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| Sentido's Broadsheet section provides readers with an archive of all stories placed on our front page, for each year. The service will soon be expanded to include republication of special reports from other sources and premium articles and information, along with the option to create tailor-made news and travel publications for personal enjoyment. | ||||||||
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| POVERTY DISGUISED BY DISTANCE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF POVERTY IN US & CONGO YIELD FEW CLUES AS TO MEASURE OF HAPPINESS 31 December 2005 The Economist magazine has published an article, in the 20 December edition, dealing with the subject of poverty relative to environment. It examines the economic situations of two men, one an impoverished elderly man in remote Appalachia, the other an accomplished surgeon in Kinshasa, DR Congo. The two men earn roughly the same income per month, but live broadly different lives, juxtaposed in possibly surprising ways. [Full Story] SAGUNT: BRAVE CITY OF ANCIENTS Sagunt is today a town little known outside of its surrounding region. It is an urban environment, nestled between the coastal hills and the Mediterranean, but far enough from the popular resort towns that one can still travel there without the relentless fanfare of major tourist sites. [Full Profile] PERMAFROST MELT IMPERILS INFRASTRUCTURE, HOMES A new study suggests the top layers of arctic permafrost could be melted by the end of this century. Researchers believe the melt would release large amounts of contained carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to an accelerating cycle of warming and interrupting deep ocean currents that help regulate the planet's climate. [Full Story] JUDGE QUITS SECRET 'SPY COURT' IN APPARENT PROTEST Judge James Robertson —one of eleven members of the secret tribunal that hears cases related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and its sanctioned investigations— has resigned his post in protest. Judge Robertson reportedly told associates he believed Pres. Bush's order to the NSA to spy on Americans may violate federal law. [Full Story] NEW RESEARCH SHOWS MEMORY RETURNS BRAIN TO PAST NEUROCHEMCIAL REALITY A new study, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, by Sean Polyn, PhD, and reported today in the journal Science, demonstrates that memory is the brain's effort to return to a past state. It is not simply a recalling of fact or envisioning of the past, but rather a mechanism by which the brain recreates the chemical and neurological state of its organization at a past time. [Full Story] NEW YORK: CITY FOR ALL SEASONS In this consummate cosmopolitan metropolis, more than half of its residents speak a language other than English in their homes, and it boasts one of the world's most vibrant cultural economies. The city of New York spends more money funding the arts than any other institution of government in the US. Winter tourism thrives as people come from around the globe to take in the famed ice-skating, performances and seasonal baubles... [Full Profile] NEW YORK TRANSIT STRIKE FREEZES CITY FOR 3RD DAY As New York City's public transport strike reached the end of its second day, it became clear the city was facing a difficult crisis. Reports began to mount of strangers helping strangers, sharing cars for rides into the city, and cab drivers were forced to reorganize their service to accommodate multiple fares simultaneously. Mayor has sought to depict strike as "illegal" but reports now suggest the strike may end today. [Full Story] FEDERAL JUDGE RULES REQUIRING 'INTELLIGENT DESIGN' IN SCIENCE CLASS UNCONSTITUTIONAL When the schoolboard for Dover, Pennsylvania, instituted a policy whereby "intelligent design" was required to be mentioned as a sort of disclaimer alternative to evolution in science classes, it sparked outcry across the state, the region and the nation. It led to all 8 members of the board being voted out of office and replaced with more moderate members of the community. [Full Story] CAN 'SHOOT-TO-KILL' BE LEGALLY JUSTIFIED AS A BLANKET SECURITY TACTIC? Media coverage related to the shooting of an innocent man on the boarding jetway to a Miami American Airlines flight has failed to take into account the most crucial questions. Why is "shoot-to-kill" necessary if agents are properly and adequately trained to use firearms and can "shoot-to-incapacitate"? This is the key question in the case of the American Airlines air marshal shooting, in which Rigoberto Alpízar, apparently suffering from bipolar disorder, was killed, despite being unarmed. [Full Story] BARCELONA: "THE GREAT ENCHANTRESS" Blessed with luxuriant geography, Barcelona is situated between two rivers, along the Mediterranean coast, and buttressed by the Collserrola massif. The landscape is naturally verdant and lush, and the present day city includes many barrios which used to be farming villages. Visitors can look out over