Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit Blames Sony Game For Teen Killing Family

Extracted from the Daily Mail, UK on 26th September 2006

Family members of three people slain by a 14-year-old on a ranch sued the makers of the video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" claiming the crimes would not have occurred had the teenager never played the violent game.

The $600 million lawsuit filed yesterday names several companies and Cody Posey, who it alleges played the game "obsessively" for several months before he shot his father, stepmother and stepsister in July 2004. Posey, now 16, was sentenced earlier this year to state custody until he is 21.

The games and others in the "Grand Theft Auto" series depict police killings and other acts of violence. The lawsuit calls various editions of the game "virtual reality murder simulators."

"But for Posey's use of these products ... he would not have killed," the lawsuit claims.

The game trained him "how to point and shoot a gun in a fashion making him an extraordinarily effective killer without teaching him any of the constraints or responsibilities needed to inhibit such a killing capacity," according to the suit.

According to the suit, plaintiffs' lawyer Jack Thompson was told by a sheriff's deputy that the game and a Sony PlayStation 2 were found at the ranch.

Posey had told police he shot his family after his father, the ranch foreman, slapped him for not cleaning horse stalls fast enough.

Prosecutors described Posey as a ruthless killer, but his lawyers claimed his father had abused him for years.

The plaintiffs accuse the corporate defendants - Sony Corporation of America, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and its subsidiary, Rockstar Games - of a "civil conspiracy," saying they should have foreseen their entertainment "would spawn such copycat violence."

"We believe the suit is without merit and we will strongly defend the company," Take-Two spokesman Jim Ankner said.

The Associated Press left a message on Monday at Sony's New York headquarters seeking comment.

The lawsuit was filed by Verlin Posey of Texline, Texas, representing the estate of the teen's father, Delbert Posey; and Pat and Leona Basham of Elephant Butte, parents of Tryone Posey and grandparents of Marilea Schmid.

Thompson also is the attorney in a $600 million Alabama lawsuit against Rockstar, Take-Two and Sony that blames "Grand Theft Auto" for the 2003 murders of two police officers and a dispatcher at a rural police department. Devin Moore, now 20, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in that case.
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I agree with all the family members that the crimes would not have occurred had the teenager never played the violent game. But considering that the game is rated for persons above the age of 18, it begs to question how did the minor obtain this game?

Secondly how did a 14 year old boy gain access to guns? Shouldn't they be kept in a safe place (away from children?), why did the family keep them in the first place? It's the same risk of being atacked by a dangerous dog that is kept as a pet - i.e you know that the item/ dog is dangerous and could one day hurt you.

Is it the responsibility of the adults or the gaming industry to look after the children? The answer: it's the parents responsibility. Get real, case closed.

Europe Panel Faults Sifting of Bank Data

Extracted from the New York Times
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: September 26, 2006

A European Union panel has serious doubts about the legality of a Bush administration program that monitors international financial transactions, the group’s leader said Monday, and plans to recommend tighter controls to prevent privacy abuses.

“We don’t see the legal basis under the European law, and we see the need for some changes,” said Peter Schaar, a German official who leads the panel, in a telephone interview. The group is to deliver a final report this week in Brussels, and Mr. Schaar said he expected it to conclude that the program might violate European law restricting government access to confidential banking records.

The program, started by the Bush administration weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, allows analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency and other American intelligence agencies to search for possible terrorist financing activity among millions of largely international financial transactions that are processed by a banking cooperative known as Swift, which is based in Belgium.

The European Union panel will not call for the program to be stopped, officials said. But it is expected to recommend that additional safeguards be put in place to check how financial records are shared with American intelligence officials. For the last three years, a Washington consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, has audited the program, but Mr. Schaar said his panel would recommend that an outside auditor from Europe be brought in to protect against abuses.

“That’s a crucial point for us,” he said. “There must be independent supervision. We don’t see such independent supervision under the current situation, and this must be established.”
The Treasury Department, which oversees the program, declined to comment Monday on the panel’s findings.

The Bush administration has strongly defended the effectiveness and legality of the once-secret program as a tool in fighting terrorism, and it sharply criticized The New York Times for disclosing the arrangement in June. Although one government intelligence analyst was removed from the Swift team for conducting improper searches, officials at the Treasury Department and Booz Allen say they have not found any broader instances of abuse in the program.

Critics, including many privacy advocates and some banking industry executives, have questioned the propriety of giving American intelligence officials broad access, without court orders, to private data.

The disclosure of the program prompted several investigations in Europe and Canada. The European Union panel, which includes representatives from 25 countries and is formally known as the Article 29 data protection working party, would be the first international group to weigh in on the legal issues. Its findings, while advisory in nature, are expected to carry considerable influence in Europe in the debate over the program, officials say.

The European Union panel begins meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, and Mr. Schaar said he expected it would adopt a report based on a draft that has already been circulated among the members. While he would not discuss the exact language because it had not been finalized, he said the report would be “critical” of the legal basis for the American government’s use of the Swift data.

The panel, which interviewed Swift officials and other banking industry executives over the last several months, has focused on legal and policy issues. A parallel review by banking officials in Belgium is looking more closely at the actual operations of the banking program.

Joe Lockhart, a spokesman for Swift, said the group would await the release of the European Union report before commenting on its findings. But he added that “Swift complied with valid subpoenas issued by the United States Treasury Department and believes it has acted in accordance with U.S. and European data privacy law.”

The Treasury Department has used broad administrative subpoenas to get access to transactions from Swift, often millions of records at a time. While a small proportion of the transactions route money entirely within the United States, the program is focused on tracking money coming into and out of the United States or foreign-to-foreign transactions. American officials say the intelligence gleaned from the transactions has been valuable in identifying possible terrorist financiers.

Some legal experts agree with administration officials that the program is legal, while others say it appears to fall into a gray area in American law regarding the protection of confidential banking records.

But legal experts say banking privacy restrictions imposed by the European Union and others in Europe impose tight restrictions on how private banking data can be shared, even in the course of law enforcement and intelligence-gathering investigations.

“The main item from my point of view is that the fundamental civil rights of the European citizens have to be safeguarded,” said Mr. Schaar, who also serves as the federal data protection commissioner for Germany. “There are doubts about the legality of this program.”
The group’s report comes at a time of tensions between Europe and the United States over American counterterrorism policies.

Europeans have objected, for instance, to the C.I.A.’s operation of formerly secret prisons in Europe for the interrogation of “high value” terrorism suspects. And the European Union’s highest court in May struck down an agreement giving the United States access to personal details about passengers on trans-Atlantic flights, forcing the United States and its European partners to rework the agreement.

Privacy advocates, who brought formal complaints over the Swift program in 40 countries after its disclosure, say they hope that a critical ruling from the European Union working group will lead to similar changes.

“What we’re hoping is that they’ll basically tell Swift what they did was illegal,” said Gus Hosein, a senior fellow at Privacy International in London, which brought the complaints over the program. He said he expected that a critical report from the Article 29 group could lead to fuller investigations of the program, financial penalties against Swift in those countries where it operates, and possibly a suspension of the program.

As part of the European Union panel’s review, Privacy International and the American Civil Liberties Union prepared a report criticizing Booz Allen’s role in monitoring the program. The report raised questions about the firm’s objectivity, citing its long history as a government contractor and the fact that former intelligence officials are among its executives.

But Booz Allen rejected such charges on Monday. “What clients are buying from us,” said Marie Lerch, a spokeswoman for the firm, “is independence and objectivity.”

White Collar Crime: The Case Of Enron & WorldCom

It has been an interesting week for two of the biggest White Collar criminals in history.

Enron's Fastow gets 6-year sentence
Andrew Fastow, one of the key figures in Enron Corp.'s collapse, was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday.

Fastow, Enron's former chief financial officer, had agreed to serve a maximum 10-year term when he pleaded guilty in 2004.

His attorneys on Tuesday asked for a lesser sentence, citing Fastow's admission of his guilt and his help in the federal government's successful prosecution of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and the former chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling.

Ex-WorldCom CEO to start prison term
Former WorldCom Corp. chief Bernard Ebbers is set to start a 25-year federal prison sentence on Tuesday for his role in the $11 billion accounting fraud that toppled a company he had built from a tiny telecommunications firm to an industry giant.

Federal prison officials would not confirm where Ebbers will serve his sentence, but the two likeliest prisons are either the Oakdale Correctional Complex in Louisiana or the Yazoo City Federal Correctional Facility in Mississippi.

Ebbers left his upscale, brick-and-stucco home in a gated community in the Jackson suburb of Ridgeland about 8 a.m. Tuesday. At his home on Monday, he refused to answer any questions and told an Associated Press reporter to leave.

A federal judge has recommended that Ebbers serve time on fraud and conspiracy charges at a facility in central Mississippi, but there is no guarantee that's where he'll end up.
Ebbers, a former high school basketball coach, took a small telecommunications firm and transformed it into an industry giant before the Clinton, Miss.-based WorldCom collapsed in bankruptcy in 2002.

