Venezuela Takes Back 200 Tons of Gold From US, UK. Will US Inc Start Another War?

Man Made Famines: An Inglorious Tradition Continues

Profiteering from hunger?

The UN World Food Programme is investigating the possible theft of food supplies meant for Somalia's famine victims. But it has denied reports that half of all its aid is being stolen and sold on the black market.



Drought and man-made factors created famine in Somalia

"This crisis wasn't just about the drought and the lack of rain but also about the people in power and policies.

The crisis has been caused by the poor rains (two successive poor rains) but also by the poor policies.
In the rest of the region, food is always around but consumers struggle to aford it. Retailers are also affected by high fuel prices. Production and distribution are controlled by a select few so ordinary people suffer. When they buy their products, they buy less of it and they buy less variety. High food prices have more than doubled and people now use half of the income for food. With each drought, the poorest have fewer assets to sell to buy food. So overtime, more people depend on food aid, already millions survive on it every year.
Al Shabab, the Al Qaeda linked group, has allowed the UN in to feed starving people. They really hold the key to opening that flow of aid."


Food Riots and Man-Made Famine 2011
It now seems likely to be one of the most tragic and inevitable global trends for 2011:food riots.


Man made hunger in Horn of Africa [CNN 7-28-2011]



A man-made famine - India and the world in the Great Hunger of 2008
India’s Emerging Food Security Crisis: The Consequences of the Neoliberal Assault on the Public Distribution System


Man-made famines
Book Review: The Geography of Famine, by William A. Dando. Arnold, London, 1980.
Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 10, December 1980.
THIS IS an extremely interesting book. Its overt goal is to show that, in general, famines, rather than be ‘acts of God’, as many people assume, are, in fact, man-made:
“Natural factors cause crop failures, but humans cause famines”.

Winston Churchill blamed for 1m deaths in India famine
Sir Winston Churchill may be one of Britain's greatest wartime leaders, but in India he has been blamed for allowing more than a million people to die of starvation.


The British Riots: The State unleashes the Dogs of Media
It's the same old 'high Tory' vindictive litany directed at the most vulnerable in our society, the forgotten and disenfranchised. There is not single expression of self-doubt as to how a very large section of society could feel so alienated, so desperate that they would destroy their own neighbourhoods. The class divide could not be plainer for all to see.


The Benz Burners Arrive: Protests Come To Germany As Arsonists Burn Down "Fat Cat" Cars


Damn It Or Fear It, The Forbidden Truth Is An Insurrection in Britain
By John Pilger

Message from Anonymous AntiSec Vanguard Defence Industries Leaked

ANTISEC LEAKS PRIVATE DOCUMENTS FROM MILITARY CONTRACTOR VANGUARDDEFENCE.COM (feel free to mirror)

BROWSE THE LEAK (more links included)
http://www.pastebin.com/PjiXmwNk

News
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/19/vanguard-defense-industri_n_931405.html

http://thetechherald.com/article.php/201133/7514/Vanguard-Defense-Industries-

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201133/7530/Merrill-Lynch-gave-contr

http://baytownsun.com/texas_ap/article_80f812aa-5809-5bad-9461-40670aefe931.html  


Fukushima radiation alarms doctors
Japanese doctors warn of public health problems caused by Fukushima radiation.


Building the Afghan Narrative with Black Propaganda, the People, the Process & the Product
By definition, America’s use of Psychological Warfare is described as the “The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.”  Of course this very definition is itself propaganda, a white lie which omits the fact that America’s domestic population is just as often the target of psychological warfare as any “hostile foreign groups.” 


True cost of Afghan, Iraq wars is anyone's guess


Phone hacking: News of the World reporter's letter reveals cover-up
Disgraced royal correspondent Clive Goodman's letter says phone hacking was 'widely discussed' at NoW meetings


Kierkegaard's Influence on Hunter S. Thompson
Thompson: The Death of the American Dream

Thompson's writings on the death of the American dream are, in part, a response to Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling.


Facebook and the Decline of Ideas
"It is certainly no accident that the post-idea world has sprung up alongside the social networking world. Even though there are sites and blogs dedicated to ideas, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, etc., the most popular sites on the Web, are basically information exchanges, designed to feed the insatiable information hunger."


Madrid protest against pope visit ends in clashes
Thousands of Spaniards protested against the visit of the pope to Madrid today. Clashes between protesters and police led to six arrests and 11 wounded.


Spanish protests over cost of Pope's visit
Critics say pope's four-day visit to Madrid will cost Spaniards $144m at time of economic hardship.


