The best political comment I have ever seen was the man that threw his shoes at W in Iraq, in 2008. The MSM was unable to ignore that story, and none of their bias could undermine the basic truth we all witnessed.
This blog is dedicated to the People's Right to Know.
Dedicated to Terry Anderson
The story of Terry Anderson is central to understanding the dynamics of the Mid-East. He is Christian, an ex Marine who served in Viet Nam, and a professional journalist, and was the longest held hostage during Lebanon's attempt to drive US Military out during the lebanonese Civil War. Two weeks before his release I spoke publically with the wife of an important Lebanese Official. My blog, shoe08, affirms Terry Anderson's experience, and is an attempt to explore the search for truth.
Despite the non-news, the Western media continue to milk this “story” by molding it into Chinese government crack-downs of dissent and confrontations with Western journalists. Even the supposedly cream of the crop, NPR, continued the assault; their latest piece from the Associated Press, “China Rolls Back Press Freedoms Amid Protest Calls.”
When there is no protest, the “crackdowns” become news. When the “crackdown” news become dry, they will vacillate on something else, and you can bet money it will be about “freedom” or “democracy” through some other spin. They all employ this strategy. As I have said before, there need not be any sort of conspiracy. Once a certain spin is in the public, they all take hint and echo one another.
Chinese react to fake western media coverage of Jasmine revolution FAIL in China
Folks, look at the media!! don't they look like sharks at a media frenzy?
However, Al Jezeera, gets the story about how US media reported the Davis shooting news in concert with the US government, while it was being reported in wild exageration in pakistan. US feared this would put US security at risk. Al jazeera failed to report that dozens of US "special americans" then left pakistan. (their cover blown?) Al Jazeera does question if the Guardian would have published the "real" news if a British agent had been involved.
Al Jazeera rightly points out that a country may request news media to hold back when national security of lives may be at risk.
Then unbelievably, Al Jazeera shows a video taken in Hong Kong, and makes it look like it was taken in China. In fact, anti-CNN netizens caught world wide media mis reporting the "Jasmine Rallies" in China, using fake photos, and thereby "selling" misleading stories that fit the ideology their "audience" expects.
In fact, there were two Sundays involved, and after the fake stories were published after the first Sunday, China implemented new rules, and reminded journalists that in China they protect "The People's Right To Know," not western media's wild west version of the "Free press" where anything goes as long as it sells.
I have watched the AP video, that shows no reporter was "roughed up," another video that shows the reporter telling a lie that he was 'hit" while trying to report, and video showing the police politely explaining the requirement that the permited area had been expended.
In fact, one of the protesters in Hong Kong, and Wu'er Kai Shi in Taiwan were the ones who lied to journalists about witnessing a massacre that never occured, and who were actually at a restaraunt eating dinner at the time. Just the same, the journalists, hungry like sharks for a sensational story that would sell in the west, reported the massacre that never occured, and later, when the truth was revealed, balked and squirmed ther way out of any mea culpa whatsoever, leavving mant to believe the lies they printed. Now the same liers are back at it, and the same sharks eagerly eat it up without vetting the facts?
PLEASE! STOP THE SPREAD OF PROPAGANDA!
take care, and remember, vet the news, ALL THE NEWS. Do not swallow any news whole, be sure to chew it over in your most sceptical mind, and vet all facts!
Many videos have beem made, and many news reports have been broadcast, documenting the naked truth of our many wars. Hillary Clinton testified before Congress in defense of her so called "human rights" budget, claiming that Congress shouldn't cut her propaganda budget, due to Al Jazeera, Russian TV and Chinese multi language international news winning the "information war." She claimed that USAID and propaganda should be considered as part of the US defense strategy and that the DOD agreed. Many on Huffington Post missed the point completely, and thought she was supporting "real news" and Free Speech. If so, why is Bradley Manning in solitary confinement bare naked, totally inaccessable to journalists who cannot interview him?
No Bravery by James Blunt who served in Kosovo
There are children standing here, Arms outstretched into the sky, Tears drying on their face. He has been here. Brothers lie in shallow graves. Fathers lost without a trace. A nation blind to their disgrace, Since he's been here.
And I see no bravery, No bravery in your eyes anymore. Only sadness. .................... President Obama expressed OUTRAGE over the killing of US Airmen in Frankfort, Germany, who were on their way to Afghanistan, but he has remained silent on the killing of 9 little boys gathering firewood, who were 7, 8 9 an 12 years old, and who were shot down by a US helicopter in Afghanistan. Nor have I heard him comment on the holding of Bradley Manning, who reportedly leaked the video "Collateral Murder" to WikiLeaks in solitary confinement for almost a year, and is now reported to being required to be naked in his cell at night, and stand naked at attention outside his cell in the morning, while guards search his room. Ironically, he is under 24/7 video survailence.
In spite of the apology released by the DOD claiming that the killing of unarmed civilians, children is rare, a Youtube search demonstrates it happens all too often. But, as Hillary notes, and while people around the world may know this, Americans still wonder "Why do they hate us?" If Bradley Manning were not held incommunicato, perhaps Al Jazeera, Russian TV or CRI could interview him? As it is, US Congressmen cannot get permission to visit him!
According to Bismarck's best known maxim on Europe's most troublesome region, the Balkans are not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. Americans could be forgiven for harboring similar sentiments after the murder of two U.S. airmen in Germany by a Kosovar Muslim.
Remember Kosovo? Me neither. But it was big at the time, launched by Bill Clinton in the wake of his Monica difficulties: Make war, not love, as the boomers advise. So Clinton did – and without any pesky UN resolutions, or even the pretense of seeking them. Instead, he and Tony Blair and even Jacques Chirac just cried "Bombs away!" and got on with it. And the Left didn't mind at all – because, for a modern Western nation, war is only legitimate if you have no conceivable national interest in whatever war you're waging. Unlike Iraq and all its supposed "blood for oil," in Kosovo no one remembers why we went in, what the hell the point of it was, or which side were the good guys. (Answer: Neither.) The principal rationale advanced by Clinton and Blair was that there was no rationale. This was what they called "liberal interventionism," which boils down to: The fact that we have no reason to get into it justifies our getting into it.
