Winter Soldier
Testimonies
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In the Other Press...
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[Account login has been removed in this static archive of the site.]
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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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Peace is Earned -- Not Bestowed |
Submitted by: cleaves / 28 Jul 2006
Publisher: Cleaves Publishing
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The people are once again faced with a very real opportunity to act and change the status quo. The USA has abandoned its traditional role of peacekeeper in the Middle East. Two clear prerogatives present themselves in the face of ongoing hostilities, a people's movement or another nation filling the vacuum left by the U.S. (which has tragically become an involved party in the conflict). How many times must the opportunity for Peace go begging? |
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News: Human Rights |
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Waco police use Taser to subdue secret service agent |
Submitted by: @ / 28 Jul 2006
Publisher: Austin American-Statesman
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WACO — The U.S. Secret Service is investigating an incident in which one of its agents was arrested at a Waco bar and subdued with a Taser by local police.
The July 21 incident at Cricket's Grill & Draft House downtown began when 30-year-old John Scott Lewis started arguing with a Cricket's manager, according to Waco police. He had been rude to customers and was asked to leave, according to an affidavit.
When Lewis refused, employees at Cricket's called two Waco police officers who were working off-duty security for River Square Center, where the bar is located. When the officers arrived, they saw Lewis trying to provoke the manager into a fight, Waco police spokesman Sgt. Ryan Holt said.
Lewis began to leave the bar, but as he passed through the front entrance, he pushed one of the doors so hard that the frame cracked, Holt said.
The officers then moved to arrest Lewis. One officer was able to get him down on his knees, the affidavit says, but Lewis kept fighting and ignoring verbal commands. As a result, an officer used his Taser stun gun to subdue him.
Lewis was taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center for a small cut on his forehead and a scratch on his nose, Holt said. After being treated, he was booked into the McLennan County Jail on three charges — public intoxication, resisting arrest and reckless damage to property. He was released after posting a $1,000 bail.
Resisting arrest is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $4,000 or both. Public intoxication and reckless destruction of property are Class C misdemeanors punishable by a fine of up to $500.
One of the officers involved in the struggle suffered minor cuts to his hands, Holt said. There were no other injuries.
Mark Lowery, special agent-in-charge of the Dallas district office of the U.S. Secret Service, which oversees the Waco area, said he couldn't comment on the incident.
However, he did confirm that Lewis is employed by the agency.
"Generally speaking, we want to emphasize that we take such situations very seriously, and it will be investigated," Lowery said.
[I smell Bacon!] |
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News: Human Rights : International : War and Militarism |
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Israelis Accused of Using Illegal Weapons |
Submitted by: yo / 28 Jul 2006
Publisher: Inter Press Service
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by Dahr Jamail
BEIRUT- The Israeli military is using illegal weapons against civilians in southern Lebanon, according to several reports.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this week that Israel had used cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon, in clear violation of international law.
The group said cluster bombs killed a civilian and injured 12 others in Blida village in the south of Lebanon last week. Cluster bombs disperse hundreds of tiny shrapnel-filled 'bomblets' that are "unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable", and should not be used in civilian areas, HRW said.
Lebanese doctors, aid workers and refugees are reporting that the Israeli military has used the incendiary weapon white phosphorous in civilian areas, also in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Dr. Bachir el-Sham at the Complex Hospital in Sidon in the south of Lebanon told IPS in a telephone interview that he has received civilian patients injured by incendiary weapons.
"We are seeing people that are all blackened, with charred flesh that is not burned by normal bombs and flames," he said. "I am sure this is a special bomb. They are using incendiary weapons on civilians in the south. We are seeing these patients."
The doctor also told IPS that the Israelis are again using suction bombs, which they used heavily during the Lebanese civil war.
"They are using suction bombs that implode our buildings," he added, "With implosive bombs...instead of the glass blasted out, it is inside the building. These kill everyone inside the building. There are rarely survivors when they use these bombs."
