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Questions and answers about Human Rights
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The US Senate has voted to keep a controversial provision which lets the military to detain terrorism suspects indefinitely without civilian trials, even if they are American citizens.
The Amendment, which is part of the massive National Defense Authorization Act, was voted down with 61 against and 37 in favor on Wednesday, Huffington Post reported.
United States President, Barack Obama, however opposes the provision and has suggested he would veto the bill unless it's removed.
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. (AP) - An Army staff sergeant accused of masterminding the murders of three Afghan civilians for sport gave his first public comments about the case at his court martial Friday, denying involvement in any plot but acknowledging he took fingers off their corpses "like keeping the antlers off a deer you'd shoot."
Wearing his green uniform decorated with service ribbons, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs of Billings, Mont., contradicted the accounts of co-defendants and fellow soldiers who portrayed him as an imposing, bloodthirsty sociopath. He said that as far as he knew, each of the killings was legitimate.
Citizens no longer control their government; they are slaves to it. Representatives no longer serve the citizen seeking their consent to govern, they are servants of the corporations and lobbies that control the economic system to which the citizen is enslaved. Presidents no longer lead, they are the obedient lackeys of their corporate overseers. Freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want do not determine the needs of humans, economics of the market place supersedes all at the expense of the citizen and human rights. We exist in a corporate world of unending wars, of vengeance and recrimination, of fear as a commodity that imprisons the mind, of greed that destroys the resources of this planet without remorse, and of insatiable arrogance that harbors no concern for those it destroys.
Top army lawyer slams MoD on human rights abuses
Mrs May uses an interview with The Sunday Telegraph to warn that the Act is hampering the Home
Office’s struggle to deport dangerous foreign criminals and terrorist suspects.
“I’d personally like to see the Human Rights Act go because I think we have had some problems with it,” she says.
The Home Secretary’s words will be cheered by many Conservative MPs as well as Tory ministers across Whitehall.
However, they are likely to be greeted with dismay by leading Liberal Democrats, some of whom have signalled the future of the Coalition would be under threat if any serious action was taken against the Act, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.
British and US intelligence agencies built up close links with Muammar Gaddafi and handed over detailed information to assist his regime, according to secret files found in Libyan government offices.
The documents claim that MI6 supplied its counterparts in Libya with details on exiled opponents living in the UK, and chart how the CIA abducted several suspected militants before handing them over to Tripoli.
They also contain communications between British and Libyan security officials ahead of Tony Blair's visit in 2004, and show that British officials helped write a draft speech for Gaddafi when he was being encouraged to give up his weapons programme.
September 5th 2011
Amish farm banned from selling fresh milk after sting operation by Feds
An Amish farm in Pennsylvania has been stopped from selling contraband milk after a year-long federal government sting operation.
The Rainbow Acres Farm was found to have been smuggling banned unpasteurised milk to customers in Maryland
September 2th 201
Rebel Militias Include the Human Traffickers of Benghazi
Thomas C Mountain relates the importance of Benghazi as having been the epicentre of the once Billion dollar a year industry of Trafficking Africans to Europe.
These people have formed part of the Rebel militias, here is an excerpt of a post by Thomas:
"The revolt started in Benghazi in eastern Libya. A very important point not mentioned anywhere in the international media is the fact that due to geographic location, being one of the closest point to Europe from the African continent, Benghazi has over the past 15 years or so become the epicenter of African migration to Europe. At one point over a thousand African migrants a day were pouring into Libya in hopes of arranging transport to Europe.
July 28h 2011
US ELECTROMAGNETIC WEAPONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
This research explores the current capabilities of the US military to use electromagnetic (EMF) devices to harass, intimidate, and kill individuals and the continuing possibilities of violations of human rights by the testing and deployment of these weapons. To establish historical precedent in the US for such acts, we document long-term human rights and freedom of thought violations by US military/intelligence organizations. Additionally, we explore contemporary evidence of on-going government research in EMF weapons technologies and examine the potentialities of continuing human rights abuses.
Read the entire report here.
June 16th 2011
 Geneva Conventions Redefined: The New U.S. Department of War
Most people are unaware of the larger picture developing over the past seven or eight decades, or have been willing to ignore it. This still-developing image portrays matters requiring knowledge of world history, a degree of self-education and a global perspective to recognize and decipher.
The remarkable change still underway is a complete militarization of the United States, if not also the rest of the world. Today, the most disturbing sign of this take-over of all of the civilian commons by the military, at least in the U.S., comes in the form of a new, or reinvigorated, Department of War.
Our de facto Department of War, was known as our War Department from 1789 until it was reconstituted on September 18, 1947 in response to international terms set forth by the Geneva Convention accords. Wars of aggression and conquest were outlawed by those international agreements. Only wars to defend a nation’s borders were allowed. In 1948, with our agreeing to the terms of these accords, our Department of War was converted to a reconfigured Department of Defense and its focus changed… until now.