the entire valley from Mount Tibidabo (a reference to the Biblical temptation of Jesus by the Devil, saying "this I give to you"). [Full Profile] DEPENDENT SPECIES ALSO FACE EXTINCTION PERIL New calls from conservation groups to take swift and sweeping action to protect species endangered by global climate change are gaining attention. This week, three such groups filed suit against the US government to gain listing for the polar bear as a species endangered by climate change. A planetary "extinction crisis" is spreading and accelerating... [Full Story] BUSH AGREES TO McCAIN'S FULL BAN ON TORTURE OF TERROR SUSPECTS President Bush has announced his support for Sen. John McCain's proposed ban on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees in the "war on terror". The White House had opposed the ban, and the vice president had actively lobbied Congress to exempt the CIA. McCain repeatedly refused to weaken the ban, and both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly to support it as written. [Full Story] BUSH PROMISES TO FULFILL AID PLEDGES TO REBUILD NEW ORLEANS Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans visited the White House yesterday, where Pres. Bush announced his intention to follow through on plans to rebuild the devastated city. The mayor has been vocal in calling for action from Washington, where he says political "constipation" is putting the future of his city at risk. [Full Story] GREEN LIGHT FOR RENEWABLE FUELS Renewable fuels have enjoyed a lot of attention in recent months, in a market driven by escalating oil costs, strained fuel stocks, worsening environmental degradation, and promises by the G8 to reduce carbon emissions. Revelations about the vulnerabilities in the fossil fuel infrastructure, together with new technological advances in wind- and solar-based power generation mean renewables are now directly competitive with traditional fuel sources. [Full Story] CATALÁN SUPREME COURT RULES GOVERN MUST PROVIDE BILINGUAL INSTRUCTION For the 3rd time over the span of roughly 1 year, the Supreme Court of Catalunya has ruled that the Generalitat must provide bilingual instruction —the option to study in Castilian instead of Catalán— at least until the age of 8 in primary schools. [Full Story] POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN DIVERSE SPAIN Spain's opposition PP has accused the regional government of Catalunya of "investigating, inspecting and sanctioning" businesses that put signs exclusively in Castilian (the language commonly known as "Spanish", though it originates in the central Spanish region of Castile, and other regions use other languages), according to La Vanguardia newspaper. [Full Story] FIRE UPDATE: SMOKE STILL CARRIED IN CLOUDS OVER LONDON One day after officials warned soot in the atmosphere could pose health risks as rain brought pollution out of the sky, dark streaks were still visible over London, and clouds were carrying contaminants from the most massive peacetime fire in Europe's history. [Full Story] COMPLEX FOODS FROM SCRATCH: UNABRIDGED AUTHENTICITY If you're looking for an experience of authenticity, try making original, expressive foods from scratch. Make the base ingredients, select and refine the trimmings, do something not prescribed by recipe, in print or on television. Break the rules, waste some time, and put a little feeling into food preparation, and you'll find the art of eating makes more sense. [Full Story] CHINA ACCUSED OF WIDESPREAD VIOLENCE AGAINST CITIZENS The human rights investigative and lobbying organization, Human Rights Watch, has issued a new report on China, which alleges widespread violence against citizens who seek justice. The report also claims officials deliberately block petitions to higher levels of the government. [Full Story] NEW AP REPORT SAYS POLITICAL APPOINTEES OVERRULED JUSTICE DEPT. ADVICE IN 3 MAJOR CASES A new AP report says political appointees at the Justice Department have overruled, without explanation, extensively researched advice from career staff at least three times, in each case apparently benefitting the political agenda of the Republican party. Two of the cases involved election laws which Justice lawyers believed would abridge the rights of minorities and the third involved a radical reduction in the penalties sought against tobacco companies. [Full Story] OIL DEPOT FIRE LEADS TO SPREADING SMOKE & SOOT CLOUD OVER LONDON Today the city of London was obscured by a cloud of black smoke emanating from a massive petroleum fire at the Buncefield fuel depot, in Hertfordshire, near Luton airport, north of London. The fire resulted from at least one severe explosion at the fuel storage facility. The blast occurred just after 6:00 GMT and was reportedly heard up to 100 miles away, including in northern France and the Netherlands. [Full Story] CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON RACE, CLASS IN KATRINA DISASTER REVEALS EVIDENCE OF NEGLIGENCE, RACISM At the Hurricane Katrina Survivors' General Assembly, in