Iraqi abuse 'worse now than under Saddam'

"Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime.

"'People are doing the same 's [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.'

"In a damning and wide-ranging indictment of Iraq's escalating human rights catastrophe, Allawi accused fellow Shias in the government of being responsible for death squads and secret torture centers. The brutality of elements in the new security forces rivals that of Saddam's secret police, he said."
Unknown News

Tagged: war, peace, iraq, torture, human+rights

Govt exploiting terrorism fears, Fraser says

[Note: By an historical quirk of nomenclature, the Liberal Party is Australia's conservative party and roughly equates to Britain's Conservative party and the USA's Republicans. Thus, former PM Fraser holds a position in Australia comparable to Baroness Thatcher and President Bush Sr, in their respective nations.]

Australia: Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser has fired a broadside at the Federal Government for what he says is the exploitation of the public's fear of terrorism, to rob them of basic human rights.

"Mr Fraser has presented a Melbourne university lecture tonight entitled 'Human rights and responsibilities in the age of terror'.

"He admits he has considered resigning from the Liberal Party because of the Government's acquisition of what he calls arbitrary powers to introduce sedition laws and preventative detention.

"Mr Fraser says free society is best defended by adherence to its own principles, not by blindly trusting governments ...

"'The Government also knows in relation to terrorism, that the public is concerned, even fearful, and can be made more fearful.'

"Mr Fraser says the Coalition's departure from protecting basic liberties is to be deplored."
ABC

Parliament approves anti-terrorism bill

Tagged: australia, terrorism, sedition, free+speech, human+rights, civil+rights, liberty

Poverty facts and stats

Thanks Kate for sending this. More can be found at GlobalIssues.org

Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. source 1
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined. source 2
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. source 3
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen. 4
51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations. source 5
The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. source 6
The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money. source 7
20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods. source 8
The top fifth of the world’s people in the richest countries enjoy 82% of the expanding export trade and 68% of foreign direct investment — the bottom fifth, barely more than 1%. source 9
In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much. source 10
An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:
3 to 1 in 1820
11 to 1 in 1913
35 to 1 in 1950
44 to 1 in 1973
72 to 1 in 1992 source 11
“The lives of 1.7 million children will be needlessly lost this year [2000] because world governments have failed to reduce poverty levels” source 12
The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants. source 13
A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people. source 14
“The 48 poorest countries account for less than 0.4 per cent of global exports.” source 15
“The combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion.” source 16
“Of all human rights failures today, those in economic and social areas affect by far the larger number and are the most widespread across the world’s nations and large numbers of people.” source 17
“Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.” source 18
According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year. source 19
For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:
Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.
Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).
Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.
Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.
source 20

Me pitch, you catch

Bush aides 'double-crossed' Blair

"The ex-US diplomat at the heart of the political crisis in the White House says Tony Blair was 'double-crossed' on the reasons for going to war with Iraq.

"Joseph Wilson said he believed the Mr Blair had thought he was getting involved with a 'disarmament campaign'.

"But 'he was double crossed by the regime change crowd in Washington' and ultimately had 'no choice' but to go along with a regime change war.

"Mr Wilson told BBC Radio 4 the White House had 'hyped the nuclear case'.

"Mr Wilson was acting ambassador to Iraq in the run-up to the first Gulf War. In 2003 he was the envoy sent to Africa to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy nuclear material there.

"He told the Today programme: 'Mr Blair came to the US when Mr Bush was talking about regime change, and when he left Mr Bush started talking about disarmament as the objective ...'"
BBC News

Tagged: bush, blair, iraq, war, disinformation, disinfo, wmd, wmds

Worse than Watergate?

" ... We now have something close to one-party government in this country, an idea still so fantastic to Americans and their media that the most serious, in depth, and credible exploration of the 2000 and 2004 election fraud by any journalist -- the book Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America -- has been done by an Englishman, Andrew Gumbel of the British newspaper The Independent. He's now been joined by American professor Mark Crispin Miller, whose new book Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections and Why They May Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them) digs into the subject as well.

