Playing out in front of your eyes

Bilderberg 2007 Meeting In Istanbul

2007-06-05T08:08:00.000+01:00

Here is some video from Dutch TV and Turkey, shame that other news do not report this

Dutch TV

Turkey Protesting

Peres: Claims Shin Bet involved in 1976 hijacking 'baseless'

2007-06-05T08:05:00.000+01:00

Vice Premier Shimon Peres vehently rejected claims Saturday that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) may have been involved in the hijacking of an Air France plane in 1976 by Palestinian terrorists

Peres, who was defense minister at the time of the hijacking and Entebbe rescue, said the claims which emerged in newly declassified British government documents on Friday, were so outrageously baseless that they did not merit comment.

Some 100 passengers were held by hijackers at Entebbe airport in Uganda during an eight-day ordeal that concluded when General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal) troops stormed the building where the captives were held.

Twenty-four people died in the shoot-out, including three hostages, 20 Ugandans and the commander of the rescue team, Yoni Netanyahu, brother of current opposition head Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud).

The hijackers, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the German Baader-Meinhof gang, demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners.

But according to the newly released documents, the Shin Bet and the PFLP are alleged to have teamed up in an "unholy alliance" in an attempt to change foreign policy in the Middle East.

The allegation appeared in a document written by official DH Colvin at the British embassy in Paris, quoting a contact at the Euro-Arab Parliamentary Association, as the crisis unfolded.

Source: JP
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Reid warning to judges over control orders

2007-05-25T08:26:00.000+01:00

The home secretary, John Reid, made clear yesterday he is prepared to declare a "state of emergency" to suspend key parts of the human rights convention if the law lords do not overturn a series of judgments that have weakened the anti-terrorist control order regime.

His warning to the courts followed his acute embarrassment yesterday when he had to confirm to MPs that three terror suspects whom he had placed under control orders to prevent them travelling to Iraq to kill British and US troops had all absconded on Monday night.

Source: Guardian UK
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Bush makes power grab

2007-05-25T08:23:00.000+01:00

President Bush, without so much as issuing a press statement, on May 9 signed a directive that granted near dictatorial powers to the office of the president in the event of a national emergency declared by the president.

The "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive," with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive, establishes under the office of president a new National Continuity Coordinator.

That job, as the document describes, is to make plans for "National Essential Functions" of all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president's directives in the event of a national emergency.

The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

When the president determines a catastrophic emergency has occurred, the president can take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities to ensure we will emerge from the emergency with an "enduring constitutional government."

Translated into layman's terms, when the president determines a national emergency has occurred, the president can declare to the office of the presidency powers usually assumed by dictators to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.

Ironically, the directive sees no contradiction in the assumption of dictatorial powers by the president with the goal of maintaining constitutional continuity through an emergency.

Source: WorldNetDaily
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Bid to put off info time-wasters

2007-05-24T08:33:00.000+01:00

Plans are due to be unveiled to deter "pointless and mischievous" requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
UK Information Commissioner Richard Thomas will say the act's reputation is being jeopardised by such inquiries.
He cites a request to the Foreign Office on the amount spent on Ferrero Rocher chocolate and one on eligible bachelors in the Hampshire police.
But he will stress that the act "reinforces good government" and should not be fought over.
More than 100,000 public bodies, including government departments, councils, the NHS, and universities, have been subject to potential FoI requests since 2005.
Preventing requests
In a keynote speech, the commissioner will say FoI should not be regarded as a threat even when it reveals information that is "embarrassing" or "uncomfortable".
He will urge public bodies them to adopt a positive approach to openness.

"After nearly two-and-a-half years FoI is delivering real benefits," Mr Thomas will say.
"There is a presumption of disclosure, unless there is a genuine reason to withhold information."

The commissioner is due to outline new guidelines, highlighting the right of public bodies to reject "vexatious" requests.
Some have been bombarded with inquires - the BBC, for example, has received more than 90 from one individual about the amount of expenses paid to senior staff.
"A charter for responsible FoI requests will help to prevent requests which have no serious purpose or value, impose disproportionate burdens or have the effect of harassing the public body," Mr Thomas will say.
The suggestion, however, is likely to prompt criticism from those already concerned at attempts by some MPs to restrict the scope of the act.

Source: BBC News

Editor Notes:
So it looks like the UK Government wants to limited what information is given out, One thing I want to know is what was "pointless and mischievous" request. There has been no examples, I do know that people are questioning the 7/7 Incident, could it be this? Which I don't think is "pointless and mischievous"

Israel Launches Air Strikes on Gaza Amid New Truce Effort

2007-05-23T16:57:00.000+01:00

Israel has launched fresh air strikes in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least seven Palestinians. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, the attacks occurred as Palestinian leaders pushed for a new truce.

Israeli aircraft attacked targets of the Islamic militant group Hamas across Gaza including suspected weapons factories and warehouses and other facilities. Now in its second week, the air campaign is aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks. More than 150 rockets have fallen on Israel over the past week, leaving the border community of Sderot a virtual ghost town.

The rockets keep falling despite the air strikes, but Israeli spokeswoman Miri Eisen says a major ground assault on Gaza is not on the table.

"The military themselves are very clear on the fact that even a full-scale invasion would not necessarily stop all of the rocket attacks," said Eisen.

Source: VOA News
To read the full story, please click on the source

Hillary Clinton - What Does she stand for?

2007-05-23T16:29:00.000+01:00

I think that says it all!

ABC News: Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran

2007-05-23T15:59:00.000+01:00

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

Source: ABCNEWS Blog
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CNN news - Does the jihadists serve really the cause of their country?

2007-05-23T11:34:00.000+01:00

An Interesting News Report from CNN

Faith United - A Lesson For Us All...

2007-05-23T11:27:00.000+01:00

This is an old video from last year On 7/26/2006, Ahmed Bedier along with other CAIR reps meet Orthodox Jewish Rabbis participating in Rally outside the Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. to call for an immediate Cease Fire. The Rabbis described the Israeli aggression as illegal. One Rabbi aske the world not blame the great religion of Judaism for the actions of the Israeli government.

The last bit is crucial, Judaism is NOT to blame, the Zionist Israeli Government is!

Russia shields spy murder suspect

2007-05-22T21:17:00.000+01:00

Relations between Britain and Russia hit a post-cold war low on Tuesday after Moscow said it would not extradite the former KGB officer the UK wants to try for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian dissident.

The government began formal proceedings for Andrei Lugovoi to be extradited after the Crown Prosecution Service said there was enough evidence for him to face trial in the UK for the poisoning of Litvinenko in a London hotel in November.

A spokesman for Tony Blair, the prime minister, said the UK would “not in any way shy away’’ from trying to ensure justice prevailed. “Murder is murder; this is a very serious case,” he said.

Mr Lugovoi said he was innocent of murder and the decision to charge him was politically motivated, according to the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.

Source: FT.com
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"Israels Next War" - Jewish Settler Attitudes

2007-05-22T08:56:00.000+01:00

The documentary is damage control for Israel. The settlers have run amok for years unfettered by the State. With the average non jew now cottoning on that the biggest thug on the block is Israel, they are having to "trim their sails".

We see here the end result of the ideological base that bonds all jews together...the racist and biggotted holy books called the Talmud and Zohar/Kabbahla.

In these books only the jew is a human being. All non jews are animals.

Whether a rabid right wing religious jew or a rabid secular Zionist with Left wing leanings, the base of operations remains the same...Israel must fulfill it's destiny no matter how many Arabs die or are made homeless.

