Vox Publica: News Archives

March 31, 2008

The joy of children (not)

This week the Economist had a very interesting article about happiness in America - who is happy (conservatives and extremists on both sides of the political spectrum) and who is not (liberals). Parents are usually happier than non-parents, but not about spending time with their children.

Eating, shopping, exercising, cooking, praying and watching television were all rated more pleasurable than watching the brats, even if they don't bite. As Mr Brooks puts it: “There are many things in a parent's life that bring great joy. For example, spending time away from [one's] children.”

This makes me feel much better. I love my kids with all my heart, but I don't particularly enjoy spending time with them. I like to have them around, but not be responsible for their entertainment (or care, really). Fortunately, I'm not the only one who seems to feel this way.

Posted by marga at 2:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 26, 2007

Boys Face Sex Trial for Slapping Girls' Butts

ABC News reports today that 2 young boys face criminal prosecution for slapping girls' butts (and touching a girl's breast) at the school. They are currently charged with misdemeanors, and if convicted, regardless of whether they have to serve time, they will be registered as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. The boys already spent 5! days at juvenile hall - which seems to me punishment enough.

Moreover, apparently spanking each other's butts was a common way for girls and boys to greet each other at that school - according to a girl interviewed by abc news. While some girls said they felt uncomfortable, at least two of them recanted when questioned in court about it.

Don't get me wrong, I think what the boys did was terrible. I still remember the humiliation and plain dirtiness of being touched on the butt when I was a young teenager. /I/ didn't like it, /I/ felt uncomfortable - but then again, it wasn't a common thing to do in my school and it had a clear sexual meaning. That said, these are 13-yo boys. They still are learning what proper rules of behavior are, that they are not little kids anymore and that girls are no longer the simple playmates of -literally- yesteryear. I think it's absurd that that prosecutor would prosecute the kids for acting like kids act. Yes, they did something wrong, but there are many, many, many lower forms of punishment that can be used to bring home that message.

As they say on the Week every week "Only in America"

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April 23, 2007

Have opinions? Can't travel.

Taner Akçam is a Turkish scholar who has meticulously researched the history of the Armenian genocide to conclude that one, indeed, took place. For his efforts he has been attacked as a terrorist and threatened. He has also been put in the "no flight" list by both American and Canadian authorities, but apparently this was done based on his profile in wikipedia! As everyone knows, anyone can add anything to a wikipedia entrie, regardless of its truth value.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2469270.ece
The Independent (London)
23 April 2007

Caught in the deadly web of the internet
Any political filth or personal libel can be hurled at the innocent

Robert Fisk

Could it possibly be that the security men who guard the frontiers of North
America are supporting Holocaust denial? Alas, it's true. Here's the story.

Taner Akçam is the distinguished Turkish scholar at the University of Minnesota
who, with immense courage, proved the facts of the Armenian genocide -- the
deliberate mass murder of up to a million and a half Armenians by the Ottoman
Turkish authorities in 1915 -- from Turkish documents and archives. His book A
Shameful Act was published to great critical acclaim in Britain and the United
States.

He is now, needless to say, being threatened with legal action in Turkey under
the infamous Law 301 -- which makes a crime of insulting "Turkishness" -- but
it's probably par for the course for a man who was granted political asylum in
Germany after receiving an eight-year prison sentence in his own country for
articles he had written in a student journal; Amnesty International had already
named him a prisoner of conscience.

But Mr Akçam has now become a different kind of prisoner: an inmate of the
internet hate machine, the circle of hell in which any political filth or
personal libel can be hurled at the innocent without any recourse to the law,
to libel lawyers or to common decency. The Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant
Dink was misquoted on the internet for allegedly claiming that Turkish blood
was "poisonous"; this total lie - Dink never said such a thing -- prompted a
young man to murder him in an Istanbul street.

But Taner Akçam's experience is potentially far more serious for all of us. As
he wrote in a letter to me this month, "Additional to the criminal
investigation (law 301) in Turkey, there is a hate campaign going on here in
the USA, as a result of which I cannot travel internationally any more... My
recent detention at the Montreal airport - apparently on the basis of anonymous
insertions in my Wikipedia biography - signals a disturbing new phase in a
Turkish campaign of intimidation that has intensified since the November 2006
publication of my book."

Akçam was travelling to lecture in Montreal and took the Northwest Airlines
flight from Minneapolis on 16 February this year. The Canadian immigration
officer, Akçam says, was "courteous" -- but promptly detained him at Montreal's
Trudeau airport. Even odder, the Canadian immigration officer asked him why he
needed to be detained. Akçam tells me he gave the man a brief history of the
genocide and of the campaign of hatred against him in the US by Turkish groups
"controlled by ... Turkish diplomats" who "spread propaganda stating that I am
a member of a terrorist organisation".

All this went on for four hours while the immigration officer took notes and
made phone calls to his bosses. Akçam was given a one-week visa and the
Canadian officer showed him -- at Akçam's insistence -- a piece of paper which
was the obvious reason for his temporary detention.

"I recognised the page at once," Akçam says. "The photo was a still from a 2005
documentary on the Armenian genocide... The still photo and the text beneath it
comprised my biography in the English language edition of Wikipedia, the online
encyclopedia which anyone in the world can modify at any time. For the last year
... my Wikipedia biography has been persistently vandalised by anonymous
'contributors' intent on labelling me as a terrorist. The same allegations has
been repeatedly scrawled, like gangland graffiti, as 'customer reviews' of my
books at Amazon."

Akçam was released, but his reflections on this very disturbing incident are
worth recording. "It was unlikely, to say the least, that a Canadian
immigration officer found out that I was coming to Montreal, took the sole
initiative to research my identity on the internet, discovered the archived
version of my Wikipedia biography, printed it out on 16 February, and showed it
to me - voilà! - as a result."

But this was not the end. Prior to his Canadian visit, two Turkish-American
websites had been hinting that Akçam's "terrorist activities" should be
of interest to American immigration authorities. And sure enough, Akçam was
detained yet again -- for another hour -- by US Homeland Security officers
at Montreal airport before boarding his flight at Montreal for Minnesota
two days later.

On this occasion, he says that the American officer -- US Homeland Security
operates at the Canadian airport -- gave him a warning: "Mr Akçam, if you don't
retain an attorney and correct this issue, every entry and exit from the country
is going to be problematic. We recommend that you do not travel in the meantime
and that you try to get this information removed from your customs dossier."

So let's get this clear. US and Canadian officials now appear to be detaining
the innocent on the grounds of hate postings on the internet. And it is the
innocent -- guilty until proved otherwise, I suppose -- who must now pay
lawyers to protect them from Homeland Security and the internet. But as Akçam
says, there is nothing he can do.

"Allegations against me, posted by the Assembly of Turkish American
Associations, Turkish Forum and 'Tall Armenia Tale' (a Holocaust-denial
website) have been copy-pasted and recycled through innumerable websites and
e-groups ever since I arrived in America. By now, my name in close proximity to
the English word 'terrorist' turns up in well over 10,000 web pages."

I'm not surprised. There is no end to the internet's circle of hate. What does
shock me, however, is that the men and women chosen to guard their nations
against Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida are reading this dirt and are prepared to
detain an honourable scholar such as Taner Akçam on the basis of it.

I don't think the immigration lads are to blame. I once remember listening to
a Canadian official at Toronto airport carefully explaining to a Palestinian
visitor that he was not required to tell any police officer about his religion
or personal beliefs, that he should feel safe in Canada.

No, it's their bosses in Ottawa and Washington I wonder about. Put very simply,
how much smut are the US and Canadian immigration authorities taking off the
internet? And how much of it is now going to be flung at us when we queue at
airports to go about our lawful business?

###

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April 22, 2007

The plot against the First Amendment

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/04/horton-20070421ymwmeldhvami
Harpers Magazine
April 21, 2007

The Plot Against the First Amendment

By Scott Horton

In June, a case is slated to go to trial in Northern Virginia that will mark a
first step in a plan to silence press coverage of essential national security
issues. The plan was hatched by Alberto Gonzales and his deputy, Paul J.
McNulty -- the two figures at the center of a growing scandal over the
politicization of the prosecutorial process. This may in fact be the most
audacious act of political prosecution yet. But so far, it has gained little
attention and is poorly understood.