"And instead of the Woodward/Bernstein team, we have Judy Miller (and the reborn Bob Woodward). Only a tiny handful of reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times (all with sinking circulations), 60 Minutes and almost uniquely the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh have been doing the kind of serious, in-depth investigative journalism that was done by many in the Watergate era. On-line reporters, able to circulate a single story at lightening speed around the world, are fueled by the same obsessive zeal as their age of Watergate print compatriots but have radically less money to support investigations of any sort ..."
AlterNet

Tagged: watergate, bush, plame, iraq, war

Millions facing food shortages in Niger

"The World Food Program (WFP) has warned that 3 million people in Niger could run out of food in a few months, following major food shortages in West Africa a few months ago.

"It is asking for $25 million to avert yet another food crisis."
ABC

Niger leaders deny food shortage
Niger Denies Impending Food Shortage Crisis
Niger food crisis again deepens

Tagged: un, united+nations, hunger, starvation, niger, africa

Serbia deportee fights Australia

"A man deported by Australia to a country he had never before set foot in has vowed he will campaign until he is allowed to return 'home'.

"Robert Jovicic, 38, who had lived in Australia since he was two, has been camping on the steps of the Australian embassy in Serbia's capital, Belgrade.

"Mr Jovicic was born in France to Serbian parents.

"He was deported to Serbia in 2004, when his permanent residency was revoked after a jail term for drug crimes.

"Belgrade has not recognised Mr Jovicic - who had never been to Serbia before his deportation - as a citizen, leaving him stateless with no right to work or welfare."
BBC News

Tagged: human+rights, australia, serbia, dugs, addiction

The man who sold the Iraq War

The Man Who Sold the Iraq War:
John Rendon, Bush's General in the Propaganda War (Video)
By Amy GoodmanSource: Democracy Now
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"Investigative journalist James Bamford examines how the Bush administration and Iraqi National Congress used the PR firm Rendon Group to feed journalists - including Judith Miller -- fabricated stories in an effort to sell the war. The firm has received millions in government contracts since 1991 when it was by the CIA to help 'create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power.' Iraq wasn't the first regime change case for Rendon. In 1989 the CIA turned to Rendon to use a variety of campaign and psychological techniques in Panama to put the CIA's choice, Guillermo Endara, into the presidential palace to replace Gen. Manuel Noriega. [includes rush transcript]

"Earlier this month, Democrats forced the Senate into an unusual closed session to question pre-war intelligence and claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The move came one week after the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis 'Scooter' Libby for his involvement in the CIA leak case in which the identity of an undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame was exposed after her husband Joseph Wilson criticized the Bush administration's use of a debunked piece of evidence for WMDs in Iraq.
So how did the Bush administration sell the war to the American public? Well a new article in Rolling Stone magazine examines just that. In it, investigative journalist James Bamford looks at the role of one of the most powerful public relations firms in Washington D.C in setting the stage for the Iraq war.

"The firm is the Rendon Group and it's founder and CEO is John Rendon - the former Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee.

"Bamford writes that the Pentagon secretly awarded Rendon a $16 million contract to target Iraq and other adversaries with propaganda. One of the most powerful people in Washington, Rendon is a leader in the strategic field known as 'perception management,' manipulating information -- and, by extension, the news media -- to achieve the desired result. His firm has made millions off government contracts since 1991, when it was hired by the CIA to help 'create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power.'

"James Bamford, investigative reporter and author of the new article 'The Man Who Sold The War' published in the December 1st issue of Rolling Stone Magazine. Bamford is also the author of several books including 'A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies.'"
mediachannel.org

Tagged: media, pr, public+relations, iraq, war, disinfo, disinformation, bush

Documents show CIA knew of Venezuela coup

"CARACAS, Venezuela - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency knew dissident military officers were planning a coup in 2002 against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, according to purported U.S. intelligence documents posted on the Internet.

"Citing the documents, Chavez lashed out at U.S. officials on Thursday, saying they knew a coup was brewing but failed to tip off Venezuela's government. '

"'The CIA knew that a coup was coming ... the government of George Bush knew," said Chavez, whose so-called 'peaceful revolution' for the poor and close ties to Cuban leader Fidel Castro have often put him at odds with U.S. policies.

