The Ratio

Some people trying to do something. Which is more than almost everyone else can say.

Tags: Peace Movement, Antiwar

"Why is the defense department including ... antiwar protests or anti-recruiting protests on their terrorist database?" Schlosberg asked. "That's an important question that needs to be answered."

Tags: antiwar, TALON

We need more direct action to end the war. This is a start but only a start.

Tags: Olympia, antiwar

"It's not this abstract notion that happens over millions of years," deMenocal said. "The magnitude of what we're talking about greatly, greatly exceeds anything we've withstood in human history."

Contrast that with President Bush's chief science adviser, John H. Marburger III

There's no agreement on what it is that constitutes a dangerous climate change

Is the denial merely a public facade, a means to delay widespread panic, or is it self-denial?

Tags: Climate Change, Global Warming

What got me thinking about the recondite life rhythms of the planet, and not the 24-hour news cycle, was a recent conversation with a scientist named Thomas E. Lovejoy, who heads the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. When I first met Lovejoy nearly 20 years ago, he was trying to get journalists like me to pay attention to the changes in the climate and biological diversity of the Amazon. He is still trying, but he's beginning to wonder if it's too late.

Tags: Global Warming

Its the run up to another resource war and the propaganda is coming hot and heavy

...a nation filled with dread...

...he can’t wait for the apocalypse...

"Ahmadinejad is a village idiot leading us like donkeys into his big fight with America."

No doubt Ahmadinejad is a nutjob, pretty much like Bush, but this article is ludicrously, almost hilariously, slanted. Surely they could have found one Ahmadinejad supporter. He did just recently win an election.

Tags: Iran apocalypse

Tags: Peak Oil

Tags: Decay deindustrialization

Tags: Torture

One of the counter-insurgency tactics which the U.S. military has employed is to use reconnaissance drones, which hover in the air hunting for insurgents digging holes in the road to plant improvised explosive devices.

On several occasions U.S. troops have called in air strikes, but these have angered Sunni Arab leaders who say innocent civilians have been killed in the attacks.

Last week, an air strike on a Baiji house killed seven members of an Iraqi family. The U.S. military said aircraft bombed the building when three men were spotted going into it after digging a hole that troops suspected was for a bomb.

So it is US policy to bomb civilian areas on the basis of evidence collected from unmanned drones purporting to show people digging holes in a road. It is becoming harder and harder, for those who have been trying, to insist that our presence in Iraq does more good than harm.

See also: this, and this.

Tags: Iraq

PRESS ADVISORY; URGENT January 9, 2006


From: International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration

TRIBUNAL INDICTS BUSH ADMINISTRATION FOR WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

INDICTMENTS TO BE DELIVERED TO THE WHITE HOUSE ON TUESDAY JAN. 10th

When: 1:30 p.m. January 10, 2006 Where: The White House, Front Gate
www.bushcommission.org
Contact: Connie Julian 917-449-9064, or Janet Yip 212-941-8086, or e-mail: commission@nion.us

An unprecedented series of indictments alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity, in five separate areas, will be delivered to President Bush at the front gate of the White House this Tuesday, January 10th.

Named in the indictments are:
President of the United States George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, U.S. Army Major General Geoffrey Miller,
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, et al.

The indictments will be delivered to the White House by:
Retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, authors William Blum and Larry Everest, Code Pink, Mike Hersh (Progressive Democrats of America), Kevin Zeese (Director, Democracy Rising; candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland), Travis Morales (World Can?t Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime) and others TBA.

A press conference will follow delivery of indictments, which will also be delivered to the Department of Justice.