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It just goes to show that whatever the level of crime, punishment is inevitable for all criminals.

Here are some more high profile corporate scandals (taken from wikipedia)
Adelphia scandal
Bre-X scandal
Clearstream, which has been qualified as "the greatest financial scandal in Luxembourg" (Clearstream is a clearing house, i.e. sort of a "bank of banks", used to centralize credit & debit between banks and other financial organizations). As of 2006, it hasn't been resolved yet.
Compass Group, bribed the United Nations in order to win business.
Enron accounting fraud, involving Arthur Andersen
Exxon overreporting of oil reserves
Fannie Mae underreporting of profit
Ford Pinto scandal
Guinness affair
Hafskip's collapse
Halliburton overcharging government contracts
Harken Energy Scandal
Lernout & Hauspie accounting fraud
One.Tel collapse
Parmalat accounting scandal & mutual fund fraud
Phar-Mor company lied to shareholders. CEO eventually sentenced to prison for fraud and company eventually became bankrupt.
RadioShack CEO David Edmondson lied about attaining a B.A. degree from Pacific Coast Baptist College in California
Refco, Inc. commodities & futures scandal involving hidden debts involving underwritting firms Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Corp.
Royal Dutch Shell overstated its oil reserves twice,it downgraded 3.9 billion barrels, or about 20 percent of its total holdings.
Tyco International
Worldcom

Five Policemen Found Guilty Of Helping Terrorist Bombers

Extracted from The Times, UK, September 26, 2006
By Jenny Percival

Five policemen were today found guilty of helping the bombers who were responsible for India's worst terrorist attack.

Inspector Vijay Patil and Constables Ashok Muneshwar, Pandarinath Mahadik, Ramesh Mali and Srikrishna Pashilkar face life imprisonment for aiding and abetting those who actually committed the 1993 Mumbai bombings, and allowing them to smuggle and transport arms and ammunition into the country.

Today's convictions bring to 18 the number of people found guilty after the 11-year trial for their roles in the March 12, 1993, bombings, which killed 257 people.

Judge Pramod Kode acquitted three other police constables accused in the case. The men were given the benefit of doubt since Judge Kode said they could not be satisfactorily identified.
More than 100 people, most of them Muslims, are awaiting the judge’s verdict.

The bombing trial began in June 1995, included 686 witnesses, and ended in January 2003. The delay in the verdicts was blamed largely on procedural matters.

The bombings ripped through the country’s financial heart, and targeted some of the city’s key centers - the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India offices, a state transport office, three hotels, a gas station and a cinema.

The bombs, containing powerful explosives packed into cars, scooters, under a manhole cover and in a hotel room, were detonated over two hours in the afternoon.

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is India’s commercial and entertainment capital.

The blasts were in revenge for the demolition of a 16th century mosque in northern India by Hindu nationalists. The mosque’s demolition sparked religious riots in many parts of the country, leaving more than 800 people dead, most of them Muslims.

Soldiers 'Beat Iraqi Suspect Then Celebrated Like It Was Christmas'

Ectracted from The Times, UK, September 27, 2006
By Ian Evans

SOLDIERS who beat suspected Iraqi insurgents in Basra celebrated like it was Christmas, one of the alleged victims claimed yesterday. Ahmad Taha Musa al-Matairi, an hotel owner, said that he thought he was going to die when he was continuously punched and kicked by members of The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment.

Mr al-Matairi, told the court martial in Bulford Camp, Wiltshire, that soldiers took bets on who could make him fall down during the violent interrogation.

Mr al-Matairi said he was arrested at his hotel in Basra in September 2003 and taken for questioning at the regiment’s base near by. From the start, he said, he was hooded and repeatedly beaten and kicked.

The suspected insurgents were allegedly detained for 36 hours, kept hooded, handcuffed, deprived of sleep and beaten for failing to maintain stress positions — all pre-interrogation “conditioning” techniques that the prosecution says are banned under international law.

Seven soldiers from the regiment are standing trial on charges relating to the Iraqis’ alleged ordeal, which led to the death of Baha Musa, 26.

Mr al-Matairi, one of whose brothers was killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime, said he felt hurt at being ill-treated by British soldiers he had welcomed to Iraq.

“I put flowers in my children’s hands to welcome the British soldiers when they came to free us from Saddam,” he told the court through an interpreter.

“I could not believe that these were criminals from Britain. According to our knowledge it was a civilised country.” Mr al-Matairi said that he feared that the treatment he received would leave his three children fatherless. “They [the soldiers] were celebrating the beatings like it was Christmas,” he said.

The court was told that a cache of weapons was found at the hotel. Mr al-Matairi and nine of his staff were arrested as suspected insurgents but in court he insisted that the weaponry was for protection.

He said the soldiers wanted help to find a man called Haitham, after whom the hotel was named, but Mr al-Matairi said that he was unable to help because he did not know where he was.
Mr al-Matairi claims to have heard the harrowing cries of Baha Musa before he died. “Baha kept crying ‘blood, blood, I’m going to die’. His wife had cancer and had passed away six months earlier. He kept saying ‘My children are going to be orphans, I’m going to die, blood, blood.’ The interpreter [helping the soldiers] was not interpreting that for him.”

A doctor saw him after the death of Mr Musa, he said, and said he should not be beaten any more or he, too, would die.

Tim Owen, QC, for Corporal Donald Payne, the alleged leader of the abuse who admits treating the detainees inhumanely but denies killing Mr Musa, said that Mr al-Matairi was greatly exaggerating.

However, Mr al-Matairi replied: “I do not exaggerate. I told less than all that happened, maybe a quarter of all that happened.” Corporal Payne, 35, of the QLR — now part of The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment — denies a third charge of perverting the course of justice. Lance Corporal Wayne Crowcroft, 22, and Private Darren Fallon, 23, are charged with inhumane treatment of Iraqi civilians.

The inhumane treatment charge faced by these three is being brought as a war crime under the International Criminal Court Act 2001.

Sergeant Kelvin Stacey, 29, is accused of actual bodily harm with an alternative count of common assault.

Major Michael Peebles, 35, and Warrant Officer Mark Davies, 37, both of the Intelligence Corps, each faces a charge of negligently performing a duty.

Colonel Jorge Mendonca, 42, former commander of the QLR, is also accused of negligently performing a duty, that of failing to ensure the Iraqi detainees were not ill-treated.

The hearing continues.

Lawyer For Detainees Speaks On Suicides

Taken from Yahoo News
By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer, Mon Sep 25, 11:25 PM ET

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - An attorney who represents several Guantanamo Bay detainees said the U.S. military is attempting to falsely link him to the suicides of three prisoners at the U.S. base to deflect blame for its own actions.

Pentagon spokesman declined to comment Monday on attorney Clive Stafford Smith's accusation. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has seized some 1,100 pounds of documents in its probe of the June suicides by three detainees, the first to rock the Guantanamo Bay detention center on Cuba.

"As a matter of routine practice, we do not discuss ongoing NCIS investigations," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Stafford Smith said interrogators have been questioning his client Mohammed el Gharani on a weekly basis, attempting to lay blame for the suicides at the lawyer's feet.

"His interrogators have repeatedly questioned him about my purported role in the suicides," Stafford told the AP.

"The interrogator said I told my clients to kill themselves, and word was passed to the three men who did commit suicide," Stafford Smith added.

The Guantanamo suicides stoked international condemnation of the detention center, where alleged al-Qaida and Taliban members are held. Lawyers and human rights activists called the suicides an act of desperation.

But Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the detention facilities, described the suicides as "not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us" — an effort to increase condemnation of the prison.

Harris, in a statement to a federal court, said he asked the NCIS to investigate whether the suicides were "encouraged, ordered or assisted by other detainees or third persons."
El-Gharani, 19, was removed from the general prison population in March and placed in Camp Echo next to Shaker Aamer, an influential Saudi detainee, to try to persuade Aamer to cease a hunger strike, said Stafford Smith, who is also one of Aamer's attorneys.

The unnamed interrogator, in his questioning of el-Gharani, indicated military officials believe Stafford Smith had previously told Aamer "that people should die if the prison was to close."

"According to the interrogator ... Shaker is supposed to have told this to Mohammed and he passed the message along when he was taken back into the general population. The interrogator said I told my clients to kill themselves, and word was passed to the three men who did commit suicide," Stafford Smith said.

The attorney said soldiers have threatened to move el-Gharani to Camp 5, a maximum-security facility, if he does not implicate Stafford Smith in the suicides. He described the scenario allegedly laid out by interrogators as "a fantasy."

"The military is desperate to issue a report that places the full blame for the deaths on someone other than themselves," the lawyer said.

Army Brig. Gen. Edward A. Leacock, deputy commander of the detention operation, told the AP he does not know if Stafford Smith is a focus of the Navy investigation.

