Letters From the UK: Extraordinary Revelation about ‘Extraordinary Rendition’

Dandelion Salad

by Michael Faulkner
www.thepoliticaljunkies.net
Mar 9, 2008

Official accounts of wars and military operations are replete with euphemistic terminology intended by their perpetrators and apologists to numb our consciousness of the horrors involved. Thus, for example, targets annihilated by bombardment are ‘taken out’; civilians blown to pieces in the process are considered ‘collateral damage’. The practice of kidnapping those suspected of being terrorists, transporting them to destinations outside the jurisdiction of the state responsible for their detention and subjecting them to maltreatment or torture, is known as ‘extraordinary rendition.’ That such practices are illegal and a blatant abuse of human rights goes without saying.

The British government has consistently denied that any suspects ‘rendered’ by the US have been transported to, or held on, any territory belonging to the UK. It has recently come to light that detainees have been flown to the US naval base on the British territory of Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, midway between Africa and Asia. The US base – one of the biggest in the world – has existed since 1971 and is of vital importance for operations in the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004 the then Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, admitted when questioned in parliament, that the US operated a detention centre on the island. Despite this admission, the government has always denied that ‘rendered’ detainees have ever been held there. This denial is no longer sustainable. In view of evidence that is now emerging, the only question is whether the government has been lied to by the Bush administration or – more likely – that they have lied about illegal activities they were privy to all along.

A representative of the United Nations responsible for investigating human rights abuses and torture has claimed that suspects were detained on Diego Garcia in 2002 and 2003. According to Manfred Novak the detainees were not treated as inhumanely as those at Guantanamo and were not held for very long, but the revelation that British territory has been used for ‘extraordinary rendition’ exposes the government to the charge of complicity with the US government in human rights abuses. The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has admitted, under pressure, that two US planes containing ‘rendered’ suspects landed on the island in 2002. When the truth began to emerge about ‘extraordinary rendition’ the British government initially denied all knowledge of the practice and strongly rejected the accusations that British military air bases had been used in the transmission of ‘rendered’ suspects. When it became clear that CIA planes had refuelled on bases in Britain, the government said that it had happened without their knowledge. It is becoming increasingly clear that the government has lied about this from the start. They are still denying that US prisoners have been held on Diego Garcia. When asked how they can be sure of this they say that they have the assurance of the US government that it has not happened! This, we are expected to believe, constitutes solid proof that no detainees have been held. No doubt, when the evidence possessed by Novak becomes impossible to deny, they will say that it happened without their knowledge. This has been the pattern of deceit since the lead-up to the Iraq war.

Novak bases his claim on depositions from ‘well-placed sources familiar with the situation on the island whose identities he is not able to reveal without their permission. His claims are supported by a former US general, Barry McCaffrey, who also claimed that detainees had been held on Diego Garcia. This source has subsequently retracted his claim. We may speculate about his reasons for so doing. He apparently refuses all requests for interviews.

The human rights group, Reprieve, suspects that the US is also using the seas around the archipelago for rendition. US naval vessels such as the USS Bataan and Stockham operate in this part of the Indian Ocean and it is believed they function as prison ships. Even if they remain outside the three mile zone of British territorial waters (which, to say the least is doubtful) they are almost certainly serviced from British territory, which renders the British government complicit in their activities. There are reports by former prisoners at Guantanamo of suspects being beaten while in detention on US ships ‘even more severely than in Guantanamo.’

Diego Garcia: the story that shames Britain.

When the US naval base on Diego Garcia is mentioned in news reports, the island is frequently referred to as ‘uninhabited.’ The story of how it came to be uninhabited is not widely known, either in Britain or the United States, the two countries involved in its depopulation forty years ago. It is a shameful story.

