Politics and Legislation
Repeal of DOMA gets new attention in wake of Obama’s support of gay marriage
Legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is garnering new attention from lawmakers in the wake of President Obama’s support of same-sex marriage.
The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal DOMA and afford federal protections to legally married same-sex married couples, like those in New York state and elsewhere, that male and female couples already enjoy. Since Obama’s statement Wednesday, the bill has picked up new co-sponsors and Democratic leaders, like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.), have said they would support legalizing same-sex marriage.
That has given new hope to activists lobbying for the bill, such as Jo Deutsch, federal director for Freedom to Marry. Deutsch told The Hill that White House support of same-sex marriage can guide lawmakers through the same evolution on the issue that the president just completed.
“It shows a man going from point one — from his own questioning, to talking to family and friends, thinking about his own religious upbringing, from seeing people who are impacted by DOMA — and come to end of that journey and say he is for the freedom to marry,” Deutsch said. “That piece acts as an umbrella over all of what is going on on Capitol Hill. … Because if President Obama can do it and say he is for the freedom to marry, maybe I can do it too.”
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who introduced the Respect for Marriage Act in the House, said Obama’s statement has helped move the bill. Nadler noted that when he first offered a repeal of DOMA in 2009, he couldn’t find a Senate partner for the legislation.
“It certainly puts the bill in a better light. It changes the background and it has an impact in moving the bill forward,” Nadler said. “The bill is developing more and more momentum.”
Majority say Obama’s gay marriage stance won’t change their vote
A majority of voters say President Obama’s decision to come out in support of gay marriage will not sway their decision in the fall election.
According to a Gallup poll released on Friday, 60 percent of adults nationally said Obama’s new position makes no difference, while 26 percent said it would make them less likely to vote for the president and 13 percent said it would make them more likely to.
The numbers are similar when broken down by party affiliation — 65 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents said it made no difference, while nearly half of Republicans, 46 percent, said the same.
Democrats are more likely to say that the position bolsters their view of the president, with 24 percent saying it made them more likely to vote for Obama, versus 10 percent who said less likely.
Those numbers are essentially reversed among independents, with only 11 percent saying it would make them more likely to vote for Obama, compared to 23 percent who said less likely.
JPMorgan mess could strengthen Democrat efforts with Dodd-Frank
Democrats have been fighting a years-long uphill battle to protect the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Now, thanks to JPMorgan Chase, they think they might have the edge back.
When the banking titan announced Thursday evening that one of its traders’ moves had, in six weeks, lost the firm at least $2 billion, backers of the Wall Street overhaul could not have asked for a better example to make their case, or a better time.
“It confirms our view that there needs to be regulation,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. “It shows that if it can happen to them, it can happen to anybody.”
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said the gigantic loss should be a wake-up call, after banks have been bringing pressure to bear for softer rules.
“How many times do we have to be hit in the head with a financial sledgehammer to wake up and realize we’ve got to take action?” he said. “The big banks have been fighting Dodd-Frank tooth and nail. … Regrettably, the banks have largely been successful.”
When Dodd-Frank was signed into law nearly two years ago in the wake of the financial crisis, it was sold as one of the most sweeping overhauls of the financial industry in history.
But so far, implementation of the law has been slow going, amid intense lobbying from the financial sector and regular GOP critiques — both on Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. Regulators have not received the budget boosts the White House says is needed to implement the bill, some key pieces have been delayed by regulators, and bills chipping away at the law are making their way through the GOP-led House (although they face a steep climb in the Democrat-led Senate).
With several key components of the law still being finalized by regulators, Democrats are hoping JPMorgan’s example can tip the scales back their way.
Democrats revive bill to strip sheriffs of power
GOP drops issue as too political but plan resurrected
By Jack Minor
Democrats in Delaware have resuscitated a legislation plan that would declare sheriffs in the state have no power to make arrests after a GOP proposal on the dispute was abruptly withdrawn by sponsors.
Unlike police chiefs, who are hired by government officials, sheriffs are elected by the people and historically have been recognized as a highest-ranking law enforcement officer in a county.
In Delaware, the office of sheriff is a constitutionally created position similar to the secretary of state or attorney general and demands, “The sheriffs shall be conservators of the peace within the counties . . . in which they reside.”
The initial legislation, HB 290, was proposed at the behest of Sussex County officials who took issue with their sheriff, Jeff Christopher, who is attempting to restore the office to its constitutional role.
The bill stated “‘Police officer’ as used in this code shall not include sheriffs and sheriff deputies,” and that it “is the intent of the General Assembly to specifically state the sheriffs and their deputies do not have any arrest authority.”
The bill would have redefined the role of sheriffs to where they can serve papers and process administrative work but have no hand in actual law enforcement. Supporters of the legislation said law enforcement authority belongs in the hands of the state police and city police.
Five days after WND first reported on the issue, Rep. Danny Short, a Republican sponsoring the bill, announced he was striking the bill from further consideration, saying it was being hijacked for political purposes.
According to Short, prior to passing the bill, the legislature was planning to draft a concurrent resolution asking the Delaware Supreme Court to issue a ruling as to whether sheriff’s and their deputies have arrest authority under the state constitution.
However, prior to the resolution being submitted, the bill was placed on the House Administration Committee’s agenda, without his request. Short then tabled the bill, effectively killing it.
