NEWSMEDIANEWS
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Daily Mirror and The Sun in contempt over Jo Yeates murder case
29 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Human Rights, Journalism, United Kingdom
by Adam Wagner
The High Court has found that the Daily Mirror and The Sun were in breach of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 (1981 Act) in relation to their reporting of the Jo Yeates murder case. The proceedings were in relation to Christopher Jefferies, a school teacher who was arrested early on in the investigation. The court is now to consider penalties.Mayo gardai rape comments inquiry report inconsistent
29 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Ireland
There is something grossly inconsistent in this week's published inquiry report into the rape comments made by Garda in Mayo following the arrest of two women at a Shell To Sea protest on 31 March 2011. Although the report, produced by the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission, refers to the comments as 'alleged', paragraph number 3 states: Whilst the audio on the recording is of poor quality during some sections of this conversation, an approximate transcript of the conversation has been prepared and supports these allegations.
16-year-old among 3000 Syrian 'disappeared'"
28 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Syria
Muntaha's sixteen-year-old son was abducted by Syrian security forces two months ago—one of 3000 Syrian "disappeared". India, Brazil and South Africa have close ties to Syria and could push for an international human rights delegation to find the missing, but they won't act without global pressure. Help find Muntaha's son:
Sign HereTags: Syria, Syrian disappearedBruton announces reforms to JLC/REA systems
28 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Ireland
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD today announced reforms to the Joint Labour Committee and Registered Employment Agreement wage settling mechanisms, following Government decision last Tuesday (26th July). The measures will radically overhaul the system so as to make it fairer, more competitive and more flexible so as to increase job-creation in these sectors. They will also reinstate a robust system of protection for workers in these sectors in the aftermath of the recent High Court ruling.
Time to stop assuming the police are on our side?
27 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United Kingdom
From mass arrests to surveillance, confidence in the Metropolitan police is at an all-time low
By Nina Power, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 July 2011
Can confidence in the Metropolitan police sink any lower? Even before the past few weeks revealed the possibility of their complicity in the News of the World hacking scandal, and the past few months their brutal attitude towards the policing of students and other protesters, there were many who already had reason to mistrust those who claim to be "working together for a safer London".Tags: Metropolitan PoliceStop Hoping! Start Changing!
27 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States
By David Swanson
"Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man's torment." — Friedrich NietzscheTags: US general electionIf Bush or Giuliani Had Been Stoltenberg
26 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Sweden
By David Swanson
The murder spree in Norway was apparently the work of a Norwegian, not a group of foreigners, and for various other reasons the comparison is not exact. Nonetheless, it's tempting to wonder how many people would still be alive today if George W. Bush or Rudy Giuliani had spoken after the 9-11 attacks as Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg just didTags: Jens Stoltenberg, 9/11John Bowden - Prison Authorities 'Subvert Decision of Parole Board'
22 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United Kingdom
On the 9th July, 31 years after I was sentenced to life imprisonment, the Parole Board delivered it's judgement on my continued imprisonment in clear and explicit terms recommending my transfer to an open prison in preparation for my probable release in 12 months time. The Ministry of Justice and prison system decided to ignore and effectively sabotage the recommendation, raising the question of exactly what real legal authority the Parole Board has over the prison system in determining how life sentenced prisoners are progressed towards release, and maybe more critically what real motives underlay senior prison management's attempts on occasion to subvert the recommendations of the Parole Board?
Tags: John Bowden, prisonJustice for John Twomey, Glen Cameron, Barry Hibberd, Peter Blake
22 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United Kingdom, Northern Ireland
I John Twomey, am one of four people who have been convicted in the only trial without a jury in England for hundreds of years. I was tried with my brother-in-law Glen Cameron, Barry Hibberd and a man who us three met for the first time at court on trial, Peter Blake.