Until the late 1960s Diego Garcia, a British colonial territory, had a population of some 2000 who worked as subsistence farmers. The Chagos Islands, of which Diego Garcia is one, had passed to Britain following the defeat of France in the Napoleonic wars. Some time in the mid 1960s the US petitioned the Wilson (Labour) government for the lease of an Indian Ocean island for a strategic military base and refuelling facility. A secret arrangement was made without reference to the US Congress or the British Parliament, involving the transfer of Diego Garcia to the US. The island would continue to be British owned but would be run by the US. The US government stipulated that it must be depopulated. When, in 1968 Mauritius gained its independence from Britain, the Chagos islands fell under Mauritian jurisdiction. The Labour government arranged the purchase of Diego Garcia from Mauritius for £3 million and concocted the fiction that the inhabitants of the island who had lived there for generations, were actually itinerants because their livelihood required some of them to journey to Mauritius to sell their produce. It was decided to expel the whole population, first by means of trickery, by denying the right of return to those who happened at the time to be temporarily in Mauritius to pursue their livelihood. Many of those remaining, who, alarmed at the failure of their families to return home, went to Mauritius to enquire after them, were then themselves prevented from returning. By 1970 most of the population had been removed. The condition of the islanders stranded in Mauritius was desperate. They were an unwelcome, totally dislocated, homeless people. In the years that followed many committed suicide. Those remaining on Diego Garcia when the US naval personnel began to arrive in 1971 were helpless to resist the final brutal expulsion. The naval base was built on an unpopulated island.

Any doubts one may have about this account of events are immediately dispelled on reading the documentary evidence from the time. The legal department of the Foreign Office gave this advice:

‘The purpose of the Immigration Ordinance is to maintain the fiction that the inhabitants of the Chagos are not a permanent or semi-permanent population. The Ordinance would be published in the BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territories) Gazette which has only a very limited circulation. Publicity would therefore be minimised.’

Eleanor Emery, head of the Indian Ocean department of the FCO wrote:

‘We shall continue to say as little as possible to avoid embarrassing the US administration. We would not wish it to become general knowledge that some of the inhabitants have lived on Diego Garcia for generations and would be regarded as “belongers” .’

For nearly forty years every effort has been made by both British and US governments to cover this story up. But many of the islanders and their descendants, now numbering 4.500, have continued to fight for their right to return to their homes. For decades their demand to be heard was met with stony silence by those who had expelled them. Then, in 2000, they took their case to the British High Court which ruled that they had the right to return to the Archipelago. In 2004, the Blair government resorted to the archaic constitutional device of an Order in Council to reverse the High Court decision. It ruled that the islanders were forever banned from returning.

In 2006 the High Court ruled that the 2004 Orders were unlawful, declaring that the islanders were entitled to return. The government appealed against this ruling. In May 2007 their appeal was dismissed. This is how things stand at present in this David and Goliath saga.

Both the US and British governments claim to be committed to the defence of human rights, justice and the rule of law. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ‘deportation or forcible transfer of population constitutes a crime against humanity if it is committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any wider population, with knowledge of the attack.’ In their judicial review of the case the British High Court found the use of the Royal Prerogative to be an ‘unlawful abuse of power.’

The US government has made it clear that it will ignore any ruling of the British High Court in this case. In this stance it clearly enjoys the full support of the British government.

It is interesting to note that the name of the US naval base on Diego Garcia is ‘Camp Justice.’

TPJ is not subject to copyright. Anyone is welcome to freely quote and use material from TPJ. In reproducing or using material from the TPJ proper attribution is appreciated.

see

Ben Griffin: Former SAS, Banned speech to Anti-War Rally

Court gags ex-SAS man who made torture claims

U.K. used for Extraordinary Rendition Flights! (vid) + CIA confirms rendition flights to Brits

A possible Guantanamo on UK soil + More probes into Diego Garcia ‘rendition’ (videos)

Claims of secret CIA jail for terror suspects on British island to be investigated by Ian Cobain and Richard Norton-Taylor

Extraordinary Rendition (video)

Why Democracy – Taxi to the Dark Side (video; over 18)

Paul leaves open door to third-party bid, unlikely to support McCain

Dandelion Salad

Raw Story (story and transcript)

Monday March 10, 2008

from rawstory.com posted with vodpod

.

see

Is the Revolution Over or Just Beginning? by Rand Paul

Statement on Gaza Bill By Ron Paul

ABC: Ron Paul To Drop Out + Message from Ron Paul + Paul NOT Dropping Out

Paul-Ron

Bush family private equity fund in deep trouble as Financial Tsunami rolls on

Dandelion Salad

Global Research, March 10, 2008

Carlyle Capital Corp. Ltd., a subsidiary of one of the most influential USA private equity funds and closely tied to the Bush family, is in default on several of its securities. Carlyle is an offshore subsidiary of the Washington-based Carlyle Group, one of the most politically powerful private equity firms of the past two decades. The severity of its liquidity problems indicates that the unfolding financial crisis is taking major parts of the US financial and political elite down with it. Among the leading partners of the Carlyle Group in recent years have been George H.W. Bush, father of the President; James Baker III, the Bush family’s attorney and ‘fixer;’ former UK Prime Minister John Major.