Jackson, Mississippi, evacuees from the Gulf Coast accuse the federal government of "criminal indifference", demanding reparations, investigations, and the "right to return" to their homes. New Orleans remains under a state of emergency. A Congressional hearing yesterday on race and class issues in the Katrina aftermath revealed brutal conditions and possible government negligence in handling relief. [Full Story] HANDICAPPING FOR NUCLEAR POWER Petroleum is a finite resource, a "fossil" fuel that cannot be replaced when existing volume has been exhausted. The UK is finding it hard to cope with Kyoto-agreed obligations. Current infrastructure cannot extract enough power from wind or tide... So, the nuclear power lobby came up with a great solution: build more nuclear power plants despite the enormous costs of maintenance, cleanup and storage. [Full Story] SERIOUS LEGAL PROBLEMS INHERENT IN GHOST FLIGHTS & 'EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION' The principal legal problem relating to alleged "ghost flights", secret interrogations and the policy of "extraordinary rendition" is the extralegal nature of all three techniques, designed to operate beyond the scope of ordinary legal constraints. Rendition is "extraordinary", because it evades the normal legal channels for processing criminal allegations, charges and suspects across international borders. [Full Story] LONDON'S FAMED ROUTEMASTER BUS RUNS LAST ROUTE The author of a book about the beloved bus design, mourned the passing of "a prime slice of vernacular". Londoners on ultra-busy Oxford High Street cheered each of the last public appearances of the Routemasters running on the 159 route, jeering the first appearance of the new bus on that same route. [Full Story] RICE STAKES OUT "NUANCED" POSITION ON ABDUCTIONS, TORTURE Amid growing concern relating to press reports of undisclosed CIA flights through or over European nations, US Sec. of State Rice has sought to defend US policy. She affirmed that "The US does not permit, tolerate or condone torture under any circumstances", but admitted the US might make mistakes in the "war on terror", without specific reference to the alleged abduction of a German citizen who was later cleared. [Full Story] CARTERET ATOLLS OFFICIALLY TO EVACUATE PLANET'S FIRST CLIMATE CHANGE REFUGEES On 26 November, the Guardian newspaper first reported that inhabitants of the Carteret atolls, six islands which form part of Papua New Guinea, in the southwest Pacific, have been subject to the first officially mandated permanent climate change evacuations. Rising sea levels have placed the circular grouping of six islands in serious danger of permanent inundation... [Full Story] HUSSEIN TRIAL UPROAR AS DEFENSE TEAM WALKS OUT5 December 2005 The trial of deposed Iraq Ba'athist dictator, Saddam Hussein, is again temporarily suspended. The defense team walked out after judges refused to hear defense arguments. The government claims to have thwarted a plot to rocket the courthouse. Two defense lawyers have been assassinated, one has fled the country, and one judge has stepped down... [Full Story] AIDS KILLED MORE THAN 3 MILLION IN 2005 The human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) and its deadly end-stage syndrome, AIDS, killed at least 3 million people in 2005. HIV also infected 5 million new people around the world, the largest single increase on record, though similar numbers were reported for 2003. The pandemic is still extremely deadly, and spreading. [Full Story] TEXAS REDISTRICTING FOUND ILLEGAL BY JUSTICE LAWYERS, FINDINGS OVERRULED New documents show Justice Department lawyers unanimously found the Texas Congressional redistricting plan to be illegal. But that finding was overruled by top Justice officials and the staff involved in the research and analysis "were subjected to an unusual gag rule", this according to the Washington Post. [Full Story] EGYPT ELECTION MARRED BY MASS OPPOSITION ARRESTS Egypt is facing its final round of national elections. The nation's oldest Islamist political organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, says at least 500 of its representatives have been detained in the last 2 days, including many election activists. The BBC reports "the second round of voting on Saturday was marred by violence between rival political groups, voter intimidation and fraud"... [Full Story] WHY THE McCAIN ANTI-TORTURE AMENDMENT MUST BECOME LAW Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain's anti-torture amendment proposes that "No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment"... at a time when the US system of laws is in dire need of a clear definition of official policy on torture limits. [Full Story] OXFORD'S LORD MAY SAYS SCIENCE ENTERING 'DANGEROUS TIMES' Top British scientist says "Fundamentalism is hampering global efforts to tackle climate change". Lord May used his departing speech as president of the Royal Society to warn researchers, policy-makers and the public that science is under attack from fundamentalist tendencies and organizations, even as it faces "non-linear" biological, environmental and political threats. [Full Story] |
