Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Malcolm X and Mercy
CNN.com April 27, 2010 1:08 p.m. EDT
Last month, he told the parole board he felt the urge to kill Malcolm X because of his inflammatory comments about the Nation's founder. "It stemmed from a break off and confusion in the leadership," Hagan said. "Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam, separated from the Nation of Islam, and in doing so there was controversy as to some of the statements he was making about the leader." He added, "History has revealed a lot of what Malcolm X was saying was true." (cont.)
Monday, April 26, 2010
A homeless man in New York City who was stabbed after coming to a woman's aid was left to die while passers-by ignored him, CCTV footage has shown. (Monday, 26 April 2010 16:18 BBC.CO.UK) Police said that at least 25 people walked past Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax as he bled to death on a pavement in Queens. The 31-year-old from Guatemala was repeatedly stabbed by a man as he intervened during the attack last week. (cont.)
Saturday, April 24, 2010
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm where each one takes
His chamber in the silent halls of death.
Though go not like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one that wraps that drapery of his couch
About him, and Lies down to pleasant dreams...
William Cullen Bryant "Thanatopsis"
Yes--- We are tired of being lynched physically in Misssissippi, and we are tired of being lynched spiritually and economically in the North. We have also come here today to remind Chicago of the fierce urgency now. This is no time to engage in luxury of cooling off or to take the 'tranquilizing drug of gradualism'. We have also come here today to affirm that we will no longer sit idly by in agonizing deprivation and wait on others to provide our Freedom... Freedom is never voluntarily granted by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed.
This day--- Henceforth and forever more, we must make it clear that we will purge Chicago of every politician, whether he be Negro or White, who feels he owns the Negro vote rather than earns the Negro vote.
- Martin Luther King. Jr., Soldier Field July 10th, 1966 -
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Former South African Judge and Grandfather Forced to Not Attend Grandsons Bar Mitzvah
--Al Jazeera--
THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010
23:47 MECCA TIME, 20:47 GMT
"There is a belief amongst right-wing Zionist organisations that defaming and humiliating Jewish critics of Israeli policy, will set an example that would intimidate others into silence," Isaacs, co-ordinator of a community-based education NGO, said. (cont.)
The gathering of the monks
By Melissa Chan
April 20th, 2010
--Al Jazeera/Asia Blog--
The ad-hoc congregation of monks from across the provinces to help with relief efforts. They've come in the thousands to Yushu county, by bus or motorbike, their presence as visible as government-dispatched rescue workers. And they've brought with them food or shovels, come in prayer - or to direct traffic. Up on the hill overlooking the city on Saturday, many of them joined together to chant prayers for the dead during the mass cremation, and scouring the place, we didn't see a single government official present. (cont.)
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Lake Issyk Kul has played a tremendous role since the inception of human history due to its geographic location at the crossing of Indo-Aryan and other nomadic routes. Archeologists found traces of many religions here-Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Somewhere in the vicinity was Chihu, the metropolitan city of a mighty state of Wusung nomads, which ancient Chinese chronicles mentioned on many occasions.
- Remains of ancient civilization discovered on the bottom of a lake Issyk Kul
Be Angry At The Sun-------------
That public men publish falsehood
is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Had been known for years.
Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope
and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people,
those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.
Observe them gesticulating.
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies,
the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.
You are not Catullus, you know.
To lampoon these crude sketches of Ceaser. You
are far
From Dante's feet, but even further from his dirty
Political hatreds.
Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes
to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.
--------Robinson Jeffers
Friday, April 16, 2010
Eyjafjallajökull, its eruption this past week has caused flight delays estimated for weeks. Shutting down Northern Europe and putting the rest of the world in gridlock.
Excerpt from "Proverbs of Hell" by Sir Blake...
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
Expect poison from the standing water.
The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of
instruction,
The eagle never lost so much time as when he
submitted to learn of the crow.
Everything possible to be believed is an image of
truth.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
On April 13th, according to a statement put out by members of the Independent Anarchist Media (I AM) Collective:
…in Brooklyn NY, the NYPD entered without a warrant 13 Thames Art Space, a Bushwick based art and performance space where members of the Independent Anarchist Media (I AM) Collective have been organizing the Fourth Annual NYC Anarchist Film Festival in honor of Brad Will.