When Arabs fight back it is "terrorism".

When radical jews commit murder...it is unfortunate.

Please visit and purchase quality books and multi media from Michael Hoffmans website...

http://www.revisionisthistory.org

Pilotless police drone takes off

2007-05-22T08:39:00.000+01:00

The UK's first police remote control helicopter has taken off.

Merseyside police are using the "spy drone", fitted with CCTV cameras, mainly for tackling anti-social behaviour and public disorder.

The machine is 1m wide, weighs less than a bag of sugar, and can record images from a height of 500m.

Originally used by the military, it is due to be operational by June for a full three-month trial, which is the "first of its kind" in the UK.

The drone will also be used for monitoring traffic congestion and investigations are to be made into its possible role in firearms operations.

The machines, which are flown by remote control or using pre-programmed GPS navigation systems, are silent and can be fitted with night-vision cameras.

The images they record are sent back to a police support vehicle or control room.

Source: BBC News
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Global net censorship 'growing'

2007-05-20T13:36:00.000+01:00

The level of state-led censorship of the net is growing around the world, a study of so-called internet filtering by the Open Net Initiative suggests.

The study of thousands of websites across 120 Internet Service Providers found 25 of 41 countries surveyed showed evidence of content filtering.

Websites and services such as Skype and Google Maps were blocked, it said.

Such "state-mandated net filtering" was only being carried out in "a couple" of states in 2002, one researcher said.

"In five years we have gone from a couple of states doing state-mandated net filtering to 25," said John Palfrey, at Harvard Law School.

Source: BBC News
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Police chief slams 'Orwellian' CCTV

2007-05-20T13:32:00.000+01:00

A senior police officer has warned that the proliferation of CCTV cameras risks creating an "Orwellian" society.
Ian Readhead, Deputy Chief Constable of Hampshire Police, said he did not want to live in a country with surveillance on every street corner.
He questioned whether the expansion was justified in areas where there were relatively-low crime levels.
The Hampshire force area includes the small town of Stockbridge, where parish councillors have spent £10,000 installing CCTV.

"I'm really concerned about what happens to the product of these cameras, and what comes next," he told BBC One's Politics Show.

"If it's in our villages, are we really moving towards an Orwellian situation where cameras are at every street corner? And I really don't think that's the kind of country that I want to live in."

Mr Readhead also called for the use of speed cameras to be reviewed, and more consideration of why DNA was kept.
There are an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK - one for every 14 people.
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has raised concerns about Britain "sleepwalking into a surveillance society", with more cameras on the street and extensive monitoring of consumer behaviour.
However, supporters say CCTV is a crucial tool in deterring crime and catching criminals, and the innocent have nothing to fear.

Source: Guardian UK

Senators Want CIA to Release 9/11 Report

2007-05-18T09:13:00.000+01:00

A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general's report on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The CIA has spent more than 20 months weighing requests under the Freedom of Information Act for its internal investigation of the attacks but has yet to release any portion of it.

The agency is the only federal office involved in counterterrorism operations that has not made at least a version of its internal 9/11 investigation public.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and two other intelligence committee leaders - chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and senior Republican Kit Bond of Missouri - are pushing legislation that would require the agency to declassify the executive summary of the review within one month and submit a report to Congress explaining why any material was withheld.

The provision has been approved by the Senate twice, but never made into law.

In an interview, Wyden said he is also considering whether to link the report's release to his acceptance of President Bush's nominations for national security positions.

``It's amazing the efforts the administration is going to stonewall this,'' Wyden said. ``The American people have a right to know what the Central Intelligence Agency was doing in those critical months before 9/11.... I am going to bulldog this until the public gets it.''

Source: Guardian
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US says Israel has right to defend against Hamas

2007-05-17T17:01:00.000+01:00

The United States said on Thursday that Israel had the right to defend itself against rocket attacks from the militant Palestinian group Hamas and praised the Jewish state for "great restraint" in recent days. Israeli air strikes on Thursday destroyed a Hamas security headquarters and a car carrying one of the group's top commanders. Israel had threatened a "severe" response to cross-border rocket attacks that have persisted despite a troop and settler pullout from Gaza in 2005. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack urged restraint on all sides but said Israel had the right to respond to rocket attacks from Hamas. "Israel has the right to defend itself and it has exercised great restraint in the face of these rocket attacks," McCormack told reporters. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke earlier to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as well as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about the latest violence pitting Abbas' Fatah movement against Hamas. Israel has also launched deadly air strikes against the Islamists."She wanted to talk to them directly and see how they saw the situation," said McCormack of the calls Rice made to the two leaders. "We certainly want to see a reduction or an end to the violence but let's remember how that violence started and it started with these Hamas-led forces," he added.

Source: Reuters

It looks like the US just stands by while innocent people are being killed

Israel launches Gaza air strikes

2007-05-17T16:57:00.000+01:00

Israel's aircraft have struck a number of targets in Gaza after it vowed a severe response to rocket attacks on its soil.

A Hamas commander died in an attack on a car and another militant was killed in a housing unit, both in Gaza City.

A raid on a Hamas office also killed one person and injured at least 45.

The attacks came as efforts to end five days of fighting between rivals Hamas and Fatah again appeared to fail. At least 40 people have now died.

Correspondents say the rocket attacks into Israel appear to be an attempt to draw it into an internal Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads Fatah, on Thursday suddenly called off a trip to Gaza that had been billed as an effort to shore up the fourth Hamas-Fatah ceasefire in five days.

Officials said he might now travel from Ramallah in the West Bank on Friday.

The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi says control of the security forces appears to have been the trigger for the latest factional fighting but that it has now developed a momentum of its own.

Armed supporters on the ground may no longer be paying attention to orders from their political leadership, he adds.

On Thursday, US President George W Bush said both he and visiting UK Prime Minister Tony Blair were urging all parties to work for peace.

Source: BBC News
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Israel Soldiers Hurt In Secret Anthrax Experiment

2007-05-17T09:26:00.000+01:00

Dozens of Israeli soldiers are today suffering from a wide range of illnesses, some incurable, after participating in a secret experiment to develop an anthrax vaccine.

Israel's Channel 2 News reported that the soldiers have developed skin tumors, severe lung infections, serious migraine headaches, bronchitis and even epilepsy.

Some 800 Israeli soldiers from have participated in the program since 1999. They were sworn to secrecy, and forbidden to tell even their families about the program even after they began displaying serious medical symptoms.

The investigative reporter behind the expose charged that Israel's Defense Ministry has so far refused to take responsibility for the medical care of the soldiers in an effort to maintain the program's secrecy.

Syria, which some military experts fear may soon engage Israel in a war involving heavy use of long-range ballistic missiles, is believed to have a large stockpile of anthrax.

Source: AHN Media Group

Al Fayed wants Queen quizzed over Diana's death

2007-05-16T18:21:00.000+01:00

Lawyers for Mohamed Al Fayed today tried to embroil the Queen in the Diana, Princess of Wales, inquest.

They called for the monarch to be "directly approached" over an infamous conversation she allegedly had with the former royal butler, Paul Burrell, in which she warned him of unknown "powers" at work in this country.

Mr Burrell, who previously worked for the princess, made the claim after the collapse of his Old Bailey trial for theft.

Source: Guardian UK
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Reid to expand use of Taser stun guns

2007-05-16T17:31:00.000+01:00

The use of Taser stun guns could be extended to non-firearms police officers, the Home Office said on Wednesday.