THE THREAT OF 'THE SINGLE GATEWAY' TO EVERYDAY LIFE
26 November 2005 On 1 November, the Financial Times reported Tony Blair's government would push ahead, despite grave civil liberties and identity-theft and black-market fraud concerns. According to the government the biometric features will turn the ID cards into "the single gateway into a whole range of services that people need in their everyday lives". It is not hard to see how such a declaration could indicate indifference to civil liberties. [Full Story] NO BUTTON TO PUSH, THANKFULLY It has been said in recent decades that leaders of nuclear-armed states have a "finger on the button". It is an alarming yet somewhat convenient concept, but it has not generally been all that accurate. It turns out, the push-button solution may be of rhetorical use, but it was never a real option in nuclear confrontation, and it cannot formulate a satisfactory outcome in resolution of difficult conflicts in a world of contingencies. [Full Story] CHINESE CITY STRUGGLES WITHOUT WATER, AMID CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION The Chinese city of Harbin and environs, located in Heilongjiang province, and home to an estimated 3.8 million people, is beset with a severe water crisis. Panic buying followed hoarding of municipal water, after authorities announced they would shut off the entire municipal water system, to spend four days testing and cleaning water reportedly contaminated by runoff from a chemical plant explosion. [Full Story] ECONOMY OF ERRORS: HOW ABUNDANCE MAY BRING SCARCITY The global economy in its present form is not only full of and forced to deal with problematic distortions; it has come to depend a great deal on the "bubble" effect of certain miscalculations and manipulations. Assumptions built into weak threads in the economic web mean that markets are not able to set prices or distribute wealth at sustainable levels. [Full Story] WHY WIND IS SMARTER Wind energy offers something no carbon-based fuel can offer: zero emissions, zero cleanup, local control and reasonable local supply everywhere on Earth, and it is 100% non-climate disruptive and essentially infinitely renewable. In fact, the overall global wind resource far exceeds our capacity even to harness or to use it. [Full Story] DOWN TO THE LAST DROP: THE COMING RIPPLE EFFECT OF THE PROJECTED OIL PEAK Petroleum is a finite resource, an energy-rich "fossil" substance, and we can only burn what we find, until it is gone. "Peak Oil" is the moment when extant reserves of crude oil are no longer enough to sustain the global economy's annual production levels, and production will no longer be able to match increases in demand... A permanent disruption in the supply of cheap oil means a worrying and widespread threat to the world's food-production and distribution systems. [Full Story] AT LAST COMES THE HIGH STAKES DEBATE & NO ONE IS PLEASED Last week, Rep. Murtha (D-PA), a decorated Vietnam war veteran, ranking Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, and a long-time hawk on military issues, called for an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. The announcement was seen as a radical policy shift, despite the fact that Murtha had been critical of the current war policy more than a year ago, and shocked the nation's capital into heated debate. [Full Story] SECRET CIA LANDINGS RAISE CONCERNS IN EUROPE Authorities on the Spanish island of Mallorca began complaining of alleged secret landings by CIA-linked planes, after a prominent local figure charged that, according to an unnamed source, at least 10 such stopovers occurred in early 2004, in the last months of the Aznar government. The flights are said to have been carrying "detainees" whose legal condition is considered a violation of international human rights laws. [Full Story] 'RIGHT' & 'LEFT': TERMS LITTLE UNDERSTOOD BUT WITH GREAT INFLUENCE The terms Left and Right have been assigned in broad strokes to sometimes sweeping political visions, sometimes petty differences in policy direction, yet rarely is there a clearly defined composition which can be consistently labeled as one or the other. The terms originate in 18th century revolutionary French politics, and first emerged as a reference to where in the Legislative Assembly the respective political views' supporters were seated. [Full Story] RIOTING, ARSON IN FRENCH CITIES BRINGS POLITICAL CRISIS In a tenth consecutive night of rioting, the violence and arson has spread widely to cities throughout France, including Strasbourg, Marseille, Dijon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Calais, Nantes, Lille and Rennes, as well as Avignon, Cannes and Nice; Wikipedia, the evolving online encycolpedia, listed 30 cities outside the Paris region, from all corners of the nation, to which the violence and/or vandalism had spread, as of dawn French time today. [Full Story] POST