Winter Soldier
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In the Other Press...
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To alleviate the problem of articles from other press sources being reposted on this IMC site, this section allows users to link to articles published elsewhere, and to contribute and read comments on those pieces. [Posting a new item has been removed in this static archive of the site.] |
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News: Human Rights : Media |
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My Truth- Giuliana Sgrena |
Submitted by: Pete / 07 Mar 2005
Publisher: OnlineJournal
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March 6, 2005 (from Il Manifesto)—I am still in the darkness. Last Friday was the most dramatic day of my life since I was abducted.
I had just spoken with my abductors, who for days kept telling me I would be released. So I was living in wait. They said things that I would understand only later. They talked of transfer related problems. I had learned to understand which way the wind blew from the attitude of my two "sentinels," the two fellows who watched over me every day—especially one of them, who attended to my requests, was incredibly bold. In the attempt to understand what was going on, I provocatively asked him if he was happy because I would go away or because I would stay. I was surprised and happy when, for the first time, he told me, "I only know you will go, but I don't know when."
To confirm that something new was happening, at one point they both came in the room to reassure me and joke: "Congratulations," they said, "you are leaving for Rome." To Rome, that's what they were saying.
I had a weird feeling, because that word immediately evoked liberation but also projected a void inside myself. I realized it was the most difficult moment of my abduction and that if all I had lived yet was certain, now an abyss of heavy uncertainties was widening. I changed my clothes.
They came back: "We'll escort you, but don't give signals of your presence, otherwise the Americans might intervene." That was not what wanted to hear. It was the happiest and also the most dangerous moment. If we ran into someone, meaning American troops, there would be an exchange of fire, and my captors were ready and they would have responded. I had to have my eyes covered. I was already getting used to a temporary blindness. |
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News: Human Rights |
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UW prof will test Tasers on pigs |
Submitted by: petrinavegan (at ) yahoo.com / 07 Mar 2005
Publisher: The Capital Times
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He suspects drugs, not shocks, caused 70 deaths
By Aaron Nathans
February 22, 2005
The recent controversy over whether Taser guns can kill justifies the use of pigs in a study, said a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher.
Over the past three years, more than 70 people in North America have died after being shocked by Tasers, according to the human rights group Amnesty International. But John Webster questions whether Tasers were really the cause of death.
Many of those people were high on drugs, namely cocaine, argued the emeritus professor of biomedical engineering.
"If you Taser someone with a cocaine overdose, and they die, did they die of the Taser?" Webster said. "I know that many people make it to the emergency room and then die. In my opinion, they were not electrocuted by the Taser. They were high on drugs."
He'll use about 10 anesthetized pigs to help settle the question of whether Tasers alone can send a subject into the deadly state of ventricular fibrillation. A Taser gun ejects darts with a 50,000-volt electrical charge that is designed to briefly immobilize people.
Some of the pigs will be shot with the Taser. Some will get cocaine or another drug. And some will get both the drug and the Taser shot. Webster and his students will measure the effect on the pig's heart.
"The question I'm trying to answer is, can Tasers electrocute subjects?" Webster said. "My hypothesis is, no." He did leave open the possibility that an "emaciated person" who is hit by a Taser whose darts hit directly on and around the heart could die of the shot.
The study is funded with a two-year, $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
One local animal rights activist said the tests appear unnecessary.
"It's no surprise they're going to shock and kill animals to find more ways to hurt people," said Lori Nitzel, executive director of the Alliance for Animals. "There's ample epidemiological evidence to draw conclusions about the effects of Tasers on people."
Tasers have been criticized by human rights organizations and have been subject to "grotesque misuse," she said.
"How many studies do we need to determine that sending voltage into a body can have a negative effect on the heart?" she said.
But Webster said there are only so many ways to learn about the use of Tasers. Without proper knowledge, the debate gets inflamed, and people will want to ban Tasers completely, he said.
"I believe, if used appropriately, Tasers save human lives," he said. "And because of the present controversy, Tasers may not be available for police use."
The Madison Police Department issued a report last week saying Tasers had been effective in reducing the number of injuries to both officers and suspects. The report said that of the 92 times the weapons had been used as of January, they were effective in 77 percent of cases.