Two plainclothes detectives entered first, followed quickly by a Lieutenant and vans full of blue shirt officers. After corralling everyone present in the back room, they searched the space and detained two members of the collective.
The I AM collective was preparing for the NYC Anarchist Film Festival, a showcase of resistance movements and insurrectionary events from around the world presented from an anarchist and anti-authoritarian perspective.
Our response to the raid: regardless of these attacks, the film festival will happen as planned on Friday April 16, 2010 at Judson Memorial Church. The voice of decentralized creative communities will not be silenced by police repression. They cannot raid us, because we are everywhere.
Video of the police raid was posted on the Internet. Federal agents were also reported to be present at the raid.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Terrorists from Dixie
A topical discussion on the American Civil War and the modern day notion of terrorism, By Roland S. Martin, CNN Political Analyst titled "Were Confederate soldiers terrorists?" April 11, 2010 9:35 a.m. ..for complete article(click)..
When you make the argument that the South was angry with the North for "invading" its "homeland," Osama bin Laden has said the same about U.S. soldiers being on Arab soil. He has objected to our bases in Saudi Arabia, and that's one of the reasons he has launched his jihad against us. Is there really that much of a difference between him and the Confederates? Same language; same cause; same effect.
If a Confederate soldier was merely doing his job in defending his homeland, honor and heritage, what are we to say about young Muslim radicals who say the exact same thing as their rationale for strapping bombs on their bodies and blowing up cafes and buildings?
If the Sons of Confederate Veterans use as a talking point the vicious manner in which people in the South were treated by the North, doesn't that sound exactly like the Taliban saying they want to kill Americans for the slaughter of innocent people in Afghanistan?
Defenders of the Confederacy say that innocent people were killed in the Civil War; hasn't the same argument been presented by Muslim radicals in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places where the U.S. has tangled with terrorists?
We can't on the one hand justify the actions of Confederates as being their duty as valiant men of the South, and then condemn the Muslim extremists who want to see Americans die a brutal death. These men are held up as honorable by their brethren, so why do Americans see them as different from our homegrown terrorists? (cont.)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
A scenario in which recently deceased Polish President Lech Kaczynski would be murdered in a plane crash organized by the KGB (FSB), was reported on March 13, 2010 by the Georgian TV channel Imedi. (cont.) --Kavkazcenter--
report from Russian media monitor Park.Ru
15.03.2010 |REGNUM (News Agency, Moscow)
Georgian private television station Imedi in the ill-fated reportage about "Russian aggression" also reported "death" Polish President Lech Kaczynski . As the Polish TVN24 with reference to the head of the Georgian diaspora in Poland David Gamtsemlidze in Saturday's half-hour film, which reported that "Russian attack on Georgia" and "the death of President Mikheil Saakashvili , and said that as a result of bombing killed and Lech Kaczynski . According to the TV, blow up the plane, in which he allegedly flew to the aid of Georgia.
"This has caused unprecedented panic. Many people have problems with the heart" - said about the effect of the film Gamtsemidze. Polish TV does not exclude that the preparation of the film are the Georgian authorities. In May, the first held in Georgia after the August war elections of local self-government. Their result, according to the source, will be the answer to the question: who are trusted to citizens, and to whom throw the responsibility for the tragic consequences of war with Russia in 2008. "The journalists of Imedi, it seems, like to warn that the Russian are going to escalate tension in connection with the election, as part of the opposition appealed to Russia for help," - said the expert of the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw, Krzysztof Strachota.
Gang-Related Activity in the US Armed Forces Increasing
2007 Report National Gang Intelligence Center
According to an August 2006 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, military recruiter violations increased 50 percent from 2004 to 2005. The report concluded that military recruiters under pressure to meet recruiting goals have engaged in criminal violations such as overly aggressive recruiting tactics and document falsification. The Army, Navy, and Air Force measure recruiter performance by the number of recruits who enlist rather than the number who actually complete basic training,9 which may encourage recruiter violations.