Carlyle Capital reports it is attempting to convince lenders holding $16 billion in securities not to liquidate the company’s remaining collateral. The company is a listed mortgage-bond fund managed by the Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group already has loaned Carlyle Capital $150 million to cover debt obligations since July 2007. In the past several days it failed to meet margin calls with four banks. The fear in the market according to informed reports is that its entire portfolio, recently valued at $21 billion, could be sold off in a distress sale, putting major downward pressure on all mortgage bonds globally. A collapse at Carlyle would hit the value of all fixed-income securities, which have already dropped sharply as banks pull back on their lending, and force a new global round of asset sales.

Margin calls

In the past days Carlyle Capital had admitted it had received “substantial additional margin calls and additional default notices from its lenders.” It said lenders are selling off securities held as collateral. Margin calls are demanded when a creditor questions the ability of the borrower to repay.

Shares in the fund, which trades on Euronext Amsterdam, have been suspended after closing down nearly 60 percent. Carlyle Capital was a prime example of the financial engineering encouraged during the Alan Greenspan era by Washington. It had leveraged $670 million in equity by an alarmingly high 32 times to finance a $21.7 billion portfolio of highly rated mortgage-backed securities issued by US housing agencies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. To finance the deals it entered into repurchase agreements with banks where it posted the mortgage securities as collateral in exchange for cash. If the value of the security held as collateral falls, the lender has the right to ask for more collateral — a “margin call” — to secure the loan.

If the borrower does not meet the margin call by putting up more collateral, the lender may sell the security.

More worrisome is the fact that the Carlyle crisis does not owe to so-called sub-prime or bad grade mortgage debt. The company held US government agency AAA-rated residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). Now Carlyle’s lenders have issued margin calls in excess of $400 million. At the onset of the sub-prime crisis in September 2007 Carlyle was forced to go to Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund to get capital. Mubadala, the arm of Abu Dhabi which has invested in sectors as diverse as Libyan oil exploration and Ferrari, the Italian motor company, paid $1.35bn for a 10% Carlyle stake.

And Blackstone Group too?

Carlyle is by no means the only elite US private capital group in serious trouble. Blackstone Group, manager of the world’s largest buyout fund, said fourth-quarter profit plunged 89 percent after a “meltdown” in the credit markets and warned that getting loans for takeovers will be difficult in 2008. Profit declined to $88 million from $808.1 million a year earlier.

Blackstone decided to list the private equity company on the stock market in June 2007 in a move some date as the last gasp of the huge securitization and private equity buyout mania of the past decade. Since June its stock has fallen 53 percent. More serious, it hasn’t completed a takeover of more than $2 billion in five months and is struggling to close the $6.6 billion buyout of Dallas-based Alliance Data Systems Corp., a credit-card processor, announced in May 2007.

Blackstone and Carlyle led the recent “locust capitalism” (Heuschrecke) hostile takeover binge which triggered a major political backlash in Germany and elsewhere. That debt-financed takeover binge came to a halt with the eruption of the sub-prime securitization crisis last fall. Blackstone has $102 billion in assets under management at present. The value of Leveraged or debt-financed Buyout (LBO) deals announced in the second half of 2007 plunged two-thirds from the first six months, according to data by Bloomberg.

Crisis spreads to US municipal debt market

The ongoing financial market crisis whose background I have detailed in the series, The Financial Tsunami, Part I-V, was nominally triggered by a crisis of confidence in the value of the most risky securities, sub-prime home mortgages in the US, mortgages often made by banks without checking the borrowers credit history or income. Because the securitization revolution was premised on the flawed illusion that by spreading risk throughout the global financial system, risk would disappear, once the weakest part began to collapse, confidence in the multi-trillion entire edifice of securitized debt began to collapse. The process unravels over time which is why most have the illusion of a localized crisis. In reality, centered in the US economic and financial sector, what is now underway is a crisis not even comparable to the 1930’s Great Depression.

Now the normally high-quality debt of US local and state governments, so-called municipal debt, is getting hit. California, New York City and the owner of the World Trade Center site will replace their floating rate debt, sharply raising costs for local governments as the economic depression is slashing their tax revenues.

