discharge from the military in January, citing the espionage allegations against him that were leaked to the media in September 2003 and that "irreparably injured my personal and professional reputation and destroyed my prospects for a career in the United States Army."

The letter from Yee, who has been stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., since court-martial proceedings against him foundered earlier this year, is his first publicly available comments about his case because he is under orders not to make any speech that would be "disrespectful" toward military authorities or other officials or to criticize military policy in a "disloyal" manner.

by iosaf Tue Aug 03, 2004 16:03

today's mainstream european and east coast american press focus on the information which last weekend brought NYC and Washington to Orange alert again.
Apparantly it's years old. To be precise the documents and "most impressive intelligence gathering yet seen" on AlQ targetting of financial district targets in the USA was compiled before 911.
Not withstanding, the Bush administration saw fit to rattle the chains. I believe this to be low key terror. If tomorrow my local government were to say we have proof that AlQ have been casing targets in Madrid and are ready to strike "imminently", many ordinary residents would again be terrorised.
They would not want to take the metro, to enter a large bank to carry on as normal. Were then a few days later it to emerge that this "alert" is based on information which is over two years old, those people of Madrid would appear manipulated and terrorised.

Make no mistake, over 3,000 people died on 911, that means tens of thousands of victims are still trying to understand the loss of family members. Likewise near 200 died 311 and thousands more are still trying to come to terms with the questions - "who? / why?".

It is the work of governments and part of the contract between state and ruled to protect the citizen from insecurity and attack.
The Bush administration based on the information publically and globally available failed to protect 3000 citizens of NYC and more in Washington that year. Since then more citizens have died throughout the Western alliance and arguably millions have fallen victim to the mass psychological manipulation of "terror alerts".

If this alone is a reason to ensure that every American voter _you know_ registers, and votes _against_ Bush it is a good one.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/dh/0,14-0@14-0@2-3208,39-23378211,0.html
http://www.libe.com/page.php?Article=228180
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1275178,00.html

by redjade Tue Aug 03, 2004 16:13

Security-wise, the situation is both better and worse all at once. The streets feel a little bit safer because you can see policemen standing around in the more crowded areas and even in some residential areas. There aren't nearly enough to keep things secure, but just seeing someone standing there is a little bit comforting. At the same time, kidnappings have multiplied. It's an epidemic now. Everyone seems to know someone who was abducted. Some are abducted for ransom while others are abducted for religious or political reasons. The abduction of foreigners is on the increase. People coming and going from Syria and Jordan tell stories of how their convoy or bus or private car was stopped in the middle of the road by men with covered faces and how passports and documents are checked. Should anything suspicious surface (like a British or American passport), the whole thing immediately turns from a 'check' or 'tafteesh' to an abduction.

I get emails by the dozen from people crying out against the abduction of foreigners. Endlessly I read the lines, "But these people are there to help you- they are aide workers" or "But the press is there for a good cause", etc. What people abroad don't seem to realize is the fact that everything is mixed up right now. Seeing a foreigner, there's often no way to tell who is who. The blonde guy in the sunglasses and beige vest walking down the street could be a reporter or someone who works with a humanitarian group- but he could just as likely be 'security' from one of those private mercenary companies we're hearing so much about.

Is there sympathy with all these abductees? There is. We hate seeing them looking frightened on television. We hate thinking of the fact that they have families and friends who worry about them in distant countries and wonder how in the world they managed to end up in the hell that is now Iraq… but for every foreigner abducted, there are probably 10 Iraqis being abducted and while we have to be here because it is home, truck drivers, security personnel for foreign companies and contractors do not. Sympathy has its limits in the Iraqi summer heat. Dozens of Iraqis are dying on a daily basis in places like Falloojeh and Najaf and everyone is mysteriously silent- one Brit, American or Pakistani dies and the world is in an uproar- it is getting tiresome.

by unknown Tue Aug 03, 2004 16:32

The murder of a Turkish hostage by militants in Iraq.
Vidéo: Otage de mise à mort de militanux -- cette vidéo montre un bandit armé masqué pompant trois balles dans la tête d'un homme dans ce qui semble être le meurtre d'un otage turc par des militanux en Irak. - AVERTISSANT - cette page contient la longueur et les images visuelles du meurtre de Murat Yuce d'Ankara. Cette vidéo devrait seulement être regardée par une assistance mûre.

http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/756241.htm

by redjade Tue Aug 03, 2004 18:18

John Kerry's vague plan to "internationalize" the situation in Iraq has come in for pretty heavy criticism. ("What's he gonna do, get the French involved?") Well, ridicule no more. Juan Cole has offered up a specific outline on how to internationalize the occupation in Iraq.