According to investigators familiar with the case, Uka appeared to have acted alone and said he was motivated to carry out the attack after seeing a video the day before that he claimed showed U.S. soldiers raping a girl in Afghanistan. ....................
RAF LAKENHEATH, England — The 12 uninjured survivors of Wednesday’s shooting at Frankfurt international airport that left two U.S. airmen dead and two severely wounded are recuperating at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, their wing commander said Friday.
A lone gunman opened fire Wednesday afternoon on a U.S. Air Force bus carrying 15 airmen from England’s RAF Lakenheath who were en route to Afghanistan.
Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden, a security forces member of Lakenheath’s 48th Fighter Wing, was killed, as was as Airman 1st Class Zachary Cuddeback, the bus driver from Ramstein’s 86th Vehicle Readiness Squadron.
Staff Sgt. Kristoffer Schneider was wounded in the shooting, as was another as-yet-unidentified airman.
During a news conference at Lakenheath, wing commander Col. John T. Quintas said he hopes to have his uninjured airmen back at Lakenheath in the next few days.
They are receiving aid and counseling at Ramstein’s deployment transition center, where airmen returning from the war zone often get help, he said.
“They have the resources to deal with this type of grieving and this type of trauma,” Quintas said.
When the 12 return, they will be monitored and given any aid they need, he said, adding that their Afghanistan deployment has been postponed. .........................
In fact, the record indicates Manning would be far better off today – possibly on the lecture circuit rather than in solitary confinement – if he'd killed those men in Baghdad himself.(instead of exposing the war crimes)
Hyperbole? Consider what happened to the U.S. soldiers who, over a period of hours – not minutes – went house to house in the Iraqi town of Haditha and executed 24 men, women and children in retaliation for a roadside bombing.
“I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head,” said one of the two surviving eyewitnesses to the massacre, nine-year-old Eman Waleed. “Then they killed my granny." Almost five years later, not one of the men involved in the incident is behind bars. And despite an Army investigation revealing that statements made by the chain of command “suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives,” with the murder of brown-skinned innocents considered “just the cost of doing business,” none of their superiors are behind bars either.
Now consider the treatment of Bradley Manning. On March 1, the military charged Manning with 22 additional offenses – on top of the original charges of improperly leaking classified information, disobeying an order and general misconduct. One of the new charges, “aiding the enemy,” is punishable by death. That means Manning faces the prospect of being executed or spending his life in prison for exposing the ugly truth about the U.S. empire.
A few minutes later, I had a chance to ask a question. “Are you on the record?” I would not be writing this if he’d said no. There was an uncomfortable pause. “Sure.” So there we are.
STATEMENT BY PHILIP J. CROWLEY The unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a serious crime under U.S. law. My recent comments regarding the conditions of the pre-trial detention of Private First Class Bradley Manning were intended to highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discreet actions undertaken by national security agencies every day and their impact on our global standing and leadership. The exercise of power in today’s challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent and consistent with our laws and values.
Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Spokesman for the Department of State.
I am enormously grateful to President Obama and Secretary Clinton for the high honor of once again serving the American people. I leave with great admiration and affection for my State colleagues, who promote our national interest both on the front lines and in the quiet corners of the world. It was a privilege to help communicate their many and vital contributions to our national security. And I leave with deep respect for the journalists who report on foreign policy and global developments every day, in many cases under dangerous conditions and subject to serious threats. Their efforts help make governments more responsible, accountable and transparent. ...............................
Folks, PJ Crowley standing tall, does not back away from his and our American values!
Those who support Manning as a victim do so in no uncertain terms with a variety of arguments.
Under the headline "Why Bradley Manning is a patriot," writer and New York attorney Chase Madar strongly defends Manning's alleged behavior. Madar's piece first appeared on TomDispatch, but was reposted on the CBS News Web site in early February.
Madar wrote the conditions under which Manning is being held "have been sufficiently brutal for the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Torture to announce an investigation." The classified records "allegedly downloaded by Manning revealed clear instances of war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," widespread torture committed by Iraqis with full U.S. knowledge "and the massive Iraqi civilian death toll caused by the American invasion," Madar said.
"Pfc. Manning has been treated not as a whistle-blower, but as a criminal and a spy," he added.
Citing the Nuremberg trials, Madar said a "long line of (U.S.) Supreme Court cases, from Mitchell vs. Harmony in 1851 all the way back to Little vs. Barreme in 1804, established that soldiers have a duty not to follow illegal orders. In short, it is a matter of record and established precedent that these Nuremberg Principles have meant something in our courts. (Manning's) will not be the first court-martial to apply these principles, fought for and won with American blood, nor will it be the last."
Private Bradley Manning has provided a great service to his country by exposing the fallacy of the normalcy of America’s imperialistic wars. He has given the light of day to the truth, upon which justice and restitution and normalcy for all depend. He has sought to protect, not endanger, America’s national security by informing the people that the greatest threat to their security is the treasonous behavior of war-instigating and –accommodating members of their own government. The real threat his behavior poses is to the normalcy of endless US wars and support of repressive regimes.