Afghan Judges Accuse U.S. of War Crimes
22 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
By David Swanson
I recently sat down for 90 minutes to speak with six Afghan judges, all of them women, and an English-Dari interpreter, a man. They spoke to me as individuals. They aren't preparing any investigations or indictments. The relevance of their being judges is that they know the law. They've studied international law, and they were visiting the United States to learn about our legal and political systems. They believe the United States is guilty of war crimes.Tags: Afghanistan, US war crimesOur Schools Look Like Our Government
22 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States
By David Swanson
A government that works for Wall Street and a war machine will sooner or later create schools that work for the same ends.Judgments issued by the European Court cannot be ignored
20 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - European Union
By Thomas Hammarberg, European Commissioner for Human Rights
People turn to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg because they feel unable to find justice at home. Though the majority of European states do comply with the Court's decisions, there are some which are strikingly slow to abide by their obligation to execute the judgments. This is serious—a prompt, full and effective execution of the Court's judgments is key for the effective implementation of the European Convention's standards in domestic law.Bruton announces first steps in streamlining of five State employment rights bodies
20 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Ireland
Process to provide improved services for workers and employers, cut costs to taxpayer
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton on Monday announced the first steps in his plan to streamline the State’s five employment rights bodies, announced in a speech in UCD on 1 July last. The principal measures include naming Ger Deering, Director of NERA, as the industry expert responsible for coordinating the streamlining process across the employment rights bodies; and Kieran Mulvey, Chief Executive Officer of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) assuming leadership of NERA.Tags: Employment rights bodiesPrisoners Have Nothing to Gain By Eating
20 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States
By David Swanson
Prisoners risking death by refusing food in the Pelican Bay supermax, and those hunger striking in solidarity in prisons around California are a judgment of our sickness. "The degree of civilization in a society," said Dostoyevsky, "can be judged by entering its prisons."Deconstructing the Federal Debt Crisis
20 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States
By Sam Pizzigati, RootsAction.org
Once upon a time in America, back a century ago, our nation's rich paid virtually nothing in taxes to the federal government. And that same federal government did virtually nothing to better the lives of average Americans.Tags: Federal Debtéirígí Condemns Cost of Royal Visit
13 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United Kingdom, Ireland
"state visits by Windsor and Obama nothing more than an attempt to foster subservience to the political and economic establishment"
éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson has accused the Dublin government of treating the Irish people as fools after revelations about the massive costs of recent controversial state visits. Twenty-Six County justice minister Alan Shatter has been forced to concede that the cost to the tax-payer for the state visits by Elizabeth Windsor and Barak Obama in May will now be nearly twice the original estimate.Tags: Royal VisitDale Farm: Brussels Meeting With East Anglia MEP
13 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Human Rights, United Kingdom
Dale Farm's representative in Brussels Patrick Egan met today (1pm) at the European Parliament with East Anglia MEP Richard Howitt to discuss possible ways to meet the crisis faced by the 90 families on the estate at present under threat of eviction.
Years Later: Human Rights Watch Announces That Bush and Cheney Tortured - What Gives?
13 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Human Rights, United States
By David Swanson
Statutes of limitations for torture not resulting in death have passed. The DOJ has refused to prosecute 99 of 101 cases of torture-to-death that it looked at. Obama has long since publicly told the DOJ not to prosecute the CIA for torture. Obama's torture of Bradley Manning has been widely ignored. Rendition has been established as normal. Torturers have published confessional/bragging memoirs. Habeas corpus has been formally ended. The Bagram-Gitmo archipelago is here to stay. Torture continues in Iraq, Afghanistan, elsewhere. Assassinations have been established as the truly big new fashion. Harold Koh has replaced John Yoo as the Guy Who Will "Legalize" Anything. We've got more illegal wars going at once than ever before. Congress has practically dropped the pretense of a rule of law. The President can't clear his throat without opposing "relitigating the past," as if on the planet he comes from it is common to litigate the future. And Human Rights Watch has chosen this moment to announce that Bush and Cheney might just have been responsible for torture?Will Sex Offenders' Register 'Review Mechanism' breach human rights law?