The indictments result from preparatory work and testimony presented in New York City in October 2005, before the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration which featured former UN envoy to Iraq Denis Halliday, Guantanamo prisoners? lawyer Michael Ratner, and former State Department officer Anne Wright. The Commission's second tribunal will be held at Riverside Church and the Columbia University Law School in New York, January 20-22. Witnesses will include Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former British ambassador Craig Murray, and former arms inspector Scott Ritter, among many more. The indictments allege illegal acts authorized by the Bush Administration in relation to:

1) Wars of Aggression, particular reference to Iraq and Afghanistan;
2) Torture and Indefinite Detention;
3) Destruction of the Global Environment, particular reference to distortion of science and obstruction of international efforts to stem global warming;
4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights, particular reference to the potentially genocidal effects of enforcing abstinence only, global gag rule, distortion of science, and restriction of generic drugs; and
5) Failure of Bush administration, despite foreknowledge, to protect life during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Appended to these indictments will be the demand for investigation of the war crimes of Tony Blair and George Bush submitted by prominent British citizens to the UN Secretary General and the UK Attorney General.
The commission was organized by the Not in Our Name Statement of Conscience and is endorsed by: Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, After Downing Street.Org and others, including Former Sen. James Abourezk, former British MP Tony Benn, authors Gore Vidal and Howard Zinn, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and actor Edward Asner.

Charter, full indictments, standards for judgment, and audio and video coverage of the first session: http://www.bushcommission.org

Tags: War Crimes

A message from Campaign GENOA 2001-Greece

Dear friends,
Yesterday a press conference was organized by Stop the War
Coalition Greece with the support of GENOA 2001 and Pakistan Community of Greece
condemning the illegal detentions of 28 pakistanis
immigrants in Greece by secret services of UK and Greece.
During last July 28 pakistanis were kdinapped by greek and british secret agents
after the London bombings of 7th July.
The conference was organized at the Central offices of Greek General
Trade Unions of Workers with the following speakers:
-Pakistan immigrants kidnapped
Javied Aslam, president of Pakistan Community in Greece
Georghios-Alexandros Magkakis,ex-minister
Gregoris Fellonis,President Athens Labour Centre
Yianis Sifakakis,coordinator Stop War Coalition Greece
Petros Constantinou,coordinator Campaign Genova 2001-Greece
Giorgos Goudounas, Frangiskos Ragousis,lawyers of kidnapped

The Pakistanis described the kidnapping and bad treatment they had
at the hands of secret agents. They announced that at the same
period (late July) their relatives in Pakistan were also visited by
police and asked the same questions: "What are your relation with
London bombings of 7th of July!"
Lawyers insisted that “we cannot know if some others, maybe more
than 100, have already being “investigated or even sent ,who knows
where, maybe to Guantanamo!”
Both ministers responsible in Greece and UK, Giorgos Voulgarakis and
Jack Straw are denying allegations accusing Pakistanis for lies!
But the greek media today say that Pakistanis speak the truth. A big
newspaper on the front-page reports that the minister is under
pressure to resign.
Greek neoliberal government is moving to open escalation of support
for occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq:
- Last week through US military naval base Suda in Creta tanks
from Hungary were transferred by greek ships to Iraq!
- Greek officers have the control of Kambul’s airport and 2
greek soldiers were injured in battle in November.
They tried to cover the case of the 28 pakistanis that happened in
late July 2005 but after BBC reporting and greek media exposing the
names(!) of secret agents their lies have been exposed and they are
now under the pressure of antiwar and democratic movement in Greece.
Stop the War Coalition called a mass demonstration on 21 of January
with demand of resignation of Voulgarakis, legal punishment of all
involved in the illegal detentions. We demand the immediate retreat
of our troops from Afganistan and stop every support for occupying
forces in Iraq.
We expect that this demo can be co-organized from a large spectrum
of forces from trade unions, to political parties, antiglobalization
groups, antiracist and democratic liberties supporters.

--
Petros Constantinou
Campaign GENOA 2001-Greece

Tags: Greece

Here's Condi:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chastised Europe leaders today, saying that before they complain about secret jails for terror suspects in European nations, they should realize that interrogations of these suspects have produced information that helped "save European lives."