REPORTS SECRET GLOBAL NETWORK OF EXTRAJUDICIAL CIA INTERROGATION CAMPS Dana Priest, a Washington Post writer, reported yesterday astounding revelations about the existence of a global network of secret CIA-managed prisons which appear to violate numerous provisions of international law. The so-called "black sites" are said to exist or to have existed in at least 8 countries, including in eastern Europe, sparking outrage across the continent. [Full Story] LIBBY CHARGED WITH PERJURY, OBSTRUCTION, RESIGNS The office of special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, investigating the leaking of the classified identity of an undercover CIA agent, announced Friday a 5-count indictment [PDF] against Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby. Libby was charged on 1 count of obstruction of justice, 2 counts of making false statements and 2 counts of perjury. [Full Story] US STATE DEPT. MANDATES NEW PASSPORTS WILL CONTAIN RFID TRACKING CHIPS The State Department has announced it will introduce new passports with electronic features such as Radio Frequency IDentification chips, intended to match information stored on these chips to the bearer's physical appearance, and to other information. Privacy advocates say the move is a giant leap toward a state of totalitarian interference in citizens' movements and personal information. [Full Story] GATES ANNOUNCES PLANS TO REPLACE PAPER WITH SILICON Bill Gates is busy dreaming of new inroads (into your everyday life) for his company as computer technology becomes faster, cheaper, more ubiquitous. He told a London audience that the static format of paper would be replaced by paper-thin digital wireless devices, always online, within 10 years. [Full Story] ROSA PARKS, PIONEER OF NON-VIOLENT CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, DIES, AGED 92 On 1 December 1955, during a time of widespread institutional racial segregation, African-American seamstress Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat at the front of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white passenger. This act of defiance helped to bring about a nationwide non-violent protest movement against segregation and in favor of civil rights. Ms. Parks died Monday at her home in Detroit, from natural causes, at the age of 92. [Full Story] PROSECUTOR DISCOVERS CHENEY WAS LIBBY'S SOURCE The New York Times is reporting that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has discovered, in notes from a previously unknown conversation between VP Dick Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis Libby, that Cheney informed Libby of the status of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. [Full Story] SPANISH JUDGE ISSUES ARREST WARRANT FOR 3 US TROOPS Spanish Judge Santiago Pedraz has issued an international arrest warrant for 3 US soldiers who were operating a tank when it fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, in April 2003. The hotel was known to be the lodging headquarters for international journalists in Baghdad, and was not considered a military target. [Full Story] SADDAM DECRIES TRIAL PROCESS, QUESTIONS AUTHORITY OF JUDGE, REFUSES TO ID HIMSELF At the opening of his trial, Saddam Hussein, charged with ordering the killing of 143 Shi'a —presumably opponents to his rule— in 1982, was defiant. He decried the judicial process set up to judge him as illegitimate, questioned the authority of the judge overseeing the proceedings, and refused to acknowledge his identity. [Full Story] UK NATIONAL ID CARD SCHEME: FARCE OR BIG BROTHER?18 October 2005 The British government's plan to implement a national biometric identification system by 2007 is seen by some as a farcical if dubious exercise in futility. For others, it heralds the final phase in technocracy's closing its grip on the open society. The plan as currently envisioned will use 13 biometric features to match human beings to their ID cards, thus, in theory, proving their identity. [Full Story] A VAST LEFT-WING CONSPIRACY, SAYS DeLAY Under indictment for conspiracy in an alleged scheme to raise illegal campaign cash and conceal it through manipulation of his Political Action Committee, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), stepped aside earlier this week as House Majority Leader. Congressional rules require that he leave his post while facing indictment. He has been reprimanded by Congress three times already for "objectionable behavior". Dissatisfied Republicans are looking for new leadership. [Full Story] MILLER RELEASED FROM CUSTODY, TESTIFIES NYT reporter Judith Miller has reportedly received a formal waiver from her confidential White House source to testify. She was released from prison on 29 September, after agreeing to testify. By the time of her release, Miller had served 85 days in custody... [Full Story] UZBEK GOVERNMENT USING BRUTAL TACTICS TO GLOSS OVER ANDIZHAN MASSACRE Human Rights Watch has documented a massive and intensive campaign of intimidation across Uzbekistan, designed to