Bilal Masri, assistant director of the Beirut Government University Hospital (BGUH) had told IPS earlier that "many of the injured in the south are suffering from the impact of incendiary white phosphorous."
Wafaa el-Yassir, Beirut representative of the non-governmental organisation Norwegian People's Aid, told IPS that several of her relief workers in the south had reported assisting people hit by incendiary weapons.
"The most important thing is that we have an investigation for the Israelis' use of banned weapons," she said. "They have used phosphorous in Nabatiyeh and cluster bombs in Dahaya district of Beirut."
She also told IPS that a doctor at the Bint Jbail hospital, in the small city near the southern border of Lebanon where much of the fierce fighting has taken place, had told her agency that he was certain that white phosphorous had been used against civilians there.
Zacharia al-Amedin, an 18-year-old refugee being treated for lacerations from bomb shrapnel told IPS, "I was in a village near Tyre, and the Israelis were dropping incendiary bombs all around us, even though there weren't fighters near us. So many civilians were hit by these weapons."
The Lebanese ministry of interior has officially said that the Israeli military has used this weapon.
President Emile Lahoud said recently on French radio: "According to the Geneva Conventions, when they use phosphorous bombs and laser bombs, is that allowed against civilians and children?"
An Israeli military spokesman told Reuters news agency, "Everything the Israeli defence forces are using is legitimate." International law requires that the military distinguish between combatants and civilians. Incendiary weapons and cluster bombs when used in areas where there may be civilians contravene international humanitarian law.
"We are a country of humans, not animals," Sham told IPS. "Real people are dying here. You must ask this of the world, to please help." |
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News: Environment |
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Farmers Use as Much Pesticide With GM Crops, US Study Finds |
Submitted by: yo / 28 Jul 2006
Publisher: commondreams.org
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One of the major arguments in favour of growing GM crops has been undermined by a study showing that the benefits are short-lived because farmers quickly resort to spraying their fields with harmful pesticides.
Supporters of genetically modified crops claim the technique saves money and provides environmental benefits because farmers need to spray their fields fewer times with chemicals.
However, a detailed survey of 481 cotton growers in China found that, although they did use fewer pesticides in the first few years of adopting GM plants, after seven years they had to use just as much pesticide as they did with conventional crops.
The study found that after three years, the GM farmers had cut pesticide use by 70 per cent and were earning over a third more than conventional farmers.
But, by 2004, the GM cotton farmers were using just as much pesticide as their conventional counterparts and were spending far more because GM cotton seed is three times the price of conventional cotton seed...
[aaaaah, the advances of science] |
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News: Human Rights : International : War and Militarism |
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Dissent Grows in Israel Over Lebanon |
Submitted by: yo / 28 Jul 2006
Publisher: commondreams.org
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The government of the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is facing a barrage of criticism over its handling of the war in Lebanon, with questions being raised about the decision to attack Hizbullah, mounting military losses, continuing missile strikes on northern Israel, and disquiet about Lebanese civilian casualties.
Israel has yet to confirm reports of 12 soldiers killed in heavy fighting around the south Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, but analysts in Jerusalem said fatalities on that scale are likely to bring pressure from the army and the public for a significant change of tack.
Two weeks into the fighting, growing unease about a wide range of war-related issues has burst into the open with a series of anxious comments by politicians, former officers and leading experts and pundits. |
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News: Politics |
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Katrina Victims Not Allowed To Talk To Media |
Submitted by: toodles / 28 Jul 2006
Publisher: toodles
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Think Jonestown....