US criminal courts have allowed gang members to enter the service as an alternative to incarceration. Several incidences wherein gang members have been recruited into the armed services while facing criminal charges or on probation or parole have been documented. In many instances, a gang member facing criminal charges may be provided the option to join the military or serve a jail sentence. Furthermore, some army recruiters have been known to conceal recruits’ gang affiliation to help boost their enlistment numbers.10
2004-2007- the FBI and El Paso Police Department have identified over 40 military-affiliated Folk Nation gang members stationed at the Fort Bliss Army Installation in Texas who have been involved in drug distribution, robberies, assaults, weapons offenses, and a homicide, both on and off the installation.
2003-2007- Fort Hood, Texas, Army Installation officials have identified nearly 40 gang members on base since 2003. Military-affiliated Gangster Disciple members at Fort Hood have been responsible for robberies, assaults, theft, and burglaries on and off base.
2003-2007 Nearly 130 gang and extremist group members have been identified on the Fort Lewis, Washington, Army Installation since 2005. These gang members are believed to be responsible for many of the criminal misconduct incidences reported on base.
2005 a pledging gang member was killed during a gang initiation at Kasierslauten Army Installation in Germany, according to FBI reporting.
* Army CID has documented a number of gang-related incidents on Fort Bragg Army Installation in North Carolina and on the Fort Campbell Army Installation in Kentucky over the past several years.
* Accurate data reflecting gang-related incidences occurring on military installations is limited, since the military is not required to report criminal offense statistics occurring on post to the FBI. Consequently, military data reflecting criminal incidents are not incorporated into the Uniform Crime Report (UCR).
Gang Motivations for Joining the Military
Many gang members join the military to escape their current environment or troubled gang lifestyle. Other gang members may enlist in the military as an alternative to incarceration; to receive combat training; to obtain access to weapons and supplies; to learn basic first aid and medic skills that can later benefit their gang; or to take advantage of opportunities to commit crimes. Upon discharge from the service, gang members may transfer their military combat training and weapons knowledge to their gang, where they may receive an inflated status for their tactical expertise.
2006 an incarcerated US Army soldier and active gang member identified 60 to 70 gang-affiliated military personnel in his unit allegedly involved in the theft and sale of military equipment and weapons. The solider reported that many of the military personnel in charge of ammunition and grenade distribution are sergeants who are active gang members. The soldier also reported that military commanders were aware of the actions of these gang-affiliated personnel.
Military weapons and supplies are stolen by both gang-affiliated and by non-gang-affiliated military personnel who sell the weapons to gang members or criminals on US city streets.33 Law enforcement officials nationwide have encountered active service members selling or attempting to sell stolen military weapons, supplies, and drugs to civilian gang members and criminals. US Senate testimony dating back to1993 has revealed that military weaponry has been sold at public gun shows, some in their original government packaging.
Colombian activist Liliany Obando's trial postponed again
Commentary by Angela Denio |March 13, 2010
--ColombiaSolidarity.com--
In Colombia dissent is dangerous. This is especially so for FENSUAGRO, as Colombia's largest peasant and farm worker federation. "We consider our struggle a just and important struggle. We fight for farm workers in defense of life, land and territory," explains one of the union's leaders. The union fights for farmers because they have learned repeatedly that the Colombian government will prioritize the rights of multinational corporations over the rights of a Colombian farming community. Their organization teaches organic growing practices, seed preservation and union organizing.
In their many years of struggle FENSUAGRO became a strong union, a union that has saved communities, changed lives for the better and that brought the voice of rural workers to the ears of all of Colombia. For the work that they do, their members and supporters are abducted, detained, arrested and murdered. FENSUAGRO is the most targeted union by military and paramilitary violence in Colombia.
"Lily's trial has everything to do with her work with FENSUAGRO," says James Jordan of the Alliance for Global Justice. "The Colombian government is trying to destroy the union. The war in Colombia is built around driving farmers off their land and of course the union is at odds with that goal." Obando is charged with rebellion. This is a charged linked with the Colombian government's claim that she raised money for Colombia's growing insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP).
F.E.N.S.A.G.R.O.
--wiki--
The Single Agricultural Trade Union Federation (or Federación Nacional Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria) is the federation of agricultural unions and small farmers leagues biggest Colombia . It is a subsidiary of the Central Confederation of Workers of Colombia and the World Federation of Trade Unions . Has a presence in most agricultural areas of the country, especially in Cauca, Arauca, Meta, Caquetá, Cundinamarca and Magdalena Medio. Founded in 1976 as Agricultural Trade Union Federation (FENS), has been one of the most active in the struggle for agrarian reform in Colombia. FENSUAGRO Many leaders have been disappeared and killed by the paramilitaries.