“This issue is too important to allow it to be used as a pawn in an apparent game of politics,” Short said. “There is a long-standing tradition in the General Assembly that if the sponsor of a bill has requested his or her legislation to be tabled in committee, the committee chairman yields to the sponsor’s request. That was not the case with House Bill 290.”
Congressman calls for immediate resignation of TSA head, calls agency ‘bloated, broken bureaucracy’
By J. D. Heyes,
(NaturalNews) The phrase, “bloated, broken bureaucracy” could apply to a number of federal government agencies, but without question there is no more apt description of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). In fact, one could add a few more adjectives, such as inept, arrogant, self-serving and – did I say inept? So bad is the agency’s performance and reputation that more and more lawmakers are calling for this sad experiment in government-run airport security to come to an end. The…
Outside View: Threat to justice everywhere
London (UPI)
 disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only |
Outlandish is probably the polite way to describe a claim made by the U.S. State Department during a recent court hearing on the People’s Mujahedin of Iran.
State Department counsel told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the U.S. government had never had access to Camp Ashraf, the town to the north of Baghdad where many PMOI activists have lived for decades.
The United States has no way of knowing whether the PMOI still supports terror, counsel claimed, because its members have never allowed a thorough inspection of the 15-square-mile camp.
“They say that they have turned over a new leaf but that has never been verified by the U.S. military,” counsel said.
This brazen lie was all the more surprising given that the most qualified people on this very subject were sitting in the courtroom.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips and Col. Wesley Martin, both now retired, were among the senior U.S. military officers charged with protecting Ashraf from 2003-09. They have testified that U.S. military had complete access to every nook and cranny in Camp Ashraf. After conducting many searches, they reported to their superiors that they were completely confident there were no weapons or ammunition in the camp.
The fact that Ashraf residents cooperated totally with the searches is also on the record.
When State Department counsel testified that Ashraf hadn’t been searched for weapons, Phillips and Martin immediately stared at each other as if to say, “What does he think you and I did at Ashraf?”
As the 89th Military Police Brigade Commander from 2004-05, Phillips ran numerous inspections and search missions. There is not a building there he has not been in. He was in charge of the consolidation and collection of weapons when U.S. military first took charge of the camp upon liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein.
Under his watch, every resident was interviewed and investigated by the FBI and several other U.S. agencies. It was concluded that none of the residents had any terrorism link.
Martin came to the exact same conclusion when he served as the senior antiterrorism officer for all coalition forces in Iraq in 2003-04.
Later, in 2006, as Ashraf Base commander, Martin also conducted numerous inspections. Many of these were in response to rumors generated by State Department employees in Baghdad, which in turn had originated from within the Iranian regime and its agents in Iraq.
The PMOI is after all the main opposition to the mullahs, who will stop at nothing in their attempts to slander the movement. But like Phillips before him, Martin’s inspections uncovered no sign of any alleged weapons.
To claim, therefore, that Camp Ashraf has never been searched is utter nonsense. The State Department is even now saying that an inspection must be conducted after Ashraf residents have completely abandoned the camp in order to determine what is left inside.
Only the Iraqi government could undertake such a search, the same government that is overseeing the transfer of Ashraf residents to a new, prison-like location in Baghdad, a former U.S. military based ironically named Camp Liberty. Iraqi troops have raided Ashraf on two occasions, killing dozens, let us not forget.
The State Department’s willingness to take the word of the Iraqi government over the U.S. military is despicable, especially when considering the Iraqi military’s well-earned reputation for corruption.
The truth of the matter is that the U.S. State Department is in need of a lie to coverup its flouting of the law. The United States has failed to implement the July 2010 ruling by the D.C. appeals court, which ordered the State Department to review its 1997 designation of the PMOI as a terrorist organization.
The PMOI has therefore gone to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to force the State Department to remove it from the terrorist list.
PMOI lawyer Viet Dinh asked a three-judge appeals court panel to force the hand of the Obama administration. The terrorism designation had “severe implications on constitutional liberties” for the group, he said. The PMOI, he pointed out, had renounced violence more than a decade ago.
The terror list, meanwhile, has been just the excuse Tehran has needed to continue killing PMOI activists in Iran. The Iraqi government, which is increasingly reliant on Iranian support, has used the same excuse to suppress the residents of Ashraf and Liberty.
Of the 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf, around 2,000 have been transferred to Camp Liberty under a deal brokered by the United Nations in a good faith. But is the United States returning the good faith by such an outlandish lie?
Martin Luther King once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It is time for justice for Iranian dissidents.
(Baroness Muriel Turner of Camden was deputy speaker of the British House of Lords until 2008. She is a ranking member of British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.)
(United Press International’s “Outside View” commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
Related Links
Democracy in the 21st century at TerraDaily.com
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Economy
Greece Exit, Euro-Zone Collapse, Spain and Portugal Will Follow Within 6 Months
By: Nadeem_Walayat
This analysis continues on from my last article in light of the recent French and Greek elections where voters rejected economic austerity in favour of money printing Inflation stealth debt default as politically an smoke and mirrors Inflationary depression is being seen as far more palatable for populations than a deflationary depression slow motion economic collapse. However to be able to print money inline with the true state of the respective competitiveness of euro-zone economies, then these countries governments have no choice but to exit the euro-zone, or be forced out as they one by one fail to follow through on agreed austerity measures.