In February, interest rate yields on US tax-exempt municipal debt rose to the highest ever relative to Treasuries. The market is reacting to deteriorating finances at bond insurance companies and credit rating companies. States, cities and agencies are pulling out of the $330 billion floating rate or auction-rate market, where costs have doubled since January and plan to sell about $22.5 billion of fixed-rate, tax-exempt bonds to raise capital at a significant penalty price.

Bond fund managers in New York and London tell us they have never seen such troubles in the municipal bond market before.

The market for floating rate or auction-rate municipal bonds in the US, once thought safe, entered crisis as losses tied to sub-prime mortgage bonds and related securities threatened so-called monoline bond insurers’ AAA ratings, causing investors to avoid the bonds they had insured. The same monoline insurers, specialized New York financial security insurance companies, had insured sub-prime mortgage securities and municipal debt. The monoline companies guarantee about half the $2.6 trillion of outstanding state and local government debt, some $1.2 trillion. Higher interest rate costs for states and local governments will aggravate local US fiscal crises as the depression spreads, creating a self-reinforcing downward spiral. The process is in its early stages yet.

The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author’s copyright must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: crgeditor@yahoo.com

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see

Carlyle Capital Could Lose Billions h/t: ICH

A threat slipping out of hands

Dandelion Salad

by Ubeid Kamran
thepost.com.pk
March 10, 2008

Indian External Affairs Minister Parnab Mukharjee recently voiced his concern over the ‘very real threat’ of atomic weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, which is an obvious reference to Pakistan. It raised my apprehensions over the international conspiracy hatching against Pakistan. Mr Mukharjee reiterated that there was a very real threat of terrorist groups laying their hands on nuclear material and even fully assembled nuclear weapons. The threat of nuclear proliferation is, no doubt, a prime concern in recent years. The world media has been putting Pakistan in an awful position and a general perception is being created that Pakistan is the real hitch in undermining world peace and is probably involved in the proliferation of its strategic assets.

…

The world media has been putting Pakistan in an appalling position and a general perception is being created that Pakistan is the real hitch in undermining world peace and is probably involved in the proliferation of its strategic assets. What is exceptionally alarming is the recent report by Sibel Edmonds, a former Turkish language translator for the FBI, who listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based on the agency’s Washington field office. Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions. Though she has mentioned Pakistan as one of the black market buyers, yet what is needed to be contemplated upon by the international community and the US presidential hopefuls is that US sensitive military and nuclear institutions are lackadaisical in handling their secrets that makes the world so vulnerable. What disturbs me the most is the US government’s indifference with regard to their own strategic assets; instead they are planning to slowly and premeditatedly cast a net around Pakistan’s nuclear estate. This incidence of nuclear warheads in combat positions carried by an American bomber was a clear cut violation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Conscious efforts by Washington to confuse the public have been successful.

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Truth: What Gets Found in Translation.

Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds – Hearings Now! (video)

Bill Moyers Journal: Rick Karr on Government Secrecy (Sibel Edmonds) + Viewer Mail

Scott Horton Interviews Daniel Ellsberg

UK Times: Brewster Jennings outed by ‘treasonous’ US govt official in 2001, not 2003 by Luke Ryland

FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft

For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets

Sibel Edmonds (archive of posts)

Edmonds-Sibel

NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data

Dandelion Salad

By SIOBHAN GORMAN
WSJ
March 10, 2008; Page A1

Terror Fight Blurs Line Over Domain; Tracking Email

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans’ privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the data-sifting effort didn’t disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system.

The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people’s communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

…continued

h/t: The Zoo

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

DHS Holds Cyber Storm II Exercise to Further Cyber Security Preparedness & Response Capabilities

Dandelion Salad

Release Date: March 10, 2008
For Immediate Release

DHS
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is conducting the largest cyber security exercise ever organized. Cyber Storm II is being held from March 10-14 in Washington, D.C. and brings together participants from federal, state and local governments, the private sector, and the international community.

Cyber Storm II is the second in a series of congressionally mandated exercises that will examine the nation’s cyber security preparedness and response capabilities. The exercise will simulate a coordinated cyber attack on information technology, communications, chemical, and transportation systems and assets.

“Securing cyberspace is vital to maintaining America’s strategic interests, public safety, and economic prosperity,” said Greg Garcia, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Cyber Security and Communications. “Exercises like Cyber Storm II help to ensure that the public and private sectors are prepared for an effective response to attacks against our critical systems and networks.”

