Can we clone this man? The Senate could more voices such as Sanders. ~ DS
heathr456
April 28, 2009
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Day: April 28, 2009
Swine Flu Scare: Stock Market Bonanza for “Politically Connected” BioTech Companies by Michel Chossudovsky
by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, April 28, 2009
The Swine Flu scare has boosted the stock market values of Big Pharma. Following initial reports from Mexico on the influenza outbreak, the demand for anti-flu drugs has skyrocketed.
Supported by media disinformation, an atmosphere of fear and intimidation has unfolded. Health “emergencies” have been declared in various parts of the US.
The most sought after influenza drugs are Tamiflu and Relenza. Treatment courses by the US government have been released from the national stockpile “to make sure health care providers are ready for any escalation in cases.”
Tamiflu is produced by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Hoffman-La Roche on behalf of a US based biotech company Gilead Sciences, Inc. While the drug is produced by Roche, it was developed by Gilead Sciences Inc. which owns the intellectual property rights.
In the Guardian: The 5th anniversary of the Abu Ghraib scandal by Andy Worthington
by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
Originally posted at the Guardian
28 April 2009
For the Guardian’s Comment is free, “Images that exposed the truth on abuse” is an article I wrote marking the 5th anniversary of the broadcast, on CBS News’ 60 Minutes II, of the first photos revealing the abuse of detainees — or, indeed, what the International Committee of the Red Cross described as treatment “that in some cases might amount to torture” — in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
I’ve taken the opportunity offered by this bleak anniversary to note how the Abu Ghraib photos still demonstrate, sadly, that pictures speak louder then words, and to lament that, after five years, we are still waiting for those who authorized the torture and abuse of prisoners — and in one case, a death that prompted the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer to ask, “Can the CIA legally kill a prisoner?” — to be held accountable.
I am, however, reassured that the publication last week of the Senate Armed Services Committee report into detainee abuse (PDF) prompted chairman Carl Levin to state that the report was a “condemnation” of senior administration officials who “attempted to shift the blame for abuse such as that seen at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and Afghanistan to low-ranking soldiers,” and, while remaining somewhat ambivalent about the extent to which serving soldiers should be prosecuted for following orders (even if that led to creative acts of sadism that shock the conscience), maintain that senior officials must now be investigated — preferably, I should add, by an independent prosecutor.
If not, the imminent release of more photos — of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, and elsewhere in Iraq — will almost certainly set off tremors of disgust that will test support for President Obama in the Muslim world, and will further challenge the resolve of those, in the United States and other Western countries, who believed that Obama represented “Change We Can Believe In.”
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed, and see here for my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009. Visit his website at: www.andyworthington.co.uk.
For other articles on Abu Ghraib, see Remember Abu Ghraib? (a review of Mark Danner’s Torture and Truth), Former US interrogator Damien Corsetti recalls the torture of prisoners in Bagram and Abu Ghraib, and Film Review: Standard Operating Procedure (a review of Errol Morris’ challenging documentary about the scandal). And for other articles on Iraq, see Book Review: Road From Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía, and Iraq’s refugees in Syria: Mike Otterman reports.
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CIA Torture Began In Afghanistan Eight Months before Justice Department Approval by Andy Worthington
Torture? It probably killed more Americans than 9/11
Mother Jones: Abu Ghraib Level 1 + Levels 4 and 5
We Are All Torturers in America By Naomi Wolf
ACLU: New Prisoner Abuse Photos! Being Released By Defense Dept!
Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos, Part 1 by Andy Worthington
Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part Two) by Andy Worthington
Why the US still hates Cuba by Federico Fuentes
Posted with permission from Green Left Weekly
by Federico Fuentes
Green Left
25 April 2009
At the centre of the Summit of the Americas held in Trinidad and Tobago over April 17-19, was the only country from the hemisphere not present — Cuba.
Speaking at the opening session, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega noted that while a large majority of the heads of states of the Americas were present, “there are two major absentees”.
The first was “Cuba, whose crime has been to fight for its independence, for the sovereignty of the peoples; lending solidarity, without conditions, to our peoples, and for that it is being sanctioned, for that it is being punished, for that it is being excluded.”
The second was the nation of Puerto Rico, which continues to be an official colony of the United States — denied independence.
In 1962, Cuba was expelled from the Organisation of American States for having openly declared the nature of its revolution to be socialist — based on the ideology of “Marxism-Leninism”.
We Are All Torturers in America By Naomi Wolf
By Naomi Wolf
ICH
April 28, 2009 “The Guardian”
As citizens’ outrage over the torture memos heats up, and the US Congress is barraged with calls to appoint a special prosecutor, Americans may be about to commit an egregious miscarriage of justice. Republicans have now accused Democrats in Congress of having “blood on your hands too” in relation to the escalating calls to investigate. I would go further: not only do Congressional Democrats have blood on their hands – but so do we, the American people. And CIA agents may be about to be sacrificed to assuage their – and our – actual and associative guilt.
The suddenly urgent calls by our Congressional Democratic leaders, and even by many of the American people, to prosecute CIA operatives, military men and women and contractors who were certainly involved with, colluded in or turned a blind eye to torture are not only the height of hypocrisy, they are a form of unconscionable scapegoating. The scapegoating is political on the part of Congressional leaders, and psychological on the part of many Americans who are now “shocked” at what was done in their name.