June 9th 2011
9_11 TRUTHERS LOCKED UP FOR LIFE UNDER NEW US LAW
June 7th 2011
Three arrested, accused of illegally feeding homeless
Orlando police say they violated a city ordinance restricting the feedings
Jessica Cross, Ben Markeson and Jonathan "Keith" McHenry were arrested June 1 during a feeding of the homeless at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando.
Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs were arrested Wednesday when police said they violated a city ordinance by feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park.
Jessica Cross, 24, Benjamin Markeson, 49, and Jonathan "Keith" McHenry, 54, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. on a charge of violating the ordinance restricting group feedings in public parks. McHenry is a co-founder of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in the early 1980s.
The group lost a court battle in April, clearing the way for the city to enforce the ordinance. It requires groups to obtain a permit and limits each group to two permits per year for each park within a 2-mile radius of City Hall.
Arrest papers state that Cross, Markeson and McHenry helped feed 40 people Wednesday night. The ordinance applies to feedings of more than 25 people.
"They intentionally violated the statute," said Lt. Barbara Jones, an Orlando police spokeswoman
June 3th 2011
FBI Using Anti-Terrorism Resources on Activists
May 27th 2011
 Court: No right to resist illegal cop entry into home
INDIANAPOLIS | Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.
In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry.
"We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David said. "We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest."
David said a person arrested following an unlawful entry by police still can be released on bail and has plenty of opportunities to protest the illegal entry through the court system.
The court's decision stems from a Vanderburgh County case in which police were called to investigate a husband and wife arguing outside their apartment.
May 14th 2011
 Human trafficking: It ain’t just for sex anymore
When we think of human trafficking most of us immediately assume that this occurs only in the arena of sexual exploitation. At some point in time this may have been true. Today, human trafficking encompasses many forms and there is not one of us who can safely assume that we would somehow be exempt from any type of human trafficking.
While the sexual exploitation and trafficking for the purposes of sex is often highlighted in MSM, rarely do they ever report on the trafficking that occurs courtesy of our courts, unscrupulous politicians and yes, even those demi-gods….doctors, therapists and psychiatrists. There is money to be made exploiting the vulnerable, the sick, the weak, the aging (with assets) and even children who have been unfortunate enough to become wards of the state and forced into foster care. While sexual activity may not be the cause and concern in these instances, what happens to these individuals is no less a form of human trafficking for profit.
April 4th 2011
'We'll see depleted uranium missiles thrown by Western aircraft on Libya'
March 22th 2011|
Madeleine Albright - The deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children was worth it for Iraq's non existent WMD's
February 11th 2011
Genital mutilation: America’s double standard
February 11th 2011
 Guantanamo death highlights U.S. detention policy
A 48-year-old Afghan citizen and Guantanamo detainee, Awal Gul, died on Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. Gul, a father of 18 children, had been kept in a cage by the U.S. for more than 9 years -- since late 2001 when he was abducted in Afghanistan -- without ever having been charged with a crime. While the U.S. claims he was a Taliban commander, Gul has long insisted that he quit the Taliban a year before the 9/11 attack because, as his lawyer put it, "he was disgusted by the Taliban's growing penchant for corruption and abuse." His death means those conflicting claims will never be resolved; said his lawyer: "it is shame that the government will finally fly him home not in handcuffs and a hood, but in a casket." This episode illustrates that the U.S. Government's detention policy -- still -- amounts to imposing life sentences on people without bothering to prove they did anything wrong.
February 7th 2011
 Arizona city plans to fingerprint pharmacy customers
An Arizona city's proposed law requiring people buying certain drugs to be fingerprinted has civil liberties advocates concerned about what they say is an unwarranted intrusion on privacy rights.
Facing a growing problem with prescription fraud, the Phoenix suburb of Peoria is considering an ordinance that would require people picking up prescriptions for commonly abused drugs to be fingerprinted.
The law, which would target prescriptions for painkillers such as OxyContin and Percocet, would also require pharmacies to videotape everyone who comes to the prescription counter and keep the videotape for 60 days. Even people picking up a prescription for a family member would have to be fingerprinted.
The Arizona ACLU's legal director, Daniel Pochoda, told a state pharmacy board meeting Monday that the law would turn pharmacies into "annexes for police stations" and would treat people not suspected of any crime as potential criminals.
"The proposed law is not limited to those persons who are suspected of fraud and the great majority of those involuntarily required to be printed will never be subjects of a criminal prosecution," the ACLUsaid in a statement.
February 1th 2011
Snatch! Long arm of US law pulling 'suspects' from home
January 15th 2011
 Coming Home Homeless: The New Homeless Among Veterans
Jose Pagan is a decorated veteran who survived two tours of duty in Iraq as a road clearance specialist. Just three days after leaving the military he was homeless and living on the streets of the Bronx.
Jose says being homeless after his service is something he never would have imagined. "It was embarrassing," Pagan says.
"Honor, pride, duty, loyalty, all these things that we -- that kick in as a soldier, you know. And then to find yourself here," as he points to the park benches where he slept for almost two months.