On Wednesday, a federal judge said the U.S. military may review thousands of legal documents seized from detainees in the probe of the deaths of the three detainees, who were found hanged in their cells on June 10. One suicide note had been written on paper stamped "attorney-client privilege," and belonged to another detainee, according to court papers.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered an independent "filter team" to review the paperwork for evidence.

Attorneys for dozens of detainees opposed that and demanded the government return the legal documents.

Separately Monday, the Red Cross began a two-week visit to the Guantanamo prison, saying it expected to get a first glimpse of 14 high-level terror suspects previously locked up in CIA secret prisons. The transfer from detention centers overseas was announced this month by President Bush.

Vincent Lusser, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Geneva, said that no date has been agreed for meeting with those detainees. But he said the Red Cross had "confirmation" it would be granted access to the suspects, who include alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
That's what we expect from this visit," he said.

U.S. Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock said last week that the detainees would be made available around Oct. 1.

Journal: Agency Blocked Hurricane Report

Taken from Yahoo Mail, Wed Sep 27, 5:19 AM ET
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - A government agency blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disputed the Nature article, saying there was not a report but a two-page fact sheet about the topic. The information was to be included in a press kit to be distributed in May as the annual hurricane season approached but wasn't ready.

"The document wasn't done in time for the rollout," NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John said in responding to the Nature article. "The White House never saw it, so they didn't block it."
The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — part of the Commerce Department — in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes.

According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect.
In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.

Leetmaa, head of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher is currently out of the country, but Nature quoted him as saying the report was merely an internal document and could not be released because the agency could not take an official position on the issue.

However, the journal said in its online report that the study was merely a discussion of the current state of hurricane science and did not contain any policy or position statements.
The report drew a prompt response from Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., who charged that "the administration has effectively declared war on science and truth to advance its anti-environment agenda ... the Bush administration continues to censor scientists who have documented the current impacts of global warming."

A series of studies over the past year or so have shown an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a strengthening that many storm experts say is tied to rising sea-surface temperatures.

Just two weeks ago, researchers said that most of the increase in ocean temperature that feeds more intense hurricanes is a result of human-induced global warming, a study one researcher said "closes the loop" between climate change and powerful storms like Katrina.

Not all agree, however, with opponents arguing that many other factors affect storms, which can increase and decrease in cycles.

The possibility of global warming affecting hurricanes is politically sensitive because the administration has resisted proposals to restrict release of gases that can cause warming conditions.

In February, a NASA political appointee who worked in the space agency's public relations department resigned after reportedly trying to restrict access to Jim Hansen, a NASA climate scientist who has been active in global warming research.

Former Generals Launch Devastating Attack On 'Incompetent' Rumsfeld

Extracted from Daily Mail on 25th September 2006
by DAVID GARDNER

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was under siege from his own military tonight as he faced a growing rebellion over his handling of the Iraq war.

Retired American army chiefs broke ranks to demand Rumsfeld be fired, accusing him of bungling the invasion and sending troops into battle with sub-standard equipment and hiding facts from the public.

One described Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically." And in the clearest sign yet of a disturbing split between the White House and the military over the Iraqi quagmire, the army’s top serving officer, General Peter Schoomaker, has clashed with Rumsfeld over funding for the war.

The army’s chief of staff has refused to present his 2008 budget to Pentagon leaders, claiming he needs at least an additional £15 billion to maintain the current troop levels in Iraq.
It is an unprecedented move and comes just a day after America’s spy chiefs turned on President Bush to claim the Iraq war had fuelled Islamic terrorism around the world, rather than lessened the threat, as the administration has consistently claimed in recent months.
And it brings the debate over the president’s performance in Iraq back to centre stage just six weeks before America’s crucial mid-term elections, which are certain to be dominated by the war.

In yet another PR blow that is certain to spark unrest among troops serving in Iraq, the army admitted yesterday it has been forced to extend the combat tours of about 4,000 soldiers who were supposed to return home shortly.

With troops stretched to breaking point, the 1st Brigade of 1st Armored Division, which is operating in the vicinity of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, will be kept in place for several weeks beyond their scheduled departure.

In late July, about 300 soldiers from an Alaska-based unit had already returned home and were ordered to go straight back to Iraq. The brigade is now operating in Baghdad.

Wrath
Rumsfeld faced the wrath of his old guard yesterday as three retired army leaders went public with their criticisms.

An earlier attack by retired military commanders in April prompted a vote of confidence in his Defence chief from President Bush.

In one astonishing allegation yesterday, Retired Major General John R.S. Batiste, who commanded the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, said Rumsfeld at one point threatened to fire the next person who mentioned the need for a postwar plan in Iraq.

"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," added Batiste in remarks prepared for a hearing by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

A second witness, retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who also served in Iraq, called for Rumsfeld to be replaced. He assessed the Pentagon boss as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically."

Batiste, Eaton and retired Col. Paul X. Hammes were unsparing in remarks that suggested deep anger at the way the military had been treated. All three served in Iraq, and Batiste also was senior military assistant to then-Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz.

Batiste said if full consideration had been given to the requirements for war, it's likely the US would have kept its focus on Afghanistan, "not fuelled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe, and not created more enemies than there were insurgents."

Hammes claimed there was a "serious moral failure on the part of our leadership" by not providing troops with the best equipment.

The United States "did not ask our soldiers to invade France in 1944 with the same armour they trained on in 1941. Why are we asking our soldiers and Marines to use the same armour we found was insufficient in 2003?" added Hammes, who was in charge of setting up new bases for the Iraqi armed forces.

Eaton was responsible for training the Iraqi military and later for rebuilding the police force. He said planning for the postwar period was "amateurish at best, incompetent a better description."

General Schoomaker failed to submit his required budget plan by an August 15 deadline following a series of cuts in the army’s spending requests by both the White House and Congress over the past four months.

He is asking for about £90 billion for 2008, £15 million more than budget limits originally set by Rumsfeld.

Eta To 'Keep Taking Up Arms' In Secession War

Extracted from the Independent, UK
By Daniel Woolls in Madrid Published: 25 September 2006

The Basque separatist group Eta will "keep taking up arms" until the region achieves independence, according to militants claiming to speak for the group.

The warning came in a statement read on Saturdayby a masked Eta militant at a pro-independence rally in Aritxulegi near San Sebastian, said the newspaper Gara, which often serves as a mouthpiece for Eta. "Until we achieve independence and socialism in the Basque country, we reaffirm our commitment to keep taking up arms firmly," the statement said. "The fight is not a thing of the past. It is the present and the future."

The statement made no mention of the ceasefire Eta declared on 22 March, Gara said. Previous Eta statements since the truce began have said it remains in force, even if Eta complained about how the peace process was evolving.

When it declared the truce in March, Eta said it wanted a negotiated end to a 40-year conflict in which it has killed more than 800 people. The Socialist Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, concluded in June that the ceasefire was sincere and told parliament he would negotiate with Eta, but only to achieve its dissolution - not to make concessions toward Basque independence. In a speech yesterday, Mr Zapatero said Eta must eschew violence and "engage in politics and nothing more than politics".

The government-Eta talks have yet to begin. Eta's outlawed political wing, Batasuna, wants to take part in proposed separate talks among political parties in the Basque region on the future of the area. The government ruled this out until Batasuna renounces Eta.

Groups claiming to support Eta have committed petrol bomb attacks on banks, buses and political party offices since June. No one has been hurt.

The government had said that it would not negotiate with Eta unless it ended all forms of violence. Ministers regularly condemn Eta attacks but have not said that they will halt their plans to negotiate with Eta.

On Friday, a radio station in Pamplona and a courthouse in Marquina were attacked. Three bank cash dispensers were burnt on Saturday night in Durango and San Sebastian. The attacks intensified in late August after Eta issued a statement saying that the peace process was at a crisis stage.

It accused the government of not living up to its own promise of a "ceasefire," apparently meaning a promise to stop arresting Eta members.

Is there Anybody Out There? How The Men From The Ministry Hid The Hunt For UFOs

Extracted from the Guardian, UK
By James Randerson, science correspondent
Published: Monday September 25, 2006

Is there Anybody Out There? How The Men From The Ministry Hid The Hunt For UFOs

The Ministry of Defence went to extraordinary lengths to cover up its true involvement in investigating UFOs, according to secret documents revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The files show that officials attempted to expunge information from documents released to the Public Records Office under the "30-year rule" that would have revealed the extent of the MoD's interest in UFO sightings.

In particular, the ministry wanted to cover up the operation of a secret unit dedicated to UFO investigations within the Defence Intelligence Staff. UFO conspiracy theorists have likened the unit, called DI55, to a sort of "Men in Black" agency for defending the Earth against invasion but the released documents show this is far from the truth. One 1995 memo from DI55 to the MoD's public "UFO desk" said: "I have several books at home that describe our supposed role of 'defender of the Earth against the alien menace' - it is light years from the truth!"

The files were made public following FOI requests by David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and his colleague Andy Roberts.

