jimstaro's blog

Spanish Court Allows Guantanamo Torture Investigation To Continue

Mar 2nd, 2011 - On Friday, the Spanish National Court (Audiencia Nacional) gave hope to those seeking to hold accountable the Bush administration officials and lawyers who authorized torture by agreeing to continue investigating allegations made by a Moroccan-born Spanish resident, Lahcen Ikassrien, that he was tortured at Guantánamo, where he was held from 2002 to 2005.

U.S. Support for War Crimes Investigation of Libya Hinged on Exemption for Americans

March 2, 2011 - In an effort to hold Libya accountable [1] for its violent crackdown on protesters, the U.S. and other members of the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of a resolution [2] asking the International Criminal Court to investigate whether the Libyan government has committed crimes against humanity. The ICC announced today [3]that an investigation was found to be warranted and would proceed.

As the Associated Press has noted, it’s the first time that the U.S. has voted in favor of the war crimes court but in keeping with its longtime fear of being prosecuted by the ICC, the U.S also included in the resolution a carve-out [4] for itself. The AP reports that the provision was a "deal breaker" for the U.S.:

China has set an annual growth target of 7% to ensure sustainable development during its new five-year plan

A power plant in Pinghu. To fuel the growth in GDP, China’s energy demand has surged by 220%. Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

28 February 2011 - China will try to slow GDP growth to ease pressure on the environment following a series of unusually stark warnings from senior ministers about the country's current mode of development.

At the Movies: A Veteran’s War

March 1, 2011 - It was a long way from a machinegun mount in a military convoy in Baghdad. Robynn Murray’s getup was very elegant on Sunday at the Academy Awards in Beverly Hills, California. What made her stand out from the famous movie stars at Hollywood’s gala event was the brace of tattooed pistols perched on her chest atop a stunning black and gray dress.

The ease of U.S. Weapons being bought here and sent to the Drug Lords in Mexico just so the drug induced society here has it's much needed highs!!

Indictment: Son, mom sold guns to cartels

Pair are among 21 who face conspiracy charges.

March 1, 2011 - The guns Jose Lira wanted, that he would give to his mother to sell in Mexico, were "exclusively assault style 'AR 15' and 'AK 47' style firearms" the weapons preferred by the Mexican drug cartels, according to a federal affidavit.

Lira, 34, is a convicted felon and may not legally buy guns himself, so he paid family members, their friends and others to make the purchases from gun shows and gun shops across Central Texas in recent months, the affidavit said.

NEW ORG WEBSITE LAUNCHED ON CASUALTY RECORDING

At a time when the issue of civilian casualties in Libya has been dominating the international agenda, our Recording Casualties of Armed Conflict programme has launched Every Casualty.org, a website aiming to raise the profile of casualty recording worldwide and the organisations that undertake it. The site is a one-stop shop for information on casualties of conflict worldwide. It engages 22 of the organisations that record them in the International Practitioner Network convened by ORG.

A Chinese man works at a photovoltaic power plant built with Japanese help in Xining in northwest China's Qinghai province, 11 June 2008. The 300kw solar panel power plant is the first to be connected to the local power grid. | EPA/ANGHAI JIN

27 February 2011 - Investing 2% of global GDP a year, could lead to a green and sustainable future, one that will outshine predictions of GDP growth under the current economic model.

Hicks lawyer acts for Habib

February 27, 2011 - THE former lawyer for convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks is now acting for Sydney man Mamdouh Habib in his quest to sue the US over his CIA-engineered rendition and torture in Egypt.

Stephen Kenny told The Sun-Herald he had already held talks with American lawyers about the best way to proceed with the action in the US courts. ''We need to keep pursuing these matters, otherwise in the future others could be at risk of it happening to them,'' he said.

Sen. James Webb, D-Virginia, helped establish the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among other things, a new report proposes that the government restrict reliance on contractors.

February 25, 2011 - A new report blasts the U.S. government for wasting tens of billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan by relying too much on contractors and doing too little to monitor their performance.

The interim report from the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan points out that contractors in the war zones sometimes have exceeded the number of military personnel. Numbering 200,000, contractors now roughly match the military force.