Southern Republican Leadership Straw Poll 2010
From Peter Hamby, CNN
April 10, 2010 10:03 p.m. EDT
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney defeated Texas Rep. Ron Paul by a single vote in the Southern Republican Leadership Conference's 2012 straw poll on Saturday. Romney did not appear at the New Orleans conference, but received 439 votes -- or 24 percent -- of the 1,806 ballots cast by delegates at the conference, held in New Orleans. Paul earned 438 votes. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tied for third place with 18 percent of the vote. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee earned 4 percent, followed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, both with 3 percent. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum finished with 2 percent, while former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson came in last with 1 percent. (Cont.)
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Former Polish President Fired On By Russian Troops
Department of Monitoring,
--Kavkaz Center--
It is to be mentioned that in November 2008, during the Russian aggression against Georgia, the Polish President Kaczynski was attacked by Russian troops. The attack occurred in Akhalgori, when at Akhalgorsk checkpoint in the Tskhinvali zone of the Georgian-Russian conflict a motorcade of Presidents of Poland and Georgia came under fire.
According to the vice-premier and the head of the Polish MIA Grzegorz Schetyna, officers of the Bureau of the Government Security, who were ensuring the security of the Polish President, "were purposefully excluded from the vicinity of the president." Grzegorz Schetyna noted that after the incident with the shooting on the border to South Ossetia "personal and organizational conclusions had to be made. The dangerous precedent should not be repeated", - said the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Polish President Lech Kaczynski was in Georgia to participate in the celebrations to mark the fifth anniversary of the "Rose Revolution". Straight from the Tbilisi airport Lech Kaczynski went to a refugee camp, which suffered during the August military conflict in the Caucasus.
Lech Kaczynski told reporters after an incident that the shellings in Akhalgori came from a Russian checkpoint at approximately 30 meters from him.
Friday, April 9, 2010
SHARPs
--Wiki--
SHARPs recognize the biracial origins of the skinhead subculture, and resent what they see as the hijacking of the skinhead name by white power skinheads. The SHARP logo is based on the logo of Trojan Records, which originally mainly released black Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae artists. Beyond the issue of anti-racism, there is no official political ideology of SHARP.
SHARPs.uk
All the Rage
April 02, 2010
--NPR.com--
The arrest of members of a so-called Christian right-wing militia last weekend capped a week of anger and violence that ricocheted around U.S. politics. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which recently published a census of such groups, discusses the alarming rise of U.S. hate groups and the rhetoric that feeds them.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: The news that a militia group called Hutaree had been foiled in its plot to foment a violent uprising capped a week of verbal and physical rage that ricocheted around U.S. politics. The intensity of the Hutarees’ anger and the looniness of their plot seemed to have taken the media by surprise, but it didn't particularly shock Mark Potok. The information director for the Southern Poverty Law Center and former journalist who covered the rise of the militia movement in the 1990s, Potok leads the Center’s annual census of hate groups and extremism.
The most recent study, just published, found that in the last 18 months, since shortly before President Obama’s election, the number of right wing hate groups had grown to 512, an increase of 244 percent, and anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80 percent.
Potok’s job is to ferret out these groups and their plans, but he says that much of their anger and alienation is hiding in plain sight, as the Hutarees’ website, complete with paramilitary videos, showed all too well.
MARK POTOK: A great many of them are quite easy to find. I mean, we had found the Hutaree militia long before these indictments, about a year earlier, they had whole MySpace section, and then, of course, we found their website and so on.
The way we collect our information ranges from the very simple – collecting media accounts, broadcast news accounts and so on – to getting into sometimes secret email groups. We have a lot of interaction with law enforcement. Someone comes out of a group, they've broken up with their boyfriend or their girlfriend and they're ready to talk so, of course, you snatch up those people and talk to them. And in addition, I have a staff of investigative reporters who do on-the-ground investigative work. So it’s certainly a - not merely a desk job.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: How do you make sure your research has the maximum impact?