"These documents don't tell us anything about UFOs but they do show how desperate the MoD have been to conceal the interest which the intelligence services had in the subject," said Dr Clarke.

The trail begins with a request, in 1976, from a UFO enthusiast called Julian Hennessy for access to the MoD's records on UFO sightings. A note from the UFO desk to the MoD's head of security on March 23 shows that officials intended to refuse him access on the grounds that the files contain confidential information and "very little of value to a serious scientific investigator".

But the note continues: "This is not to say that the investigation is not taken seriously. The branches have their own methods - and [the public UFO desk] has no 'need to know' about them - but we are aware that DI55 for example sometimes makes extensive inquiries.

"It is undesirable that even a hint of this should become public and we are currently consulting the [Air Historical Branch] on ways of expurgating the official records against the time when they qualify for disclosure [at the Public Records Office]."

Hearing of the background to his fob off 30 years ago Mr Hennessy, who is a local magistrate, was not surprised. "Everything led me to believe there was a major cover up going on," he said."They didn't want to let the public know just how interested they were in these phenomena."

Attempts to alter the public record went on into the 90s. In a note dated April 28 1993 from DI55 to the public UFO desk the unnamed author argued the unit's involvement should be excised from records due to be released under the 30-year rule. But the cat was already out of the bag. A clerical error in 1983 had meant that the distribution list was incorrectly left on a publicly released UFO-related document, so UFO enthusiasts were already asking questions.
"Since then they have obviously been bombarded by people saying who is this DI55, what do they do, what is the extent of their involvement," said Dr Clarke.

Eventually, DI55 decided to allow its involvement to be made public. A note from DI55 to the public UFO desk on 5July 1995 said: "I see no reason for continuing to deny that the [Defence Intelligence Service] has an interest in UFOs. However, if the association is formally made public then the MoD will no doubt be pressured to state what the intelligence role/interest is. This could lead to disbelief and embarrassment since few people are likely to believe the truth that lack of funds and higher priorities have prevented any study of the thousands of reports received."

At this point someone, presumably from the public UFO desk, has scribbled "ouch!" in the margin.

"The lengths they went to to remove any mention of the Defence Intelligence Staff's central role in investigating sightings suggests they had something to hide," said Dr Clarke. "But what they were hiding was not evidence of ET visits but embarrassment at the fact they were never allowed to spend public money on investigating the subject in any depth." The full extent of DI55's involvement has subsequently been made clear by a report released to Dr Clarke in May and reported in the Guardian. That threw up a 500-page document which brought together everything the unit knew about UFOs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) as the MoD prefers, including more than 10,000 sightings. It said the existence of UAPs was "indisputable", but blamed the most vexing sighting on airborne "plasmas" formed during "more than one set of weather and electrically charged conditions", or during meteor showers.

Sighting aliens or otherwise?

August 10 1965 A man reported seeing a crimson ball fly out of the side of a hill in Warminster, Wiltshire. A fortnight later, another man photographed a UFO in the centre of Warminster. In 1994 it was claimed the photo was a hoax and the object was made from a cotton reel and a button.

Boxing Day 1980 A UFO reportedly crash landed in Rendlesham forest, Suffolk, near the Woodbridge US air force base. The incident was nicknamed Britain's Roswell in a reference to the famous UFO sighting in New Mexico in 1947. Witnesses said the craft was covered in markings similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs and aliens emerged from it. An airman later confessed the incident was a hoax.

November 28 1980 Policeman Alan Godfrey reported seeing a six-metre wide dome-like object hovering in the air in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. He returned to the site with colleagues and they found the area where the object had supposedly been hovering was dry even though the rest of the road was wet because of earlier rain.

Early 1990s A string of sightings by residents in north Scotland of a UFO regularly flying overhead at great speed. Documents released earlier this year suggested the aircraft was a spy plane called Aurora, designed by the Americans to take covert pictures of the Soviet Union.

May 2006 The MoD released details of Project Condign, a four-year secret study into possible explanations for UFOs. The report concluded that many sightings could be explained as by glowing "plasmas" of gas created by charges of electricity.

'America Paid Us To Hand Over Al-Qaeda Suspects'

Extracted from the Times, UK
By Daniel McGrory, Published: September 25, 2006

America Paid Us To Hand Over Al-Qaeda Suspects'

General Musharraf's memoir serialised in The Times will further embarrass the White House

PRESIDENT Musharraf of Pakistan says that the CIA has secretly paid his government millions of dollars for handing over hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects to America.

The US government has strict rules banning such reward payments to foreign powers involved in the war on terror. General Musharraf does not say how much the CIA gave in return for the 369 al-Qaeda figures that he ordered should be passed to the US.

The US Department of Justice said: “We didn’t know about this. It should not happen. These bounty payments are for private individuals who help to trace terrorists on the FBI’s most wanted list, not foreign governments.”

The revelation comes from General Musharraf’s memoir, In the Line of Fire, which begins serialisation in The Times today and will further embarrass the White House at a time when relations between the US and Pakistan are already strained.

General Musharraf claimed last week that the Bush Administration threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” if did not co-operate with the US after the 9/11 attacks.
The latest revelation will embarrass the White House days before General Musharraf is due to meet President Bush and President Karzai of Afghanistan to discuss how to combat a resurgent Taleban.

The disclosures are also causing consternation in Pakistan. Members of General Musharraf’s Cabinet and senior diplomats apparently did not know he was writing a book and are worried that relations with its allies and Western intelligence agencies will be damaged by the revelations.

The CIA refused to divulge the size of its bounty payments, saying: “Our relationships with international leaders is not something we are prepared to talk about.” One senior CIA figure added: “Nor do we expect these leaders to do so.”

Among the suspects surrendered to the US was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the 9/11 operation and many other terror plots in the UK, including a planned attack on Heathrow airport, the plot never came to fruition.

General Musharraf does not explain why his intelligence chiefs only questioned al-Qaeda’s alleged operational mastermind for three days before handing him over to the CIA when he was allegedly responsible for so many attacks inside Pakistan and he alone knew the identities of the key figures in Osama bin Laden’s network.

General Musharraf says that in the Heathrow plot in 2002 Mohammed planned to use flights leaving European airports belonging to the national airlines of the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Malta because of their lax security.

The signal for the hijackers to seize the plane was when the “fasten seat belt” sign was turned on as the aircraft was coming into land at Heathrow. Al-Qaeda had picked European Muslims, including a number of white converts, to fly the aircraft into terminal buildings and fuel dumps at London’s main airport.

Pakistani intelligence chiefs are concerned that General Musharraf may jeopardise their relationship with British intelligence agencies after claiming that a convicted terrorist was once an MI6 informer.

The President outlines the role played by a former London public schoolboy, Omar Sheikh, in the kidnap and murder of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, in February 2002.

General Musharraf says that Sheikh, who orchestrated the abduction, was recruited by MI6 while he was studying at the London School of Economics and sent to the Balkans to take part in jihad operations there. He alleges that Sheikh later double-crossed British intelligence. “At some point he probably became a rogue or double agent,” General Musharraf says.

Sheikh has been held since February 2002 and was sentenced to death. He is being held in a Karachi jail but British detectives have been denied access to him.

General Musharraf says that he decided to disclose details of covert operations and his country’s capture of 689 suspects since 9/11 to counter claims that Pakistan has not done enough to combat al-Qaeda.

A number of the men he handed to the Americans have been held in CIA-run secret detention centres. While Mr Bush has tried to play down reports of rising tensions between Islamabad and Washington, relations will not be helped by General Musharraf’s disclosures.

In the book he says that he was so angered at US attempts to bully Pakistan into supporting the White House that he had his military commanders study “war games” to see if they could take on the American forces should they try to operate inside his borders without permission. He insists that it wasn’t intimidation that led him to back the US, but because it was in Pakistan’s interest.

General Musharraf scorns what he calls “the ludicrous demands” from Washington after 9/11, including one insisting that he should suppress protests inside Pakistan against the US.
His revelations are also likely to cause upset in India after he insults the military prowess of his nuclear neighbour.

At home his political opponents say that the book is General Musharraf’s blatant attempt to bolster his own reputation before elections in October 2007 as he has signalled his determination to have another five years in power. They are also questioning what he intends to do with the reported six-figure sum he was paid by the publishers for his book.

Soldiers In 'Guns For Coke' Scandal

Extracted from The Sunday Times
by David Leppard, Published: September 24, 2006

Soldiers In 'Guns For Coke' Scandal

BRITISH soldiers have been caught smuggling stolen guns out of Iraq and allegedly exchanging them for cocaine and cash on the black market.

Security officials confirmed this weekend that soldiers from the 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment are at the centre of a criminal inquiry by the Royal Military Police (RMP) into a “guns for cocaine” network.

Their alleged involvement with organised crime is a fresh blow to the British Army after a week in which a corporal from the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment admitted he had committed a war crime against an Iraqi civilian.