gloss over the government's massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Andizhan, in May of this year... [Full Story] FRENCH COMMANDOS RECLAIM HIJACKED VESSEL IN CORSICA28 September 2005 French commandos have stormed and retaken a ferry hijacked by striking union workers. The vessel, which carries cargo and passengers, was hijacked in Marseilles and taken to the port of Bastia, in Corsica. The hijackers were reportedly protesting the privatization of a beleaguered state-run ferry operation... [Full Story] CHINA PLANS "SMOKELESS WAR" AGAINST PRESS, DISSIDENTS In a high-level Communist party meeting, China's president Hu Jintao has reportedly called for an intensive crackdown on media liberties. While China's government has sought to project an image of a more market-oriented, open system, it continues to forbid basic press freedoms and still persecutes journalists at an alarming rate. [Full Story] MENEZES' FAMILY CALL FOR IMMEDIATE HALT TO UK 'SHOOT TO KILL' POLICY Leaked IPCC documents suggest early reports about the shooting of Brazilian immigrant Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Underground Station in London on 22 July of this year, were littered with untruths. Perhaps most importantly, the central claim that he had worn a bulky, winter-type coat in summer, thus raising suspicions he might be concealing a suicide bomb vest, appears to be erroneous; in fact, he wore a denim jacket... [Full Story] CHILE AMENDS PINOCHET-DRAFTED CONSTITUTION Chile's President Ricardo Lagos proclaimed the event marked "a day of national joy and unity", adding that Chile would now be "a full member of the democratic" community of nations. The new constitution will come into force on 17 September, the eve of Chile's national independence day. [Full Story] LUNG CANCER KILLS NON-SMOKERS TOO Lung cancer is one of the most dangerous and widespread diseases in the United States. An estimated 170,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year. Six in ten will die within one year, and eight in ten will die within the first two years after being diagnosed. It is commonly assumed that only smokers develop lung cancer, because the habit so drastically increases the likelihood of diagnosis. But as many as 17% of new diagnoses are made for lifelong non-smokers. [Full Story] JENNINGS DEATH IS LOSS TO JOURNALISM Peter Jennings, top news anchor at ABC News in the US, died on Sunday after delivering TV news in five separate decades. Jennings, a long-time smoker, had been suffering from lung cancer, having only announced four months ago he would seek treatment. His death may mark the true end of an era of broadcast news... [Full Story] AFRICA SUFFERS SPREAD OF FAMINE, HUNGER As the world begins to focus on the nearly 3 million facing hunger in Niger and the catastrophic refugee crisis in Darfur, in western Sudan, an estimated 31.1 million people across the continent face food shortages. Arable land, foodstocks and agriculture in general are suffering dangerous setbacks, making it increasingly difficult to feed African populations, some of which are growing rapidly. [Full Story] |
FMR INTEL OFFICERS SAY LEAK COMPROMISED NAT'L SECURITY
22 July 2005 In Washington, DC, today, House and Senate Democrats held a hearing examining the national security and legal implications of the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity to the press. A group of prominent and respected former intelligence officers, both Democrats and Republicans, testified about the far-reaching implications of what they described as an "unprecedented" breach of national security. [Full Story] CIA MEMO COULD YIELD CLUES IN LEAK PROBE Prosecutors have discovered a key piece of evidence in the investigation into the leaking of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame by someone in the White House in the summer of 2003. The classified memo was authored in June 2003, just after Amb. Joseph Wilson published an article debunking the administration's Iraq-Niger uranium claims. [Full Story] US BROADCASTERS BRUSH DARFUR ASIDE, FAVOR JACKSON TRIAL A new study shows major US broadcasters have brushed genocide in Darfur aside, while giving widespread coverage to the trial of popstar Michael Jackson. Glolablinfo.org writes that "U.S. broadcast media are failing to provide even minimal coverage of the ongoing crisis". [Full Story] ROBERTS NAMED TO REPLACE O'CONNOR ON SUPREME COURT John Roberts, currently a judge on the DC Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, has been named by Pres. George W. Bush to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Though some believe his nomination will be less contentious than other controversial "front-runners" discussed in recent days, liberals have criticized Roberts for his stance on abortion and on the separation of church and state, and he has been called "a corporatist"... [Full Story] WHAT U.S. LAW SAYS ABOUT LEAKING COVERT OP INFO The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, the applicable federal law, states