MARK POTOK: It has been a very good thing for us in terms of communicating with the public to count, to actually show what these groups are, what their names are, where they are located, what type of group they are. I think probably the most important single educational tool we've ever devised is the hate group map that we have on our website. And I think huge numbers of people are absolutely shocked. In fact, the Ku Klux Klan still exists; in fact, there really are uniformed neo-Nazi groups, and sometimes right there in the town next door, that they had no idea about.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: How significant a factor do you think the Internet plays in fostering the anti-government movements that you've been looking at? You've talked about social media like MySpace. Are there other mechanisms that are providing fuel for this fire?
MARK POTOK: Well, let me answer in this way: In the mid-'90s, when the Internet came into existence, at least on a broad basis, most of these groups felt that this was the answer to their dreams because once they were able to get their message to the people, without sort of mediation of the elites then, of course, the people would rise up and join them and all would be well, ultimately. That, naturally, hasn't happened. The websites of these groups have been much less effective at recruiting people than the groups had hoped.
That said, if you think about say a white supremacist 30 years ago, that individual tended to be a very isolated person. They couldn't really go down to the corner bar and start confiding their, their ideology to the person on the next barstool because they might get their nose broken. That same person today gets up in the morning, turns on the computer; there are all kinds of discussions going on in the various forums about strategy and ideology. People are announcing or organizing events, so that person now feels like he is part of a movement.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Now, we've heard a lot of hot rhetoric since the campaign and an increasingly paranoid and confrontational political landscape since Obama’s election, how do you separate the overheated speech of pundits and politicians from the hate speech of groups that pose a viable threat?
MARK POTOK: Really, I would say that the problem is, is that much of the hate speech and especially the kind of defamatory propaganda and conspiracy theories that come out of these radical right wing groups, hate groups and patriot groups, so called, is making its way into the mainstream. And that kind of conveyor belt movement from the margins to the mainstream is being very much aided, at least in the last year or two, by a number of mainstream politicians, or ostensibly mainstream politicians, and media commentators.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: I assume you’re talking about politicians like Michelle Bachmann and cable TV and talk radio pundits like Glenn Beck. Am I correct?
MARK POTOK: Yes, I'm talking about when Michelle Bachmann says President Obama is setting up political reeducation camps all around the country, presumably to turn our children into Marxist robots. I'm talking about when Steve King, a Congressman out of Iowa, says that 25 Americans every single day are either murdered or run over and killed by drunken, as he would say, “criminal illegal aliens,” or when Glenn Beck on FOX News talks about the possibility that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is running a set of secret concentration camps to intern good patriotic Americans, all of that and much more. And that is becoming quite common today.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: And do you see a direct connection or merely a circumstantial one between those bigmouths and the violence from these groups, not just threats but actual attempts?
MARK POTOK: Well, it’s very difficult to say, you know, Glenn Beck is responsible for this or that killing. On the other hand, perhaps there is some fairly direct association, for instance, between the many years of defamatory talk about Latino immigrants from Lou Dobbs and certain others and the fact that anti-Latino hate crimes went up by 40 percent between 2003 and 2007. There’s no way to draw a direct link. It’s certainly not legal responsibility, but moral responsibility, I think, there probably is quite a bit.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: How about civilians, non-journalists, how can they use the media to battle this?
MARK POTOK: I do think that a very important role of normal everyday Americans with regard to the media is to call the media to account, when that is required. Last year there was a real campaign against Lou Dobbs. It more or less began after Dobbs seemed to cross the line into birther territory to suggest that Obama should show his birth certificate, and so on. We had never called for Dobbs’ firing up to that moment but that seemed to us to really cross the Rubicon. And we did call. And a large number of other civil rights and immigrant rights organizations repeated the call. But that was joined by thousands and thousands and thousands of everyday Americans, some of whom even did things like demonstrate in front of CNN headquarters in Atlanta. And Dobbs left, apparently at a cost of eight million dollars to CNN.
So I don't think that that is something that could have been accomplished only by civil rights groups or immigrant rights groups. I do think the public played a really important role.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Mark, thank you very much.