Let's say we believe her. Let's say they have saved some European lives. Are those lives more valuable than the lives destroyed? We can't assume that every life destroyed is the life of a mad, homicial terrorist as the Counterpunch story demonstates. In fact, knowing even a little of the history of the CIA or U.S. Military, we would tend to assume the opposite: that many innocents will be swept up by mistake, or neglect, or malice.

Tags: Torture

A clinical instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School provides insight into Porters Goss' creative redefinition of shaking as "aggressive interrogation" rather than torture:

When this kind of violent shaking is done to babies, it can result in brain damage and death.

The same consequences can occur in adults. I interviewed and examined a dozen Palestinians who had been violently shaken while in Israeli custody. Many had personality, behavioral and cognitive changes consistent with frontal lobe brain damage. At least one man died in custody when violent shaking caused, as an autopsy revealed, tearing of the blood vessels under the skull and lethal intracranial bleeding.

In 1999 the Israeli Supreme Court deemed shaking to be torture and banned it. The effect of the court's ruling has been murky, but the judgment that shaking constitutes torture is inescapable.

Tags: Torture

Things are heating up in Britain with MPs considering an investigation into the rendition flights, and other parties also increasing the pressure.

Sarah Ludford, a British member of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, said: "I am not at all reassured that there is sufficient determination by [member states] to establish the truth," she said. "The allegations are now beyond speculation. We now have sufficient evidence involving CIA flights. We need to know who was on those flights, where they went."

Also look for Condi to be challenged when she's in Brussels next week.

Tags: Torture

Peter Phillips reports on an ACLU report from October about the clear evidence in U.S. Military Autopsies that detainees are being tortured to death while in US military custody. Haven't heard of it?

A thorough check of Nexus-Lexus and Proquest electronic data bases, using the keywords ACLU and autopsy, showed that at least 95percent of the daily papers in the US didn't bother to pick up the story

Tags: Torture

The human rights group Liberty is asking the Chief constables of 11 U.K. police forces to "investigate allegations the US is using UK airports to send terror suspects to countries that carry out torture." I wish them luck.

Some in the European Parliament are not convinced the EU presidency holder Britain is taking the investigation into the European wing of the CIA Torture Gulag seriously.

Meanwhile in Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's promised investigation into torture by his own government seems to be stalled, while former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi levels torture charges against the current government (he should know).

"We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated," he said. "A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations."

Ridha Jawad Taqi, a senior SCIRI member eased everyone's concerns by stating: "...mistakes are bound to happen."

Now Voice of America is reporting a new excuse for the failure of the investingation:

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government says it has not been able to investigate allegations of torture of Sunni Arab prisoners in an interior-run detention center in Baghdad because mistakes made at the site by Americans have tainted some of the evidence and files.

While the office of Deputy Prime Minister Rowsh Nuri Shaways, who is leading the investigation, simply said that they needed more time.




Tags: Torture

This interview with Charlie Gibson is really pretty amazing. Just read it and see. If I have to sum it up his line seems to be "just trust us."

Tags: Torture

If the Bush/Blair bombing memo turns out to be true, it would certainly be evidence of Conspiracy to commit criminal acts, and the panicked behaviour of the British government would seem to suggest that it is for real.

The attorney general last night threatened newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the contents of a document allegedly relating to a dispute between Tony Blair and George Bush over the conduct of military operations in Iraq.

Juan Cole has a useful review of Bush's sorry relations with Al-Jazeera. What he points out is that Al-Jazeera is really not that far out there. They are relatively fair and balanced. I'm baffled as to why the Bushies don't try luring them into bed instead. The Judy Millerization of Al-Jazeera. Perhaps they've already tried and were kicked to the curb, with blue balls and a broken heart.

Tags: War Crimes

Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson tells it like it is:

"There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it," Wilkerson said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office," he said. "His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."

At another point in the interview, Wilkerson said "the vice president had to cover this in order for it to happen and in order for Secretary Rumsfeld to feel as though he had freedom of action."