13 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - European Union, United Kingdom
By Graeme Hall, UK Human Rights Blog, July 12, 2011
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that a mechanism should be put in place to review whether convicted sex offenders should remain liable after their release from prison to notify the police of where they live or plans to travel abroad. In June 2011, the government published draft legislation to "ensure that strict rules are put in place for considering whether individuals should ever be removed from the register." However, it is possible that the "strict rules" leave the government vulnerable to further legal challenges.Killing Old People Is Fiscally Responsible
09 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States
Open letter to President Obama
By David Swanson
"The fiscal good has to outweigh the pain," a nameless Democrat told the Washington Post regarding President Obama's latest proposal to massively cut Social Security, against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans, in order to fund a military 670% larger than the next largest in the world, keep in place tax cuts for billionaires, fail to tax corporations or estates or investments or carbon, and balance a budget that nobody gives a rat's ass about balancing when Wall Street comes asking for handouts.Tags: open letter to ObamaMore women encouraged to start their own business
07 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - European Union, Ireland
Minister for Small Business, John Perry T.D., has highlighted the importance of encouraging more women who have the motivation, skills and ability to start their own business.
Tags: women in businessBruton to scrap board in new merged Consumer and Competition Authority
06 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Ireland
Government approves proposal for merger of agencies to create powerful consumer and competition enforcer
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD is to scrap the board of the National Consumer Agency when it is merged with the Competition Authority, after the Government today gave the go-ahead to the drafting of the Consumer and Competition Bill based on a draft scheme presented by the Minister to Cabinet.We Just Stopped Congress From Giving the Power of War to Presidents
06 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States
By David Swanson
"What's the point?" "We never win!" "Why bother trying?" This time we won. This is the point. Congressman Buck McKeon and Senator John McCain proposed to give Obama and all future presidents dramatically expanded powers to launch wars. They wanted to do so as part of the same "Defense Authorization Act" in which the House was restricting Obama's warmaking in Libya.Tags: Was Powers ResolutionBiggest ever UK traveller eviction set for August
05 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United Kingdom
Today, some 90 families at Dale Farm, the UK's largest Traveller community, were hand-delivered a final notice of eviction giving families until midnight on August 31 to abandon their homes, or face their entire community being bulldozed.The central government and Basildon Council have set aside over £18m for the eviction battle that could last three weeks. It will be the biggest clearance of its kind involving the ploughing up of 54 separate plots created on a former scrap-yard purchased by the Travellers ten years ago.
Greece colludes with anti-humanitarian flotilla factions
03 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Human Rights, United States, Ireland, Greece, Palestine, Israel
Blockade of Gaza now extended into Greek ports
Sabotage of MV Saoirse and Greek blockade demonstrates length that Israeli state will go to in order to maintain inhuman siege of people of Gaza
In a statement released on Sunday, Paul Murphy, MEP said: “The actions of the Greek government in choosing to enforce Israel’s blockade of Gaza in Greek ports is outrageous. With their masked commandos boarding the US ship, the Audacity of Hope, they have collaborated with the Israeli establishment to prevent humanitarian aid being brought to Gaza. Activists are working in Greece to try to bring pressure to bear on the Greek authorities to reverse the decision and I call on working people in Greece to protest against this action in the strongest possible terms. However, I feel it is likely that this will not be reversed and therefore this decision probably marks the end of the Freedom Flotilla II."Tags: Gaza Flotilla, Freedom Flotilla IIGaze flotilla - a perspective
03 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - International
The International Criminal Court had plans to include blockades against coasts and ports in its list of acts of war in 2009.
Tags: Gaza flotillaSingle body dealing with workplace disputes - starting point for reform
01 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Ireland
Extract from address by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation,Richard Bruton TD at UCD Conference on dispute resolution regarding employment matters on 1st July 2011
High standards in the workplace requires a system where;
· both workers and employees understand their respective obligations within the system;
· compliance and prevention of disputes is recognised as best practice;
· credible enforcement and an effective, risk based inspection regimeprotects against abuses;
· accessible and timely adjudication where necessary.Sabotage of MV Saoirse 'an act of international terrorism'
01 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - International
The Irish-owned ship, the MV Saoirse, that was meant to take part in Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2 has been sabotaged in a dangerous manner in what has been described as an 'act of international terrorism' in the Turkish coastal town of Göcek, where it was berthed.
King George III Won: Happy Fourth of July!