Pagan is one of an estimated nine thousand returning servicemembers from Iraq and Afghanistan that the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates have been homeless. Paul Rieckhoff, director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, calls that a conservative estimate.
January 1th 2011
 With spending bill’s passage, Obama’s plan to close Gitmo dies
US lawmakers have effectively blocked President Barack Obama's efforts to close the controversial terror prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by approving a Pentagon budge that forbids spending money on the move.
After months of wrangling, both the House and Senate Wednesday approved a $725.9 billion defense spending plan for the fiscal year that began October 1, 2010.
Included in the bill is language that makes it virtually impossible to close the prison by building a substitute prison or relocating prisoners to the United States.
The budget prohibits the use of defense funding "to construct or modify a facility within the United States to house detainees transferred from the Guantanamo detention facility" or "to transfer, release or assist in the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees to or within the United States."
Given the difficulty the US has had finding third countries to take former detainees, even those cleared of wrong-doing, not moving them to a new prison leaves the administration few options.
December 24th 2010
 FBI: Peace Activism May Now Be Criminal
Fourteen anti-war activists in Chicago recently felt the cold fingers of government control on Sept. 24 when they were subpoenaed and their homes invaded and property seized by the FBI. These “peace and justice activists, mothers and grandmothers” are under grand jury investigation for allegedly giving “material support” to a foreign terrorist organization.
What does that mean? Daniel Kaplan, an intern in the American Friends Service Committee Middle East Program in Chicago, says,
December 22th 2010
9/11 TRUTHERS LOCKED UP FOR LIFE UNDER NEW US LAW
December 5th 2010
 US soldier admits to sport killing
Staff Sergeant Robert Stevens, 25, an Army medic from the State of Oregon, was only sentenced to nine months in prison on Wednesday for killing Afghan civilians, after pleading guilty.
He confessed to opening fire on two Afghan farmers in March 2010 for no apparent reason. He and other US troops were acting on orders from a squad leader during a patrol in March, Reuters reported.
The case began as an investigation into hashish use among US soldiers who were part of an infantry unit then known as the 5th Stryker Brigade. But the investigation has grown into the most serious prosecution of alleged atrocities by US military personnel in nearly nine years of conflict in war-torn Afghanistan.
Four more US soldiers are implicated in the case. The soldiers have been charged with other crimes, including mutilating bodies and keeping body parts as trophies.
Stevens has agreed to testify against the other members of the group.
December 2th 2010
 White House Says Child Soldiers Are Ok, if They Fight Terrorists
The administration stunned human rights groups last month by sidestepping a commitment to help countries curb the military exploitation of children. Josh Rogin at Foreign Policyreported that President Obama issued a presidential memorandum granting waivers from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act to four countries: Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Yemen. The memo instructed Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that it is in our “national interest” to continue extending military aid to those countries, despite their failure to comply with the rules Congress passed and George W. Bush signed in 2008.
A thumbs-up for child soldiers from the pen of President Obama? Whitehouse spokesperson P.J. Crowley explained it was a strategic decision to ease the 2008 law. The rationale is that on balance, it’s more effective for the U.S. to keep providing military assistance that will help countries gradually evolve out of the practice of marshaling kids to the battlefield, rather than isolating them.
Ncvember 17th 2010
John Boehner: "In Order To Pay For The Wars, We Need To Raise The Social Security Retirement Age To 70"
I'm not in denial. I understand that some form of entitlement reform needs to happen otherwise we'll go broke. And though I would be effected by the change Boehner advocates, gradually raising the retirement age for Social Security to 70 for those more than 20 years away, I would support it as part of a larger program of spending cuts. We're all going to have make concessions.
But according to the source, Boehner said the following:
Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country's entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he'd favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them
Ncvember 8th 2010
 Privacy Human Right violated by forced car chip
In a blatant disregard for the Human Right to privacy, soon, Brazilians will join other nationals forced to have their cars chipped, with an identification chip (RFID) plus have GPS locators and "blockers." Presently, American Targeted Individuals(TIs) and TIs in other countries have been tracked by such covert means, not only in their cars, but also through forced brain chips for the ultimate purpose of personal injury.
"Human Right to Private Life - The right to privacy is the right to individual autonomy that is violated when states interfere with, penalise or prohibit actions which essentially only concern the individual. The right to privacy encompasses the right to protection of a person’s intimacy, identity, name, gender, honour, dignity, appearance, feelings and sexual orientation and extends to the home, the family and correspondence."
Ncvember 1th 2010
 Judge Says Four Year Olds Can Be Sued
A judge has ruled that a suit can be brought against a 4-year old who mowed down an 87-year old lady with her bike.