The basic idea would be to hand over the occupation to the UN, which would give itself an "active peacekeeping" mandate. After that, Cole argues, a number of non-neighboring Muslim countries such as Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco would supply enough troops to supplant the U.S. divisions, allowing us to rotate out most of our forces. (Saudi Arabia has already proposed something similar.) The key is to relinquish U.S. control over the military command structure, something that George Bush would never allow.

The plan sounds quite realistic, though there are quite a few stumbling blocks....

More at Mother Jones....
http://www.motherjones.com/news/blog/2004/08/MB_2004_32.html#7

Juan Cole's Thoughts....
http://www.juancole.com/2004_07_01_juancole_archive.html#109116708270999002

by .:.liberté .:. fraternité .:. egalité Tue Aug 03, 2004 21:09

.:. Equity

Oh yes, New Yorkers may be sweltering in the summer time stench, and expecting their imminent terrorist event on the basis of three year old intelligence which one "high ranking" inteligence source had not seen in his 24 years work, sort of makes you think what he has seen for the last three years when like he was we were told on more than orange alert and cough cough working night and day twenty four seven...

So Liberté reopens.
But only the base.
Visitors won't yet be allowed climb the statue inside, which as I never tire of reminding people was a jolly nice present to the peoples of America back in the days when they most definitely stood for something.

Visitors from today may enjoy the base- Oh yes let me remind you that Liberty spent several years waiting on the pedestal to be built, as the French didn't supply it, and the New Yorkers didn't care enough to supply the cash until Hersh the Media magnate succeeded in making it a subscription kudos thing.
I'll leave you the Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)poem as a bonus-
""Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me;
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.""

---oh yeah. whatever.

by merrovinginvanjan Tue Aug 03, 2004 21:13

Updates on Irish and British press have been confirmed by a member of the diplomatic corp-

An Irishman has been killed in Suadi Arabia.
It would be the second killing of an Irish national by Saudi militants in two months. On June 6, Simon Cumbers, 36, a cameraman with the BBC, was shot and killed while filming a militant's family home in Riyadh.

His name has not yet been released.

by redjade Wed Aug 04, 2004 11:23

George W. Bush, August 2nd 2004: “Let me talk about the intelligence in Iraq. First of all, we all thought we’d find stockpiles of weapons. We may still find weapons. We haven’t found them yet. Every person standing up here would say, 'Gosh, we thought it was going to be different.; As did congress, by the way. Member of both parties. And the United Nations. But what we do know is that Saddam Hussein had the capability of making weapons. And ... umm … but let me just say this to you. Knowing what I know today, we still would have gone on into Iraq. We still would have gone to make our country more secure. He had the capability of making weapons. He had terrorist ties. The decision I made was the right decision. The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.”

by redjade Wed Aug 04, 2004 11:29

In a significant shift in U.S. policy, the Bush administration announced this week that it will oppose provisions for inspections and verification as part of an international treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons materials.

For several years the United States and other nations have pursued the treaty, which would ban new production by any state of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons. At an arms-control meeting this week in Geneva, the Bush administration told other nations it still supported a treaty, but not verification.

[....]

Arms-control specialists reacted negatively, saying the change in U.S. position will dramatically weaken any treaty and make it harder to prevent nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists. The announcement, they said, also virtually kills a 10-year international effort to lure countries such as Pakistan, India and Israel into accepting some oversight of their nuclear production programs.

by redjade Wed Aug 04, 2004 14:23

Even after the ‘transfer of authority’ the U.S. Government remains in de facto military occupation of Iraq. The idea that the escalation of violence can be put to an end by the ‘interim’ government, while 140,000 U.S troops remain in control of major Iraqi cities like Mosul and Baghdad, is far from the reality on the ground.

Overlooked by the U.S. Press is the escalating assassination of Iraqi academics, intellectuals, and lecturers. More than 250 college professors since April 30, 2003, according to the Iraqi Union of University Lecturers, have been the targets of assassination.

by Michael Hennigan - Finfacts Wed Aug 04, 2004 15:13 finfacts at finfacts dot ie 087 2474328

In his book, 'What's the Matter With Kansas?' Thomas Frank refers to what he calls the 'thirty-year backlash' -- the populist revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment. The high point of that backlash is the Republican Party's success in building the most unnatural of alliances: between blue-collar Midwesterners and Wall Street business interests, workers and bosses, populists and right-wingers.