Greece Slow Motion Economic Collapse in Progress
What may be lost in the noise that is the mainstream press is the fact that Greece has not been in a recession or even a depression, Greece has been in a state of slow motion economic collapse on the scale of past economic collapses such as that of Argentina but so far without the ability to default, devalue and inflate.
As the below graph illustrates that following the financial crisis of 2008, Greece had been following a similar economic trend trajectory to that of most western economies including that of the UK, US and Germany, however the real crisis began in late 2009 when the economic recovery from the pit of the Great Recession of 2008-2009 evaporated and the Greek economy began a slow motion collapse that has so far seen Greek GDP in real terms contract by 16% since the 2008 peak, with no end in sight Unlike the V shape of the more regular debt default economic collapses such as that of Argentina’s of 2001 and more recently Iceland.
The reason for this is solely due to Greece’s membership of the eurozone which has prevented Greece from defaulting on its debts since early 2010 and engaging in a sharp currency devaluation as markets would have corrected for the fact that Greece cannot compete against other countries. However instead of getting a grip on approx Euro 300 billion of public debt at that time, the Euro-zone despite since a 50% stealth default on private debt has still increased Greece’s total public debt burden by a further Euro 280 billion of 2 scheduled bailouts to stand at a total of over 400 billion Euro’s, leaving Greece far more indebted than where it were in late 2009 when economic collapse began, which is made infinitely worse as a consequence of the fact that Greece’s ability to service this debt has fallen as a consequence of the economic contraction.
Similarly Greece as member of the Euro-zone has NOT had the option of experiencing a severe competitive devaluation of its currency of as much as 50% which would have instantly turned Greece’s trade imbalances around as Greece would no longer be importing goods and services from Germany that it could not afford as well as what little it does manufacture would have become far more attractive to export markets and especially its large tourism sector, which in fact as a consequence of a drop in demand suffered an increase in prices as a consequence of fixed euro costs’s which resulted in further reduction in demand and hence Greece has been in an economic death spiral.
The situation has now reached a critical point (though it has been at a critical point for a good 18 months now) where in my opinion Greece now has no alternative but to exit the Euro-zone (not European Union) and it will exit the Euro-zone sooner rather than later i.e. I would be surprised if Greece is still in the Euro-zone by the end of this year and most probable expect Greece to exit during the next few months (Summer 2012).
Last weeks Greek elections have set in motion a chain of events that virtually guarantee a Greek exit from the euro-zone as another election in Mid June is a near certainty that looks set to elect an anti-austerity government headed by the inexperienced Alexis Tsipras of the Syriza party, who’s rhetoric that Syriza both wants to remain in the Euro-zone with a continuation of mainly German financing of Greek government expenditures to the tune of Euro 100 billion a year whilst stating that they will embark on an anti-austerity government spending spree without any consequences in terms of bond and currency market reaction because Greece neither has access to the bond market (currently financed wholly by Euro-zone institutions and the IMF) or a currency.
Greece will run out of money soon, warns deputy prime minister
Greece’s deputy prime minister has said the country will run out of money in six weeks unless it honours its bitterly-disputed EU bailout deal.
By Andrew Gilligan, Athens
Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph, Theodoros Pangalos said he was “very much afraid of what is going to happen” after Greek voters rejected the deal in elections last Sunday.
“The majority of the people voted for a very strange mental construction,” he said. “We want to be in the EU and the euro, but we don’t want to pay anything for the past.”
The main beneficiary of the election, the hard-Left Syriza coalition, came a startling second on a promise to tear up the deal, which promises EU loans to keep massively-indebted Greece afloat, but demands crippling spending cuts in return. Germany, the principal lender, has said it will stop payments if Greece breaks its promises on spending.
Mr Pangalos warned: “There is a school of thought that says the Germans are bluffing. They need Greece and will never throw us out of the eurozone. But what will happen, which is almost certain, is they will not give us the money to pay our debts.
“We will be in wild bankruptcy, out-of-control bankruptcy. The state will not be able to pay salaries and pensions. This is not recognized by the citizens. We have got until June before we run out of money.
Thousands march against economic gloom in Spain, UK
(Reuters) – Thousands of Spaniards fed up with economic misery and waving banners against bankers marched on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the grassroots “Indignados” movement that has sparked similar protests around the world.
Up to 600 people denouncing the Bank of England rallied in London and a Reuters witness said scuffles broke out between some demonstrators and police, with at least 12 arrests.
The Indignados and the offshoot Occupy and Take the Square movements had called for a global day of action against anti-debt austerity policies and the widening gap between rich and poor, but nowhere were protests as large as in Spain.
A year after tens of thousands set up a month-long camp in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square, drawing international attention, indignant Spaniards have even more to be angry about.
Unemployment has soared to over 24 percent, over half the country’s youth is out of work, the economy has dipped back into recession and one of its largest banks has been nationalized.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government has passed painful austerity measures that have hit once-sacred public health and education spending in an effort to appease international markets and avoid a Greek-style bailout.
“We have to stand up and say enough is enough! They pull our hair telling us we’re lazy so they can dismantle social welfare and take away health and education and now they’re bailing out the bankers,” said Gloria Bravo, 48, a civil servant.
