Spotlight at ideological criminal

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Blackwater: CIA Assassins?

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 20 Aug 2009 | 12:31 pm

CIA Hired Private Military Firm Blackwater for Secret Assassination Program, DN!

The New York Times is reporting the CIA hired contractors from Blackwater in 2004 as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of al-Qaeda. The CIA spent several million dollars on the program, which the Times claims did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects. We speak to independent journalist Jeremy Scahill, author of the bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 20 Aug 2009 | 12:28 pm

The symptomatic madness of Mike Huckabee, Hussein Ibish

Huckabee’s madness in this instance is particularly shameless and off the wall, but at its heart, it represents a very widespread symptom and shares several key features with all other efforts to think up some kind of alternative scenario to ending the occupation and having two states living side-by-side in peace.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 18 Aug 2009 | 11:36 am

Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack, Consortiumnews.com

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 10 Aug 2009 | 12:43 pm

Bush's Conspiracy to Riot, Consortiumnews.com

As the American Right celebrates its success in disrupting “town hall” meetings where congressional Democrats try to discuss health-care reform with constituents, the ugly precedent for these hooligan tactics is the Republican-organized riot in Miami that stopped a recount in Election 2000.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 10 Aug 2009 | 12:36 pm

In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats, DN!

In sworn statements, two ex-employees claim Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince, murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. One also charged Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.” We speak with investigative journalist and bestselling author Jeremy Scahill, who broke the story for The Nation magazine.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 5 Aug 2009 | 2:06 pm

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 5 Aug 2009 | 2:05 pm

Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 4 Aug 2009 | 2:03 pm

"They Dump the Sick to Satisfy Investors": Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower Wendell Potter Speaks Out Against Healthcare Industry, DN!

As the debate over healthcare reform intensifies on Capitol Hill, we spend the hour with a former top insurance executive who’s now exposing the industry’s dirty secrets. Wendell Potter once served as the head of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies. We speak to Potter about his own transformation from industry mouthpiece to whistleblower, the healthcare industry’s extensive PR and lobbying machine, the campaign to discredit Michael Moore’s film Sicko, and the insurance industry’s most pressing task: the fight against a public option, let alone a single-payer system.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 4 Aug 2009 | 2:01 pm

Knesset passes land reform and 'Mofaz law', Haaretz

The Knesset passed a land reform bill Monday that allows for privatization of state-owned lands. "It will lead to the transfer of title to private owners in real estate properties which were expropriated by the state from the Palestinian Arab population," Adalah said. "The law will also lead to privatization of property of some of the lands of destroyed and evacuated Arab villages, as well as many properties belonging to Palestinian refugees. "This privatization policy will frustrate any future possibility of returning the abovementioned lands to their original Palestinian owners, in violation of their constitutional right to property and in contravention of both domestic Israeli law and international humanitarian law."

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 4 Aug 2009 | 12:05 pm

Suicide's Rising Toll - After Combat, Victims of an Inner War, New York Times

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 3 Aug 2009 | 3:09 pm

From ill-treatment to unfair trial. The case of Mohammed Jawad, child ‘enemy combatant’, Amnesty International

This report traces the development, authorization and use of “counter-resistance” techniques in Guantánamo and how the conditions the USA attached to its ratification of human rights treaties prohibiting torture and other ill-treatment left loopholes that were exploited by the US administration in its resort to such techniques. In examining the question of Mohammed Jawad’s ill-treatment and the context in which it occurred, the report also notes how the US authorities deliberately blurred the detention and interrogation functions thereby undermining a fundamental safeguard against torture and other ill-treatment.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 3 Aug 2009 | 2:10 pm

Torture Memos vs. Red Cross Report: Prisoners’ Recollections Differ from Guidelines, ProPublica