Frank was at the Democratic Party National Convention last week and attended a party that was sponsored by a film industry lobby group. He views celebrity supporters of the Democrats as a gift for the Republican Party.

Click for this article:

http://www.finfacts.com/comment/celebritiespoliticsmoneycomment20.htm

by redjade Wed Aug 04, 2004 16:36

from The New England Journal of Medicine:

There is increasing evidence that U.S. doctors, nurses, and medics have been complicit in torture and other illegal procedures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Such medical complicity suggests still another disturbing dimension of this broadening scandal.

We know that medical personnel have failed to report to higher authorities wounds that were clearly caused by torture and that they have neglected to take steps to interrupt this torture. In addition, they have turned over prisoners' medical records to interrogators who could use them to exploit the prisoners' weaknesses or vulnerabilities. We have not yet learned the extent of medical involvement in delaying and possibly falsifying the death certificates of prisoners who have been killed by torturers.

by redjade Wed Aug 04, 2004 16:39

The new classified military documents offer a chilling picture of what happened at Abu Ghraib -- including detailed reports that U.S. troops and translators sodomized and raped Iraqi prisoners. The secret files -- 106 "annexes" that the Defense Department withheld from the Taguba report last spring -- include nearly 6,000 pages of internal Army memos and e-mails, reports on prison riots and escapes, and sworn statements by soldiers, officers, private contractors and detainees. The files depict a prison in complete chaos. Prisoners were fed bug-infested food and forced to live in squalid conditions; detainees and U.S. soldiers alike were killed and wounded in nightly mortar attacks; and loyalists of Saddam Hussein served as guards in the facility, apparently smuggling weapons to prisoners inside.

The files make clear that responsibility for what Taguba called "sadistic, blatant and wanton" abuses extends to several high-ranking officers still serving in command positions. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who is now in charge of all military prisons in Iraq, was dispatched to Abu Ghraib by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last August. In a report marked secret, Miller recommended that military police at the prison be "actively engaged in setting the conditions for successful exploitation of the internees." After his plan was adopted, guards began depriving prisoners of sleep and food, subjecting them to painful "stress positions" and terrorizing them with dogs. A former Army intelligence officer tells Rolling Stone that the intent of Miller's report was clear to everyone involved: "It means treat the detainees like shit until they will sell their mother for a blanket, some food without bugs in it and some sleep."

by redjade Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:23

Halliburton Co. and other U.S. contractors are being paid at least $1.9 billion from Iraqi funds under an arrangement set by the U.S.-led occupation authority, according to a review of documents and interviews with government agencies, companies and auditors.

Most of the money is for two controversial deals that originally had been financed with money approved by the U.S. Congress, but later shifted to Iraqi funds that were governed by fewer restrictions and less rigorous oversight.

For the first 14 months of the occupation, officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority provided little detailed information about the Iraqi money, from oil sales and other sources, that it spent on reconstruction contracts. They have said that it was used for the benefit of the Iraqi people and that most of the contracts paid from Iraqi money went to Iraqi companies. But the CPA never released information about specific contracts and the identities of companies that won them, citing security concerns, so it has been impossible to know whether these promises were kept.

by redjade Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:25

Halliburton Co. secretly changed its accounting practices when Vice President Dick Cheney was its chief executive officer, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday as it fined the company $7.5 million and brought actions against two former financial officials.

The commission said the accounting change enabled Halliburton, one of the nation's largest energy services companies, to report annual earnings in 1998 that were 46 percent higher than they would have been had the change not been made. It also allowed the company to report a substantially higher profit in 1999, the commission said.

by redjade Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:27

During the period of 1965-1973 more than 50,000 draft-age Americans made their way to Canada, refusing to participate in an immoral war. At the time, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said: "Those who make the conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war... have my complete sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism."

Thirty years later, Canada is faced with the same moral choice ­ to give refuge to those who refuse to be accomplices in the US-led war on Iraq which many legal opinions have deemed illegal under international law.

There are currently at least two young people who have made their way to Canada in objection to the US government¹s war on Iraq. Jeremy Hinzman was a soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division. He and his family arrived in Toronto in January 2004 and are currently seeking refugee status. Brandon Hughey, a 19-year-old American soldier, arrived in St. Catharines two months later and is also seeking refugee status.