In the summer of 2005, Alberto Gonzales paid a visit to British Attorney
General Peter Goldsmith. A British civil servant who attended told me "it was
quite amazing really. Gonzales was obsessed with the Official Secrets Act. In
particular, he wanted to know exactly how it was used to block newspapers and
broadcasters from running news stories derived from official secrets and how it
could be used to criminalise persons who had no formal duty to maintain secrets.
He saw it as a panacea for his problems: silence the press. Then you can torture
and abuse prisoners and what you will -- without fear of political
repercussions. It was the easy route to dealing with the Guantánamo dilemma.
Don't close down Guantánamo. Close down the press. We were appalled by it."
Appalled, he added, "but not surprised.

Britain has of course never had a media with the freedom of the American press.
John Milton railed against the abusive requirements of licensing without making
headway. Britain had the tradition of Royal Prerogative, a tradition of
branding political rabble rousers with the mark "SL" for "seditious libeler."
Of course, many of those seditious libelers emigrated to America, which helps
explain why this was an issue contributing to a revolution that broke out in
1776. The erstwhile colonists heard Milton's appeal and followed it, producing
a decisive parting of the ways in the English-speaking world. But that's all
very inconvenient history, which is certain soon to be expunged from the
history books. After all, those who control the present, control the past. And
Gonzales had come down with a very bad case of Official Secrets envy.

By May 2006, Gonzales was on ABC's "This Week" program, convinced he had found
the link. Could the United States gag the media to prevent its publication of
classified information? "It depends on the circumstances." Gonzales explained,
"There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully,
would seem to indicate that that is a possibility. That's a policy judgment by
the Congress in passing that kind of legislation. We have an obligation to
enforce those laws." This, to be sure, is the same Alberto Gonzales who
appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee and insisted in the face of an
incredulous Senator Arlen Specter that the Constitution incorporated no
guarantee of habeas corpus. He is an attorney general possessed of a copy of
the Constitution which is strangely different from that ratified by the states
in 1789 and amended to include the Bill of Rights in 1791. And he is the
attorney general who felt that the limitations of FISA with respect to
surveillance without warrants didn't matter, though he couldn't coherently
articulate a reason why. (That, after all, is why you have John Yoo.) When he
says "we have an obligation to enforce those laws," he means of course to
enforce the laws the way he and the president secretly understand them.

Even before Gonzales came to the Justice Department, secrecy had emerged as the
hallmark of the Bush Administration. Security classifications were wielded with
vigor to protect information which was politically sensitive, and measures were
taken to put real teeth in the protections. At the same time, the administration
consistently made clear that it viewed security classifications essentially as a
partisan political tool. As emerged in the prosecution of Scooter Libby, Cheney,
Rove, and Bush all discussed declassifying highly sensitive information when
they felt the declassification would serve to embarrass a political critic.

Rather than approach Congress with a proposal to enact the British Official
Secrets Act -- a proposal which would certainly be defeated even in the prior
Republican-led Congress -- Gonzales decided to spin it from whole cloth. He
would reconstrue the Espionage Act of 1917 to include the essence of the
Official Secrets Act, and he would try to get this interpretation ratified in
the Bush Administration's "vest pocket" judicial districts -- the Eastern
District of Virginia and the Fourth Circuit. The key man for this project was
to be Paul J. McNulty, the man he soon picked as his deputy.

In May 2005, they had found the perfect case. Lawrence Franklin, a key aide to
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, passed a classified policy
memorandum to two employees of AIPAC, a lobbying group geared to advocate
Israeli interests with the U.S. Government. It seems clear that Franklin and
the two AIPAC employees had a common object, which was to invite critical
public attention to U.S. policy towards Iran.

The case was passed to Paul J. McNulty while he was the U.S. attorney for the
Eastern District of Virginia. Even at that point, Virginia's Eastern District
had a well-established reputation as the most political U.S. attorney's office
in the country. Among McNulty's key cases had been the "American Taliban" John
Walker Lindh and the mentally unhinged Moroccan "twentieth hijacker" from 9/11,
Zararias Moussaoui. Both cases had been sensationalized in the media. Less well
known were the dozen odd cases of contractor abuse emerging from the Abu Ghraib
scandal, investigated by the Pentagon's CID, and referred to McNulty. Nothing
ever came of those cases; indeed, McNulty made sure of that.

McNulty quickly concluded that the AIPAC case would provide the perfect
opportunity for the Gonzales project -- converting the Espionage Act into the
equivalent of the British Official Secrets Act. The core of the extraordinary
theory advanced by McNulty can be found in these words from one of its recent
briefs:

The government respectfully submits that an 'ordinary person exercising
ordinary common sense' [...] would know that foreign officials,
journalists and other persons with no current affiliation with the
United States government would not be entitled to receive information
related to our national defense.

By this theory, any receipt by an unauthorized person of classified information
and correspondence concerning it is converted into an act of espionage, and thus
made prosecutable.

The object of this exercise has been broadly misunderstood by many who have
followed it -- and particularly by Iraq War critics who delight in a perceived
slap-down of AIPAC. But this is tragically short-sighted. If the prosecution
succeeds, the Bush Administration will have converted the Espionage Act of 1917
into something it was never intended to be: an American copy of the British
Official Secrets Act. It is likely to lead quickly to efforts to criminalize
journalists dealing with sensitive information in the national security sector,
as well as their sources.

Let's imagine America with the Gonzales-McNulty contortion of the law in
effect. We'd never know how the Bush Administration came to embrace torture as
a tactic in the war on terror. We'd know nothing about the torture-by-proxy
system developed with key administration allies such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia,
and Yemen -- not to mention the system of "blacksites" established by the CIA
in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. We wouldn't know that
the administration was violating the FISA statute with a massive surveillance
program. And to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, that's just the known unknowns.

This would be a dream world for Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales. And a nightmare
for the rest of us. And the AIPAC case could, if it succeeds, bring the nation
much closer to its realization.

###

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April 20, 2007

The Taliban destroys and kills

We have liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban, they told us. But the reality is very different. Like this press release by Amnesty International explains, the Taliban have increased their attacks against civilians, killing them, burning schools and abducting workers.

I was against the war in Afghanistan in the first place, but if you are going to fight a war, then you have to do it with all you have - and the United States has basically abandoned Afghanistan to its fate - the Taliban - once it got tired of it. And people die.

Source: Amnesty International (AI)

Date: 18 Apr 2007

Afghanistan: Taleban attacks against civilians increasing and systematic

As the Taleban's spring offensive intensifies, civilians are
increasingly facing suicide attacks, abductions and beheadings. The
attacks on civilians by the Taleban are widespread and systematic and
are used to instil fear and exert control over the local population,
according to an Amnesty International report released today.

"Afghan civilians are bearing the brunt of this conflict. They are
caught in the fighting between the Taleban, Afghan government forces, US
forces and forces from other NATO countries," said Claudio Cordone,
Senior Director for Research at Amnesty International.

"But it is the Taleban who have a deliberate policy of targeting
civilians -- they are killing teachers, abducting aid workers and
burning school buildings."

The Taleban's military rulebook, or Laheya, explicitly sanctions
targeting and killing civilians. Rule 25 states that a teacher who
continues to teach after warnings from the Taleban must be beaten, and
if they still continue to teach "contrary to the principles of Islam"
they must be killed. Similarly, a Taleban fatwa, or religious edict,
orders the death of anyone who supports the US-led intervention.

Scores of civilians have been deliberately killed by Taleban insurgents
in the past two years, apparently because they were branded "spies".
Targets have included women's rights activists, clerics, government and
health workers, and teachers. At least 183 schools were burned in arson
attacks across the country between 2005-2006.

In one brutal incident last week, an Afghan journalist was killed by the
Taleban, reportedly by having his throat slit. Ajmal Naqshbandi, 25, had
been taken hostage in March along with an Italian reporter, Daniele
Mastrogiacomo, and their Afghan driver, Sayed Agha. While Daniele
Mastrogiacomo was released in a prisoner exchange, Sayed Agha was
beheaded.

As well as deliberately attacking civilians, the Taleban have also
killed or injured hundreds of people in indiscriminate attacks. At least
756 civilians were killed in 2006 in attacks using improvised explosive
devices such as roadside bombs and in suicide attacks, according to UN
and NATO figures.

"By using indiscriminate attacks such as suicide bombings in public
places and by deliberately targeting civilian workers, the Taleban are
committing war crimes," said Claudio Cordone. "The fact that such
attacks are widespread and carried out as part of Taleban policy makes
them also crimes against humanity."