Like Webster, the report took issue with deaths linked to Tasers, saying that a more likely cause was "excited delirium," a condition marked by extreme anger and strength that can stretch the body and the heart beyond its limits.
Webster said the pigs in his study are not likely to be killed as part of his research, although he added that research animals tend to be used for multiple studies. The pigs will likely end up sacrificed as part of some other study later on, he said.
Webster said his will be the first independent study to attempt to answer the question of whether Tasers cause death. It will not, however, be the first Taser-pig study overall.
Officials from the company that makes Tasers were involved with a previous study that also shocked anesthetized pigs with the weapons. The researchers determined they were unable to cause cardiac disturbance with the Tasers. They were, however, able to send a pig into ventricular fibrillation if they used enough current, above and beyond what a Taser puts out.
Webster said his study will only use regular Tasers, and will try some variations that the Taser researchers did not. He expects the experiments to begin in about a month or two.
anathans@madison.com |
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News: Human Rights : International |
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US Human Rights Report Draws Fire from Latin America |
Submitted by: sofiushka / 07 Mar 2005
Publisher: InterPress
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Amnesty International (AI) has joined with numerous governments in Latin America in criticising the latest human rights report released by the U.S. State Department, calling it "politically biased" and accusing Washington of "exploiting" the reports compiled by human rights groups for its own purposes...
As usual, with regard to Latin America, the report was especially harsh on countries viewed with disfavour by Washington, like Cuba and Venezuela, but took a soft stance towards civil war-torn Colombia, "quite possibly the country with the worst human rights crisis in the region today," said Gómez.
In Venezuela, where the George W. Bush administration claims that "the government's human rights record remained poor" in 2004, Vice President José Vicente Rangel described the report as completely lacking in validity and criticised the U.S. government for using the theme of human rights for "blatantly political ends."
"This State Department report is more of the same -- in other words, more lies, more falsehoods, and more hypocrisy, and as such it is absolutely worthless," he stated.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has accused the U.S. government of plotting to assassinate him, is leading what he calls a "peaceful revolution" of political and social changes that he has openly described as "anti-imperialist".
Nevertheless, Gómez maintained that although the State Department report is "politically biased", it also provides a relatively accurate portrait of the situation in countries whose governments "don't like being reminded of their human rights problems."
The country reports have been criticised by governments and lawmakers in Honduras, Chile and Mexico, nations singled out by Washington for various human rights issues.
Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez claimed that the State Department document was based on reports gathered from human rights groups that essentially operate as businesses and are only interested "in continuing to receive funding from governments or private sector agencies in the United States and Europe," which renders it completely invalid. |
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"Friendly Fire",- By Design |
Submitted by: Boris Epstein / 07 Mar 2005
Publisher: Boris Epstein
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"Friendly fire" is an unfortunate part of pretty much any war. The fog of battle sometimes leads to soldiers firing on fellow soldiers wearing the same uniform. All of the world's militaries work towards developing procedures to avoid such tragic and wasteful mistakes but none have thus far completely succeeded in this quest.
However, according to Body of Secrets, a book authored by the investigative journalist James Bamford, in the 1960's the US military considered attacks on Americans disguised to appear perpetrated by the Cuban forces. The objective: convincing the American public of a necessity of going to war with Cuba. |
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Is Airline Security Their Objective Or Their Cover? |
Submitted by: Boris Epstein / 07 Mar 2005
Publisher: Boris Epstein
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To summarize this, let me just state that I am beyond believing that the TSA is trying to do a job but failing. I believe they are using their task as a pretext for something else. Most likely, it is just a pretext for maintaining a large team of armed federal agents. The governments throughout history have used danger, real or perceived, as an excuse for beefing up the "palace guard" - and they can be viewed as that of sorts. The worst case scenario might be that they are intended as a clandestine internal intelligence service of sorts. |
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News: Media |
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Iranian-Swedish blogger threatened with deportation to Iran |
Submitted by: Pete / 05 Mar 2005
Publisher: CPB
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According to Penlog, the Swedish resident and Iranian blogger Alireza Taherpour, who is seeking asylum in Sweden, and his wife, Roshanak Abbasi, have been arrested in Malmo, Sweden.