"The apparent declassified CIA documents are posted on the pro-Chavez Web site www.venezuelafoia.info, which contains links to other requests for U.S. documents by freelance investigative reporter Jeremy Bigwood."
Common Dreams

Tagged: venezuela, cia, usa, chavez

Singapore's hand in Golden Triangle

By Michael McKenna

"WHILE Singapore has an unwavering policy of hanging drug mules such as Australia's Nguyen Tuong Van without mercy, it has for years been one of the strongest backers of Burma, the world's second-biggest producer of heroin.

"Despite the pariah status of the military junta-controlled country as a flagrant breacher of human rights and the engine-room of the notorious opium golden triangle, Singapore has long been one of its key trading partners.

"In the 10 months to October, Singapore -- Burma's second-biggest source of imports -- shipped more than $650 million of goods to the country. By comparison, Australia's exports to Burma last year were valued at $27 million or 0.01 per cent of total exports.

"And for more than a decade, the Singapore government has shrugged off evidence that some of its business backing has gone directly to Burma's drug kingpins, specifically infamous heroin trafficker Lo Hsing Han.

"A substantial portion of Burma's heroin finds its way directly to Australia. The Australian Institute of Criminology cites the country as the chief source of Australia's supply of the drug.

"In 1997, former US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Robert Gelbard, said: 'Since 1988 ... over half (of the $US1 billion investments from) Singapore have been tied to the family of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han.'

"Lo, 70, reportedly started out as an opium-trafficking insurgent against the Burmese government in the 1950s. He spent time on death row in Rangoon, Burma's capital, in the 1970s, for treason before he bought his liberty and expanded his business into what was described as the most heavily armed and biggest heroin operation in Southeast Asia. It is believed he now rules as 'godfather' over a clan of traffickers in Burma ..."
The Australian

Van Nguyen's brother flies to Singapore to say goodbye

Tagged: burma, singapore, heroin, capital+punishment, human+rights, drugs, civil+rights

Japan: China military buildup big concern

"
"TOKYO - Tokyo is worried about China's recent arms buildup but wants to build friendly relations to prevent conflict between the Asian giants, Japan's defense chief said Sunday.

"'We are greatly concerned,' Defense Chief Fukushiro Nukaga told the television talk show 'Sunday Project,' citing China's rapid military spending in recent years.

"He also said Chinese military vessels have been repeatedly spotted in recent months near disputed waters in the East China Sea."
Yahoo! News

Tagged: china, military, war, peace

Ex-CIA boss: Cheney is 'vice president for torture'

Former CIA chief Stansfield Turner lashed out at Dick Cheney on Thursday, calling him a "vice president for torture" that is out of touch with the American people.

Turner's condemnation, delivered during an interview with Britain's ITV network, comes amid an effort by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, to pass legislation forbidding any U.S. authority from torturing a prisoner. McCain was tortured as a Vietnam prisoner of war.

Cheney has lobbied against the legislation, prompting Turner to say he's "embarrassed that the United State has a vice president for torture. I think it is just reprehensible."

Turner, a retired Navy admiral who headed the intelligence agency from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter, stood firm on his earlier remarks Friday and, in a CNN interview, scoffed at assertions that challenging the administration's strategy aided the terrorists' propaganda efforts.

"It's the vice president who is out there advocating torture. He's the one who has made himself the vice president in favor of torture," said Turner, who from 1972 to 1974 was president of the Naval War College, a think tank for strategic and national security policy.

Cheney has fought McCain's legislation, pushing for an exception for the CIA in cases that involve a prisoner who may have knowledge of an imminent attack. (Read about McCain's anti-torture campaign)

Torture diminishes the country's image and moral stature, forcing other nations to look at the United States "in a very different light," Turner said, adding that such tactics also open the door to retribution.

"We military people don't want future military people who are taken prisoner by other countries to be subjected to torture in the name of doing just what the United States does," he said.

Turner, who supported Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, went on to say that "the vice president is out of tune with the American people, who don't want our country tarred with the label of being one that tortures."

A statement from the vice president's office said that the United States "does not torture." It also stated that Cheney's views are "reflected in the administration's policy.

