Aufruf zum Anruf

Nächste Woche wird es konkret im Europaparlament: Die Vorratsdatenspeicherungs-Richtlinie steht am Dienstag zur Diskussion im Plenum und soll am Mittwoch in erster Lesung abgestimmt werden. Der Bürgerrechts-Ausschuss (LIBE) des Europaparlaments hatte sich zwar auf gemeinsame Änderungswünsche geeinigt, allerdings haben die beiden grossen Fraktionen (Sozialdemokraten und Konservative) auf eigene Faust einen Kompromiss mit dem EU-Council beschlossen. Dieser soll von der "Grossen Koalition" im Europaparlament beschlossen werden und bedeutet nicht wirklich eine Entschärfung der Richtlinie. Unsere Abgeordneten wollen an die Bedeutung ihrer Entscheidung erinnert werden - hilf mit!

Wer das Europaparlament und seine Arbeitsweise kennt, weiss, dass es dort nicht wie im Bundestag funktioniert. Koalitionen gibt es nur bei Themen und die können wechseln. Auch sind die bunt zusammengewürfelten Fraktionen sehr divergierend in ihren Ansichten. Hier kann jeder ansetzen. Vermutlich sind sich die meisten Abgeordneten nicht wirklich bewusst, was sie am Mittwoch abstimmen werden und welche Konsequenzen die Richtlinie für Grund- und Freiheitsrechte in Europa bedeuten. Bei den Plenumsdiskussionen nehmen meist nur die Fachpolitiker des Themas teil, die wiederum für ihre Fraktionen "Voting-Lists" erstellen, quasi Wahlempfehlungen.

Die Tagesordnung am Mittwoch sieht folgendermassen aus: Es gibt nur zwei unterstützenswerte Änderungsanträge. An erster Stelle steht ein Antrag der grünen Fraktion auf Ablehnung der gesamten Richtlinie. Dieser ist natürlich der weitestgehende und sollte im Optimalfall von den Abgeordneten unterstützt werden. Aber selbst die Liberalen sind gespalten und werden vermutlich mehrheitlich für den Kompromissantrag der "Grossen Koalition" stimmen. Der zweite unterstützenswerte Änderungsantrag kommt von der Schwedin Charlotte Cederschiöld und betrifft Artikel 10 der Richtlinie. Hier geht es um die umstrittene Frage, wer denn die Kosten für die Vollüberwachung übernehmen soll. Während der Kompromiss die Kosten auf die Industrie abwälzen will, die wiederum alle neu entstehenden Kosten an die Verbraucher witer geben wird, fordert der Änderungsantrag die Kostenübernahme durch die Regierungen. Also das Verursacherprinzip. Würde dieser Änderungsantrag durchkommen, wäre eine zweite Lesung notwendig und es wäre Zeit gewonnen für mehr Diskussionen. Jedesmal sind 370 Stimmen notwendig. Das Problem ist, dass die "Grosse Koalition" die absolute Mehrheit hat, aber längst nicht so einig sind wie im Bundestag. Aber auch die Liberalen werden wohl mehrheitlich für die Vorratsdatenspeicherung stimmen und leider nur in einer Minderheit für die Ablehnung der Richtlinie.

Deutschland hat insgesamt 99 Abgeordnete im Europaparlament, wo vermutlich die wenigsten von wissen, was auf dem Spiel steht. Der Bundestag hat letztes Jahr in einem interfraktionellen Antrag [1] geschlossen eine Vorratsdatenspeicherung abgelehnt.

Was kann man jetzt noch tun?

Wichtig ist, bei den Abgeordneten anzurufen [2], Faxe zu schicken und Mails zu schreiben und auf die Risiken der Richtlinie hinweisen. Den meisten dürfte echt nicht bewusst sein, was ihre Fraktionsvorsitzenden ihnen am Mittwoch bei einer Richtlinie mit dem komisch klingenden Namen "Data Retention" zur Abstimmung empfehlen. Wenige Tage sind hierfür noch Zeit. Starten sollten man immer bei den eigenen Europaabgeordneten. Schaut also nach, wer für Euch im Europaparlament sitzt. Direkt anrufen ist am sinnvollsten, meist hat man einen Mitarbeiter am Telefon, wenn man Glück hat, auch den Abgeordneten. Faxe schreiben ist auch gut, ein Fax halten die Mitarbeiter in der Hand und müssten sich das erstmal durchlesen. Mails sind leider nicht sehr effektiv, da die Abgeordneten viel mehr Mails als Faxe und Telefonanrufe bekommen. Wichtig ist vor allem, höflich und argumentativ am Telefon zu sein. Ihr wollt ja jemanden überzeugen und nicht beschimpfen!

Verbreitet die Nachricht weiter und mobilisiert mehr Menschen, sich jetzt gegen eine Vorratsdatenspeicherung und damit eine flächendeckende Überwachungsinfrastruktur in Europa einzusetzen. Nächste Woche ist es zu spät und dann können wir nur noch auf die Gerichte hoffen.

Hier ist ein aktuller Artikel aus der Zeit über die Vorratsdatenspeicherung und was sie bedeuten wird: Jeder unter Verdacht [3]. Über eine gestrige Anhörung im Europaparlament berichtet Reuters: Compromise on EU data storage rules spurs backlash. Die meisten Informationen hält das Wiki [4] unserer "Data retention is no solution"-Kampagne [5] bereit. Viele Informationen bietet auch netzpolitik.org [6]. Am einfachsten findet man diese, wenn man "Vorratsdatenspeicherung" in die Such-Maske eingibt. Heise fasst die neuesten Entwicklungen auch nochmal zusammen: Abstimmungskrimi bei Richtlinie zur Überwachung der Telekommunikation erwartet [7].

[1] http://dip.bundestag.de/btd/15/045/1504597.pdf
[2] http://www.europarl.eu.int/members/public.do?language=de
[3] http://www.zeit.de/2005/49/Vorratsspeicherung
[4] http://wiki.dataretentionisnosolution.com:81/index.php/Main_Page
[5] http://www.dataretentionisnosolution.com/
[6] http://www.netzpolitik.org/
[7] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/67133


Von chaos-update

The Bush administration based a crucial pre-war assertion about ties between Iraq and al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120905J.shtml

There are unanswered questions about whether Karl Rove was truthful when he was first interviewed by FBI and Justice Department investigators in early October 2003 regarding whether he played a role in the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. According to sources close to the probe, he was not.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120905I.shtml

09.12.05

Der von der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) geplante erleichterte Marktzugang für Industriegüter fördert nach einer Greenpeace-Studie die Zerstörung der Urwälder. Notwendige Urwaldschutzmaßnahmen wie Einfuhrverbote von Holz aus Urwaldzerstörung oder die Kennzeichnung von Öko-Holz widersprächen zudem laut WTO dem Freihandel, so die Studie "Trading away the ancient forests" ("Die Urwälder weg ver-handeln"), die die Umweltschutzorganisation am Freitag in Hongkong veröffentlicht hat. Holz gehöre zu den Industriegütern, über deren Handelsliberalisierung Vertreter aus 149 Ländern auf der sechsten WTO-Ministerkonferenz vom 13.-18. Dezember in Hongkong verhandeln wollten, so die Organisation.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12482

Informationelle Fremdbestimmung: breite Kritik an Plänen zur Speicherung aller Internet- und Telefonverbindungen

Als "Bedrohung des Rechts auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung" hat der Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen (vzbv) die Pläne der Europäischen Kommission zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung von Telefon- und Internetdaten bezeichnet. Eine demokratische Gesellschaft zeichne sich dadurch aus, dass nicht der Staat die Bürger, sondern die Bürger den Staat kontrollierten, sagte vzbv-Vorstand Edda Müller. Das gelte im digitalen Zeitalter insbesondere für den Datenschutz. Die Verbraucherschützer forderten die Mitglieder des Europäischen Parlaments und die Bundesregierung auf, den Richtlinien-Entwurf komplett zurückzunehmen. In der kommenden Woche debattiert das Europaparlament den Entwurf. Am Donnerstag übergaben über 20 Organisationen von Bürgern, Freiberuflern und Unternehmen haben dem Europäischen Parlament eine "Gemeinsame Erklärung zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung", in dem sie sich ebenfalls gegen die Überwachungs-Pläne aussprechen.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12479

--------

Europaweite Speicherung von Telefon-, Handy- und Internetverbindungsdaten untergräbt Informantenschutz

http://www.vdz.de/pages/article/2240.aspx
http://www.news4press.com/1/MeldungDetail.asp?Mitteilungs_ID=87445

Who is Gorton's?

Whaling is not just the concern of governments and cryptic political meetings. There is big business involved. While whaling is not profitable, you might be surprised to learn of some famous seafood companies' connections to whaling. We're asking you to help us make the whaling stop.

With total annual sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Gorton's is the market leader in frozen seafood products in the US. The company even invented the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish burger. Its frozen battered shrimp, fish sticks and other ready-to-eat foods are sold at grocery stores across the US.

In 2001 Gorton's was sold to its current owner, Nissui USA, for US$175 million. Nissui USA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nissui, Japan's second-largest marine products firm, with operations in the United States, Argentina, Chile, the Netherlands, China, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam. Nissui is closely linked with the annual "scientific" whale hunt in Japan.

So, despite Gorton's clean-cut family business image, it is actually a Japanese multinational company whose parent company is involved in whaling.

Please send a letter to the president of Gorton's and ask him to help stop whaling.

Help stop whaling
http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/11346.2033379.5409

After Cindy Sheehan's son died in Iraq, her protest outside Bush's Texas ranch became a symbol of opposition to the war. Duncan Campbell joins her as she brings her campaign to Britain.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120905Y.shtml



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml

Isn't it impeachable if the Pres. of the U.S. bashes the constitution?? It should be.

