Taken from the Guardian, UK
Ed Pilkington, April 10 2008
Interviews with hundreds of children removed from a polygamist sect in Texas have revealed that several underage girls were forced into "spiritual marriage" with much older men as soon as they reached puberty and were then made pregnant, according to investigators.
A total of 416 children, mainly girls, have now been taken into state custody after five days of raids on the Yearn for Zion ranch in Eldorado, west Texas. Court documents reveal the children were removed for fear they were at risk of "emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse".
A further 139 women left the ranch voluntarily to accompany the girls, and are being held with them. A local court has granted state custody of all the children until a hearing later this month.
The 1,700-acre ranch is the retreat of a group from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a 10,000-strong splinter sect that broke with the main Mormon church when it denounced polygamy in the 1890s. The compound was built in 2004 in a remote location in the prairies by Warren Jeffs, the then "prophet" of the sect who is currently in jail in Arizona awaiting trial over charges relating to the arranged marriages of three teenage girls. He has already been sentenced to 10 years to life imprisonment in the state of Utah.
The raids were sparked by a telephone call from a 16-year-old girl inside the Yearn for Zion compound to a local family violence shelter on March 29. She said she had been forced to become the seventh "spiritual wife" of a man aged 50, who made her pregnant with a child, now aged eight months, and then made her pregnant for a second time. The girl said other girls, some as young as 13, had been forced to have sex with older men for procreation. She said she had been beaten by her "husband" so badly that on one occasion several of her ribs were broken. The beatings included hitting her on the chest and choking her, the affidavit says, while another woman held her baby.
The police are searching for the man, Dale Barlow. They are also continuing to search for the girl, whose identity has not been released and who has yet to be found among the 416 children taken into care.
The court papers give new details about the isolated life of the sect.
The compound is self-sufficient, in order to avoid contact with the "outsiders' world". In addition to a temple, the ranch includes a cement factory, a school, a cheese factory and medical centre.
Women wear home-sewn dresses and are not allowed to wear red, which Jeffs decreed was reserved for Jesus, or cut their hair. They live on a diet of dairy produce, vegetables, berries, nuts and honey.
Sect members were only allowed out of the compound for emergencies. The 16-year-old who sounded the alarm told the shelter that she had been warned that if she left the ranch, "outsiders will hurt her, force her to cut her hair, to wear makeup and to have sex with lots of men", the documents say.
Several of the teenage girls were found to have children or are pregnant. Many could not spell their last names or state their birth date.
The sect believes that polygamy for men is an essential religious practice. Underage girls were married to older men of the church's choosing, the affidavit says.
The leader of the ranch, Merrill Jessop, has called for a public outcry over the raids, saying the "hauling off of women and children matches anything in Russia or Germany".
Lawyers for the church have filed a court petition to quash the searches on the grounds they are unconstitutional as the authorities lack sufficient evidence to justify the intrusion.
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Latest Update - 25th May 08: Members of a polygamist sect in Texas were overjoyed after an appeal court ordered the state authorities to return 440 children taken from a church compound during a raid. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said on Thursday that the state had failed to show that the children were in any immediate danger – the only justification under Texas law for taking children from their parents without a court order. Child-protection officials argued that five of the girls had become pregnant under the age of 16 and that the sect was essentially a paedophile ring. Warren Jeffs, the “prophet” of the church, is serving a ten-year sentence in Utah for rape. The decision to return the children was seen as an embarrassment for the child welfare authority and as vindication for members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), who claim that they are being subjected to religious persecution.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Children removed from sect in Texas tell of girls forced into sex with older men
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Storm in a shot glass as advert redraws map of Americas
Taken from The Independent, UK
By David Usborne, 8 April 2008
A whimsical ad by the makers of Absolut vodka aimed solely at consumers in Mexico has drawn the ire of some sovereignty-sensitive Americans, forcing the company to issue an unusual apology.
The storm in a shot glass was provoked by advertisements that depict an antique map of North America dating back to before the 1848 Mexican-American War, when large swaths of what is now the United States, including all of California and other south-western states, belonged to Mexico. One of a series of ads that run under the tag-line "In an Absolut World", the spot was a cheeky attempt to tap into simmering nationalistic sentiments in Mexico, which chafes at its status as the "poor neighbour" of a country that it once partly owned.
If in Mexico they smiled at the notional re-conquering of their lost lands, the reaction in El Norte has been more mixed than a dirty martini. The company has been assailed by American vodka fans, mostly writing in blogs on the internet, accusing it of inflaming passions about an already touchy political subject: illegal immigration and plans to erect a fence along the existing border.
The Swedish beverage giant, which was bought last week by the French group Pernod Ricard, has even been charged with encouraging Mexicans to enter the US without proper papers.
"We are sorry if we offended anyone," the company said in its own blog on the Absolut website. "This was not our intention. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal." Also on the defensive was the company's spokesman in New York, Jeffrey Moran. "This ad certainly has nothing to do with immigration issues or anti-Mexican sentiments," he insisted. "It's based on a historical perspective on what Mexico was once. That's all."
The blogospheric bashing of Absolut was set off by the conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, who posted the Mexican ad on michellemalkin.com, her blog site. From there it quickly migrated to other US sites, including the influential drudgereport.com, further kindling criticism.
"I find this ad deeply offensive and needlessly divisive," one blogger simply named "New Yorker" said on MexicoReporter.com: "I will now make a point of drinking other brands."
Another Outraged of the US added: "Absolut is pandering to ignorance, historical illiteracy and Mexican national chauvinism. I'll never drink Absolut again."
That Absolut may have touched a sweet and a sour nerve simultaneously on each side of the border may now seem obvious. While history classes in America teach that the territories were legally purchased from Mexico after the conclusion of the war, many Mexicans still feel they were stolen.
"This advertising basically taps into a very painful episode of Mexico's history, so the cultural code for understanding that is, 'We were robbed,'" commented Eduardo Caccia, an executive at Mindcode, a Mexico City advertising consultancy. "For the US it's different. The understanding for that episode is 'We bought some land. We made a deal.' The same event, but with different meanings."
The loss of what was once Alta California and the other states to the US, including Texas (although it had broken away in 1836 after its own war of independence with Mexico), Arizona and New Mexico, was sealed with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the war.
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The land grab by the United States will eventually be offset by the demographic change that is taking place in America - where it's estimated that within 10 years, hispanics will become the majority in these parts of the United States - Hola!
Father and daughter have child
Taken from Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
APP - April 7, 2008
A South Australian woman has given birth to her father's daughter after the couple had sex.
John and Jenny Deaves reunited 30 years after Mr Deaves separated from Jenny's mother.
Jenny was 31 and, just two weeks after meeting, father and daughter had sex.
"John and I are in this relationship as consenting adults," Mrs Deaves told the Nine Network last night.
"We are just asking for a little bit of respect and understanding."
Their 11-month-old daughter Celeste, shown on TV, appears fit and healthy.