Cyber Storm II will include 18 federal departments and agencies, nine states (Calif., Colo., Del., Ill., Mich., N.C., Pa., Texas and Va.), five countries (United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom), and more than 40 private sector companies. They include ABB, Inc., Air Products, Cisco, Dow Chemical Company Inc., Harris Corporation, Juniper Networks, McAfee, Microsoft, NeuStar, PPG Industries, and Wachovia.

Cyber Storm II objectives include:

• Examining the capabilities of participating organizations to prepare for, protect against, and respond to the potential effects of cyber attacks
• Exercising strategic decision making and interagency coordination of incident response in accordance with national level policy and procedures
• Validating information sharing relationships and communications paths for the collection and dissemination of cyber incident situational awareness, response and recovery information
• Examining means and processes through which to share sensitive information across boundaries and sectors without compromising proprietary or national security interests

For more information on Cyber Storm II visit:http://www.dhs.gov/xprepresp/training/gc_1204738275985.shtm

h/t: CLG

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Inside Gitmo with Detainee 061

Dandelion Salad

By Mariah Blake
Mother Jones
March 10, 2008

Shortly after German-born Murat Kurnaz arrived at Camp Delta, intelligence reports show the plan was to let him go. What happened?

IT WAS LATE September 2002, and construction crews were just finishing work on the main prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when three German intelligence agents arrived on the island aboard a U.S. military plane.

The reason for their visit was sensitive. The Pentagon was still arguing that those held at Guantanamo were “the worst of the worst” and “the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the Earth,” but behind closed doors CIA officials were coming to the conclusion that a number of detainees had no links to terrorism, and were working on a list of prisoners to be set free.

One of the detainees being considered for release was Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turkish citizen who had been pulled off a bus in Pakistan the year before and turned over to U.S. forces. Since then, American security agencies hadn’t turned up any evidence that he belonged to a terrorist group or posed a threat to the United States. But before clearing his release, the CIA wanted the Germans to interrogate him and offer their stamp of approval.

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Bush Vetos Congress Bill on Ending CIA Torture By Liam Bailey + video

The Final Act of Abu Ghraib

Am I a Torturer? By Justine Sharrock

Extraordinary Rendition (video)

Stop the Social Security Surveillance Act (HR 5405)

Dandelion Salad

Gary

Trying to get around the state’s rejection of REAL ID, Congressman Kirk is proposing we transform our SS card into a National ID card. Contact your Congressman and tell them to vote NO on H.R. 5405.

from www.restoretherepubl posted with vodpod

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***

Social Security Surveillance Act Enters House

by Gary Franchi
Tuesday, 04 March 2008

RTR Libertyville, IL – Under the guise of protecting seniors and our national security, Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois 10th District and Peter Roskam of the 6th District are setting the wheels in motion for another crack at a national ID card. The “Social Security Identity Theft Prevention Act” (H.R. 5405) more appropriately titled the “Social Security Surveillance Act” was likely spurred by high opposition to the failing Real ID Act. This act would be an adequate run around to implement Real ID yet in another form. They claim their reasons for introducing this act is to curb the high rate of identity theft in Northern Illinois.

The new Social Security Surveillance (SSS) card will retain the standard features of the Social Security card such as the name and account number of the card holder, but will now include beefed up security measures also commonly used by law enforcement to track criminals, and hackers to falsify and clone sim cards.

The surveillance features of the card include: a digital image displayed of the card holder on the surface of the card and an “encrypted, machine-readable electronic record which shall include records of biometric identifiers unique to the individual to whom the card is issued, including a copy of any digitized facial image printed on the face of the card.”

…continued

h/t: Lone Lantern Society 4 Ron Paul (RIP Aaron Russo), Eddie

Largest Medical Alert in U.S. History! + Pharmaceutical Drugs found in Drinking Water!!!

Dandelion Salad

VOTERSTHINKdotORG

March 10, 2008 CNN

from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod

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Pharmaceutical Drugs found in Drinking Water!!!

March 10, 2008 FOX News

from dandelionsalad.vodpo posted with vodpod

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The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

Dandelion Salad

by Vicky Pelaez
Global Research, March 10, 2008
El Diario-La Prensa, New York

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.” The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

“The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.”

The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. “This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors.”

According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.

CRIME GOES DOWN, JAIL POPULATION GOES UP

According to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:

Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. Federal law stipulates five years’ imprisonment without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 10 years for possession of less than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine or crack. A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of 500 grams – 100 times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence. Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. In Texas, a person may be sentenced for up to two years’ imprisonment for possessing 4 ounces of marijuana. Here in New York, the 1973 Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.