Private Manning’s patriotism is powerfully expressed by attorney and member of the National Lawyers Guild Chase Madar, who writes,
The records allegedly downloaded by Manning reveal clear instances of war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, widespread torture committed by Iraqi authorities with the full knowledge of the U.S.military, previously unknown estimates of the number of Iraqi civilians killed at U.S. military checkpoints, and the massive Iraqi civilian death toll caused by the American invasions. (“Why Bradley Manning Is a Patriot, Not a Criminal,” TomDispatch.com, Feb. 10, 2011)
Who are “the enemy” Private Manning is charged with “aiding?” The international anti-war women’s group CODEPINK responds to that key question this way:
Who exactly is “the enemy” anyway? The cables that Bradley Manning is accused of leaking have helped spark democratic uprisings across the Arab world. They have brought us the truth about the brutality and atrocities of our continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they have given us a critical look at the underpinnings of our own government. They have created transparency beyond any we had before, and allow us as citizens to make more educated decisions. Of all the beneficiaries of the leaked cables, Democracy itself is the greatest. . . .With the leaked video”Collateral Murder,” Bradley put us in the back of a helicopter gunship in Iraq to show us how our wars are really fought. In his own words, he did it because “I want people to see the truth regardless of who they are . . . because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.” Now he is being charged with telling the truth, and it may cost him his life. (“Who’s the enemy?,” Mar. 4, 2011)
The American government, of course, insists that such treatment does not rise to the level of torture. In fact, Col. T. V. Johnson, a Quantico spokesman, characterized charges that Manning has been mistreated as "poppycock." After all, Manning is not being starved, beaten or waterboarded. He's merely been denied human interaction and the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment. Yet as surgeon Atul Gawande points out in a 2009 article for the New Yorker, solitary confinement rises to the level of torture: "A U.S. military study of almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returned from imprisonment in Vietnam, many of whom were treated even worse than [John] McCain, reported that they found social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered."
UPDATE IV: Crowley now confirms the accuracy of these reports, but tells Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin: "What I said was my personal opinion. It does not reflect an official USG policy position. I defer to the Department of Defense regarding the treatment of Bradley Manning." This seems to be one of those exceedingly rare moments when a high-level administration official unintentionally spoke with candor and conviction about the repellent acts of the government of which he is a part.
I have again been censored on Huffington Post, this time it's not just that the Huff Post moderation refused to post my comments, but I have been banned from commenting at all!
Mind you, I have violated no rules. In fact, by banning me, the Huffington Post has violated its own rules. It would seem that the Huffington Post is allowing itself to be a platform for Government, NED(CIA) black propaganda, disinforming the American people about what our Government is really doing, and which organizations are really no more than fronts for the CIA.
Is anyone concerned about the intense censorship that has been growing on Huff Post, one of the most popular sites for commenting on the "news?"
Apparently, the US Government is actively censoring comments, especially those that contain true facts and links to support valid concerns.
Several posts with NED (CIA) propaganda, will refuse to post critical comments, and even ban those who attempt to post "corrections," ie, the thue facts. I say true facts, as there are those who will claim that "the truth" is a matter of opinion.
Info has now surfaced to show that the Tunisia Revolution had help from Gene Sharpe's "manual for a revolution," and this was translated and passed on to Egypt. Folks in Egypt claimed they were influenced by the Serbian revolution, that was also thanks to Gene Sharpe. This is the same manual that was used in the bloody violent riots in Lhasa in March 2008, one had an introduction by the Da Lie Lama!
Since this info is now widely available in the media, one wonders why any would censor it? Or is it the fact that these "peaceful revolutions" are quite bloody? And in the case of Lhasa and Urumchi, violent?
While I do believe that all people who want to be free should be free, I do not believe that inciting ethnic, religious or racial tension is the way to establish a democracy. If it is not true, that our government is continuing to destablize China, covertly supporting "the Free Tibet Movement," and inciting the Uighur violence, including supporting training camps in Af-Pak that train Uighur terrorists,(sepratists), then it should be possible to state it is not true. there would be evidence that these programs were ended, not just diverted to another program with a different name.
I see no reason why the NED(CIA) or other arms of our Government would ban those who post the truth, unless of course, this is an active covert opperation, complete with domestic propaganda and black ops. (which Sen Kennedy's staff confirmed to me, when the responded to my inquiry, several years ago.
If Obama has since ended this covert ops against China, why doesn't he issue a statement saying so? Instead, he has made it very clear to China, that they are next on the agenda.
The United States Ambassador to China, Republican Nomination for the 2012 presidential election, Jon Huntsman,Jr was caught in Beijing while instigating and kept close watching on the process of so-called ' Jasmin revolution in China'.
He's face turned gray when caught by Chinese people lol!
Here's the translation
0:30 现场的人: 请问美国大使，你跑这儿来干什么？ Chinese: Hi, Ambassador, what are u doing here?
0:33 洪博培：就是来看看。 Huntsman: Just join in the fun. :D
0:35 现场的人：你是不是希望中国乱？ Chinese: So you want China in chaos, don't u?
0:37 洪博培：（啊？）不会。（转过头去） Huntsman: (ah?) nah. (turned his face off)
0:43 现场的人：这是美国大使。（介绍给群众） Chinese: (To everyone) This man is U.S ambassador to China.
现场群众 乙：这美国大使啊？ Chinese B: American Ambassador?
现场群众 丙：这是美国大使！ Chinese C: American Ambassador!
现场群众 丁：这是美国驻华大使啊！ Chinese D: He is American Ambassador to China!
0:45 洪博培：你们都不知道？(对着大家） Huntsman: You guys don't know me,really?（To the rest of Chinese people)
0:49 现场群众 甲：你是装作不知道吧。 Chinese A: You're pretending that you don't know this, right?
现场群众 乙： 揣着明白装糊涂是吧? Chinese B: You're feigning ignorance, aren't you?!
洪博培：............(灰溜溜地走了） Huntsman: ...(leave with his body guards) ................................
imagine this my friend, the 1989 issue was based on the ignorance of youngsters , they put themselves in the risks(bloody leaders escaped) by believeing the instigation from VOA and today ,since VOA(Mandarin Channel) is gonna be turnoff,at the same time, U.S Secretary of State,Hilary Clinton claimed U.S agency will concentrade much more on cyber world, so this shit happens again. A man can't step into the same river,so that's why we try to lead people away from danger. ................................
Yes, we chinese know ourselves better than anyone else. Yes, the CCP is not perfect but we are not going to copy a western style. Absolute democracy will send China to hell! Maybe a future hybrid system. .................................