"Our country is at war, and our government has an obligation to protect the American people from a brutal enemy that has declared war upon us." (Watch special on Cheney's remarks over the years)

The United States has enacted several intrusive procedures since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to protect the country from terrorists, but torture, Turner said, is an unacceptable method.

"Torture is beyond the pale. It is going too far," he said.
CNN

This article is printed in its entirety (Fair Use).

Tagged: cheney, bush, torture, human+rights, civil+liberties, usa, iraq, war, peace, progressive

Restore Habeas Corpus

By Robert Rouse

"I suppose we should just suspend the Supreme Court. Especially when we have Senators who, when they don't agree with the rulings, simply add an amendment to a bill to nullify a court ruling.

"Warmonger extraordinaire, Sen. Lindsey Graham ... of the great forward thinking state of South Carolina took it upon himself to make sure that detainees at Guantanimo [sic] Bay and other Double Super Secret Konzentrationslagers around the world never see a judge or an attorney. You see, in 2004, the Supreme Court decided it was wrong to strip these prisoners of their right to plead for their freedom in Federal court. Bush and the right strongly believe that these prisoners - some of them American citizens - should not have the right to petition the court with Habeas Corpus. The problem is, several of these prisoners never did anything wrong. They were simply rounded up because someone collected a bounty on "suspected terrorists". This from the country that supposedly states that we are all innocent until proven guilty. However, Bush and the 'Subjugation Congregation' refuse to follow that line of thinking. They tend to believe that prisoners are guilty until proven dead.

It is now less than a year before the next midterm elections. I believe we need to send a strong message by voting out anyone who supports this bill -- no matter the party -- there is still a little thing called the primary. And while not all the Senators are up for re-election in 2006, they soon will be. The vote in the Senate mostly followed party lines, but there were a few Democrats who jumped ship like the rats they are and voted for the bill as well. Those Democrats are Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

"The sad thing is, a year ago, I was complaining about all the people who were comparing the Bush administration with fascist governments of the past, but the more I read about stuff like suspending Habeas Corpus, torture and entering our homes without due cause, the more I can see where people might start making those assumptions.

"If we don't change our actions soon, it may be too late to repair our tarnished image with the world community. Call your Senators and tell them that you demand they support Senate Bill 2517. This is Sen. Jeff Bingaman's (D-NM) amendment that will once again restore Habeas rights. Or, you can can go to one of two sites, Million Phone March and The Center for Constitutional Rights. You know it's the right thing to do."
Restore Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus article :: Habeas corpus defined at Wikipedia :: Google News habeas corpus

"Can someone explain to me why an innocent man, someone who the military itself acknowledges committed no offense and presents no threat, is being held without charge at Gitmo?And then, can someone explain to me why the United States Senate has stripped that man (and others) of the right to habeas corpus? Finally, can anyone explain to me how it is that my lunch is staying down?" Source

Habeas corpus in Australia (Wikipedia)
Although the writ of habeas corpus as a procedural remedy is part of Australia's English law inheritance, recently proposed legislation if enacted would severely restrict the efficacity of that remedy.
In October 2005, the Australian Federal Government under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard, proposed the Federal Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005. Before the bills are introduced for debate in the Australian Parliament, the draft has been forwarded to the States and Territories for approval.
The proposed legislation is currently being debated in both the Federal and State parliaments and some legal experts have stated that the Act is unconstitutional because it abolishes habeas corpus, due process, and the presumption of innocence. Some Solicitors-General also consider the Act violates the separation of powers. Under the Act, a person can be detained without charge or trial for a period of one year. Amendments made that were proposed by some Liberal backbenchers and Premiers include a greater right of appeal of a detained person, and the case to be considered on the basis of merit, rather than points of law.
The proposed Federal Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 is considered contrary to habeas corpus because it allows people to be imprisoned by a decision of the executive branch of government rather than the judiciary, to be imprisoned indefinitely without charge or trial, and it makes it an offence to even talk about somebody being imprisoned. One of the more controversial aspects of the legislation is the requirement that a parent, if informed of their child's detention, may not inform any further person, including the other parent. This clause also applies to detention of adults.