MARK POTOK: And thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Mark Potok is the director of Publications and Information for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Riots in the Streets of Kyrgyzstan
--wiki--
Long-term frustration in Kyrgyzstan, the perceived corruption and cronyism in the Bakiyev administration, in addition to a weak economy experiencing a recent rise in utility rates. In the days leading up to the riots a number of news outlets were shut down, following reports that were considered "damaging" to the president and his son, Maxim Bakiyev, who heads the new national Central Agency for Development, Investment, and Innovation. An arrest warrant was issued in early March by an Italian court for Eugene Gourevitch, an American who was accused of defrauding Telecom Italia. Gourevitch was at the time the managing director of a consulting agency that advised Kyrgyzstan's Development Fund, which in turn is managed by the Central Agency run by Maxim. The government soon began closing independent news outlets that reported on Gourevitch affair. Two newspapers were shut down on March 18. Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz-language service of RFE/RL, went off the air shortly afterward. The opposition newspaper Forum was shut on March 31, and the independent website Stan.tv had its equipment removed on April 1. (cont.)
Long-term frustration in Kyrgyzstan, the perceived corruption and cronyism in the Bakiyev administration, in addition to a weak economy experiencing a recent rise in utility rates. In the days leading up to the riots a number of news outlets were shut down, following reports that were considered "damaging" to the president and his son, Maxim Bakiyev, who heads the new national Central Agency for Development, Investment, and Innovation. An arrest warrant was issued in early March by an Italian court for Eugene Gourevitch, an American who was accused of defrauding Telecom Italia. Gourevitch was at the time the managing director of a consulting agency that advised Kyrgyzstan's Development Fund, which in turn is managed by the Central Agency run by Maxim. The government soon began closing independent news outlets that reported on Gourevitch affair. Two newspapers were shut down on March 18. Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz-language service of RFE/RL, went off the air shortly afterward. The opposition newspaper Forum was shut on March 31, and the independent website Stan.tv had its equipment removed on April 1. (cont.)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
U.S. Statement on Terrorist Attack in Moscow
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Chairman
Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, Co-Chairman
For Immediate Release www.csce.gov
March 29, 2010
"The architects of Russia’s North Caucasus policy don’t ride the metro, especially not at eight in the morning. These attacks targeted innocent working class people on their way to jobs and schools. If you improve security on these trains, the killers will simply find a softer target. While this attack hit Moscow, it serves as a cry for help to end the violence and poverty in Chechnya and neighboring regions that engender the desperation that makes these sorts of incidents more likely.”
The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, is an independent agency of the Federal Government charged with monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords and advancing comprehensive security through promotion of human rights, democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 56 countries. The Commission consists of nine members from the U.S. Senate, nine from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce. (cont.)
Thoughts from a Practicing Catholic on the Roman Catholic Sex Scandal
by Sander Hicks April 6, 2010 04:23 PM
--HuffingtonPost--
The Church is "under attack" and the Pope needs our unqualified support and prayers. Jesus was a warrior, and Easter was a "battle victory." At the Vatican that same day, Cardinal Sardano turned the Easter Mass into a pep rally for Pope Benedict. Sardano claimed that pedophilia cover-up claims were nothing but "petty gossip."
This is insane, it is not strategic, and it is not in keeping with Catholic teaching. We Catholics do not believe that the Pope is perfect, or "infallible," most of the time. Our Pope is a man and a sinner, not a king. He messed up. He needs to show empathy with the victims.
While he was still Cardinal in Germany, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict-to-be) signed off on an "untreatable" pedophile, Father Peter Hullerman, and let him return to work with kids from 1979 to 2010. That's 31 years of child sexual abuse from one guy. How many more Hullermans were there?
The more I learn about Pope Benedict, the more I realize that the Church needs a revolutionary period of deep renewal. Amidst the darkness of this damaging scandal, the light of the "Vatican III" Conference had better be around the corner.
I've been reading Betty Clermont's new book, The Neo Catholics a devastating history of the rise of the NeoCon Right. Turns out that rise paralleled that of a swing to the right inside the Vatican, as Reagan built up US-Vatican ties.
From age 14 to 16, Ratzinger was a Nazi in the Hitler Youth. So the Vatican's claim last week that their plight was akin to that of the Jews in the Holocaust was just ... weird. What a tasteless lack of empathy with the Jews. As reported by an Italian newspaper, "certain Catholic circles" in Rome blame the entire outcry on "a New York Jewish lobby" out to get the Pope.