Dag Hammarskjöld: evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down

Eyewitnesses claim a second aircraft fired at the plane raising questions of British cover-up over the 1961 crash and its causes

Cleared over Afghan deaths
One of the most rancorous episodes in the recent history of the Australian Army has ended with the decision by the military prosecutor to drop the remaining charges - against a commando officer - over the deaths of six Afghan civilians in 2009.

WACKENHUT CORPORATION -- A PATRIOT OR A PARTNER IN EXECUTIVE CRIME?
The following short essay provides some insight into the activities of Wackenhut Corporation, the Guardians of the famous, restrictedArea 51, and many other restricted areas within the US.
via: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SomeUnknownUSHistory/

OBAMA APPOINTS MONSANTO'S VICE PRESIDENT AS SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE COMMISSIONER AT THE FDA
Folks, it just keeps getting more insane.


Financial Terrorism In America: How The Economic Elite Made Off With $46 Trillion
Abstract :: Welcome to World War III
Despite increasing personal financial hardship, most Americans remain unaware of the economic world war currently unfolding.


Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?
A whistle-blower claims that over the past two decades, the agency has destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation's worst financial criminals.


10 false flags operations that shaped our world
 From Nero to 9/11, via Pearl Harbour and the Gulf of Tonkin incident... Joe Crubaugh provides an "all time greatest hits" of false flag operations, whereby one scenario is repeated... as the world keeps falling for the same lie.


How to: know when to use photos from social media
Privacy issues, copyright law and the ethics of publishing photographs and videos from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Rumsfeld: First To Go Down For Torture And War Crimes?

More Evidence of Water Torture "Depravity" in Rumsfeld's Military
In a number of settings,DoD spokespeople in the past  - most notably former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld - have denied the use of waterboarding by DoD personnel. But as examples of DoD water torture have multiplied, it appears government denials about "waterboarding" were overly legalistic, and that behind them, DoD personnel were hiding torture involving similar methods of choking, suffocation or near-drowning by water.

Donald Rumsfeld First In Bush Administration To Face Court For Tourture

Federal court rules former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld can be held liable for torture in Iraq. ///
Bush sent a directive in 2002-02 that the resistance in Afghanistan were to be treated as terrorists, unprotected by the Geneva conventions. This left the fighters and POWs open to any conceivable torture.

Rape, vaginal and anal of men, women and children.
Killing wounded prisoners.
Murder
Kicking prisoners to death
Sodomy with a broomstick and chemical light.
water-boarding, where a suspect is strapped to a board, turned upside down, and immersed in a wet towel to simulate the feeling of drowning until he loses consciousness.
Throwing off bridge into river and drowning
near suffocation
Parent forced to watch son being tortured.
Boy 12 imprisoned. The Red Cross counted 107 juveniles in six American prisons in Iraq.
Government documents show soldiers were ordered to "beat the fuck out of" prisoners.
Chaining to the ceilings of cells for days at a time.
common peroneal strike, aimed at a point just below the knee and intended to disable. Basically pulpifying the legs so they look as though they had though they had been run over by a bus.
starvation
sleep and sensory deprivation: Covering the eyes, ears, wrapping the body in bubble wrap. After a few hours of this, hallucinations set in then eventually permanent insanity.
claustrophobic technique: stuffing POWs into a sleeping bag and winding them with an electrical cord.
Water pit in which detainees have to stand on tip-toe to keep from drowning.
breaking a teen's jaw, then wiring it shut.
Pulling out fingers and teeth. See Page 49 of Chain of Command.
heat and light manipulation
"stress positions", e.g. hands tied behind back hanging in the air by the wrists.

Navy Seal Dan Cerrillo, testified the CIA ordered the Seals to torture prisoners.

At Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib here is a partial list of the sexual abuse and torture:

Government documents on torture obtained unde the freedom of information act by the ACLU.
The Washington Post reported that the CIA is hiding, interrogating and torturing captives in Thailand, Afghanistan and several countries in Eastern Europe. CIA interrogators in the overseas sites are permitted to use the CIA's approved "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"; (aka torture) some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by U.S. military law. The black-site program was approved by a small circle of White House and Justice Department lawyers and officials. There are four main arguments against using torture.
It is morally abhorrent. It is condemned by every major religion.
It has no benefits. Under torture, you will say whatever you think the tormenter wants to hear to get them to stop. The information gleaned is worthless. Bush tortured Iraqis to get his phony evidence for war. A terrorist locked away in seclusion is out of the loop. All plans have been changed and the detainee is not up to date. Ask John McCain what he thinks of torture. He knows first hand how ineffective it is.
Using torture lowers the bar. Your opponents then are obligated to use torture too, not only on P.O.W.s but on civilians and children, just as America has done.
Using torture alienates your allies.
Last revised on 2005-11-08.
Italian TV broadcast a documentary. It is about the American atrocities and torture in Iraq. One of the most stomach-wrenching scenes is detainees who have been tortured by boring holes with an electric drill, burning, and cutting open and resuturing like turkey. You can play a low-res version of the movie online.