01 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
By David Swanson
The Declaration of Independence is best remembered as a declaration of war, a war declared on the grounds that we wanted our own flag. The sheer stupidity and anachronism of the idea serves to discourage any thoughts about why Canada didn't need a bloody war, whether the U.S. war benefitted people outside the new aristocracy to whom power was transferred, what bothered Frederick Douglas so much about a day celebrating "independence," or what the Declaration of Independence actually said.Fukushima Spews, Los Alamos Burns, Vermont Rages & We've Almost Lost Nebraska
01 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - Environment, Switzerland, United States, European Union, Japan
By Harvey Wasserman
Humankind is now threatened by the simultaneous implosion, explosion, incineration, courtroom contempt and drowning of its most lethal industry.Call for full inquiry into Gaza flotilla sabotage
01 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - European Union, Ireland, Palestine, Israel
* MEPs participating in the Freedom Flotilla II express their outrage at life-threatening sabotage of Irish and Scandanavia / Greek boats
* Call on EU leaders to support their demands for an independent and impartial enquiry into the sabotage of the MV Saoirse and Juliano by Israeli authorities
Tags: Gaza flotillaThe Dominique Strauss-Kahn Rorschach Test
01 Jul 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Greece
By David Swanson
There's a great deal of disappointment, even distress, in the air as news spreads that Dominique Strauss-Kahn might not be charged with rape (or attempted rape, or sexual assault). He's guilty, the victim's character is being attacked in order to protect him, and the Culture of Rape will emerge triumphant once again—or so I'm being told by various Emails, Tweets, etc.Prediction: 20 Years of War in Libya
31 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Libya, Europe, United States
By David Swanson
Johan Galtung, sometimes called the father of peace studies, predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union and the refusal of Egyptian soldiers to attack civilians. His prediction of the collapse of the US empire in 2020 appears to be on schedule. So, it was noteworthy when he predicted on Tuesday at the University of Virginia that the war in Libya would last 20 years. If, however, NATO and the opposition were to kill Gadaffi, he said, the fighting could go on for more than 20 years.Tags: Johan GaltungThe Euro-US War on Libya: Official Lies and Misconceptions of Critics
31 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Libya, Europe, United States
James Petras and Robin E. Abaya
Many critics of the ongoing Euro-US wars in the Middle East and, now, North Africa, have based their arguments on clichés and generalizations devoid of fact. The most common line heard in regard to the current US-Euro war on Libya is that it’s “all about oil”—the goal is the seizure of Libya’s oil wells.Tags: Arabian uprisingObama on Libya: What Would MLK Say?
29 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Libya, United States
By David Swanson
President Obama on Monday said he would "never hesitate" to use the U.S. military "unilaterally" to defend "interests" and "values," including "maintaining the flow of commerce." Fear of exactly that led the founders of this republic to give Congress the exclusive power to declare war. James Madison did not believe any single individual could be trusted with such power: "The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast, ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace."Medicalise the personality of 'difficult' prisoners and prolong their imprisonment
26 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United Kingdom
By John Bowden, HMP Edinburgh
The use by the prison system of in-house psychologists to medicalise the personality of "difficult" prisoners and prolong their imprisonment has become wide-spread and institutionalised. Historically the involvement and collusion of prison-hired doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists in the ill-treatment and repression of prisoners has a long and infamous tradition. In the 1960s and 1970s compliant prison psychiatrists frequently and unlawfully assisted prison staff to control and subdue "unmanageable" prisoners by forcefully administering psychotropic drugs in a practice known as the "liquid cosh". Jail psychiatrists also provided their authority to facilitate the removal of rebellious prisoners to high-security mental hospitals such as Broadmoor and Rampton in a practise that became known as "Nutting-off". In the early 1990s prison doctors at Wormwoods Scrubs Prison in London were revealed to have conspired and colluded with prison staff in covering-up the physical brutalisation of prisoners in the jail's segregation/punishment unit. A number of prison officers were subsequently prosecuted for having assaulted prisoners and the British Medical Council called for removal of prison doctors from the council's register.Tags: John BowdenKilling Civilians in Afghanistan is Terrorism
25 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
By Pat Kennelly
In Kabul, on the same day that Der Spiegel released photos documenting American soldiers posing with the bodies of civilians they murdered, the Transitional Justice Coordinating Group (TJCG), the umbrella organization for NGO’s in Afghanistan that are pursuing transitional justice, gathered Afghan, Australian, American, and German peacemakers to discuss methods to bring peace and security to Afghanistan. The photos present the grim reality that this conflict is characterized by civilian killing and violence.Tags: ISAF, Der SpiegelWhat Can Afghanistan and Pakistan Teach Us About Non-violence?
