He wiggled, jiggled and even dropped his trousers, but a thief trying to break into a supermarket in Portugal stayed stuck fast in a tiny window until he was rescued by police and the fire brigade.He wiggled, jiggled and even dropped his trousers, but a thief trying to break into a... more
The Doups recently placed top 5 out of 2000 European bands in the "Supajam Fast Track to Heineken FIB 2009 Competition". "Try Lie Die Whatever", the track entered in the competition is available on itunes. Watch the video here.The Doups recently placed top 5 out of 2000 European bands in the "Supajam Fast Track... more
In "Chinatown, Africa", Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Angola to investigate China's rapidly growing presence in Africa. While many welcome China's investment, others see reason for concern. Chinatown, Africa is revealing look at a growing superpower's adventures abroad.In "Chinatown, Africa", Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Angola to... more
“Praia Piquinia” is an amazing and beautiful series of images by the French photographer Christian Chaize. While vacationing in Portugal, Chaize became engrossed with the landscape and imaginary stories about people at a beach on a small stretch of coastline in southern Portugal. His fascination with the magical changes that took place from year to year breathed a new sense of life and inspiration into his personal work.
“Praia Piquinia” spans five years and a total of twenty-seven photographs; seven of those photographs are presented here. The images were shot in a vertical format, rather than the traditional horizontal landscape style; Chaize believes this enabled him to create a portrait that captured this tiny ethereal nook in nature over the minutes, days and years.
This piece concludes with a touching, sweet music video by Christian Chaize, a video diary of his New York City visit for the exhibition of “Praia Piquinia.”“Praia Piquinia” is an amazing and beautiful series of images by the French... more
France: Launch of Broad Campaign against Agrexco « U.S. Campaign ...
By marcy/مارسي newman/نيومان
Millions of people demonstrated to denounce Israeli army war crimes. Richard Falk, UN observer for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories since 1967, claimed at the end of the war that the weapons used and the attacks against ...
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THE ANTI-HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL CONDEMNED BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
In 2002, the European Parliament voted for the freezing of Europe’s Association Agreements with Israel, due to Israel’s failure to respect Human Rights, in Palestine but also in Israel with respect to Israeli
Arabs.
On 4 December 2008, underlining the persistence of the problem, most members of the European parliament voted against the “upgrade” of the Association Agreements with Israel.France: Launch of Broad Campaign against Agrexco « U.S. Campaign ...
By... more
It is unclear if the shooter was among the wounded, despite earlier reports that he killed himself, an official said.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Attack is the deadliest on soldiers by a fellow soldier during Operation Iraqi Freedom
Shooter is in custody, senior defense officials say
Five killed and three others wounded in incident
Shootings took place at Camp Liberty in Baghdad
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U.S. soldier in Baghdad kills four fellow troops before killing himself, senior defense official tells CNN.
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It is unclear if the shooter was among the wounded, despite earlier reports that he killed himself, an official said..................................As the story has unfolded we have now learnt that there were FIVE SOLDIERS KILLED but not the one who killed them.
Monday's attack marks the fifth incident in which a service member was killed by a fellow service member during Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the U.S. military.
• In March 2003, Capt. Christopher Seifert and Maj. Gregory Stone were killed at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, in a grenade attack by another soldier.
• Sgt. Joseph Tackett was fatally shot in June 2005 by a fellow soldier in Baghdad.
• Seaman Anamarie Camacho and Seaman Genesia Gresham were killed in a non-combat incident in Bahrain in October 2007.
• A 39-year-old soldier was charged with killing Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley Durbin in Tunnis, Iraq, in September.
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Britain ends combat operations in Iraq:
The British military formally ended combat operations in Iraq on Thursday after six years of conflict by handing over control of its main base in Basra to an American brigade. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/04/30/britain-iraq.htmlIt is unclear if the shooter was among the wounded, despite earlier reports that he... more
Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed a Palestinian man last night near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron. Earlier yesterday the Israel Air Force bombed three tunnels used for smuggling along the Gaza-Egypt border, injuring four people. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083679.htmlIDF kills Palestinian near Hebron :
Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed a... more
Foreign intelligence analysts contradict US on Iran bomb progress: -
Congressional investigators say some foreign intelligence analysts believe U.S. intelligence is underestimating Iran's progress toward designing a nuclear warhead before Tehran halted its program in 2003. http://www.startribune.com/politics/44494272.htmlManufacturing Consent For Attack On Iran: Report:
Foreign intelligence analysts... more
Furious protesters vented their frustration in the western Afghan city of Farah after the reported killing of up to 100 civilians during US-led air strikes earlier this week. US military and Afghan officials have stepped up an inquiry into the raids.