Anna



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

--------

Constitution, Schmonstitution

Karen Kwiatkowski on Bush's view.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20051209/cm_huffpost/011975;_ylt=AjODVorzoIjAPXcHQPjFJaP9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Für die EU-Minister ist wieder alles gut:

US-Außenministerin Rice konnte auch in Brüssel weiter mit Worten spielen, britische Lordrichter haben nun für Großbritannien eindeutig gegen Folter Stellung bezogen.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21534/1.html

--------

Blair unter Druck: Folter vom Oberhaus verboten

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,389509,00.html

(SPON) Das englische Oberhaus hat als höchstes englisches Gericht die Verwendung von Geständnissen, die unter dem Einsatz von Folter erpresst wurden, verboten. Bisher hat die englische Regierung darauf bestanden, solche Geständnisse gerichtlich zu verwenden, wenn an die Folter nicht durch englischen Staatsbürger ausgeführt wurde.


G.Wendebourg / metainfo hamburg

Link zum Beitrag / Hintergrundinfo oder Pressehinweis: http://www.hh-online.com?lid=23151 und
http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23151

Infopool / metainfo hamburg www.hh-online.com

Frontiers of Freedom
by Chris Adamo

12/08/05

Most profound among the many failures of the American 'educational' system has been its abominable distortion of this nation's history. In particular, the principles of constitutional law, once widely understood by the citizenry, are now treated as hazy and erudite philosophies, only fit for debate within intellectual circles. All too often, any agreeable sounding platitude serves as a worthy substitute. Thus Americans wander through life believing in 'constitutional rights' to employment, housing, recreation, or any other amenity they crave...

http://tinyurl.com/dj6ta


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Rock River Times
by Chad Bouman

12/08/05

A police state is emerging in the United States of America. Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are usurping their powers in order to justifiably abuse them. ... We were warned by our predecessors (founding fathers) that a Demcracy poses a threat upon our Republic and is always followed by a dictatorship. We now stand as an imperialist county hated by all nations for this same democracy that has swallowed our nation into a downward spiral where our leaders are now vexing upon the Middle East, and next, the world. The founding fathers also told us that a revolution was necessary whenever the existing government poses a threat against our Constitutional Republic. We are to oust the tyrannical rulers by whatever means possible to keep and protect ourselves from traitorous dictators. This is the sole pupose for the SECOND AMENDMENT and is defined in a paragraph of the Declaration of Independence...

http://www.rockrivertimes.com/index.pl?cmd=viewstory&cat=4&id=11824


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Mother Jones
by Tom Engelhardt

12/08/05

[A]n afternoon spent in the lost world of September 5-10, 2001, reminds us that the savage attacks of the following day would, in fact, buy a faltering, confused, and weak administration as well as a dazed and disengaged President a new life, a 'calling' as he would put it, and almost four years to do its damnedest. It would be 2004 before the President's polling figures settled into the levels of that long-lost September 10th. It would be the summer of 2005 -- and the administration's disastrous handling of hurricanes Sheehan, Katrina, and Iraq -- before the President would again be criticized for his 'gone fishing' summer vacation; before the Democrats would again begin to attack; before newspapers would again be relatively uncowed; before the Republicans would again gather in those private (and then public) places and begin to complain; before Congress would again be up for grabs. Four long years to make it back to September 10th, 2001 in an American world now filled to the brim with horrors, a United States which is no longer a 'country,' but a 'homeland' and a Homeland Security State...

http://tinyurl.com/9wslj


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Gizz-ette
by John Gizzi

12/09/05

'We could be looking at a Democratic House in '06,' a senior Republican House member told me recently. The lawmaker was clearly nervous about the President's record-low poll numbers, the bad reports from Iraq continually pounded home by the liberal media, and the ongoing reports of scandal surrounding congressional Republicans connected with indicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff. Could this combination of negative factors be a formula for Democrats to make the net gain of 15 seats they would need to recapture a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in a dozen years? 'Yes,' replied the Republican congressman without hesitation, whereupon he proceeded to tick off more than 20 Republican-held seats around the country that are in danger of flipping to the Democrats in the third congressional election cycle of the Bush presidency. The third cycle historically yields disastrous results for the party in the White House. He was not alone in this forecast...

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/blog-detail.php?id=10757


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://tinyurl.com/cj2pj


Informant: Rory Winter

MSNBC/Newsweek

12/08/05

European politicians demanding investigations into mysterious flights into their countries by suspected CIA-operated airplanes may find their own governments are as unenthusiastic about digging into the issue as top Bush administration officials. According to current and former U.S. counterterrorism officials, some European governments were informed of at least some of the details of the CIA flight operations before or as they happened...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10385133/site/newsweek/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Houston Chronicle
12/08/05

The judge in U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's criminal case said today he is unlikely to allow DeLay to be tried separately from his co-defendants or on only one of the two money laundering charges still pending against him. 'It is unlikely that I will grant a severance of counts or even of defendants in the absence of a compelling reason to do so,' Senior District Judge Pat Priest said in letter to lawyers in the case....

http://tinyurl.com/a8bd3


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

12/07/05

FEMA's top official was told more than a year before Hurricane Katrina that the agency's emergency response teams were unprepared for a major disaster and were operating under outdated plans, documents show. Additionally, e-mails obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press indicate that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff tried to call Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco the afternoon before Katrina hit. The e-mails indicate she could not be immediately reached and may have been napping...

http://tinyurl.com/7z73a


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cincinnati Enquirer

12/08/05

Key Republicans from the House and Senate reached a White House-backed compromise Thursday to renew the broad powers granted to law enforcement agencies in the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks on American soil. GOP leaders pledged to pass the Patriot Act extension for President Bush's signature by the holidays, although bipartisan criticism flared. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., threatened to filibuster a bill he said lacked adequate safeguards to protect constitutional freedoms...

http://tinyurl.com/awb4k


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Reuters

12/09/05

Poland was the heart of the CIA's secret detention network in Europe, with bases there until recently holding a quarter of the 100 detainees estimated held in such camps worldwide, a human rights group said. Reports of the CIA operating secret jails in Poland and Romania as part of its war on terrorism have caused controversy on both sides of the Atlantic and dogged U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's European trip this week. Both countries deny hosting such facilities, and the United States has declined to comment on the reports...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09248168.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

America wants and deserves real answers on Iraq: What is the clear definition of success? Is there a plan? How much longer and how many more lives? In short, what is the end game?

Because we in Congress are charged with overseeing the safety of our sons and daughters when the president sends them into battle, it is our responsibility, our obligation to speak out for them. This obligation has not been met. That's why I am speaking out now.

I offered a concrete plan to get our troops out of harm's way, where they have become the target. I don't expect every member of Congress to agree with my specific proposal in this debate - but I do expect them to take part in that debate, not to squash it.

I am asking you to join me in demanding a real discussion of the war in Iraq from the U.S. House of Representatives.

Tell Congress to Have an Honest Debate For the Safety of Our Troops. http://whatcounts.com/t?ctl=101B079:4092A66

For too long Congress has counted itself out of any real debate on Iraq policy. We didn't talk about troop levels, even after the White House fired General Shinseki because he complained the levels were too low. One problem we encountered was the lack of proper training for our troops; service members were placed to guard the prisons but weren't trained; consequently we had Abu Ghraib, and no action from Congress. And if you look at the casualties, they have doubled since then. It's time to change our course - we can't just sit back any longer.

I've taken a lot of trips to Iraq. When I came back from my last one, I had become convinced we were making no progress at all. This can't be Republican and Democrat. It can't be recrimination one way or the other. We have to work this thing out, and we can't let a real solution get caught in the crossfire of an understandably heated political fight.

It's time for a serious conversation, not more rhetoric.

Tell Congress to Have an Honest Debate For the Safety of Our Troops. http://whatcounts.com/t?ctl=101B079:4092A66

The past few weeks have had a lot of firsts for me. I have never sought out the spotlight, or even taken the lead in a House floor debate the way I did a few weeks ago. And I've never signed an email like this before. But I see the beginning of a debate that is long overdue, and we can't afford to let it get overtaken by talking points or the news cycle.

I'm offering this petition, which will be delivered to Speaker of the House in order to keep our Congress focused where it should have been all along. I hope you'll sign if you agree.

Tell Congress to Have an Honest Debate For the Safety of Our Troops. http://whatcounts.com/t?ctl=101B079:4092A66

Sincerely,

John Murtha
Pennsylvania's 12th District


It is very important to spread Rep. John Murtha's call for an honest debate on Iraq. Please take this opportunity to forward his message to your friends and family.

http://whatcounts.com/t?ctl=101B07B:4092A66

Dec. 10 is International Human Rights Day, and one of our most basic rights—the right to freely form a union—is under attack. Watch this video to learn more.

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/efcaflash.cfm

by American Rights At Work
http://tompaine.com/#passiton

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/251384_tony09.html

by Anthony B. Robinson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Bush sold America his global war using an old Christian heresy. Not surprisingly, it's led to a new crusade.

http://www.tompaine.com/

by Joseph Stiglitz, TomPaine.com

Thanks to the slick maneuvering of the U.S. and other rich nations, the deck remains stacked against developing countries.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051209/fair_trade_for_none.php

http://www.unknownnews.org/0512091203whitelist.html


Informant: Mata Hari

Achtung!!!!! Es wird Ernst.

09.12.20054, 18.45 Uhr

Soeben aus dem Newsticker erhalten:

Das amerikanische State Department verbietet allen US Amerikanern, die Kritik am White House äußern, die Ausreise.

Quelle: http://www.unknownnews.org/0512091203whitelist.html

Geht es jetzt richtig los????????????

Mata Hari

Send an e-card to friends and tell them to email Washington
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/EpaYwHs1RmtN/

Leaders from around the world are meeting right now in Montreal to discuss international efforts to cut global warming pollution.