The Taleban's stance towards civilians is far removed from its
obligations under international law. A Taleban spokesperson interviewed
by Amnesty International claimed that attacking "unarmed" civilians who
were not considered a threat was "forbidden". He then went on to say
that "there is no difference between the armed people who are fighting
against us and civilians who are co-operating with foreigners". The
Taleban rulebook forbids seizing civilians' money or possessions, but
sanctions killing teachers.

"All parties to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan must ensure that
civilians are protected and all prisoners treated humanely, as required
by international law. A first step for the Taleban is to stop
deliberately targeting civilians and end all indiscriminate attacks,"
said Claudio Cordone.

Posted by marga at 3:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No more limbo

It's official. You can no longer be in limbo. The Catholic Church has officially abolished it.

Yes, really. A document by the International Theological Commission published today and approved by the Pope establishes that there is no limbo. Under the original theory children (or others) who were not baptized would go to limbo - nothingness -, according to Dante, one of the circles of hell. But the Catholic Church is concerned about providing such fate for the millions of aborted fetuses, whom, according to them, have souls. So their solution? Abolish limbo, let them go straight to hell... I mean, heaven. Now you know.

Posted by marga at 2:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 18, 2007

Blogger arrested and held for reporting on torture of detainees

I17 April 2007

Blogger arrested and held for reporting on torture of detainees

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris

**Updates IFEX alert of 16 April 2007; please note that in the previous
alert, the journalist's name was spelled "Mahmoud"**

(RSF/IFEX) - Voicing concern about increasingly repressive policies towards
online dissent, Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of
blogger Abdul-Moneim Mahmud, who was arrested on 14 April 2007 at Cairo
airport. He has been charged with membership of an "illegal organisation"
(the Muslim Brotherhood), but his arrest seems to be linked to the photos
and reports about the torture of detainees that he has posted online.

"This arrest comes two months after another blogger, Abdel Kareem Nabil
Suleiman, was sentenced to four years in prison," Reporters Without Borders
said. "These two young men hold very different views, but they have a
common desire to denounce President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarianism and
the constant human rights violations in Egypt. We hope the authorities will
free them and undertake to respect the principle of the free flow of
information online."

The state prosecutor's office in Shoubra Al-Khaima ordered that Mahmud
should be held for at least two weeks while he is investigated for alleged
membership and financing of an illegal movement. Many local sources say he
has in fact been targeted for reporting arbitrary arrests and acts of
torture by the security services on his blog, Ana Ikhwan (
http://www.ana-ikhwan.blogspot.com ), and on the Muslim Brotherhood's
website ( http://www.ikhwanweb.info ).

Mahmud covered demonstrations organised by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
and circulated photos of police brutality on the Internet. Aged 27 and a
journalism graduate of Cairo University, he is also a contributor to the
satellite TV station Al-Hiwar (The Dialogue).

Suleiman, who is better known by his blogger pseudonym of "Kareem Amer,"
was arrested on 6 November 2006 because of articles he had posted on his
blog ( http://www.karam903.blogspot.com ), in which he often condemned the
government's authoritarian excesses and criticised Egypt's highest
religious institutions, especially the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where
he studied law. He was sentenced on 22 February to three years in prison
for "inciting hatred of Islam" and one year for "insulting" the president.

Egypt is on the Reporters Without Borders list of "13 Internet Enemies":
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19603

For further information, contact Julien Pain, RSF Internet Desk, 5, rue
Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 71, fax: +33 1 45
23 11 51, e-mail: internet@rsf.org, Internet: http://www.internet.rsf.org

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April 12, 2007

Civilian Claims on U.S. Suggest the Toll of War

The New York Times
Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By

April 12, 2007

By PAUL von ZIELBAUER

In February 2006, nervous American soldiers in Tikrit killed an Iraqi fisherman on the Tigris River after he leaned over to switch off his engine. A year earlier, a civilian filling his car and an Iraqi Army officer directing traffic were shot by American soldiers in a passing convoy in Balad, for no apparent reason.

The incidents are among many thousands of claims submitted to the Army by Iraqi and Afghan civilians seeking payment for noncombat killings, injuries or property damage American forces inflicted on them or their relatives.

The claims provide a rare window into the daily chaos and violence faced by civilians and troops in the two war zones. Recently, the Army disclosed roughly 500 claims to the American Civil Liberties Union in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. They are the first to be made public.

They represent only a small fraction of the claims filed. In all, the military has paid more than $32 million to Iraqi and Afghan civilians for noncombat-related killings, injuries and property damage, an Army spokeswoman said. That figure does not include condolence payments made at a unit commander’s discretion.

The paperwork, examined by The New York Times, provides unusually detailed accounts of how bystanders to the conflicts have become targets of American forces grappling to identify who is friend, who is foe.

In the case of the fisherman in Tikrit, he and his companion desperately tried to appear unthreatening to an American helicopter overhead.

“They held up the fish in the air and shouted ‘Fish! Fish!’ to show they meant no harm,” said the Army report attached to the claim filed by the fisherman’s family. The Army refused to compensate for the killing, ruling that it was “combat activity,” but approved $3,500 for his boat, net and cellphone, which drifted away and were stolen.

In the killings at the gas station in Balad, documents show that the Army determined that the neither of the dead Iraqis had done anything hostile or criminal, and approved $5,000 to the civilian’s brother but nothing for the Iraqi officer.

In another incident, in 2005, an American soldier in a dangerous Sunni Arab area south of Baghdad killed a boy after mistaking his book bag for a bomb satchel. The Army paid the boy’s uncle $500.

The Foreign Claims Act, which governs such compensation, does not deal with combat-related cases. For those cases, including the boy’s, the Army may offer a condolence payment as a gesture of regret with no admission of fault, of usually no higher than $2,500 per person killed.

The total number of claims filed, or paid, is unclear, although extensive data has been provided in reports to Congress. There is no way to know immediately whether disciplinary action or prosecution has resulted from the cases.

Soldiers hand out instruction cards after mistakes are made, so Iraqis know where to file claims. “The Army does not target civilians,” said Maj. Anne D. Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman. “Sadly, however, the enemy’s tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan unnecessarily endanger innocent civilians.”

There are no specific guidelines to tell Army field officers judging the claims how to evaluate the cash value of a life taken, Major Edgecomb said. She said officers “consider the contributions the deceased made to those left behind and offer an award based on the facts, local tribal customs, and local law.”

In Haditha, one of the most notorious incidents involving American troops in Iraq, the Marines paid residents $38,000 after troops killed two dozen people in November 2005.

The relatively small number of claims divulged by the Army show patterns of misunderstanding at checkpoints and around American military convoys that often result in inadvertent killings. In one incident, in Feb. 18, 2006, a taxi approached a checkpoint east of Baquba that was not properly marked with signs to slow down, one Army claim evaluation said. Soldiers fired on the taxi, killing a woman and severely wounding her daughter and son. The Army approved an unusually large condolence payment of $7,500.

In September 2005, soldiers killed a man and his sister by firing 200 rounds into their car as it approached a checkpoint, apparently too quickly, near Mussayib. The Army lieutenant colonel who handled the claim awarded relatives a $10,000 compensation payment, finding that the soldiers had overstepped the rules of engagement.

“There are some very tragic losses of civilian life, including losses of whole families,” said Anthony D. Romero, the A.C.L.U.’s executive director, in an interview. He said the claims showed “enormous confusion on all sides, both from the civilian population on how to interact with the armed services and also among the soldiers themselves.”

Of the 500 cases released, 204, or about 40 percent, were apparently rejected because the injury, death or property damage was deemed to have been “directly or indirectly” related to combat. Of the claims approved for payment, at least 87 were not combat-related, and 77 were condolence payments for incidents the Army judged to be combat-related.

About 10 percent of the claims were rejected because the Army could not find a “significant activity” report confirming an incident.

A summary of the cases is online at www.aclu.org/civiliancasualties.

In Iraq, rules for evaluating claims have changed. Before President Bush declared major combat operations over, in May 2003, commanders considered most checkpoint shootings to be combat-related. Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the former commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq, stiffened rules at checkpoints. In late 2003, as more Iraqis were accidentally injured or killed, the Army began offering condolence payments. It has not always worked as planned, said Sarah Holewinski, the executive director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, a nonprofit group in Washington.

“Sometimes families would get paid and sometimes their neighbors wouldn’t,” she said. “It caused a lot of resentments among the Iraqis, which is ironic because it was a program specifically meant to foster good will.”

The Army usually assigns a captain, major or lieutenant colonel to accept claims in Iraq and Afghanistan and decide on payment.