As their mothers watched, the girl and another child were racing their bikes, equipped with training wheels, down a sidewalk when they struck an elderly woman walking in front of a building on East 52nd st in Manhattan. The woman suffered a hip fracture and died three weeks after surgery. Her estate sued the children and their parents for negligence
October 30th 2010
 More FBI dirty tricks on MN human rights defenders
Amidst widespread Cointelpro rampage on human rights defenders and peace workers this season, in Minneapolis, MN, FBI agents continued their campaign against anti-war activists in the Twin Cities on Oct. 8. Because more people have become self-learned about the suppressed history of Cointelpro, the old "dirty tricks" may not be working for them.
"FBI agents came to my work and wanted to talk to me about activists in the anti-war movement," said Jennie Eisert, an Anti-War Committee member according to Fight Back News.
Eisert shed light on the same tactic Targeted Individuals consistently report: Black operatives or their organized vigilantes sneaking meetings or communications with family and friends to turn them away from the target. This tactic is successful, all too often leaving the target isolated and thus vulnerable for attacks.
Eisert did not fall for the FBI's dirty trick.
October 14th 2010
 The Prison Industry In The United States: Big Business Or A New Form Of Slavery?
HUMAN rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.
October 7th 2010
 Government collusion in human medical experiments no longer just a conspiracy theory
(NaturalNews) It used to be that when you talked about Big Government conspiring with Big Pharma to use human beings as guinea pigs in bizarre medical experiments, people would look at you as if you were some kind of loon. "Oh, the American government would never do that," they'd say, smug in their self assurance that they are somehow ruled by compassionate, honest government operatives and corporate do-gooders who are always looking out for the public's best interest.
Imagine their shock when the thin veil of disinformation was lifted with last Saturday's announcement that the U.S. government was apologizing for intentionally infecting innocent Guatemalans with diseases so they could study the effects of antibiotic drugs (http://www.naturalnews.com/029920_U...).
October 6th 2010
Siddiqui: Political prisoner or human rights victim
October 1th 2010
 Activists: FBI raids an ‘attempt to intimidate anti-war movement’
Two anti-war activists said Saturday that a 12-hour search of their Chicago home by the FBI was an attempt to intimidate them and silence the peace movement.
Joe Iosbaker and his wife, Stephanie Weiner, said the government targeted them because they’ve been outspoken against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. funding of conflicts abroad. They denied any wrongdoing.
The FBI said it searched eight addresses in Minneapolis and Chicago Friday. Warrants suggest agents were looking for connections between local anti-war activists and groups in Colombia and the Middle East.
Iosbaker and Weiner declined to discuss their relationship with any groups abroad, citing their upcoming testimony before a grand jury on Oct. 5. “These raids, searches and grand jury investigations are nothing more than an attempt to intimidate us and to intimidate the anti-war movement,” Iosbaker said. “We have done nothing wrong.”
September 28th 2010
 Army censors photos of Afghan corpses in ‘kill-for-sport’ trial
Evidently worried about a repeat of the anger aimed at US forces over photos of torture at Abu Ghraib prison, the US military is restricting access to photos of Afghan corpses in the "kill-for-sport" trial of five US soldiers.
According to the New York Times, Benjamin K. Grimes, a senior counsel for the defense, was "inadvertently" sent images last week that show, among other things, "three dead Afghans with three different soldiers posing, holding up the decedent’s head. (Each photo was one Afghan, one soldier.)”
Military officials quickly asked for the photos to be returned. "In an unusual move, prosecutors then demanded defense representatives at the base return the computer disk containing the photos," reports the Seattle Times.
September 27th 2010
Thousands held without trial in Iraq: Amnesty
Tens of thousands of detainees are being held without trial in Iraqi prisons and face violent and psychological abuse as well as other forms of mistreatment, Amnesty International said on Monday. The London-based human rights watchdog estimates 30,000 people are held in Iraqi jails, noting several are known to have died in custody, while cataloguing physical and psychological abuses against others.
September 14th 2010
Does International Law Have a Future?
By Professor Lawrence Davidson
Back on August 23, 2010 Israel’s most prestigious human rights organization,B’Tselem released a short report on the condition of water supplies in the Gaza Strip. Referencing the United Nations Environment Program as well as the Palestine Water Authority, B’Tselem reported that the Strip’s underground water system is in such bad repair that, even if rehabilitation was begun immediately, it would take twenty years for it to be restructured as a modern system. This is compounded by the dilapidated state of the Gaza wastewater-system which is also antiquated. As a result it is estimated that “40% of the incidence of disease in Gaza is related to polluted drinking water.” B’Tselem blames this shocking situation on the Israeli government. “Since it began its siege on the Gaza Strip, in June 2007, Israel has forbidden the entry of equipment and materials needed to rehabilitate the water and wastewater-treatment systems there.” The blockade of these materials remains in place to this day. Finally, during its “Operation Cast Lead” invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel targeted the water networks, treatment plants, wells, and even home water tanks
September 12th 2010
ZEFAM stands for Zielona Gora Furniture Factory. Workers there had not received salaries for months. Some had not been paid for four months and nobody was receiving overtime payments. On August 19, the workers asked about this. The manager went to consult with the director of the firm, Marek Cierpka. Then he told the workers to "go home". They didn't want to, but the manager shut down the production hall. After some time of not knowing what to do, the workers went home.