Ms Deaves said soon after reuniting with her father she began to see him as a man first and her father second.
"I was looking at him, sort of going, 'Oh, he's not too bad.'
"Like you might look at a man across the bar at a nightclub."
Ms Deaves brought two children, Samantha and Alex, into the relationship after splitting from her former partner.
Mr Deaves admitted that he "initially" thought having sex with his daughter was wrong.
"Emotions take over. As people no doubt realise, there are times during your life where emotions do rule the heart, it rules the head," he said.
"I knew it was illegal. Of course I knew it was illegal but you know, so what."
Ms Deaves said the physical relationship with her father was like "a sexual relationship with any other man".
For Mr Deaves the sexual relationship was "absolutely fantastic".
A South Australian police media spokesman said: "The couple is being monitored."
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LATEST UPDATE 08.04.08: latest court transcripts have revealed that the father and daughter had another baby seven years ago, who died from a congenital heart defect.
I just hope that the new baby does not have the same defects. This is why it is very wrong to marry family members - firstly it is morally wrong but also there is a big chance that the genes of the two parenst will be too close and the ofspring will have defects/ suffer from mutations.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
UK children rescued from worldwide sex abuse ring
Taken from The Guardian, UK, 6 March 2008
Detectives in three continents believe they have broken one of the most sophisticated paedophile rings ever. Eight British children between six and 14 years old have been rescued and arrests made in the UK, Australia and the US.
The ring used advanced techniques to avoid detection and one member boasted of belonging to the "greatest group of paedos ever to gather in one place".
Police traced the victims to addresses in the UK, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) Centre said. Some had been abused by their parents. The arrests followed a two-year inquiry which began in Australia, spread to Europe and was coordinated by the FBI in the US.
The US was chosen as the base for police operations as most of the sex ring's members were American residents, police said.
A total of 22 people were arrested last week, including two men in the UK, in the final strike against the ring. Six further British men have already been jailed for their roles in trading and receiving pictures and videos on the network.
The newsgroup members gained access to the ring by providing pictures of child sexual abuse.
According to US court documents, one member in Florida labelled one folder of images "mild" and another "wild". James Freeman, who used the nickname "Mystikal", bragged: "All I can say is they are worth the download." According to the US indictment against Freeman, seen by the Guardian, he wrote: "My thanks to you and all the others that together make this the greatest group of paedos ever to gather in one place."
Paul Griffiths, who heads the victim identification team at Ceop, based in the UK, said the children were subjected to horrendous abuse. "In every image there is a child. These images are crime scene photos where children are being subjected to sexual abuse. This is not 'child pornography'.
"It's important to remember too, though, that these children were not missing. They were located in the place where they were supposed to be safe - their own home - where their abuse was recorded and made available over the internet to satisfy sickening sexual desires of a deviant group of individuals."
Australian police said the international covert operation had uncovered 2,500 "customers" in 19 countries. As a result of the two-year operation, 400,000 images of child abuse were seized.
Police also closed four commercial child sex web sites and arrested more than 100 people for allegedly purchasing child sex material. Officers in the UK used facial recognition software and a database called Childbase as they raced to identify victims from clues in each image.
The FBI's executive assistant director, Stephen Tidwell, said the online gang was run like a business, with indecent images used as a substitute for cash. He said: "This is beyond a quantum exponential leap for us to see folks that have gone to this much trouble to produce this kind of volume of horrific exploitation of children. But with 400,000 [images] we're going to be at this for years, trying to find the victims."
Peter Crawford from Queensland police's state sexual crimes squad, said: "It has been the most significant infiltration of an international child exploitation network by a law enforcement agency anywhere in the world. The major challenge for this investigation was to unravel the intricate web that networked offenders had weaved to protect themselves, incorporating strict guidelines, rules and encryption."
Members of the ring all used aliases, such as Box of Rocks, Crazy Horse, Lizzard, Methusaleh and Pickleman. In one example cited in the indictment, Raymond Roy, known as Nimo, posted videos of Thai children "to give everyone something to do for an afternoon".
"This one may offend here, so a word of caution, these girls are heavily drugged," Roy wrote on July 10 2007, according to the court documents. "Not much action to speak of, the girls are [sic] to [expletive deleted] up to move or resist. Three girls, the first one being the youngest, around eight or nine yo [years old]."
Noting the sophisticated process the porn ring used to outwit police, Tidwell compared the growing number of child pornography crimes to those of cocaine dealers, terrorists and the mafia. "If they had good operational security, that's a bad thing for us," he said. "When you've got that, you've got a real challenge for law enforcement."
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan
Taken from the Independent, UK
The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.
Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region.
Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States."
Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash." When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. "The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic," he added.
The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk – which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.
Mr Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. He had steered his craft into the "North Pacific gyre" – a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it.
He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he said in an interview. "How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?"
Mr Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his business interests and became an environmental activist. He warned yesterday that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade.
Professor David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, said more research was needed to establish the size and nature of the plastic soup but that there was "no reason to doubt" Algalita's findings.
"After all, the plastic trash is going somewhere and it is about time we get a full accounting of the distribution of plastic in the marine ecosystem and especially its fate and impact on marine ecosystems."
Professor Karl is co-ordinating an expedition with Algalita in search of the garbage patch later this year and believes the expanse of junk actually represents a new habitat. Historically, rubbish that ends up in oceanic gyres has biodegraded. But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been found in the north Pacific dump. "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere," said Tony Andrady, a chemist with the US-based Research Triangle Institute.
Mr Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below the water's surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. "You only see it from the bows of ships," he said.
According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.
Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic, Dr Eriksen said the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles – the raw materials for the plastic industry – are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea.
These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It's that simple," said Dr Eriksen.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
French court jails aid workers sent back from Chad
Taken from Yahoo News
by Reuters - Monday, January 28 2008
(Reporting by Thierry Leveque; writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Anna Willard)
CRETEIL, France (Reuters) - Six French activists sentenced in Chad to eight years' hard labour for trying to kidnap dozens of children had their sentences converted into French jail terms of the same length by a court on Monday.
The six members of the aid group Zoe's Ark were arrested in Chad in October and found guilty last month of trying to kidnap 103 African children. They were later flown back to France under a cooperation agreement between the two countries.
The group said they were rescuing orphans from Sudan's Darfur region, a conflict zone across Chad's eastern border, and they intended to fly them to Europe for fostering there.
Most of the children were found to have come from families in Chadian border villages who were persuaded to give up their offspring in exchange for promises of education.
French law does not recognise hard labour and the court in the Paris suburb of Creteil converted their sentences into normal prison terms of eight years at a hearing that did not examine the merits of the case against them in Chad.
The court said that, under French law, the case amounted to "illegal confinement of minors under the age of 15".
Defence lawyers said before the hearing opened earlier this month that the Chadian sentences were not valid because they were imposed in what they described as an undemocratic state after a trial they said was not fair.