Chinese do not want Westerners to incite protest in China, and to make China into a big mess like Iraq, Egypt, or Tunisia.
America is anti-China! ..........................
The only country that needs Jasmine Revolution is the US. It needs it so badly, because the govn't does not act in the interest of its citizens who are poor. It wants to pass budget deficit cuts that will ruin the lives of the poor further more. The whole world feels sorry for the US citizens because they haven't had a president for decades. All that they have gotten in the White House are puppets. .........................
You secretary of the state is in charge of the the internet propaganda war; your ambassador went to the front line to inspect the operations. If the Chinese government does not respond in a commensurate way, it's disrepectful to the U.S., it's faux pas. .........................
Thanks for exposing the truth....They want to destabilize China, divide it and rule. They are not Americans but globalists....They are using America as a tool to further their agenda.
They don't care about Americans nor about Chinese or any other country....Its all fake revolutions to further their evil agenda...if you love your family, atleast do an hour of research before coming out of your home for a revolution....do not believe what main stream media says...its all propaganda
...............................
I am a British Engineer with my own factory in China. I employ lots of Chinese. I live here with my family and speak Chinese.
I can tell you categorically that all suggestions that there will be any kind of revolution in China are completely ridiculous. The Chinese are extremely happy with the central Beijing Government. Sure they have complaints about rising house prices; food inflation; corrupt local officials etc.
Non-Chinese need to mind their own business and focus on home. ..............................
CNN and some media even put a photo with some Chinese holding Chinese signs. They reported that these are protesters with signs of slogans. These media reporters are the biggest liars. In fact, the photo is from another Chinese job fair with Chinese characters of jobs. Most Americans don't know Chinese language, that's why they can be easily misled and brainwashed ............................... I am 100% sure that this Jasmine Revolution BULL SHIT was started on the internet by them western n Taiwanese spies!! I am Chinese and I take this attempt by the west as a direct threat to my country n my ppl! They forgot how the CHinese ppl came out in support of the 2008 Beijing Olympics!! They want to test and see if the Chinese ppl is still united! From their point of view is worth every attempt! A collapse of China would do much good for them!
LONG LIVE CHINA! .................................
有可能“茉莉花”革命就是他策划的。洋人嘴里虽说明祖，心里却不怀好意。若心里不是怀有恶意，干吗急忙走开？Maybe the US diplomat was the one who came up with the "Jasmine" revolution to throw China into chaos. He looked "guilty" at being discovered and hastened a retreat. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
China's official in charge of the state security apparatus has warned of the need to find new ways to defuse unrest.
Zhou Yongkang urged senior officials to improve "social management" and "detect conflicts and problems early on", the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
He was speaking at a weekend seminar which took place as an internet campaign tried to provoke a "jasmine revolution" in China.
On Sunday, police dispersed a meeting of people who had answered the call.
In Shanghai, three men were detained. Leading human rights activists and lawyers were taken into police custody in the hours before the protests were due to begin.
But the call for mass participation in the demonstrations went largely unheeded. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
My dear friend in China told me that the buzz on the streets in china is "Mao was right about Deng." That was a year ago, during Spring Festival.
For 30 years the Communist Party has forged ideological unity around Deng Xiaoping's "two hands" formula of a market-based economy and uncompromising political control. When the contradictions inherent in this approach flared in 1989, Deng's solution was to defer any resolution and make the tensions worse. He massacred the students, rebuilt the party's security apparatus and then opened the market economy further.
The nepotism and corruption enjoyed by Deng's children may have been exceptional in 1989 but these days they are the norm for those born into the communist aristocracy. Whether you are in private equity, a sprawling state-owned enterprise or a village enterprise, the end game is the same: connect the right party official (or relative) with the market and turn public money into private gold.
Left and right agree that the Deng consensus is crumbling under the weight of inequality and corruption. But they cannot agree on whether to dismantle the ''open market'' or ''political control'' side of his legacy.
President Hu Jintao has squandered eight years in mortal combat with his predecessor. Powerful princelings have dealt themselves out of the debate by their kleptocratic hypocrisy. The country has reached gridlock. The party is entering a period of realignment and it is not clear what the new direction will be.
It is no coincidence that the only two obviously popular members of the Politburo are those who have come closest to challenging the Deng consensus. Much may depend on how the Mao-singing Chongqing party boss, Bo Xilai, and the democracy-talking Premier, Wen Jiabao, reach an accommodation. .
. Bahrain's Behavior: Another Massacre in Obama's Face
Doctor at hospital pleads for international assistance for casulties of friday's Massacre in Bahrain. Millitary preventing ambulances from assisting victims.
"It's unbelievable, it's like we are in a war!" These people are innocent unarmed demonstraters.
"It's unbelievable, It's unbelievable! we urgently call for foreign help!" .......................
MANAMA, Bahrain — Government forces opened fire on hundreds of mourners marching toward Pearl Square Friday, sending people running away in panic amid the boom of concussion grenades. But even as the people fled, at least one helicopter sprayed fire on them and a witness reported seeing mourners crumpling to the ground.
It was not immediately clear what type of ammunition the forces were firing, but some witnesses reported live fire from automatic weapons and the crowd was screaming “live fire, live fire.” At a nearby hospital, witnesses reported seeing people with very serious injuries and gaping wounds, at least some of them caused by rubber bullets that appeared to have been fired at close range.
Even as ambulances rushed to rescue people, forces fired on medics loading the wounded into their vehicles. ......................
The king is distrustful enough of his Shiite subjects that many of his soldiers and police are foreigners hired by the government.
On Friday, in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, a crowd of thousands accompanied the coffins of Ali Mansour Ahmed Khudair, 53, and Mahmoud Makki Abutaki, 22, both killed by shotgun fire on Thursday.