Americans stashing cash at home as mistrust of banks spreads
By J. D. Heyes,
(NaturalNews) There’s plenty of economic uncertainty to go around these days, and most of us know that the banking industry has taken it on the chin these past few years. But is it so bad that it’s time to start stuffing mattresses with cash? Yes, say an increasing number of Americans. As the economic morass continues on a number of levels for tens of millions of Americans more than four years after the collapse of the housing and financial sectors, uncertainty over what the future will bring…
By ABC News
JPMorgan Chase CIO Ina Drew Resigns
(Image Credit: Bloomberg)By BILL McGUIRE and KEVIN DOLAK
Ina Drew, the chief investment officer at JPMorgan Chase and one of the top women on Wall Street, resigned today in the wake of the firm’s $2.3 billion in-house trading loss.
JPMorgan said in a statement today that Matt Zames, currently co-head of Global Fixed Income in the Investment Bank and head of Capital Markets within the Mortgage Bank, will take on Drew’s role. The bank is very strong and well capitalized, CEO Jamie Dimon said in the statement.
Drew, 55, for the past seven years had led the trading division at the bank. A trader known as the “London Whale” Bruno Michel Iksil is also said to be leaving. Drew, who made $14 million last year, offered to resign after the disclosure of the firm’s loss May 10, which could top $4 billion.
Walker’s World: Europe’s voters revolt
by Martin Walker
Munich, Germany (UPI)
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The anti-austerity revolt of European voters continued Sunday when electors in a key German province gave Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats just 28 percent of the vote, the party’s lowest perentage since 1948.
This is a grim time to be in office in Europe. Voters have turned out governments in Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Spain, France and Greece. And while Merkel remains in office at the national level and remains personally popular, her own coalition with Bavaria’s Christian Social party is fraying badly.
How much of Sunday’s vote was against the austerity that Merkel is forcing upon Europe and how much a reaction against the way Germany continues reluctantly to bail out the bankrupt European partners is an open question. Either way, it means voters are losing trust in Merkel’s economic stewardship, even though Germany has recovered more strongly from the crisis than any other European economy.
Sunday’s vote also reflected the ongoing crisis of the traditional two-party system, with smaller German parties continuing to take votes from the big two — Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the moderate-left Social Democrats. The Greens got 12 percent, the centrist Free Democrats recovered to 8 percent and the bizarre new Pirate Party, committed to Internet freedom and votes for teenagers, repeated its earlier success in Berlin.
All this took place as Greece slid further down the slope toward what the markets are calling “Grexit,” a Greek exit from the euro, which many fear would trigger Europe’s biggest crisis since World War II. After their chaotic elections and inability to form a coalition government, it isn’t easy to see how Greece musters the political will to make the budget cuts and suffer the economic pain required to remain inside the euro.
But if Greece goes, it is also not easy to see how to prevent the contagion spreading to Portugal, Spain and even Italy as depositors take their euros from their own national banks and deposit them in safer German banks, rather than see savings eroded by devaluation.
The dirty secret here is that on close examination Germany’s economic situation, despite its strong manufacturing sector and massive export trade, isn’t nearly as strong as it looks.
Germany’s Market Economy Foundation reports that in addition to the official national debt of roughly $2.6 trillion, there are $5.9 trillion in future benefit promises to retirees, the sick and people requiring nursing care. These are commitments that aren’t documented in official budgets nor has any provision been made to finance them. When these commitments are included, Germany’s real debt isn’t the “official” 80 percent of gross domestic product but 276 percent.
Moreover, the disguised way in which Germany has continued to bail out the weaker Europeans is becoming a serious public issue. This is done through the “Target2” system of the European Central Bank, where the debits and credits of the various eurozone members are held.
There has been a sharp jump in the Bundesbank’s Target2 claims within the European Central Bank’s internal payment network from $706 billion in February to $795 billion in March. Bundesbank claims have risen six-fold since 2008. Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann is demanding collateral from weaker states for Target2 transfers.
These German credits, equivalent to $800 billion, are balanced by debts of Greek, Irish, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian central banks of almost $850 billion. So long as the German central bank doesn’t demand its money, it is in effect bankrolling the other European partners. And since this is done between central banks, there has been no parliamentary authorization for this hidden bailout.
“The euro-system is near explosion,” said Professor Hans-Werner Sinn, head of Germany’s IFO Institute, addressing Austria’s Economics Academy on April 19. “This enormous international credit should have been subjected to the parliaments of Europe.”
He may well be right. But the voters seem intent on throwing the parliaments of Europe into disarray or into coalitions that are either unworkable or impotent to take the decisive action required.
This might not be so alarming, were it not that even bigger political challenges lie in wait for Europe. Its social contract and generous welfare state is becoming steadily less sustainable as the society ages. More and more people are qualifying for pensions and expensive elderly healthcare while fewer and fewer young people are coming into the labor market and when they do there are few jobs for them.
If things look grim for Europe’s incumbent politician now, they will soon look even worse as they are forced to push through new laws raising the retirement age, curbing pension and welfare payments and raising taxes.
Related Links
Democracy in the 21st century at TerraDaily.com
Russia ‘a growing grain power’
by Staff Writers
Moscow (Voice of Russia)
 illustration only |
Russia has exported 20 million tons of wheat since last July, making it the world’s second biggest wheat exporter.