Unfortunately, the U.S. is not engaging in these discussions. Despite a lot of talk from Washington about global warming, the federal government has refused to take any meaningful action to cut global warming pollution.

Tell friends to email their elected officials! We need your help to get our "Enough Talk. Take Action!" message to Washington. Send an e-card to friends and help get Washington to take action on cutting global warming pollution:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/EpaYwHs1RmtN/

Or, if you haven't acted yet, watch our animation on global warming impacts and send an email to your elected officials:
http://actionnetwork.org/EDF_Action_Network/yea_flash.html?member_key=i5sxe8425xwmjd&

In Montreal, countries are discussing the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol - the international agreement cutting global warming pollution. These are crucial discussions about long-term solutions, involving a historic effort by rainforest nations to curb deforestation.

But the U.S. is not joining in these negotiations, even though global warming's effects were all too visible in 2005.

Among the 2005 danger signs:

- The ferocity of recent hurricanes may be a sign that global warming is already intensifying tropical storms. And many scientists believe it will only get worse in the coming decades.

- Arctic sea ice melting advanced this summer, opening up the possibility of ice-free Arctic summers and dangerously accelerating global warming, as less ice leads to more heat absorption from the sun - a prospect with devastating consequences for polar bears and people alike.

- Coral reefs are bleaching and dying. These spectacular rainforests of the sea are at severe risk as warmer waters, more acidic oceans and stronger storms take their combined toll.

If we are going to stop global warming, we have to first deal with the hot air coming from our elected officials.

Send e-card to your friends and urge them to email Washington. It's time for Washington to join the fight to cut global warming pollution: http://actionnetwork.org/ct/EpaYwHs1RmtN/

Thanks for your help.

Ray McGovern writes that Vice President Dick Cheney, whose unbridled chutzpah has led him to take public as well as private credit for being the intellectual author of US policy on torture, has become such a glaring liability that his tenure may be short-lived. There is a growing possibility that the vice president will resign at the turn of the year "for reasons of health," and that his partner-in-crime - in what Colin Powell's former chief of staff at the State Department, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, has labeled the "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" - will choose to retire to his home in Taos early next year.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120905Z.shtml

10:18 Friday 9 December 2005

A motion to adopt the precautionary principle and bring new mobile phone masts under tougher planning controls has been tabled for debate at the next meeting of West Berkshire Council scheduled for next Tuesday, 13th December.

Councillor Keith Lock (Lib Dem, Mortimer) has submitted the motion which backs a Private Members Bill to be submitted to Parliament by David Curry MP (Con, Skipton & Ripon). The motion states that "such masts should be subject to full planning controls" it goes on to say that "the precautionary principle should apply giving schools, homes and medical facilities extra safeguards."

Councillor Keith Lock said: "I hope that West Berkshire Council will back this motion which will put new mobile phone masts under fairer planning rules. As local Councillors we have heard repeated calls from constituents that such applications be treated fairly and yet the current law ties Councillors hands."

© 2005 - Click Dot Business Ltd, its contributors and its suppliers. All rights reserved.

http://www.clicknewbury.com/zones/news/story/20051209.1018.5.html

Thrusting itself into the middle of a stormy international debate, Britain's highest court declared today that evidence obtained through torture - no matter who had done the torturing - was not admissible in British courts.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805E.shtml

Feingold Threatens Filibuster on Patriot Act Report

Feingold writes that he will do everything he can, including a filibuster, to stop this Patriot Act conference report, which does not include adequate safeguards to protect our constitutional freedoms.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805A.shtml

--------

Feingold to Fight Patriot Act Reauthorization

John Nichols Fri Dec 9, 1:40 PM ET

The Nation -- Four years ago, when U.S. Senator Russ Feingold stood alone in the Senate to oppose the Bush administration's Patriot Act, he was portrayed as a political fringe dweller whose determination to defend basic liberties was out of touch with the realities of the post-9/11 era.

This year, as Feingold leads the fight to block a flawed proposal to reauthorize the Patriot Act, he does so as the voice of a national movement that includes conservatives and liberals, Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and independents, and residents of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. And he has enough Senate allies to speak seriously about launching a filibuster to block the measure.

What has changed since 2001?

For one thing, almost 400 communities across the United States and seven states -- Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana and Vermont -- have passed resolutions condemning the assaults on civil liberties and the rule of law contained in the Patriot Act and calling upon Congress to address those concerns before reauthorizing the measure that was approved with minimal debate in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Rarely in American history has a single law drawn such ideologically, politically and geographically diverse opposition.

The message was heard by the Senate which, during this year's reauthorization debate, addressed many of the most serious civil liberties concerns. The bipartisan reauthorization measure, which added basic privacy protections that had been proposed by Feingold and others, was approved unanimously by the Senate.

Unfortunately, the U.S. House, which under the hard-line partisan leadership of Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, and his lieutenants no longer operates as an independent legislative chamber but instead rubber stamps the requests of the Bush administration, failed to respond to the public outcry. Instead, it produced a reauthorization of the Patriot Act that was actually more draconian in some senses than the original legislation.

That set up what was supposed to be a clash between House and Senate conferees, who were required to reconcile the differing proposals.

But, rather than accept the Senate's balanced bill, the conference committee opted to advance a version of the legislation that, like the House bill, extends most of the Patriot Act permanently while failing to address the flaws that have inspired so much opposition to the law. Of particular concern to civil libertarians is the fact that the conference committee's proposal extends several of the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions by authorizing roving wiretaps and permitting allowing the government to seize the records of libraries, hospitals and businesses in "fishing expedition" searches.

"The conference committee had the opportunity to fix many of the provisions of the Patriot Act to which Americans across the political spectrum have voiced their opposition over the last four years," explained U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D- Wisconsin, the leading Congressional critic of the Patriot Act. "Unfortunately, they decided not to listen."

Feingold's objections were echoed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that seek to defend Bill of Rights protections. "This sham compromise agreement fails to address the primary substantive concern raised by millions of Americans, as well as civil liberties, privacy and business organizations and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and in both chambers," argued Caroline Fredrickson, the director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office.

The Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which has played a critical role in organizing opposition to the Patriot Act nationwide, is particularly worried by the decision of the conference committee to disregard language that would have protected against the abusive use of so-called "National Security Letters" -- the documents used to federal agents to demand the records of libraries and businesses. Civil libertarians wants Congress to set a baseline standard requiring that there be a connection between records sought and a suspected terrorist or foreign agent.

Without such protections, Feingold says, the conference committee's proposal lacks "adequate safeguards to protect our constitutional freedoms."

As such, the Wisconsin Democrat says, "I will do everything I can, including a filibuster, to stop this Patriot Act conference report." The filibuster threat is a significant one, as the act will expire if it is not reauthorized by the end of the year.

Unlike in 2001, Feingold has Senate allies. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators joined him in signing a letter that declared, "We believe that this conference report will not be able to get through the Senate, while the Senate bill would easily pass the House if its leadership would bring it to a vote. We call on our House colleagues to reject this conference report, and to take up and pass the Senate compromise bill. We still can - and must - make sure that our laws give law enforcement agents the tools they need while providing safeguards to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans."

That's the balance that Feingold sought to strike in 2001. He's doing so again in 2005. The difference is that, this time, Feingold will not have to stand alone.

Like this article? Try 4 issues of The Nation at home (and online) FREE.

Copyright © 2005 The Nation

Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Questions or Comments Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


Informant: mr_tjsmith

From ufpj-news

http://www.counterpunch.org/lennon12082005.html


Informant: Scott Munson

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=96620;show_parent=1

But torture is also very much about words: the whispered or shouted questions of the interrogator; the muddled confession of the prisoner; the too rarely tested language of laws protecting prisoners from "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051226/editors


From Information Clearing House

It has been calculated that our present American economic life style involves importing 6.36 million barrels of oil per day at a cost to our GNP of $426 million dollars per day – calculated on $67 per barrel oil. If oil goes to $100 per barrel, soldiers’ lives become even cheaper.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11250.htm

Real Media
http://tinyurl.com/e42fa



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith

Thousands of well-meaning people are mobilizing to pressure Congress to pass legislation banning torture. But the Bush Administration is maneuvering to turn it into legislation that would instead protect the torturers by eliminating a basic legal right.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11246.htm

By Chris Floyd

Bush proudly held up this hideous system as an example of what he called "the meaning of American justice." And the assembled legislators applauded. Oh, how they applauded!...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11253.htm

Open and Shut

By Jarrett Murphy

On Monday, December 5, the 9-11 Public Discourse Project—a private group formed by 9-11 Commission members after their official mandate lapsed in 2004—held a wrap-up press briefing in Washington, signaling the last gasp of official inquiries into the attacks four years ago. People who lost loved ones will never know exactly how the end came, if it hurt, what the final thoughts and words were. But other questions are more tractable. Here are 10 of them:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11249.htm

GREAT LAKES NEAR ECOLOGICAL BREAKDOWN
http://tinyurl.com/czve2


Informant: NHNE

--------

Great Lakes Headed for Catastrophic 'Ecological Collapse': Report
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1209-05.htm

Firestone, a multinational rubber manufacturing giant known for its automobile tires, has come under fire from human rights and environmental groups for its alleged use of child labor and slave-like working conditions at a plantation in Liberia.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120805LB.shtml

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin took aim at the United States on Wednesday for its refusal to negotiate a new global warming treaty, telling a United Nations conference that the world's most powerful economy needed to resume participating in international talks to reduce greenhouse gases.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120805EB.shtml

A watchlist of possible terror suspects distributed by the US government to airlines for pre-flight checks is now 80,000 names long, a Swedish newspaper reported, citing European air industry sources. The classified list, which carried just 16 names before the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, had grown to 1,000 by the end of 2001, to 40,000 a year later, and now stands at 80,000, Svenska Dagbladet reported.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805S.shtml

Pressemitteilung von: spirit Rainbow Verlag

Überall begegnet uns die elektromagnetische Umweltverschmutzung, zumeist unerkannt und vor allem auch wenig verstanden. Wäre Elektrosmog schwarz, würden wir inzwischen die Hände nicht mehr vor den eigenen Augen sehen. Deshalb hier ein paar einfache Erklärungen zu einem weltweiten Umweltproblem, das es offiziell nicht wirklich gibt.