September 10th 2010
Army hero who lost a leg in Afghanistan denied a disabled parking permit by council bosses 'because he might get better'
A hero soldier who lost a leg in Afghanistan has been denied a disabled parking badge three times by council bosses.
Lance Corporal Johno Lee has clocked up £800 in fines for parking in disabled bays in his home town of Newark, Nottinghamshire, on days when he uses a wheelchair or feels unable to walk very far.
When he first applied to Nottinghamshire County Council for a blue badge, he was advised he was young and 'may get better'.
August 28th 2010
 Prison to use 'excruciating' laser pain ray to control unruly inmates
An advanced laser weapon that feels like a painful blast of hot air is to be used in a US prison to break up fights for the first time.
The Assault Intervention Device fires a focused beam of energy at the target which authorities hope will stop prisoners fighting as they scramble to get out of the way.
Prison officers have even tested the non-lethal weapon on themselves and say it is excruciatingly painful.
August 25th 2010
French and UK police break up human trafficking ring
French and British police say they have broken a human trafficking ring, arresting 26 people who were attempting to smuggle hundreds of migrants to the UK.
Scores of officers raided properties in Kent and France today in what is believed to be one of the biggest initiatives of its kind between forces from the two countries.
Damian Green, the immigration minister, said the arrests proved the value of close co-operation between the UK and France.
"Secure border controls are an absolute priority if we are to put an end to abuses of the system, and prevent people from coming to the UK through illegal routes," he said.
"That is why I am committed to working with my French counterpart to continue to improve security, and why we will continue with our successful summer operations against illegal immigration."
The French authorities said 18 suspected traffickers were arrested in France and eight more in Britain.
They are accused of smuggling hundreds of Albanians and Sri Lankans to the UK, charging between £1,500 and £4,000 a person.
August 4th 2010
Former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey, The Washington Post, today, arguing against civilian trials for Guantanamo detainees:
The civilized world has tried over several hundred years to establish rules of warfare so that those who wear uniforms, follow a recognized chain of command, carry their arms openly and do not target civilians are treated as prisoners of war when captured. Those who follow none of these rules are treated as war criminals, not as ordinary defendants accused of ordinary crimes and entitled to far more robust protection than war criminals.
July 23th, 2010
Debate over immigration in America rages on
July 23th, 2010
The large numbers of civilians being killed by African Union troops in their attempted occupation of Somalia are damaging their image, internal African Union reports are cautioning.
July 23th, 2010
Michele Bachmann, queen of the right
She says Obama is making the US 'a nation of slaves' – and her campaign is raking in millions. So just how far can Michele Bachmann go?
As stereotypes go, "Minnesota nice" is not a bad one. It holds that the mid-western residents of Minnesota, with its vast rural landscape and mostly Scandinavian-descended population, are unusually pleasant.
But Minnesotans might soon have to give up some of their hard-won reputation for quiet reasonableness thanks to one of their own, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a fiercely rightwing darling of the Tea Party, who is rapidly becoming one of the most famous politicians in America and may yet outshine Sarah Palin as a potential Republican presidential pick for 2012.
Bachmann, whose district is a sprawling stretch of farms and small cities, has used her theoretically modest political platform to catapult herself to the forefront of conservatism in America. She does not shy away from extreme opinions, lambasting President Barack Obama as a socialist threat to the American way of life. She is stridently anti-government, pro-business and socially conservative. She has even called for her fellow congressional politicians to be investigated to see if they are "pro-America" enough.
July 19th, 2010
Saodat Rakhimbayeva says she wishes she had died with her newborn baby. The 24-year-old housewife had a cesarean section in March and gave birth to Ibrohim, a premature boy who died three days later.
Then came a further devastating blow: She learned that the surgeon had removed part of her uterus during the operation, making her sterile. The doctor told her the hysterectomy was necessary to remove a potentially cancerous cyst, while she believes he sterilized her as part of a state campaign to reduce birthrates
July 18th, 2010
Agent Orange still haunting the US
It is because of America’s chemical war against her people in the jungles of Vietnam that Tran is in this condition. She is a victim of Agent Orange, second generation.
July 16th, 2010
The majority of the victims were in their 20s or 30s and were among an estimated 200,000 trainees from developing countries that are working here under the Japanese International Training Corporation Organisation.
Many were working 100 hours of overtime on top of regular working hours of 350 hours per month.
Human rights organisations and a group of lawyers representing dozens of interns seeking compensation from their former employers say the state-run scheme has become open to abuses that make it a form of slave labour and that victims have few rights.
Under Barack Obama, the former professor of constitutional law, Americans’ civil liberties have shrunken drastically – to the point that his administration claims the right to execute its citizens without charge or due process of any recognizable kind. And citizens that leave the country cannot be sure they will be allowed back in. But where is the outrage among Democrats, when Obama out-Bushes Bush? "It seems that Democrats did not in fact feel any affront to Bush policies, only to his party affiliation."