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 3 Aug 2009 | 1:49 pm

Zelikow v Mearsheimer and Walt, LRB · letters page from Vol. 28 No. 10

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 3 Aug 2009 | 1:14 pm

Closing Argument at Guantanamo: The Torture of Mohammed Jawad

The editors of the Harvard Human Rights Journal are pleased to publish Major David J.R. Frakt’s argument for a pre-trial dismissal in the case of United States v. Mohammed Jawad.1 Jawad was the first military commission case to squarely present the issue of the provable torture of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, and Mohammed Jawad was the first Guantanamo de- tainee to take the witness stand in a military commission and describe his mistreatment under oath.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 3 Aug 2009 | 12:52 am

Court Orders Release of Juvenile Prisoner at Gitmo, Harper's Magazine

When historians search through the materials relating to Guantánamo for a handful of cases that give a good sense of what was done there in the nation’s name, they’d be well advised to pause over the file of Mohammed Jawad. On December 17, 2002, a grenade was hurled at Americans traveling in a Soviet military vehicle, resulting in injury to several soldiers. Jawad was arrested and accused of the act. He may have been 12 years old at the time, and certainly was no older than 14. American officials consistently misrepresented him as older. Jawad states that he was near the passing convoy because he had been hired to clear landmines; he says he did not throw the grenade. The Government has never produced any meaningful evidence that he did.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 3 Aug 2009 | 12:50 am

Mistakes Were Made, Small Wars Journal

We are awash in how-to manuals on stability operations, counterinsurgency, and how we should successfully do the next Iraq or Afghanistan, presumably because we got the first attempt wrong. While the various manuals, hints, cheat sheets, doctrines, wiring diagrams, proposals for the reform of the ‘whole of government’, and all the paraphernalia of post-conflict management pouring forth from every think tank, government research institute, and now-knowledgeable ‘expert’ are not totally useless, they are virtually impossible to make sense of or implement if one could. If for no other reason than they are mutually exclusive, navel-gazing, self-referential, and voluminous. But they also miss the point, misdirect, misinform, and muddy the waters. They are all after the fact, what we should have done not what we did. So, what follows is a ‘How Not To’ manual. As such, it will have no audience, no following, no conclusions, and no effect.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 2 Aug 2009 | 6:19 pm

Stop sentence entrapment in drug case prosecutions

Under federal laws passed in the 1980s, a conviction for possessing or distributing only five grams of crack cocaine triggers the same mandatory minimum sentence as a conviction for distributing or possessing 500 grams of powder cocaine. This 100-1 disparity is the result of the disproven belief that cocaine in the form of crack is more dangerous than cocaine in its powder form. Since the passage of these laws we have learned that crack cocaine and powder cocaine are pharmacologically identical. From a public safety perspective, there is absolutely no justification for this sentencing disparity.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 30 Jul 2009 | 8:00 pm

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: Media & the Israel-Palestine Conflict

Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 30 Jan 2009 | 8:06 pm

Teachers Against Occupation

Teachers Against Occupation (TAO) is a collective organized to coordinate various efforts by scholars and teachers to critique and resist military occupations worldwide. This site is intended to be a virtual ‘meeting point’ for different academic groups engaged in building opposition to imperial policies, at home and abroad, and a resource for groups challenging government support for such policies. Collectively, we hope to present a stronger and more coordinated voice of resistance to occupations that destroy communities and livelihoods.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 30 Jan 2009 | 6:05 pm

Bill Keller, Talk to the Newsroom, The New York Times

Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, is answering questions from readers Feb. 2-6, 2009. He previously answered questions in April 2006. Questions may be e-mailed to askthetimes@nytimes.com.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 30 Jan 2009 | 12:13 pm