Acting First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov gave the figure to farming executives Saturday at a meeting in Krasnodar in southern Russia.
He also said the spring is good, the sowing campaign is ahead of schedule, and Russia is poised to take in 94 million tons of grain this summer. Tens of millions of tons will be exported, because the market is strong.
Related Links
Daily Russian News
Farming Today – Suppliers and Technology
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Wars and Rumors of War
Prison Poison: Thousands jailed, many tortured by Libyan rebels
Published on May 12, 2012 by RussiaToday
Thousands of supporters of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi are still being held in Libyan prisons, with many of them tortured – according to a UN report. Many jails are secret and under the control of armed rebels who refuse to comply with the country’s new government.
Lawrence Freeman from the Executive Intelligence Review Magazine talks to RT. He says that there’s no sign Libya is getting closer to democracy.
Stephen Lendman
Activist Post
A $100 million NATO invasion is coming. Low intensity conflict may follow. The “City of Broad Shoulders” may get more than it bargained for.
Nelson Algren once called Chicago the “City on the Make.” NATO’s May 20/21 “on the make” invasion isn’t welcome.
Chicago NATO.org announced an Obama-hosted “diplomatic summit.”
Thousands plan protests against it.
The Coalition Against NATO/G8 War & Poverty issued a statement, saying:
The city has carried out a campaign to intimidate and vilify protesters, claiming that protests lead to violence. In fact, the main source of violence in the world today is the wars being waged by NATO and the US.
We will march in May during the NATO meeting to deliver our message: Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, Our Pensions, the Environment: Not War!
We and tens of thousands will be in the streets that day for a family friendly rally and march, with cries so loud they will be heard in Camp David and across the globe. We will be in the streets that day to fight for our future, and speak out against the wars and their cutbacks are designed to benefit the 1% at the expense of the 99% of the world.
Last August, dozens of activists from 73 organizations met to plan large protests and marches when NATO arrives. United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) coordinator Joe Lombado said “(t)he entire world will be watching us.”
NATO doesn’t foster democratic values, liberation, and peace. It’s about wars, death, destruction and human misery. It requires draconian austerity and soaring debt to support it. A Chicago-style welcome awaits.
Organization representatives fear large-scale crackdowns before and during protest demonstrations. Those involved plan to repudiate confrontations. They’ll also stand up for their constitutional rights.
Iranian intelligence agents target, arrest Christian converts
Iran’s ayatollahs are showing frustration with Iranians leaving Islam for Christianity in large numbers despite the threat of execution for apostasy.
A former intelligence officer in the Guards, who has now defected to Europe, told The Daily Caller that the country’s regime has ordered the domestic intelligence apparatus to use drastic measures to stop them — including imprisonment, torture and the mass-burning of Bibles.
According to a report by Mohammad Reza Modaber, the chief editor of the Christian Farsi language Mohabat News, two Christian converts in their mid 20s were arrested in April after intelligence agents entered their home in Tehran without warrants.
One agent, responding to the mother of the arrested who asked where they were taking her children and why, responded mockingly, “Tell Jesus to come and rescue them.”
TheDC’s source who was formerly an Iranian intelligence officer indicated that in the city of Shiraz alone, with a population of over one million, there were 30,000 files at the intelligence headquarters on individuals who had converted to Christianity.
“The Guards intelligence has assigned a unit in major cities, across the country, with the order to infiltrate their groups, identifying pastors and the members, then make arrests, forcing them under torture to agree to appear on TV confessing to criminal activities and having connection with Israel or America,” he said.
PARIS/VIENNA (Reuters) – An exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday that Iran has some 60 scientists and engineers involved in a concerted and expanding program to develop nuclear weapons under defense ministry auspices.
However, diplomats say the National Council of Resistance of Iran has had a spotty record with allegations about Iran’s nuclear work since exposing a secret uranium enrichment plant at Natanz in 2002. A top US nuclear expert said the NCRI report, like previous ones, should be treated with great skepticism.
Its latest report, whose details could not be verified, appeared timed to encourage a tougher line at talks with Iran the U.N. nuclear watchdog will have in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday and six world powers will hold in Baghdad on May 23.
But it clashed with the assessment of US and Israeli intelligence officials that Iran has not decided whether to “weaponize” its enrichment program. Tehran says it is refining uranium solely for peaceful energy.
In the six-page report shown to Reuters, the NCRI cited sources in the Iranian government and military as saying some 60 scientists were pursuing bomb-relevant research in 11 agencies operating clandestinely under defense ministry control.
“Information … shows that the clerical regime has expanded the organization responsible for nuclear weapons development,” the report said. “This finding reveals a complete and elaborate, and highly … secret research structure and a network for procurement of the required parts and equipment.
“So far, the identities of 60 directors and experts working in various parts of the New Defense Research Organization and 11 institutions and companies affiliated with it have been detailed,” the report went on.
It featured diagrams said to lay out the disguised command structure and named scientists and engineers involved.
Iranian president: Israel ‘nothing more than a mosquito’ to Iran
(CNN) — Ahead of upcoming nuclear talks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad downplayed the threat Israel poses to Iran, comparing it to an annoying bug.