This week on War News Radio, we hear about the Boeing company and its defense contracts.

Then, we look at coverage of the recent Veterans rape scandal.

Finally, we talk with author and professor Richard Sobel about changing public opinion regarding the U.S.’ involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But first, a round up of this week's news.

 

Dear Citizens of the United States of America,

It has come to our attention that the brothers, David and Charles Koch--the billionaire owners of Koch Industries--have long attempted to usurp American Democracy. Their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin are the final straw. Starting today we fight back.

Former CIA Analyst: President George H. W. Bush Ignored CIA Warnings Before 1990 Gulf War Fiasco

24 February 2011 - President George H. W. Bush and his senior advisors ignored a steadily growing stream of alarms from a key U. S. intelligence agency in the week before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, a former CIA analyst charges in a new book.

"From July 20, 1990 onward, Bush and his key advisors were warned on a daily basis about the Iraqi military buildup on Kuwait's border," said former CIA analyst Patrick G. Eddington. "But instead of listening to his intelligence professionals, he ignored them."

February 23, 2011 - At the National Press Club Wednesday morning, scientists showed a video of an ocean teeming with wildlife: colorful coral, crabs, sea anemone and bright orange starfish.

The video underscored some not-so-new, but still sobering, news. If trends continue unchecked, our ocean may soon be robbed of its rich coral reefs and many of the 4,000 fish species that depend on them.

Some 75 percent of the world's reefs are facing the threat of extinction, and absent major changes, that number will rise to 90 percent by 2030, and reach 100 percent by 2050, according to a new analysis released Wednesday.

22 February 2011 - For Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, which begins on October 1, 2011, the Obama Administration has requested a base budget of $553 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD). This is $13 billion below the Pentagon’s Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) estimate, released last year, but represents about 3 percent in real growth over the funding the department would receive for FY 2011 under the current continuing resolution, which expires on March 4. {continued}

22 February 2011 - Her family is part of the Egyptian elite, but 24-year-old Gigi Ibrahim says she's fighting for her country's future. With thousands following her Twitter feed, Gigi has become something of a celebrity in Cairo's Tahrir Square. In this video, we see her attempts to convince her family of the righteousness of her cause. But will they come around?

 

JAPAN AND THE IRAQ WAR/ Koizumi went ahead without consulting his Cabinet team

2011/02/21 - In August 2010, President Barack Obama declared an end to the U.S. military's seven-year combat operations in Iraq.

Nevertheless, the country's security situation remains as unstable as ever.

The Iraq War was supposedly fought for two main reasons: weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and connections with international terrorist organizations.

Even though neither of these situations actually existed, more than 100,000 Iraqis have reportedly lost their lives in the conflict.

I just caught this a short while ago and just in time to stream most of the press conference, without even finishing my first pot of coffee.

Did some searching and found a couple of reports, more are being added as I type this, as well as the UNEP site page with the full report broken down in sections to download, read and study.

One doesn't need to believe in 'Climate Change', using the label 'global warming' in a simplistic way to feed the detraction of the obvious, detractors of advancing technologies and individual advancements and dreams have always been around. Developing, long over due and argued about, the technologies and finding the possible new means to the goals of a cleaner planet and cleaner living are just the same as any advancements man has made as we've evolved.

<------- Remember these? They were a big joke and joy for a group still calling themselves republicans and happened as the Country were sending Military Troops into war once again, wars that still continue, and never a real apology for their joke. I'll bet some of them still have some handy to be used and laughed about when their need arises to do so as they wave the flag and condemn others who don't agree with them. Oh and while they seem to get joy about Soldiers being wounded in our wars and awarded the "Purple Heart" these were pointed directly at a brother In-Country Vietnam Navy Veteran, my tour there, as a Navy GunnersMate 3rd, was my last year of my four '70-'71.

"I wrote, 'Dear Western governments. You have been supporting the regime that was oppressing us for 30 years. Please don't get involved now. We don't need you.' " - Wael Ghonim 13 Feb. 2011

February 13, 2011 - Harry Smith reports on the latest events from Egypt, including an in-depth interview with Wael Ghonim.