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Tagged: progressive, law, legal, habeas+corpus, authoritarianism, fascism

Nicholas Kristof: The exit from Iraq

"So how do we get out of Iraq?

It's easy to be antiwar, and tempting just to blast away at the Bush administration for getting us into this quagmire. But the essential question is how do we extricate ourselves, and that's a hard one to answer.

"Before offering my preferred approach, let me dissect two of the main alternatives under discussion:

"CUT OUR LOSSES -- This has an obvious merit: Iraq may fall apart no matter what we do, and if we're going to give up and pull out we should do so now rather than wait until after we've spilled more blood.

"That said, immediate withdrawal strikes me as utterly immoral. A surgeon who botches an operation should not walk off and leave the patient on the table with a note: 'Oops. This didn't go as planned. Good luck, but I'm outta here.'

"What would happen if we pulled out right now? Southern Iraq might devolve into quasi-theocratic city states under a heavy Iranian influence, with neighborhoods controlled by militias like the Badr Organization and the Mahdi Army. Anbar Province could become a Taliban-style terrorist training ground that would destabilize Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Baghdad would be a war zone, with Sunni and Shiite militias slaughtering each other. In Kirkuk, Kurds and Arabs would fight for control of oil wells and for the city itself. And Kurdistan would drift toward independence, leading to skirmishes with Turkey and conceivably even to a Turkish invasion of Kurdistan.

"Anybody who thinks that Iraq today couldn't become worse hasn't contemplated Lebanon during its civil war -- or Somalia today. If Iraq were to drop to Somalia's mortality patterns, an extra 78,000 children under the age of 5 would die every year, and that's in addition to adults who would be killed in fighting.

"An immediate pullout would also confirm every prejudice about America's not being able to stomach casualties. Wherever we deployed troops or diplomats in the future, our enemies would try to blow them up to drive us out.

"STAY THE COURSE -- This is President Bush's current policy, and it neglects a central reality: our very presence feeds the insurgency.

"I came to realize how much the neocons lived in a dream world when I visited Najaf, Iraq, in September 2002 and quoted ordinary Iraqis as saying they would fight against any U.S. invaders. Neocons who favored an invasion were apoplectic and felt sure that they had a much richer understanding of the situation -- even though they had never been to Iraq, spoke no Arabic and didn't know a minaret from a mihrab. They were well meaning [So generous and naive, Mr Kristof! -- PW] but didn't have a clue about the horror that Iraqis felt for a Western military occupation.

"Unfortunately, many of them still don't. The fact is that in a country like Iraq, our troop presence creates insecurity as well as security. Our presence antagonizes much of the population, becomes a magnet for jihadis, and feeds suspicions that our aim is to steal Iraqi oil and retain military bases.

"In a poll in September by the International Republican Institute, 42 percent of Iraqis said the country was headed in the wrong direction (more than double the proportion who said so in April), compared with 43 percent who said it was going in the right direction. And the two biggest reasons for pessimism were insecurity and the foreign occupation.

"Last month, The Sunday Telegraph of London reported that a secret poll of Iraqis commissioned by the British military found that 82 percent were ''strongly opposed'' to the presence of coalition troops, and 67 percent felt less secure because of the occupation.

"When I traveled around Iraq during and after the war, I was stunned by the number of ordinary Iraqis who told me that President Bush and Saddam Hussein were secret chums, with the U.S. paying Saddam huge bribes so that he would give Washington an excuse to invade and plunder Iraqi oil. That particular tale has faded, but the larger narrative -- of duplicitous Westerners seeking a permanent foothold in Iraq -- fuels the insurgency, and we're playing into it.

"So Mr. Bush's grim insistence on staying the course indefinitely, and his refusal to renounce unequivocally any interest in U.S. bases, reflects the same mistake he has made all along: a failure to appreciate the vigor of Iraqi nationalism. And now we're caught in a trap. We can't pull out, but by hunkering down indefinitely we help fuel the insecurity that keeps us in Iraq."
Source

Article used in 'Fair Use'.

Tagged: iraq, war, peace, kristof, usa, terrorism, war+on+terror, illegal+occupation

Why Australia's terror laws aren't funny

By Christian Kerr

Could the anti-terror legislation kill Australian satire?