They are on the verge of being extradited to Iran where, upon their return, Penlog believes they will be persecuted by the Iranian government and their lives will be at risk.
"According to the international asylum seekers act, passed in 1951 and its protocol, passed by the Swedish government in 1967, the Swedish government has agreed to protect asylum seekers by refraining from extraditing them to the countries they escaped from."
A petition has been set up online seeking to convince Swedish authorities to block the extradition. |
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News: Education : Human Rights : International : Organizing : Politics : Social Welfare |
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Teacher's fans win a delay in his deportation |
Submitted by: Scott Goldstein / 04 Mar 2005
Publisher: Boston Globe
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Student outcry over the threatened deportation of Obain Attouoman appeared to pay off yesterday, when the popular Fenway High School teacher won permission to stay in the United States until at least 2007.
By Scott Goldstein, Globe Correspondent | March 4, 2005 ''I feel overwhelmed at what's happening," said the 43-year-old math teacher, a US resident since 1992, who was helped in his bid to avoid being returned to his native Ivory Coast by students who mounted a fierce campaign to keep him stateside. ''I really cannot believe it yet," he said. ''I feel like I'm dreaming. . . . It's just an incredible feeling to have children express such a high sense of responsibility." Deportation delay: Teacher to stay in Boston His supporters included a delegation of six students and two adults who met yesterday in Washington with US Senator John F. Kerry and staffers of other members of Congress. One of those students -- Apocalipsis Rosario, 16, a Fenway High School sophomore -- said the idea to go to Washington came together in recent weeks. ''I am so overwhelmed and happy that he'll be able to stay," she said. ''Now, we actually have time so that we can make it so that he stays here forever. I'm just so excited because in 2007 I'll be graduating, but I want him to settle down and not have the fear of deportation." The reprieve was triggered by a request by Kerry to Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who chairs a key immigration subcommittee, for a background report on Attouoman from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That automatically delays deportation proceedings until the end of the current session of Congress, Kerry's office said. Kerry also has filed a bill intended to allow Attouoman to stay here permanently. It is similar to a bill filed last year by US Representative Edward J. Markey, aimed at granting Attouoman permanent US residency. Yesterday's late-inning maneuvers ended a day of furious lobbying by Kerry, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Governor Mitt Romney. At one point, it appeared that Attouoman, who teaches special education students, had won a delay of just a week. Attouoman's lawyer, Susan Cohen, who has been working on the case pro bono, said she was on her way to his house with champagne. ''I was starting to worry that I might not see Obain again after tomorrow," Cohen said. ''But we just didn't let up our efforts." Last night, Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that Attouoman was scheduled to be deported to Ivory Coast on March 11, an extension of an earlier deadline of today. Knocke had not heard about the longer postponement but confirmed that a request from Cornyn would bring about a delay. The first hopeful news for Attouoman yesterday came after Romney sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.''I have heard from scores of Mr. Attouoman's students who are concerned that the loss of their teacher in the middle of this school year will not only impact their education, but also will take from our community a man who has been willing to mentor young men who lack a prominent role model in their lives," Romney said in the letter. Attouoman has been fighting to stay in the United States since he missed an immigration hearing in 2001, after misreading the handwritten date on the official letter. A judge ordered him deported; Attouoman lost an appeal. He was held in Suffolk County Jail on a deportation warrant for several months and released in March 2004, one day after a rally drew hundreds of supporters. Attouoman has said he would be in danger in his homeland because of his political affiliations in the early 1990s. Attouoman's students delivered a letter of support to Romney's office Wednesday morning, prompting the governor to write to Chertoff. The teacher's supporters rallied outside the John F. Kennedy Federal Building twice in the past month, most recently Wednesday afternoon. ''This is the right way to end a day spent by so many people fighting to keep Obain Attouoman at home in Boston," Kerry said in a statement. ''It took . . . genuine bipartisanship to overcome the Washington stalemate and make a difference, not only in the life of a teacher, but in the lives of the students who cherish their time with him." Scott Goldstein can be reached at sgoldstein@globe.com. |
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