Although drug use is increasing in the armed forces, this is the first time military police have evidence that stolen weapons are being sold to pay for them.

One of the first soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment to have been arrested is alleged to have bought drugs by trading handguns, including Glock pistols, smuggled from Iraq to Germany on at least six occasions.

A security source said some of the weapons had been exchanged for about 50 grams of cocaine with a street value of £2,500. The drugs were sold to other British soldiers serving in Iraq.
The source said it was unclear whether the weapons were army issue or seized from Iraqi insurgent groups.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) fears the soldiers may have been doing business with members of organised crime syndicates in Germany. The battalion has a base near Fallingbostel, north of Hanover.

One security official said: “Who did the guns go to? And what purpose did they want guns for? Did they take them back to the UK and sell them on? Are they in the hands of Yardies?” The case is being overseen by the Army Prosecuting Authority and falls under the jurisdiction of a court martial. The battalion completed a tour of duty in southern Iraq last year and is now based in Warminster, Wiltshire.

As Iraq slides further into chaos, the country has become awash with illicit weapons, many provided to the Iraqi police by America and Britain.

The army is suffering an epidemic of drug abuse. Earlier this year The Sunday Times revealed how the army regiment involved in the first Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal was awash with drugs as the soldiers went to war.

One former fusilier claimed that 75 men from his company, some 60% of its strength, regularly took cocaine, ecstasy or marijuana. “There’s guys who have to have two or three lines of coke before they can operate,” he said.

According to a parliamentary answer, 1,020 army personnel tested positive for drugs last year, including 520 cases using class A drugs — a 50% rise in the past five years.

The MoD confirmed the RMP inquiry but declined to comment further.

UK MoD Targets Libya And Iraq As 'Priority' Arms Sales Targets

This has been extracted from The Observer
By Antony Barnett, Published: Sunday September 24, 2006

Countries with poor human rights records and those on the front line in the war on terror, including Iraq, have been targeted by the Ministry of Defence as the most lucrative places for British arms companies to sell weapons.

A confidential report obtained by The Observer under the Freedom of Information Act reveals for the first time that Iraq and Libya are 'priority' markets. Also new on the list are Colombia and Kazakhstan, both criticised for human rights violations.

The document has been prepared by the Defence Export Services Organisation (Deso), the agency that promotes the export of military equipment. It was sent to arms contractors last year detailing the countries that the government believes offer the best opportunities.

The document's opening page states that it 'includes some established markets and some new or future markets (eg Iraq, Libya). All have strong prospects.'

It also names Thailand as a priority market and describes it as 'one of the liveliest democracies in south-east Asia' and one that functions 'without any interference from the military'.

Symon Hill, of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, said: 'The British public will be sickened by Deso's attitude, which sees the violence in Iraq as simply a marketing opportunity. They will be horrified that Deso is funded through their income tax and VAT. Using taxpayers' money to arm tyrants is as bad for our economy as it is for our security. Yet we now know that through Deso that the government is supporting brutal regimes from Libya to Colombia.'

The report states that 'in Colombia, the human rights and security situation has improved' but offers no evidence.

Amnesty International expressed serious concerns recently about the numbers of displaced people in Colombia and reports of extra-judicial executions carried out directly by the security forces. The human rights group has also had numerous reports of human rights violations by paramilitaries.

The war on terror is also seen as an opportunity to boost arms exports. The report states: 'Terrorism has become more complex and countering it with new equipment, systems and processes is now a major driver in spending and planning.'

It adds: 'The collection, management and dissemination of information, and the translation of that into usable knowledge to create very rapid military effects, is as important a development in terms of military technology as the invention of the aircraft or the tank.'

The report also gives advice to arms dealers on how to behave when they travel overseas. In Brazil, they should 'shake hands every time' and 'expect Brazilian men to stand (uncomfortably) close... or to put their arms around your shoulders and hug you.' In Thailand, 'flattery is the best prelude to criticism'. In Saudi Arabia, discussion should avoid 'religion, politics or women'.

Campaign In Iraq Has Increased Terrorism Threat, Says American Intelligence Report

Extracted from the Guardian, UK on Monday September 25, 2006
By Dan Glaister in Los Angeles

An authoritative US intelligence report pooling the views of 16 government agencies concludes America's campaign in Iraq has increased the threat of terrorism.

The National Intelligence Estimate was completed in April but not made public. Its conclusions, which were first reported by the New York Times, contradict assertions made by President George Bush and White House officials during the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

"It's a very candid assessment," said one official who has seen the report. "It's stating the obvious."

The report, Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States, points out the "centrality" of the US invasion of Iraq in fomenting terrorist cells and attacks. One section of the 30-page report, Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement, describes how the American presence in Iraq has helped spread radical Islam by providing a focal point for anti-Americanism.

While arguing that there has been success in dismantling the leadership of al-Qaida and its ability to plan major operations, the report says that radical cells have moved to more than 5,000 websites to organise and spread their message.

The report's tone contradicts recent optimistic assertions by the US administration. It also furthers the divisions between the military and politicians in their assessment of the impact of US policy in Iraq.

In his speech to mark the fifth anniversary of the attacks of 9/11, President Bush said: "The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad."

But in a speech in April, thought to be largely based on the report, CIA chief General Michael Hayden, then deputy director of national intelligence, painted a more alarming picture. "New jihadist networks and cells, sometimes united by little more than their anti-western agendas, are increasingly likely to emerge," Gen Hayden said. "If this trend continues, threats to the US at home and abroad will become more diverse and that could lead to increasing attacks worldwide."

Democratic senator Edward Kennedy said in a statement that the report "should put the final nail in the coffin for President Bush's phoney argument about the Iraq war. How many more independent reports, how many more deaths, how much deeper into civil war will Iraq need to fall for the White House to wake up and change its strategy in Iraq?"

But the White House said yesterday that press coverage of the intelligence report did not give the whole picture. A spokesman said terrorist extremism "did not develop overnight" after the US invaded Iraq. "Those seeds were planted decades ago," he said. "Instead of waiting while they plot and plan attacks to kill innocent Americans, the United States has taken the initiative to fight back."

The Republican Senate leader, Bill Frist, said that while he had not seen the report, "we've got to win this war on terror, wherever it is, and it's going to be fought overseas, or if we don't win there, it's going to be fought here in the United States".

The NIE report, the first formal assessment of global terrorism by US intelligence agencies since the invasion of Iraq, was started in 2004 under the leadership of David Low, an officer at the National Intelligence Council. The council, under the auspices of the national intelligence director, John Negroponte, is made up of present and former intelligence officials. It is charged with providing long-term assessments and analyses for the president and officials rather than policy prescriptions.

Its record, however, has been patchy. A NIE report issued in 2002 concluded that Iraq had "continued its weapons of mass destruction programmes", had biological and chemical weapons and "probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade". A July 2004 NIE report concluded that the possible outcomes in Iraq ranged from a government with tenuous control to civil war.

The report comes days after the House intelligence committee warned that Iraq had become a breeding ground for terrorists and that the danger facing the US was "more alarming than the threat that existed" before 9/11.

The violence continued in Iraq over the weekend with 38 people killed in a suicide bombing in Sadr City on Saturday. Twenty people were killed in violence around Iraq yesterday, as well as two US soldiers in the Anbar province west of Baghdad.

The confusion surrounding Saddam Hussein's trial on genocide charges deepened yesterday when his defence team announced that it would boycott the trial indefinitely.

Five days after the judge in the case was unexpectedly removed, and four days after the new judge ejected the former Iraqi president from the court, Saddam's lawyers said that the court had violated the law. "The court committed several violations of the law and we will not just sit there gagged to give it legitimacy," said Khalil al-Dulaimi, who heads the former president's defence team. He cited the court's refusal to hear non-Iraqi lawyers in the case.

In their own words
"My administration, the Congress, and the United Nations saw the threat - and after 9/11, Saddam's regime posed a risk that the world could not afford to take. The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power" George Bush's address to the nation, September 11 2006

"I think it's clear that we are safer but not really yet safe. We've done a lot ... our ports are more secure, we have a much stronger intelligence sharing operation. We've clearly hurt badly the al-Qaida organisation" Condoleezza Rice, September 10 2006

"I don't know how much better you can do than no attacks for the past five years. The fact is, the world is better off today with Saddam Hussein out of power. Think where we'd be if he was still there" Dick Cheney, September 11 2006

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POST NOTE:

PRESIDENT BUSH took the extraordinary step on 26.09.06 authorising the public release of his government’s classified terror threat assessment, a move that seemed to bolster claims by his opponents that the Iraq war was fuelling global terrorism.