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Well done to the French courts for delivering a reasonably tough sentence and exposing these Child Traffickers.
This group of Traffickers said it wanted to place orphaned Darfuri children aged under five in foster care with French families, invoking its right to do so under international law - Yet they did so without the consent of any international body and the UN have said that many of the children were from Chad, not Sudan, and there is no evidence that they are orphans.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
A NOT so merry Christmas in occupied Bethlehem
Taken from Al-Jazeera news Agency, DECEMBER 25, 2007
A normally empty Manger Square was filled beyond capacity on Christmas day as thousands of Palestinians, dignitaries and foreigners descended on the little town of Bethlehem to welcome Michel Sabah the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The Patriarch's yearly visit was meant to kick off Christmas festivities but this year, as in others, the spirit of the festive season is uniquely intertwined with the fate of all Palestinians, who say the city has suffered from years of Israeli occupation.
And like previous years, despite a boost in tourism, celebrations in Bethlehem have been marred by a poor economic and security situation.
While Bethlehem is the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ atop a hill just 10km away from Jerusalem, the site of Christ's crucifixion, a 10-meter high concrete wall put up by Israel and several military checkpoints keep the two cities very much apart.
Fairy tale Christmas
It is such barriers and restrictions borne of Israeli occupation that has made Christmas bittersweet for Palestinians.
Maxim Sansour, founding board member of Open Bethlehem, an international campaign to address the state of emergency facing Bethlehem, said the city's greatest problems largely go unaddressed every Christmas.
He said: "Christmas comes and goes, but our problems remain."
Issues of growing Israeli settlements which lie immediately on the border of Bethlehem and demolitions of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of the city have made life difficult for Palestinians.
Sansour says Bethlehem will always continue to struggle as long as such Palestinian issues of statehood, economic viability and sustenance under occupation remain unaddressed.
Sansour also believes that visitors and pilgrims who do come show support but at the same time many are also in Bethlehem as part of "the fairy-tale story of Christmas".
Father Garret Edmonds, a Franciscan monk from California who works with pilgrim groups in Palestine and is spending his fifth Christmas in Bethlehem, said: "There are moments of hope but then everything returns to the status quo. It goes on and off like this all the time."
Father Edmonds also highlighted the increasing erosion of the Church and the increasing number of Christians choosing to emigrate from in Palestine.
"It's important to have a viable, living Church, but if things continue the way they are in 25 years there might not be a living church. Bethlehem could become one giant museum," he said.
Life under occupation
In 2006, Open Bethlehem released the results of a questionnaire which examined the reasons behind the high rate of Christian emigration from Bethlehem.
Of 2000 Palestinians surveyed in Bethlehem, 76 per cent said Israeli occupation was the main reason for leaving. Sixteen per cent of the Christians in the city said they are in the process of emigrating, compared to eight per cent of the Muslims.
Many Palestinians also said that foreigners and pilgrims coming to Bethlehem do not experience daily life under occupation.
Palestinians who have Israeli permission to travel between Bethlehem and the West Bank say they are subjected to fingerprint and document scanning, full body searches, and long waits before they are let through.
Some are not even allowed to visit friends and family simply because they live on the wrong side of the wall or in some cases the soldier manning a checkpoint might not feel like letting them through.
Brother Jack Curran, Vice President of Development for Bethlehem University, said: "I have colleagues who haven't been to Jerusalem in years and I can come and go as freely as I want. I feel ashamed of the privilege I have and it's easy to take for granted, I always have to remember that."
"But it is also a privilege that the Palestinians deserve."
Brother Curran, a member of the Lasallian order, felt that Christmas in Bethlehem is not truly reflected because of what he says are the injustices being heaped upon the Palestinians daily.
"The story can't be told without looking seriously at these things," he said.
"Without foreigners," Curran explained, "it would also be a lot worse. We must act as the witnesses and truth tellers, but not just once a year."
Sustain support
Christmas generates a great deal of positive media attention for both Bethlehem and Palestine every year. It is a chance for the world to show the Palestinians some sympathy and solidarity but Sansour said that it never carries on.
"We love good feelings and the Palestinian people deeply appreciate the show of support, but it must be a sustained kind of support."
Bethlehem is a small town; according to the Palestinian Central bureau of Statistics its population in 2006 stood just shy of 30000, and has a very small and localized economy which is dominated by the tourist industry.
According to Open Bethlehem, tourism accounts for 65 per cent of Bethlehem's economy. In November, 80,000 visitors arrived in the city. This was boosted by a further 20,000 in the days leading to Christmas.
Sansour said that while tourism represents a significant portion of Bethlehem's economy many of the tourist operators are Israeli which means that most of the tourists who do come stay for only a short time and promptly return to Jerusalem.
"They come here, take their Disneyland photos and drink some tea from a local shop and go back to Jerusalem," Sansour said.
"Maybe they'll stop by and buy some wood carvings from a shop where the Israeli operators get a commission, but that's about it," he added.
Christmas surge
Most of Bethlehem's local businessmen wait all year just for the Christmas season to come in hopes of boosting their incomes and providing for their families.
It's not surprising given that the poverty rate stands at 60 per cent while unemployment stands at 55 per cent, a slight increase from last year but not overly significant according to George Saadeh, Bethlehem's deputy mayor.
Abed Ibrahim, who works at a sweets shop, said: "Christmas [is] the only time of the year that anyone makes any money."
"It's good for now. But next year it will be bad again until the next Christmas. Nothing will change," he said
Ibrahim added: "Fast dollars won't solve our business problems."
Ameer Jaber, who operates a stall selling boiled corn and roasted peanuts, feels the Palestinians need the kind of media exposure they received for Christmas year-round and not just in Bethlehem, but all over Palestine.
He said: "You foreigners come and help us, but then you leave when you have your pictures and reports, but we're still here and you'll have the same story next year unless we get your help."
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People seem to think that it is only Palestinains Arabs (i.e Muslims) that are occupied and hence not give a second though, but the fact of the matter is that Arab Christians have been living in Palestine peacefully for centuries (well until it had been occupied illegally by Israel). Arab Muslims and Christians in occupied Palestine have been treated harshly, with boarder controls, illegal walls, controls of economic, social and religious activity by the Israelis, leading to many Arab Christians to leave their homes in Palestine and emigrate to another country. This has been happening for decades but you will not get a mention of their plight by the Pope or the archbishop of Canterbury. Maybe Arab Christians are not as important as European/ American Christians? Maybe Bethlehem is not important.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
US is‘worst’ imperialist: archbishop
Taken from the Times, UK, November 25, 2007
By Abul Taher
Rowan Williams claimed that America’s attempt to intervene overseas by “clearing the decks” with a “quick burst of violent action” had led to “the worst of all worlds”.
Williams suggested American leadership had broken down: “We have only one global hegemonic power. It is not accumulating territory: it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working.”