“Israel is nothing more than a mosquito which cannot see the broad horizon of the Iranian nation,” he said Saturday in northeastern Iran’s Khorassan province, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Ahmadinejad said “regional states” were being duped into buying billions in arms from “arrogant and imperial powers,” driven in part by all the talk surrounding a potential war involving Iran and Israel, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Such military purchases, he said, are unnecessary because there is no war on the horizon between those two nations.
The Iranian president alluded to “rulers” who sold “their petrol” for $60 billion worth in arms, though he did not mention by name either the purchasing or selling country. Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a 20-year, $60 billion arms deal with the United States, including nearly $30 billion for F-15 fighter jets announced late last year.
Ahmadinejad has long questioned the existence of the Holocaust and, months after taking office in October 2005, he participated in a lengthy protest called “World Without Zionism” and has repeatedly derided Israel.
“With the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism,” he said then, according to another IRNA report.
On Saturday, while seemingly backing away from the potential for an armed conflict, Ahmadinejad hardly signaled that Iranians should or will embrace Israel.
He predicted Israel could fall if regional powers cut ties — particularly by refusing to sell oil to Israelis.
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld Convicted of War Crimes in Absentia
Foreign Policy Journal
Kuala Lumpur – It’s official; George W Bush is a war criminal.
In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were yesterday (Fri) found guilty of war crimes.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.
The trial held in Kuala Lumpur heard harrowing witness accounts from victims of torture who suffered at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They included testimony from British man Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee and Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi who was tortured in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
At the end of the week-long hearing, the five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered guilty verdicts against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their key legal advisors who were all convicted as war criminals for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
Full transcripts of the charges, witness statements and other relevant material will now be sent to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission is also asking that the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Addington and Haynes be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals for public record.
The tribunal is the initiative of Malaysia’s retired Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He sat through the entire hearing as it took personal statements and testimonies of three witnesses namely Abbas Abid, Moazzam Begg and Jameelah Hameedi. The tribunal also heard two other Statutory Declarations of Iraqi citizen Ali Shalal and Rahul Ahmed, another British citizen.
After the guilty verdict reached by five senior judges was delivered, Mahathir Mohamad said: “Powerful countries are getting away with murder.”
War crimes expert and lawyer Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in America, was part of the prosecution team.
After the case he said: “This is the first conviction of these people anywhere in the world.”
While the hearing is regarded by some as being purely symbolic, human rights activist Boyle said he was hopeful that Bush and Co could soon find themselves facing similar trials elsewhere in the world.
“We tried three times to get Bush in Canada but were thwarted by the Canadian Government, then we scared Bush out of going to Switzerland. The Spanish attempt failed because of the government there and the same happened in Germany.”
Boyle then referenced the Nuremberg Charter which was used as the format for the tribunal when asked about the credibility of the initiative in Malaysia. He quoted: “Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any person in execution of such a plan.”
The US is subject to customary international law and to the Principles of the Nuremberg Charter said Boyle who also believes the week-long trial was “almost certainly” being monitored closely by both Pentagon and White House officials.
Professor Gurdial Singh Nijar, who headed the prosecution said: “The tribunal was very careful to adhere scrupulously to the regulations drawn up by the Nuremberg courts and the International Criminal Courts”.
He added that he was optimistic the tribunal would be followed up elsewhere in the world where “countries have a duty to try war criminals” and he cited the case of the former Chilean dictator Augustine Pinochet who was arrested in Britain to be extradited to Spain on charges of war crimes.
“Pinochet was only eight years out of his presidency when that happened.”
The Pinochet case was the first time that several European judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed by former heads of state, despite local amnesty laws.
Throughout the week the tribunal was packed with legal experts and law students as witnesses gave testimony and then cross examination by the defence led by lawyer Jason Kay Kit Leon.
The court heard how
- Abbas Abid, a 48-year-old engineer from Fallujah in Iraq had his fingernails removed by pliers.
- Ali Shalal was attached with bare electrical wires and electrocuted and hung from a wall.
- Moazzam Begg was beaten, hooded and put in solitary confinement.
- Jameelah was stripped and humiliated, and was used as a human shield whilst being transported by helicopter.
The witnesses also detailed how they have residual injuries till today.
Moazzam Begg, now working as a director for the London-based human rights group Cageprisoners said he was delighted with the verdict, but added: “When people talk about Nuremberg you have to remember those tried were all prosecuted after the war.
“Right now Guantanamo is still open, people are still being held there and are still being tortured there.”
In response to questions about the difference between the Bush and Obama Administrations, he added: “If President Bush was the President of extra-judicial torture then US President Barak Obama is the President of extra judicial killing through drone strikes. Our work has only just begun.”
The prosecution case rested on proving how the decision-makers at the highest level President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld, aided and abetted by the lawyers and the other commanders and CIA officials – all acted in concert. Torture was systematically applied and became an accepted norm.
According to the prosecution, the testimony of all the witnesses exposed a sustained perpetration of brutal, barbaric, cruel and dehumanising course of conduct against them.
These acts of crimes were applied cumulatively to inflict the worst possible pain and suffering, said lawyers.