Read the declassified sections of report (pdf)

Terror in the Post-Iraq world

Madrid: March 11, 2004
Co-ordinated explosions onboard commuter trains, above, kill 191 people and wound more than 1,700

London: July 7, 2005
Near-simultaneous blasts by suicide bombers on the capital’s public transport system during morning rush hour kill 52 people and injure 700

Sharm el-Sheikh: July 23, 2005
Eighty-eight people were killed and more than 150 injured by a series of blasts at the Egyptian holiday resort

Bali: October 1, 2005
Bombs at two sites kill twenty people and three suicide bombers

Amman: November 9, 2005
Three hotels are bombed in the Jordanian capital, killing 60 people and injuring 115

Protecting Torture: The Red Cross' Deadly Silence

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will visit the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and see 14 detainees recently switched from secret CIA jails, a spokesman said on last Wednesday.

The ICRC said it would visit Guantanamo next week, but the U.S. general who oversees the prison said visits would not likely happen until October 1.

The Red Cross will become the first organisation outside of the Bush administration to learn about the practices in the CIA-run facilities, including the interrogation techniques used. But the international agency's guidelines require the information to be completely confidential, meaning that the representatives will be able to directly raise their concerns only with U.S. authorities.

Here is a nice article extracted from Left Turn Magazine #16
by Rafeef Ziadah

Protecting Torture: The Red Cross' Deadly Silence
By promising confidentiality to the occupying and imprisoning powers the International Committee of the Red Cross monitors the fate of prisoners of war that no other organization can reach — from Guantanamo Bay’s Camp X-ray, to Abu Ghraib and even the many Israeli detention centers in occupied Palestine. Here, Rafeef Ziadah questions whether the ICRC’s monitoring efforts help prisoners or protect those who violate prisoners’ human rights.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was founded in 1863 to help the wounded and other victims of war. In the Geneva Conventions the ICRC is given exclusive rights to investigate prison conditions in war situations. In return for the ability to visit prisons and submitting reports to governments, ICRC officials promise confidentiality to the imprisoning forces. Delegates trained at headquarters in Geneva are drilled in confidentiality from day one — it is almost a mantra: “Talk about what you do, not what you see.” Despite criticism of its confidentiality policies regarding abuse and torture, the ICRC insists that this is the most effective way to help prisoners.

ICRC delegates visit thousands of prisoners around the world every year, often in countries where any outside scrutiny is rare and unwelcome. But it is because the ICRC promises confidentiality that it is allowed access to places that no other organization can reach. In Guantanamo Bay’s Camp X-ray, Abu Ghraib and the many Israeli detention centers this commitment to secrecy applies.

“For us the priority is to have access,” ICRC spokesman Darcy Christen told BBC News Online. If delegates witness mistreatment, they hold what the ICRC describes as “comprehensive dialogue” with the detaining authority, and make recommendations. For example, whatever the ICRC recommends about the open cages erected in camp X-ray to house the prisoners, they will be discussed only with the camp commander.

Closed-door
Hernán Reyes MD for the ICRC Medical Division explains “If the prisoners tell the delegates that they have been ill-treated, the ICRC does its best to ascertain the facts and draw up a complete file, in order to notify the relevant authorities and insist that they put an end to such practices.” Reyes goes on to say “when feasible, the doctor examines each case individually and also attempts to perceive the ill-treatment as a collective phenomenon that must be understood and discussed with the authorities in its entirety.” Practically what this means is that the ICRC makes closed-door consultations with the occupying or imprisoning forces themselves, in effect politely asking the torturers to stop their torture while promising not to tell the world what they know.

Pierre Kraehenbuehl, ICRC director of operations, explains that the neutral agency almost always uses confidential discussions because they achieve results and allow the ICRC to maintain access where it feels most needed — to the prisoners in warfare. “It is important that someone comes into these places of detention and tries to work concretely on improving their situation and not leaving them to face such a situation alone,” he adds.

But the entire purpose of having access to prisoners is to guarantee that they are being treated humanely according to Geneva Conventions. If the ICRC officials are reporting on these conditions confidentially and the authorities are not responding, the ICRC’s access to prisoners actually works against their mandate. The occupying authorities can claim that the prisoners are being visited by the ICRC and that no one need worry. These visits can be seen as a way for detaining powers to claim legitimacy — that the ICRC had visited these sites and given its stamp of approval.

Nada Doumani, ICRC spokesperson in the Middle East maintains that confidentiality “can have a better impact by maintaining good working relationships with authorities, definitely not to ‘protect’ these authorities but for a better protection of those in need.” Unfortunately, while the ICRC is trying to maintain “good working relations with authorities” prisoners are continuing to be tortured and mistreated.

Abu Ghraib
Reports of torture and mistreatment have been coming out of US-run Iraqi prisons ever since the beginning of the US occupation. These reports have been widely corroborated by human rights organizations, journalists and Iraqis themselves. With the release of the photographs from Abu Ghraib, US and British governments were quick to condemn the acts of torture, calling them ‘disgusting’ and promising investigations and punishment of the soldiers involved.

While the public revelations of torture were breaking in the US media, it became clear that the ICRC had been aware of US prison practices but had chosen to remain silent. The Wall Street Journal released excerpts of a January 2004 ICRC report on the conditions of Iraqi prisons, much to the chagrin of the ICRC. This report indicated that the torture and abuse of prisoners was well known to the ICRC, but due to their confidentiality practices they chose to only complain privately to the American officials.

The ICRC explained that the leaked report was a summary of its repeated attempts from March to November 2003 to get US officials to stop abuses. The leaked report itself states:

“Since the beginning of the conflict, the ICRC has regularly brought its concerns to the attention of the Coalition Forces. The observations in the present report are consistent with those made earlier on several occasions orally and in writing to the Coalition Forces throughout 2003.”

This proves that the US occupation forces were not responding to the ICRC’s “confidential” approach. Yet, the US government did take action when the pictures became public. The Pentagon launched five separate investigations into interrogation practices at Abu Ghraib only after a US soldier reported incidents to his military superiors on January 13, 2004.

Why did the occupying forces not act upon the ICRC report and only become interested in the matter once it was made public? According to US General John Abizaid, the ICRC’s complaints and recommendations may not have reached top brass. “For example, the ICRC report of February 2004, I first saw in May,” Abizaid told a Congressional hearing, “I won’t make any excuses for it, Senator. I’ll just say that we don’t all see them. Sometimes it works at a lower level. Sometimes commanders at the lowest level get the report.”

“We abide by our policy of confidentiality…and we reserve our right to publish our findings when we deem it necessary and precisely in the best interest of people in need of protection,” maintains ICRC Middle east spokesperson Nada Doumani. This can only lead to the question — when does the ICRC deem it necessary? Was and is it not necessary in Iraq, Palestine, and Guantanamo Bay? Was it not in the best interest of the Abu Ghraib prisoners that the ICRC go public, especially after it became obvious that the occupying forces were not responding to their calls for change?

How much abuse would the ICRC have saved Iraqi prisoners if it had gone public earlier? A BBC report, “US acts after Iraq prisoner abuse” hinted that the US became serious about rigorously pursuing internal investigations only after the CBS broadcast. If the pictures had never surfaced, the ICRC would still be writing confidential — and diligently ignored — reports to the US authorities.

Palestinian prisoners
Similar strategies of imprisonment and torture witnessed in Iraq are practiced by a different occupying power in the region. The patterns of arrest, detention and torture evolving under the US occupation of Iraq resemble those employed by the Israeli military, police and secret service against the civilian population in occupied Palestine. For the more than 8000 Palestinian political prisoners currently in Israeli detention the stories coming out of Iraq are all too familiar.

The worsening situation of Palestinian prisoners and detainees has been widely documented by many of the Palestinian human rights organizations as well as international and UN bodies. Israel continues to practice torture and other forms of mistreatment against Palestinian detainees including severe beatings, tying prisoners in painful and contorted positions for long periods of time, psychological abuse, long periods of solitary confinement, and pressure to collaborate with the occupying forces. Inside Israeli prisons, Palestinian prisoners frequently report attacks by prison guards including the firing of tear gas inside prisoner’s cells, beatings, and the denial of food and medical treatment. Women prisoners report that they have been stripped naked by prison guards and shackled spread-eagled to prison beds in solitary confinement.

Despite these grave violations of prisoner rights, the ICRC mission in the area only carries out visits to visit Palestinian prisoners in central Israeli prisons in Occupied Palestine every six months. The ICRC has failed to adequately address the concerns of Palestinian prisoners during their visits, including the provision of urgently needed clothes, shoes and other personal needs.

It is understandable that Israel places very real structural obstacles in front of the work of the ICRC. However, it also seems that the ICRC has preferred to quietly accept considerable and increasing violations of the rights of prisoners without taking any meaningful action in order to maintain “good working relations with the authorities” and to “maintain access.”

Prisoners’ Families
April 17th is the International Day in Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners. It is marked by demonstrations through out the Occupied Territories with families demanding the release of prisoners. Many of these demonstrations take place outside the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Palestinian Prisoner’s Family Committees are challenging the actions of the ICRC in the occupied territories. In most Palestinian cities, weekly vigils are held outside ICRC offices urging the ICRC to fully investigate the conditions of Palestinian prisoners.