He contrasted it unfavourably with how the British Empire governed India. “It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what the British Empire did — in India, for example.
“It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together — Iraq, for example.”
In the interview in Emel, a Muslim lifestyle magazine, Williams makes only mild criticisms of the Islamic world. He said the Muslim world must acknowledge that its “political solutions were not the most impressive”.
State of human rights in US 'appalling'
Former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak slams America's 'violations of human rights,' Israeli justice minister's attempt to limit High Court's powers
Taken from the YnetNews, Israel, 24/11/07
by Aviram Zino
Former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak slammed the state of human rights in the United States Saturday, calling it 'appalling' and saying the Israeli High Court is doing a far better job of upholding rights laws.
Speaking at a forum on law at the Natanya College Barak said: "The Americans were caught with their pants down after 9/11... They are committing unspeakable acts and that kind of human rights violations could cost them dearly.
"Our High Court is ready to defend human rights in times of war as well as in times of peace."
Speaking of Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann attempts to reform the High Court's powers, Barak said "there is no democracy without the segregation of authorities; there is no democracy without the judicial authority and no democracy without human rights.
"I was horrified when the government impertinently asked Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish where exactly it was written that it was she who held power over all the courts… in that moment, the line between the judicial authority and the executive authority was crossed," said Barak.
As for the connection between the legislative and judicial authorities, Barak said he sees the two as irrevocably intertwined: "There is no democracy without the Knesset and our laws are built to protect the Knesset."
But not everything, said Barak, can be made the subject of legal arbitration: "The question of what you can and cannot bring before a court of law will forever be debated on. The High Court is not above criticism, nor is it above being questioning. Nothing is."
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Aharon Barak is correct is assessing the Human rights record of the United States, perhaps now he will also assess the Human Rights record of Israel. Both countries have an equal appalling and shameful record that needs to be addressed. Israel needs to address its issue of occupying a foreign land that goes gainst many UN resolutions and also when it occupied Lebanon in the eighties it abducted thousands of Lebanese currently held in prisons for no reason at all and without given any trail. That is the only reason Hizbullah exists - to get the freedom of these people. It is not only the Lebanese that are held in Israeli prisons but also innocent Palestians whose land is illegally occupied. Even elected Palestinians were held in Israeli jails for no apparent reasons. SO where is the justice there Mr barak? Also wht about the descrimination that takes place against Muslims and Christians that currently live in Israel - Job prospects, healthcare and education is restricted to non Jews.
Corruption, bribes and trafficking: a cancer that is engulfing Afghanistan
Taken from The Times, UK, November 24, 2007
By Anthony Loyd in Kabul
He paid the money to a go-between at a rendezvous in Kabul’s Najib Zarab carpet market. For two days he was lorded in the office of General Azzam, then Chief of Staff to the Interior Minister, helping himself to chocolate and biscuits. “I must have eaten a pound of the stuff,” he recalled.
But on the third day he received a different welcome. “Get this mother****** out of my office,” Azzam screamed, said the general. Hustled outside, he quickly discovered his error. He should have paid $150,000 (£73,000) rather than a paltry 150,000 Afghanis for the bung.
Now living in disgruntled internal exile in northern Afghanistan, his verdict on his former employers is succinct.
“Everyone in the Ministry of Interior is corrupt,” he told The Times. “They wouldn’t sleep with their wives without wanting a backhander first.”
He never, though, expressed surprise. Governmental corruption in Afghanistan has become endemic and bribes to secure police and administrative positions along provincial drug routes is an established procedure.
“The British public would be up in arms if they knew that the district appointments in the south for which British soldiers are dying are there just to protect drug routes,” said one analyst.
“The people around him tell him of a cuckoo land,” said Shukria Barakzai, a Pashtun MP who is both a friend and critic of Karzai. “He circles within a small mafia ring who are supporting the destruction of the system. At the beginning there were only 10 to 15 of them but since then they have spread like a cancer in Afghanistan.”
The Ministry of Interior, key to establishing security in the country, remains the worst offender. Disaffected police officers have named, to The Times, General Azzam, recently appointed Chief of Operations after his stint as Chief of Staff, and his deputy General Reshad as the prime recipients of bribes.
The lawmen say they categorise Afghanistan’s 34 provinces as A, B or C states. ‘A’ denotes those with the highest potential profits for drug-running; ‘C’ states are the least remunerative.
This summer a border police vehicle was stopped outside Kabul and found to have 123.5kg of heroin, with a value of nearly $300,000, bagged in the back. The five men inside, an officer, three policemen and a secretary, were under the command of Haji Zahir, formerly Border Police commander of Nangarhar province. Haji Zahir was questioned and removed from his post. He was never charged.
Even the lowlier posts in provinces free of poppy traffic have a price. “To buy a position as a detective in any province you pay $10,000,” explained one police colonel, now on indefinite leave because he refused to pay a bribe. “Then you pay your superior a cut of the money you make through bribes or trafficking.”
One former governor told The Times that every judge in his province had been corrupt. He claimed there were cases of the police handing detainees to the Taleban, or helping to transport Taleban commanders from one province to another.
“The Government has essentially collapsed,” he said. “It has lost its meaning in the provinces, it has lost the security situation and lost its grip on civil servants. Corruption is playing havoc with the country.”
The international community has played its own part in contributing to the crisis. One analyst in Kabul said: “It’s not Afghan culture. It’s a culture of impunity. We created it. We came in in 2001 with cases of cash and made certain people untouchables.”
The dozens of drug-funded villas — “narcotechture” in expat parlance — that have sprung up around foreign embassies in Kabul’s Sherpur district are a testament to the untouchable status of former warlords.
Corruption among police and local authorities is worst in southern Afghanistan, where drug profits are highest. Despite his repeated public denials, President Karzai’s half-brother Wali, head of Kandahar’s provincial council, continues to be accused by senior government sources, as well as foreign analysts and officials, as having a key role in orchestrating the movement of heroin from Kandahar eastward through Helmand and out across the Iranian border.
Britain has been keen for Kabul to begin arresting top drug smugglers in its ranks. Yet diplomats fear the country’s judicial system is so weak that the men would quickly be released or escape. Meanwhile, America has been lacklustre in lobbying for high-level arrests, fearing such detentions would further destabilise matters.
The Afghan Government fears that if corrupt officials in the south were replaced by staunch law enforcers, the huge profits from heroin trafficking would end up with the Taleban.
Kabul has, though, made efforts. A new agency, the directorate of local government (IDLG), was supposed to give the President rather than the Ministry of Interior more say over the appointment of provincial governors, a system notorious for its corrupt procedures. However, many of the IDLG staff were simply transferred from the Interior Ministry, tainting its potential from the start. Afghan anti-corruption agencies similarly lack cohesion and clout.
His own force is already under suspicion from rival anti-corruption players in the offices of the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Finance, who in turn face allegations of embezzlement and bribery. Wasifi did time in an American penitentiary 20 years ago for dealing heroin. “You expect my guys to be clean working for $200 a month versus the millions in drug bribes?” he asked. “I don’t see any serious measures being taken to solve the problem.”