The Arabic Hour

Arab-American Community TV Program

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 30 Jan 2009 | 8:55 am

Crisis in Gaza: Different Perspectives, Center for Media and Democracy

St. Michael's College Edmundite Center for Peace and Justice sponsored panel discussion. Moderated by Laurie Gagne with panelists: Omar Badder of American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; Gregory Gause, UVM Middle Eastern Studies; Michael Schaal, son of Holocaust Survivors with family in Israel.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 30 Jan 2009 | 8:22 am

ei: Israeli clinic closes after treating five Palestinians

The Israeli emergency clinic at the Erez crossing, which opened on the day Israel declared a ceasefire in Gaza (18 January), has closed after treating only five wounded Palestinians. The original purpose of the clinic, according to press releases, was to provide emergency care and evacuate those needing further care to hospitals in Israel.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 29 Jan 2009 | 4:05 pm

ProPublica: The Missing Memos

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 29 Jan 2009 | 3:45 pm

BBC: MPs call on BBC to air Gaza film

Mairson on concerned: Read the whole article---it's not long and has some very good quotes. The obvious questions are: if the appeal for donations of humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians is incompatible with the objective role of broadcast media (to use the vernacular below), what of the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza itself----is it also not politically objective? What does that say about UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency)? What about humanitarian aid to other places in the world that have terrible conflict? And is it possible to express any opinion or take any action that is "humanitarian" but also "politically neutral" in such a clearly charged political situation? (The Chairman of Sky News is James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch.)

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 27 Jan 2009 | 8:58 am

LRB contributors react to events in Gaza

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 26 Jan 2009 | 2:49 pm

ISN: Hamas and Israel: The social media propaganda war

Tel Aviv is using social media to state its case in the Gaza conflict, but Will Ward of Arab Media and Society says the most effective voices in the internet propaganda war hail from outside official channels.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 25 Jan 2009 | 9:57 pm

PIPA: World Public Opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 18 countries finds that in 14 of them people mostly say their government should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just three countries favor taking the Palestinian side (Egypt, Iran, and Turkey) and one is divided (India). No country favors taking Israel’s side, including the United States, where 71 percent favor taking neither side.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 25 Jan 2009 | 9:06 pm

Daily Show: Changefest '09 - Obama's Inaugural Speech

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 25 Jan 2009 | 8:57 pm

Zunes: Is Mitchell Up to the Task?

Obama's appointment of George Mitchell as special Middle East envoy may signal a step in the right direction regarding U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But there remain questions as to whether Mitchell is up to the task and whether the Obama administration is willing to put some muscle into the process.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 25 Jan 2009 | 8:49 pm

60 Minutes: Time Running Out For A Two-State Solution?

Mairson on concerned list: If you didn't see it, you should watch this "60 Minutes" segment with Bob Simon---the link to watch it online is above. You can read stuff like this in leftwing news media or watch "Democracy Now!" any time. The significance of this broadcast is that its among the most well known news programs in the country, on a major television network.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 25 Jan 2009 | 7:09 pm

FAIR: International Law Seldom Newsworthy in Gaza War

U.S. corporate media coverage of the Israeli military attacks that have reportedly killed over 900--many of them civilians--since December 27 has overwhelmingly failed to mention that indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets are illegal under international humanitarian law.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 23 Jan 2009 | 9:38 am

Thomas Friedman Endorses Terrorism in New York Times

New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman endorsed terrorism in a January 14 column defending Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 22 Jan 2009 | 8:41 pm

ei: Audio: Abunimah, Finkelstein, Mearsheimer discuss Israel's attacks on Gaza

On 8 January, a panel featuring John J. Mearsheimer, Ali Abunimah, and Norman G. Finkelstein was held at the University of Chicago to discuss the the reasons and ramifications of the recent attacks on Gaza and the larger Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 22 Jan 2009 | 8:01 pm

DN!: Palestinian US College Grad Loses 2 Brothers in Israeli Shooting; Father Watched Son Bleed to Death After Israeli Troops Blocked Ambulances