The passage in 13 states of the “three strikes” laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.

Longer sentences.

The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances.

A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.

More punishment of prisoners, so as to lengthen their sentences.

HISTORY OF PRISON LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES

Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of “hiring out prisoners” was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else’s land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery – which were almost never proven – and were then “hired out” for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads. From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of “hired-out” miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972.

During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. “Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex,” comments the Left Business Observer.

Who is investing? At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions.” At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.

Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.

Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that “there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re offering you competitive prison labor (here).”

PRIVATE PRISONS

The prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Clinton’s program for cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.

Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, “the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners.” The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners. In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for “good behavior,” but for any infraction, they get 30 days added – which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost “good behavior time” at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons.

IMPORTING AND EXPORTING INMATES

Profits are so good that now there is a new business: importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits. According to a December 1998 Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. That state’s governor, Ann Richards, followed the example of Mario Cuomo in New York and built so many state prisons that the market became flooded, cutting into private prison profits.

After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 – ending court supervision and decisions – caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering “rent-a-cell” services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The commission for a rent-a-cell salesman is $2.50 to $5.50 per day per bed. The county gets $1.50 for each prisoner.

STATISTICS

Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country’s 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.

© Copyright Vicky Pelaez, El Diario-La Prensa, New York, 2008
The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

see

Have you fed your prisoners today? by The Other Katherine Harris

The Muslim Jesus (video)

Dandelion Salad

ITV
45 min 42 sec – Aug 20, 2007

There was no manger, Christ is not the Messiah, and the crucifixion never happened. This ITV documentary – narrated by Melvyn Bragg – portrays Jesus as Muslims see him.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2151358,00.html

http://www.a2mediagroup.com/?c=125&a=17439

from video.google.com posted with vodpod

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ICH

Leading theology scholars examine the role of Jesus Christ in the Islamic tradition, revealing the two faiths have more in common than is generally realised. Muslims share the Christian belief in the Virgin Birth, Christ’s status as the Messiah and his ability to perform miracles, but reject the biblical account of the Crucifixion

ITV documentary – narrated by Melvyn Bragg

US government sued over failure to protect polar bears

Dandelion Salad

by Edward Helmore
guardian.co.uk
Monday March 10 2008

Campaigners believe delays over endangered species listing stem from the government’s desire to sell oil and gas leases.

The US government agency responsible for compiling the country’s list of endangered species will face a new legal challenge today over its failure to protect the polar bear.

Environmental groups are set to sue the Bush administration in a federal court in California, claiming the Fish and Wildlife Service is now in breach of its own mandate.

The FWS was due to have decided by January 9 whether to classify the polar bear as threatened due to climate change. This date itself was a full year after consultations began on the issue. But the service has said it is still reviewing technical data along with more than 670,000 comments on the issue.

The FWS inspector general has announced a preliminary investigation into the delay to determine whether a full-fledged investigation is warranted.

…continued

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Exterminating Public Schools in America

Dandelion Salad

by Steven Miller and Jack Gerson
Global Research, March 10, 2008
Educator Roundtable

The “Tough Choices or Tough Times” report of the National Commission on Skills in the Workplace, funded in large part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and signed by a bipartisan collection of prominent politicians, businesspeople, and urban school superintendents, called for a series of measures including:

(a) replacing public schools with what the report called “contract schools”, which would be charter schools writ large;

(b) eliminating nearly all the powers of local school boards – their role would be to write and sign the authorizing agreements for the “contract schools;

(c) eliminating teacher pensions and slashing health benefits; and

(d) forcing all 10th graders to take a high school exit examination based on 12th grade skills, and terminating the education of those who failed (i.e., throwing millions of students out into the streets as they turn 16).

These measures, taken together, would effectively cripple public control of public education. They would dangerously weaken the power of teacher unions, thus facilitating still further attacks on the public sector. They would leave education policy in the hands of a network of entrepreneurial think tanks, corporate entrepreneurs, and armies of lobbyists whose priorities are profiting from the already huge education market while cutting back on public funding for schools and students.

Indeed, their measures would mean privatization of education, effectively terminating the right to a public education, as we have known it. Many of the most powerful forces in the country want the US, the first country to guarantee public education, to be the first country to end it.