Another War-monger bites the dust!
With Blair out of office and now Howard gone the count down to Bush's days in office has finally begun....
The article below is taken from Sydney Morning Herald, November 25, 2007
By Jason Koutsoukis
Rudd romps to historic win
As a triumphant Kevin Rudd last night led Labor to an historic landslide victory with a national swing of 5.7% giving him a likely majority of 24 seats, ousted prime minister John Howard suffered an ignominious end to his 33-year political career with the apparent loss of his seat of Bennelong.
Labor's victory means that for the first time in Australian history Labor now holds government in every state, territory and at Commonwealth level.
It also means that for the first time a woman, Julia Gillard, will hold the second-highest public office in the land.
John Howard conceded defeat at 10.35pm, admitting that Labor had won an emphatic victory and congratulated Mr Rudd on assuming the nation's top job.
"I want to say that there is no prouder job that anybody can occupy than the prime minister of this country," Mr Howard said.
"I wish him well in the task that he will undertake and I want to say on behalf of the Coalition that has governed this country for the last 111/2 years that we bequeath to him a nation that is stronger and prouder and more prosperous than it was."
Mr Rudd is only the third Labor leader in 60 years to win government from Opposition, and becomes Australia's 26th prime minister and Labor's 11th.
With a record 53.8% of the two-party preferred vote, Mr Rudd can claim an even greater victory than that of Bob Hawke, who won in 1983 with 53.2%.
He immediately declared his government would address with "great urgency" the pressing challenges of climate change and water, and would focus on creating fairness and flexibility in the workplace.
"We should celebrate and honour the way in which we conduct this great Australian democracy of ours and it's been on display again tonight," Mr Rudd told a cheering crowd in his home town of Brisbane.
He thanked Mr Howard for his immense contribution to public service over his political career.
By late last night it was apparent that Mr Howard had lost his seat of Bennelong to Labor's star recruit, former ABC journalist Maxine McKew, with a swing of almost 5%.
However, both Mr Howard and Ms McKew described the seat as being on a knife-edge.
Mr Howard will suffer the humiliation of becoming only the second sitting prime minister in history to lose his seat if Bennelong falls. But with a large number of postal votes set to favour Mr Howard, strategists on both sides agreed Bennelong remained too close to call.
Mr Howard, who said he took full responsibility for the Liberals' defeat, endorsed former treasurer Peter Costello as the party's next leader.
Taking the stage at Sydney's Wentworth Hotel, where he has celebrated his previous four election wins since 1996, Mr Howard paid tribute to his family, and the Liberal Party.
"I owe more to the Liberal Party than the Liberal Party owes to me," Mr Howard said.
"The Liberal Party has been unbelievably generous and loyal and forgiving and understanding to me over the 33 years that I've been in parliament, the 15 or more years that I've led it and the 111/2 years that I have been prime minister."
The routing leaves the Liberal Party depleted at every level of government across the nation - Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman now holds the Liberals' highest public office.
But Peter Costello, the man tipped to be charged with rebuilding the shattered party, declined to speculate on his future last night. Mr Costello, who comfortably retained the safe Melbourne seat of Higgins, said the party would "be very very proud of what it has achieved in government".
Late last night Labor looked to have won 82 seats, the Liberals 58, eight seats were in doubt and two went to other parties.
The battle between the Coalition and the Greens for the balance of power in the Senate was too close to call last night.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Pedophile allowed to work in kindergarten
Taken from Yahoo News, 15 Nov 07
By Reuters
BERLIN - A convicted pedophile sentenced to do community service in a German kindergarten will return to court next week to face charges of abusing two children there, a regional prosecutor's office said Thursday.
The man was allowed to work as a janitor at the Evangelical Kindergarten St Petri in Melle, near the northern city of Osnabrueck, because a court worker missed three prior pedophilia convictions on his record, said Alexander Retemeyer, spokesman for the Osnabrueck prosecutor's office.
The man, identified only as A.B., had been sentenced to 720 hours of community service earlier this year for working on the sly while collecting welfare payments.
"The colleague didn't pay attention and didn't see he had a sexual conviction, so she allowed him to serve in a kindergarten," Retemeyer said. "She didn't read the file."
The prior convictions date from 1988-1990, when the man was living in the former East Germany, Retemeyer said. Though the convictions are listed in the man's criminal record, the details are unclear because prosecutors cannot access his East German police file.
Police arrested the man in April after the head of the kindergarten reported he had fondled himself in front of two children.
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What kind of society do we live in when we cannot stop Paedophiles from operating within our schools? The Kindergarten should have done the necessary paperwork properly and lazyness in no excuse when protecting our children from societys nasty people. Where was the local MP or why didn't Angela Merkel Step in and take action?
100 arrests hit world paedophile ring
Taken from the Guardian, UK, November 5, 2007
By David Batty and agencies
More than 100 people in 19 countries have been arrested in an operation to dismantle a major international paedophile network, police said today.
The arrests follow an investigation into an Italian-based website that produced "tailor-made" child abuse images for 2,500 customers, according to the European police agency Europol.
In the past five months 46 people in the UK have been arrested in the operation, codenamed Koala, according to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop).
There have also been 21 arrests in France, 11 in Spain and eight in Sweden.
"We have identified 2,500 customers from around the world. School teachers, swimming instructors, lawyers, IT executives," said Europol investigator Menno Hagemeijer. Some customers even travelled to the studio to watch and record the abuse and make their own videos.
"These [videos] were tailor-made orders. We want this girl in this pose in this lingerie," said Belgian prosecutor Michele Coninsx.
Europol and the EU prosecution body Eurojust launched the operation last year following the arrest of Marzola Sergio, 42, who ran the website.
He produced most of his videos in Ukraine, where police have identified 21 victims so far.
One of the videos showed a father sexually abusing his daughters aged nine and 11, according to Ceop.
Jim Gamble, chief executive of Ceop, said there were likely to be further arrests from the global investigation.
He said: "Yet again we see the technology used by paedophiles to facilitate child abuse now turned against them as a result of co-ordinated and effective international law enforcement cooperation.
"Operation Koala uncovered the true meaning of 'online child abuse': in this case, the exchanging of images in which real children were subjected to horrific sexual abuse, often to order."
Thursday, November 15, 2007
America suffers an epidemic of suicides among traumatised army veterans
Taken from the Times, UK, November 15, 2007
By Tom Baldwin in Washington
More American military veterans have been committing suicide than US soldiers have been dying in Iraq, it was claimed yesterday.
At least 6,256 US veterans took their lives in 2005, at an average of 17 a day, according to figures broadcast last night. Former servicemen are more than twice as likely than the rest of the population to commit suicide.