A lawyer turned filmmaker contacts Crikey on the terror laws:

"Arguably Section 30A: ‘seditious intention' means the death knell to any and all satirical comedy on TV and elsewhere; no CNNNN, no Roy and HG on the election and no John Safran. What a boring old world we live in. Can't help thinking that it is the PM's ‘cunning plan' to bring back Mrs Slocombe and the Are You Being Served team to our screens. Champagne comedy PM style!

"We'll avoid the obvious comment about Hyacinth Bucket, but does this mean publications such as Crikey would be under threat, too? Or will we be saved by Malcolm Turnbull and George Brandis?

"Australia's sedition laws are archaic, difficult to understand and based on 'dead letters,' according to two Liberal MPs who welcomed yesterday the government's decision to review the legislation.

"Malcolm Turnbull said the sedition laws were so confusing they were contributing to an unwarranted scare campaign over the Government's planned anti-terror laws.

"Sedition laws could lead to the jailing of a person for up to seven years if they are found guilty of urging another person to overthrow by force or violence the Constitution, or who threatens the ‘peace, order and good government of the commonwealth'.

"Us? Many years ago we drew attention to Senator Brandis's brave claim that he has never knowingly told a lie, so we'll happily take his comments in the Oz on trust: 'I am inclined to think the whole law of sedition is obsolete.'

"The sedition measures have caused much concern. Look at what Australian Screen Directors Association executive director Richard Harris had to say in his latest bulletin to members ..."
Crikey

Terror Tactics Bill (No 2) 2005
"At 4:14pm on Thursday, 3 November 2005, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock rose in the House of Representatives and delivered the Second Reading speech to the Anti-Terrorism Bill (No 2) 2005 — the speech in which, traditionally, the minister with the carriage of a Bill outlines its terms.Ruddock only spoke for about eight minutes and some of the content was either wrong or misleading. The speech was no more than a cursory summary of the legislation's provisions and contained no explanation of the need for Control Orders or Preventative Detention and made no reference to the Bill's radical departure from centuries of careful safeguarding of the right to personal liberty."
New Matilda

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Police State, USA
"Did you know that under the terms of the new Patriot Act prosecutors will be able to seek the death penalty in cases where “defendants gave financial support to umbrella organizations without realizing that some of its adherents might eventually commit violence”? (NY Times; editorial 10-30-05) So, if someone unknowingly gave money to a charity that was connected to a terrorist group, he could be executed."
ZNet Repression Drifting towards a Police State

Police state (Wikipedia)
Suspicious behaviour on the Tube
The Police State Is Closer Than You Think
Martial Law: Police State America - We're So Close Now
Sedition Laws Target Peaceful Civil Disobedience

Tagged: progressive, civil+rights, human+rights, activism, police+state, australia, sedition, terrorism, disinformation, authoritarianism, fascism, social+control, law, legal

Cheney, slightly less popular than child abuse

"Cheney's approval rating of 19% is, according to Bob Harris, "two points less popular than cheating on your spouse and seven points behind corporal punishment in schools..."

"Note to Cheney: If you don't strenuously push for torture and then use the faulty intelligence gained by said torture to fool the American people into sending their children and spouses to die in a war, your ratings might -- might -- improve.

"Harris gleefully continues: 'that's down in what can be politely called lunatic territory. As I've been pointing out for years, twenty or thirty percent of Americans believe any insane thing you can imagine.

"'Dick Cheney is now 18 points behind the number of people who believe alien beings have secretly contacted the U.S. government.

"'Scottie McClellan, however, can still spin things: Bush only trails the aliens by two points.'"
Evan Derkackz

Tagged: cheney, torture, usa

Why Latin America bashes Bush

"President George W. Bush shouldn't have been too surprised by the angry — and ultimately violent — welcome he received Friday at the 4th Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. After pledging during his 2000 election campaign to correct Washington's indifference to Latin America, the president is viewed as having all but turned his back on the region after most Latin American capitals declined to back his invasion of Iraq. But Bush's hemispheric cold shoulder has backfired: It created a political vacuum that has been largely filled by neo-leftists like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was expected to join tens of thousands of raucous demonstrators Friday marching through Mar del Plata to denounce Bush and his all-but-doomed efforts to forge a hemispheric free trade pact.