Home Secretary John Reid is due to tell the Police Federation's annual conference in Blackpool that he wants to see more frontline police officers carrying the 50,000 volt devices.

The guns, which temporarily disable a suspect, can only be used by firearms officers at the moment, but Reid wants to extend the use to non-firearms officers working in specially trained units.

Currently, officers can only use the guns when confronted by an armed person, but under the plans, officers will also be able to use them if they face violence or threats, the BBC reported.

Taser guns have been used in 619 incidents since their introduction in the UK four years ago, a Home Office spokeswoman said.

The plans have angered human rights groups who say Tasers have been linked to dozens of deaths in America and Canada.

The Home Office said no deaths have been linked to their use in Britain.

An independent medical panel is carrying out research on whether the guns, which fire two barbed darts trailing electric wires, can cause serious injury.

If the plans get the go-ahead, trials could begin from September.

Source: Reuters UK

Lawyer for bomber's widow condemns police

2007-05-16T17:29:00.000+01:00

The solicitor of a woman released without charge after being arrested in connection with the July 7 bombings has condemned police for her treatment.

Last night Scotland Yard confirmed three people arrested in connection with the July 7 bombings had been released without charge.

Those released include Hasina Patel, 29, the widow of London bombings ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan.

Ms Patel's solicitor, Imran Khan, said he was relieved his client had been released, but shocked at the way she had been treated.

He said police had destroyed relations with the Muslim community in the way they had behaved towards the widow of Mohammed Sidique Khan.

A fourth man aged 34, Khalid Khaliq, remains in custody after police were granted a warrant to detain him for further questioning until May 21.

The two men released are Ms Patel's brother Arshad and Imran Motala.

The four were arrested in a series of anti-terror raids last Wednesday, during which properties in West Yorkshire and the West Midlands were searched.

All four, held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, were taken to the high-security Paddington Green police station in London for questioning.

Mr Khan told BBC News 24: "I'm relieved that she's out after her ordeal and shocked that the police only revealed at the last minute information which they had in their possession before Hasina was arrested which shows she had no idea, not an inkling of what Mohammed Sidique Khan was going to do."

While Mr Khan said he was not at liberty to reveal what that information was, he said it showed "clearly and unequivocally" that she knew nothing of what Sidique Khan was planning.

Source: The Independent
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Fox News Hannity and Colmes double-teamed Ron Paul

2007-05-16T16:11:00.000+01:00

After the show, Hannity and Colmes double-teamed Paul in an attempt to discredit him in the eyes of both liberals and conservatives, with Colmes going after him on abortion and Hannity chomping at the bit to smear the Texas Congressman as weak on terrorism.

Here is the video:

Police release 7/7 bomber's widow

2007-05-16T10:55:00.000+01:00

Three people, including the widow of 7 July bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, have been released without charge after being questioned over the 2005 attacks.

Hasina Patel, 29, brother Arshad Patel, 30, and Imran Motala, 22, were held on 9 May in West Yorkshire and Birmingham.

Police have been granted a warrant to continue to detain Khalid Khaliq, 34, of Beeston, Leeds, until next Monday.

The four had been held in London on suspicion of commissioning, preparing or instigating acts of terrorism.

Last week's arrests followed an intelligence-led operation involving Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command.

Police searched seven addresses in Dewsbury, Batley and Beeston, all in West Yorkshire, and Birmingham.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "In all operations some people may be released early without charge while others may remain in custody for further investigation.

"This is not unusual and is to be expected in large and complex criminal investigations."

Source: BBC News
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Israel Jerusalem policy condemned

2007-05-16T10:46:00.000+01:00

The international Red Cross has privately accused Israel of reshaping Jerusalem to further its own interests, in violation of international law.

A leaked ICRC report says Israeli policy has far-reaching humanitarian consequences for Palestinians living under occupation in East Jerusalem.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, and the territory is regarded as occupied land under international law.

But Israel rejects this, and says the report's premise is, therefore, wrong.

The report says Israel shows "general disregard" for its obligations under international humanitarian law and the law of military occupation in particular.

Violations that change the status of East Jerusalem include the West Bank barrier, an outer ring of Jewish settlements around the city and roads to connect Israeli districts and settlements, the report says.

An ICRC spokesman confirmed that leaked quotations in a US newspaper were from a confidential report transmitted in February 2007 to Israel and some other governments.

Source: BBC News
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Investigating Scientology

2007-05-15T14:05:00.000+01:00

Shown last night - 8.30, Panorama went uncover to understand Scientology. The documentary showed how you shouldn't call Scientology a cult, they are a religion. The newscaster had been followed by Scientology members throughout his investigation, Tactics employed similar to secret service, and it seems that Scientology are above the law. They also use the Christian cross and have Church, but the culture of Scientology is nothing to do with Christian

BBC News Item

Past issues on Scientology issues, Tom Cruise and South Park

South Part Portion with what Scientology believe in

Keith Olbermann MSNBC news coverage

Palestine - Civil War?

2007-05-15T11:57:00.000+01:00

Rival Palestinian gunmen battled on the streets of Gaza on Tuesday despite a renewed pledge to curb the biggest surge of factional fighting in months.

Palestinian leaders were expected to renew their appeals for calm in speeches marking the annual "Naqba", or what Palestinians describe as the tragedy that befell them when Israel became a state in 1948.

No deaths were reported in the morning in the on-going fight for supremacy between power-sharing partners Hamas and Fatah. Ten people have been killed since a new round of violence, threatening their coalition government, erupted on Friday.

Masked gunmen ruled Gaza. Residents who risked leaving home darted across streets, shoulders hunched, to the crackle of volleys from automatic weapons.

Source: Reuters UK
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Today a Terrorist Talks in London

2007-05-15T09:39:00.000+01:00

Today there will be a celebration of 40 years of Occupation of Jerusalem, with the guest speaker Moshe Arens who left America as a young man to join the Zionist terror group the Irgun (see 1st source) which carried out terrorist attacks against Arab civilians and the British authorities in Palestine. Its most infamous attack was the King David Hotel Bombing which killed 91 people. After the Nakba the Irgun terrorists joined the 'Israeli Defence Force' and Moshe Arens went on to hold top posts in the Israeli government, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Ambassador to the United States. And tonight he is speaking to assembled guests in North London, to celebrate the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians of Jerusalem.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Arens
http://www.zionist.org.uk/Event/posterpage.php?evid=174

Poster:

Yet all mainstream media are not showing this event. The question you have to ask is why?

EU boycotts 'provocative' Israeli anniversary party

2007-05-14T21:09:00.000+01:00

Ambassadors from European Union states are to boycott celebrations of the 40th anniversary of Israel's conquest of Arab East Jerusalem this week - in the opening shot of what promises to be a challenging summer for Israeli diplomacy.

The United States ambassador, Richard Jones, is also expected to join the Europeans in snubbing the celebrations .

What Israelis commemorate as the "reunification" of their historic Jewish capital is seen by most of the international community, not to mention the Palestinians, as a unilateral attempt to pre-empt a key issue in any peaceful solution. One-third of the city's 725,000 residents are Palestinians, who have opted to reject offers of Israeli citizenship. Along with most other countries, the Europeans keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian parliament, yesterday welcomed the European boycott as a blow for international law and peace. "The Israelis," she said, "cannot get away with creating facts on the ground and then forcing everybody to fall in line".