The president of the tribunal Tan Sri Dato Lamin bin Haji Mohd Yunus Lamin, found that the prosecution had established beyond a “reasonable doubt that the accused persons, former President George Bush and his co-conspirators engaged in a web of instructions, memos, directives, legal advice and action that established a common plan and purpose, joint enterprise and/or conspiracy to commit the crimes of Torture and War Crimes, including and not limited to a common plan and purpose to commit the following crimes in relation to the “War on Terror” and the wars launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
President Lamin told a packed courtroom: “As a tribunal of conscience, the Tribunal is fully aware that its verdict is merely declaratory in nature. The tribunal has no power of enforcement, no power to impose any custodial sentence on any one or more of the 8 convicted persons. What we can do, under Article 31 of Chapter VI of Part 2 of the Charter is to recommend to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to submit this finding of conviction by the Tribunal, together with a record of these proceedings, to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council.
“The Tribunal also recommends to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission that the names of all the 8 convicted persons be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and be publicised accordingly.
“The Tribunal recommends to the War Crimes Commission to give the widest international publicity to this conviction and grant of reparations, as these are universal crimes for which there is a responsibility upon nations to institute prosecutions if any of these Accused persons may enter their jurisdictions”.
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Articles of Interest
What drives those that betray us?
A recent study shows most employees of major Dutch banks would not promote the products of their organizations to their own family members. So why do they sell them to us?
Left: Bert Hellinger
By Anthony Migchels for Real Currencies
It transpires that no less than 67% of employees of ING Bank, Holland’s biggest, would not advise their family members to purchase its financial products. ABN AMRO fared only slightly better: 56% of employees did not trust their bank’s products enough to suggest them to their families. Only RABO Bank saw most of their staff answering they had sufficient faith in their bank’s products. But there also 20% of staff declined the opportunity to sell these products to their loved ones.
These results remind us of the 75% of doctors who claim they would not undergo chemotherapy would they be diagnosed with cancer.
These numbers raise serious questions. In the conspiracy community it is common to suggest normal people are mind controlled into submission: ‘forgive them, for they do not know what they do’.
But apparently they do. It makes one wonder how many journalists know they are lying to their readers? How many politicians realize they are betraying the people who voted for them? How many police officers know they are protecting the criminals, instead of locking them up?
A friend of mine is particularly upset with chemtrailing. Every day he checks the air to see how bad they are today and he often tries to alert people. Some time back he got into a discussion with some cops and he pointed up in the air: ‘and what do you think these are?’ he asked them. ‘Chemtrails!’ was the astonishing answer he received. ‘So what are you doing walking the streets looking for ‘criminals’ then?’ he asked in amazement. But the cop just shrugged his shoulders and was on his way.
Of course, such a thing as chemtrailing is not easily stopped by one man in uniform. It is understandable such a man would feel it was way over his head. On the other hand: what’s the use pretending you are fighting crime, when your bosses are spraying you and your family with an unknown set of toxins?
How many people are willingly wasting their time and actually propping up a system they know is a fraud and a danger to themselves and the people they love? Let alone the rest of humanity?
It’s not just about personal survival, the idea we need these jobs to survive.
How the Corporate Right Hijacked America’s Courts to Enrich the Top 1 Percent
America’s political-economy is caught in a vicious cycle, with concentrated wealth at the top leading to outsized political power.
For a generation, America’s political-economy has been gripped in a vicious cycle. Those at the top of the economic pile have taken an ever-growing share of the nation’s income, and then leveraged that haul into ever-greater political power, which they have in turn used to rewrite the rules of “the market” in their favor. Wash, rinse and repeat.
It’s the result of years of institutional investments by the corporate Right to advance a reactionary legal regime in America’s courts. In the process, the richest Americans now have their hands in both our legislative and judicial branches, while working America has become a voiceless stepping stone.
“The more pernicious effect of economic inequality comes indirectly through its impact on political inequality,” says MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, co-author of Why Nations Fail. In an interview with Think Progress, Acemoglu explained what he called, “a general pattern throughout history”:
When economic inequality increases, the people who have become economically more powerful will often attempt to use that power in order to gain even more political power. And once they are able to monopolize political power, they will start using that for changing the rules in their favor.
This dynamic is best understood in the realm of electoral politics. In a study of something that most people already consider to be obvious, Larry Bartels, a political scientist at Princeton, examined lawmakers’ responsiveness to the interests of various constituents by income, and concluded:
EPA Grossly Misrepresents The Toxicity Of Corexit Used In Gulf Of Mexico
Activist Post
Quite incredibly, the EPA issued a positive report on May 1, 2012 regarding the safety and toxicity of various dispersants used in the BP Gulf Oil Spill. Included in this assessment was the use of Corexit.
This report “indicated that all eight dispersants had roughly the same toxicity,” and all fell into the “practically non-toxic” or “slightly toxic” category. Scientists found that none of the eight dispersants displayed endocrine-disrupting activity of “biological significance.”
The same report went on to say that “dispersant-oil mixtures were generally no more toxic to the aquatic test species than oil alone.”
The first question that jumps out for those who have researched this subject with any degree of thoroughness is how this recent report fails to reconcile with previous studies performed by the EPA.
Here is some test data retrieved from the EPA website that was posted previous to the BP Gulf Oil Spill.
The dispersant (Corexit 9500) and dispersed oil have demonstrated the following levels of toxicity per the EPA website link that follows:
(1) 10.72 parts per million (ppm) of oil alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours.
(2) 25.20 parts per million of dispersant (Corexit 9500) alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours.
