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Friday, November 17, 2006 |
Gorblimey!!!
DearKitty: "Dutch officers are guilty of torture of scores of Iraqi prisoners in Al Muthanna province in southern Iraq.
In November 2003 an unit of the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) did 'brutal tactical interrrogations'.
During the interrogations, the prisoners had goggles on which made them unable to see anything. When the goggles were not on, they were subjected to strong light. The Iraqis were subjected to water to prevent them from sleeping, and their sense of hearing was subjected to 'extremely high tones'. The legal adviser who according to law should be present at such interrogations, was not present.
The Ministry of Defence confirms those facts.
The Rightist Dutch government behaved like true allies of 'Abu Ghraib' Rumsfeld, Bush, and Cheney, in Iraq.
Either Defense minister Kamp did a Rumsfeld style cover up; or he did not know what his own officers were doing in Iraq.
On 22 November, there is a general election in The Netherlands. How will the electorate judge this? The Dutch Socialist Party, who, according to polls, may triple in number of parliamentary representatives and become the second party in size, demands an investigation by parliament of this torture scandal."
The Dutch Prime Minister happens to be a Christian and a member of the CDA, a Christian party. The mind boggles! This is the decline of a civilisation tout court.
11:59:09 AM 
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"Welcome to the third annual 'Falsies Awards' contest, sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy to recognize the people and players responsible for polluting our information environment. This year, we are asking you to help identify the worst spinners and propagandists of 2006."
And Wal-Mart still hasn't pulled the Nazi-emblem t-shirt from its shelves.
11:24:01 AM
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DailyBruin: "UCPD officers shot a student several times with a Taser inside the Powell Library CLICC computer lab late Tuesday night before taking him into custody.
At around 11:30 p.m., CSOs asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check. The student did not exit the building immediately.
The CSOs left, returning minutes later, and police officers arrived to escort the student out. By this time the student had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go. A second officer then approached the student as well.
The student began to yell 'get off me', repeating himself several times.
It was at this point that the officers shot the student with a Taser for the first time, causing him to fall to the floor and cry out in pain. The student also told the officers he had a medical condition.
UCPD officers confirmed that the man involved in the incident was a student, but did not give a name or any additional information about his identity.
Video shot from a student's camera phone captured the student yelling, 'Here's your Patriot Act, here's your fucking abuse of power', while he struggled with the officers.
As the student was screaming, UCPD officers repeatedly told him to stand up and said 'stop fighting us'. The student did not stand up as the officers requested and they shot him with the Taser at least once more.
As the student and the officers were struggling, bystanders repeatedly asked the police officers to stop, and at one point officers told the gathered crowd to stand back and threatened to use a Taser on anyone who got too close.
Laila Gordy, a fourth-year economics student who was present in the library during the incident, said police officers threatened to shoot her with a Taser when she asked an officer for his name and his badge number."
Here's the video.
There is a tendency in America to see all criticism of and resistance to authority as a crime.
AlterNet: "Conflating 'vandalism' with 'terrorism' is all the rage at the right-wing state advocacy group ALEC, which has developed model legislation outlawing 'eco-terrorism' as well, defined, of course, broadly enough that it would 'effectively ban environmental and animal rights advocacy'."
NYTimes: "The New York Civil Liberties Union said yesterday that the agency charged with investigating civilian complaints of police misconduct has allowed a backlog of cases to build up that could jeopardize the disciplinary process."
Guardian: "Just a few years ago, the world was in thrall to the idea of American power. The neoconservative agenda not only infused the outlook of the White House, it also dominated the global debate about the future of international relations. Following 9/11, we had, in quick succession, the 'war on terror', the 'axis of evil', the idea of a new American empire, the overarching importance of military power, the notion and desirability of regime change, the invasion of Iraq, and the proposition that western-style democracy was relevant and applicable to every land in the world, starting with the Middle East. Much of that has unwound with a speed that barely anyone anticipated. With the abject failure of the American occupation of Iraq - to the point where even the American electorate now recognises the fact - the neoconservative era would appear to be in its death throes.
But what precisely is coming to an end? Neoconservatism in all its pomp conceived - in the Project for a New American Century - that, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world could be remade in the American image, that the previous bipolar world could be replaced by a unipolar one in which the US was the dominant arbiter of global and regional affairs. In fact, the Bush administration never came close to this. For a short time it did succeed in persuading the great majority of countries to accept the priority of the war against terror and seemingly to sign up for it: even the intervention in Afghanistan, in the aftermath of 9/11, elicited widespread acquiescence. But the US singularly failed to command a majority of states in support of the invasion of Iraq and garnered even less support when it came to global public opinion. It demonstrated its unilateral intent by ignoring its failure to gain assent within the UN and invading Iraq, but the subsequent failure of its Iraqi adventure has served only to reinforce its isolation and demonstrate the folly of its unilateralism. Its strategy in the Middle East - always the epicentre of the neoconservative global project - lies in tatters.
Just six years into the 21st century, one can say this is not shaping up to be anything like an American century. Rather, the US seems much more likely to be faced with a very different kind of future: how to manage its own imperial decline."
UPI: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez slammed the Saddam Hussein death penalty and said it is U.S. President George W. Bush who should be sentenced to death."
Now it seems the neocons are trying to wield their powers in the Homeland.
They'd better tackle the increasing poverty in America.
WashingtonPost: "The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience 'very low food security'."
The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans - 35 million people - could not put food on the table at least part of last year."
'Very low food security'? The spin doctors are at work again. If it weren't so sad, I would laugh my head off.
11:16:54 AM
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