The coffins were carried on the roofs of two cars as a man with a loudspeaker led the crowd in its chants from the bed of a pickup truck, alternating between calls to the faithful — “There is no God but God” — with political messages such as “We need constitutional reform for freedom.” .................. In the morning, there were three bodies already stretched out on metal tables in the morgue at Salmaniya Medical Complex: Mr. Khudair, dead, with 91 pellets pulled from his chest and side; Isa Abd Hassan, 55, dead, his head split in half; Mr. Abutaki, dead, with 200 pellets of birdshot pulled from his chest and arms.
Doctors said that at least two others had died and that several patients were in critical condition with serious wounds. Muhammad al-Maskati, of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, said he had received at least 20 calls from frantic parents searching for young children. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/world/middleeast/19bahrain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 ........................
@NickKristof King Hamad of #Bahrain will never regain credibility after attacking peaceful protesters as they slept. Blood is forever on his hands. ............. A trauma surgeon from Salmaniya hospital was in an intensive care ward after being attacked at the roundabout camp, then handcuffed and repeatedly kicked in the head. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/17/arab-capitals-braced-violence-bahrain
US media may be less connected to this particular Arab uprising. But this brazen attack, in the presence of traditional media members, could raise the profile. Here’s ABC’s Miguel Marquez:
In an audio clip of the attack, which was posted on the ABC News Web site, Mr. Marquez can be heard pleading with his attackers — “No! No! No! Hey, I’m a journalist here!” — and then retreating from the square, where he said the police were aggressively trying to clear the crowds.
“I’m hit,” he says anxiously. “I just got beat rather badly by a gang of thugs. I’m now in a marketplace near our hotel where people are cowering in buildings.’ ..................... And NPR’s Peter Kenyon:
Steve, I’m at the Salmaniya hospital, where many of the wounded and dead were brought initially. I have to say, uh, I have just seen one of the more gruesome sites in 10 years of covering the Middle East. I was in the mortuary. I saw a man lying on a gurney. The top of his head was literally blown off.
The injuries have been widespread — clubbing and some shot and rubber-bullet injuries. Paramedics who were trying to get to the scene told me they were pulled from their ambulances and dragged to the ground and beaten. .....................
This gets mixed up with the entire Sunni-Shiite power balance in the Middle East, the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. And it leads to silence when a king tries to massacre peaceful protesters while they sleep.
@BahrainRights “children missing after police fired tear gas/rubber bullets upon sleeping women/children #Bahrain sq.”
@BahrainRights RT @maryamalkhawaja: Paramedics: “we removed injured while they were being beaten by riot police who said they had orders to do so” #bahrain
@BahrainRights 3 hours from the attack ambulances still arriving at Salmanya hospital with injured victims #Bahrain
@BahrainRights “@angryarabiya: An 8 year old girl was trampled during attack, in ICU now. #bahrain #feb14 #lulu”
@BahrainRights Dr.Mansoor Aljamri reports attacks on doctors and nurses at Emergency room #Bahrain #feb14 #lulu
Andy Carvin of NPR has been translating some of the Arabic tweets from Bahrain:
@acarvin Uh oh RT @gfry: _TRANSLATED_ # Bahrain # lulu Saudi forces stationed near King Fahd Causeway on the Saudi side in case of any emergency
@acarvin _TRANSLATED_ RT @ Dr_Murtadha: over 60 tanks moving around the country # Bahrain # feb14 # lulu » @acarvin TRANSLATED_ URGENT: Bahrain calls for all hospital doctors and nurses to immediately go to the emergency departments
Bahrain's Progressive Democratic Forum Appeals for Solidarityby Hussein Ureybi
Bahrain's Progressive Democratic Forum issues the following statement as the Bahrain's rulers deploy riot police and mercenaries to attack peaceful protesters camped in Pearl Square.
Dear comrades,
Security forces raided at dawn today on Pearl Square, which was the centre of protests in the Bahraini capital Manama, and used all means of force, including exploding bullets, to disperse the protestors and to seize the square.
This led to the deaths of at least 5 people and injuries to hundreds of others. They also surrounded the Sulamanieyh hospital where the wounded and the martyrs were supposed to be taken. The Bahraini people's protests were peaceful in every sense of the word.
We are calling for reform, social justice and negotiation with the executive power. The video footage shows a peaceful crowd chanting as they receive a barrage of rubber bullets and tear gas.
Everything was normal until 1 am, but then the treacherous security forces attacked the protesters, including women and children, beat foreign media correspondents and confiscated their cameras.
The security forces are still surrounding the entrances to a number of villages and searching homes.
What we've seen are dozens of tanks deployed in different areas of Bahrain and news reports on the use of Saudi military.
We invite you to call for a demonstration of solidarity in front of Bahrain's embassies or any of the headquarters of the Organization of the United Nations and send messages of protest to the embassies of Bahrain and international agencies in your countries, on Friday 18 February at 3 in the afternoon.
That the Bahraini people need in these times the courage to struggle this tyrannical regime.
Hussein Ureybi
Coordinator General for External Relations Progressive Democratic Forum
After 30 years of rule, and 17 days of a peaceful people's protest, Egypt's president Mubarak abdicates to Miitary's Supreme Council on the 32nd Anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution.
Coincidence??
Folks, you can't make this stuff up!
Do Muslims want democracy? Or do Muslims prefer to be ruled by a foreign supported Military Dictatorship?
At issue in both Egypt this year, and Iran in 2009, was the validity of the elections. In Egypt, the parlimentary elections, and in Iran the presidential elections. however, another issue is whether of not Muslims are wiling to embrace democracy or not. Another issue is biased press coverage, and of course, how journalists can protect themselves from psyc ops, and planted propaganda. Few media organizations have the time nor money to do investigative journalism.
Back in 2007, Negroponte claims that democracy is a threat to America's security. So, the idea that Muslims are not ready for democracy sells well in US security circles.
In Febuary, 2011, The suddenly appointed VP Sulieman of Egypt claims that egyptians are not "ready" for democracy!