But in and near combat zones in Iraq, a claim’s merit is quickly judged by an officer juggling dozens of new claims each week, said Jon E. Tracy, a former Army captain and lawyer who adjudicated Iraqi civilian claims in the Baghdad area from May 2003 through July 2004.

“I know plenty of lawyers who did not pay any condolences payments at all,” said Mr. Tracy, who is now a legal consultant for the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. “There was no reason for it. It was clearly not combat, and the victim was clearly innocent, all the facts are there, witness statements, but they wouldn’t pay them.”

Half of the claims he adjudicated were property damage claims from collisions with military vehicles, he said. Most fraudulent claims were property claims; few were for wrongful killings. “You just had to read people,” he said.

About a quarter of claims were for personal injury or deaths. In his year judging claims, Mr. Tracy said he paid 52 condolence payments, most for deaths. “I had three to four times more,” Mr. Tracy said, “I just didn’t have enough money.”

Andrew W. Lehren contributed reporting from New York, and Edward Wong from Baghdad.

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April 10, 2007

MALAYSIA: Government plans to force bloggers to register

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about a 4 April
2007 statement by Deputy Minister of Energy, Water and Communications Datuk
Shaziman Abu Mansor, that in order to prevent the spread of "negative or
malicious content," bloggers will soon have to register with the
government. While claiming it does not intend to censor bloggers, the
government has warned that bloggers are not above the law when they
"disturb peace and harmony" in Malaysia.

"This measure could jeopardise online free expression," Reporters Without
Borders said. "It could push many bloggers to opt for anonymity or censor
themselves out of fear of reprisals. The deputy minister's statement once
again demonstrates the government's desire to exercise improper control
over the online flow of information inside Malaysia. The obligatory
registering of blogs is a measure that so far has only been adopted by
countries such as China that violate Internet users' rights."

The political parties and the government control most of the media in
Malaysia. The most popular blogs serve as a counter-weight, offering
political comment that is often critical of the government. Science and
Technology Minister Kong Cho Ha said on 4 December 2006 that he wanted to
"create strict laws to control abuses on the Internet" and to dissuade
"bloggers from advocating disorder and chaos in society."

On 19 January 2007, Reporters Without Borders took up the cause of two
Malaysian bloggers who are the target of libel suits by members of the
staff of the "New Straits Times", a Malaysian newspaper. Jeff Ooi, who
writes one of the country's most popular blogs, Screenshots (
http://www.jeffooi.com ), has been sued for refusing to take down 13 posts
which the newspaper's staffers consider to be defamatory (see IFEX alerts
of 1 February and 19 January 2007).

Ahiruddin Attan, who produces a blog called Rockybru (
http://www.rockybru.blogspot.com ), says he is being sued over a post in
which he accused some of the newspaper's journalists of being agents of the
Singaporean government (see alerts of 1 February and 19 January 2007).

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April 3, 2007

Mufti's 'hymen fatwa' causes shock waves among scholars

By Yasmine Saleh

CAIRO: Reconstructive hymen surgery for women who lost their
virginity before marriage is halal (religiously permissible), said to
Aly Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt.

Gomaa, the highest authority with the power to issue a fatwa
(religious edict), appeared the popular terrestrial Channel Two’s
talk show El Beit Beitek, where he condoned the controversial fatwa,
released by Soad Saleh, the ex-dean of the faculty of Islamic studies
at Al-Azhar University and noted scholar.

Shiekh Khaled El Gindy, an Al-Azhar scholar and member of the Higher
Council of Islamic Studies told The Daily Star Egypt that he agrees
with the new fatwa.

"Islam never differentiates between men and women, so it is not
rational for us to think that God has placed a sign to indicate the
virginity of women without having a similar sign to indicate the
virginity of men," El Gindy said.

"Any man who is concerned about his prospective wife’s hymen should
first provide a proof that he himself is virgin," he added.

El Gindy voiced his full support for Gomaa.

Not only did Gomaa acknowledge the fatwa but asked women who will
undergo the contentious surgery not to tell their future spouses
about it, since this is not a question of honesty.

"If God wants us to know everything about each other, He would have
given us the ability to read each others' minds, so why did he not do
so? Perhaps maybe someone would have a wrong idea about you now but
will change it later," Gomaa said.

Even more shocking to many observers, Gomaa said that if a married
woman had sexual intercourse with another man but truly regretted her
actions and asked God for forgiveness, she should not tell her husband.

"According to Sharia, if a husband knew that his wife had sexual
intercourse with anyone else, he should divorce her, so by not
telling him she would be protecting her home and her life," he
explained.

The fatwa has led to much controversy within Al-Azhar and Egyptian
society as a whole.

In Upper Egypt honor crimes are still committed. If a woman loses her
virginity out of wedlock, it is considered a big shame on everyone
and deserves to die.

In response to such ideas, El Gindy told The Daily Star Egypt that,
"Islam does not care for the feelings of ignorant people, just as the
law does not protect idiots."

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February 8, 2007

UNESCO VOICES ‘DEEP CONCERN’ AT ISRAELI CONSTRUCTION WORK IN JERUSALEM

New York, Feb 8 2007 11:00AM

The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voiced his “deep concern” today over construction work initiated by Israel in the Old City of Jerusalem and called for the suspension of any action that could exacerbate tensions.

UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura noted in a statement that the Old City is protected by the UN Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), and is inscribed on the UN World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger.

“The distinctive character of the Old City of Jerusalem derives, in particular, from the close relationship between the historical and religious buildings and the peoples living with them,” the statement said, noting that interfering with the delicate balance among the symbols of the three monotheistic religions would entail running the risk of undermining the respect for sacred beliefs.

“For this reason, the Director-General is launching a vigorous appeal to all people of good will to cease any action that could lead to tensions, whose magnitude can not be foreseen at this time,” it added. “The wisest course would be to suspend any action that could endanger the spirit of mutual respect until such time as the will to dialogue prevails once again.”

Mr. Matsuura said he had written to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ensure that the work undertaken the plans of which have not been forwarded to UNESCO does not in any way undermine the outstanding universal value of the Old City.

In particular, he cited the decision by the World Heritage Committee in 2006 in Lithuania declaring its “concern as to the obstacles and practices, such as archaeological excavations or new constructions, which could alter the outstanding universal value of the cultural heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem, including its urban and social fabric as well as its visual integrity.”

The Committee requested Israel “to provide to the World Heritage Centre all relevant information concerning the new buildings planned in and around the Western Wall Plaza, including the plans for the reconstruction of the access leading to the al-Haram ash-Sharîf.”
2007-02-08 00:00:00.000

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February 4, 2007

Nepali becomes both man and woman

By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Kathmandu

Nepal has a community of men identifying themselves as women
The authorities in Nepal have granted a man who dresses and behaves as a woman both male and female citizenship.

The unprecedented legal status was given to 40-year-old Chanda Musalman.

Conservative and religious Nepal, like many Asian countries, has a sizeable community of people who are born male but behave as women.

It is unclear how this unique legal status will play out in practice - for instance, how it will affect Chanda's marriage rights.

Constitution

With elections approaching, government teams are currently touring the country issuing certificates of citizenship.

One team came to Chanda's village in western Nepal.

Chanda, who has had no sex-change surgery, asked the officials to erase the words male and female, listed under gender.

They obliged, and ascribed Chanda's gender as "both".

A local campaign group, the Blue Diamond Society, has thanked the government for the move, which it described as a victory for sexual and gender minorities.

In the past the group has accused both the police and the Maoists of harassing transgendered people in the streets of Kathmandu.

It is now lobbying to get the rights of sexual minorities explicitly protected in the new constitution, to be drawn up after the elections.

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December 31, 2006

Playground justice

What else can I possibly say about this piece of news from the BBC?

CAR leader orders house burning

President Francois Bozize confirmed his order on radio

The president of the Central African Republic has ordered the army to set fire to the homes of two church leaders "to teach them a lesson".

The Baptist Church pastors had burnt down the home of another pastor in a row over the use of a chapel for Christmas services in the capital.

One of the men was subsequently beaten up and the other has been arrested.

Francois Bozize said he wanted them "to experience the suffering they had inflicted on others".

The BBC's Joseph Benamse says people in the capital, Bangui, are surprised that the order came from the head of state.

But Mr Bozize confirmed on a private radio station and he himself gave the instructions.

"It is the anger of God which strikes those who offend or do wrong to a servant of God," AFP news agency quotes him as saying.