Foreign diplomats are likely to be equally wary of celebrating the anniversary of the 1967 June war. Most Israelis cherish it as a glorious victory, but left-wing demonstrators reminded them last week that it heralded 40 years of occupation of Palestinian and Syrian lands.

On the Europeans' behalf, Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the 27-member union, rejected invitations to a Jerusalem Day event at Israel's parliament on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the European Commission said: "... we do not recognise the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem. We believe that the future of Jerusalem should be settled by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians".

The British embassy confirmed that Tom Phillips, the ambassador, would not attend the event. "We think it is not appropriate," a spokeswoman explained, "because Jerusalem is one of the unsettled final-status issues."

The Israeli reaction was calculatedly low-key. It is not spoiling for a fight over Jerusalem at this stage. Mark Regev, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "We are disappointed and unhappy that not all governments will be sending representatives."

He reiterated Israel's long-standing policy: "We have agreed that the issue of Jerusalem is part of final-status talks. We will bring our position to the table. The Palestinians will bring [theirs]. But our position is that Jerusalem will remain the united capital of the Jewish state."

The Israeli cabinet, which met yesterday in the Menachem Begin Heritage Centre overlooking the Old City, approved a 5.75 billion-shekel (£7m) package designed to strengthen Israel's hold on Jerusalem over the next five years. It includes tax relief for charities, hospitals and educational institutions; and transferring more government offices to the city.

Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, said the measures would "advance and encourage Jerusalem". But Mohammed Baradeh, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, protested: "Holding the government meeting across from the walls of the Old City, celebrating the occupation, is a provocation. There will be no peace without two capital cities in Jerusalem."

Source: The Independent UK

Israelis confess to killing Palestinian-police

2007-05-14T19:57:00.000+01:00

Israeli police arrested on Monday two Israelis who said they had murdered a Palestinian found dead in Tel Aviv, a police spokesman said. Police spotted the men, aged 21 and 25 and also citizens of France, walking in the city with blood-stained hands, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The men told the officers they had killed a man and led them to an apartment, where a body was found. Police then arrested them. The man was identified as a 35-year-old taxi driver and an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, Rosenfeld said. "The murder was carried out on a nationalistic level," Rosenfeld said. "Police are continuing the investigation." Israeli media said the Palestinian had been stabbed in the neck. Rosenfeld said he could not elaborate on how the man was killed but said he suffered several wounds.

Source: Reuters

Rice rejects 'new Cold War' talk

2007-05-14T19:43:00.000+01:00

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has dismissed talk of a new Cold War between Russia and the US, at the start of a visit to Moscow.

Ms Rice said "I think the parallels just frankly have no basis whatsoever", while acknowledging that "it's not an easy time" for Russian-US relations.

The Kremlin has expressed strong opposition to US plans to deploy a missile defence shield in Europe.

Washington's backing for Kosovo's independence has also been attacked.

Source: BBC News
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How Much Power does the state of Israel have over the free world

2007-05-14T14:14:00.000+01:00

Dutch Documentary: Israel Lobby

Does The Israel Lobby Stifle Free Speech? - BBC chatback

China launches Nigerian satellite

2007-05-14T14:03:00.000+01:00

China has successfully launched a communications satellite for Nigeria.

The official Xinhua news agency says it is the first time that a foreign buyer has purchased both a Chinese satellite and its launching service.

The Nigerian Communication Satellite NIGCOMSAT-1 is expected to offer broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband internet services for Africa.

Source: BBC News
To read the full story, please click on the source

"Smart cameras" to tackle abandoned luggage alarms

2007-05-11T17:21:00.000+01:00

A suitcase lies abandoned in a busy airport terminal. Was it planted by a bomber, or carelessly left for a couple of minutes while the owner went to buy coffee?

One of the commonest headaches facing security staff may soon be remedied with the help of "intelligent security cameras" developed by European scientists.

A newly concluded research project relies on formulae known as algorithms to enable computers to analyze video images and spot potential threats, from abandoned baggage to people loitering suspiciously.

"It's (about) developing solutions so that computers can detect abnormal behavior," said project coordinator Jean-Marc Suchier of French group Sagem Defense Securite, a unit of Safran.

For security staff at airports or railway stations, often monitoring images from dozens of surveillance cameras at once, the new technology offers the promise of picking out dangers that might otherwise be missed.

"The idea is to automatically analyze and intelligently filter all of that video, but also to add a next level of intelligence," said James Ferryman, a specialist in 'computational vision' at the University of Reading in England.

"We're talking about smart cameras which go to the next level of proactive detection."

Source: Reuters
To read the full story please click on the source

Edit: Added by Peter
Make up your own minds by what is mentioned by intelligently filter?

Rumsfeld Keeps Ghastly 9/11 Souvenirs

2007-05-11T09:27:00.000+01:00

The Justice Department investigation that criticized FBI agents for taking souvenirs from the World Trade Center site also found that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a high-ranking FBI official kept items from the Sept. 11 attack scenes.

To read the full story, please click on the following link: TruthEra

I was very surprised to read the following, I do find this disrespectful to the victims of 9-11.

ID card costs rise above £5bn

2007-05-10T16:16:00.000+01:00

The official cost of the controversial ID card scheme has risen to £5.31bn.

The figures were released as Tony Blair announced his departure, leading to claims from the opposition that the government was "burying bad news".

The Tories and Lib Dems also claimed that the Home Office broke the law by releasing the updated figures a month later than they should have.

The Home Office put the £400m increased costs down to extra staff carrying out vetting and extra anti-fraud measures.

To read the full story, please click here: BBC News

Blair names the day he'll step down: June 27

2007-05-10T14:51:00.000+01:00

After months of coy hints and fevered speculation, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on Thursday that he would leave office on June 27 after a decade in power in which he sacrificed his popularity to the war in Iraq and struggled at home to improve schools, policing and hospitals.

With stirring oratory cast as a personal testament, he declared: "I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That's your call.

"But believe one thing: I did what I thought was right for our country.

"I have been prime minister of the country for just over 10 years," he said. "In this job, in the world today, I think that is long enough for me, but more especially for the country.

"Sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down.

To read the full article, please click here

Hamas TV slips kids Mickey to teach hate - Investigation

2007-05-10T14:43:00.000+01:00

By now you would have seen the following video, which can be easily seen on YourTube

I have thought to investigate who this company MEMRITV.ORG is. Before you believe everything a newspaper tells you, try searching on the company that provided that bit of video - Memri:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,773258,00.html

Actually, I will quote some bits:

Quote:

The reason for Memri's air of secrecy becomes clearer when we look at the people behind it. The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon.

Mr - or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1511

Quote:

Others, however, see a darker side to MEMRI's work, arguing that the organization "cherry picks" the items it decides to translate, revealing a clear pro-Israel, neoconservative-inclined bias. A case in point came in mid-June 2006, when discussions over the fate of Iran's nuclear program were reaching fever pitch in Washington. MEMRI held an event on Capitol Hill titled "Must See Iran TV II." The event, cosponsored by then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), was aimed at raising congressional awareness of Iran's threatening posture toward the United States and its allies in the Middle East. The MEMRI presentation included translated clips from Iranian television that highlighted "themes associated with Iran's nuclear aspirations, its acquisition of offensive weapons, anti-Americanism, and statements by leading Iranian government officials, including President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad," according to an article in the New York Sun written by MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky (June 14, 2006).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Media_Research_Institute

Taken from http://www.upstartactivist.com/, Upstart Activist educates about Israel. We develop and deliver unique media-rich presentations, effective leadership training seminars and creative educational resources that draw upon deep knowledge of Israel and decades of proven activist experience in N. America.