FEMA a Disaster for Freedom of the Press Katrina victims “not allowed†to talk to media, reporter told 7/21/06 The Federal Emergency Management Agency prohibits journalists from having unsupervised interviews with Hurricane Katrina victims who have been relocated to FEMA trailer parks, according to a report in the Baton Rouge Advocate (7/15/06). “If a resident invites the media to the trailer, they have to be escorted by a FEMA representative who sits in on the interview,†FEMA spokesperson Rachel Rodi is quoted in the article. “That’s just a policy.â€
The Advocate report, by reporter Sandy Davis, describes two separate attempts to talk to people displaced by Katrina that were halted by the intervention of a FEMA security guard. In the first incident, in a Morgan City, Louisiana camp, an interview was interrupted by a guard who claimed that residents of the camp are “not allowed†to talk to the media. Dekotha Devall, whose New Orleans home was destroyed by the storm, was in her FEMA-provided trailer telling the Advocate reporter of the hardships of life in the camp when a security guard knocked on the door. “You are not allowed to be here,†the guard is quoted as telling the reporter. “Get out right now.†The guard reportedly called police to force the journalist to leave the camp, and even prevented the reporter from giving the interview subject a business card. “You will not give her a business card,†the guard said. “She’s not allowed to have that.â€
Later, at another FEMA camp in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, the reporter attempted to talk to camp resident Pansy Ardeneaux through a chain link fence when the same guard halted the interview. “You are not allowed to talk to these people,†the guard told Ardeneaux. “Return to your trailer now.†The reporter said she and an accompanying photographer were “ordered...not to talk to anyone or take pictures.†Earlier, an interview with displaced Katrina victims by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! (4/24/06) was halted by FEMA security guards. Tape-recording the accounts of residents of the FEMA-run Renaissance Village camp outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Goodman was approached by FEMA-hired security guards from Corporate Security Solutions who told her to “turn it off.†When Goodman explained that the resident had asked to be interviewed, she was told, “He can't. That’s not his privilege.â€
At first, the resident talking to Goodman was told by the guard, “You can go get interviewed as long as it’s off post.†But when the resident offered to continue the interview outside the camp, the guard said, “Yes, you can be interviewed... if they had a FEMA representative with them, but since they don’t and do not have an appointment....†Interviews are allowed to proceed, the guard noted, when “they have the FEMA public relations officer with them.†In concluding the segment on her visit to the camp, Goodman reported, “As we drove off of Renaissance Village, we were chased by the guards in golf carts, who said they would be taking down our license plate and that we couldn't return.â€
Restrictions on the right of citizens to speak freely to the press without government supervision are a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. “They cannot deny media access,†Gregg Leslie, the legal defense director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Advocate, saying that FEMA’s restrictions were “clearly unconstitutional … and definitely not legal.†Referring to the requirement that interview subjects have a FEMA escort, Leslie said, “That’s a standard for a prison, not a relief park and a temporary shelter.†Timothy Matte, the mayor of Morgan City, expressed surprise that FEMA was enforcing limits on the free speech of disaster victims. “You would think the people would have the same freedom there as everyone else has,†he said.
ACTION: FEMA’s website urges citizens to report “allegations of civil liberties or civil rights abuses†to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, who is Richard L. Skinner.
CONTACT: Inspector General Richard L. Skinner Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC 20528 E-mail: DHSOIGHOTLINE@dhs.gov |
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News: Human Rights : International : War and Militarism |
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"Waiting to Get Blown Up": American Soldies Disillusioned |
Submitted by: yo / 27 Jul 2006
Publisher: truthout.org
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Some soldiers in the
2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division - interviewed
over four days on base and on patrols - say they have grown
increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the violence and their
reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750 people arrived in
Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed
and 21 wounded. "It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving
around waiting to get blown up, that's the most honest answer I could
give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former
backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it
gets hard." "No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused
about what we do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. |
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Factored-in |
Submitted by: nano / 27 Jul 2006
Publisher: Cleaves Publishing
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The middle of the twentieth century was the last occasion a belligerent nation stunned the world with violent military invasions. The major powers watched passively while a rogue military nation boldly occupied a number of sovereign states; the excuses offered by the aggressor at that time were similar to the inane, irrational rubbish the world is offered today by Israel and the U.S. However, some would make the distinction that the comments made by John Bolton and Condoleezza Rice are even less believable than the propaganda of Dr. Joseph Goebbels. |
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