For the last fifty years, public education was one of only two public mandates guaranteed by the government that was accessible to every person, regardless of income. Social Security is the other. Now both systems are threatened with privatization schemes. The government today openly defines its mission as protecting the rights of corporations above everything. Thus public education is a rare public space that is under attack.

The same scenario is being implemented with most of the services that governments used to provide for free or at little cost: electricity, national parks, health care and water. In every case, the methodology is the same: underfund public services, create an uproar and declare a crisis, claim that privatization can do the job better, deregulate or break public control, divert public money to corporations and then raise prices.

In the past year, it’s become evident that the corporate surge against public schools is only part of a much broader assault against the public sector, against unions, and indeed against the public’s rights and public control of public institutions.

This has been evident for some time now in New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina’s devastation is used as an excuse for permanently privatizing the infrastructure of a major American city: razing public housing and turning land over to developers; replacing the city’s public school system with a combination of charter schools and state-run schools; letting the notorious Blackwater private army loose on the civilian population; and, in the end, forcing tens of thousands of families out of the city permanently. The citizens of New Orleans have had their civil rights forcibly expropriated.

Just as the shock of the hurricane was the excuse for the shock therapy applied to New Orleans, so the economic downturn triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis is now the excuse for a national assault on the public sector and the public’s rights. . .

In public education, the corporate surge has grown both qualitatively and quantitatively. Where two years ago the corporate education change agents were mainly operating in a relatively small number of large urban areas, they have now surfaced everywhere. The corporatization of public education is the leading edge of privatization. This has the effect of silencing the public voice on every aspect of the situation.

Across the US, public schools are not yet privatized, though private services are increasingly benefiting from this market. However, increasing corporate control of programs – a different mix in every locale – is having a chilling influence on the very things that people (though not corporations) want from teachers: the ability to relate to and teach each child, a nurturing approach that nudges every child to move ahead, human assessments that put people before performance on standardized tests.

Perhaps the single most dramatic development of the corporate approach was the launching of the $60 million Strong American Schools – Ed in ’08 initiative, funded by billionaires Bill Gates and Eli Broad. This is a naked effort to purchase the nation’s education policy, no matter who is elected President, by buying their way into every electoral forum.

Ed in ’08 has a three-point program: merit pay (basing teachers’ compensation on students’ scores on high stakes test); national education standards (enforcing conformity and rote learning); and longer school day and school year (still more time for rote learning, less time for kids to be kids. . . )

Where two years ago charter schools were still viewed as experiments affecting a relatively small number of students, in 2007 the corporate privatizers – led by Broad and Gates – grossly expanded their funding to the point where they now loom as a major presence.

In March, the Gates Foundation announced a $100 million donation to KIPP charter schools, which would enable them to expand their Houston operation to 42 schools (from eight) – effectively, KIPP will be a full-fledged alternative school system in Houston. Also in the past year, Eli Broad and Gates have given in the neighborhood of $50 million to KIPP and Green Dot charter schools in Los Angeles, with the aim of doubling the percentage of LA students enrolled in charter schools. Oakland, another Broad/Gates targets, now has more than 30 charter schools out of 92. And, as we shall see below, the same trend holds across the country.

NCLB in 2008 is still a major issue. It continues to have a corrosive effect on public schools. It is designed an unfunded mandate, which means that schools must meet ever rigid standards every year, though no more money is appropriated to support this effort. This means that schools must take ever-more money out of the class room to meet federal requirements when schools with low test scores are in “Program Improvement”. Once schools are in PI for 5 years they can be forced into privatization.

NCLB is a driving force that decimates the “publicness” in public schools. In California, more than 2000 schools are now in “Program-Improvement”. This means that they have to meet certain specific, and mostly impossible standards, or they must divert increasingly greater amounts of money out of the classroom and into private programs.

For example, schools in 3rd year PI must take money out of programs that helped schools with a high proportion of low achieving schools and make it available to private tutors. . .

Privatizing public schools inevitably leads to a massive increase in social inequality. Private corporations have never been required to recognize civil rights, because, by definition, these are public rights. If the corporate privatizers succeed in taking over our schools, there will be neither quality education nor civil rights.

The system of public education in the United States is deeply flawed. While suburban schools are among the best in the world, public education in cities has been deliberately underfunded and is in shambles. The solution is not to fight backwards to maintain the old system. Rather it is to fight forward to a new system that will truly guarantee quality education as a civil right for everyone.