Quote:

Find organizations like Camera, Media Watch, Memri, Israel Foreign Ministry, ADL that can help in yourstruggle to expose anti Israel biases. They are usually ready to assist with some pretty potent ideas and information

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=605

Quote:

How MEMRI presents itself

[From the MEMRI website:]

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East. Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization.
The truth about MEMRI

MEMRI is a main arm of Israeli propaganda. Although widely used in the mainstream media as a source of information on the Arab world, it is as trustworthy as Julius Streicher's Der Sturmer was on the Jewish world.

The evidence

MEMRI recently posted what it alleged was an interview I did with Lebanese television on the Nazi holocaust. The MEMRI posting was designed to prove that I was a Holocaust denier. Below I juxtapose the MEMRI version of my interview (both the actual broadcast version as well as the transcript it prepared) against what I actually said in the interview.

There are loads more, but the simple fact is the MEMRI distorts/mistranslates the language spoken and reedits them.

FOX News Tries To Link John Kerry To 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists

2007-05-10T14:40:00.000+01:00

FOX News tried to paint Senator John Kerry as a 9/11 conspiracy theorist last night (5/9/07). Based on a brief statement Kerry made about the controlled demolition of a wall at one of the World Trade Center buildings, FOX tried to make the case that the 9/11 conspiracy theorists had bonded with him. With video.

At the beginning of the show, a chyron read, “The crazies love him” as Sean Hannity announced the upcoming Kerry segment.

To read the full story on News Hounds, please click here

Blair denies MI5 failures and rejects call for 7/7 inquiry

2007-05-03T13:35:00.000+01:00

Tony Blair today ruled out demands for a new inquiry into the July 7 bombings, denying claims that MI5 overlooked crucial evidence which could have prevented the attacks

In the Commons, the Prime Minister said a fresh inquiry would be a "mistake" and would undermine support for the security services in the fight against terrorism.

His comments came amid reports that MI5 did not show surveillance photographs of the bombers' ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan to the original inquiry by the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).

The BBC reported that although MI5 had six photographs of Khan taken during the investigation of another terror plot, only one was shown to the ISC.

To read the full story, please click here

Newly disclosed documents show U.S. Defense Department tracked anti-Iraq war activities

2006-11-22T15:59:00.000Z

An anti-terrorist database used by the Defense Department in an effort to prevent attacks on military installations included intelligence tips about antiwar planning meetings held at churches, libraries, college campuses and other locations, newly disclosed documents show.

One tip in the database in February 2005, for instance, noted that "a church service for peace" would be held in the New York City area the next month. Another entry noted that antiwar protesters would be holding "nonviolence training" sessions at unidentified churches in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The Defense Department said it tightened its procedures this year to ensure that only material related to actual terrorist threats - and not peaceable First Amendment activity - was included in the database.

The head of the office that runs the database, known as Talon, said Monday that material on antiwar protests should not have been collected in the first place. "I don't want it, we shouldn't have had it, not interested in it," said Daniel Baur, acting director of the counterintelligence field-activity unit, which runs the Talon program at the Defense Department. "I don't want to deal with it."

Source: International Herald Tribune
To read the full story please click on the source

Cheney calls 'water-boarding' a valuable interrogation tool

2006-10-28T11:09:00.000+01:00

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al Qaeda suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called ''water-boarding,'' which creates a sensation of drowning.

Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. ''It's a no-brainer for me,'' Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Cheney's comments, in a White House interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration's view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism.

The U.S. Army, senior Republican lawmakers, human rights experts and many experts on the laws of war, however, consider water-boarding cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that is banned by U.S. law and by international treaties that prohibit torture. Some intelligence professionals argue that it often provides false or misleading information because many subjects will tell their interrogators what they think they want to hear to make the water-boarding stop.

GOP SENATORS FIGHT IT

Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have said that a law Bush signed last month prohibits water-boarding. The three are the sponsors of the Military Commissions Act, which authorized the administration to continue its interrogations of enemy combatants.

Graham, a military lawyer who serves in the Air Force Reserve, reaffirmed that view in an interview last week with McClatchy Newspapers.

''Water-boarding, in my opinion, would cause extreme physical and psychological pain and suffering, and it very much could run afoul of the War Crimes Act,'' he said, referring to a 1996 law. ``It could very much open people up to prosecution under the War Crimes Act, as well as be a violation of the Detainees Treatment Act.''

A revised U.S. Army Field Manual published last month bans water-boarding as ``cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.''

''There is a disconnect between the president and the vice president and on the other side leading proponents from their own party and leading experts on the laws of war,'' said Neal Sonnett, the chairman of the American Bar Association's Task Force on Enemy Combatants.

CHENEY INTERVIEWED

The radio interview Tuesday was the first time that a senior Bush administration official has confirmed that U.S. interrogators used water-boarding against important al Qaeda suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Mohammed was captured in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, and turned over to the CIA.

Water-boarding involves holding a person's head under water or pouring water on cloth or cellophane placed over the nose and mouth to simulate drowning until the subject agrees to talk or confess.

Lee Ann McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, denied that Cheney confirmed that U.S. interrogators used water-boarding or endorsed the technique.

''What the vice president was referring to was an interrogation program without torture,'' she said. ``The vice president never goes into what may or may not be techniques or methods of questioning.''

`A VALUABLE TOOL'

In the interview on Tuesday, Scott Hennen of WDAY Radio in Fargo, N.D., told Cheney that listeners had asked him to ``let the vice president know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves American lives.''

''Again, this debate seems a little silly given the threat we face, would you agree?'' Hennen said.

''I do agree,'' Cheney replied, according to a transcript of the interview released Wednesday. ``And I think the terrorist threat, for example, with respect to our ability to interrogate high-value detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation.''

Cheney added that Mohammed had provided ``enormously valuable information about how many [al Qaeda members] there are, about how they plan, what their training processes are and so forth. We've learned a lot. We need to be able to continue that.''

''Would you agree that a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?'' asked Hennen.

'It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the vice president `for torture.' We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in,'' Cheney replied. ``We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we're party to and so forth. But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture, and we need to be able to do that.''

CIA spokeswoman Michelle Neff said, ``While we do not discuss specific interrogation methods, the techniques we use have been reviewed by the Department of Justice and are in keeping with our laws and treaty obligations. We neither conduct nor condone torture.''

McClatchy Washington Bureau correspondents James Rosen and Marisa Taylor contributed to this report.

Olbermann slams GOP for imitating terror tactics

2006-10-25T12:25:00.000+01:00

From an month to two month out, we are finally back reporting on news around the world.. Today Olbermann slams GOP for imitating terror tactics:

Republicans are using terror tactics in an attempt to gain votes, says Keith Olbermann. A new political advertisement sponsored by the Republican National Committee hopes that voters' fear will increase votes for Republican Candidates. The advertisement shows images of Osama bin Laden with only the sounds of a ticking time bomb.

In his commentary, Olbermann's explains how Republicans use propaganda of fear in a way that imitates the propaganda video releases from terrorists organizations

Bill Clinton Destroys Chris Wallace And FOX news

2006-09-27T10:12:00.000+01:00

A few days ago, Bill Clinton was interviewed by Fox news, see how Bill Clinton gets blamed for 9-11.