Regardless of the technical decisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board, we believe Canada should not punish US war objectors for exercising their conscience and refusing to fight. If they are returned to the United States, they face incarceration and possibly even the death penalty. Canada must not facilitate the persecution of American war objectors by returning them to the United States....

by redjade Thu Aug 05, 2004 12:50

The village of Ya'bad is deep into the West Bank, east of Jenin, and unfortunatley for the 1000 plus residents, is also situated along a Settler road. To 'protect' the illegal Israeli settlers, the Israeli military has put a road block at the entrance of the village, forcing the people to find an alternative road through olive groves, farmers' fields and farmyards to reach the town of Jenin, where many work, go to school and Uninversity, and of course to hospitals.

After almost a year of this situation, the villagers decided to try and dismantle this road-block and asked for Internationals to be present to as Observers. About 30 ISMers arrived from around the region. Two of the Internationals were delegated to approach the soldiers to negotiate. (Soldiers and jeeps had arrived almost as soon as the villagers had gathered). The soldiers only responded by saying 'GO BACK TO THE VILLAGE'. The people were already in the village.

Without any further warning, and with ABSOLUTELY NO PROVACATION (not a stone was thrown) the soldiers then responded with tear-gas, A LOT of tear-gas. One exloded at the feet of a young man from the US and he inhaled so much gas he collapsed, he has internal bleeding and his face is badly scrathed. Another Irish woman was badly bruised in the leg where a canister hit her, and a young Swedish woman was also hit on the head by one and was rushed by the village ambulnace to the local Medical centre. Later there I filmed a little baby of about 8 months, who was very badly affected by the gas, it had landed in her back garden.

The soldiers continued firing tear gas and later sound bombs which are terrifyingly loud, but the very brave Palestinian villagers stood there ground, they were more concerned for the safety of the internationals, while also appreciating that our presence was the only reason the Army wasn't using live ammunition.

by Uncompetitive Thu Aug 05, 2004 14:34

"Without visible street protests our efforts in internet and the alternative press accomplishes little or nothing"

by redjade Thu Aug 05, 2004 17:15

The progressive, though highly uneven, secularization of Europe is an undeniable social fact.(1) An increasing majority of the European population has ceased participating in traditional religious practices, at least on a regular basis, while still maintaining relatively high levels of private individual religious beliefs. In this respect, one should perhaps talk of the unchurching of the European population and of religious individualization, rather than of secularization. Grace Davie has characterized this general European situation as 'believing without belonging'.(2) At the same time, however, large numbers of Europeans even in the most secular countries still identify themselves as "Christian," pointing to an implicit, diffused and submerged Christian cultural identity. In this sense, Danièle Hervieu-Léger is also correct when she offers the reverse characterization of the European situation as "belonging without believing."(3) "Secular" and "Christian" cultural identities are intertwined in complex and rarely verbalized modes among most Europeans.

The most interesting issue sociologically is not the fact of progressive religious decline among the European population, but the fact that this decline is interpreted through the lenses of the secularization paradigm and is therefore accompanied by a "secularist" self-understanding that interprets the decline as "normal" and "progressive", that is, as a quasi-normative consequence of being a "modern" and "enlightened" European. It is this "secular" identity shared by European elites and ordinary people alike that paradoxically turns "religion" and the barely submerged Christian European identity into a thorny and perplexing issue when it comes to delimiting the external geographic boundaries and to defining the internal cultural identity of a European Union in the process of being constituted.

by redjade Fri Aug 06, 2004 10:23

'Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.'

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&u=/nm/20040805/ts_nm/bush_misspeak_dc_2&printer=1

Video Clip:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/movies/0805041bush.mov

-- --
Amusing thing is, Rummy stands next to Dubya the whole time and doesn't seem to notice

by redjade Fri Aug 06, 2004 10:28

For President Bush, the first family and Bush's top aides, the most generous foreign leader last year - by far - was Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

The State Department's annual tally of gifts to administration officials shows that Abdullah gave them $127,600 in jewelry and other presents last year, including a diamond-and-sapphire jewelry set for first lady Laura Bush that was valued at $95,500.

The Saudi royal family's gifts dwarfed those of other world leaders, according to the tally, and easily eclipsed Abdullah's $55,020 in gifts in 2002. Abdullah has been Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler since 1996 after a stroke sidelined King Fahd.

