Is the government spying on schizophrenics enough?

In The Know: Panelists discuss ways to care for the nation's paranoid schizophrenics, such as hiding cameras in their homes or audio transmitters in their ears.

More coverage at: http://www.onion.com

Vivaldi Four Seasons Winter Sand Animation film Ferenc Cakó

Sanda animation film - Ferenc Cakó
Vivaldi: Four Seasons Winter
conductor: Lamberto Gardelli

International demonstration- Help the Shministim

Hello good people and organizations

A request after the explanation-
We are the "Shministim Letter" (also known as the "seniors' letter"), a group of youth in Israel.
We decided to refuse to serve in the Israeli army (IDF), for reasons such as the policy of occupation and oppression in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

All boys and girls in Israel must join the army after graduating from high school by law, except those who have mental or health problems. Orthodox Jewish people are easily exempted, and pacifists should be exempted as well. Many people lie in order to get out; they pretend to be religious (mostly girls) or crazy.

We, as conscientious objectors, are not recognized by the army as pacifists or as having a "real" reason to be let off, because our refusal to serve is considered 'political'.
Therefore, we choose to tell the army the truth - what we think about the governments immoral policy, about the illegal acts of the IDF being done in our name.
Refusing to serve in the army is a crime in Israel. Therefore, we are being sent to military prison: one of the girls in our group, Or Ben-David, has already been in prison for 47 days and was sentenced for another term of 34 days, each time for the same reason: "refusing an order to become a soldier"

We ask you to help us to arrange demonstrations that will take place simultaneously in different locations, including the one that will be in Israel when Or is in jail.
The demo will take place on January 9th.
We suggest non-violent protest in front of Israeli embassies and consulates in different places around the world.
If you would like to arrange such a demo, or if you know someone who will, please contact us: shministim10@gmail.com
We'll be happy to answer your questions and help you to organize.


You can also read more about us at www.shministim.com

Thank you for your time.
Happy holidays,
Shministim Letter 2009-2010

Doctor admits Israeli pathologists harvested organs without consent

Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families – a practice it said ended in the 1990s – it emerged at the weekend.

The admission, by the former head of the country's forensic institute, followed a furious row prompted by a Swedish newspaper reporting that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to use their organs – a charge that Israel denied and called "antisemitic".

The revelation, in a television documentary, is likely to generate anger in the Arab and Muslim world and reinforce sinister stereotypes of Israel and its attitude to Palestinians. Iran's state-run Press TV tonight reported the story, illustrated with photographs of dead or badly injured Palestinians.

Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab MP, said the report incriminated the Israeli army.

The story emerged in an interview with Dr Yehuda Hiss, former head of the Abu Kabir forensic institute near Tel Aviv. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic who released it because of the row between Israel and Sweden over a report in the Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet.

Channel 2 TV reported that in the 1990s, specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.

The Israeli military confirmed to the programme that the practice took place, but added: "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer."

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Did America keep mum on 26/11?

Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times

Did the Americans have detailed advance information about the 26/11 plot which they did not share with India, only passing on a watered-down warning? And was there an American spy within the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba who kept Washington (or Langley) informed of terror acts planned against India —  even if this information was never handed over to us?

It is certainly beginning to look that way.

When Headley was first arrested, the Americans declared that they had foiled a plot to kill a Danish cartoonist. Then, more details began to trickle out. The terror suspect, we were told, was a US citizen of Pakistani origin. He had some links with the LeT. He had visited India. He may have been part of an advance team for 26/11.

Indian investigators, intrigued by these reports, flew to Washington to meet Headley. They were denied any access to him. They tried to work out if Headley was in fact somebody they themselves had been looking for. They had asked the CIA if it had any information about an American who, their sources had told them, was part of the LeT. They received no real cooperation.

Then, even as the Indian media were obsessing about Headley's friendship with Mahesh Bhatt's son, investigative journalists in America tracked down court papers pertaining to Headley's arrest on drug charges in 1998. These papers showed that Headley had been convicted and sent to jail. But after 9/11, he had been set free and sent to Pakistan to work as an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

According to US journalists, Headley had been given a new passport in the American name of David Headley (his American mother's maiden name is Headley) rather than his original name of Daood Gilani. He flew around the world, entering and leaving the US at will, avoiding the sort of attention that a convicted drug criminal was certain to attract at US airports.

Further, suggested US journos, the DEA assignment may have been a cover. After 9/11 America was under pressure to infiltrate Pakistan's terror groups and many undercover agents were sent into Pakistan for this purpose.

Upto this point, we had two stories. The first was the version of the US government that it had arrested a terrorist. The second was the version favoured by the US media that this 'terrorist' had actually been sent to Pakistan by the Americans as an undercover agent.

American journos, on the whole, refused to believe that he worked only for the DEA and thought that he was probably in the pay of the CIA. But, many said, Headley had clearly gone rogue, becoming a double agent and owing true loyalty to the LeT.

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