Olbermann tells it like it is

2006-09-26T17:15:00.000+01:00

An interesting note from Olbermann: See what he has to say

Rights activists raise political killings at UN

2006-09-26T09:53:00.000+01:00

The killings of scores of left-wing activists in the Philippines have been brought before the UN in a bid to put international pressure on President Gloria Arroyo to do more to stop the attacks, human rights advocates said yesterday.

Representatives of five Philippine left-wing groups are attending a conference of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to encourage diplomats and foreign rights advocates to condemn the killings, allegedly carried out by government forces, they said.

"International pressure might at least put a stop to these increasing numbers of political killings," Edelina de la Paz, head of the prominent local human rights group Karapatan, told a Manila forum on the issue.

Source: GulfNews
To read the full story, click on the source

Blair 'turned blind eye to Iraq intelligence' in Bush meeting

2006-09-24T14:34:00.000+01:00

Tony Blair turned "a blind eye to intelligence" and failed to challenge George Bush over claims that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons, according to new claims published this week.

A note of a private meeting between Mr Blair and President Bush in January 2003 shows that Tony Blair failed to confront Mr Bush when he claimed Saddam Hussein had tried to buy aluminium tubes for nuclear weapons production.

Mr Blair did not contradict the President despite having received "private briefings" which indicated that the aluminium tubes were more likely to be for conventional weapons, according to the new edition of a book by the international lawyer Philippe Sands published tomorrow. The claims in a new US edition of the book, Lawless World, will raise fresh questions about whether Mr Blair played a secondary role to President Bush.

Source: London Independant

Venezuela rejects US apologies

2006-09-24T14:32:00.000+01:00

Venezuela has made a formal complaint to the US authorities and the United Nations after its foreign minister was detained at a New York airport.

The US state department has apologised to Nicolas Maduro who was detained for 90 minutes at New York's JFK airport as he travelled home.

He had been attending this week's UN General Assembly meeting.

He said he was verbally abused and strip-searched in what he said was a "flagrant breach of international law".

President Hugo Chavez described Mr Maduro's detention as a provocation.

Source: BBC News
To read the full story, click on the source

Thousands peacefully protest in Budapest against Hungarian PM

2006-09-24T14:28:00.000+01:00

Tens of thousands of people have rallied peacefully in Budapest in the biggest demonstration so far against Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany over his admission that he lied to the electorate.

An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 demonstrators calling for Mr Gyurcsany's resignation gathered outside the huge neo-Gothic parliament, where protests have been held for the past week.

But there was no repeat of the violence which marred earlier rallies and put riot police on full alert.

Mr Gyurcsany was unmoved, saying he will stay in power and pledging to implement the painful tax rises and spending cuts that have caused his government's popularity to plummet to 25 per cent in recent polls from 40 per cent at April's election.

"I will continue on because I still have much to do here," Mr Gyurcsany told German magazine Focus in an interview.

Demonstrators carrying Hungarian flags and singing patriotic songs said they would stay the course in hoping they could eventually force out the 45-year-old millionaire Socialist.

Source: ABC Austrialia News Online

France looks into Osama bin Laden death report

2006-09-23T17:55:00.000+01:00

President Jacques Chirac said Saturday that information contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is "in no way whatsoever confirmed."

Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" at the leak and has asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a French foreign intelligence service was published in the French press.

The regional newspaper l'Est Republicain on Saturday printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret services that the leader of the al-Qaeda terror network had died.

Source: International Herald Tribune
To read the full story, click on the source

North Korea 'makes weapon pledge'

2006-09-23T17:52:00.000+01:00

North Korea has said it plans to increase the amount of plutonium it extracts for use in nuclear weapons, according to a US scholar.

Selig Harrison said North Korean officials had told him they would unload nuclear fuel rods from the Yongbyon reactor by the year's end.

Mr Harrison said Pyongyang wants "to use Yongbyon as leverage" to get bilateral talks with the US.

The US insists the nuclear issue can only be addressed in six-party talks.

Pyongyang walked out of multilateral negotiations with the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea late last year in protest at US financial sanctions.

Source: BBC News

London bombing victims 'let down'

2006-09-22T15:42:00.000+01:00

The emergency response to the London bombings on 7 July last year was flawed, a Home Office report based on the experiences of victims has found.

The government praises the bravery of emergency workers but says procedures in areas including communications and medical treatment need to be improved.

It highlights the need to quickly set up reception and assistance centres.

Source: BBC News
To read the full story, click on the source

Lahoud: It is time for Israel to abide by all UN resolutions

2006-09-22T15:38:00.000+01:00

It is time for Israel to take responsibility and abide by United Nations resolutions, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Thursday in his address to the UN General Assembly.

Lahoud called the Israel Defense Forces' 34-day operation on southern Lebanon a "barbaric aggression," and said "this savagery did not weaken our people's resolve."

"It is time to ask Israel to finally abide by past and current UN resolutions," Lahoud said. The president also called on the international community to "safeguard" resolution 1701, which led to the cease-fire between IDF troops and Hezbollah guerillas, though he accused the United Nations of having been "powerless to stop slaughter of the war."

Source: Haaretz
To read the full story, click on the source

CIA ‘refused to operate’ secret jails

2006-09-22T09:40:00.000+01:00

The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities, according to former CIA officials and people close to the programme.

The former officials said the CIA interrogators’ refusal was a factor in forcing the Bush administration to act earlier than it might have wished.

Source: FT.COM
To read the full story, click on the source

Bush, Republicans forge terrorism interrogation deal

2006-09-22T09:37:00.000+01:00

President Bush bowed to pressure from leading senators in his Republican party on Thursday, revising a bill for interrogating terrorism suspects that critics had said would allow abusive treatment.

The deal between the White House and the three Senate heavyweights ended days of negotiations and appeared to clear the way for Congress to pass legislation setting up trials for foreign suspects at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Source: Reuters
To read the full story, click on the source

America is alienating rest of world: Powell

2006-09-21T16:59:00.000+01:00

The former US secretary of state Colin Powell has accused the White House of pursuing policies in the "war on terror" that have put America out of step with the rest of the world.

In a rare public breach with the administration, Mr Powell told an audience in Norfolk, Virginia, on Tuesday that he opposed White House plans to redefine America's commitment to sections of the Geneva convention protecting detainees from torture and degrading treatment.

Source: Guardian Unlimited
To read the full story, click on the source

Zuma's corruption trial collapses

2006-09-20T19:08:00.000+01:00

Corruption charges against former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma have been dismissed - boosting his chances of running for president.

The judge threw out the case after the prosecution said it was not ready to proceed, setting off celebrations by Mr Zuma's supporters in the courtroom.

Mr Zuma was sacked last year in connection with a 1999 arms deal. He was cleared of rape earlier this year.

Source: BBC News Worldwide
To read the full story, click on the source

Decision for Darfur peacekeepers

2006-09-20T19:06:00.000+01:00

African Union leaders are meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to decide on the fate of its 7,000-strong Darfur force.

The mandate of the mission expires at the end of the month. It is thought a three-month extension may be agreed, despite their failure to end violence.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated his opposition to moves to turn the force into one led by the UN.

Source: BBC News Worldwide
To read the full story, click on the source

Thai coup leader to install new PM in two weeks

2006-09-20T16:31:00.000+01:00

Thailand's military coup leaders will choose a new prime minister within two weeks and step back from power, army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said on Wednesday.

Speaking less than 24 hours after leading a bloodless coup to oust billionaire Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Sonthi also said it would take a year to produce a new constitution leading to a fresh general election.