In five short years, Pope Benedict reversed much of the interfaith work of Pope John Paul II. He brought back ornate, gilded ceremonial robes with 20-foot trains and decorated with the coat of arms of the House of Medici -- the wealthy Italian banking family that got four of its own elected pope over the course of four centuries. They presided over the peak in the Church's power, from the Dark Ages to the Counter-Reformation to Church's resistance to the Enlightenment. (cont.)
Rebuilding in Haiti: View from the ground
11:57 GMT, Sunday, 4 April 2010 12:57 UK
--bbc.co.uk--
A UN donor conference on Wednesday received pledges of $9.9bn (£6.5bn) in immediate and long-term aid for Haiti. The money is badly needed to help the country after the devastation of January's earthquake. But what is happening on the ground now as Haitians and aid groups try to rebuild lives and buidlings?
- Rebuilding Houses
- Pumping Clean Water
- Rehabilitating Spinal Injuries
- Cash Distribution
- Creation of Small Businesses
- Field Trauma Hospitals
(cont.)
Rehabilitation Work in Dantewada and Bijapur - A Brief Report (2009)
--courtesy of the Association for India's Development--
Bijapur and Dantewada district are situated in southern part of Bastar. This area is inhabitated by many tribes and OBC’s , the major tribe here is Koya.
In 2005 state government initiated an anti insurgency operation named Salwa Judum. In which state tried to cut the supply line of naxalites by shifting villagers to the road side Salwa Judum camps. During this population shifting excercise thousands of tribes opted not to shift to the government camps and remained in their village. State forces blamed such tribals as naxal supporters and attacked on such villages. Thousands of tribes had to hide in jungle to save their lives or to migrate in neighbouring states. More than fifty thousand people migrated to Andhra Pradesh itself.
Tribals of Chhattisgarh who migrated to Andhra Pradesh have been living in sub human conditions. They had lost all their livelihood means including land, live stock, forest produce etc. on the other hand people hiding in forests of Chhattisgarh were also living under threat of Salwa Judum and state forces attack. These situations worsen the conflict situation. AID INDIA and A.S.D.S decided to intervene in this situation to minimize the measure of the people and explore the possibilities of a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
A.S.D.S. Rekhapalli Andhra Pradesh and AID INDIA decided to help people to resettle in their native villages and to reclaime their land. A.S.D.S conducted a survey of internally displaced people living in Andhra Pradesh and contacted certain social activist and social groups working in Chhattisgarh and explored possibilities of rehabilitation of these I.D.P. Administration of both the states, Andhra pradesh and Chhattisgarh were informed about proposed rehabilitation schedule. Tribes from Andhra Pradesh seen off by activist’s, local media and representatives of local administration. These tribes were escorted/accompanied by activist of Chhattisgarh. After a heavy struggle with local police officers and Salwa Judum, these tribes could go to their village. We had to show supreme court instructions and N.H.R.C.S recommendations about rehabilitation of these tribes.
So far following villages will be rehabilitated partially
Basaguda
Lingagiri
Dharmapur
Kumharpara
Sarkeguda
Kattaguda
Rajpeta
Basaguda
Peesepara
Pakela
Heerapur
Regadgatta
Etegatta
Gorka
Kurtipara
Pata Nendra
Kotta Nendra
Kotta Cheru
Darbhaguda
(cont.)
Scores of Indian soldiers killed in Maoist ambushes
17:27 GMT, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 18:27 UK
--bbc.co.uk--
Maoist rebels have killed at least 75 Indian soldiers (Salwa Judum) in a series of attacks on security convoys in the central state of Chhattisgarh, officials say. A large patrol of federal paramilitary troops (Salwa Judum) was ambushed at dawn by hundreds of heavily armed insurgents in a remote part of Dantewada district. (cont.)
What is Salwa Judum?
--theOtherIndia.org--
Salwa Judum (literally "purification hunt") is a state sponsored counterinsurgency campaign started in Dantewada district of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh in 2005, which involved vigilante gangs accompanied by state security forces burning villages, killing people and forcing them into camps, as part of an effort to counter Naxalites (Maoist guerrillas). Over 644 villages have been affected and some 300,000 people displaced. Various reports critiquing the Salwa Judum are
The PUCL report
ACHR report
IAPL report
Human Rights Features report
Planning Commission report
Independent Citizens' Initiative
(cont.)