(3) 2.61 parts per million of dispersed oil (Corexit-laden) alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours.
This data diverges from the recent report to such a significant degree that the results which were just posted at the EPA.gov website under the title of “The BP Oil Spill: Responsive Science Supports Emergency Response” must be seriously scrutinized.
What is the buying public to make of such conflicting data? Those who have medical conditions which require complete avoidance of toxic seafood need to know with certainty what they are eating.
Likewise, the fishermen in the Gulf need to know the true condition of their catch. Swimmers and beachgoers need to know the state of the water, as well as the beaches. Boaters ought to be informed of the relevant risk factors when out in the areas of recently sprayed waters, whether surface or deep sea.
The most serious questions to emerge from this report revolve around the issue of credibility. Can the EPA ever be trusted again to conduct the necessary research regarding anything having to do with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused by BP?
Issuing such blanket statements about the relatively low toxicity associated with this spill, irrespective of location on the beach, in the waters, in the wetlands or estuaries, seems to be quite disingenuous.
Furthermore, the federal government’s declaration that the “clean up phase” of the Deepwater Horizon spill is over begs for review, especially in light of the large quantities of submerged oil unaccounted for residing in the water column, DOJ’s discovery of false flow rate numbers reported by BP and new sightings of oil slicks all over the Gulf.
In light of all that, the clean up phase is not over and further use of Corexit dispersant isn’t an effective solution.
Moreover, the fact that the EPA has approved for use a very safe bioremediation agent known as Oil Spill Eater II, but has yet to allow its use in the Gulf raises many additional questions.
From our investigation, it has become clear that Corexit has been given preferential treatment over other much safer alternatives. The Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference (GOSRC) was quoted as follows in this regard:
When we heard about Oil Spill Eater II, and the fact that it is EPA-approved (NCP listed) and has demonstrated its effectiveness at least 14 times for the BP Gulf Oil Spill, we wondered why it wasn’t being used 24/7.
The GOSRC went on to issue a press release entitled: Coalition Of Enviro, Citizens And Political Groups Demand COREXIT Use Be Stopped which pointed out the deliberate false image which has been created around the use of this toxic dispersant – Corexit 9500.
The Gulf Rescue Alliance (GRA) also made the recent observations in their press release entitled: BP Gulf Oil Spill Revisited.
Many of these studies point out the obvious; that when you mix a tremendous volume of released oil with methane gas and further mix it with a toxic dispersant like Corexit, as they have done throughout this oil spill, a chemical cocktail is created that will have as far-reaching ecological ramifications as it will profound environmental consequences.
The Earth Orgainization (TEO) has also weighed in on this issue through their release of an excellent documentary entitled: Hidden Crisis in the GULF. Barbara Wiseman, TEO President, has been an ardent advocate for safer oil remediation measures since the very beginning of this oil spill. She has said that:
At the beginning of the disaster, TEO investigated to find effective, non-toxic technologies currently available in adequate supply to clean up an oil spill of this size. Once we isolated the best solutions, we then investigated to find what the barriers to getting them implemented were. The barriers have all come down to specific people in the EPA. They are, in effect, holding the Gulf hostage and, for some unexplained reason, won’t let it be cleaned up.
Lastly, perhaps the words of Steven Pedigo reflect the voice of reason more than any other in this ongoing oil spill when he was quoted in A 2nd Anniversary Report on the BP Gulf Oil Spillas follows:
The toxic dispersants add absolutely nothing to EFFECTIVE RESPONSE. There is no scientific basis for it, and their use violates The Clean Water Act, EPA’s charter and common sense.
Corexit’s label clearly states it can cause kidney failure and death and the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) specifically warns, ‘Do not contaminate surface water with it. Additionally, toxicity testing in regards to marine species shows little tolerance by all forms of sea life; thus, applying it on spills as a preferred response method increases the toxicity of the spilled oil on which it is used.
OSLO — In May 2011, Manal al-Sharif did something revolutionary: She drove a car.
In most societies this would be far from noteworthy, but in Saudi Arabia, where women are prohibited from getting behind the wheel, it was an act of extraordinary courage. The protest, which she put on YouTube, landed al-Sharif in jail for nine days. It also made her an international figure. In the last year, she has been named one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine and one of Time magazine’s “100 most influential people of 2012.”
And last week, the 32-year old Saudi was one of three people awarded the first annual Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum.
To attend the conference in Norway, al-Sharif says she was pressured out of her job at the Saudi oil company Aramco. Considering she is a working-class single mother, it couldn’t have been an easy decision to continue her human rights fight in the face of such economic pressures. But, as al-Sharif told The Daily Caller, “if you stand up for your beliefs, there is a price to pay.”
“They pressured me a lot and it was like too much to take,” she said, explaining that while she was not explicitly fired, she was increasingly marginalized at the company for her activism, leading to her exit after coming into conflict again with her bosses over attending the conference.
After first stating that she didn’t “want to talk about” the pressure she has suffered under since her Rosa Parks-like act of defiance, she conceded that the Saudi government does “pressure you a lot, whether directly or indirectly.”
“So they can cause a lot of trouble,” she went on. “They scandalize you, they smear you … they spread all these rumors about you … But it’s up to you how to deal with that pressure. The more pressure it is, the more attacks I get, the more impact I know that I’m making.”
Read Full Article Here
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