But, as you can see. what really matters is hearts and minds, and a free and independent press, so people can know the true history of their predicament!
Now that the Supreme Council of the Miitary has taken power, will they keep faith with the people of Egypt, or be corrupted by foreign powers?
How Mubarak Pushed Egyptians To Protest For Food For Their Children
After watching the peaceful protests that broke out two weeks ago, on Jan 25, 2011, in Egypt, one can realize that these protesters are unarmed, intent on peaceful protest and sincere. The young man, and the group of young people that "organized" a small protest were surprised how their small "fire" became a raging wild fire across Egypt's classes and religions. These protests are neither poitical nor religious in essence, but based on the need of people to have adequate food, water and housing, not to mention jobs. The corruption mentioned over and over again, as well as the use of the police to brutally surpress the people, including intimidation at election time is something that all the Egyptions so far interviewed seem determined to put an end to.
However, while Mubarak's pubic response has been to "give" peaceful protesters more promises of "change," he has sent plainclothes to harrass, intimidate, beat. detain, and even kill those who would challenge the status quo of his government.
Violence against the peaceful protesters was/is coordinated, and in many cases, checked ID's revealed the "pro-Mubarak protesters" to be paid thugs, and police or or military security forces, in the guise of pro Mubarak supporters, who threw rocks, some from the buildings above, down onto protesters, while others, some weilding canes, others with bullwhips, rode down protesters. All the while president Obama calling for a peaceful resolution.
Protests erupted in Suez and Alexandria as well as Cairo. Mubarak's paid thugs slaughtered unarmed protesters in their "busness as usual" security operation.
An attempt to silence journalists backfired, as many international news outlets had sent their top personalities to cover what the western press dubbed "unrest in Egypt." The fact is, the people's uprising cannot be stopped, as they have no jobs, homes or bread to return to. The young folks in Egypt today have had enough, and demand social justice. Nothing more, nothing less.
The corruption of the Mubarak regime is well known and well understood, which is why the people do not trust that Mubarak can effect the changes he promises.
As I post this, the confirmed death toll approches 300 hungry, patriotic, Egyptian people.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12580594 A Swiss banker, Rudolf Elmer, who blew the Whistle on Swiss private bank Julius Bär "whose actions caused a U.S. judge to briefly shut down WikiLeaks three years ago goes on trial next week for distributing confidential documents."
Journalists trying to investigate the story threatened in the Caymen Islands?
Elmer said he initially tried to fight offshore abuses himself but didn’t get anywhere. When the tax authorities failed to act on the information he provided, he decided to go public with it and contacted Wikileaks
Wikipedia eventually published documents exposing allegedly illegal activities by Julius Bär clients in the Cayman Islands (see box).
Julius Bär did not want to comment.
swissinfo.ch: Wikileaks whistle-blowers are usually anonymous. Why was it different with you?
R.E.: I wasn’t looking for anonymity. I signed the first whistle-blower letter to emphasise the credibility but also to show my civil disobedience. It is my conviction that my name is important. People then got in touch with me and I received additional information from other bank clients and further data.
Also, I can now show how Swiss and international legal and fiscal authorities dealt with the data, which in practice was as follows: the Swiss authorities didn’t take up the data, although it concerned abuse within Switzerland; foreign authorities on the other hand launched successful criminal and retroactive taxation procedures and received several million dollars in evaded taxes. The matter is still not yet over.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/08/jersey-tax-haven-nicholas-shaxson In 2004 Elmer noticed two men following him to work. Later, he saw them outside his daughter's kindergarten, then from his kitchen window. His wife was followed in her car. The men offered his daughter chocolates in the street and late at night drove a car at high speed into the cul-de-sac where he lived. The stalking continued, on and off, for more than two years. The police said there was nothing they could do. In 2005, they searched his house using a prosecutor's warrant, and he was imprisoned for 30 days, accused of violating Swiss bank secrecy, which is, as he put it, "an official violation, like murder".
Julian Assange announced that in early 2011 WikiLeaks will release information about corruption in the banking industry. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12270607 We have one related to a bank coming up, that's a megaleak. It's not as big a scale as the Iraq material, but it's either tens or hundreds of thousands of documents depending on how you define it," Assange said in the interview posted on the Forbes website.
He declined to identify the bank, describing it only as a major U.S. bank that is still in existence.
Asked what he wanted to be the result of the disclosure, he replied: "I'm not sure. It will give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume."
He compared this release to emails that were unveiled as a result of the collapse of disgraced energy company Enron Corp.
U P D A T E U P D A T E U P D A T E
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/16/swiss-whistleblower-rudolf-elmer-banks?cat=media&type=article The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland
On the second day of the 112th Congress (January 6, 2011), Congresswoman Giffords read aloud on the House floor the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Let's look at it this way:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion
Congress shall make no law prohibing the free exercize thereof
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press
Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble
Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I do believe that is clear and unequivical.
For the purpose of this blog, we are focused on those prohibitions on congress not to abridge the rights of the people re free speech, free press freedom to peaceably assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Please reflect, if you will, the nature and subject of some of the most recent posts, here at Shoe08. The US Government is trying to use the Espionage Act to abridge Free Spech, Free Press and the Right To Peaceably Assemble. Journalists are being intimidated, taken as hostages, fired, and even killed, because some other folks do not like what the journalists say, report, or because the US Government is keeping secrets from We The People, while telling us a pack of lies.
Two days after making posting this video to her Youtube and Facebook site, Congresswoman Giffords was shot in the head, while peaceably assembaling with members of We The People, when she was shot in the head, and others were shot and killed or wounded. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords represents Arizona's Eighth Congressional District. She serves on the House Committees on Armed Services, Science and Technology and Foreign Affairs, and is Chair of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
It is ironic that a supporter of the 1st and 2nd Amendment should be a victim of someone who does not respect the 1st Amendment.