The military said 143 militants had been killed in the Islamist bastion of Swat over the past 24 hours. The U.N. refugee agency said a "massive displacement" was underway. Citing provincial government estimates, it said up to 200,000 people had left their homes over recent days with another 300,000 on the move or about to move. http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE5441RW20090508Pakistan forces kill 143 militants, civilians flee:
The military said 143... more
'We are bombing a sovereign country. Where do we get the authority to do that? Did the Pakistani government give us written permission? Did the Congress give us written permission to expand the war and start bombing in Pakistan?' asked the US lawmaker.US Bombing a Sovereign Country: US Lawmaker
By Anwar Iqbal & Ron Paul
'We... more
Pentagon's Black Budget Grows to More Than $50 Billion
By Noah Shachtman
It makes the Pentagon's secret operations, including the intelligence budgets nested inside, "roughly equal in magnitude to the entire defense budgets of the UK, France or Japan," Sweetman adds. All in all, about seven and a half percent of the Defense Department's total spending is now classified. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22571.htmPentagon's Black Budget Grows to More Than $50 Billion
By Noah Shachtman
It... more
Declassified manual details the methods used in Honduras; Agency denials refuted
By Gary Cohn, Ginger Thompson, and mark Matthews
The Baltimore Sun, Monday 27 January 1997, Final Edition
WASHINGTON -- A newly declassified CIA training manual details torture methods used against suspected subversives in Central America during the 1980s, refuting claims by the agency that no such methods were taught there.
"Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual -- 1983" was released Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Sun on May 26, 1994.
The CIA also declassified a Vietnam-era training manual called "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation -- July 1963," which also taught torture and is believed by intelligence sources to have been a basis for the 1983 manual.
Torture methods taught in the 1983 manual include stripping suspects naked and keeping them blindfolded. Interrogation rooms should be windowless, dark and soundproof, with no toilet.
"The 'questioning' room is the battlefield upon which the 'questioner' and the subject meet," the 1983 manual states. "However, the 'questioner' has the advantage in that he has total control over the subject and his environment."
The 1983 manual was altered between 1984 and early 1985 to discourage torture after a furor was raised in Congress and the press about CIA training techniques being used in Central America. Those alterations and new instructions appear in the documents obtained by The Sun, support the conclusion that methods taught in the earlier version were illegal.
A cover sheet placed in the manual in March 1985 cautions: "The use of force, mental torture, threats, insults or exposure to inhumane treatment of any kind as an aid to interrogation is prohibited by law, both international and domestic; it is neither authorized nor condoned."
The Sun's 1994 request for the manuals was made in connection with the newspaper's investigation of kidnapping, torture and murder committed by a CIA-trained Honduran military unit during the 1980s. The CIA turned over the documents -- with passages deleted -- only after The Sun threatened to sue the agency to obtain the documents.Torture Was Taught By CIA
Torture Was Taught By CIA
Declassified manual... more
CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on Use of 'Enhanced Interrogations' Torture
By Paul Kane
May 07, 2009 "Washington Post" -- Intelligence officials released documents this evening saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was briefed in September 2002 about the use of harsh interrogation tactics against al-Qaeda prisoners, seemingly contradicting her repeated statements over the past 18 months that she was never told that these techniques were actually being used.
In a 10-page memo outlining an almost seven-year history of classified briefings, intelligence officials said that Pelosi and then-Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) were the first two members of Congress ever briefed on the interrogation tactics. Then the ranking member and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, respectively, Pelosi and Goss were briefed Sept. 4, 2002, one week before the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The memo, issued by the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency to Capitol Hill, notes the Pelosi-Goss briefing covered "EITs including the use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah." EIT is an acronym for enhanced interrogation technique. Zubaydah was one of the earliest valuable al-Qaeda members captured and the first to have the controversial tactic known as water boarding used against him.
The issue of what Pelosi knew and when she knew it has become a matter of heated debate on Capitol Hill. Republicans have accused her of knowing for many years precisely the techniques CIA agents were using in interrogations, and only protesting the tactics when they became public and liberal antiwar activists protested.
In a carefully worded statement, Pelosi's office said today that she had never been briefed about the use of waterboarding, only that it had been approved by Bush administration lawyers as a legal technique to use in interrogations.CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on Use of 'Enhanced Interrogations' Torture
By Paul... more
Tortured To Death?
US Interrogators Have Killed Dozens
By John Byrne
May 07, 2009 "Raw Story" -- -United States interrogators killed nearly four dozen detainees during or after their interrogations, according a report published by a human rights researcher based on a Human Rights First report and followup investigations.