Mosaic News – 4/27/09: World News From The Middle East
Warning
This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Mosaic needs your help! Donate here: http://linktv.org/contribute
“Pakistan launches Swat valley offensive,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Women have a better chance this time in Kuwaiti Elections,” Dubai TV, UAE
“The danger of an Israeli strike on Iran,” Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
“Noam Shalit to urge US: Condition peace talks on Gilad’s release,” IBA TV, Israel
“Ahmadinejad Sows Confusion on Israel (Again),” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Abbas won’t be pressured into talks with Israel,” Press TV, Iran
“IRAQ: More Than Two Million Refugees Waiting to Come Home,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
“The Home of Imam Ali,” Alsumaria TV, Iraq
“Islamophobia in France,” Al-Alam TV, Iran
Produced for Link TV Jamal Dajani.
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Sen. Arlen Specter Switches To Democratic Party + Maddow: Just What We Need Another Consevr-a-Dem!
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April 28, 2009
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Maddow: Just What We Need Another Consevr-a-Dem!
VOTERSTHINKdotORG
April 28, 2009
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Further evidence of huge Iraqi death toll
By James Cogan
http://www.wsws.org
28 April 2009
On April 23, the Associated Press (AP) published a secret tally compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry that recorded 87,215 violent deaths in the country between early 2005 and February 28, 2009. Violent deaths were defined by the AP’s source in the Iraqi government as those caused by “shootings, bombings, mortar attacks and beheadings” and which had been officially registered.
The tally excluded “missing persons” who were presumed to be dead. It did not include the deaths during the three-week US invasion of 2003, during which as many as 30,000 Iraqi troops were killed. It also excludes deaths during the first 20 months of occupation. Thus, it does not count the thousands of fighters and civilians killed in the US military operations, particularly in 2004, to suppress Iraqi resistance in cities such as Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, Mosul, Najaf, Karbala and Basra.
[…]
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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from the archives
Ahmadinejad plays to his base
Babek Yektafar: Speech at the UN conference against racism aimed at domestic politics
Torture? It probably killed more Americans than 9/11
By Patrick Cockburn, winner of the 2009 Orwell Prize for journalism
ICH
April 26, 2009 “The Independent”
A US major reveals the inside story of military interrogation in Iraq.
The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11, says the leader of a crack US interrogation team in Iraq.
“The reason why foreign fighters joined al-Qa’ida in Iraq was overwhelmingly because of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and not Islamic ideology,” says Major Matthew Alexander, who personally conducted 300 interrogations of prisoners in Iraq. It was the team led by Major Alexander [a named assumed for security reasons] that obtained the information that led to the US military being able to locate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa’ida in Iraq. Zarqawi was then killed by bombs dropped by two US aircraft on the farm where he was hiding outside Baghdad on 7 June 2006. Major Alexander said that he learnt where Zarqawi was during a six-hour interrogation of a prisoner with whom he established relations of trust.
[…]
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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CIA Torture Began In Afghanistan Eight Months before Justice Department Approval by Andy Worthington
Torture Whitewash From The Dark Side By Pepe Escobar
Who Authorized The Torture of Abu Zubaydah? by Andy Worthington
Zinn on Investigating 9/11
Howard Zinn: The truth of 9/11 will probably never be known, but searching for it now is a diversion
‘If there is no water, the Chipaya have no life’
Result0
Apr 24, 2009
Guardian: Uru Chipaya tribe lifestyle in the Bolivian Andes is being threatened by global warming.
Rory Carroll speaks to members of the Uru Chipaya tribe, whose lifestyle in the Bolivian Andes is being threatened by the effects of global warming.
Major Protest Planned Against Arizona Sheriff Famous for Parading Undocumented Prisoners
Democracy Now!
April 27, 2009
Major Protest Planned Against Arizona Sheriff Famous for Parading Undocumented Prisoners
A major protest is planned against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who’s been accused of practicing discriminatory enforcement of federal immigration laws. Last month, the Justice Department opened a civil rights probe into Arpaio’s immigration enforcement policies. We speak with an Arizona reporter who just won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the controversial sheriff, as well as a public defender who has been at the forefront of immigrant rights for over thirty years. [includes rush transcript]
Ryan Gabrielson, a reporter with the East Valley Tribune. Along with former Tribune reporter Paul Giblin, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting and the George Polk Award for Justice Reporting for their five-part series on Sheriff Arpaio called “Reasonable Doubt.”
Isabel Garcia, co-chair of the Coalición de Derechos Humanos, a grassroots organization in Tucson that fights the militarization of the Southwestern border region and discrimination and human rights abuses by federal, state and local law enforcement officials affecting US and non-US citizens alike. She is also the legal defender of Pima County, Arizona, and won the Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award in 2008 and the 2006 National Human Rights Award from Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights.
via Major Protest Planned Against Arizona Sheriff Famous for Parading Undocumented Prisoners.
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“Humanitarian Aid Is Not a Crime”–Activist Fights Littering Charge for Leaving Water Jugs in Desert along Arizona-Mexico Border Continue reading
CIA Torture Began In Afghanistan Eight Months before Justice Department Approval by Andy Worthington
by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
Originally posted at the Future of Freedom Foundation
28 April 2009
Last December, in a typically bullish defense of the Bush administration’s conduct in the “war on terror,” Vice President Dick Cheney stated,
On the question of so-called “torture,” we don’t do torture, we never have. It’s not something that this administration subscribes to. [W]e proceeded very cautiously; we checked, we had the Justice Department issue the requisite opinions in order to know where the bright lines were that you could not cross. The professionals involved in that program were very, very cautious, very careful, wouldn’t do anything without making certain it was authorized and that it was legal. And any suggestion to the contrary is just wrong.
The “requisite opinions” referred to by Cheney consisted primarily of two memos issued in August 2002 by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), whose lawyers interpret the law as it relates to the powers of the executive branch, which were issued in connection with the administration’s “high-value detainee” program.
Dandelion Salad 