The heart-wrenching tale of Amer Shurrab, who lost two of his brothers on the same day in an Israeli attack in Gaza. Amer is a Palestinian from Khan Yunis living in the United States. He recently graduated from Middlebury College. On Friday, his father and two brothers were fleeing their village when their vehicle came under Israeli fire. Twenty-eight-year-old Kassab died in a hail of bullets trying to flee the vehicle. Eighteen-year-old Ibrahim survived the initial attack, but Israeli troops refused to allow an ambulance to reach them until twenty hours later.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 22 Jan 2009 | 6:23 pm

ei: Sharpeville 1960, Gaza 2009

The horror of the racist apartheid regime in South Africa was challenged with a sustained campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions initiated in 1958 and given new urgency in 1960 after the Sharpeville Massacre. This campaign led ultimately to the collapse of white rule in 1994 and the establishment of a multi-racial, democratic state. Similarly, the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions has been gathering momentum since 2005. Gaza 2009, like Sharpeville 1960, cannot be ignored: it demands a response from all who believe in a common humanity. Now is the time to boycott the apartheid Israeli state, to divest and to impose sanctions against it. This is the only way to ensure the creation of a secular, democratic state for all in historic Palestine.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 22 Jan 2009 | 2:45 pm

C-SPAN: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Press Conference

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 22 Jan 2009 | 5:22 am

Chomsky: "Exterminate all the Brutes": Gaza 2009

Decades ago, I wrote that those who call themselves "supporters of Israel" are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction. Regrettably, that judgment looks more and more plausible. Meanwhile we are quietly observing a rare event in history, what the late Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling called "politicide," the murder of a nation -- at our hands.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 21 Jan 2009 | 12:11 pm

Mearsheimer: Another War, Another Defeat

The Gaza offensive has succeeded in punishing the Palestinians but not in making Israel more secure.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 19 Jan 2009 | 7:19 pm

Russell-Einstein Manifesto

Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 16 Jan 2009 | 8:56 am

UNICEF: Crisis in Gaza

The humanitarian crisis caused by the current violence in Gaza is hitting children and women the most. Children form over half of Gaza's population of nearly 1.5 million and are bearing the brunt of the conflict. Being the most vulnerable part of the population, children are the first to be psychologically distressed, the most in need of medical support and the most exposed to injuries among civilians in times of conflict.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 16 Jan 2009 | 6:56 am

UN headquarters in Gaza hit by Israeli 'white phosphorus' shells

The main UN compound in Gaza was left in flames today after being struck by Israeli artillery fire, and a spokesman said that the building had been hit by shells containing the incendiary agent white phosphorus.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 16 Jan 2009 | 6:55 am

NYTimes: Olmert Says He Made Rice Change Vote

Ehud Olmert of Israel said Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been forced to abstain from a United Nations resolution on Gaza that she helped draft, after Mr. Olmert placed a phone call to President Bush.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 13 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm

Telegraph: Gaza medics describe horror of strike which killed 70

Mohammed Shaheen, a volunteer with Palestinian Red Crescent, was in the first convoy of ambulances to reach the site of the blast in Zeitoun since it was first occupied then shelled by the Israeli army. His testimony confirmed accounts, first reported in The Telegraph, from survivors of the extended al Samouni clan who said they feared between 60 and 70 family members had been killed.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:27 pm

Haaretz: Israel bans Arab parties from running in upcoming elections

The Central Elections Committee (CEC) yesterday banned the Arab parties United Arab List-Ta'al and Balad from running in next month's parliamentary elections amid accusations of racism from Arab MKs. Both parties intend to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 12 Jan 2009 | 9:12 pm

Stallman: Not Free at Any Price

Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco—in a world where only one company sells tobacco. Like any addictive drug, it inculcates a harmful dependency. (Bill Gates made this comparison in a 1998 issue of Fortune Magazine.) No wonder Microsoft offers the first dose to children at a low price. Microsoft aims to teach poor children this dependency so they can smoke Windows for their whole lives. I don’t think governments or schools should support that aim.

Source: Delicious/tag/ideologicalcriminal spotlight | 11 Jan 2009 | 7:13 pm

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