Such statistics compare to the total of 3,863 American military deaths in Iraq since the invasion in 2003 - an average of 2.4 a day, according to the website ICasualties.org.
The rate of suicides among veterans prompted claims that the US was suffering from a “mental health epidemic” – often linked to post-traumatic stress.
CBS News claimed that the figures represented the first attempt to conduct a nationwide count of veteran suicides. The tally was reached by collating suicide data from individual states for both veterans and the general population from 1995.
The suicide rate among Americans as a whole was 8.9 per 100,000, but the level among veterans was at least 18.7. That figure rose to a minimum of 22.9 among veterans aged 20 to 24 – almost four times the nonveteran average for people of the same age.
There are 25 million veterans in the United States, 1.6 million of whom served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Not everyone comes home from the war wounded, but the bottom line is nobody comes home unchanged,” said Paul Rieckhoff, a former Marine and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America.
CBS quoted the father of a 23-year-old soldier who shot himself in 2005 as suggesting that the military was covering up the scale of the problem. “Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total,” Mike Bowman said. “They don’t want the true numbers of casualties to really be known.”
Mr Bowman’s son, Tim, was an army reservist who patrolled one of the most dangerous places in Baghdad, known as Airport Road. “His eyes when he came back were just dead. The light wasn’t there anymore,” said his mother, Kim Bowman. Eight months later, on Thanksgiving Day, Tim committed suicide.
A separate study published last week shows that US military veterans make up one in four homeless people in America, even though they represent just 11 per cent of the general adult population, and younger soldiers are already trickling into shelters and soup kitchens after completing tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While it took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless, at least 1,500 ex-servicemen from the present wars have already been identified.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. Data from 2005 estimated that 194,254 homeless people on any given night were veterans.
Daniel Akaka, the chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said: “For too many veterans, returning home from battle does not bring an end to conflict. There is no question that action is needed.”
The plight of US veterans is a matter of acute sensitivity for the Bush Administration which has set great store by standing up for – and support from – US troops. This year General Kevin Kiley, the US Army’s Surgeon General, was among senior military officials dismissed for his role in the mistreatment of wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Newspaper revelations about conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington became a lightning rod for criticism of the war in general. The outpatient clinic was described as squalid and rat-infested; a maze of red tape left many outpatients – often with severe brain injuries – wandering the corridors without help.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Thatcher honours Commonwealth war dead
Today is Remembrance Sunday - when we read about the second world war, we usually hear about how Britain stood up and fought against Nazi Germany (and quite rightly so) and how after a while the Yanks would join in to save the butts of the British. We never get to read anything about the volunteers from other countries (such as India & Pakistan) who made great contibution in the fight against the Nazis in the media let alone from the British Monarch or her Government - so I was surprised to read this in the times online...
Taken from the Times, UK, November 9, 2007
By Jack Malvern
Baroness Thatcher attended a wreath-laying ceremony today to honour Commonwealth soldiers killed fighting for Britain.
Lady Thatcher was a guest alongside the Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres and foreign dignitaries at the event held ahead of Remembrance Sunday at the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill, London.
The Gates were completed five years ago, in remembrance of the five million volunteers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Africa and the Caribbean, who fought and died in the two world wars.
Dr Chartres and Lord Bilimoria, the chairman of the Memorial Gates Commemorative Trust, spoke to the assembled crowd of dignitaries and veterans before a two-minute silence.
The Bishop said: “This morning we particularly remember the men of the Commonwealth, and we remember and give thanks to those who spent themselves defending others.”
Baroness Thatcher, who helped raise money to build the Memorial Gates, did not make a speech at the event, but she laid a wreath of poppies at the foot of the gates.
Lord Bilimoria said: “Lady Thatcher played an instrumental role in helping to raise the money for these gates. To have her backing and for her to be here is just so special, I could see she was genuinely moved by the ceremony.”
Children from Westminster School were invited to watch the event, and organisers were keen to encourage younger people to learn about the events of the first and second world wars.
Peter Cleminson, national chairman of the Royal British Legion, said: “I think inevitably the public sometimes forgets the role that volunteers from other countries played. But we do our best to remind them, and an occasion like this helps to remind people of the great contribution made by the Sikhs, the the Nepalese, the Ghurkas, the Indian army and by Africans and Caribbeans in both world wars.”
Meanwhile, the insurers Lloyd’s of London held its annual wreath-laying ceremony this morning in the underwriting room of its City of London offices.
John Stuttard, the Lord Mayor of London and representatives from the Admiralty and the British Legion took part in the event, which included a two-minute silence and the annual ringing of the Lutine Bell, which is only otherwise tolled to mark disasters.
Living as a veteran of the streets after 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Memorial
Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Memorial. Thousands of Veterans Join in March to Mark the Anniversary Of the Wall's Dedication and to Honor Those Named on It. The Wall bears the names of those killed or missing during the war. It was dedicated Nov. 13, 1982, with ceremonies and an emotional parade of tens of thousands of veterans from across the country. There were initially 57,939 names inscribed on the memorial. But 317 names have been added for various reasons, and the total now is 58,256, according to the memorial fund.
But what about the Veterans today? We hear in the media, on films, in songs how upon their return they were mistreated by their communities and Governments - so it was sad to read thier fates in this newspiece...
This is an interesting article taken from the BBC, Friday, 9 November 2007
One in four homeless people in the US is a military veteran, a report has found, even though veterans make up only 11% of the adult population. One former soldier told his story to the BBC's Vincent Dowd in Washington.
Only a year ago, Ben Israel could have been forgiven for thinking nothing would ever go right with his life again.
He had been mainly homeless since his early 30s, living either on the streets of the richest nation in the world or in a selection of public shelters. Sometimes he lived in his car.
Ben was born on an army base in the US state of North Carolina, where his father was a soldier.
When he was 18 months old he swallowed - or maybe was given - furniture polish. He was in a coma for days.
A disproportionate number of the homeless are military veterans
He blames this for his occasionally hesitant speech and some of the problems he has had throughout life. "It caused me issues," he says simply.
Yet today you only need to spend a few minutes with him to recognise a keen intelligence too.
Soup kitchens
In 1973, conscription ended in America - but that year Ben volunteered for the US Army artillery corps anyway.
He was just 17 and says he feared winding up in prison otherwise, because there was so little money around.
He just missed Vietnam but saw service, less dramatically, in Panama. He was only in the army for three years.
I ask if he has ever married. "Not officially," he says.
After the US Army, mainly he travelled and worked and he studied a little. From the late 1980s to November 2006 he was usually homeless - although there were brief periods here and there with a roof over his head.
He tries to recall the cities whose soup kitchens he got to know too well: "Dallas, Texas. Miami, Florida. Atlanta, Georgia - twice. Fayetteville, North Carolina. Portland, Oregon..."
He acknowledges there were others he may have forgotten. "What I would mainly do was move."
Charity salvation
Ben, at 51, is honest enough to acknowledge that some problems of his thirties and forties were of his own making.
