2.3 million people behind bars - How to stop wasting lives and money

From Beyond Prisons - Summer 2011 issue of Yes! Magazine:

The United States locks up more people than any other country, but that hasn't made us safer. The drug war jails thousands of nonviolent addicts. Taxpayers and poor communities lose as states slash social programs to pay for prisons. There's a better way—compassion, not punishment; restoration, not isolation. It's less costly, more humane—and it works.

War's necessary! US defense contractors 'raking in the dough'

America may be being dragged down by record debt and unemployment filtering throughout the economy - but there's one industry that's bucking the trend. It's a boom time for arms manufacturers right now, and they're branding themselves as saviours of the job market. RT's Kaelyn Forde reports on how Americans have little choice but to go gunning for work.

Smile! Air Force Wants to Track You Forever With a Single Camera Click

By Noah Shachtman, Wired

Don’t bother with the iris scanner or the fingerprinting machine. Leave the satellite-enabled locators and tell-tale scents back on the base, military manhunters. If an Air Force plan works out as planned, all you’ll need to track your prey is a single camera, snapping a few seconds of footage from far, far away.

Huntsville, Alabama’s Photon-X, Inc. recently received an Air Force contract to develop such a camera. With one snap, the company claims, its sensor can build a three-dimensional image of a person’s face: the cornerstone of a distinctive “bio-signature” that can be used to track that person anywhere. With a few frames more, the device can capture that face’s unique facial muscle motions, and turn those movements into a “behaviormetric” profile that’s even more accurate.

~ more... ~

Former Israeli soldiers break the silence on military violations

Harriet Sherwood reports for the Guardian:

Transgressions by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories will be disclosed by a group of former soldiers in an internet campaign aimed at raising public awareness of military violations.

Video testimonies by around two dozen ex-soldiers - some of whom are identifying themselves for the first time - will be posted on YouTube. The campaign by Breaking the Silence, an organisation of former soldiers committed to speaking out on military practices, launches with English subtitles on Monday.

Some of the former soldiers describe the "neighbour procedure", a term for the use of Palestinian civilians, often children, as human shields to protect soldiers from suspected booby traps or attacks by militants. The procedure was ruled illegal by Israel's high court in 2005.

Others speak of routine harassment of civilians at checkpoints, arbitrary intimidation and collective punishment.

Idan Barir, who served in the artillery corps, describes in his testimony how an officer forced Palestinian civilians to crawl in a "race" towards a checkpoint near Jenin in the West Bank during the 2000 olive harvest. Only the first three out of "teams" of eight were allowed to pass.

Another, Itamar Schwarz, says Palestinian homes were routinely ransacked in search operations. He describes the day of the World Cup final in 2002, when soldiers confined a Palestinian woman and child in the kitchen of their home for two hours while the unit watched the game in the middle of an operation.

~ more... ~

German insurer Munich Re held orgy for salesmen

By Stephen Evans, BBC News

One of the biggest insurance companies in the world held a party for salesmen where they were rewarded with the services of prostitutes.

Munich Re is the world's biggest re-insurer - in other words, the company acts as an insurance company for other insurance companies.

One of its divisions, Ergo, told the BBC that the party had taken place to reward salesmen in 2007.

A spokesman said the people who organised it had since left.

The gathering was held at a thermal baths in the Hungarian capital Budapest as a reward to particularly successful salesmen.

~ more... ~

Fukushima Worker Internal Radiation Level Hits 30,000 CPM As Radiation Poisoning Cover Up Continues

An investigative report from the Daily Yomuri reveals that TEPCO is going to great lengths to cover up the amount of nuclear radiation that workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant are being exposed to.

~ more... ~