24 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Features, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan
By David Swanson
I may soon have an opportunity to meet with nonviolent activists in Afghanistan, an area of the world we falsely imagine has earned the name "graveyard of empires" purely through violent resistance. I was educated in the United States and learned in some detail about the lives of several morally repulsive halfwits who happened to have "served" in various U.S. wars, assaults, and genocides. But I was never even taught the name Badshah Khan. Were you?Tags: Badshah Khan,Corporations Serve the State: Sanction Policies and the Zionist Power Structure
21 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Features
By James Petras
One of the key distinctions between a capitalist and a non-capitalist (socialist, feudal, absolutist state) economy is the separation of state and private enterprise. In a capitalist state, economic enterprises are supposed to operate according to market principles, seeking to maximize profits and expand market shares. The state is supposed to act on behalf of capitalist enterprises, ensuring their protection and furthering their pursuit of profits and markets.Kennedy and the unanswered questions
21 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Features
Have you ever seen someone sitting down and knocked backwards by the force of a rifle bullet hitting them in the back of the head?
Tags: JF Kennedy, Warren ReportPeace Is A Dirty Word
20 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Afghanistan
By Patrick Kennelly
Three years ago in Bamiyan, a western province of Afghanistan, a multiethnic group of university students gathered for a three month workshop on peacemaking. The group of young leaders met weekly ultimately concluding that peace is impossible in Afghanistan. Undeterred by their conclusion these young people asked: “What do we do to change this reality?”Western military invasion of Libya could make things worse
20 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Arabian States
On the 8th anniversary of what it described as the disastrous US led invasion of Iraq in 2003 the Irish Anti-war Movement released the following statement:
• Western military intervention in Libya could make things worse for the Libyan peoples' struggle for freedom and democracy
• Do not trust western leaders stated intentions
• US-backed Saudi invasion of Bahrain exposes hypocrisy of western leaders
• Support the Arab peoples' protests for genuine freedom and democracyTags: Arabian uprisingBahrain - the key to the uprisings
20 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia
by Dr. Abdullah Sayegh and Jim Roche, Steering Committee IAWM
The actions of western leaders in recent weeks show the disdain in which they hold the ordinary people of the region, including Libyan people. Contrast their expressed "deep concern" for the fate of the Libyan people with the mild commentary regarding the current treatment of protesters in Bahrain. The U.S. government—through its proxy/puppet monarchy in Saudi Arabia—is arming, financing and sending troops to Bahrain to violently suppress the protests that have been happening for weeks.Tags: Bahrain uprisingLibya, UN and political motives
19 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Opinion
The UN and NATO's goal of disabling Gaddafi's ability to use military violence against the Libyan people deserves merit. Any tyrant who uses military forces to subdue and repress the indigenous population cannot be allowed to continue such despotic methods.
Pursuing Peace in Afghanistan
18 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
By Pat Kennelly
Last week, General Petraeus testified before Congress that the war in Afghanistan is making progress. While Petraeus may believe his comments, the situation on the ground contradicts his statements. Afghanistan is a country that is overwhelmed by decades of war filled with foreign military forces, armed opposition groups, and a struggling government. Since 2001, there is general consensus that American led ISAF has not resulted in progress for Afghanistan.Tags: General PetraeusOne Blue Sky Above Us
18 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
by Kathy Kelly
Kabul -- Before coming to Afghanistan, I spent a week with students and teachers from a Colorado College nonviolence class who invited me to join them for their retreat near Crestone, Colorado, in an area of the Rocky Mountains described as one of the ten most peaceful places on earth.Truth Spoken in US Capitol
18 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States
On the week that we mark going into another year of war, two peace activists, Joy First and Malachy Kilbride, from the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance interrupted US Capitol tours in the rotunda. While on a tour the activists walked to the center of the rotunda and laid a funeral shroud on the spot where the US Presidents lie in state. They laid a copy of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights on top of the shroud and covered them. They read the statement below. Though the US Capitol police quickly surrounded them and questioned them, the activists were able to walk away. It is important for us to continue speaking out and know that we can do things like this and not get arrested.