Folks, some people just hate our Constitution, and to all of those who have been making fun of reading the Constitution into the Congressional Record, I ask you, why? What way is better? What is there to fear in supporting our Constitution? What is there to fear from hearing others out, from reading what others write, or from coming together to discuss and debate peaceably? Why should keeping secrets trump Sunshine?
PS: Here is Rep. Gifford's Youtube Channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/giffords2 You can get to her killer's channel by scrolling down to the bottom left corner to subscriptions, there are two, click on classitup10.
let's look at it this way...
Rep Giffords recovery was made possible by immediate action, and quality health care by top doctors.
Jared became increasingly erratic, and violent due to the failure of immediate action, and recieving no apropiate health care.
Compare and contrast.
From Salon... http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/01/10/loughner_bio_background/ Perhaps the most honest portrait of Loughner comes from someone who actually knows the kid. Bryce Tierney may have been the last person Loughner reached out to before the attack, according to a report in Mother Jones. After receiving a late-night voice mail from Loughner, Tierney saw the shooting on the news and immediately suspected that the shooter was his friend.
Tierney remembers how Loughner held a grudge against Rep. Giffords dating back to a question he had asked and she had answered -- unsatisfactorily, to Loughner -- in 2007. Though Loughner had always been a bit strange, Tierney goes on to explain how he became almost incoherent over the course of the next few years.
Glenn Greenwald writes on salon, that the original order, issued Dec 14th, from Federal Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan was sealed, but was unsealed january 5th, at Twitter's request, to give the targets 10 days to appeal.
A copy of the Order served on Twitter is here. http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/07/twitter The Order was signed by a federal Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, Theresa Buchanan, and served on Twitter by the DOJ division for that district. It states that there is "reasonable ground to believe that the records or other information sought are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation," the language required by the relevant statute. It was issued on December 14 and ordered sealed -- i.e., kept secret from the targets of the Order. It gave Twitter three days to respond and barred the company from notifying anyone, including the users, of the existence of the Order. On January 5, the same judge directed that the Order be unsealed at Twitter's request in order to inform the users and give them 10 days to object; had Twitter not so requested, it would have been compelled to turn over this information without the knowledge of its users. A copy of the unsealing order is here.
Collateral Murder
Greenwald believes that the order stems from an investigation into the video Collateral Murder, which was worked on in Iceland.
The Guardian reports that an Iceland PM plans to fight the order. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/08/us-twitter-hand-icelandic-wikileaks-messages Birgitta Jonsdottir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, said last night on Twitter that the "USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since november 1st 2009. Do they realize I am a member of parliament in Iceland?"
She said she was starting a legal fight to stop the US getting hold of her messages, after being told by Twitter that a subpoena had been issued. She wrote: "department of justice are requesting twitter to provide the info – I got 10 days to stop it via legal process before twitter hands it over." ................... Jonsdottir said she was demanding a meeting with the US ambassador to Iceland. "The justice department has gone completely over the top." She added that the US authorities had requested personal information from Twitter as well as her private messages and that she was now assessing her legal position.
"It's not just about my information. It's a warning for anyone who had anything to do with WikiLeaks. It is completely unacceptable for the US justice department to flex its muscles like this. I am lucky, I'm a representative in parliament. But what of other people? It's my duty to do whatever I can to stop this abuse." .....................
In a sweeping effort to connect Bradley manning, who is being held in solitary confinement in a military brig, with WikiLeaks, and prove that Jullian Assange interacted with Manning before the leaks, the DOJ is apparently conducting a fishing expidition....
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20027893-281.html The order (PDF) also covers "subscriber account information" for Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private charged with leaking classified information; Wikileaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum; Dutch hacker and XS4ALL Internet provider co-founder Rop Gonggrijp; and Wikileaks editor Julian Assange.
Appelbaum, who gave a keynote speech at a hacker conference last summer on behalf of the document-leaking organization and is currently in Iceland, said he plans to fight the request in a U.S. court. Appelbaum, a U.S. citizen who's a developer for the Tor Project, has been briefly detained at the border and people in his address book have been hassled at airports.
The U.S. government began an criminal investigation of Wikileaks and Assange last July after the Web site began releasing what would become a deluge of confidential military and State Department files. In November, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the probe is "ongoing," and a few weeks later an attorney for Assange said he had been told that a grand jury had been empaneled in Alexandria .............................. Gregg Mitchell, blogging on The Nation, with live updates all weekend... http://www.thenation.com/blog/157572/wikileaks-news-views-blog-special-weekend-edition The Wikileaks News & Views Blog, Special Weekend Edition!
BELOW The full story of the shocking new DOJ move against WikiLeaks supporters, seeking records from Twitter, as it developed, most recent news at top.
12:35 WikiLeaks official Twitter feed: "Note that we can assume Google & Facebook also have secret US government subpeonas. They make no comment. Did they fold?" ..............................................
Here is a link to the US Investigation into this "incident." No wonder reuters continued with it's FOIR after obtaining this report! http://collateralmurder.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/6-2nd-brigade-combat-team-15-6-investigation.pdf
The Obama administration has far better things to do than pick on the hardiest defenders of open government and freedom of information.
This campaign of harassment and intimidation that the Justice Department is evidently undertaking against volunteers and supporters of WikiLeaks is embarrassing and abhorrent. We call for it to end. Immediately.
As progressives, we believe in a government that is open, straightforward, and accountable to the people it serves. This is a democracy.
We, the people of America, have a right to know what is being done in our name, and to whom. There is no moral justification for the corrupt culture of data-mining, surveillance, and secret-keeping that the political establishment of this country has created, sanctioned, and perpetuated over the years.
When Barack Obama ran for President, he ran on a platform of change. He promised to end abuses of power, and govern more responsibly.
But unfortunately, instead of changing D.C., he has let D.C. change him, in his zeal to avoid confrontation and acrimony.
What Obama doesn't seem to understand or appreciate is that you can't upend the establishment by singing Kumbaya. You have to be confrontational.