Smog ist ein Kunstwort aus dem Englischen: smoke = Rauch und fog = Nebel. Es entstand in den Sechzigern, als in England Tausende von Menschen an einer plötzlich eintretenden Luftverschmutzung in London starben. Danach wurden die geltenden „Grenzwerte“ drastisch herabgesetzt. Grob unterteilt man Elektrosmog in mehrere Bereiche, die sich aus der Physik ergeben:

Im Niederfrequenzen Bereich (NF = Hausstrom) lassen sich elektrische und magnetische Eigenschaften des Stroms noch unterscheiden. Also finden wir hier elektrische (EWF) und magnetische Wechselfelder (MWF). Der Transport ist an Kabel gebunden, die wir zumeist als Steigleitungen in den Wänden verlegen. Zum Glück kann man oft durch leichtes Verrücken des Bettes die Stärke der Felder auf baubiologische Norm (1V/m) bringen – der Abstand entscheidet. Oft misst man auch Feldstärken von bis zu 130 Volt/m im Kopfbereich des Bettes. Dann heißt es herauszufinden, wo der Strom herkommt.

Im hochfrequenten Bereich (HF) verschmelzen diese Felder, deshalb spricht man hier genauer von elektromagnetischen Feldern. Hier findet hauptsächlich Informationsübertragung statt. Das ist der sogenannte Funksmog, der seit 1992 mit dem Ausbau der Funknetze exorbitante Ausmaße erreicht. Man nutzt die elektrische (Träger-)Welle, um auf ihr die Information zu transportieren (ähnlich einem Fluss, der ein Schiff trägt). Das nennt man Modulation. Grob gesagt gibt es drei verschiedene Arten der Modulation, die alle verschiedene technische Vorteile haben und folgendermaßen genutzt werden:

a) Amplitudenmodulation (AM), genutzt für Radio und Fernsehen (analog)

b) Frequenzmodulation (FM), genutzt für Radio, Handfunkgeräte, TV (analog)

c) Pulsmodulation (PM), genutzt für Telefon, Radar, Richtfunk und vieles mehr (digital)

Soweit wir heute wissen (und das ist nicht besonders viel!), ist weniger die hochfrequente Feldstärke als vielmehr die darin enthaltene niederfrequente Modulation biologisch riskant. Und davon ganz besonders die gepulste Information. Das heißt, die Information wird, wie zum Beispiel beim DECT-Schnurlostelefon, in 100 Teile pro Sekunde zerhackt – leider auch noch dann, wenn Sie nicht telefonieren! Diesem Dauerstress ist unser Immun- und Drüsensystem nicht ewig gewachsen. Man erkrankt durch Elektrosmog, ohne ihn jemals als Ursache zu erkennen. Folglich kann auch nicht zielgerichtet therapiert werden.

Eine weitere ganz entscheidende Unterscheidung liegt in der biologischen Wirkung dieser Strahlung:

· thermisch, das heißt Gewebeerwärmung wie beim Mikrowellenherd · athermisch, das sind alle übrigen zumeist unbekannten biologischen Wirkungen

Letztere werden weder offiziell untersucht noch zugegeben, denn das stört das Geschäft. Lediglich auf diesen einen, allgemein anerkannten „thermischen Effekt“ zielen also die existierenden Grenzwerte. Zu denen gibt es nicht viel zu sagen, außer, dass sie unter exakten Laborbedingungen ermittelt und staatlich festgeschrieben werden. Der Vorteil liegt für die Industrie also darin, dass sie mittels der angeleierten Forschung Grenzwerte bekommt, die technisch und ökonomisch wundervoll zueinander passen.

Hochspannungs- und Eisenbahnleitungen können je nach ihrer Leistung beachtliche magnetische Felder aufbauen, die sämtliche Materialien bis hin zu Blei, natürlich auch den menschlichen Körper, durchdringen. Welche biologischen Schäden sie wirklich anrichten, ist noch unzureichend geklärt. Studien aus den USA, den skandinavischen Ländern und unter anderem aus Deutschland zeigen jedoch eine durchaus erkennbare Tendenz zu bestimmten Krebsformen, psychischen Erkrankungen (zum Beispiel Depressionen durch Änderung der Hirnfrequenzen) und weiteren gravierenden Gesundheitsproblemen.

Im Haus kann man einiges zum Schutz seiner Gesundheit vor niederfrequenten Störfeldern selber tun: Vermeiden Sie elektrische Geräte im Schlafzimmer, dazu gehören auch Wasserbetten mit eingebauten Heizelementen. Radiowecker sollten mindestens 1 bis 2 Meter vom Bett entfernt sein. Vor allem sollten sie keine rote Anzeige haben, die zumeist aus Gallium und Arsenid besteht, dessen Leuchtspektrum für uns schädlich ist. Deshalb gibt es sie inzwischen auch mit grünem Licht. Besser ist es in jedem Fall, einen Batteriewecker oder mechanischen Aufzieh-Wecker zu verwenden. Überhaupt höhlt steter Tropfen den Stein: also möglichst weder Strom noch Metall, an das sich elektromagnetische Felder mit Leichtigkeit ankoppeln. Das Bett sollte deshalb nur aus natürlichen Materialien (Holz) bestehen.

Da die ständig wachsende Hochfrequenzbelastung jedoch das größte gesundheitliche Problem darstellt, möchte ich hier kurz etwas näher darauf eingehen.

Was macht diese mobile Technologie eigentlich so gefährlich? Immerhin lebten wir ja bereits einige Jahrzehnte mit Fernsehtürmen etc., ohne gleich auffällig daran zu erkranken. Das liegt an einem kleinen Unterschied zwischen analogen und digitalen Quellen: der Periodizität der Wellen. Das ist mit einem unaufhörlichen Trommelfeuer von Funkblitzen vergleichbar. Regelmäßig kann man in den Zeitungen lesen, dass Tanzwütige in den Diskotheken aufgrund der Stroboskoplichter in eine gnädige Ohnmacht fallen. Hier handelt es sich um gepulstes Licht. Dasselbe gilt für Neonröhren: gepulstes Licht, da die Gasfüllung der Röhre mit 5o Hz entzündet wird. Ein Pressluftbohrer bezieht seine Wirkung ebenfalls aus dem Puls: gleichmäßig immer auf dieselbe Stelle. Bei monotonem Lärm erkennen wir das Problem viel schneller, da laut. Desgleichen bei Licht: Wer beschwert sich nicht bei der Stadt über die flackernde Straßenlaterne vor dem Schlafzimmer? Und was nervt mehr: ein stetiger oder ein hämmernder Kopfschmerz?

Um sich die Empfindlichkeit unserer Zellen einmal ganz deutlich vor Augen zu führen, muss man wissen, dass in jeder von ihnen 105 Stoffwechselvorgänge pro Sekunde stattfinden. Zellen und Organe haben ihre eigene spezifische Frequenz und Polarität. Als Beispiele mögen dienen: die Prostata: 1,79 GHz; die Leber: 1,85 GHz; die Galle: 1,87 GHz; das Herz: 1,918 GHz und die Nieren: 1,98 GHz. Damit liegen sie im Bereich der E-Netze (1,8 GHz) und vor allem der breitbandigen UMTS-Frequenzen (1,98-2,2 GHz). Bei dieser Schwingung kann in die Steuerungsmechanismen der einzelnen Zellen eingegriffen werden, und es liegt auf der Hand, dass auf diesem Weg unvorhergesehene Schädigungen möglich sind.

Der Medizinphysiker Dr. Lebrecht von Klitzing kam in vielen wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen zu folgendem Ergebnis: „Zellen sind in Kommunikation miteinander, tauschen nonstop lebenswichtige Informationen aus. Das machen sie mit elektromagnetischen Signalen über Ionenaustausch an den Zellmembranen. Die Ionen werden gepulst durch Ionenkanäle geleitet, und zwar in Frequenzbereichen bis etwa 400 Hz. Genau hier befinden sich die technischen Signale der Mobilfunknetze. Wenn eine neue Technologie auf den Markt kommt, sollte systematische Grundlagenforschung betrieben werden. Das ist bei den D- und E-Netzen nie geschehen. Es geht hier um technische Informationen, die biologisch verarbeitet werden.“

Es gibt aber auch gute Argumente, die ein halbwegs gesunder Menschenverstand (den soll es ab und an noch geben) versteht: In Spanien mussten mittlerweile mehr als 2.000 Sender wieder abgebaut werden, nachdem ein Richter nach einigen Leukämieerkrankungen in einem Kindergarten in Valladolid darauf bestand, dass die Industrie die Ungefährlichkeit ihrer Produkte zu beweisen habe
(www.elektrosmognews.de/www.buergerwelle.de/www.gigaherz.ch). Bloß: wie? Also werden hauseigene Forschungskreise gegründet, die immerzu fromme Bekundungen zur Ungefährlichkeit herunterbeten, aber nie zu erwähnen vergessen, „dass noch Forschungsbedarf besteht.“

Hierzulande müssen die Geschädigten leider noch immer beweisen, dass sie durch gepulste Hochfrequenz krank werden. Deshalb existieren mittlerweile alleine in Deutschland mehr als 5.000 Bürgerinitiativen gegen die täglich wachsende HF-Belastung durch sogenannte Handy-Türme etc. Alleine die „Bürgerwelle e.V.“ betraut als Dachverband der Elektrosmoggeschädigten mehr als 200 Initiativen. Und jetzt die große Preisfrage: Können all die vielen engagierten Bürger wie behauptet Hypochonder sein? Einige vielleicht, aber nicht Tausende, die tagtäglich in einer kranken Gesellschaft ihre(n) Mann/Frau stehen. Zur Zeit läuft deshalb der sogenannte „Freiburger Appell“, der von vielen Ärzten ins Leben gerufen wurde, um die geltenden völlig überzogenen Grenzwerte deutlich abzusenken. Die Stadt Salzburg hat nämlich beispielsweise in Europa gezeigt, dass es möglich ist mit äußerst geringer HF-Belastung zu leben, ohne auf mobile Kommunikation verzichten zu müssen.