Tags: US Consitution, Bill of RightsAn Anti-Social Document Prepared in Secret by the European Commission
17 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Features, European Union
The Secret Pact: its complete text, here presented as obtained by the European Deputy Patrick Le Hyaric.
"Improved Coordination of Economic Policies in the Euro Zone"
Danger! It contains the program of social regression that the states of the Euro Zone intend to implement in order to satisfy the voracious appetites of the financial markets.
Introduction by the journalist of l’Humanité
This document, dated 25 February and prepared by the president of the Commission, José-Manuel Barroso and the Council president Herman Van Rompuy, is the most recent avatar of a series of texts aiming to make the people pay for the debts contracted by the states in relation to the financial markets, ... debts contracted in order to save those markets. This test was presented last week to the countries of the Euro Zone, in order to prepare the extraordinary summit meeting on Friday.Tags: Pact for Competition, EU secrecyPeace is not yours to give, Mr. President
17 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
But hope is certainly yours to take away
By Kathleen Kirwin
As I listened to a friend and colleague in Afghanistan a few days ago, the difference I discerned in his voice from previous conversations was visceral. That he unswervingly and joyfully dedicates his every thought, word and deed to advocating for peace in Afghanistan through peaceful means made his tone and tenor all the more heart-wrenching. Our phone connection was not clear, but I thought I heard him say something akin to: I never thought I would hear myself say that the Afghan people need hope now more than they need peace. What I know I did hear him say distinctly, however, was: “The people have nothing to lose now. They are being killed anyway.”Tags: ObamaGaddafi's asinine comment
17 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Opinion
Libyan dictator Gaddafi's recent comment that external interference in his country's internal affairs would be 'illegal and immoral' can only be described as asinine when coming from a tyrant who has used live ammunition on his own people.
Tags: GaddafiJapanese Quake to have knock on effect on Irish Electricity Prices?
16 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Ireland
As a result of the extraordinary and tragic domino effect of Japan’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake last Friday, Ireland’s energy market could be cruelly impacted warns the energy unit of An Taisce the National Trust for Ireland.
Is Obama Even Worse Than Bush?
15 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States
By David Swanson
When I advocated the impeachment of George W. Bush, I did so despite, not because of, all the animosity it fueled among impeachment supporters. I didn't want retribution. I wanted to deter the continuation and repetition of Bush's crimes and abuses. Specifically, and by far most importantly—and I said this thousands of times—I wanted to deny all future presidents the powers Bush had grabbed. One-time abuses can be catastrophic, but establishing the power to repeat them can multiply the damage many fold, especially when one of the powers claimed is the power to create new powers.War Is Illegal - Even in Libya
15 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Libya, United States
By David Swanson
It's a simple point, but an important one, and one that gets overlooked. Whether or not you think a particular war is moral and good, the fact remains that war is illegal. Actual defense by a country when attacked is legal, but that only occurs once another country has actually attacked, and it must not be used as a loophole to excuse wider war that is not employed in actual defense.Inside Egypt: Nazly Hussein speaks outside military court
14 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - International, Egypt
Nazly Hussein speaks from outside the military courts which this afternoon (Friday 12th March) was supposed to address the people the army harrassed and arrested last Wednesday during a brutal attack on those occupying Tahrir Square. Nazly describes how several hundred plain clothes thugs were deployed against people in the square on Wednesday, who set about pulling down tents and beating people up. The army, under the pretence of ‘protecting’ those remaining in the Tahrir then began beating, arresting and electrocuting people within the the pro democracy movement. Over 170 people where arrested, most of whom where later released without charge. Many had been beaten and tortured with electrocution.
Full story + videoTags: Egyptian uprising, Tahir SquareEU steps closer to agreeing a single European patent
11 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - European Union, Ireland
The EU Competitiveness Council's decision to authorise the use of the enhanced cooperation procedure for the creation of a single European patent has been called a major step forward by the Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Richard Bruton.
