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Binyam Mohamed case shows MI5 to be devious, dishonest and complicit in torture
International
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:09
Britain’s spy service MI5 faced an unprecedented crisis Wednesday after one of the UK's most senior judges found MI5 had failed to respect human rights, deliberately misled parliament, and had a "culture of suppression" that undermined government assurances about its conduct. The condemnation by Lord Neuberger was drafted shortly before foreign secretary David Miliband lost his legal battle to suppress a seven-paragraph court document showing MI5 agents were involved in the ill-treatment of a British resident, Binyam Mohamed. Three of the country's most senior judges disclosed evidence of MI5's complicity in Mohamed's torture and unlawful interrogation by the US. The three judges referred to a recent case in the US where the judge found Mohamed's claims about how he was tortured to be truthful. This vindicated his assertion that "UK authorities had been involved in and facilitated the .. torture to which he was subjected while under the control of US authorities."
Israeli warplanes have launched an overnight attack on the southern Gaza Strip, pounding Yasser Arafat International Airport in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory. Israeli fighter jets fired five missiles into the facility, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Israel denies NGOs work permits
The Israeli interior ministry has stopped issuing work permits to foreigners working for non-governmental organizations. NGO staff are being been given tourist visas instead, making it virtually impossible for them to work. The new Israeli policy affects 120 international NGOs, many of which provide vital developmental and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.Read more
Hakimullah: Dead for the Seventh Time?
New rumors bring to seven the number of times Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud has been reported killed. The Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan had confirmed their leader had died in Multan, in Punjab Province. The confirmation was then disputed by the TTP, who insisted that Hakimullah was alive, and lying low. Read more
Haiti death toll jumps to 230,000
Haiti's government has raised the death toll for the earthquake to 230,000 and says more bodies remain uncounted. The new figure gives the quake the same death toll as the 2004 Asian tsunami. Read more
Sri Lankan opposition calls for protests over jailing of their leader
Sri Lanka's opposition has called for nationwide protests over the "barbaric and extra-judicial" arrest of the country's former army chief by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Retired Gen. Sarath Fonseka, who ran against Rajapaksa in January's elections, was arrested Monday on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government. Rajapaksa announced Tuesday he was dissolving parliament in a step toward new parliamentary elections.
Sick Leader 'Loses Power' in Nigeria
Nigeria's parliament recognized Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as acting head of state Tuesday, two months after its ailing President, Umaru Yar'Adua, was admitted to hospital in Saudi Arabia with a heart condition. Parliament has enabled Jonathan to pass legislation and act as commander of the armed forces until Yar'Adua resumes his duties.Read more
Monsanto to unleash GMO experiment on unsuspecting US and Canadian public
Monsanto plans to unleash its latest GMO experiment on the American and Canadian public, a new version of genetically mutated corn with eight abnormal gene traits. Monsanto’s mutated seeds now account for to 90% of the U.S. soy crop and 85% of the corn crop – and wheat is next on the agenda. Monsanto has spent millions lobbying to fast track their agenda to corner the worldwide market on food and seeds. In the process they are adversely altering the very nature of food itself. Read more
The walls have ears in China, land of 39 million spies
Chinese news agency Xinhua reports a police chief in Inner Mongolia uses more than 12,000 spies to inform on just 400,000 people. Every policeman has to establish at least 20 informants in his community.Extrapolating the number of spies nationwide, China has at least 39 million informants, or three per cent of its population.Read more
National News:
US Bank executives get multimillion-dollar bonuses
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein received a $9 million bonus for 2009 and JP Morgan and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase $16 million. Goldman and JPMorgan posted record-breaking profits in 2009, following unprecedented government interventions that injected $35 billion into the banks, plus tens of billions more.
Citi, Bank of America may lose credit ratings
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Bank of America to negative from stable. S & P’s credit analyst John Bartko said: "The revision reflects our increased uncertainty about the U.S. government's willingness to provide additional extraordinary support to highly systemically important financial institutions in a way that benefits debt holders." Read more
New Mexico House votes unanimously to move state funds to community banks and credit unions.
New Mexico's House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that allows the state to move $2 billion - $5 billion of state funds to credit unions and small banks. The municipal funds bill was approved 65-0 and is subject to a vote by New Mexico's Senate. Governor Bill Richardson told the bill's sponsor that he supports the legislation. Credit Union Times, spoke to one banker who believes that the bill got a boost from Huffington Post's Move Your Money campaign.Read more
McCain’s Daughter: Tea Party Movement is Racist
Meghan McCain, daughter of John McCain, says the Tea Party is full of racists. Ms McCain attacked Sarah Palin, who was appointed to lead the hijacked Tea Party movement by the Republicans and the corporate media. Palin has called for a war with Iran. McCain also criticized Tom Tancredo, who called for a literacy test for voters at a Tea Party in Nashville last week. Former Congressman Tancredo suggested in 2005 it would be OK to wipe the Muslim holy city of Mecca off the map in response to al-Qaeda. Read more
Ron Paul: 'Neocons' infiltrating tea parties
Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul says "Neocon influence" is "infiltrating" the Tea Party movement he is often credited for creating. Paul said his core issues, such as creating transparency at the Federal Reserve, recalling overseas soldiers and ending the drug war, are "not what is generally heard from the Republican party." Read more
GOP blocks Obama labor board nominee
Senate Democrats Tuesday failed to push through Barack Obama's choice of a union lawyer to serve on the National Labor Relations Board after two of their own joined Republicans to block the nomination. Democrats fell far short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster of the nomination of Craig Becker. The vote is a setback for organized labor, which was counting on a strong pro-union voice on the agency that oversees union elections and referees labor-management disputes. Read more
Rep. Blackburn touts Social Security privatization.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, one of the cosponsors to the radical budget proposal authored by Rep. Paul Ryan said on Fox News Tuesday Social Security privatization as the only way “you could get some of this under control.”
F.D.A. to Increase Oversight of Medical Radiation
The Food and Drug Administration will take steps to more stringently regulate three of the most potent forms of medical radiation, including CT scans, some of which deliver the radiation equivalent of 400 chest X-rays. The F.D.A.is putting its regulatory muscle behind a growing movement to make life-saving medical radiation — both diagnostic and therapeutic — safer.
US disaster expert Doug Copp says people can survive an earthquake by taking refuge in what he calls “the triangle of life.” Copp, who has worked at every major disaster since 1985, says the secret to survival is to sit or lie next to large objects. Taking refuge in a doorway, he adds, will get you killed.Copp says: “The first building I ever crawled inside was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk and every child was crushed.” Copp went on: “If you are in bed when an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape, lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair. Never go to the stairs. People in vehicles should get out and sit or lie next to their vehicles.”
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