Source: Reuters
To read the full story, click on the source

US may ban sale of cluster bombs to Israel

2006-09-20T12:46:00.000+01:00

The discovery of hundreds of US-made cluster bombs among the tens of thousands of unexploded munitions carpeting the south of Lebanon, has led to calls on Washington to impose a moratorium on sales of the weapons to Israel.

Bomb disposal experts are working around the clock to clear the lethal leftovers after Israel fired 1.2 million bomblets in the last three days of the war. The pods containing the 650 bomblets, which burst apart at a pre-determined height, have a failure rate of up to 30 per cent, leaving clear evidence of their American origin.

Source: Independent Online
To read the full story, click on the source

Thai Army Seizes Power

2006-09-20T12:32:00.000+01:00

For the first time since democracy and civilian rule was restored to Thailand in 1992, troops backed by tanks took control of the premier’s office in Bangkok yesterday. Witnesses outside Government House in central Bangkok said forces loyal to military commander Lt. Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin had taken control of the building in a bloodless coup.

Gen. Sonthi met late yesterday with the king after declaring that he had staged a coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Gen. Sonthi and the leaders of the navy and the air force met for more than two hours with the highly influential King Bhumibol Adulyadej at his palace immediately after announcing the coup, a palace official said.

Source: Arab News
To read more, click on the source

Edited:
The Following Article from the Independent Online explains the reason behind why there was a coup against the Prime Minister.
Source: Independent Online

Chavez greets Iranian ally Ahmadinejad

2006-09-18T16:05:00.000+01:00

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Caracas Sunday for talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fellow critic of the United States who strongly defends Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad, who was warmly greeted by Chavez after landing outside Caracas, will hold two days of talks with his Venezuelan counterpart and sign agreements on energy.

"We have a common thinking, common interests," Ahmadinejad said after his arrival. "We must be united to accomplish these ideas, to reach the objective of peace and justice in the world."

Source: Turkish Press
To read the full story, click on the source

Olbermann's choice of video clips from Bush's press conference

2006-09-17T17:40:00.000+01:00

Olbermann's choice of video clips from Bush's press conference, on Friday 15th Sept, followed by some analysis by George Washington Univ. Law Professor Jonathan Turley.

Keith Olbermann asks Jonathan Turley if Bush could be trying to retroactively protect himself from possible war crimes charges by demanding that new interpretations of the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 be set into law prior to the midterm elections.

Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine

2006-09-16T12:28:00.000+01:00

Is this how President Bush won his second term, This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software. We obtained the machine from a private party. Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks. For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities — a voting-machine virus. We have constructed working demonstrations of these attacks in our lab. Mitigating these threats will require changes to the voting machine's hardware and software and the adoption of more rigorous election procedures.

Video:

Source: Princeton University

Israel blames mistake in map for strike on UN post in Lebanon

2006-09-15T20:47:00.000+01:00

Israel said on Friday that its air force accidentally struck a United Nations position in southern Lebanon during its recent war with the radical Hezbollah movement, because of an inaccurate map which failed to clearly position the UN base.

Four UN staff members from China, Canada, Finland and Austria died in the July 25 airstrike in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam.

Source: Khaleej Times
To read the full story, click on the source

Pressure mounts on Olmert to quit

2006-09-15T12:58:00.000+01:00

Similar to America with Senate Armed Services Committee and President Bush, Israel's former military chief launched a devastating attack on the country's leadership on Thursday, calling for the prime minister and the top general to quit over failings in the Lebanon war.
The challenge from Moshe Ya'alon, who was Israel's chief of staff until June last year, comes as several senior figures, including the prime minister, the president and the justice minister, face accusations in a series of embarrassing scandals over corruption and impropriety.

"Going to war was scandalous, and he is directly responsible for that. The war's management was a failure and he is responsible for that, He was warned and did not heed the warnings. Therefore he must resign."

Source: Mail&Guardian
To read the full story, click on the source.

Rebuff for Bush on terror trials in a Senate test

2006-09-15T10:16:00.000+01:00

In a surprising move, The Senate Armed Services Committee defied President George W. Bush on Thursday, with four Republicans joining Democrats in approving a plan for the trial and interrogation of terrorism suspects that the White House has rejected as unacceptable. Even more surprising Colin Powell, Bush's former secretary of state, sided with the senators, saying in a letter that the president's plan to redefine the Geneva Conventions would encourage the world to "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," and "put our own troops at risk."

Source: International Herald Tribune
To read the full story click on the source.

Darfur genocide - Latest estimates say up to 255,000 may have died

2006-09-15T10:08:00.000+01:00

The Hollywood actor George Clooney yesterday warned the UN security council that Darfur would become the scene of the "first genocide of the 21st century". He mentioned the following chilling words to the UN

"After September 30, you won't need the UN,You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and headstones."

Source: Guardian Unlimited
Click on the source to read the full story

Edited: I have added this news, to include the video for George Clooney and what he is said

Who Suffers - Gazans go unpaid, and children go hungry

2006-09-14T12:13:00.000+01:00

Just as the titles say, who suffers when Palestinian Authority funds have been cut off by Israel, the United States and the European Union after Hamas won the legislative elections on Jan. 25. All that happens is the citizens are going hungry.

For the last week, Zidan Abu Reziq has been sleeping outside, next to his plantings on a small square of sand he expropriated.

The Abu Reziqs, like many of the large, destitute refugee families in this shrapneled, tumbledown slum, need to plant to eat. They took the land and planted it with vegetables, an investment of about $50, most of the money that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency gave them to buy school uniforms for the children.

Source: International Herald Tribune
Click on the source to read the full story.

Lebanon to sue Israel over oil spill caused by war bombing

2006-09-13T22:08:00.000+01:00

After the conflict of the terrible Lebanon and Israel conflict, it now looks like Lebanon is going to sue Israel over oil spills caused by Israel Air Force's bombing of a power station. The spill has been described as Lebanon's worst-ever environmental disaster, and experts say it could take up to a year to clean it up.

"This is our right, and we believe they [the Israelis] have transgressed international law... they violated it," Environment Minister Yacoub Sarraf said.

Source: Haaretz
To see the full story, click on the source.

President Bush, A Chilling View....

2006-09-13T09:54:00.000+01:00

When asked tough questions about torture and illegal, secret prisons by Matt Lauer, Bush evades the question, tries to intimidate Matt Lauer, poking his finger at him aggressively, then avoids the question and goes straight to fearmongering. See the video here:

Theory that U.S. orchestrated Sept. 11 attacks 'not absurd': Venezuela

2006-09-13T09:28:00.000+01:00

It doesn't seem that people with alternative views to September 11 are conspiracy theorist and hollywood actors, but now President Hugo Chavez from Venezuela.
CANOE CNews reports that:

President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that it's at least plausible that the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Chavez did not specifically accuse the U.S. government of having a hand in the Sept. 11 attacks, but rather suggested that theories of U.S. involvement bear examination.

Source: CANOE CNews

What is plain to see is that September the 11th will always be debated on, The 9/11 Commission report simply does not answer the whole questions, and with fan made documentary like 'Loose Change', there are some questions that need answering..

Faith's friction....

2006-09-12T21:44:00.000+01:00

This is a nice article, A Tampa woman who lost eight relatives in the September 11 attacks converts to Islam. For the whole story see: Tampabay News

CNN Propaganda Piece?