Central to this is to challenge the idea that everything in human society should be run by corporations, that only corporations and their political hacks have the right or the power to discuss what public policy should be. . .

The real direction is to increase the role and power of the public in every way, not eliminate it. . .

The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author’s copyright must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: crgeditor@yahoo.com

www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com
© Copyright Steven Miller, Educator Roundtable, 2008
The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8288

Mosaic News: 3/7/08 – World News from the Middle East

Dandelion Salad

Warning

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This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

linktv

For more: http://linktv.org/originalseries
“Olmert Blames Abbas for School Attack,” Dubai TV, UAE
“Yeshiva School Families Bury Their Dead,” IBA TV, Israel
“Children Killed While Playing,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Attack in Iraq Kills More Than 50,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
“Syria in Bed with Iran,” Syria TV, Syria
“Democrats Play the Iraq Card,” ANB TV, England
“Talibani Visits Turkey,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“MIR: Is the U.S. Safeguarding Ahmadinejad?,” Link TV, USA
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.

from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod

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NY Governor Spitzer involved in Prostitution Ring!! (videos) + Sources: Spitzer Resignation Expected (updated)

Dandelion Salad

Updated: previous videos no longer available.

Replaced with similar videos Oct. 9, 2010

N.Y. Governor Spitzer Caught in Prostitution Scandal (2008)

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March 12, 2008

Eliot Spitzer Announces His Resignation PDTV Source (2008)

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NY governor Eliot Spitzer ‘linked to prostitution’

By Sally Peck and agencies
telegraph.co.uk
Last Updated: 7:54pm GMT
10/03/2008

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat known for his moral crusading, has issued a public apology but stopped short of resigning amid reports he was involved in a high-end prostitution ring.

Mr Spitzer, a father of three who built his career fighting corporate corruption as New York state attorney general, issued only a brief statement after the reports broke, saying he had failed to live up to his own standards.

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family, that violates my or any sense of right and wrong.

“I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, whom I promised better,” he said. “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”

The story broke after the New York Times website reported that he had told senior members of his administration that he was involved in a prostitution ring.

…continued

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Breaking: Spitzer’s Sex Life Is Weapon of Mass Distraction for Bunch of Bad News for Bush

By Lori Price
CLG
10 Mar 2008

On Monday, we learned: The Iraq war will top 3 trillion dollars; a former Pentagon official has written a book attacking the CIA and other US officials over the US-led Iraq war; 5 US soldiers were killed in a Baghdad blast; an Iraqi tribal leader – the head of an ‘Awakening Council’ – and three others were killed in a Diyala province suicide bombing; CIA torture will continue, per Bush; the House Judiciary Committee has filed suit to force two White House officials to provide information about the firing of U.S. attorneys; more trouble for Carlyle group has surfaced; oil has soared to $108 per barrel; gas prices have reached a new record; a lawsuit has been filed claiming that the Fish and Wildlife Service is now in breach of its own mandate; an AP investigation has revealed that a vast array of pharmaceuticals are in the US water supply. Oh. Last but not least: The Dow and Nasdaq are down hundreds of points, again. But, here is the mainstream media’s headline: Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring.

Permanent URL for this page: http://www.legitgov.org/spitzer_sex_life_weapon_mass_distraction.html

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Sources: Spitzer Resignation Expected

NEW YORK (CBS)
Mar 10, 2008 7:03 pm US/Eastern

Lt. Gov. David Paterson Could Be Sworn In Within 48 Hours

Spitzer: ‘I Have Violated My Obligations To My Family’

Gov. Eliot Spitzer was not expected to continue as governor and may resign as soon as Monday night, sources told CBS 2 shortly after it was reported that he was linked to a prostitution ring.

Reliable sources initially told CBS 2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer that Lt. Gov. David Paterson could be handed the job as early as Monday night, though other sources say the process could take up to 48 hours.

State Assemblyman James Tedisco (R-Schenectady) told CBS 2 that he spoke with Paterson earlier Monday evening and that the two discussed Paterson taking on a new role of leadership, leading Tedisco to believe that action was “forthcoming.”

…continued

h/t: CLG
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

NY Bill to Declare Abortion a Fundamental Right for Women is Top Legislative Priority for Gov. Spitzer

Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes? + The Spitzer Sex Sting: A Few More Questions

Olbermann: Eliot Flesh + Clinton’s Number Two + Saturday Night Fight + Bushed!