All of Abdullah's gifts, and most others, sit in the National Archives. By law, federal employees must report all gifts received from foreign governments.

by redjade Fri Aug 06, 2004 10:39

Once the U.S. occupation of Iraq began over a year ago, Iraqi workers lost no time in reorganizing their country’s labor movement. Labor activity spread from Baghdad to the Kurdish north, with the center of the storm in the south, in the oil and electrical installations around Basra, and the port of Um Qasr.

Workers quickly discovered that the occupation authorities had little respect for labor rights, however. Once the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) took power in Baghdad in March of 2003, it began enforcing a 1987 law banning unions in public enterprises, where most Iraqis are employed. On top of this, CPA head Paul Bremer added Public Order #1, banning pronouncements that “incite civil disorder, rioting, or damage to property.” The phrase civil disorder can easily apply to organizing strikes, and leaders of both the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and Iraq’s Union of the Unemployed have been detained a number of times.

[....]

Iraqi Labor Resurgent

Low wages have driven the upsurge in Iraqi labor activity, including three general strikes in Basra alone. Following the arrival of U.S. troops, Iraqi public sector workers began receiving emergency salaries dictated by the Coalition Provisional Authority—roughly from $60 to $120 monthly. Then the CPA’s Order #30 on Reform of Salaries and Employment Conditions of State Employees last September lowered the base to $40, and eliminated housing and food subsidies.

Wages for Iraqi longshoremen, working for the port authority in Um Qasr, were cut even further when the occupation started, because their profit sharing arrangement, in which they’d received 2% of unloading fees, was terminated. When authorities decided in October to pay them in Iraqi dinars instead of dollars—another sizeable loss—the workers began organizing a union.

On the day they were set to vote on the officers for their new union, Port Director Abdel Razzaq told them the election was cancelled because of the 1987 prohibition. In November, he fired three port workers for trying to organize.

by redjade Fri Aug 06, 2004 10:53

The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
By ROBERT A. PAPE
The University of Chicago

Suicide terrorism is rising around the world, but the most common explanations do not help us understand why. Religious fanaticism does not explain why the world leader in suicide terrorism is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a group that adheres to a Marxist/Leninist ideology, while existing psychological explanations have been contradicted by the widening range of socio-economic backgrounds of suicide terrorists. To advance our understanding of this growing phenomenon, this study collects the universe of suicide terrorist attacks worldwide from 1980 to 2001, 187 in all. In contrast to the existing explanations, this study shows that suicide terrorism follows a strategic logic, one specifically designed to coerce modern liberal democracies to make significant territorial concessions. Moreover, over the past two decades, suicide terrorism has been rising largely because terrorists have learned that it pays. Suicide terrorists sought to compel American and French military forces to abandon Lebanon in 1983, Israeli forces to leave Lebanon in 1985, Israeli forces to quit the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1994 and 1995, the Sri Lankan government to create an independent Tamil state from 1990 on, and the Turkish government to grant autonomy to the Kurds in the late 1990s. In all but the case of Turkey, the terrorist political cause made more gains after the resort to suicide operations than it had before. Thus, Western democracies should pursue policies that teach terrorists that the lesson of the 1980s and 1990s no longer holds, policies which in practice may have more to do with improving homeland security than with offensive military action.

PDF File...

by redjade Fri Aug 06, 2004 11:16

There are few things that are quite evident from the chart:

- Whenever his ratings dip, there's a new terror alert.

- Every terror alert is followed by a slight uptick of Bush approval ratings.

- As we approach the 2004 elections, the number and frequency of terror alerts keeps growing, to the point that they collapse in the graphic. At the same time, Bush ratings are lower than ever.

text from
http://juliusblog.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_juliusblog_archive.html#109156476570482138

Chart Graphic
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/227/958/640/approval_alert_graph2.jpg

by EU Fri Aug 06, 2004 13:40

82.69%, it's the average attendance to plenary sessions of Members of the European Parliament as resulting only from the signing on the attendance register of each sitting.

The unofficial site
http://www.europarliament.net/

by iosaf Fri Aug 06, 2004 21:35

As the Sudanese crises continues, aid agencies estimate 80% of refugees to be either women or children, and the minister of defence for France today visited the area and commited "as long as is neccesary" the military assistance of France.

by paul c Fri Aug 06, 2004 22:03

I was wondering about the fighting in Najaf and whether to believe that the 300 claim to be hundred killed by the Us were actually all insurgents?

