Poems from Guantanamo: Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa, Lynn, Corin, and Jemma Redgrave make a very special appearance to read Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak, a collection of poems written by detainees held in the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Under fire Anbar journalists arming themselves

Journalist Yasin al-Fadhawi's recent brush with death has prompted him to look for a new home – and a gun.

As he was getting ready for work on May 30, Fadhawi received an early-morning call from his neighbour – a man he describes as “annoyingly curious” – warning him that danger was lurking.

“His voice was shaking as he told me over and over again, 'Don't go out, stay in your house and call the police. Two people put a strange object at the entrance to your house and ran away',” Fadhawi recalled.

Fadhawi rang the security forces, who spent more than an hour diffusing a two-kilogramme bomb the size of a football close to his front door. Police said that if it had gone off, the bomb would have killed Fadhawi and his family.

Fadhawi believes the incident was connected to his work: two days prior to the bomb scare, his magazine published his report on alleged government corruption involving tribal chiefs.

He credits his neighbour with saving his life but, fearing for his safety and that of his family, Fadhawi fled his home in Al-Khaldiya, a town in western Anbar province, and is shopping around for a gun.

He has submitted an application for a weapons license, but if it is not approved he said he will fork out up to a month's salary – 900 US dollars – for a gun on the black market.

Police in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, report that at least 43 journalists in the province have applied for gun licenses since April, amid an increasingly hostile climate for journalists.

Once a stronghold for Sunni insurgents and one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq, Anbar – now controlled by Iraqi forces – has been held up as an example of the government's ability to stabilise formerly volatile regions of the country.

But journalists in Anbar say their jobs continue to put them at grave risk. They no longer fear al-Qaeda and its affiliates – which hunted down journalists – but instead believe they are being targeted by political factions.

Particularly risky for journalists is exposing corruption or challenging political parties or the authorities.

~ more... ~

The CIA, the travel agents and torture tourism

Jane Mayer on Dick Cheney's personal torture tactics



The truth about torture



Let's erase torture

Produced by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), this film invites people to engage in "erasing" torture from our world. It calls for the eradication of torture and celebrates the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June.

Two men who stood under the plunderers’ knives

By Amy Goodman

Ken Saro-Wiwa and Alberto Pizango never met, but they are united by a passion for the preservation of their people and their land, and by the fervor with which they were targeted by their respective governments. Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian government Nov. 10, 1995. Pizango this week was charged by the Peruvian government with sedition and rebellion, and narrowly eluded capture, taking refuge in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Lima. Nicaragua has just granted him political asylum. Two indigenous leaders—one living, one dead—Pizango and Saro-Wiwa demonstrate that effective grass-roots opposition to corporate power can take a personal toll. Saro-Wiwa's family and others just won a landmark settlement in U.S. federal court, ending a 13-year battle with Shell Oil. Pizango's ordeal is just beginning.

Peru and Nigeria are a world apart on the map, but both host abundant natural resources for which the U.S. and other industrialized nations hunger.

The Niger Delta is one of the world's most productive oil fields. Shell Oil began extracting oil there in 1958. Before long, the indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta suffered from pollution, destruction of the mangrove forests and depletion of fish stocks that sustained them. Gas flares constantly lit up the sky, fouling the air and denying generations a glimpse of a dark night. The despoliation of traditional Ogoni land in the Niger Delta inspired Saro-Wiwa to lead an international, nonviolent campaign targeting Shell. For his commitment, Saro-Wiwa was arrested by the Nigerian dictatorship, subjected to a sham trial and hanged with eight other Ogoni activists. I visited the Niger Delta and Ogoniland in 1998, and met Ken's family. His father, Jim Wiwa, did not mince words: “Shell has a hand in the killing of my own son.”

Family members sued Shell Oil, charging it with complicity in the executions. They were granted their day in U.S. court under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows people outside the U.S. to bring charges against an offender in U.S. courts when the charges amount to war crimes, genocide, torture or, as in the case of the Ogoni Nine, extrajudicial, summary execution. Despite Shell's efforts to have the case (Wiwa v. Shell) thrown out, it was set to be tried in a New York federal court two weeks ago. After several delays, Shell settled, agreeing to pay $15.5 million.