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December 7, 2006

Iraqi cultural heritage "going down the drain"

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Iraq's National Library and Archive, Caught on the Front Line of
Sectarian Fighting, Is Closed
By BURTON BOLLAG

After months of determined efforts to keep going amid Iraq's
deepening violence and chaos, the National Library and Archive, the
country's largest depository of books and documents, has closed.

Saad Bashir Eskander, the library's director-general, said in an e-
mail message to The Chronicle on Wednesday that he had reluctantly
decided to shutter the institution on November 21 after several
staff members where killed and the building had increasingly come
under fire.

The institution and its collections were heavily damaged when the
library was twice looted and burned shortly after the American-led
invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The national library was only one of
many institutions -- including libraries, museums, universities, and
hospitals -- that were plundered in the lawlessness that followed
the invasion.

But after being gradually repaired, the National Library and
Archive, which is known as the NLA, had become a haven for students
and scholars in Baghdad, the capital.

The library, on Rashid Street, is a modern three-story structure
with four wings built around a central courtyard. Unfortunately for
the institution, it is located on the front line of battles between
Shiite and Sunni militias, which have escalated in recent months.

"On many occasions, the NLA was hit directly," Mr. Eskander wrote on
Wednesday. "Windows were smashed. My staff are naturally
frightened."

Three staff members have been "murdered," he said, as have three
drivers. The library has devoted a significant portion of its meager
budget to providing buses to carry its staff -- which numbered 230
last year -- safely to and from the institution. Mr. Eskander added
that 50 staff members had been forced to flee their homes because of
the sectarian violence or death threats.

The director had wanted to reopen the library last Sunday, but then
reconsidered, he wrote in an e-mail message to Jeffrey B. Spurr, a
librarian at Harvard University who has helped organize training
programs for Iraqi librarians in neighboring Middle East countries.

"Today, Sunday Dec. 3, I have decided not to reopen the library and
the archive," Mr. Eskander wrote to Mr. Spurr. "As soon as I arrived
to my office, a bomb exploded in the opposite building. We have not
received any instruction from either the government or from our
minister," he said, referring to the minister of culture. "It is
really chaos."

Mr. Eskander, who has been director-general since December 2003 and
is credited with working diligently to rebuild and modernize the
battered institution, says the library's 30 guards have been unable
to provide much protection. "Four months ago," he wrote in his
message to The Chronicle, "armed men opened fire on our guards at
night. My guards contacted the Ministry of Interior, asking for its
help. The answer they received was: 'Are the attackers Shiites or
Sunnis? If they are Shiites, do not worry -- they will not hurt you.
If the attackers are Sunnis, please resist them.'"

Iraq's armed forces, and its interior ministry, are controlled by
Shiites.

"I reported the incident to our minister of culture, who in turn
reported it to the minister of interior," continued Mr.
Eskander. "Nothing happened."

Mr. Eskander said that preserving the library is crucial to Iraq's
future. "If Iraq becomes a stable country," he wrote, the
institution "can play a constructive role in the transition process
to democracy. For example, we can provide ... historically
invaluable documents, records, and books to our readers without
censorship."

The library has large archives and manuscript collections, from as
far back as the conquest of Iraq by Süleyman the Magnificent in
1535, near the beginning of the Turkish Ottoman period. The
collections were seriously damaged in the looting of 2003.

Yet experts who have been involved with international efforts to
rescue Iraq's cultural heritage viewed the fate of the national
library, more than three years after the toppling of the government
of Saddam Hussein, with much pessimism.

"The forces of intolerance are thriving, and those institutions and
persons representing a progressive and hopeful future for Iraq are
under assault and in retreat," wrote Mr. Spurr, the Harvard
librarian, in an e-mail.

René Teijgeler, an anthropologist at the University of Amsterdam who
served as a senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture from
July 2004 to March 2005, said many of the museums, libraries, and
monuments that were rebuilt over the last three years have again
been suffering damage as the country spirals into civil war.

"Compared to 2003, when the whole world was concerned about
preserving Iraq's cultural heritage," he said, "it's even worse now.
It's all going down the drain."

----------------------------------------------------------

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December 6, 2006

INDIA: Two-day old newborn dies in custody due to gross police misconduct

Babies die everyday of a million causes: poverty, hunger, disease. And yet this story is particularly maddening because not only the baby did not have to die, but the mother was detained for having been raped!

URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

7 December 2006
------------------------------------------------------
UA-391-2006: INDIA: Two-day old newborn dies in custody due to gross police misconduct

INDIA: Misconduct of police; insincere policing; inhuman approach of hospital; impunity; failure of the rule of law
------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner MASUM in West Bengal regarding the death of a two-day old baby after she was arbitrarily detained along with her mother at the Jagacha police station in Howarh district, West Bengal on 28 August 2006. No inquiry has been launched concerning the death even though the law stipulates that a judicial magistrate must investigate all deaths while in police custody.

CASE DETAILS:

On November 26, Ms. Soma Giri delivered a baby girl at the Bankra Central Nursing Home after undergoing a major scissoring operation. The nursing home authorities then discharged the mother a few hours later but kept the newborn baby for another two days since the infant's heath was weak.

On the same day, Ms. Soma's parents went to the Jagacha police station and filed a complaint against Mr. Sanatan Mudi (alias Santanu) regarding the alleged rape of their daughter. Subsequently on November 28, the case was registered (case no. 207) under section 376 (Punishment for rape) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860. Sanatan was then later arrested that same day.

On the evening of November 28, Jagacha police brought Ms. Soma along with her baby to the police station and inquired about the alleged rape case. The police detained her and her newborn baby overnight without reason and kept them outside of the lock-up area. Later in the night the baby began to cry due to the cold; however, the police did not provide any blankets or other materials to keep the infant warm. When the child finally stopped crying, Ms. Soma discovered that her baby had died. The next morning, the police brought the baby to Howrah District General Hospital where a doctor declared that the infant was dead. The relevant records are kept at the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the Jagacha police station claims that they had to detain Ms. Soma and the baby because they wanted to perform a DNA test in order to identify the child's father. However, such police claims do not justify such harsh treatment against an infant or explain why they needed to detain the young family overnight.

The authority's action is also in violation of Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) which strictly prohibits the police from detaining any women or person below the age of 15 at a police station without a warrant. However, the Jagacha police brought the mother and infant to the police station without any judicial order.

Furthermore, Section 176 of Cr PC states that when any person dies in the police custody, the concerned judicial magistrate is empowered to hold an enquiry into the cause of death. Until now, no such inquiry has been initiated in this respect. Also, an autopsy has not been conducted, which is in violation of the guidelines made by the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) that clearly affirm the importance of performing an autopsy that is conducted by an expert and that is also video graphed.

The AHRC strongly condemns the misconduct and the violation of procedure of law by the Jagacha police that resulted in the infant's death. We urge local authorities to immediately register the case against the responsible police officers including the OC and suspend them while the investigation is on-going. Furthermore, Ms. Soma must be adequately compensated for this unnecessary and extremely traumatic experience.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the relevant authorities and ask for their immediately intervention in this matter. Please urge them to order a prompt and thorough investigation regarding the misconduct of the Jagacha police and to take the proper steps in punishing the alleged perpetrators. Please also express your condemnation towards this clear and absolute violation of legal procedure.

Dear ________,

INDIA: Two-day old newborn dies in police custody due to gross misconduct

Name of victims:
1. Mrs. Soma Giri, daughter of Mr. Sasthi Giri, residing in Palpara within the jurisdiction of Jagacha police station in Howarh district, West Bengal state, India (arbitrarily taken into police custody)
2. Mrs. Giri's 2 and a half days old girl child (died in police custody)
Alleged perpetrators: Officers attached to the Jagacha police station
Date of incident: 28 November 2006

I am extremely disturbed to learn about the death of a two-day old baby after she was arbitrarily detained along with her mother at the Jagacha police station in Howarh district, West Bengal on 28 August 2006. I understand that no inquiry has yet to be launched concerning the death even though the law stipulates that a judicial magistrate must investigate all deaths while in police custody.

According to the information I have received, the victim's mother Ms. Soma Giri delivered a baby girl at the Bankra Central Nursing Home after undergoing a major scissoring operation on 26 November 2006. The nursing home authorities then discharged the mother a few hours later but kept the newborn baby for another two days since the infant's heath was weak.

I then was told that on the same day, Ms. Soma's parents went to the Jagacha police station and filed a complaint against Mr. Sanatan Mudi (alias Santanu) regarding the alleged rape of their daughter. Subsequently on November 28, the case was registered (case no. 207) under section 376 (Punishment for rape) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860. Sanatan was then later arrested that same day.