Monday, April 5, 2010
Media Banned from Reproducing ‘Statements by Terrorists’
April 5th, 2010
--theOtherRussia--
A new law adopted on Monday by the Russian State Duma will ban the media from reproducing any statements whatsoever issued by anyone deemed to be a terrorist, ITAR-TASS reports.
The bill was written by Robert Shlegel, a member of the leading United Russia party and former press secretary for the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi. It will amend current legislation governing the media to include a ban on “the distribution of any material from persons wanted for or convicted of participating in terrorist activities.” (cont.)
Dagestani man identifies Moscow Metro bomber as his daughter
--theVoiceofRussia--
Apr 5, 2010 09:35 Moscow Time
A resident of Dagestan has identified the bomber that set off an explosive device at the Lubyanka Moscow Metro station a week ago as his daughter. The Moscow-based Kommersant daily reports that a secondary school teacher Rasul Magomedov has pointed out the fact in a written statement for the Dagestan Prosecutor’s Office. Magomedov says that his daughter Maryam Sharipova and her mother went to a Makhachkala marketplace a day before the March 28th terrorist attacks, and then she went to visit her friend and has since failed to return home. Magomedov’s relatives and other residents of their village identified the girl in the photos that were made public on the Internet. On Sunday blood specimens were taken from the teacher and his wife for DNA-testing. Rasul Magomedov described his daughter as a pious, although not a radically-minded person. She taught information science in the very same school where her parents have worked all their life. Maryam Sharipova’s brother Ilyas was earlier arrested on charges of illegal keeping of a hand grenade, abducting a person and involvement with illegal armed groups, but was acquitted on all points, save for the first one. Now that a week has passed since the Metro blasts, 81 victims of the acts of terror are still at Russian capital hospitals. According to the Emergencies Ministry, over 120 people were injured in the attacks on the Lubyanka and Park Kultury Moscow Metro stations, while the death toll has reached 40.
The Uribe doctrine of journalism
Overview of press freedom and the practice of journalism in times of "democratic security"
Camilo Rueda Navarro
Monday April 5, 2010
--PrensaRural.org--
Since the arrival of Alvaro Uribe as President of the Republic, and the issuance of Decree 2002 of 2002 on the "rehabilitation zones" which have been raised restrictions on the press. Article 22 prohibited the transit and presence of foreign journalists in these areas, violating the constitutional articles 20 and 73 which protect the journalistic activity to ensure their freedom and professional independence.
In 2005, Vice President Francisco Santos, after the press report on guerrilla attacks on military targets, accused the media of creating a "sounding board" of terrorism. This shows in itself alarming, it is of concern coming from a "journalist."
This stigmatization is evidence that the policy of "democratic security" reporters were categorized into two: the "Patriots", ie those who make government choir, while critics and independent journalists are branded as subservient of "terrorism." (cont.)
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
FBI Tricked Hutaree Christian Militia Into Showing Up Unarmed
04- 2-10 03:12 AM
--HuffingtonPost/AP--
The ruse in Ann Arbor was part of a series of weekend raids in several states that resulted in the indictment of nine people in the alleged plot, officials said.
"We basically set up a scenario where we were able to draw them all to one location," Andrew Arena, the FBI's special agent in charge in Detroit, told The Associated Press. "And the reason we did that was to obviously get them away from their weapons."
Friday, April 2, 2010
The Sochi Winter Olympics and the Caucasian Islamist cause
By Benjamin Shapiro,--Prague Watchdog--
April 1st 2010
Circassian nationalists are currently demanding from Moscow their own Circassian republic, which would combine the current republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, Adgye and Karachai-Cherkessia into what in Soviet times was called "Greater Circassia". Many Circassian groups are also calling for the cancellation of the Winter Olympics. "Circassians argue the Sochi Games are as insensitive as hosting a sporting competition on the grounds of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz", according to Reuters. The Circassians are attempting to push Moscow into officially recognizing Tsarist Russia's mass deportations of Circassian people as genocide. 2014 will mark the 150th anniversary of the military operation in which Tsarist Russia forced 300,000 Circassians out of the land in and around Sochi, the city that is to host the winter games. It seems that in this respect the Caucasus Emirate shares the same priorities with many Circassians, though with a different agenda. (con.)
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