There are very specific demands and procedural matters that the family committees insist on. For example, the visiting procedures of the ICRC to Israeli prisons are extremely problematic. Palestinian prisoners as well as prisoner support organizations report that the ICRC has accepted Israeli restrictions on which prisoners they can visit. Furthermore, the ICRC visits take place in official ‘visiting areas’ and do not include any kind of monitoring of the conditions inside the prisons and detention centers as a whole. The family committees demand that ICRC follow the procedure of conducting walk-throughs of the general prison areas as it would be a simple and effective way of placing pressure on the Israeli prison administration to improve the conditions in these prisons.

In addition, the family committees of Palestinian prisoners have demanded the following actions from the ICRC mission in Palestine and solidarity activists can support their campaign by also bringing these demands to the ICRC:
- That sick and injured prisoners are provided with adequate and appropriate medical treatment
- To take effective and public action to pressure Israel to open the secret prison Facility 1391 to representatives of the ICRC and Palestinian lawyers
- To urgently increase the frequency of visits by the ICRC to Israeli prisons
- To insist that visits by ICRC staff to Israeli prisons also include the provision of urgently needed items such as clothes, underwear, shoes, sanitary products and educational materials
- To pressure Israel to allow unobstructed family visits by Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to their relatives in Israeli jails. Most importantly, these visits should take place unobstructed by glass or other barriers
- To increase the visibility of the work of the ICRC to the Palestinian public, in particular the actions the ICRC carries out around the above measures. This should be done in much closer coordination with Palestinian human rights organizations

For the Palestine Solidarity Movement in North America the issue of Palestinian political prisoners is often sidelined in our work, although on the ground it is one of the most important struggles. It is time that we integrate political prisoner solidarity into our overall Palestine solidarity work. Mounting an international campaign calling on the ICRC to publicize conditions of Palestinian prisoners is an effective way to support the family committees of Palestinian prisoners.

The Sumoud Political Prisoner Solidarity Group based in Toronto is organizing a number of upcoming actions that you can find out more about at http://sumoud.tao.ca/. April 11 will be an International call-in and fax day to central ICRC missions (the Sumoud website will have sample letters and talking points). There will also be a speaking tour of Palestinian ex-political prisoners in North America to raise awareness around Palestinian political prisoners and connect their struggles with struggles against prisons in North America. The tour is starting on Palestinian Land Day, March 31, and ending on April 17, Palestinian Political Prisoners Day. Finally, there is a call for an international day of action on April 17th with demonstrations taking place outside of ICRC offices world-wide to send a clear message to the ICRC that Palestinian Political prisoners do not stand alone. All cities are urged to send delegations and hold demonstrations on that day.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Hanieh, Hazem Jamjoum, and Rafeef Ziadah are active in a variety of groups in Toronto, Canada, including Al Awda (Toronto), Sumoud Political Prisoners Group, the Arab Students Collective (University of Toronto), and the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.

Terrorist Detainees Spellbound By Harry Potter Tales

Extracted from thescotsman.com
RACHEL WILLIAMS IN NEW YORK 16.09.06

The Harry Potter stories are the most popular books in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre's library, the Pentagon has revealed.

JK Rowling's tales of the young wizard were the most requested by terror suspects held at the high-security camp from among 3,500 titles available.

The Defence Department also said detainees enjoyed watching World Cup football games and playing table tennis.

The revelations came in a new document released by the department called Ten Facts About Guantanamo, which seeks to highlight the "benefits" available to those incarcerated at the camp in Cuba.

Recreational activities on offer are said to include basketball, volleyball, football, table tennis and board games, and high-top trainers are provided.

Departing detainees are given a Koran, a denim jacket, a white T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, high-tops, a gym bag of toiletries, and a pillow and blanket for the flight home.

More money is spent on meals for detainees than on those for the US troops stationed there, the list claimed.

Detainees are offered up to 4,200 calories worth of food a day and gained an average of 20lb.
"The library has 3,500 volumes available in 13 languages - the most requested book is Harry Potter," the list added.

Matt Latimer, director of the Pentagon writers' group, which put the list together, said: "We welcome the chance to let people know there's more than one side to the story in Guantanamo."

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Considering that almost every detainees kept in Gitmo are innocent, (note: only 1 person is charged in US with a crime in connection with 9/11. and I hope he gets the most severe punishment) surely they deserve some treats!

It seems that in the US you are charged guilty until you can prove your innocence. On June 12, 2006, Senator Arlen Specter stated to CNN that the arrests of most of the prisoners held there were based on "the flimsiest sort of hearsay".

With regards to Matt Latimer's comments it would be nice if he told us what the other side of the story is in Guantanamo (just for the official record!).

Weekly Round Up: Thai Coups, UK Troops And The New Iranian Hero!

This week’s news has been dominated by the gathering of all world statesmen at the United Nationals General Assembly. Can anyone forget Hugo Chavez calling George W Bush "the devil" in his a speech? Or President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accusing the US and UK of using the UN Security Council for their own ends! One person that did not enjoy his conference was Thaksin Shinawatra. Eighteen months ago, tycoon-turned-politician Mr Shinawatra won a landslide election victory and became a rising star on the regional stage. Today, he is out of a job after a coup d'etat and considering life in exile. Here is the rest of the news…

Europe
RAF 'fails to protect Afghanistan troops'
THE RAF is “utterly, utterly useless” at protecting troops on the ground, according to a British army major serving in Afghanistan.

Major James Loden of 3 Para described how, during a firefight against Taleban forces in the Helmand province last month, RAF pilots endangered their own British troops.

He said that a Harrier pilot fired two phosphorus rockets which just missed the Army’s own compound before strafing its perimeter fence 200 metres from the location of Taleban combatants. Mr Loden also said that more helicopters and manpower were desperately needed for the operation in Afghanistan, which has claimed 33 British soldiers’ lives since June including 19 this month alone.

The Ministry of Defence described the e-mails yesterday as “moving and humbling”, adding that Major Loden’s comments did not reflect the view of the vast majority of soldiers.

A government spokesman said that Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, had already pointed out that British soldiers in the province were sometimes “working to the limits of endurance”. He added that the major’s comments were unfortunate.

Britain foils five attacks in past year
British police have thwarted five attacks in the past year, London's top counter-terrorism commander said Tuesday.

Peter Clarke, the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorism chief, said he was worried many Britons felt that the threat had passed after last year's London underground blasts and the August arrest of 17 people over a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.

"I sensed at times that in the U.K., almost as if a bubble had burst and to some extent a sense, 'well, it's happened and that's that'," Clarke told a security conference in the Australian capital Canberra.

Clarke said there had been five police operations in the past year -- some still under wraps -- against people with "clear intentions to launch attacks."

UK accused of Guantánamo collusion
More than 100 senior doctors accused the government of colluding in war crimes by refusing to give medical aid to British residents detained at Guantánamo Bay. The doctors called for an urgent independent investigation into the medical needs of the detainees at the camp.

In a letter published in The Times newspaper, the doctors condemn the Foreign Office for its "shameful" refusal to respond to a request from the British Medical Association (BMA) to send a team of doctors to the detention camp in Cuba.

The medics also criticise the failure of the Foreign Office's medical and legal panels to discuss the plight of the detainees for the reason that they are not British passport holders.
Nine British citizens have been released from the camp since 2004, but at least eight men who have British residency rights are believed to still be there.

Killed in high-tech train crash in Germany
Travelling at nearly 200 kph (125 mph), the train crashed head-on into a maintenance vehicle which had apparently been left on the track due to human error, officials said.

“We have found 23 dead, and there are 10 injured who will be taken care of in hospital, whose lives are not in danger,” a police spokesman said.

Human error, rather than technical faults, were blamed for the tragedy. Most of the 29 passengers were in the front of the train, which pictures showed as being severely mangled by the crash.

The accident comes a month after a fire in an electrical storage compartment aboard Shanghai’s magnetic-levitation train as it was headed toward the city’s international airport. The fire generated large amounts of smoke but no injuries occurred.

The Shanghai system is the world’s only commercially-operating Transrapid train. Officials are studying the possibility of a line between Munich and the city’s airport. Concerns about the technology include the amount of electricity the trains use at high speed and the precision with which the tracks must be built.

This is Germany’s worst rail disaster since 1998, when 101 people died as an InterCityExpress derailed and smashed into a bridge near the northern town of Eschede in the country’s deadliest train crash.

GM The cover-up
According to the Independent newspaper, Britain's official food safety watchdog has privately told supermarkets that it will not stop them selling an illegal GM rice to the public.

Legally, no GM material is allowed to go on sale in Britain or any other EU country. It says that it has "not carried out tests of products on the market" and "has not issued any instructions to retailers" to do so. The agency says that modified rice does not present a safety concern and is advising people who may have US rice at home to continue to eat it. But some scientists say it could give cause for "concern over its potential allergenicity".

