Germany issues CIA arrest orders

Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents over the alleged kidnapping of one of its citizens. Munich prosecutors confirmed that the warrants were linked to the case of Khaled al-Masri, a German national of Lebanese descent.



Mr Masri says he was seized in Macedonia, flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan and mistreated there. He says he was released in Albania five months later when the Americans realised they had the wrong man.

Mr Masri says his case is an example of the US policy of "extraordinary rendition" a practice whereby the US government flies foreign terror suspects to third countries without judicial process for interrogation or detention.

Prosecutors in Munich said in a statement that the city's court had issued the warrants on suspicion of abduction and grievous bodily harm.

Source and further reading Here

State of denial

GuardianIndependent

I believe the Tory leader, David Cameron is right to say, that the BNP preys on people who are disillusioned by mainstream politicians, and, that in that sense hardline islamists are the mirror image of the BNP. Why, though, does he chose to concentrate on multiculturalism as a cause of radicalisation, rather than the government's foreign policy embodied by its terrorist actions in muslim and arab lands? Why indeed is multiculturalism nowadays seen by most mainstream politicians as the culprit?

The World's 4th Largest Military Power

Jefferson is turning in his grave and Eisenhower's ghost is saying "I told you so." A look behind the Blackwater mercenaries.
Part 1

Part 2


And what are these guys doing meddling in social issues in the U.S.? Chilling.

It's not as bad as they say... if you're in the Green Zone

Oh if I only had a nickel for everyone who ever said something along the lines of "I know someone who's brother is in Iraq and he says his brother says that things are not as bad as the media portrays." It isn't that bad... in the "Green Zone."

China admits to climate failings

China is failing to make progress on improving and protecting the environment, according to a new Chinese government report.
The research ranks China among the world's worst nations - a position unchanged since 2004.





After the US, China produces the most greenhouse gases in the world. The Chinese report, prepared by academics and government experts, ranked the country 100th out of 118 countries surveyed.

Read the full article at the Source

Terror vs. terror

I've just heard the best summarisation of the so-called war on terror. In a programme about the use of Agent Orange a US Vietnam veteran who has been going back to Vietnam for the past ten years tells how after September 11th 2001 many Vietnamese approached him, hands on their hearts. He says they were expressing their sorrow for "what happened to 3000 of us. We have never said sorry to what we did to 3 million of them".

Blame the china

Daily Show host Jon Stewart takes a look at Dick Cheney's Interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Palestine is Still the Issue

A good myth-blowing documentary shedding some light on the situation in the Occupied Territories.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

A video with a short interview of John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman.

To Wear Another Man's Shoes

Many of you will already have seen this, but it is worth posting.

King of Opposite Land

Mark Fiore's new animation.

Here

Over 34,000 civilians killed in Iraq in 2006

From the UN News Centre:

Nearly 6,400 Iraqi civilians were killed in the November-December period, slightly less than in the preceding two months, as rampant and indiscriminate killings, sectarian violence, extra-judicial executions – and impunity for the perpetrators – continued virtually unchecked, according to the latest United Nations rights report released today.

It puts the total civilian casualty figure for the year 2006 at 34,452 dead and 36,685 injured. Asked why the UN death toll for the year was about three times higher than that reported by the Iraqi Government, a spokesman in New York said the UN figures were based on those provided by the Baghdad Medico-Legal Institute and the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

“An unprecedented number of execution-style killings have taken place in Baghdad and other parts of the country, whereby bodies were routinely found dumped in the streets, in rivers and in mass graves – most bearing signs of torture with their hands and feet bound, and some were beheaded,” the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) human rights report for the period says of “the modus operandi” of both Sunni and Shiite groups.

Without significant progress on the rule of law sectarian violence will continue indefinitely “and eventually spiral out of control,” thwarting efforts by the Government in the political, security or economic spheres, according to the report, which stresses the urgent need to fight impunity and seek accountability for crimes.

In virtually every sphere, and building on earlier reports, the latest study amounts to a litany of abuses ranging from attacks on women, minorities and professional groups to forced displacements, to the activities of the police and security forces and the United States-led Multi-National Force (MNF-I).

According to information made available to UNAMI, 6,376 civilians were killed in the two month period – 3,462 for November and 2,914 for December – compared with 7,054 for the previous two months, when October’s toll reached a new high of 3,709. Despite the “slight reduction… it is evident however that violence has not been contained,” the report warns.