2006-09-12T15:09:00.000+01:00

The following is a it's live video of an attack on a 911 memorial service in Afghanistan, on CNN. It shows CNN reporter - Anderson Cooper in Afghanistan talking to the public, but strangely all the troops rush off screen and man their battlements. And then they cut to the troops firing at an unseen enemy. Here is the video:

When searching forAnderson Cooper I came onto this site: The secret CIA past of CNN's Anderson Cooper.
This got me thinking, if you want to promote fear to the general public and show that terrorist are still out that, then what the best thing you can do? The video shown is strange, it too screams of 'setup'...
Another Site has this report as well: Rense.com

The following can best sums it up from Hsing Lee

We're supposed to believe that the Taliban was good enough to allow Cooper the time to give his set up on live TV before they started firing, and we're also supposed to believe that CNN just happened to have cameras perfectly positioned and ready to record the American soldiers firing those bigass guns at an enemy that we never get to actually see.

U.S. foes gather in Cuba as non-aligned summit begins

2006-09-11T19:56:00.000+01:00

I had found this news article which I found surprising:

The world's developing nations need to band together to promote balance in an unjust world, Cuba's foreign minister said Monday in opening a week-long summit of non-aligned nations in Havana.

Felipe Perez Roque said current global and political problems highlight the need for unity in the movement, originally developed during the Cold War.

"Today we can affirm … that the movement is more necessary than ever," Perez Roque said in Havana, which is hosting the summit of the Non-aligned Movement (NAM), a 116-member organization made up of mostly developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

and

The countries in the NAM, which has almost as many members as the United Nations, account for more than half of the world's population.

To read more on this story see: Full Story on CBC News

If this was setup, this would strike a blow to US and EU, another form of power coming from countries which President Bush labelled the 'axis of evil'.

Such questions I ask myself are:

Would such a bold move lead us into a third world war?
Would the reign of America over the free world loosen up a bit
Would Oil from Saudi Arabia be compromised?
Would US be involved in False Flag opertion?

One can only pray things do not go even worse then they are already are.

September 11 - 5 Years Later....

2006-09-11T12:31:00.000+01:00

Today marks the five year anniversay of September 11th. President Bush began two days of marking the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by paying tribute Sunday to the victims of the tragedy.

He layed wreaths of red, white and blue flowers at New York City's Ground Zero, attended a prayer service at the nearby St. Paul's Chapel and visited a firehouse and its adjacent memorial museum near the site where the Twin Towers once stood.

"Laura and I approach tomorrow with a heavy heart," Bush said later. "It's hard not to think about people who lost their lives on Sept. 11th, 2001. I vowed that I'm never going to forget the lessons of that day."

Source: Sky News

Interestingly the rescue workers and local residents are still suffering health problems five years on from the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Centre.The air in lower Manhattan was polluted with toxic dust after the devastating strikes on the Twin Towers. A new study by the Mount Sinai Medical Centre found nearly 70% of those who responded after the attack later suffered breathing problem.

Pressure group Beyond Ground Zero said the government should take responsibility and help some 40,000 affected people.

"The government must take responsibility now because people are sick," said organiser Leah Geronimo.

Source: Sky News

Labour members defect to Lib Dems over Lebanon

2006-09-08T19:36:00.000+01:00

Margaret Beckett has suffered a mass defection of Labour party members in her Derby constituency over the government's stance on the crisis in Lebanon.

Thirty-seven members of her constituency party have left for the Liberal Democrats in what appears to be a carefully managed coup for Sir Menzies Campbell's party.
The defectors are predominantly Muslims of Pakistani origin and the principle reason behind their move is the crisis in Lebanon.

Is Labour crumbling? Will the next general election see The Tory's or Liberal come to power, more importantly will the UK still be behind America?

Click here to see the full story: Guardian Unlimited

Israel abused Palestinians under 'Shadow of War'

2006-09-08T19:22:00.000+01:00

This was posted on Reuters on the 29th August 2006. An Israeli human rights group has accused the country's military of a surge in abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past two months, when media attention was turned to conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. B'Tselem, an independent body that monitors Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories, said it had gathered evidence of a "substantial increase" in the beating, abuse and humiliation of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and border police.

Here is the full news: Reuters News

'No Saddam link to Iraq al-Qaeda'

2006-09-08T18:37:00.000+01:00

It official now, the finding is contained in a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee on Friday.

"There is no evidence of formal links between Iraqi ex-leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq prior to the 2003 war, a US Senate report says."

Will this bring down President Bush? Are we seeing what happening to Prime minister Blair, now happening to President Bush. This confirms that we invade the allies forces invaded Iraq illegally, so will this mean that both Prime minister and President be brought to justice? I think not. It is food for thoughts, and seeing how the next few days turn out for the American people. Most of them not having faith in the government.
Here is food for though though, the last President was kicked out after having an affair, and this President still in power, even though he brought USA and UK into an illegal war, is this right?
After thinking about this, Did Clinton do a worse thing than President Bush?

Scary thought huh!

Read more on this from: BBC News

Is Anti-Semitism back?

2006-09-08T11:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday on the news, Sky News, BBC reported on the rise of Anti-Semitism in the UK. It has been reported that since the Israel conflict with Lebanon, 'asian' groups have targeted British Jews. One thing that Sky News and BBC News do not report is the question of when 'Left wing activists' and 'Muslim' criticise Israel for it harsh attack, does this necessary mean they are being Anti-Semitic? Quite rightly British Jews should not be attacked due to Israel actions in the Middle East. But the flipside is to say when speaking out of a state who seems to be attacking it's neighbours, then people shouldn't be afraid to voice their opinion in fear of being labelled 'Anti-Semitic'

Source: Sky News (Video)

New Bin Laden '9/11 video' tape surfaced today

2006-09-07T22:24:00.000+01:00

Just 4 days until September 11th, a new tape has appeared from Al-Jazeera. The footage is suppose to show Bin Laden (Which is does) meeting with Ramzi Binalshibh and Mohammed Atef. When watching the footage, it shows the 'terrorist' training in marital art, now call me silly, but why was they doing high kicks? What was the point of showing this in the film.
Of course such a tape appearing can only be good news from President Bush, as fear will be instilled in the american people, terrorist are still around and the US is still the target. What would the result be, by taking away more freedom from the American people, as we live in a 'climate of fear'
Source: BBC News

Tony Blair - Standing down...

2006-09-07T17:58:00.000+01:00

Today Tony Blair confirmed he will be stepping down in 12 months time. Will he go out with a bang or not? One thing in his statement in BBC was firstly he apologised to the british public over rows in the Labour Party

Here is the link on : Tony Blair Statement

Welcome to Freedom and CIA Secret Prisons

2006-09-07T09:51:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my blog, this is the first blog I have ever written. This blog is all about looking at information from around the world, and seeing if the general population is really been told the true.

To start off with, I have been looking at the BBC News website, and seen this interesting article.

President George W Bush has admitted that the CIA has secret prisons holding terrorism suspects outside the US. Mr Bush also revealed that 14 key suspects had been moved to Guantanamo Bay.
Source: ABC Online

Other news regarding the CIA secret prison is The EU Lawmakers, who want to know where the location is of this prisons:

"The location of these prison camps must be made public," said German Socialist Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler, who sits on a special EU assembly committee investigating the CIA's alleged operation of secret prisons in Europe.

"We need to know if there has been any complicity in illegal acts by governments of EU countries or states seeking EU membership."
Source: International Herald Tribune

It would be interesting to see if US would disclose the CIA prison. To be totally honest I wouldn't hold breath of the location being disclosed.