Then on the evening of November 28, Jagacha police brought Ms. Soma along with her baby to the police station and inquired about the alleged rape case. The police detained her and her newborn baby overnight without reason and kept them outside of the lock-up area. Later in the night the baby began to cry due to the cold; however, the police did not provide any blankets or other materials to keep the infant warm. When the child finally stopped crying, Ms. Soma discovered that her baby had died. The next morning, the police brought the baby to Howrah District General Hospital where a doctor declared that the infant was dead.

I have also learned that the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the Jagacha police station claims that they had to detain Ms. Soma and the baby because they wanted to perform a DNA test in order to identify the child's father. However, such police claims do not justify such harsh treatment against an infant or explain why they needed to detain the young family overnight.

I am deeply concerned by the authority's action since they have clearly violated Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) which strictly prohibits the police from detaining any women or person below the age of 15 at a police station without a warrant. It is evident that the Jagacha police brought the mother and infant to the police station without any judicial order.

I also know that Section 176 of Cr PC states that when any person dies in the police custody, the concerned judicial magistrate is empowered to hold an enquiry into the cause of death. Until now, no such inquiry has been initiated in this respect. Also, an autopsy has not been conducted, which is in violation of the guidelines made by the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) that clearly affirm the importance of performing an autopsy that is conducted by an expert and that is also video graphed.

In light of the above, I strongly urge that you immediately intervene in this matter. I ask that you appoint an independent investigating authority to enquire into the role of Jagacha police. If it is proven that the police have violated the procedure of law, legal action must be taken against the officers allegedly responsible, including the Officer- in Charge of Jagacha police station.

Furthermore, to ensure the impartiality of the inquiry and the safety of Soma's family, the officers allegedly involved in this case should be suspended immediately during the investigation process. I also ask that a competent and independent post-mortem is conducted on the infant without further delay. Finally, Ms. Soma must be adequately compensated for this unnecessary and extremely traumatic experience.

I look forward to hearing about your urgent intervention into this case.

-------------------

PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER TO:

1. Mr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister's Office
Room number 152, South Block
New Delhi
INDIA
Fax: +91 11 23016857
Email: pmosb@pmo.nic.in

2. Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Chief Minister/ Minister of Home Department
Government of West Bengal
Writer's Building
Kolkata - 700 001
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 2214 5480/ 2214 1341

3. Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission of India
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg
New Delhi -110001
INDIA
Fax: +91 11 2334 0016
Email: chairnhrc@nic.in

4. Mr. Subhash Awasthi
Director General of Police
Government of West Bengal
Writers Buildings
Kolkata-1
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 2214 4498 / 2214 5486
Email: padgp@wbpolice.gov.in

5. Chief Secretary
Government of West Bengal
Writers' Buildings, Kolkata - 700001
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 22144328

6. Home Secretary
Government of West Bengal
Writers' Buildings, Kolkata - 700001
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 22143001
Email: sechome@wb.gov.in

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367

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November 20, 2006

Homemade sub captured with 3 tons of cocaine

POSTED: 1:18 p.m. EST, November 20, 2006
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SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) -- Tipped off by three plastic pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean's surface, authorities seized a homemade submarine packed with 3 tons of cocaine off Costa Rica's Pacific coast.

Four men traveled inside the 50-foot wood and fiberglass craft, breathing through the pipes. The craft sailed along at about 7 mph, just 6 feet beneath the surface, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said Sunday.

The submarine was spotted Friday 103 miles (166 kilometers) off the coast near Cabo Blanco National Park on the Nicoya peninsula.

"This is the first time in the country's history that a craft with these characteristics has been caught near the national coasts," Berrocal said in a statement.

U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, FBI and Colombian officials aided Costa Rican authorities in the operation, Berrocal said.

Two Colombians, a Guatemalan and a Sri Lankan were arrested and taken to the United States, since they were captured in international waters, Berrocal said.

Officials took the submarine to a Costa Rican Coast Guard station and were trying to determine its origins, the Security Ministry said. It was found with several tanks of gas, but Costa Rican authorities said the vessel, which had a bailer to keep out water, probably did not travel far.

So far this year, Costa Rican authorities have seized 18 tons of cocaine.

In March, the Colombian navy seized a 60-foot fiberglass submarine that likely was used to haul tons of cocaine out to speedboats in the Pacific Ocean for transportation to Central America and on to the United States. Three people were arrested and two speedboats seized during the operation, but no drugs were found.

Colombian authorities say smuggling cocaine by sea has become the top method of transport in recent years, as radar systems have made it difficult to smuggle drugs in small airplanes.

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October 22, 2006

Thieves Lead to Discovery of Egypt Tombs

A very cool story from Egypt. It doesn't say, however, if the tomb discoverers were indeed eaten by a crocodile and a snake.

(AP)October 22,2006 | SAQQARA, Egypt -- The arrest of tomb robbers led archaeologists to the graves of three royal dentists, protected by a curse and hidden in the desert sands for thousands of years in the shadow of Egypt's most ancient pyramid, officials announced Sunday.

The thieves launched their own dig one summer night two months ago but were apprehended, Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters.

That led archaeologists to the three tombs, one of which included an inscription warning that anyone who violated the sanctity of the grave would be eaten by a crocodile and a snake, Hawass said.

A towering, painted profile of the chief dentist stares down at passers-by from the wall opposite the inscription.

The tombs date back more than 4,000 years to the 5th Dynasty and were meant to honor a chief dentist and two others who treated the pharaohs and their families, Hawass said.

Their location near the Step Pyramid of King Djoser -- believed to be Egypt's oldest pyramid -- indicate the respect accorded dentists by Egypt's ancient kings, who "cared about the treatment of their teeth," Hawass said.

Although their services were in demand by the powerful, the dentists likely did not share in their wealth.

The tombs, which did not contain their mummies, were built of mud-brick and limestone, not the pure limestone preferred by ancient Egypt's upper class.

"The whole point of a tomb was to last forever," said Carol Redmount, associate professor of Egyptian archaeology at the University of California at Berkeley. "So you wanted to make it out of materials that would last forever. And mud-brick ... didn't last forever."

During a visit to the site, Hawass pointed out two hieroglyphs -- an eye over a tusk -- which appear frequently among the neat rows of symbols decorating the tombs. He said those hieroglyphs identify the men as dentists.

The pictorial letters also spell out the names of the chief dentist -- Iy Mry -- and the other two -- Kem Msw and Sekhem Ka. Hawass said the men were not related but must have been partners or colleagues to have been buried together.

Figures covering the pillars in the doorway of the chief dentist's tomb tell archaeologists much about his life and habits, Hawass said.

They depict the chief dentist and his family immersed in daily rituals -- playing games, slaughtering animals and presenting offerings to the dead, including the standard 1,000 loaves of bread and 1,000 vases of beer.

These would "magically provide food and sustenance for the spirit of the dead person for all eternity," Redmount said.

Just around the corner of the doorway is a false door, its face painstakingly inscribed with miniature hieroglyphics. A shallow basin was placed below it.

"That was sort of the interface where the dead person in the tomb would come up and interact with the living," Redmount said.

The tomb robbers were the first to discover the site two months ago, and began their own dig one summer night, before they were captured and jailed. "We have to thank the thieves," Hawass said.

Although archaeologists have been exploring Egypt's ruins intensively for more than 150 years, Hawass believes only 30 percent of what lies hidden beneath the sands has been uncovered. Excavation continues at Saqqara, he said, and his team expects to find more tombs in the area.

Saqqara, about 12 miles south of Cairo, is one of Egypt's most popular tourist sites and hosts a collection of temples, tombs and funerary complexes.

The Step Pyramid is the forerunner of the more familiar straight-sided pyramids in Giza on the outskirts of Cairo, which were believed to have been built about a century later.

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August 28, 2006

On the footsteps of the Iraqi War

The Asia Times is one of the best newspapers on the web today, but one that I think does not get enough recognition out there. Here is a very interesting column by David Isenberg on how the administration thinks the press should be following its lead on finding Iran a strategic threat to the United States, one that justifies a war against it.

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - Another US intelligence test

Middle East
Aug 29, 2006

Another US intelligence test
By David Isenberg

One might think that after all the post-mortems on politicization of intelligence leading up to the US invasion of Iraq, members of the US Congress might have learned a few things about not rushing in where angels fear to tread. But you would be wrong, if a recent report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is any example.