His saying it is a "pleasant" surprise, but the implications are neither pleasant nor a surprise. What was a surprise was the reported retort from Cheney to earlier remarks from Stansfield Turner:

In a statement responding to Turner's remark, Cheney said his views "are reflected in the administration's policy. Our country is at war and our government has an obligation to protect the American people from a brutal enemy that has declared war upon us."

"We are aggressively finding terrorists and bringing them to justice and anything we do within this effort is within the law," the statement said, adding that the United States "does not torture."

Sure its the kind of doublespeak that flows from Cheney's forked tongue like milk from a she-goat's teat; but compare it to Bush's statement in Panama:

Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is
within the law. We do not torture

They are stating quite clearly that they consider themselves above the law.

Tags: Torture

Porter Goss:

"This agency does not do torture. Torture does not work," Goss said. "We use lawful capabilities to collect vital information and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are legal and none of which are torture.

There are a variety of unique and innovative ways in which these sadistic fucks continue to ignore the fact that the cat is out of the bag. The world knows, the american public knows. The question is do they care?

Tags: Torture

Paul Craig Roberts reports on the Blair government's attempt to silence leakers by charging them with violating the Official Secrets Act.

In England it is not Blair who is on trial for participating in what he knew was a wrongful act that has resulted in thousands of deaths.
It is not the crimes committed in secret that get punished. The people who are punished are the ones who leak memos that reveal wrongdoing has occurred.

This seems to me to be not coincidentally parallel to the recent Bush administration attacks on those who accuse the administration of tweaking or fabricating the intelligence. When Dan Bartlett says:>

Even during times of war we should have disagreement; we should debate and argue. But one thing we shouldn't do is have a debate based on false charges.

The type of political rhetoric we're hearing today does send the wrong signal to our troops; it does send the wrong signal to our enemies.

he is trying to preclude the possibility that administration officials will be held responsible for crimes by disallowing making the charge of crimes. Bartlett is really a piece of work.

Tags: War Crimes

Billmon has much more about the Salvadoran option. The Iranian angle is interesting. There is a lot of chatter about the Iranian influence in Iraq but I don't get the impression that much of it is very authoritative. It's mainly westerners speculating or repeating leaks from anonymous pentagon officials or former CIA agents. Related: John Burns peers into the shadows.

Tags: Death Squads

ABC has some details. No Blood for Hubris looks at the techniques described in light of the Geneva Conventions. It would seem to be pretty difficult to not view these techniques as torture, but if you simply redefine them as Enhanced Interrogation Techniques then the problem is resolved. I've been meaning to re-read "1984" for a while now. I think the time is right.

Tags: Torture

25 years later in Memphis. What this article doesn't mention is that Carranza was a CIA operative. Remember when Negroponte was sent to Baghdad and there was talk of El Salvador and Nicaragua being models for the way to deal with the insurgency? Are we beginning to see the fruits of that policy come to light?

Tags: Torture

This article discusses recent developements concerning UN investigations into the torture bunker in Baghdad, and Gitmo. Not surprising that the US is not cooperating with the Gitmo investigation. It will be interesting to see what the official position is on the Baghdad investigation. Here's more from the Guardian

None of this should come as a surprise to the Americans or anyone else. Here is a January 05 report from Human Rights Watch.

Tags: Torture

After reading this article from The Independent on the recent Baghdad torture revelations, what I take away from it, although it isn't explicitly stated, is the CIA and US Military have trained and are directing the death/torture squads. Was this what Negroponte was up to, in his time in Baghdad?

Tags: Torture

Phillippe Sands raises the wonderful possibility that members of the Bush administration could actually be held responsible for complicity in torture, or at least be forced to limit their travels and in effect become international fugitives.

Tags: Torture

You guessed it: Dick Cheney. I'm still skeptical of every transmission that emanates from the LaRouchian nut-hive, nonetheless, this is quite interesting, regarding Dick's involvement in covering up the Frank Olsen affair. Furthering the cause of medical/military experimentation on human subjects, Josef was pleased I'm sure.

Tags: Torture

Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is
within the law. We do not torture

We are the law and the law is us. Its not torture, its therapy!

Tags: Torture