Disturbing organs trade in Italy
The struggle for cash is taking a sinister turn in Italy, as hundreds of desperate people are prepared to sell their own organs to raise money for their families.The shop windows of the streets of central Rome – among the most famous shopping passages in Europe – are showing off their merchandise, but hide the reality of the economic crisis that is forcing many to desperate measures Source : RT.com
The Obama administration is reportedly considering a plan to use Bagram prison in Afghanistan as a Guantánamo-style prison to hold and interrogate "terrorism suspects" captured in countries other than Afghanistan, including Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. Citing unnamed US officials, the Los Angeles Times reports that the United States is exploring a plan to "carve out a section of the prison for non-Afghan detainees who would remain under U.S. custody" even after Bagram is officially handed over to Afghan control, which the White House agreed to do last month. "The proposal is still in early stages of development," according to the LA Times. "It is the subject of quiet discussions among senior officials, and has not been submitted to the National Security Council or to Afghan officials." Major Tanya Bradsher, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said, "No decision has been made to house international terrorism suspects at Bagram."
48% See Government Today As AThreat to Individual Rights
Nearly half of American Adults see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Adults see the government today as a threat to rights. Thirty-seven percent (37%) hold the opposite view. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.
Most Republicans (74%) and unaffiliateds (51%) consider the government to be a threat to individual rights. Most Democrats (64%) regard the government as a protector of rights
6 Year Old Girl On Terrorist No-Fly List
WESTLAKE, Ohio - Alyssa Thomas, 6, is a little girl who is already under the spotlight of the federal government. Her family recently discovered that Alyssa is on the "no fly" list maintained by U.S. Homeland Security.
"We were, like, puzzled," said Dr. Santhosh Thomas. "I'm like, well, she's kinda six-years-old and this is not something that should be typical."
Dr. Thomas and his wife were made aware of the listing during a recent trip from Cleveland to Minneapolis. The ticket agent at the Continental counter at Hopkins Airport notified the family. "They said, well, she's on the list. We're like, okay, what's the story? What do we have to do to get off the list? This isn't exactly the list we want to be on," said Dr. Thomas.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations in Cleveland will confirm that a list exists, but for national security reasons, no one will discuss who is on the list or why
CLOSING GUANTANAMO NO LONGER A PRIORITY
Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the Obama administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.
Chinese hiding three million babies a year
"I am the biggest offender against the one-child policy in China!" laughed Fu Yang, a wiry and energetic 47-year-old man, as he fidgeted and poured tea. "I had seven daughters in just ten years."
Mr Fu and his rather more reserved wife are among the millions of Chinese parents who risk threats, fines and even imprisonment in order to defy the country's one-child policy. The couple, who now live a prosperous life in a small village outside the southern city of Xiamen, have had to flee across three provinces and hide their children with friends in the past.
Read more >>
Amnesty: U.S., Europe shielding Israel over Gaza war crimes
Amnesty International complained in its annual report released Thursday that the U.S. and members of the European Union had obstructed international justice by using their positions on the UN Security Council to shield Israel from accountability for war crimes allegedly committed during last year's Gaza war
Europe steps up pressure for smacking ban on human rights grounds
It is now one of only a handful of countries holding out against a complete ban on the practice, according to the Council of Europe.
The organisation criticised the fact that state intervention into family affairs is seen as “unwelcome” in Britain and attacked traditional parenting practices which are based on “authority”.
Read more >>
US private prisons remain unaccountable despite immigrant deaths
For thousands of illegal immigrants in the US being held in jails all over the country there is no way out, as their cases seldom make it to court. Over the last seven years, 110 detainees have died in the facilities.Source RT.com
Judge Andrew Napolitano : Natural Rights and The Patriot Act!
A great layout of what is really going on today with the only eagle eye and impartial view that this patriotic judge can provide
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PART 2 |PART 3
Doctors sterilise Uzbek women by stealth
WHEN her baby died soon after delivery, Gulbahor Zavidova, 28, a poor farmer’s wife, longed to be pregnant again. After months of trying she and her husband visited a doctor who told her she could never have another child because she had been sterilised.
The procedure had been performed immediately after she gave birth, by doctors who did not ask her consent. On learning she could not bear children, her husband left her.
“Not a day passes without me crying,” she said. “I was outraged when I found out what they had done. How could they do such a horrible thing without asking me?”
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Obama Wins the Right to Detain People with no Habeas Review
Few issues highlight Barack Obama's extreme hypocrisy the way that Bagram does. As everyone knows, one of George Bush’s most extreme policies was abducting people from all over the world -- far away from any battlefield -- and then detaining them at Guantanamo with no legal rights of any kind, not even the most minimal right to a habeas review in a federal court. Back in the day, this was called "Bush's legal black hole." In 2006, Congress codified that policy by enacting the Military Commissions Act, but in 2008, the Supreme Court, in Boumedienev. Bush, ruled that provision unconstitutional, holding that the Constitution grants habeas corpus rights even to foreign nationals held at Guantanamo. Since then, detainees havewon 35 out of 48 habeas hearings brought pursuant to Boumediene, on the ground that there was insufficient evidence to justify their detention.