'Death of a President' drama wins film award
The controversial Channel 4 docudrama in which President George Bush is assassinated has received a prestigious award at the Toronto Film Festival.

Despite garnering largely negative reviews, Death of a President, by the British director Gabriel Range, was awarded the International Critics' Prize on Saturday.

The film made headlines when a scene showing President Bush being shot by a sniper following an anti-war demonstration was criticised by Republicans. In the dramatic sequence, created with the use of computer graphics, the President can be seen being held up by a secret service guard as his life ebbs slowly away.

Angry Turk workers urge Pope's arrest during visit
Employees of the state body that organizes Muslim worship in Turkey asked the authorities on Tuesday to open legal proceedings against Pope Benedict and to arrest him when he visits the country in November.

Muslims worldwide have been angered by remarks the Pope made in a lecture last week that they said portrayed Islam as a religion tainted by violence and irrationality.

Benedict has said he is deeply sorry Muslims have been offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and holy war, but has stopped short of retracting his comments.

Hungarian PM holds firm in face of protests
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany denied that his country was in crisis as anti-government demonstrations continued with 10,000 people protesting in front of parliament in Budapest.

"We do not have a crisis and if we did have one that would have no influence on our (austerity) program," the embattled Gyurcsany said in an interview in the German-language Financial Times Deutschland.

The Hungarian capital has seen a week of protests marred by violence after Gyurcsany admitted to lying about the state of the economy to win re-election in April, in comments secretly recorded in May and leaked to public radio.

Candidate - woman one day must lead U.N.
Latvia's president acknowledged Monday that her bid to become the next U.N. secretary-general is a long shot, but she said women must break into the "all-boys club" that has dominated the selection of the U.N. chief for the last 60 years.

Middle Easrt
Old Judge Out and New judge tosses Saddam from courtroom
The new chief judge in the Saddam Hussein genocide trial threw the former Iraqi president out of court Wednesday, and his lawyers stormed out in protest. A leading human rights group charged that the government's decision to replace the former chief judge, Abdullah al-Amiri, threatens the independence of the troubled tribunal.

Defense lawyers immediately questioned the decision to replace al-Amiri.
"
We don't expect this court established under the occupation authorities to be fair so we have decided to withdraw from this trial," defense lawyer Wadoud Fawzi told the court.

"The decision to sack the judge on the orders of the government shows that this trial lacks the standards of a fair trial," Fawzi said.

Asia
U.S. threatened to bomb Pakistan after 9/11
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that after the September 11 attacks the United States threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with America's campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Musharraf, in an interview with CBS news magazine show "60 Minutes" that will air Sunday, said the threat came from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was given to Musharraf's intelligence director.

"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,"' Musharraf said. "I think it was a very rude remark."

Military ruled out of Thailand's top job
The frontrunner for the job of prime minister in Thailand's new military-appointed government has a reputation for independence, having stood up to the ousted leader, Thaksin Shinawatra. He also boasts a distant link to the king and a track record that would calm nervous foreign investors.

Pridiyathorn Devakula, the governor of the Central Bank of Thailand, says he has not been asked to accept the job, but that has not stopped pundits weighing in on his suitability for the role.

The coup leaders yesterday barred electronic media, including radio, television and internet operators, from disseminating news and comments they deemed a threat to national security and the monarchy.

They also banned political parties from holding meetings or from conducting any other activities, a statement read on national television said. "Political gatherings of more than five people have already been banned, but political activities can resume when normalcy is restored."

Mr Thaksin released a statement in London yesterday, saying he would take a "deserved rest" and that he planned to work on research, development and "possible charitable work" for Thailand. He called for new national elections to be arranged quickly, and for all parties to work towards national reconciliation.

The army chief, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, at his first news conference since the coup, said he wanted to appoint a transitional leader "who is neutral and wants to uphold democracy" within two weeks. He offered no names.

North America
Canadian police errors led to man's torture
Canadian police wrongly identified an Ottawa software engineer as an Islamic extremist, prompting U.S. agents to deport him to Syria, where he was tortured, an official inquiry concluded on Monday.

Maher Arar, who holds Canadian and Syrian nationality, was arrested in New York in September 2002 and accused of being an al-Qaeda member. In fact, said the judge who led the probe, all the signs point to the fact Arar was innocent.

Arar, 36, says he was repeatedly tortured in the year he spent in Damascus jails, and the inquiry agreed that he had been tortured. He was freed in 2003.

Judge Dennis O'Connor found the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had wrongly told U.S. authorities that Arar was an Islamic extremist. "The provision of this inaccurate information ... (was) totally unacceptable" and guaranteed the United States would treat Arar as a serious threat, O'Connor said.

Civil rights advocates said the case of Arar and three other Canadians who ended up in Syrian jails raised suspicions that Canada might be outsourcing interrogation to nations where torture was commonplace.

US deports woman who hid her death camp past
For 47 years, Elfriede Rinkel lived a seemingly blameless life in a rundown apartment in San Francisco. She was a first-generation German immigrant whose husband, Fred, was a German Jew who had fled the Nazis.

Together, they mixed easily in Jewish circles, attended synagogue and donated to Jewish charities. When Fred Rinkel died two years ago, his widow buried him in a Jewish cemetery, his gravestone adorned with the Star of David - with space for herself next to him. This week, however, it transpired that the little old lady from the Tenderloin district harboured a secret she withheld from her husband, her family and the US authorities.

For the last year of the Second World War, Ms Rinkel - then known by her maiden name Elfriede Huth - worked as a guard and dog handler in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, not far from Düsseldorf. More than 130,000 women passed through the slave labour facility in six years, and more than two-thirds of them died - in gas chambers, medical experiments or from malnutrition and disease.

Ms Rinkel has been deported back to Germany, She is now living with a sister in Viersen, a short drive from the Ravensbrück camp. The German authorities have the option of trying her for war crimes, but it's more likely that her main punishment will be the embarrassment of having her past revealed.

First female space tourist savoring 'every single second' in orbit
The world's first female space tourist, American national Anousheh Ansari, said she is savoring every bit of her time at the International Space Station, despite the trip's hefty price tag.

Ansari, 40, told reporters she has no regrets at a press conference broadcast from the International Space Station, responding to a reporter's question about the more than 20 million dollars she reportedly paid for the eight-day space tour.

Ansari, who lived in Iran until the age of 16, is only the fourth space tourist in history, but the first woman to take the extraordinary voyage.

Ansari, who went to the US in 1984, made her fortune after she and her husband sold their telecommunications company for $550m in 2000. She is currently being sued for alleged insider trading in regard to that sale and the case is pending in a Massachusetts court.

She accompanied NASA's Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin to the ISS, and she is due to land in Kazakhstan on September 29, along with Jeffrey Williams and Pavel

Mrs Ansari's husband, Hamid, said: "I'm so very happy. It's really hard to describe. She's waited to do this for so long. It's so great to see it finally become a reality."

Her journey has sparked considerable interest in Iran and triggered an outpouring of national pride. A number of people who have left comments on her internet blog have been from Iran and have spoken of their pride in her endeavour.

On a bad note She was told to remove an Iranian flag from her spacesuit and, at the insistence of the Russian and U.S. governments, promise that there will be no political messages during her trip.

Ansari, said an Iranian flag on her spacesuit had nothing to do with politics and only conveyed her personal attitude to the nation and its people. She said she was a symbol of the country and wanted people to be proud of the Iranian flag on her spacesuit. The Iranian flag is not officially represented in events at the International Space Station, she said.

Africa
'Space flight' for Nigerian girl
A 17-year-old schoolgirl is to become the first Nigerian to experience a "space flight" when she takes off from the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday.

Stella Felix from the south-east was chosen from 400 Nigerian students who applied to go on a zero-gravity flight. "I feel like an ambassador," she said before leaving Lagos for Florida. "I feel so happy to be the first."

The trip is organised to coincide with the United Nations' Space Week.

"The goal of the programme is to use space to inspire education on a global basis while promoting international understanding among the youth," said Robert Boroffice, director general of the National Space Research and Development Agency.

Australasia
Aborigines win Australian land claim
A federal court judge has given a tribe of Aborigines a limited land title claim over the major Australian city of Perth.

It was the first such ruling that Aborigines, the indigenous people who lived in Australia before white settlers arrived, were the traditional owners of an urban area. The potentially precedent-setting decision could apply to other large cities.

The ruling determined that the Noongar people were the traditional owners of a 2,300-square-mile area of Western Australia state that includes the state capital of Perth, a city of 1.7 million people.

But Tuesday's ruling by Judge Murray Wilcox only grants Aborigines limited rights to the land, and indigenous people say the issue is about recognition of their rights, not moving homeowners out.

The ruling means the Noongar people can now exercise rights such as hunting and fishing on land where their native title — a claim on land Aborigines held before settlers arrived — has not been usurped by freehold titles, those where the government has passed all interest in the land to the owner, or leasehold titles, where a person leases property from the owner.