 

ACLU in Court Monday in South Carolina to Hold Former Officials Accountable for Torture of Jose Padilla

Group Takes on Case Against Rumsfeld and Others Seeking Accountability for Unlawful Detention and Abuse of U.S. Citizen

February 10 - The American Civil Liberties Union will be in federal court in Charleston Monday at 10:00 a.m. EST to argue that a lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other government officials for their role in the unlawful detention and torture of a U.S. citizen should not be thrown out. The ACLU was recently retained to represent Jose Padilla and his mother in the lawsuit.

This aired yesterday, 11 February 2011, morning prior to the results later in the day, night there, of the total collapse of the Mubarak reign of rule, but is pretty much spot on about us and especially that whole region of the planet and it's free people under autocratic rule supported by us.

"The great danger to the administration right now is that they might end up losing influence on both sides. They might lose influence with the autocrats we've been supporting for so long, but they might also lose influence with the protesters and the forces for democracy in freedom."

- Amjad Atallah, New America Foundation

While I respect Senator Murray and was happy she was picked to take over from Senator Akaka on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee her attack is another disconnect in what Agencies can do with what Congress, the peoples representatives, gives them as I wrote a short note to her yesterday. The Veterans Admin. has been underfunded, and in many times politically run, since Korea as they moved funds from the Korean Vets to our brother 'Nam Vets and ignored what we were even telling the Country, i.e. PTSD, Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome and more. The Country hasn't wanted to fund the results of their wars and Congress follows that bid especially the tax cutters of which just recently they extended the 'Non Sacrifice', especially for the wealthy many making wealth off these wars and readily pony up big campaign contributions, cuts now over the whole decade of these two conflicts.

Synopsis

On February 7, 2011, the ninth anniversary of the day former president George W. Bush decided the Geneva Conventions did not apply to so-called “unlawful combatants,” CCR released a Bush Torture Indictment. The Indictment provides a strong factual and legal basis to hold Bush accountable--in any of the 147 countries which have ratified the Convention Against Torture (CAT)--for having authorized torture . Learn about it, tell others, and help us build pressure to secure accountability for torture by top U.S. officials.

Description {continued}

 

Japan parliament calls for Iraq war inquiry

Feb 4, 2011 - The war on Iraq is still raging in this building, but in a far different manner than it did in Iraqi towns and cities. Some one hundred members of parliament are demanding that the government investigate Japan's support of the war.

They are not happy about the lukewarm reaction to their request and they feel the Japanese people deserve more.
Japan, in 2004 under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, supported the war on Iraq and pledged 5 billion dollars for what it called the reconstruction of the country.

This is born out in the testimony of the Brit Iraq War Inquiry especially in the early testimony!

I used the following, and there were other references, in a post during the early phase of the Inquiry, day nine to be exact:

In the right sidebar I have a number of links to many of the articles and reports, many also with backlinks, as well as in the archives of posts. My main interest was direct testimony of what was happening here, civilian and military counterparts, in the U.S. and that administration, plenty came out, as well as reading between the lines. The U.S. admin. and pentagon were the lead and the Brits followed in what they did. Have and will do same with any other Inquiries and hopefully those to come!

It all brings up the need, which should already have happened, of much more then an Inquiry here in the U.S.. The World waits while we don't do Accountability for what was done in 'Our Names' and continues!

Timeline - Britain's inquiry into the Iraq War

What the detractors, whether they believe the obvious or not and the flock just follows what they're told, are effectively locking the brakes on what we once were and envied around this planet, innovators in moving forward with the new idea's, interstate roadways, flying, etc. etc. etc. and with the same innovative workforce that made the advancements reality with everyone following in trying to catch up. Now those everyone's are leading and we aren't even following much, like as to energy innovations and a cleaner planet, even so called third world countries are moving ahead of us on the obvious human advancements!

TEDxPentagon: topic of climate change

Rear Admiral David W. Titley, Oceanographer and Navigator of the Navy (Photo: U.S.Navy)