But he also believes his middle years showed how badly America's Department of Veterans Affairs - the VA - has sometimes focused its resources.
"They are a giant cash-cow but they are spending their money in the wrong areas. If they put more emphasis on housing their charges that would solve most of their issues out on the street."
Ben's life has improved - more than he ever expected it might. But ultimately salvation came from a charity, not the VA.
He was in line at one more soup kitchen when he was approached by someone from Pathways to Housing.
It is a New York-based charity which, for 17 years, has helped the homeless who have psychiatric problems.
Important for Ben was that, as Pathway's mission statement makes clear, they do not require treatment or sobriety as a pre-condition of getting someone into an apartment.
Their philosophy is that the path to recovery starts with getting off the street and under a roof.
Watching squirrels
Ben's apartment in Marshall Heights in Washington DC is not big but it is clean and well kept.
Ben intends to find a job again and get off Social Security Disability Insurance. He dreams of being an electrician. "But I want a career - not a job," he says.
We get in a cab and travel to Franklin Square, in downtown Washington.
It's where a lot of still homeless veterans hang out during the day - some of Ben Israel's age, some a little younger. There is not much to do but watch the squirrels.
Ben passes on the phone number of the people who after almost two decades helped him escape his wasted life.
He is a middle-aged man who found a sort of salvation when all hope seemed gone. He wants others to share in the same good fortune.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Rabbis warn Bush: Annapolis will bring destruction to US
Taken from YnetNews, Israel, 06.11.07
By Neta Sela
Group of right-wing rabbis writes open letter to US president demanding he cancel Annapolis summit or risk provoking 'wrath of the almighty.' Rabbis assert Katrina disaster a result of America's support of 2005 disengagement, say California fires a warning
A fringe group of prominent ultranationalist rabbis issued a harshly-worded letter to United States President George W. Bush earlier this week, warning him that the upcoming Annapolis peace conference would bring destruction upon America.
The rabbis evoke their previous prediction in 2005, when they published an open letter to Bush in the New York Times, demanding the US rescind its support of the disengagement plan.
"We wrote to President Bush, a man who believes in the Bible, to warn him against the terrible danger to which he is exposing his country by hosting such a conference," said Rabbi Meir Druckman, one of signatories to the letter.
"The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. God punishes anyone who coerces Israel to give up its land," he said.
"There is no doubt the New Orleans flood from the Katrina hurricane was God's punishment for evicting the settlements," said Druckman, "with hundreds of thousands left homeless, hundreds killed or wounded and billions of dollars sent down the drain – can we really ignore God's hand collecting an eye for an eye?"
The disengagement from Gaza and the northern West Bank was completed August 23rd, 2005 – which was also the date Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas.
"Despite those consequences, yet again we find ourselves facing an initiative to expel Jews from Judea and Samaria and cede their cities to terror organizations. And once again the patrons of the event are President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"This time the Almighty is warning the US in advance: if the plague of water was not enough now he shall send flames. While hundreds of thousands of families have already fled the terrible fires in California, and we ask you, will you really forge ahead with this malevolent plan?" added Druckman.
The letter was authored by SOS Israel, a right-wing movement which earlier this year distributed citations to IDF soldiers who disobeyed orders and refused to take part in the disengagement.
The rabbis urged Bush's administration to back down from the current direction of the peace process, saying that not an inch of Israeli land should be ceded. "Be merciful to yourselves and the beloved America and its citizens. Lay down the hand you have raised against the Creator in war. Help the people of Israel fight without compromise against the terrorists who rise against it, and then, with a pure heart, you will truly be able to pray: May God bless America," the rabbis said.
Among the rabbis who signed the letter are several leading religious figures, including Rabbis Dov Wolfa, Yekutiel Rap, Gedalia Axelrod as well as the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and Hebron, Dov Lior and the son of former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Yaakov Yosef.
AFP contributed to this article
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This is facism at its worst. Who would of thought that Rabbies would be quoting the bible to advise the president of the United States on this Christian duties to do unChristian acts? Has ne not done enough damage?
As someone said in a talkback on the Ynetwebsite: Why dont the God of this lunatic rabbis punish the actual people that harm Israel and the Jews, ie the arabs If your God is so good, why then dont he bring hurricane to the Palestinians or fire to Hizbalaah or flooding to the Syrians or whatever to the Iranians, why does you cleaver God punishes the Americans? Your way of thinking is so stupid it is beyond belief, especially rabbi Gedalia and rabbi Yekutiel . By Avi , Israel (11.06.07)
Thursday, November 08, 2007
US accused of using aid to sway votes in UN security council
This is an old article that I completely forgot to post but is very relevant on how the United States operates at the United Nations...
Taken from The Observer, UK, Sunday December 17, 2006
Heather Stewart, economics correspondent
The US uses its aid budget to bribe those countries which have a vote in the United Nations security council, giving them 59 per cent more cash in years when they have a seat, according to research by economists.
Kofi Annan, the outgoing UN Secretary-General, expressed his frustration at the power the US wields over the UN in his parting speech last week. In a detailed analysis of 50 years of data, Harvard University's Ilyana Kuziemko and Eric Werker provide the clearest evidence yet that money is used by the council's richest member to grease the wheels of diplomacy.
Anti-poverty campaigners reacted angrily to the findings. 'Aid should go to the people who need it, not as a political sweetener,' said Duncan Green of Oxfam. 'In recent years most rich countries have been making progress on this, but showering bribes on developing countries just because they sit on the UN security council is clearly a step backwards.'
Charities often complain that the US uses its aid as a political tool, and this new evidence of what the authors call 'vote-buying' will raise fears about whether the surge of aid money that was promised at last year's Gleneagles G8 summit will be fairly spent.
Ten of the 15 seats on the security council are filled for two years at a time, by rotation.
Kuziemko and Werker found that, in years when they have a seat, countries get an average of more than £8m extra in foreign aid from the US.
'I don't think it's surprising this goes on; but I wonder whether countries being aware that it goes on might have some salutary effect,' Kuziemko said.
Countries with a security council seat also receive an average of £500m extra from the UN itself, most of it channelled through its children's fund, Unicef, over which the US traditionally has been able to exert control. President George Bush recently provoked controversy by appointing a close political ally, former Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, as Unicef's chief.
When there is a controversial vote in prospect, the premium for countries with a security council seat is even higher. US aid surges by as much as 170 per cent, bringing in a £23m windfall, while the UN spends an extra £4m.
'Some countries serve on the security council during relatively calm years, whereas others, by chance, are fortunate enough to serve during a year in which a key resolution is debated and their vote becomes more valuable,' the authors say. They highlight controversial resolutions over issues including the Korean War, Suez, the Falklands and Kosovo - though the period they study does not include the notorious 'second resolution' over the invasion of Iraq, which never came to a vote.
David Woodward, of the New Economics Foundation, who is writing about the paper for a forthcoming edition of the Lancet, said the findings suggest the UN should be radically reformed.