 They're Trying to Call HIV-Positive People Bioterrorists?The body of a 44-year-old man is a bioterror weapon, according to a Michigan county prosecutor who is charging Daniel Allen, with "possession or use of a harmful biological device" for biting his neighbor during a neighborhood fight. Allen is African American and HIV-positive; his case is believed to be the first in the nation where prosecutors are linking anti-terrorism laws to an individual's HIV infection On October 18, Allen and his neighbor, Winfred Fernadis Jr., got into an argument that quickly turned violent. Allen contends he was the victim of a hate crime -- Fernandis allegedly taunted him about his sexual orientation after a stray football landed in Allen's yard -- and he has filed a complaint with the FBI. (He also filed a personal protection claim against the Fernandis family.)
 The image Microsoft doesn't want you to see: Too tired to stay awake, the Chinese workers earning just 34p an hour
Showing Chinese sweatshop workers slumped over their desks with exhaustion, it is an image that Microsoft won't want the world to see.
Employed for gruelling 15-hour shifts, in appalling conditions and 86f heat, many fall asleep on their stations during their meagre ten-minute breaks.
For as little as 34p an hour, the men and women work six or seven days a week, making computer mice and web cams for the American multinational computer company
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Pupils fingerprinted without parental consent, ATL conference hears
Pupils are having their fingerprints taken without their parents’ consent, teachers have warned.
Schools use fingerprints in place of swipe cards to save time identifying pupils when they are buying their lunch or during registration. But some are taking data without parents or pupils’ permission, teachers said.
“Parental consent should be compulsory, it’s outrageous that pupils' fingerprints can be taken without the parents' consent,” Hank Roberts, executive member for ATL, said.
Prisoners forced to submit to radiation experiments for private foreign companies
In Illinois, federal judges have allowed at least two lawsuits to proceed against correctional officials for using full body scanners to reveal the anatomy of both prisoners and visitors without removing their clothing. This is the very same device that airports are seeking to implement on some inbound flights to the United States.
Terrifying Video: "I Don't Need a Warrant, Ma'am, Under Federal Law"
Six law officers enter and search a woman's Bakersfield CA home without a warrant, saying federal law allows it. The action starts about 45 seconds into the video.
Official says Guantanamo detainees were held without cause
In a document obtained by The Times of London, Lawrence Wilkerson, army veteran and former chief of staff to Colin Powell, alleged that President George W. Bush knew that many of the detainees sent to the prison at Guantanamo Bay were innocent. Wilkerson says that the men were not even captured by US forces, but turned over to American troops by Afghans or Pakistanis who were paid up to $5,000 for the prisoners
White House won’t deny report saying it approved killing of American without trial
The White House won't deny reports claiming that it authorized the killing of an American citizen who is purportedly involved in planning al Qaeda attacks and is said to be hiding out in Yemen.
The New York Times and the Washington Postreported late Tuesday that Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was added to the CIA's list of alleged terrorists the US has targeted to kill. American forces have killed myriad suspected terror suspects using armed drone planes in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.
CBS News' Mark Knoller noted that the White House had issued no denial of the report by Wednesday morning. al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico and served for years as an imam in the United States. He has not been charged with a crime, but was linked by US officials to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the psychiatrist alleged to have killed 13 at an Army base in Fort Hood and Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called "Christmas day" bomber who attempted to detonate a jetliner en route to Detroit.
"No WH denial to reports in NYT & WP that Obama Administration has authorized the targeting killing of American citizen tied to Al Qaeda," Knoller wrote on his Twitter feed.
Washington Murdered Privacy At Home And Abroad
In the Swiss newspaper Zeit-Fragen, Professor Dr. Eberhard Hamer from Germany asks, "How Sovereign is Europe?"
He examines the issue and concludes that Europe has little, if any, sovereignty. Professor Hamer writes that the sovereign rights of Europeans as citizens of nation states were dissolved with the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on Dec. 1, 2009. The rights of the people have been conveyed to a political commissariat in Brussels. The French, Germans, Belgians, Spanish, British, Irish, Italians, Greeks, and so forth, now have "European citizenship whatever this may be."
 Christian Father Faces Jail for Taking Daughter to Church(PRNewsChannel) / February 1, 2010 /Chicago, Ill. / Joseph Reyes knew he could be accused of defying a court order barring him from taking his daughter to church. But he did it anyway and now he is facing contempt of court charges and jail.
The 35 year old, holding his 3 year old in his arms, walked into Holy Name Cathedral on January 17. A news crew videotaped the act of defiance.
"I have been ordered by a judge not to expose my daughter to anything non-Judaism," Reyes told a news reporter. "But I am taking her to hear the teachings of perhaps the most prominent Jewish Rabbi in the history of this great planet of ours. I can't think of anything more Jewish than that."