"Far from being the mejor amigo he promised to be, Bush today is arguably more unpopular in Latin America than any U.S. president in history. In Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, a recent poll showed 64% have a poor or very poor opinion of him. Elsewhere in the region, Bush's approval rating usually falls below 25%. Part of the problem is broad opposition to the Iraq war; another is the perception that Bush is a Monroe Doctrine throwback to heavy-handed U.S. interventionism in the region. That image caught fire after the Bush Administration was widely accused of backing a failed coup against Chavez in 2002 (a charge the White House denies). Fuel was added last summer when conservative televangelist Pat Robertson — a high-profile supporter of President Bush — publicly called for Chavez's assassination. (Robertson has since apologized.) Chavez is a democratically elected President, but his close friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro, his own flirtations with autocratic government and his recently declared interest in acquiring nuclear technology have Washington bristling. As a result, the fiery Chavez and his growing number of supporters around the region remain vocally convinced that Bush is out to kill him.

"But Bush's biggest south-of-the-border PR problem is economic. Even before the start of the November 4-5 Summit, devoted to combating poverty and creating jobs, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and other Latin nations banded together to nudge Washington's Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) proposal off the agenda. The move, which has angered the Bush Administration, reflects growing skepticism in Latin America over the virtues of free-market reforms, which many believe have simply widened the chasm between rich and poor in a region that already displays the world's worst disparities in wealth."
TIME Magazine

Tagged: bush, latin+america, south+america, chavez, imperialism, neo-colonialism, ftaa

Why Australia needs a civil rights bill

By Dale Mills

"Australia is the only industrialised country without a human rights act or its equivalent. Despite being a founding member of the United Nations and a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, successive Australian governments have failed to legislate for human rights here.

"International human rights law does not translate automatically into Australian law. For example, when the UN Human Rights Committee held that the laws in Tasmania that prohibited gay sex were in breach of the right to privacy, the federal government had to pass the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994 to give that human right legal force in Tasmania.

"After signing on to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Australia also joined 150 other countries supporting additional human rights protection, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Yet successive Labor and Coalition governments have failed to ensure that the same rights can be effectively safeguarded within Australia. It’s ironic that PM John Howard supports legal human rights guarantees in Iraq, but not in Australia.

"The Australian Capital Territory has enacted its own Human Rights Act, the provisions of which include: protection from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief; the right to protest; the right to freedom of association and expression; and the right to a fair trial.

"The 'right' to demonstrate is written explicitly into the ACT law. The experience in Queensland under the Joh Bjelke-Petersen National Party government, where protests were outlawed, led to the Peaceful Assemblies Act in 1992. Short of those two examples, no other state or territory has an explicit right to protest.

"NewMatilda.com has launched a campaign to promote a draft human rights act, and its opening meeting at Sydney Town Hall attracted around 1000 people. (See ) ..."
Green Left Weekly

No choice but to protest Howard's terror laws

Urgent Call to Action, by José Borghino
If you are concerned about the way the Howard Government has managed the political debate around its anti-terrorism plan, then you must act quickly to have any impact. Contact your local MP or a Senator from your State or Territory today more...


SEDITION! - Tickets selling fast.

SEDITION! is a rally and show protesting against the new sedition laws.

Sunday 13 November, 5pm, Sydney Theatre Company, hosted by Wendy Harmer with Andrew Denton and starring Max Gillies, Gerry Connolly, Wil Anderson, Eddie Perfect, Wharf Revue (Johnathon Biggins, Phil Scott, Drew Forsythe, Genevieve Lemon), and the boys from the Chaser.

Speakers are: Tom Keneally, Chas Savage, Spencer Zifcak (New Matilda), Jose Borghino (New Matilda), Dave Madden and Jeremy Heimans (Get Up).

When: Sunday Nov 13 - 5pm
Where: Sydney Theatre Company
Price: $45
Box office: 02 9250 1980

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Tagged: progressive, civil+rights, human+rights, australia, activism, protest, fascism