'As long as one country wields such influence, there will always have a degree of control over what goes on, and they will be likely to abuse that.'
'The biggest obstacle, in both the IMF and the World Bank, as well as the UN, is that the countries that now have power can use that power to block reform - and they do.'
Friday, November 02, 2007
Only Christian TV station in Holy Land closes
Taken from The Guardian, UKm Friday November 2, 2007
By Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
The only Christian television station in the Holy Land has closed after 11 years because of a lack of funding.
Nativity television, or al-Mahed as it was known in Arabic, broadcast a mix of church services, films and discussion programmes 24 hours a day from a small studio in Bethlehem, not far from the Church of the Nativity.
Samir Qumsieh, the Greek Orthodox owner and director of the channel, said it had lost around $800,000, half of which were his own personal debts. "I have hundreds of letters thanking me and gratitude shields thanking us from all the churches but nobody translated this into financial support," he said. The station closed yesterday.
"I reached the point where I couldn't continue any more," he said.
The channel broadcast mostly in Arabic, and Mr Qumsieh said he sometimes had Muslims and Jews phoning in to talk on discussion programmes.
Mr Qumsieh has been an often outspoken advocate for the shrinking Christian community in Bethlehem.
He said Christians were leaving the city in large part because of the sharp economic slowdown brought about by the Israeli occupation and the effect of the concrete West Bank wall that runs nearby.
Some Christians have also said they feel under pressure from conservative Islamist groups which are on the rise across the Palestinian territories.
"Emigration is our great nightmare," Mr Qumsieh said. He believes the Christian community was likely to shrink drastically within the next two decades and he said he too would now be looking for work abroad. He said his family was typical of Bethlehem's Christians, with four grown-up brothers who live and work abroad.
Unemployment runs as high as 65% in Bethlehem and farmers complain that large areas of their land have been taken up by the West Bank barrier and the several Jewish settlements that have been built nearby. The Christian population of the town of Bethlehem is thought to be around 40% today, down from around 90% in the 1940s.
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The occupation of Palestine by the Zionists have made it difficult for Christian Arabs as well as Muslims. The worst thing of all is that almost every Christian majority country throughout the world continues to support the Zionist regime whilst Christains suffer. Some Christian organisations from these countries even advocate assisting in financial aid for settlers, whilst fellow Christians suffer. No one wants to leave thier homeland but the Zionist are winning thier battle by making it difficult for the Palestinians (Christain and Muslim) by keeping them oppressed in thier homeland. It has been noted that US visas have in the past been provided to Christain Arabs but most of the Christains refuse these bribes and want to live in Palestine.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
SarCRAZY - the imbecile from France
"Each side should have its own nation-state," he said, according to Israeli officials who were present at the two leaders' meeting. "It is not reasonable for the Palestinians to demand both an independent state and also the refugees' return to the state of Israel, which even today has a minority of one million Arabs."
There are the about three generations of Palestinians that reside in refugee camps in Lebanon and other neighbouring countries of Israel. These are the people that had to flee whilst terrorists took over their country whilst the British Mandate ruled over Palestine. People were killed, women and children were raped by these terrorists, homes, mosques, coffee shops, libraries ever aspects of society were destroyed by these terrorists - some of these terrorists later became Prime Ministers of Israel.
Here are the quotes from David Ben-Gurion, Israels First Prime Minister [1949 – 1954 and 1955 – 1963]
"We must expel Arabs and take their places." -- David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." -- David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.
"There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" -- Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp. 121-122.
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." -- David Ben Gurion, quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99.
"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country." -- David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.
THESE REFUGEES SHOULD BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES AND BE COMPENSATED BY THE ISRAELI REGIME AND IT'S SUPPORTERS.
It is ironic that Jews from London, Moscow, New York (who have no ties to the state of Israel) can live in Israel but those who were born in Israel are prevented from returning to their homes - why should they suffer? Israel's policy of bringing just about anyone that has Jewish links has caused them embarrassment recently when it was found out that a few neo-Nazis (that have Jewish roots) have been causing mayhem in Israel (destroying Jewish cemeteries, placing Swastika everywhere, abducting people and beating them up and much more).
Sarkozy, who hosted Olmert at the Elysee Palace, expressed strong support for Israel, describing its establishment as "a miracle" and "the most significant event of the 20th century." "They say that I support Israel because my grandfather was Jewish, but this isn't a personal matter," he continued, according to the Israeli sources.
"Israel introduces diversity and democracy to the Middle East. It's a miracle that out of the remnants of the ... scattered Jewish people, such a state has arisen." "Israel's security is a clear red line, which is not up for negotiation," he added. "That is an inviolable condition, which we will never concede."
The only miracle is that American Taxpayers have not stopped funding billions of dollars into Israel (reported to be over $100billion since it's creation). With funding like that anyone can be successful, yet Israel is not a democracy. Human rights group such as btselem expose these myths. There is also a hierarchy amongst citizens. Jews from the United States and Europe are considered to be intellectual, with all the wealth are first class citizens, Jews from the Arab region (those whose generations of families have lived in the Middle East) are treated as second class citizens, followed by Arab Christians and Ethiopian Jews as third class, followed by the Druze community then Muslims and so on.
Non Jews such as Muslims are discriminated when applying for jobs, studying, getting medical almost everything. It was only recently that employment laws were changed to stop dissemination against Muslims but that hasn't changed anything. It is much worse in occupied Palestine where taxes (Palestinian government money) are withheld by Israeli government preventing the economy from running and causing hardship for everyone: Teachers, civil servants, schools, hospitals staff were sometimes not being paid for long periods, even money from foreign countries in terms of grants and aid were sometimes blocked by Israel making necessities such as food - water and electricity being rationed - that is a Miracle Mr Sarkozy, a miracle that all these people are alive against the most severe conditions placed by an illegal occupier that no one condemns.
The miracle as Sarkozy states is nothing but a well co-ordinated plan by the Zionist to wipe Palestine off the Map and have a poodle doing the dirty work for the colonials superpowers. The genocide that took place is clearly emphasised by Ilan Pappe (Jewish Historian from Israel) in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine - this book is a must read!
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Before the CBS news show interview in Paris even began, Sarkozy called his press secretary "an imbecile" for arranging the session on a busy day.
"I don't have the time. I have a big job to do, I have a schedule," Sarkozy said through a translator before the interview began. In English, he added: "Very busy. Very busy."
Before he left he said his Hungarian father had worried that his surname would be an obstacle in France, "That's what he thought. That a name like Sarkozy was a handicap," the president said. "That's the reason why I like the United States. You can have a name like Schwarzenegger and be governor of California. You can be called Madeleine Albright and be secretary of state. You can be called Colin Powell or Condi Rice, and succeed."
The truth of the matter is that you can do well in America if you support the policies of the Christian right, The Zionists or you have Jewish roots - these are the simple FACTS!