The prominent Jewish Rabbi that Reyes referenced was Jesus Christ.
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Haiti earthquake: orphans for sale for $50
In a remote area north of Port-au-Prince, a man was reported to have offered to sell a young boy to a Canadian man for just $50.
The first confirmed case of a child being offered for sale since Haiti was devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan 12 took place near Gonaives, 150km north of Port-au-Prince
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Cub Scout cannot get off terrorist watch list!
Protestors demand Guantanamo closure on facility’s eighth anniversary
On the eighth anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay prison, activists dressed in prison suits took to the streets of Washington demanding closure of the facility – something that President Obama promised to do a year ago.
America's Secret ICE Castles
If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he's illegal, we can make him disappear." Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008. Also present was Amnesty International's Sarnata Reynolds, who wrote about the incident in the 2009 report "Jailed Without Justice" and said in an interview, "It was almost surreal being there, particularly being someone from an organization that has worked on disappearances for decades in other countries. I couldn't believe he would say it so boldly, as though it weren't anything wrong."
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Robert Mugabe’s supporters ‘used rape as a weapon’ in election
A report by an American charity documents 380 politically motivated rapes committed by 241 individuals across all of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces.
Aids-Free World, which is led by the former United Nations envoy on Aids, Stephen Lewis, said that those behind the attacks on supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change had even set up central facilities where several women could be gang-raped simultaneously.
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U.S. Starves Children in Somali War
The United States is waging a war of starvation against the people of Somalia. According to United Nations officials, Washington has interrupted the flow of desperately needed food to Somalia, on the grounds that some of it might find its way into the hands of the Shabab, the Islamists the U.S. calls "terrorists," but who are winning the war for control of southern and central Somalia.
Forty million pounds of American-donated food is sitting in warehouses in Mombasa, Kenya, but U.S. officials won’t allow aid workers to deliver the food to the Somalis that need it. The Americans are blatantly using food as a political weapon, holding starving people hostage to U.S. political objectives – much like ancient armies did when they laid siege to cities to starve the inhabitants into surrender
Latvia – The Shame of Europe! Russian Children Taken From Parents to be Re-educated by the State
One of the Latvian government’s main priorities is the complete assimilation of the Russian minority, which constitutes almost half of the population. To achieve this goal they have resorted to every trick in the book: from all sorts of promises to blatant discrimination. But, despite all the tricks, the Russian do not want to become Letts.
Anti-war soldier faces 10 years in jail
17 Nov 2009 A British soldier who faces up to 10 years in jail for speaking out against the war in Afghanistan will go before a military judge this week to discover if he will remain in an army jail while he awaits trial. In an escalation of the Ministry of Defence's legal action against him, Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, 27, was arrested and charged last week with five counts of disobeying lawful commands and standing orders in relation to his public opposition to the war expressed at an anti-war rally last month. He had already been charged with desertion for refusing to return to fight in Afghanistan.
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Partial Patriot Act Extension Is Approved by Senate Panel
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday that would renew portions of the USA Patriot Act in an effort to address administration concerns about protecting terrorism investigations.
But several Democrats and civil liberties advocates said the legislation would do little to strengthen privacy protections. And some Republicans said the bill, despite amendments worked out with the administration, would still unduly burden investigators.
By a vote of 11 to 8, the committee sent to the Senate floor a measure that would extend until 2013 three surveillance provisions set to expire Dec. 31. They would allow investigators to use roving wiretaps to monitor suspects who may switch cellphone numbers, to obtain business records of national security targets, and to track "lone wolves" who may be acting alone on behalf of foreign powers or terrorist groups.
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Obama supports extending Patriot Act provisions
The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday.
Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps
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Sentenced to death on the NHS
Patients with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors have warned
Lawyers, families say 5 girls strip-searched at school
School officials in Atlantic forced five teenage girls to take off their clothing for a search after a classmate reported $100 missing from her purse, according to the girls' families and two lawyers.
The classmate and a female counselor stood watch in the girls' locker room at Atlantic High School as the five girls removed their clothing, lifted up their underwear, and in one case took off all her clothing, according to lawyers Ed Noethe of Council Bluffs and Matt Hudson of Harlan.
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The Bill Nobody Noticed: National DNA Databank
In April of 2008, President Bush signed into law S.1858 which allows the federal government to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. This was to be implemented within 6 months meaning that this collection is now being carried out. Congressman Ron Paul states that this bill is the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database.
S.1858, known as The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007, is justified as a "national contingency plan" in that it represents preparation for any sort of public health emergency. The bill states that the federal government should "continue to carry out, coordinate, and expand research in newborn screening" and "maintain a central clearinghouse of current information on newborn screening... ensuring that the clearinghouse is available on the Internet and is updated at least quarterly". Sections of the bill also make it clear that DNA may be used in genetic experiments and tests. Read the full bill:http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bil...
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