that revealing "any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information" constitutes a violation of the law and can result in $50,000 in fines and/or 10 years in prison. According to Matt Cooper, Rove told him Wilson's wife was an "agency" operative. [Full Story] 80 POLICE INJURED WHEN RIOTERS THROW FIREBOMBS IN BELFAST Yesterday's Orange Order parade to celebrate the Twelfth of July, "the victory of the Protestant Prince William of Orange over the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690" turned violent when "dissident republicans" allegedly "linked to the Continuity IRA" attacked police in north Belfast, according to BBC reports. [Full Story] WHO KNEW ABOUT THE LEAK? Evidence arising out of the notes and testimony of reporters subpoenaed by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in his investigation of the outing of an undercover CIA agent by administration officials points to the involvement of Karl Rove, Bush's top political advisor. As the evidence mounts, the White House has now begun to refuse to answer questions about the matter. Democrats openly call for Rove's dismissal. [Full Story] PUTIN AGAIN PURSUES PROSECUTION OF POLITICAL OPPONENT Yesterday, the government of the Russian Federation announced it was planning to investigate former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on fraud charges related to real estate purchases. Kasyanov, target of the investigation, has been said to be one of the figures likely to lead the liberal opposition to Putin in the next election. [Full Story] 'TREE OF LIFE' MAKES USED WEAPONS INTO SIGN OF HOPE In the wake of Mozambique's long civil war, lasting from 1976 to 1992, a group of artists set up the Transforming Arms into Tools project in the nation's capital, Maputo. Sculptors use decomissioned weapons, and parts of weapons to make art, expressing the possibility of finding new ways to secure and advance civil society. [Full Story] IS PRESS FREEDOM UNDER ATTACK BY SPECIAL PROSECUTOR? A new Economist article ends with a warning to serious journalists to "beware". Clearly something has shifted in the media climate, and in the political climate, where the rule of law, in a nation where the Constitution provides an absolute right to publish, has come to mean the government may dictate what news sources are and are not permissible, where press freedom runs afoul of particular prosecutions. [Full Story] SOUTHERN REBEL LEADER NOW SUDAN VP IN UNITY GOVERNMENT Sudan swore in southern former rebel chief John Garang as the first vice president of its new unity government, on Saturday. Garang's taking office is a major step toward a civil process in the wake of a brutal civil war that lasted over two decades and left more than two million dead, but the country is still roiled by violence in Darfur in the west and now by conflict with rebel groups in the east. [Full Story] HRW FEARS UZBEKISTAN MAY TORTURE OR EXECUTE HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES The Uzbek regime is putting pressure on Kyrgyz authorities to return a number of Uzbek citizens who fled the country to escape the state's massacre of demonstrators on 13 May 2005 in the city of Andizhan. In early June, Kyrgizstan did return a handful of these refugees to Uzbek authorities. Four asylum seekers were returned, and all have since "disappeared" in Uzbek custody; their fate remains unknown. [Full Story] FOUR BOMBS STRIKE CENTRAL LONDON This morning's rush hour in London was interrupted by a series of apparently coordinated bomb attacks on the Underground trains and Metropolitan bus system. Three bombs exploded on London Underground trains —at or near Edgware Rd., King's Cross and Liverpool St. Stations—; one exploded on the upper level of a double-decker bus at Tavistock Sq, near Russell Sq. in the historic Bloomsbury neighborhood. At least 37 people are known dead, an estimated 700 injured or in hospital. [Full Story] JUDGE IMPRISONS REPORTER FOR REFUSING TO REVEAL SOURCE New York Times reporter Judith Miller has been jailed by a Special Prosecutor investigating the leak by White House officials of the identity of an undercover CIA agent to the press. Many believe it signals an assault on the First Amendment's vital "freedom of the press", moreso because many details of the case make it unclear what value Miller's testimony would have and whether other reporters (such as Robert Novak, who published the name itself) have faced similar prosecutorial rigors. [Full Story] DARFUR REFUGEE CRISIS STILL STEEP, UNRESOLVED The ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur, western Sudan, continues to this day, and new information is coming to light about the plight of refugees to the Chad border. Journalist Sorious Samura's documentary Surviving Sudan, presented on the Discovery/[NY]Times Channel, follows Samura's travels with a refugee family fleeing wartorn Darfur, heading for UN-sanctioned camps in eastern Chad. [Full Story] CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO DEBATE AGAIN