Last Wednesday, Pete Hoekstra, a Republican congressman
from Michigan and chairman of the committee, released a report, "Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States". [1] The not very subtle implication was that those who don't agree Iran is a threat are fools.

This is exactly the same sort of tactic that the White House was using in 2002 and 2003 when Vice President Dick Cheney was talking about mushroom clouds rising into the sky due to an Iraqi nuclear weapon.

The New York Times, which pretty much accepted the White House spin on Iraq, thanks to its former reporter Judy Miller, recognized the new report for what it is. It editorialized this way:

The last thing this country needs as it heads into this election season is another attempt to push the intelligence agencies to hype their conclusions about the threat from a Middle Eastern state. That's what happened in 2002, when the administration engineered a deeply flawed document on Iraq that reshaped intelligence to fit President [George W] Bush's policy. And history appeared to be repeating itself ... when the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, released a garishly illustrated and luridly written document that is ostensibly dedicated to "helping the American people understand" that Iran's fundamentalist regime and its nuclear ambitions pose a strategic threat to the United States.

Just to make sure nobody missed the point, Hoekstra's press release said, "As an unclassified assessment, this report is aimed at providing information for the American people to use in understanding the very real threat our nation faces from Iran."

But Hoekstra is hardly a disinterested party in this. Earlier this year, citing an army report that units had dug up corroded canisters of chemical agent dating back decades, he and Senator Rick Santorum insisted that weapons of mass destruction had indeed been found in Iraq - a claim that not even Cheney or Defense Secretary Rumsfeld supported.

What a difference the passage of time makes. In March 2005, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction released its final report. Although it did study Iran, the results were deemed too sensitive to reveal in the unclassified report that was released.

But it did say, "But we also reviewed the state of the intelligence community's knowledge about the unconventional weapons programs of several countries that pose current proliferation threats, including Iran, North Korea, China and Russia. We cannot discuss many of our findings from these studies in our unclassified report, but we can say here that we found that we have only limited access to critical information about several of these high-priority intelligence targets."

It is important to note from the very outset that in terms of making a case against Iran in regard to its unconventional-weapons capabilities, the latest report is far from definitive. The cover letter notes that the assessment is based on "open-source materials". Open-source material is a valuable source, but it is hardly definitive, as exemplified by the 88 footnotes referring to news reports and already-public government reports.

It also noted that the committee staff "as a courtesy" invited the US intelligence community to provide input on the report. But its authors did not interview intelligence officials. In other words, the report was largely insulated from any input or analysis by intelligence community professionals during its actual drafting.

That may well have been deliberate, as the intelligence community is uncertain about what it actually knows about Iran. When the committee report cites analysis done by the director of National Intelligence or the State Department, one sees language such as, "Iran likely has an offensive-chemical-weapons research-and-development capability," or "Iran probably has an offensive-biological-weapons program." This is hardly the "slam dunk" evidence that those wishing to attack Iran want to read.

Ray McGovern, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst for nearly 30 years and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, noted that the committee report was primarily drafted by Frederick Fleitz, who did his apprenticeship on politicization under US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, when the latter was under secretary of state, and became his principal aide and chief enforcer while on loan from the CIA.

Bolton had been highly influential in the crafting of a tough policy that rejected talks with Tehran. Fleitz was the same official who "explained" to State Department intelligence analyst Christian Westermann that it was "a political judgment as to how to interpret" data on Cuba's biological-weapons program (which existed only in Bolton's mind) and that the intelligence community "should do as we asked".

It is ironic that as the debate over Iran's capabilities and intentions proceeds, the intelligence community is being criticized for not providing sufficient evidence of Iran's "threat" to the US. This is being spun as a case of the intelligence analysts being too conservative in their work for fear of making the same alleged "mistakes" - this is the new post-Iraq party line. The line is that it was the intelligence analysts who made mistakes, as opposed to policymakers in the White House who pressured intelligence analysts to come up with conclusions to support their already established policies - that they supposedly made in the case of Iraq.

Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said, "Analysts were burned pretty badly during the run-up to the war in Iraq. I'm not surprised that some in the intelligence community are a bit gun-shy about appearing to be warmongering."

Gary Sick, a former National Security Council staff member in the Jimmy Carter administration and director of the Gulf/2000 project at Columbia University, circulated a memo last week noting problems with the accuracy of the committee report. He wrote:

If you are going to take on the entire US intelligence community, it is a very good idea to at least get your basic facts straight. On a very quick reading, I found a statement on page 9 claiming that the 164 centrifuges at the Iranian Natanz site are "currently enriching uranium to weapons grade". There is no evidence whatsoever that this is true - and a lot of evidence that the tiny bit of enriched uranium produced at this site was reactor-grade (c 2.5% vs weapons grade c 95%). It may be true that Fleitz, and perhaps many in the neo-con community, suspect that weapons-grade enrichment is either covertly under way or is planned, but their suspicions should not be allowed to substitute for facts.

Throughout the report, there is careful documentation of any and all criticism that the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspectors have produced or any questions that they may have raised about Iran's performance. However, there is no mention at all of any of the IAEA conclusions that they find no evidence of weapons production or activity. Some people will recall that the IAEA inspectors, in their caution, were closer to the truth about Iraqi WMD [weapons of mass destruction] than, say, the Vice President's Office.

The summary of the study claims that Iran has "the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East" and it focuses attention on the 1,300-kilometer [range] Iranian Shahab-3 missile and its possible future development for carrying a nuclear warhead, including a handy map of exaggerated ranges for the Shahab-3 and (as yet non-existent) Shahab-4 demonstrating that everything from Monaco to Moscow to Mumbai is vulnerable to Iranian strikes.

A very quick check of the study's own sources revealed that Iran has "some" Shahab-3 missiles, but probably not more than a handful. By contrast, Israel has 50 ballistic missiles with range greater than the Shahab and configured for nuclear warheads that are stored "nearby". Saudi Arabia, we need to recall, has 40-60 long-range missiles, each with a range of 2,650km and all capable of carrying a 2,500-kilogram warhead, clearly the largest inventory of its kind in the Middle East.

The author of this report did not have the time or inclination to talk to any of the intelligence organizations that he was indicting. If he had, he might at least have caught some of the embarrassing bloopers in the text. Yet the report was rushed to public release in order to coincide with Iran's reply to the Europeans (for maximum publicity impact), without even waiting for it to be reviewed by the full committee.

The irony, therefore, is stunning when Representative Peter Hoekstra, who heads the Senate Committee, explained the rush by commenting that "we want to avoid another 'slam dunk'". The famous "slam dunk" judgment on Iraq's WMD was, of course, the result of selective reading of available intelligence (which some call cherry-picking), plus a willingness by some to subordinate the (often prosaic) facts to (sensational) ideological conviction.

That is exactly what has happened in this report. It is a sloppy attempt to lay the ground for another slam-dunk judgment and a potential rush to war. It deserves to be recognized for what it is.

Note

1. Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States

David Isenberg is a senior research analyst at the British American Security Information Council, a member of the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy, and an adviser to the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information, Washington. These views are his own.

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August 22, 2006

Viruses a la carte

ABC News: FDA Says Viruses Safe for Treating Meat

The FDA has just approved using a combination of six viruses to combat bacteria in cold cuts and sausages. The combination would be sprayed on the meats before packaging. Consumers will not be told which meats are treated with the listeria-eating-viruses.

Listeria is a big problem for elderly people and pregnant women, for whom it can cause premature delivery and other complications. For that reason pregnant women are advised not to eat deli meats, soft cheeses, sushi and other products more likely than average to contain listeria. BUT there seems to be little point in applying this product to some products and not others - as careful pregnant women would still have to keep away from these products in general as they wouldn't know which ones would be safe. The rest of the population, who wouldn't need them, may want to stay away from viruses in general.

As for my part, I plan to call whatever manufacturers of sausages & hotdogs & deli meats I use and ask whether they're serving me viruses a la carte.

Posted by marga at 6:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 6, 2006

The US sells Israel depleted uranium

5 August 2006

The government of Israel has recently purchased from the United States bunker-busting bombs (GBU-28), for use in its war in Lebanon. These bombs contain depleted uranium - a carcinogenic substance that spreads in the form of a toxic and radioactive dust, which enters the lungs and bones and is especially harmful to babies and young children.

We call on the government of Israel not to make use of these bombs.

This call is of special significance on 6 August, the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

These days of war remind us of the dangers facing humanity, when the warring sides are equipped with nuclear weapons and radioactive materials.

The State of Israel must not resort to the use of weaponry that can cause environmental damage lasting hundreds of years, or any weapon of mass destruction.