Bis es hierzulande soweit ist, dass man wieder ungeplagt von elektromagnetischen Feldern leben kann, muss sich jeder ernsthaft davon Betroffene vorläufig ganz pragmatisch selber helfen. Deshalb haben Baubiologen auch Hochkonjunktur und die Gerätehersteller von Entstörmaßnahmen ebenfalls. Dabei sollte man nicht wahllos sein, denn natürlich gibt es hier wie in jedem anderen Bereich schwarze Schafe. Manche Methoden und Geräte mögen helfen, sind aber immer mit Vorsicht zu genießen. Ratsam ist es deshalb, wenn man die versprochenen Wirkungen in solchen Fällen durch einen auf Schwingungsmedizin (Kirlianfotografie, Bioresonanz, EAV etc.) spezialisierten Arzt nachprüfen lässt. Aus diesem Grund empfiehlt es sich unbedingt, zuvor eine bestimmte Probezeit für Entstörungen jeglicher Art zu vereinbaren. Insgesamt ist diese Thematik jedoch zu kompliziert, um an dieser Stelle weiter verfolgt zu werden.

Wer sich schnell und verständlich über alle mit Elektrosmog zusammenhängenden Probleme kundig machen möchte, sei deshalb vor allem auf mein praxisnahes Handbuch „Ständig unter Strom“ und den bald erscheinenden Nachfolger „Der ideale Schlafplatz – Geheimnisse guter Gesundheit und langen Lebens“ verwiesen. Hier kann er sich über alle die erwähnten Zusammenhänge schlau machen, ohne zuvor ein Examen als Ingenieur absolvieren zu müssen.

Autor und Geo-/Baubiologe Silvio Hellemann
Teutonenstraße 42 D - 53175 BONN
00-49-(0)228-372 8819
00-49-(0)228-372 8819
domizid@gmx.de

Autor der Bücher:

Ständig unter Strom - Erste Hilfe bei Elektrosmog ISBN 3-937568-15-8, 296 Seiten, 22 €, spirit Rainbow Verlag

Die Geheimnisse erholsamen Schlafes und langen Lebens - Ein Ratgeber für Ruhelose ISBN 3-937568-19-0, 152 Seiten, 16 €

PR-Mitteilung eingestellt durch: spirit Rainbow Verlag Inh. Gudrun Anders Forsterstr. 75, 52080 Aachen Telefon 0241 / 70 14 721 Fax 0241 / 446 566 8 http://www.spirit-rainbow-verlag.de
Email: rainbowverlag@aol.com

http://openpr.de/news/71660.html


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

A tentative "deal" (see below) has been reached on the Patriot Act reauthorization. The compromise (Conference Report on H.R. 3199, the "USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005") does not contain even the modest reforms in Senate bill S. 1389. It differs from the pre-Thanksgiving version only in that its sunsets on sections 206, 215, and "lone wolf" have been reduced from 7 years to 4 years. The compromise is unacceptable.

Votes next week in the House and Senate are likely, assuming a majority of House and Senate negotiators sign the conference report. We will send updates when we receive them, and we will update our main web page ( http://www.bordc.org ) regularly.

Our best chance to defeat the conference report is in the Senate, where Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sens. Larry Craig (R-ID), Russell Feingold (D-WI), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ken Salazar (D-CO), and John Sununu (R-NH) have threatened a filibuster. In addition, Democratic Conferees may introduce continuing resolution (s), which would extend by three months the expiring PATRIOT Act provisions AND the debate on reforms.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please call or fax your Senators
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ today and urge them to vote as follows, depending on motions introduced:

(1) NO on a motion for cloture (ending debate for an immediate vote);

(2) NO on the conference report; and

(3) YES on a motion for a continuing resolution.

Please contact your Representative with the same requests.

You may also send your message via email by clicking here, but calls and faxes are preferred.

TALKING POINTS:

Remind them of the resolutions passed in their state or district.
(See list at: http://www.bordc.org/list.php?sortAlpha=1 .) State your requests (See "What You Can Do" above.) Feel free to expand with one or more reasons for your opposition to the conference report, such as:

It fails to ensure a connection between records sought and a suspected terrorist. The bill maintains the current, inadequate "relevancy standard" for records sought under section 215, which requires only that the government claim that the information it seeks is relevant to an investigation, without having to connect the target of the investigation to terrorism. It expands National Security Letter (NSL) powers. Any business that does not comply with an NSL could face criminal penalties. Furthermore, the report does not provide a meaningful mechanism for challenging NSLs in court, and does not ensure that the information gathered by these letters is destroyed if it is unrelated to the investigation for which it was sought. It creates only illusory rights to challenge orders for records and gag orders. Businesses receiving requests for records would be allowed to contact an attorney, but would have only limited rights to challenge orders for records in court. Likewise, a recipient would technically have the right to challenge a gag order, but the court would treat the government's assertion of national security, diplomatic relations, or an ongoing criminal investigation, as conclusive.

For expanded talking points, go to
http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/expandedpoints2.php.

Thanks for all you do.

Bill of Rights Defense Committee Web: http://www.bordc.org
Email: info@bordc.org Phone: 413-582-0110 Fax: 413-582-0116


Deal on Patriot Act stirs opposition

Thu Dec 8, 2005 5:25 PM ET

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican congressional negotiators announced a White House-backed deal on Thursday to extend the USA Patriot Act, a centerpiece of President George W. Bush's war on terrorism, but opponents said it did not satisfy their civil liberties concerns.

"We have cut through the knotty problems to produce what I think is a balanced bill," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters.

Specter acknowledged the compromise was not "perfect." Some Senate Republicans and Democrats were quick to say the compromise did not go far enough in improving the Patriot Act, which expanded the government's powers to track suspected terrorists after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Specter said the Senate and House of Representatives would vote next week on extending the law, which otherwise would expire on December 31.

Four senior liberal Democrats said if the latest compromise could not be changed more to their liking by the deadline, Congress should pass a 90-day extension of the current law to give lawmakers more time. They were Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, John Rockefeller of West Virginia and Carl Levin of Michigan.

The deal was also harshly criticized by at least three conservative Senate Republicans, Larry Craig of Idaho, John Sununu of New Hampshire and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, who said they were "gravely disappointed."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales called the compromise bill a "win for the American people in that it will result in continued security for the United States and also continued protection of civil liberties for all Americans."

Specter said a key compromise worked out by House and Senate negotiators was a four-year extension of some of the most controversial provisions that raised civil liberties concerns. The House had been seeking a 10-year extension.

The four-year limit would be on rules for "roving" wiretaps of suspects and court orders for records from businesses, libraries, bookstores and others in intelligence cases.

Specter told reporters the deal to give Congress a chance to review the impact of the law after four years was important to winning bipartisan support for renewing the Patriot Act.

"I know that there are a number of people, Democrats in the House, who told me they would vote for it if they had a four-year sunset. And I believe before we're finished in the Senate we'll have significant bipartisan support," Specter said.

'SHAM COMPROMISE'

New controls also would be placed on "sneak-and-peek" search warrants, which allow law enforcement officials to enter someone's house without the person's knowledge. Under the compromise bill, notice of the search would have to be given within 30 days of its execution.

The Senate originally sought a seven-day time limit, while the House wanted a 180-day period.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has lobbied for revisions to the Patriot Act, criticized the compromise written by congressional Republicans.

"This sham compromise agreement fails to address the primary substantive concern" raised by civil liberties groups and businesses, said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office.

Fredrickson complained the bill would still give the FBI access to private records of "innocent Americans" without having to demonstrate a connection between the records and a suspected foreign terrorist or terrorist organization.


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


Informant: mr_tjsmith

From ufpj-news

Japan held $687.3 billion in U.S. government securities in September, about a third of the $2.07 trillion in international holdings and 17 percent of all marketable U.S. debt. China was the second-biggest investor at $252.2 billion, or 12 percent of the overseas total. In all, international investors owned about 51 percent of the U.S.'s outstanding marketable debt in September.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=akZFoSycAstE&refer=asia


Informant: beefree

Peace & Justice News

International Relations Center (IRC)
http://www.irc-online.org/

Introducing the latest policy analysis from International Relations Center

War Crimes: The Posse Gathers
By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith

Diverse forces are assembling to bring Bush administration officials to account for war crimes. Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Mother for Peace, insists: “We cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail.” Paul Craig Roberts, Hoover Institution senior fellow and assistant secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan, charges Bush with “lies and an illegal war of aggression, with outing CIA agents, with war crimes against Iraqi civilians, with the horrors of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture centers” and calls for the president’s impeachment. Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and former president of the American Society of International Law, declares: “These policies make a mockery of our claim to stand for the rule of law. [Americans] should be marching on Washington to reject inhumane techniques carried out in our name.”

Can such disparate forces as the peace movement, conservative advocates of the rule of law, and human rights advocates join to halt high government officials demonstrably engaged in criminal enterprise? Can they reach out and appeal to the deep but vacillating commitment of the American people to the national and international rule of law? Or will the Bush administration divide the posse and retain for itself the mantle of defender of international law and the U.S. Constitution?

Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, with Jill Cutler, are the co-editors of In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (New York: Metropolitan/Holt, 2005) http://www.americanempireproject.com and co-founders of War Crimes Watch. They are frequent contributors to Foreign Policy In Focus ( http://www.fpif.org ).

See new IRC commentary online at:
http://fpif.org/fpiftxt/2970

With printer-friendly pdf version at:
http://fpif.org/pdf/papers/0512posse.pdf

Torture Degrades Us All
By Ben Saul

In recent times, it has become fashionable to regurgitate old arguments in favor of torture, without fully thinking through the human implications of making such statements. Not only lawyers for the U.S. government, but academics from Harvard Law School and Deakin Law School in my own country of Australia have argued for torture.

Torture is as old as law itself; it was used in ancient Rome as in medieval Europe, French Algeria, and Northern Ireland, and now still in over 100 countries. It is not surprising that arguments for torture have reappeared in a time of crisis (or perceived crisis) for western countries, when some people instinctively reach for more legal powers, seemingly blind to the history of past emergencies where torture was deemed unnecessary.

For those who think we live in an age of terror, it is intuitively appealing to believe that torturing one person to save many is the right thing to do. Discussion of torture should not be taboo, but arguments for it must withstand moral scrutiny. The legal meaning of “torture” was drafted by human hands; it is therefore fallible and cannot merely be accepted as divine truth – particularly if the definition of torture is too weak.

Terrorism does not demand that we torture to defend ourselves. To the contrary, the threat of terrorism reminds us of the importance of protecting human dignity, even of terrorists. Law necessarily draws moral lines in the sand which cannot be crossed; the inevitability of torturing the innocent is a price too high to pay to save the lives of others.

Arguments against torture are not based on alarmism, moral absolutism, or rhetoric. The consequences of forcibly violating the body and the mind are profound and signal an unnecessary return to the blunt techniques of medieval justice. Torture irreparably damages human dignity, devalues human life, and corrupts the institutions of our democracy.

Ben Saul ( http://www.law.unsw.edu.au/staff/SaulB/ ) is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law ( http://www.law.unsw.edu.au/ ) at the University of New South Wales, the director of the Bills of Rights Project
http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/projects_partners/projects/bor/index.asp at the Gilbert & Tobin Centre of Public Law, and a regular contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus ( http://www.fpif.org ).

See new IRC commentary online at:
http://fpif.org/fpiftxt/2974

With printer-friendly pdf version at:
http://fpif.org/pdf/papers/0512torture.pdf

Iraq Strategy: Still AWOL, Still Costly
By Col. Daniel Smith, U.S. Army (Ret.)

Some of Bush’s November 30 speech at Annapolis seemed as old as Vietnam. Johnson, appearing before a friendly audience, tried to explain the nature of the Vietnam War, why the United States was there, and the war’s objectives, ending with a vision of Vietnam’s economic development within a larger world order. Johnson said he regretted the “waste of war,” noting however that often it had to precede “the works of peace.” By that April 7, 1965, just 400 U.S. troops had died in Vietnam.

Bush, under growing criticism across the political spectrum, also chose a friendly audience at the Naval Academy for his latest attempt to define and defend what the White House terms its “stay the course” strategy in Iraq. Unfortunately, maintaining the status quo is not and never has been a strategy. Moreover, as is evident from what Bush doesn’t say, he seems to be disconnected from the real world of real war and real politics in Iraq today – and hence somehow not responsible.

Accusing the terrorists of making Iraq the “central front in their war against humanity,” he calls Iraq “the central front in the war on terror.” Nowhere does he acknowledge that before March 20, 2003, no al-Qaida or other non-Iraqis were fighting in Iraq.

Dan Smith is a military affairs analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus (online at http://www.fpif.org ), a retired U.S. Army colonel, and a senior fellow on military affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

See new IRC commentary online at:
http://fpif.org/fpiftxt/2972

With printer-friendly pdf version at:
http://fpif.org/pdf/gac/0512awol.pdf

Produced and distributed by International Relations Center (IRC). For more information, visit http://www.irc-online.org/. If you would like to receive specific topic or regional material from either FPIF ( http://www.fpif.org/ ) or the Americas Program ( http://www.americaspolicy.org/ ), please email: communications@irc-online.org, with “subscribe” in the subject line and giving your area of interest.


International Relations Center (IRC)
http://www.irc-online.org/
Siri D. Khalsa
Outreach Coordinator
Email: communications@irc-online.org
PO Box 2178
Silver City, NM 88062


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


From ufpj-news

--------

The Posse Gathers: Bush War Crimes:

The task is now upon us all to better understand the criminality of our government's aggression and, as citizens, to act accordingly to demand that our government adheres to international law."

http://www.counterpunch.com/brecher12062005.html

Rep. Henry A. Waxman lays down the key facts about the reconstruction which he describes as "an enormous boondoggle" - not an example of "quiet, steady progress." Senator Russ Feingold's statement follows with equal criticism of the president's speech, pointing out that "the president does not understand that his Iraq policies are preventing us from succeeding in our larger campaign against global terrorists."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120705A.shtml

Leaders from around the world are meeting right now in Montreal on new steps to cut the pollution that is causing global warming. They are beginning the crucial discussion about how the Kyoto Protocol will work in the next phase of its implementation, beyond the year 2012.

Unfortunately, the Bush Administration is not only keeping the US from joining in these negotiations, it is also actively working to undermine talks among other nations, halting global progress on post-2012 plans. Instead of joining with the world to build a solution, the US is blocking the Montreal negotiations. The US needs to lead the world, not obstruct progress on this important issue.

The negotiator’s official actions run counter to the needs and desires of the American people. Governors, mayors and corporate leaders are taking action to protect public health, create new jobs and cut global warming pollution. Faith leaders, workers and farmers are demanding more action from the administration and Congress. Even in Washington a bipartisan majority of the Senate passed a resolution last June calling for mandatory legislation to “slow, stop and reverse” the growth of dangerous heat-trapping pollution. Americans are already taking action to stop climate change, and we need our administration to join in the process.

It’s time for the U.S to join the world in recognizing the promise of clean energy solutions. We need real leadership from our representatives in Washington. It is time for the Bush Administration to quit stonewalling and for the US Senate to pass legislation that will place real limits on global warming pollution.

We appreciate your help in this call to action.

Sincerely yours,

Ted Glick and Tom Stokes

Climate Crisis Coalition

== What to do ==

Contact your Senators right away and urge them to speak out publicly to support positive U.S. action in Montreal and for mandatory action to slow, stop and reverse global warming pollution in the U.S. Ask them to send a message to the White House to let the Kyoto Protocol move forward and to stop blocking negotiations for global action in Kyoto’s next phase after 2012.

With the assistance of Working Assets we have provided you a quick and easy way to do this. If you go to
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=20026&afccode=climate, you will find a quick and easy way to email your U.S. Senators, with copies going to your Congressperson, Senate Majority Leader Frist, Senate Minority Leader Reid, and President Bush. The Working Assets site will also provide you with appropriate emails for letters to the editor in your area. If you could adapt the letter to your Senators (copied below) to a letter to the editor this would also be much appreciated.

These letters will not only draw much-needed attention to what is happening at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal, but they will also help advance the process of making the climate crisis a decisive issue in next year’s Congressional races.


Sample Letter to Your Senators

Dear Senator:

I am writing to urge you to take action to engage the United States in the important climate negotiations in Montreal. Action at the local, state, national and international levels is needed to address this, one of the single greatest challenges of our generation. I am outraged that the Bush Administration is blocking progress on international action to reduce global warming pollution. Please lead our country in the right direction:

1. Speak out publicly to support positive US action in Montreal. Please hold a press conference, make a Floor statement, and sign on to Congressional statements in recognition of this issue’s importance.

2. Support legislation for mandatory action to slow, stop and reverse global warming pollution in the US.

3. Call on the White House to let the Kyoto Protocol move forward and to stop blocking negotiations for global action in Kyoto’s next phase after 2012.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Academy of Sciences have concluded that the continued buildup of global warming pollution in the atmosphere threatens the stability of the global climate, threatening the economy, public health and the environment of the United States and the world.

I’m counting on you to protect American families by supporting global progress on this critical issue.

It’s time that the U.S. to take the lead. Engage the USA now.

Thank you and best regards,


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


From ufpj-news

EXCLUSIVE: POTENTIAL SECURITIES FRAUD CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST DIEBOLD IN PROGRESS! By Brad Friedman BradBlog December 7, 2005

http://www.bradblog.com/

Documents and comments provided by Company Insiders suggest Diebold could be the next Enron as All-New Legal Troubles Mount for Voting Machine Giant...

Additional Individual, Union Owners of Diebold Stock, Mutual Funds Sought for Addition to Plaintiff Class


The BRAD BLOG has received exclusive detailed information about a developing potential class action securities litigation against Diebold, Inc. (stock symbol: DBD). The class for the suit will involve shareholders who purchased or owned stock in the Ohio-based company any time from October 22, 2003 though September 21, 2005.

Though we are not at liberty at this time to discuss the specifics of the potential litigation and the causes of action in the complaint being compiled, The BRAD BLOG has learned that the class action lawsuit, currently being drawn up, will involve securities fraud violations and other troubling matters for the controversial company, its CEO as well as current and former members of its Board of Directors.

VelvetRevolution.us http://www.VelvetRevolution.us/ (an organization co-founded by BRAD BLOG managing editor, Brad Friedman) is seeking additional individuals and groups who may qualify as plaintiffs in the specified class. Those who owned or purchased Diebold stock, or mutual funds which carried Diebold during the period mentioned, are asked to contact
LawSuit@VelvetRevolution.us where information submitted may be turned over to attorneys for possible addition to the plaintiff class.

Union groups who own or owned shares of Diebold or mutual funds which invest in the company are specifically urged to contact VR about joining the class action.

The mutual funds which are most heavily invested in Diebold are listed here http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=DBD . Information on "Insider Transactions" is listed here.