It notes that law enforcement agencies do not provide effective protection. Increasingly militias and criminal gangs act in collusion with, or have infiltrated the security forces, while operations by security and military forces, including MNF-I, continue to result in growing numbers of individuals detained and without access to judicial oversight.

“Armed operations by MNF-I continued to restrict the enjoyment of human rights and to cause severe suffering to the local population,” the report says, citing use of facilities protected by the Geneva Conventions, such as hospitals and schools, as military bases, allegations that MNF-I snipers killed 13 civilians in one week in Ramadi, and lack of access to basic services, such as health and education, affecting a larger percentage of the population.

The report reiterates previous calls to security and military forces to respect fully international law and to refrain from any excessive use of force.

It notes that since the bombing of the Shiite mosque in Samarra in February, some 471,000 people have been forcibly displaced. It calls the situation in Baghdad “notably grave,” with insurgents including foreign terrorist groups remaining particularly active.

“No religious and ethnic groups, including women and children, have been spared from the widespread cycle of violence which creates panic and disrupts the daily life of many Iraqi families, prompting parents to stop sending their children to school and severely limiting normal movement around the capital and outside,” the report says, also citing a “dramatic increase” in abductions in recent months.

It notes a rapid erosion of women’s rights in the central and southern regions. “Women are reportedly living with heightened levels of threats to their lives and physical integrity, and forced to conform to strict, arbitrarily imposed morality codes,” it says, with cases of young women abducted by armed militia and found days later sexually abused, tortured and murdered.

“Female corpses are usually abandoned at the morgue and remain unclaimed for fear of damaging the family honour,” it adds. “More than 140 bodies were unclaimed and buried in Najaf by the morgue during the reporting period.” In a suspected honour crime case, a secondary school student was publicly hanged in east Baghdad by armed militia and her brother shot dead when he tried to rescue her.

In the north it cites “honour killings” with 239 reportedly women burning themselves in accidents or suicide attempts the first eight months of 2006. “Most victims of suspected honour crimes suffer horrific injuries which are unlikely to have been accidentally caused whilst cooking or refuelling oil heaters,” it says.

Attacks have also continued or escalated against minorities such as Christians, homosexuals, and the thousands of Palestinian refugees who are seen as having supported the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.

“Killings, threats, intimidations, and kidnappings are becoming the norm for Palestinians in Iraq. Many of these actions are reportedly carried out by the militias wearing police or special forces uniform. Most of the victims are found dead or simply disappear,” the report says.

“The ability of new security plans to effect real change in Iraq will depend on a comprehensive reform program that can strengthen the rule of law and deliver justice for all Iraqis,” it stresses.

“It is essential that the State and the Government of Iraq are seen as united in their efforts to contain and eventually eradicate sectarian violence, to ensure the rule of law and, through that, remove the popular basis of support for the perpetrators of this violence.”

Pirates and Emperors

Click on the picture to see a well-done video inspired by Noam Chomsky's Priates and Emperors.

When light shines into even the darkest corners...

Hat tip to One Good Move and Unclaimed Territory.

From Unclaimed Territory, words by conservative Rod Dreher:

As President Bush marched the country to war with Iraq, even some voices on the Right warned that this was a fool's errand. I dismissed them angrily. I thought them unpatriotic.

But almost four years later, I see that I was the fool.

In Iraq, this Republican President for whom I voted twice has shamed our country with weakness and incompetence, and the consequences of his failure will be far, far worse than anything Carter did.

The fraud, the mendacity, the utter haplessness of our government's conduct of the Iraq war have been shattering to me.

It wasn't supposed to turn out like this. Not under a Republican President.

I turn 40 next month -- middle aged at last -- a time of discovering limits, finitude. I expected that. But what I did not expect was to see the limits of finitude of American power revealed so painfully.

I did not expect Vietnam.

As I sat in my office last night watching President Bush deliver his big speech, I seethed over the waste, the folly, the stupidity of this war.

I had a heretical thought for a conservative - that I have got to teach my kids that they must never, ever take Presidents and Generals at their word - that their government will send them to kill and die for noble-sounding rot - that they have to question authority.

On the walk to the parking garage, it hit me. Hadn't the hippies tried to tell my generation that? Why had we scorned them so blithely?

Will my children, too small now to understand Iraq, take me seriously when I tell them one day what powerful men, whom their father once believed in, did to this country? Heavy thoughts for someone who is still a conservative despite it all. It was a long drive home.

The Good Things

I often hear the complaint among war supporters that the media is not showing "the good things" the U.S. is doing in Iraq. Perhaps this is one of "the good things"?