We call on the government Israel and all the governments in the Middle East to renounce weapons of mass destruction without delay!

A Middle East free from all weapons of mass destruction would be the best guarantee against their use.

(Signed) The Israeli Committee for a Middle East Free from Atomic, Biological & Chemical Weapons

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Stevens and the rule of law

A very interesting article in the LA Times about how Supreme Court justice John Stevens was clerking for SCJ Wiley Rutledge when the court had to decide on the legality of the trial against Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita. The court ruled 6-2 in favor, but Rutledge wrote an impassionate discent about how what what differentiates us from our opponents was the rule of law. Apparently Stevens took that to heart, and it was a major reason why he led the court to find that the US was bound (imagine that) by the Geneva Conventions.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-stevens6aug06,1,4144080.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo
Los Angeles Times
August 6, 2006

High Court's 1946 War Crimes Ruling Resounds

Justice Stevens drew from what he saw in the trial of a Japanese general
to write for the majority in the recent Guantanamo decision.

By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Five months after the end of World War II, the
U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision, upheld the death sentence
of a Japanese general who had commanded the final defense of the
Philippine Islands.

The court's action greatly troubled a young Navy veteran,
John Stevens, who a year later became a law clerk for one of
the two dissenters in the case.

The "great divide between our enemies and ourselves," Justice
Wiley B. Rutledge wrote in his 1946 dissent, was that "theirs was a
philosophy of universal force" and "ours is one of universal law" --
for friends and foes.

The swift military trial of Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita stemmed from
Japanese troops' brutal attacks on Filipino civilians. Rutledge
said it failed to meet basic standards of fairness because
the general had been convicted of war crimes in the absence of
any evidence he had done wrong.

"If, as may be hoped, we are now to enter upon a new era of law
in the world, it becomes more important than ever before for the
nations creating that system to observe their greatest traditions
of administering justice," Rutledge's dissent said.

Rutledge died three years later of a heart attack, after just
six years on the court, and his name faded from the public's memory.
But his former clerk kept alive those dissenting words, writing in a
1956 book chapter that Rutledge's view on the importance of fairness
in military trials would "be shared by others in years to come."

His prediction came true.

That onetime law clerk is Justice John Paul Stevens, who in June wrote
the Supreme Court's ruling that accused war criminals must be tried,
as the Geneva Convention requires, in "a regularly constituted court
affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as
indispensable by civilized peoples."

Stevens was speaking for the 5-3 majority in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, which
rejected the Bush administration's special rules for military tribunals
because, the court said, the rules did not offer defendants a fair trial.

The high court had agreed two years earlier that the government
could hold so-called enemy combatants -- captured during conflict
but not affiliated with a nation's military -- at a U.S. facility at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But this time it faced the question of whether
some detainees could be tried as war criminals, and possibly executed,
under evolving rules set by the White House alone.

When it came to setting rules for the war on terrorism, the 86-year-old
Stevens looked back six decades to World War II and the trial of the
Japanese general.

In Hamdan, the court rejected a tribunal provision permitting the
removal of defendants from the courtroom at prosecutors' request. Stevens
argued that, at minimum, defendants charged with war crimes deserved to
be present at their trials and to confront all the evidence against them.

In Yamashita, Rutledge had argued that because the evidence consisted
only of reports of atrocities, and not witnesses who had seen or heard
the attacks ordered, the general could not adequately defend himself.

Stevens also found that the government must show that the alleged
war criminal had committed "a hostile and warlike act" against Americans,
not simply that he was linked to others who committed atrocities.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan has acknowledged that he was a driver for
Osama bin Laden but has denied participation in any terrorist plans.
Gen. Yamashita had argued that he was cut off from his troops during the
atrocities and that he had not ordered, approved or even known of them.

Some of Stevens' former law clerks say they have been struck by
the decisive role his World War II-related experience has played
in his handling of cases involving the war on terrorism.

"Stevens was greatly influenced by Rutledge. He admired him as a person
and as a judge. And without question, he carried that relationship with
him," said Deborah Pearlstein, a lawyer for Human Rights First. "When
I was a clerk, he would often mention an opinion or dissent by Rutledge."

"It's remarkable when you look back at Yamashita," said University of
Oklahoma law professor Joseph T. Thai. "Wiley Rutledge strongly believed
in the rule of law and justice. He said what separates us from the
people we fought against is that we believe in fair treatment for all.
He said we can't allow the fears and pressures of the moment as a
reason to mete out swift justice to our enemies and to abandon our
basic principles.

"And that's the lesson Justice Stevens applies to the war on terrorism:
Even as we seek to punish the 'worst of the worst,' we must abide by
the rule of law."

###

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August 2, 2006

Earthquakes in Tajikistan

Am I the last to hear about the earthquakes in Tajikistan? Here is the UN press release. They are providing all of $20K to assist 9,000 people.

UN RUSHES EMERGENCY AID TO TAJIKISTAN AFTER EARTHQUAKES AFFECT THOUSANDS IN THE SOUTH

New York, Aug 1 2006 4:00PM

The United Nations is providing $20,000 in emergency assistance to Tajikistan after earthquakes hit two southern districts of the Central Asian country at the weekend, affecting around 9,000 people and damaging infrastructure in a region close to the border with Afghanistan.

Two earthquakes of magnitudes 5.3 and 5.4 hit areas of Kumsangir and Panj districts on Saturday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a news release, adding that damage to electricity and other key social infrastructure had been reported in a large part of Kumsangir. There was no information on casualties.

Tajikistan�s Government has requested assistance from the UN and wider international community and there is an immediate need for tents, blankets, mattresses, food, clothing, fuel, medication and other equipment. The $20,000 emergency cash grant aims address these urgent requirements.

The Government, working with the UN Development Programme (<"http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/">UNDP) and the Tajik Red Crescent, began an initial assessment mission on Saturday.

<"http://ochaonline.un.org/webpage.asp?Page=873&Lang=en">OCHA has also contacted the Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan to gather information on the impact of the two earthquakes in that country, adding that an initial Government assessment mission indicated that damage was limited and that emergency relief needs are covered.

The Afghan Red Crescent, with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), will provide food and supplies to over 100 families, while the UN Children's Fund (<"http://www.unicef.org/">UNICEF) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (<"http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news">UNHCR) will provide other assistance.
2006-08-01 00:00:00.000

Posted by marga at 3:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Child Rape

This news about a child rape in Zimbabwe is, of course, nothing new. Throughout southern Africa men have been raping young children, including babies (who are often killed in the process), under the idea that that will cure them of AIDS.

UNICEF �SHOCKED AND OUTRAGED� AT LATEST CASE OF CHILD RAPE IN ZIMBABWE

New York, Aug 2 2006 10:00AM

The United Nations Children�s Fund (UNICEF) has �condemned in the strongest possible terms� news of more horrific sexual child abuse cases in Zimbabwe while urging new measures to protect the country�s youngsters and provide more general education about HIV and AIDS.

Responding to a recent news report that a Ruya high school teacher raped and infected with HIV a six-year-old girl, UNICEF said the case should shock all Zimbabweans into action.

The newspaper The Herald reported that the magistrate presiding over the case, who sentenced the teacher to 17 years jail, �made it clear that [the rapist] raped the girl hoping to heal his sexually transmitted diseases.�

UNICEF�s Representative in Zimbabwe Dr. Festo Kavishe said, �It is sickening to hear that in 2006 we still have cases where people believe their sexually transmitted diseases can be �cured� by having sex with [in this case raping] a virgin. This is the most repulsive of myths. It needs to be exposed by every community in every corner of the country.�

In two additional cases, also reported in Monday�s Herald, a 22-year-old man has been charged with raping his seven-year-old twin sisters, while a 76-year-old man has been charged with sexual assault after he allegedly abused an 11-year-old girl.

�Much more needs to be done to combat child abuse in Zimbabwe,� said Mr. Kavishe, �and importantly to educate Zimbabweans on HIV and all sexually transmitted diseases, and on the long-term psychological impact of rape on children.�

Earlier this year UNICEF again expressed its horror at the continued sexual abuse of children in Zimbabwe, most of them primary school pupils, by those in trusted positions. It noted that anecdotal evidence from local NGOs and clinics around Harare show child sexual abuse is rampant. Last year alone, a local NGO recorded 4,146 cases of sexual abuse against children in its area of operation alone.

�This means 11 children were sexually abused every day of last year,� said Mr. Kavishe, �and these are only the cases reported. This should be a cause for national outrage and every ci