What to believe

www.aljazeera.com - U.S.: 300 rebels killed in two days

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=2870

english.aljazeera.net - Najaf toll: US claims 300, fighters say 36

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/40B1A9EE-08BC-47C2-937D-2E48A5845B53.htm

by io Fri Aug 06, 2004 22:13

"The Belarussian delegation to the Olympic Games in Athens is to be led by Mr Yury Sivakov, minister of Sport of Belarus. Mr Sivakov is one of the key figures identified in the report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on disappeared persons in Belarus adopted on 28 April 2004 (the so-called Pourgourides Report). Against this background, the European Union considers the presence of Mr Sivakov at the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens to be completely inappropriate. The European Union is of the opinion that Mr Sivakov should be prevented from attending the Olympic Games."

read it all at link

by - Sat Aug 07, 2004 15:20

Whilst the US go on killing Iraqi insurgents in the town of Najaf.
http://aljazeera.com

by :-) Sat Aug 07, 2004 15:28

worth a read if you're an over worked worker or an undersexed punkii.

by iosaf Sun Aug 08, 2004 19:58

" frequently counsel people who are getting frustrated about an edit war to think about someone who lives without clean drinking water, without any proper means of education, and how our work might someday help that person. It puts flamewars into some perspective, I think."

read the interview at-
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/28/1351230

Wikipedia is the online encylopedia in case you didn't know, it's currently almost 2 years old and getting bigger day by day. If you disagree with an entry you can propose an edit. If you don't find what you're looking for, you can start the article. There is a lot of Irish related information missing.

So knowledgeable trollish types could do something useful.
http://www.wikipedia.org

by John Meehan Sun Aug 08, 2004 20:26

Following the decision of President Lula's Workers' Party (PT) to expel left-wing dissidents including Senator Helena Heloisa, a new left wing party has been established : the following article by Andrew Kennedy assesses these developments :

http://www.socialistresistance.net/PSOL.htm

by redjade Mon Aug 09, 2004 12:41

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was invited to monitor the election by the State Department. The observers will come from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election.

"The U.S. is obliged to invite us, as all OSCE countries should," spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said. "It's not legally binding, but it's a political commitment. They signed a document 10 years ago to ask OSCE to observe elections."

Thirteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives, raising the specter of possible civil rights violations that they said took place in Florida and elsewhere in the 2000 election, wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July, asking him to send observers.

After Annan rejected their request, saying the administration must make the application, the Democrats asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to do so.

The issue was hotly debated in the House, and Republicans got an amendment to a foreign aid bill that barred federal funds from being used for the United Nations to monitor U.S. elections, The Associated Press reported.

by redjade Mon Aug 09, 2004 13:05

The warrants, issued Saturday, accused Ahmad Chalabi of counterfeiting old Iraqi dinars -- which had been removed from circulation following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last year, [the investigating judge] said.

Ahmad Chalabi appeared to have been hiding the counterfeit money amid other old money and changing it into new dinars in the street, he said.

Police found the counterfeit money along with old dinars in Ahmad Chalabi's house during a May raid, he said.

Salem Chalabi, Ahmad Chalabi's nephew and the head of the tribunal trying Saddam, was named as a suspect in the June murder of the Haithem Fadhil, director general of the finance ministry.

Both men were reportedly out of the country Sunday.

by redjade Mon Aug 09, 2004 13:56

South Africa's New National Party, the political force that ran a dictatorship during four decades of apartheid and then ceded power peacefully in democratic elections in 1994, announced Saturday that it was folding for lack of voter support.

The leaders and members of Parliament from the party will be offered immediate membership in the African National Congress, the majority black party that trounced it in the 1994 elections, the New National Party's spokeswoman, Carol Johnson, told the SAPA news service.

The New National Party will exist in name until September 2005, the next time the Parliament allows its members to switch loyalties. But it will effectively cease operations in the next few weeks when its chairman, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, applies for African National Congress membership.

It was unclear how many of the party's politicians and supporters would follow Mr. van Schalkwyk, but Ms. Johnson said its leaders would begin a national campaign this month to urge them to join the African National Congress.

by io Mon Aug 09, 2004 17:59

link to sort of funny illustrations of the National Threat Advisory Color Codes, you know the ones, red, orange, yellow, green and blue.

by saf Mon Aug 09, 2004 18:01

read at link-

by CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS Mon Aug 09, 2004 18:15

Militants Behead Man in Video on Internet
Militants Behead Man in Video on Internet
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040809_483.html

Video of beheading of Bulgarian Hostage
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/765527.htm