Severe beatings to the point of death.
Electric shock
Attaching electrodes to private parts. This causes sterility.
Using trained vicious dogs to anally and vaginally rape prisoners.
Severe burning
Setting vicious dogs on children.
Raping young Iraqi boys on video. 14 year old being raped. source. Pulitzer prize winner and breaker of Mai Lai, Seymour Hersch has seen one of the videos. The most horrifying part is the Americans raping a little boy in front of his parents as the little boy screamed. The irony is, this is the very tactic, in the very same torture chamber, that Saddam himself used. Judge Hellerstein is forcing Bush to release the rape videos. Bush is refusing to comply. Last revised on 2005-11-21.
A 26 year old man, Arkan Mohammed Ali, was stabbed, shocked with an electrical device, urinated on and kept locked — hooded and naked — in a wooden, coffin-like box.
Exposure to fire and smoke.
Pulling out fingernails
Pushing lit cigarettes into ears
Chaining hand and foot in fetal position without food or water.
Forced standing on one leg in the sun
trampling underfoot
Gagging with duct tape...

Obama bans war criminals, except our own
In what will be an historic 108-page report, "Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees," Human Rights Watch is further accelerating the rising insistence here on accountability from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and former CIA director George Tenet for having not only authorized these war crimes, but also failing "to act to stop mistreatment, or punish those responsible after they became aware of serious abuses" 


Torture: The Bioethics Perspective
Steven H. Miles
Highlights
Torture is universally illegal yet widely practiced. More than half of the world’s nations systematically use torture, and medical personnel have a long history of involvement.
Bioethical concerns with torture must take account of its empirical and social dimensions, as well as its corporal nature.

The horrors of World War II brought illicit torture to public consciousness and censure, yet torture persists despite numerous sanctions against it.

Empirical evidence—including research by the CIA and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s working group on counterresistance interrogations—demonstrates the inefficacy of torture.
Despite the evidence, “antiabolitionist” bioethicists remain who rely on the discredited “ticking time bomb” argument to support their position.

Given its inefficacy, the moral challenges to torture are overwhelming. It not only leads to the abuse of innocent or ignorant persons, but also undermines civil society.


Syrian doctors who torture must be banned
In an opinion piece for Al Jazeera, Rajaie Batniji uncovers the role of medical professionals involved in acts of torture. With a lens to the unrest in Syria, Batniji calls for an international body to identify, monitor, and disqualify those complicit in torture and genocide.


Opening Statement in the Doctors Trial by  Brig. General Telford Taylor
(December 9, 1946)
The defendants in this case are charged with murders, tortures, and other atrocities committed in the name of medical science. The victims of these crimes are numbered in the hundreds of thousands. A handful only are still alive; a few of the survivors will appear in this courtroom. But most of these miserable victims were slaughtered outright or died in the course of the tortures to which they were subjected.


We doctors must protect all victims of torture and malpractice
In Iraq, medics may have colluded in mistreatment of prisoners. We must speak out


Torture, but do no harm
After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration redefined acts that were previously recognised as torture and thus illegal as ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ (EITs). From then on subjecting detainees to, for example, forced nudity, sleep deprivation, waterboarding and exposure to extreme temperatures could be legal. The line between torture and EITs is a fine one: the classification depends on the level of pain experienced. 

Saddam's torture doctor works in Britain
A doctor, who worked for the Iraqi Intelligence Agency and was responsible for torturing the Iraqis, has been working in Britain's hospitals for seven years.

Fortune on Torture: UK slammed for terror suspects abuse

An imminent British inquiry into its agents' use of torture overseas has been slammed before its had a chance to get started. It was revealed that Britain was prepared to use harsh interrogation if the potential information that was gained was considered important enough. That's led human rights groups to boycott the inquiry, saying it lacks credibility, as Laura Emmett reports.

Psychologists, Guantanamo and Torture
The folks who brought us Brainwashing and ECT try to clean up


War Crimes
A war crime is a punishable offense, under international law, for violations of the law of war by any person, military or civilian. Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention defines war crimes as: "Willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including... willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power, or willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial, ...taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."


New York Court Refuses to Look at Psychologist’s Role at Guantanamo
Did a psychologist violate his professional ethics when he developed abusive interrogation techniques for use on Guantanamo Bay detainees? Last week, a New York state court dismissed a petition which would have forced the New York Office of Professional Discipline to answer that question.