In all, 98 detainees have died while in US hands. Thirty-four homicides have been identified, with at least eight detainees — and as many as 12 — having been tortured to death, according to a 2006 Human Rights First report that underwrites the researcher’s posting. The causes of 48 more deaths remain uncertain.
The researcher, John Sifton, worked for five years for Human Rights Watch. In a posting Tuesday, he documents myriad cases of detainees who died at the hands of their US interrogators. Some of the instances he cites are graphic.
Most of those taken captive were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. They include at least one Afghani soldier, Jamal Naseer, who was mistakenly arrested in 2004. “Those arrested with Naseer later said that during interrogations U.S. personnel punched and kicked them, hung them upside down, and hit them with sticks or cables,” Sifton writes. “Some said they were doused with cold water and forced to lie in the snow. Nasser collapsed about two weeks after the arrest, complaining of stomach pain, probably an internal hemorrhage.”
Another Afghan killing occurred in 2002. Mohammad Sayari was killed by four U.S. servicemembers after being detained for allegedly “following their movements.” A Pentagon document obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2005 said that the Defense Department found a captain and three sergeants had “murdered” Sayari, but the section dealing with the department’s probe was redacted.Tortured To Death?
Tortured To Death?
US Interrogators Have Killed Dozens... more
May 08, 2009 "The Independent" -- Of course there will be an inquiry. And in the meantime, we shall be told that all the dead Afghan civilians were being used as "human shields" by the Taliban and we shall say that we "deeply regret" innocent lives that were lost. But we shall say that it's all the fault of the terrorists, not our heroic pilots and the US Marine special forces who were target spotting around Bala Baluk and Ganjabad.
When the Americans destroy Iraqi homes, there is an inquiry. And oh how the Israelis love inquiries (though they rarely reveal anything). It's the history of the modern Middle East. We are always right and when we are not, we (sometimes) apologise and then we blame it all on the "terrorists". Yes, we know the throat-cutters and beheaders and suicide bombers are quite prepared to slaughter the innocent.
But it was a sign of just how terrible the Afghan slaughter was that the powerless President Hamid Karzai sounded like a beacon of goodness yesterday appealing for "a higher platform of morality" in waging war, that we should conduct war as "better human beings".
And of course, the reason is quite simple. We live, they die. We don't risk our brave lads on the ground - not for civilians. Not for anything. Fire phosphorus shells into Fallujah. Fire tank shells into Najaf. We know we kill the innocent. Israel does exactly the same. It said the same after its allies massacred 1,700 at the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila in 1982 and in the deaths of more than a thousand civilians in Lebanon in 2006 and after the death of more than a thousand Palestinians in Gaza this year.
And if we kill some gunmen at the same time - "terrorists", of course - then it is the same old "human shield" tactic and ultimately the "terrorists" are to blame. Our military tactics are now fully aligned with Israel.Civilians Pay Price of War from Above
Civilians Pay Price of War from Above... more
the Spanish National Court’s decision to continue investigating suspected Israeli war criminals is welcomed
The victims and their legal team have placed their trust in the criminal justice system, believing that this is the only mechanism whereby accountability can be pursued and Israel’s impunity combated. Judge Fernando Andreu’s judgment indicates that, even in the face of considerable political pressure – including statements made by the Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos – this trust in the rule of law is justified. This decision confirms the credibility and independence of the Spanish Courts.
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On 22 July 2002, at approximately 11:55 pm, an Israeli Air Force F16 fighter jet dropped a 985 kilogramme bomb on a three-storey apartment building. The attack was intended to kill Salah Shehade, the suspected leader of the Izzidin al-Qassam Brigade, Hamas’ military wing. The apartment building was located within the densely populated Al Daraj district, a residential neighbourhood in Gaza City. At the time of the attack, Shehade was on the upper floor of the building. As a result of the blast impact, eight other adjoining and nearby apartment buildings were completely destroyed, nine were partially destroyed, and another 21 sustained considerable damage. Excluding Shehade and his guard, a total of 14 civilians were killed, including eight children. Approximately 150 civilians were injured.
Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) officials have acknowledged that they decided to drop the bomb on Shehadeh’s house knowing his wife was with him, intentionally killing her as well.the Spanish National Court’s decision to continue investigating suspected Israeli... more
Invertebrates with sometimes deadly stings make unusual incursion into waters normally considered too warm for them.
So be nice and make sure the Hotel you are staying in doesn't dump it's waste 1.5k offshore.Invertebrates with sometimes deadly stings make unusual incursion into waters normally... more