Diebold, Inc. is the controversial Voting Machine and ATM manufacturer who was recently compared to Enron by an anonymous company insider The BRAD BLOG dubbed "DIEB-THROAT" in a series of exclusive reports http://www.BradBlog.com/Diebold.htm . The Internet news site, RAW STORY ran a new exclusive interview with DIEB-THROAT yesterday

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Diebold_insider__alleges_company_plagued_1206.html revealing additional details on the inner-workings of the company and potential legal issues they may face.

Shortly after our first report on DIEB-THROAT
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001838.htm , Diebold's stock price plummeted some 15.5%. The company attributed their troubles at the time to shortfalls in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and on the same day announced the resignation of their chief operating officer (COO) and President, Eric C. Evans. Our source, DIEB-THROAT, challenged the company's response to the falling stock prices in the wake of lower than expected earnings by suggestion that "Using Hurricane Katrina is a poor excuse for bad products - the last time this kind of deception occurred it was called Enron."

Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell has come under harsh criticism for his statement to Republican fundraisers that Diebold was committed to delivering the electoral vote of the state of Ohio to George W. Bush prior to the 2004 Presidential Election. O'Dell was part of Bush's "Rangers and Pioneers," a group of individuals who had raised at least $100,000 each for Bush/Cheney's 2004 re-election campaign.

As well, the company has been facing other mounting troubles, legal and in the court of public opinion, over their implementation of software, hardware and various Elections Systems contracts around the United States as has been reported in have charged the company may be in violation of a court order stemming from that agreement. In North Carolina, Diebold recently lost an attempt in the court system to receive exemption from parts of a state law requiring the escrow of their voting system's software source code. They were certified anyway the next day in North Carolina, and some activists have questioned whether or not the certification was done according to state law and whether or not new legal proceedings may be launched there. And in California, a debate rages on concerning the possible re-certification of Diebold's touch-screen voting machines here after some 20% of their machines failed in a recent mock election test.

According to internal "Privileged and Confidential" documents of "Attorney Work Product" originally obtained and reported by Ian Hoffman of The Oakland Tribune in 2004, an estimate of legal costs in California for the Voting Machine giant was pegged by their attorneys at $535,000 - $925,000 for just a single two month period in order to fight mounting legal troubles in the state. Diebold's law firm, Jones Day fought in Los Angeles County Superior Court to keep those leaked memos from being further circulated.

The document estimating legal expenses
http://media.mnginteractive.com/media/paper190/ActionandBudget.pdf lists costs in regard to the Qui Tam Action filed (and eventually settled) by election watchdogs at BlackBoxVoting.org, the costs for fighting "Criminal Exposure" such as "legal analysis of potential criminal violations" and "White collar criminal law attorney pre-grand jury investigative advice" and even costs to the firm to "Monitor selected Web sites to gain key intelligence."

Concerning the potential of a new lawsuit against the company, DIEB-THROAT is not surprised, and expressed hopes to The BRAD BLOG in a recent email that some good may come from the possibilities of upcoming litigation:

"The denial of every documented problem with Diebold's voting system was bound to unravel sooner or later. I am not surprised that such a lawsuit has developed [as] the company consistently offered Wall Street deceptive information. Perhaps with the help of few patriotic plaintiffs our nation will be saved from Diebold's corporate takeover of our right to vote - and have that vote counted free from corporate and political influence."

The BRAD BLOG will, of course, continue to follow this story as it develops...


Informant: NHNE

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/07/051207182757.ht1oak7y.html


Informant: NHNE

Breaking a tradition of openness that began in 1816, the Bush administration has without explanation withheld the names and work locations of about 900,000 of its civilian workers, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

http://tinyurl.com/atysh


From Information Clearing House

James Tobin, President Bush's onetime New England campaign chairman, is being tried on one federal count of conspiring against voters' rights and several counts involving telephone harassment. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

http://tinyurl.com/abo53


From Information Clearing House

The hypocrisy of the US war on terrorism is revealed by its treatment of my husband.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11236.htm

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot has said the comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about secret CIA flights and detention centers for terrorist suspects outside the United States were "unsatisfactory," Dutch news agency ANP reported Tuesday.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-12/06/content_3886226.htm


From Information Clearing House

Major R. John Stukey, a US Army doctor who served in Baghdad from January to June, says he personally treated about a dozen men who had been tortured and observed an environment of overcrowding and neglect.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1207/p01s02-woiq.html


From Information Clearing House

An official of the Oil Ministry in Baghdad said: “We do not know the exact quantity of oil we are exporting, we do not exactly know the prices we are selling it for, and we do not know where the oil revenue is going to.”

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=13770


From Information Clearing House

Former President Jimmy Carter says he doubts whether the US military will ever completely pull out of Iraq, despite what the Bush administration says about a possible withdrawal beginning next year.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11235.htm

By Manuel Valenzuela

With Americans watching so much television on a weekly basis, discarding books of enlightenment for monitors of idiocy, preferring the drug of fantasy over the sobering realm of reality, no longer capable of analytical, logical thought, choosing to incorporate as their own the views, beliefs and opinions of corporate media, the keepers at the gate are free to do as they please, disseminating lies, distortions, manipulations, propaganda and fictions into our homes and the minds of our family, young and old, never discriminating and always flowing in the interest of the Establishment.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11242.htm

Reality vs. the Rhetoric

By S. Brian Willson

Instead of the recent euphemism "illegal combatants," the United State in Vietnam claimed prisoners were "criminal" and therefore exempt from Geneva Convention protections. The use of torture as a function of terror, or its equivalent in sadistic behavior, has been historic de facto U.S. policy.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11238.htm

By Harold Pinter

Video and text of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech

The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm's way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in different kinds of graves.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11239.htm

Report:

A Vietnamese doctor with experience in treating avian flu says Tamiflu, the drug being stockpiled for treatment of avian flu, is useless against the virus.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120705HB.shtml

The nation's premier science organization urged Congress on Tuesday to consider restricting the marketing of junk food to children since food companies appear unwilling to do it themselves, thereby upping the stakes in the national obesity debate.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120705HA.shtml

While Bush refuses to accept the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions, at least 40 million Americans will find themselves bound to the international treaty to curb global warming. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has convinced 192 cities to agree to cut emissions 7 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120705EB.shtml

Dr. James Hanson, the scientist who first raised the alarm about global warming, says the planet will be irrevocably damaged within a decade if greenhouse gases continue to be produced at current levels. The US, which is not a signatory to the Kyoto global warming protocol, has blocked moves towards limits on carbon emissions.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120705EA.shtml

Wir von der 1. Kavalleriedivision im Irak richten diese Botschaft an unsere Familien, an Senatoren, Kongressabgeordnete und an alle Personen mit Lebenserfahrung in der Heimat. Es gibt keine Worte für das, was wir hier erleben. Wir haben viele unserer liebsten Freunde und Kameraden verloren, und wir verlieren sie weiterhin. Es ist, als kämpften wir hier gegen Geister, und es gibt keine Aussichten auf einen Sieg. Die Lage wird nur immer schlimmer!

Bedenkt, dass wir gegen Menschen kämpfen, die den Tod nicht fürchten! Sie glauben, wir tun ihnen einen Gefallen, denn der Tod verkürzt den Abstand zwischen ihnen und dem Paradies. Zusätzlich sinkt unsere Moral von Tag zu Tag, denn wir sind Zeugen der wachsenden Zahl von Toten und Verwundeten. Die veröffentlichten Zahlen sind viel niedriger als in Wahrheit. Unnötig zu erwähnen, dass wir unter der Reduzierung von Gütern zur Grundversorgung leiden: Gas, Wasser, Nahrung, Hygienebedarf. Wir traten zwar freiwillig in die Armee ein, doch niemals kam uns die besondere Gefahr in den Sinn, die wir hier erleben. Das würde uns nichts ausmachen, wenn dieser Krieg einem guten und gerechten Zweck diente. Doch wir wissen jetzt, dass dieser Krieg nur deshalb angefangen wurde, um die Gier einiger weniger Leute zu befriedigen, die ihre Kinder niemals hierher gesandt hätten, um das zu erleben, was wir erleben. Wir senden euch diese Botschaft, und wir vertrauen nicht darauf, dass wir bald eine neue schreiben können. Wir fühlen, dass der Tod hinter jeder Ecke auf uns wartet.

Unser Feind ist da draußen und wartet darauf, uns zu jagen. Wir erhielten sogar Drohbotschaften über unser inneres E-Mail-Netzwerk. Gerade gestern erhielten wir die folgenden: (Aufzählung von Web-Links). O Gott, hilf uns, hier herauszukommen! Wir fordern euch auf, diese Botschaft auf allen Ebenen zu verbreiten, und wir hoffen, in einem Stück heimzukehren und nicht in einem Leichensack.

Hochachtungsvoll

Eure Söhne und Töchter


G.Wendebourg / metainfo hamburg

Link zum Beitrag / Hintergrundinfo oder Pressehinweis:
http://www.hh-online.com?lid=23136 und
http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23136

Infopool / metainfo hamburg www.hh-online.com

Sonoma County land considered for protection cut by two-thirds; final decision due Dec. 1

Friday, November 18, 2005

By BLEYS W. ROSE

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

In a partial victory for development interests, federal officials said Thursday they are reducing by two-thirds the parts of Sonoma County that could fall under federal protections for the tiger salamander.

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051118/NEWS/51118001/1033/NEWS01

Related: Searched for 'salamander' Results 1 - 10 of about 10.

http://google.pressdemocrat.com/search?q=salamander&btnG=Go%21&site=press_democrat&client=Press_FrontEnd&proxystylesheet=Press_FrontEnd&output=xml_no_dtd&filter=0&sort=D%3AS%3Ad1

Feds shrink potential salamander habitat

... Feds shrink potential salamander habitat. Sonoma County land considered for protection cut by two-thirds; final decision due Dec.
1. Friday, November 18, 2005. ... County OKs plan to protect salamander

... County OKs plan to protect salamander. Proposal ... Dec. 1 on how much land in Sonoma County to designate as critical habitat for the salamander. ...