THREATENED As the US celebrates its Independence Day, marking the date when Independence from the British crown was officially declared in the year 1776, the coming senatorial showdown over the next nominee to sit for life on the Supreme Court puts the constitutionally enshrined filibuster right in jeopardy. [Full Story] BURUNDI VOTE UNDERWAY National elections are underway in Burundi, with observers citing parties linked to the former rebel group Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) as likely to win a majority. The UN has called on all parties to accept the outcome of the vote, use election as opportunity to move toward lasting rule of law. [Full Story] LIVE 8 BRINGS MILLIONS TOGETHER TO HEAR ONE MESSAGE The Live 8 "global concert event", intended to raise awareness of the struggle of tens of millions of people in the world's poorest nations, just to survive, brought millions into the streets to hear concerts in 9 nations, and tens of millions of viewers on TV and online together to hear its message. The message was succinct and hopeful: Make Poverty History. [Full Story] PHILIPPINES PRES. UNDER FIRE FOR ELECTION NIGHT CALL President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines is mired in a major political controversy regarding audio footage of a call she placed during last year's election to an election official. In the tape, she is heard asking if she will win by a margin of one million votes. [Full Story] CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESS PRESERVED Late last night, word came that a group of moderate senators from both parties had agreed to a plan that would prevent the Republican leadership from eliminating the filibuster from debate over judicial nominations. The parliamentary institution, enshrined in the constitutional rights of the minority to participate in and curb the activities of the majority party, can be an annoyance to leaders, but has served both parties consistently throughout Senate history and is seen as a key check on unfettered centralized power in Washington. [Full Story] CBC CALLS TO PROTECT PROCEDURE USED TO DEFEND VIEWS OF MINORITY The Congressional Black Caucus, in order to defend the concept of minority rights within the functioning of the US Congress, held a press conference explaining the importance of the filibuster in Senate procedure. They cited the many occasions where the Republican party and conservative southern Democrats used the filibuster to oppose civil rights legislation in the mid-twentieth century, saying that though they opposed the politics of such an implementation of the filibuster, it served to protect the right of minority viewpoints to be heard in open debate, and even to control the direction of debate. [Full Story] FREEMAN DEFENDS STUDY OF EXIT POLLING DISCREPANCIES Steven F. Freeman, who published findings shortly after the November election which indicated statistical aberrations in the relation between historically reliable exit polling and at least 10 states' official ballot counts, has defended his findings of a probability of 250 million to one that the result which occurred would occur in those 10 states simultaneously. [Full Story] EVOLUTION BEING PUSHED OUT OF US CLASSROOMS3 February 2005 The New York Times is reporting that evolution is an increasingly persecuted field of scientific knowledge in US schools. According to the story, teachers in an around Birmingham, Alabama are being openly and/or indirectly discouraged from discussing the existence of the theory of evolution, the validity of which is not in doubt among scientists in any relevant field. Teachers are reported to cite fear of raising the issue, due to the opposition of fundamentalist groups in many communities. [Full Story] WASHINGTON GOVERNOR STILL FACES ELECTION ISSUE The governor of Washington state, a Democrat, Christine Gregoire, elected during a heated post-election recount contest by a margin of only 129 votes, is still facing calls by Republicans for a revote. The election was the last major contest in the nation to be decided, and the Governor has been struggling to free herself of the vote question in order to begin to govern... [Full Story] VIKTOR YUSCHENKO ASSUMES UKRAINE PRESIDENCY Poisoned, embattled opposition candidate, Viktor Yuschenko was sworn in as Ukraine's president in Kiev. Supporters donning orange as homage to the 17 days of public demonstrations which forced the revote, cheered the new president's inauguration. The event was attended by representatives and leaders of governments from around the world, inclucing outgoing US Sec. of State Colin Powell. [Full Story] BUSH BEGINS AGAIN George W. Bush took the constitutional oath of office today in Washington, DC, officially entering his second 4-year term in service at the White House. The speech was oddly both hopeful and aggressive, and as expected, he immediately created global controversy by announcing his aim to rid the world of tyranny. [Full Story] |
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