WikiLeaks has been effective because it has dared to share, and even publish, what others wouldn't or couldn't. If its volunteers shied away from confrontation, it wouldn't be on anybody's radar. We would be unaware of the covert and illegitimate activities of our government that they have exposed.
By choosing to persecute whistleblowers, the Obama administration is betraying our finest traditional values, and wasting an opportunity to shake up the status quo. What they're trying to do to WikiLeaks is beyond troubling. It's appalling.
Jeffrey Sterling, who once tried to sue the CIA for race based discrimination, has been arrested today, for "leaking" State Secrets to NYT's journalist, James Risen, who published a story about the unlawful Bush wiretaps, and who's book, State of War proved to be a huge embarrassment to the CIA.
The indictment alleges that Sterling took a number of steps to facilitate the disclosure of the classified information, including:
*stealing classified documents and other information from the CIA and unlawfully retaining those documents without the authority of the CIA;
*communicating by telephone, via e-mail and in person with the author in order to arrange for the disclosure of or to disclose classified information to the author;
*meeting with the author in person to orally disclose classified information to the author and to provide documents containing classified information to the author for review or use;
*characterizing the classified information in a false and misleading manner as a means of inducing the author to write and publish a story premised on that false and misleading information;
*deceiving and attempting to deceive the CIA into believing that he was a former employee adhering to his secrecy and non-disclosure agreements; and
*deliberately choosing to disclose the classified information to a member of the media, knowing that such an individual would not reveal his identity, thereby concealing and perpetrating the scheme.
The court has determined he is a danger to the community, and he is being held over the weekend. His attorney is in VA.
The indictment alleged that Sterling, retaliating for the CIA's refusal to settle on favorable terms his discrimination claims, disclosed information about the program.
It said he discussed the information with the reporter in early 2003 and later in connection with a book published in January 2006.
The Justice Department did not identify the reporter.
But the dates and other details in the indictment make clear it involved New York Times reporter James Risen, whose 2006 book "State of War" revealed details of the CIA's intelligence activities involving Iran.
Sterling's case against the CIA for race based discrimination was dismissed based on the Governments claim that trying the case would pose a risk that State Secrets would be revealed. The Government's case against Sterling today claimes he leaked the classified info in retaliation against the CIA.
“We recognize that our decision places … a burden on Sterling that he alone must bear,” the Fourth Circuit said in an August 2005 decision. But the court concluded: “There is no way for Sterling to prove employment discrimination without exposing at least some classified details of the covert employment that gives context to his claim.”
Sterling’s prosecution will likely involve disclosure of some of the same highly sensitive information that prompted the government’s earlier invocation of the state secrets privilege.
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20137092,00.html Sterling, 34, is convinced his career at the Central Intelligence Agency was derailed by racial discrimination—and last summer he became the first black case officer to sue on those grounds. Two months later he was fired. "I wasn't good enough for them," he says, "based not on my abilities but on my color." The CIA vehemently denies Sterling's allegations. Says spokesman Bill Harlow: "We have zero tolerance for discrimination here." On April 17 the agency moved to have the suit dismissed, arguing it was a threat to national security. "This is a very important case," says former CIA agent Robert Baer, author of a book about the agency. "The last thing the agency wants is to be labeled racist."
Sterling joined the CIA in 1993 and two years later became a case officer in the Iran Task Force. (He was the only black among its more than 20 professionals.) To prepare, he spent a year studying Farsi, the language of Iran. Sent to Bonn in 1997 to recruit Iranians as agents, he grew frustrated when he wasn't given new prospects to recruit. Perplexed, he returned to Langley and confronted his supervisors. "I asked why I wasn't receiving any assignments. They said, "Well, you kind of stick out as a big black guy,'" Sterling recalls. "They said, 'You bring unwanted attention to where you're assigned.' Everyone in management agreed I was too conspicuous. And I said, 'Well, when did you realize that I was black?'"
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0614419520110106 In other cases, Stephen Kim, a foreign policy analyst who worked at the U.S. State Department, was charged in August with leaking a top-secret intelligence report to a news reporter last year.
Also last year, a former high-ranking official at the National Security Agency was charged with illegally possessing classified information that he allegedly gave to a reporter at the Baltimore Sun newspaper.
Obama has backtracked on his campaign rhetoric, and now demonstrates he will not tolerate Wistkeblowers on his watch!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Obama-No-Whistleblowing-o-by-Ann-Wright-110106-110.html When a candidate for President in 2008, Senator Barack Obama said, "Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal." Obama was referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans. He said, "We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk...
However, as President, Obama says -- No whistleblowing on my watch! As he has on so many issues as President, Obama is taking a 180-degree turn from his comments as a candidate -- comments on which the American people relied and for which they elected him.
Now, the Obama administration's warning to Bradley Manning and to other whistleblowers is -- blow the whistle on government criminal actions and we will put you in solitary confinement before you are charged, much less go to trial. You will be treated as an "enemy combatant" in America's ongoing wars on about everything, including the truth.
Here is the New York Times take on this.... http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/us/07indict.html?partner=rss&emc=rss In making their case against Mr. Sterling, prosecutors provided details in the indictment of phone calls between the residences of Mr. Sterling and the reporter and quoted from e-mails sent between their accounts.
Justice Department rules say prosecutors may seek subpoenas of journalists only if the information they are seeking is essential and cannot be obtained another way, and the attorney general must personally sign off after balancing the public’s interest in the news against the public’s interest in effective law enforcement.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment about why Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. approved seeking a subpoena of Mr. Risen in light of the fact that prosecutors could obtain an indictment of Mr. Sterling without it.
Jeffrey Sterling represents the fith persecution of Whistleblowers by Obama. http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/01/sterling_indict.html The record number of leak prosecutions in the Obama Administration now include Mr. Sterling, former FBI linguist Shamai Leibowitz, former NSA official Thomas A. Drake, Army private Bradley Manning, and former State Department contractor Stephen Kim.