Tags: single European patentMichigan Fascism Old News in DC
11 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States
By David Swanson
Michigan governors aren't breaking entirely new ground in the ongoing U.S. collapse into fascism. Sure, they'll be able to overthrow local elected governments and install cronies and corporations to rule over Americans without the pretense of public servants mediating. But the president of the United States can already do that to the entire country.Just Forests Welcomes Plan To Keep Coillte In Public Owenership
09 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Environment, Ireland
Midland’s-based environmental group, Just Forests, welcomes the announcement by the Labour Party to retain Coillte forests in public ownership.
Kindness, Generosity, and Bombing Libya
09 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Libya, Egypt, United States, Syria
By David Swanson
Wouldn't it be kind and generous of us to send the US or NATO or a UN-approved military into Libya to bloodlessly prevent the vicious slaughter of masses of people by a truly evil lunatic? Would it?Clinton Wants More Propaganda, I Want Less
08 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - International, United States
By David Swanson
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has declared that other nations are doing a better job of propagandizing the world and that the United States needs to do more. However, we already invest far more in foreign propaganda than in domestic public media, and virtually nothing in domestic media trust busting. The distinction between our domestic and foreign public media is part of what makes them both so weak in credibility (the other part is the size of the lies they tell), and Bob McChesney is right that we should invest in public media at home that actually reports on the U.S. government as on all others, and then share that abroad (if we actually want to model democracy rather than peddle a load of lies).Tags: war liesDeath Sentences and Supervised Chores
08 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - International
By Ann Wright
Army Private Bradley Manning faces a death sentence while an Army Specialist who mutilated the body of an Afghan gets “supervised chores”.Tags: Bradley Manning, Corey MooreProgramme for Government 'a recipe for cuts and austerity'
08 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Ireland
At a press conference today convened by the United Left Alliance in response to the programme for government agreed by Fine Gael and Labour Joe Higgins, Socialist Party/ULA TD for Dublin West said: "As we predicted, despite the media palaver about Fine Gael and Labour being incompatible they rapidly split the minute differences in their respective manifestos and have presented the public with essentially a continuation of the Fianna Fáíl/Green Party/IMF cuts programme."
Wikileaks et al. - The Free Flow of Information
08 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Features, Journalism, United States
Part 5 . Wikileaks vs Western Hypocrisy
By Karl F. Stewart
Objective journalism is a fallacy. The expression is a trite way of saying journalism is scientific, which is nonsense. All reporting is subjective. If a journalist is doing his or her job properly, then the individual is obligated to report the event in as clear a fashion as possible as deduced from one's personal understanding of the event. And a journalist has one of two options. The person can either lie through his or her teeth or try to report the event as honestly as possible.Tags: Wikileaks, journalismAnother Life Focuses This One
08 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Features, Arts
By David Swanson
Brilliant and humane playwright Karen Malpede has produced another play that grabs America by the lapels, shakes it, caresses its cheek, and kicks its ass. The play is called "Another Life" and the life it leaves me thinking about is the life of our dreams.Tags: Karen Malpede, Another LifeU.S. Nuremberg Prosecutor: "US Government Today Prepared to Do Something for Which We Hanged Germans
08 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Features, United States
By Ben Ferencz
After listening to that great introduction (Sandy Davies and David Swanson), you must have expected someone to come in here ten feet tall. Well, I used to be ten feet tall, but the problems of the world wore me down.Tags: NurembergSwiss State broadcaster video of sale of Irelands forests
08 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Environment, Switzerland, Ireland
The Swiss State broadcaster sftv, has produced a short news item about the sale of Irelands forests covering all the angles. The report was made while they were in Ireland to cover the Irish election: they became aware of the issue and in particular the fact that Bertie Ahern was chairman of a Swiss owned company interested in buying Irelands forests.
Watch videoWomen with disabilities must be recognised on International Women's Day
07 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - International, Ireland
Moya Brennan, lead singer with Clannad and Goodwill Ambassador for CBM has called for the circumstances of women with disabilities to be recognised on International Women's day. CBM is Ireland's leading disability and development NGO working in the developing world (www.cbm.ie).
An Taisce Welcomes European Court of Justice Ruling
06 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Environment, Ireland
An Taisce, The National Trust for Ireland welcomes this week's decision of the European Courts of Justice about Ireland's transposition and implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment directive (judgement c-50/09).