~ more... ~

James Von Brunn the face of white nationalism

James Von Brunn, an 88 year old well known white supremist who opened fire at the holocaust museum today and killed security officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, was not really the lone wolf gunmen the mainstream media would portray, To my thinking he is joined by the more infamous and popular voices of hate and bigotry.

Since the election of Barack Obama, folks like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have made it a holy mission to encourage the wing nuts and fruit loops to act out. Race baiters like Limbaugh and Beck no longer use words like nigger or spic openly, but the message to their listeners is the same, Barack the magic Negro, as Mr. Limbaugh labels him, is destroying our Christian nation and its time for patriots to step up. In a free country even the most vile and offensive speech must be tolerated, provided it does not direct people to engage in particular acts toward others, even the spew masters over at FOX who define on a daily basis journalistic inaccuracy, have a right to vomit into the pie holes of mouth breathers in search of ideological nourishment.

~ more... ~


From Holocaust Museum shooter von Brunn a 9/11 'truther' who hated 'neo-cons', Bush, McCain

The man accused of opening fire at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC on June 10, James W. von Brunn, left a trail of unhinged writings around the internet.

The anti-semitism of von Brunn is the first thing one notices when visiting these bizarre websites. However, like those of most "white supremacists", many of von Brunn's political views track "Left" rather than "Right." Clearly, a re-evaluation of these obsolete definitions is long overdue.

For example, he unleashed his hatred of both Presidents Bush and other "neo-conservatives" in online essays. As even some "progressives" such as the influential Adbusters magazine publicly admit, "neoconservative" is often used as a derogatory code word for "Jews". As well, even a cursory glance at "white supremacist" writings reveals a hatred of, say, big corporations that is virtually indistinguishable from that of anti-globalization activists.

James von Brunn's advocacy of 9/11 conspiracy theories also gives him an additional commonality with individuals on the far-left. ...

[ Simon Wiesenthal Center reaction here. ]

FDA approval of antipsychotics for children mirrors Bayer, AMA approvals of heroin as cough medicine for children

(NaturalNews) Today an FDA advisory panel approved the prescribing of powerful mind-altering chemicals for children. Seroquel, Zyprexa and Goedon have now been approved by the advisory panel to be prescribed to children as young as 10 years old to treat a fictitious disease invented by psychiatrists and given the name "bipolar disorder." (There is no such thing as a bipolar disorder disease. It is merely a name assigned to children demonstrating the predictable side effects of correctable dietary imbalances.)

In light of this disturbing decision, it is instructive to remember the history of pharmaceutical medicine and children. One hundred and ten years ago, Bayer marketed heroin to children as a non-addictive alternative to morphine. Did I say "non-addictive?" Yes, it's right from the company's own marketing materials. It just goes to show you that drug companies have been lying to the public (and poisoning the children) for well over one hundred years.

Much like the FDA's present-day endorsement of antipsychotic drugs for children, the American Medical Association endorsed Bayer Heroin for kids, touting its ability to ease coughs. Heroin definitely eases coughs. And so does smoking meth! In offering this endorsement, the AMA apparently borrowed some of the FDA's screwy logic, which claims "The benefits outweigh the risks."

This means, of course, that the benefits to the drug companies outweigh the risks to the children!

During all this, of course, the AMA utterly failed to inform parents that heroin was a highly addictive narcotic drug. So parents were dosing their babies with heroin -- all with the full approval of the American Medical Association!

Today, the FDA spearheads the promotion of drugs to children, doing its best to promote toxic synthetic chemicals that artificially alter brain chemistry while outlawing any mention of natural remedies that work much better (like omega-3 oils, which are natural brain chemistry stabilizers). The FDA also utterly fails to ban toxic chemical food ingredients known to destroy healthy brain chemistry (like MSG and artificial food coloring).

Thus, in one hundred and ten years, western medicine has learned nothing! It still poisons the children with the full approval of "health authorities" all while enriching the powerful drug companies.

~ more... ~

Spanish anti-authoritarians foil undercover journalists

They spot and confiscate hidden camera: 'Social Panic ¿How is it created?'