Manchurian Senators
06 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
By David Swanson
People are doing journalism and the Washington Post is pissed. How to respond? Apparently the answer arrived at by Post editors is to just give up on any Americans who have been informing themselves and target those Americans who believe anything that super important people say. How else to explain an op-ed full of documented lies and published last Friday over the byline of two Democratic senators, Carl Levin and Jack Reed?Bradley Manning-22 charges including 1 capital offence
04 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States
Alleged WikiLeaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been in US custody since last May, after he reportedly told a former hacker that he had passed thousands of classified US military documents and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, had 22 new charges filed against him on Tuesday by the US Army, including a capital offense — “aiding the enemy” — for which the government has said it will not seek the death penalty, although, as Wired explained, “under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the presiding judge ultimately decides what charges to refer to court-martial and whether to impose the death penalty.”
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Tags: Bradley ManningPeople v. U.S. Govt
04 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
By David Swanson
Statistically speaking, virtually nobody in the United States of America knows that we spend more on the military than the rest of the world combined, that we could eliminate most of our military and still have the world's largest, that over half of the money our government raises from income taxes and borrowing gets spent on the military, that our wars (outrageously costly as they may be) cost far less than the permanent non-war military budget, or that most of the financial woes of the federal and state governments could be solved just by ending a war in Afghanistan that two-thirds of Americans oppose.Tags: AfghanistanIncalculable
04 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States, Afghanistan
By Kathy Kelly
Recent polls suggest that while a majority of U.S. people disapprove of the war in Afghanistan, many on grounds of its horrible economic cost, only 3% took the war into account when voting in the 2010 midterm elections. The issue of the economy weighed heavily on voters, but the war and its cost, though clear to them and clearly related to the economy in their thinking, was a far less pressing concern.Tags:The 'Fake Taliban Negotiator': a Double Hoax?
03 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Afghanistan, Pakistan
By Frank Brodhead
Does this Official Story make sense to you? According to the Official Story, sometime in the middle of last year a simple shopkeeper from Quetta (Pakistan) passed himself off as a high-ranking member of the Taliban and persuaded someone to introduce him to someone who would put him into contact with NATO command in Afghanistan. Then, “on behalf of the Taliban,” he had at least three “negotiating sessions,” possibly including one attended by President Karzai himself, in which he put forth very accommodating terms upon which the war in Afghanistan could be settled.Tags: TalibanRoots of the Arab Revolts and Premature Celebrations
03 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Libya, Egypt, Arabian States
By James Petras
Most accounts of the Arab revolts from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq and elsewhere have focused on the most immediate causes: political dictatorships, unemployment, repression and the wounding and killing of protestors. They have given most attention to the “middle class”, young, educated activists, their communication via the internet, (Los Angeles Times, Feb. 16, 2011) and, in the case of Israel and its Zionists conspiracy theorists, “the hidden hand” of Islamic extremists (Daily Alert Feb. 25, 2011).Tags: Arabian uprisingsWill Sweden Bring Back Death Penalty After Over a Century?
03 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Sweden
By David Swanson
Sweden banned censorship and guaranteed free speech in 1766, 10 years before the Declaration of Independence in the American British colonies, and—apart from shameful episodes of caving in to dictatorships and Nazis—has pretty well kept it in place. Sweden banned the death penalty and has not used it since 1910. Now, Sweden has an opportunity to punish the speech of a Nobel Peace Prize nominee with the death penalty by extraditing Julian Assange to the United States to be put on trial.Why Wars Really Happen
02 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - Features, United States
By David Swanson
Many discussions of lies that launch wars quickly come around to the question "Well then why did they want the war?" There is usually more than one single motive involved, but the motives are not terribly hard to find. Unlike many soldiers who have been lied to, most of the key war deciders, the masters of war who determine whether or not wars happen, do not in any sense have noble motives for what they do. Though noble motives can be found in the reasoning of some of those involved, even in some of those at the highest levels of decision making, it is very doubtful that such noble intentions alone would ever generate wars.Tags: warHitler—then and now
02 Mar 2011; posted by the editor - United States
By David Swanson
There's a video available that has created quite a scandal this week. It shows a fashion designer in Paris telling someone he loves Hitler and that their mothers and forefathers would have all been gassed to death.Tags: United States, foreign policy
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