Letters to the Editor

... 26 article, "Price tag to save tiger salamander," the population counts suggest that the California tiger salamander is but a subset of the region's salamander ... Letters to the Editor

... 26 article, "Price tag to save tiger salamander," the population counts suggest that the California tiger salamander is but a subset of the region's salamander ... Residential building starts to rebound

... higher. Then there is the California tiger salamander. ... years. Still, the plan hinges on setting aside areas elsewhere for salamander habitat. ... Letters to the Editor

... I found a copy of The Press Democrat, which I use to keep me warm, and was relieved to know that it would cost $336 million to save the tiger salamander. ... Letters to the Editor

... has only marginally improved with builders citing as primary obstacles less and more costly land and continued delays related to the California tiger salamander ... What a difference a year makes

... development in southwest Santa Rosa -- the biggest in 10 years -- and a compromise possible on protecting the development-stopping tiger salamander, there may ... Interchange work may start in '06

... or three years, Akkawi said. Remaining hurdles include protecting the tiger salamander habitat, he added.


Informant: STRIDER

From: Kathy Guthrie
kathyguthrie@fcnl.org [FCNL]

The Bush administration this week publicly attempted to narrow the definition of torture and limit the responsibility of individuals working for the U.S. government to prevent torture from taking place. But U.S. military leaders and many members of Congress from both parties are refusing to stand aside while fundamental rights are eroded.

Behind-the-scenes arguments came dramatically into public view recently when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld argued that military personnel have no obligation to intervene when they personally witness torture taking place by officials of other, sovereign governments. Standing next to Rumsfeld at a press conference last week, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, responded: "It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it.”

But the secretary of defense didn’t agree: “I don’t think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it.” In a rare, direct, public confrontation, Gen. Pace stood his ground: “If they [U.S. soldiers] are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," Pace told the secretary of defense.

Following this exchange, The Washington Post reported that the secretary of defense has asked the Pentagon to review guidelines for soldiers operating in these conditions. Read a letter from FCNL’s Col. Dan Smith (USA Ret.) to Gen. Pace supporting Pace’s position at
http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1645&issue_id=67

This public debate within the executive branch on appropriate responses to torture comes as the U.S. government has come under new scrutiny by European governments. The European Union expressed concern about public reports that the U.S. is holding some prisoners in secret prisons in Eastern Europe without granting them access to legal counsel or the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and other areas of the world are part of a shadowy network of detention and interrogation facilities set up by the U.S. government to circumvent legal restrictions on interrogation, torture, and due process of law, according to reports from Human Rights Watch and some press accounts. Read a Human Rights Watch report on government treatment of detainees at
http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1644&issue_id=70

But the public disclosure of these facilities and the acknowledgment by Secretary of State Condolezza Rice that these facilities have been used in Europe have persuaded some European governments to call for the shut down of these secret prisons.

The public debate on interrogation, torture, and secret detention facilities has persuaded many members of Congress to support legislation offered by Sen. John McCain (AZ) that would establish clear guidelines for interrogation that prohibit torture. The New York Times reported December 7 that the White House has “all but abandoned its effort to persuade Sen. McCain to exempt Central Intelligence Agency employees from legislation barring inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody.” If true, that is a victory on which we can and must build.

Although we citizens should be able to take for granted that our government opposes and strenuously prohibits torture, we cannot. Our government officials are engaged in an intense debate whether some agents of the U.S. government should be able to engage in some types of torture of certain kinds of suspects. Now the White House is seeking to limit the penalties imposed on U.S. government personnel who engage in torture.

The public outcry against torture is strengthening the hand of those within the U.S. government who oppose torture and want to prohibit its use.We want to encourage all our FCNL constituents to back them up with informed comment and with encouragement to sustain government advocates of a world free from the threat of torture. Read more about these issues at

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=67


The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/

Contact Congress and the Administration:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Exprimez-vous, c'est une émission nationale en directe ! Pour "c'est au programme" de FR2 sur les Portables et le antennes relais, ce 9 décembre à 9h30 vous pouvez appeler actuellement le 0 826 00 7000 (015€ la minute soit 1Fr).

Citez dans vos interventions les noms des principales associations, Priartem, Robin des toits, Teslabel (belgique) et Next-up. Soutenez le projet de loi qui est déposé à l'Assemblée Nationale, celui-ci ne remet pas en cause la téléphonie mobile, mais il est conforme à une vraie politique de salubrité publique. Dites qu'il existe des études officielles du Parlement Européen, co-financées par l'Etat Français, comme par exemple l'étude REFLEX qui démontre la rupture d'ADN (page168 à 171 et suivantes du rapport) dont on ne parle pas, etc.

Bien à vous tous.

ASL

Most of Congress's black lawmakers will oppose the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, officials said Wednesday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805N.shtml

Rice has been engulfed by criticism over reports that CIA planes used airports in Europe as stopovers while transporting prisoners to secret interrogation sites.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805K.shtml

Although Bush administration officials have denied that they transfer terrorism suspects to countries where they are likely to be abused, a classified memorandum described in a court case indicates that the Pentagon has considered sending a captured militant abroad to be interrogated under threat of torture.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805J.shtml

Wie von der Süddeutschen Zeitung mitgeteilt, wurden die europäischen Gefängnisse der CIA kurz vor dem Besuch von Außenministerin Rice geräumt. Nach Angaben aus Washingtoner Geheimdienstkreisen sind diese Häftlinge und andere Insassen außer ihnen, die Verhör und Folter erwarten, nun in marokkanischen Geheimgefängnissen untergebracht.

Die marokkanischen Geheimgefängnisse der CIA wurden offensichtlich eingerichtet als Ergebnis eine Deals, der der marokkanischen Regierung die amerikanische Unterstützung bei der Aufrechterhaltung der illegalen Besatzung der früheren Kolonie spanisch Sahara. Als Gegenleistung erreichte die amerikanische Regierung anscheinend die Überlassung von ehemaligen Gefängnissen, in denen Koenig Hassan II seine Gefangenen folterte. Diese Folterverliese sind vermutlich unzugänglich im Atlas-Gebirge lokalisiert, wo sie nur per Hubschrauber erreicht werden können. Die frühere spanische Kolonie der westlichen Sahara ist reich an Bodenschätzen und deshalb verständlicherweise von bedeutendem Interesse für Marokkos Koenig Mohammed IV. Die geheimdienstliche Zusammenarbeit mit den USA war seit langer Zeit einvernehmlich und von beiderseitigem Vorteil der Regierungen geprägt.


G.Wendebourg / metainfo hamburg

Link zum Beitrag / Hintergrundinfo oder Pressehinweis: http://www.hh-online.com?lid=23148 und
http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23148

Infopool / metainfo hamburg www.hh-online.com

Gegen Referendum: Menschrechtsorganisationen fordern Kreditstopp für Goldabbau (08.12.05)

Die entwicklungspolitischen Organisationen FIAN, MISEREOR und Urgewald fordern die deutsche Bundesregierung auf, ihre Unterstützung für Weltbank-Projekte an die Einhaltung von Menschenrechtsstandards zu binden. Aktuell bedrohten Goldprojekte in Guatemala und Ghana die Menschenrechte auf Nahrung, Wasser, Gesundheit und saubere Umwelt von über 10.000 Menschen, schreiben die Organisationen. Grundsätzlich solle sich die Regierung dafür einsetzen, dass die Weltbank keine neuen Kredite für Goldminen vergibt.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12477

"Outsourcing von Folter": Rice spricht mit Freunden über CIA-Einsätze (08.12.05)

US-Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice erwartet Verständnis von den europäischen Partnern für das Vorgehen des US-Geheimdienstes CIA "im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus". Rice betonte am Donnerstag bei einem Besuch in Brüssel, sie und ihre EU-Amtskollegen hätten "als Freunde" über den umstrittenen "Umgang mit Häftlingen" geredet. Bei dem gemeinsamen Essen am Mittwochabend habe man sich Zeit für eine ausführliche Diskussion genommen. FDP-Chef Guido Westerwelle bezichtigte die ehemaligen Bundesminister Schily und Fischer einer strafbaren Handlung wegen der Nichtanzeige einer Verschleppung und somit eines Verbrechens.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12474

Steuern rauf, Leistungen runter - die große "Koalition der neuen Möglichkeiten" und ihre Politik.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21512/1.html

Action Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
Date: Friday 16th December 2005
Time: 11:05 AM to 11:30 AM
Duration: 25 minutes.

Series highlighting campaigns and issues in Scotland. This week Phil Goodland follows a North Ayrshire community's campaign to prevent a phone mast being built next door to an award winning primary school.

Repeated 6:00AM Saturday 17th December 2005

Programme Webpage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/view/show.shtml?action_scotland

Listen Again link (available after broadcast)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radioscotland_aod.shtml?scotland/feature1_sat or rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/scotland/radioscotland/demand/dailyfeature/rs_feature1_sat.rm

(bypasses BBC's dreadful player, and uses Real Audio Player if already installed on your PC).

Reportage JT 19/20 FR3 LIMOUSIN du 06 décembre 2005
http://www.next-up.org/videos/JTfr3-06-12-2005.php

Emission "on a tout essayé" FR2 19h 08 décembre 2005
http://www.next-up.org/videos/on_a_tout_essaye_fr2_08122005.php

We can win nothing in Iraq. We can only hope to survive the incredible disaster that has been foisted upon us. Rejecting the premise of "winning" is the first step toward that survival. Rejecting wrong-headed, deliberately misleading GOP talking points would be a good idea as well. Getting out of Iraq is the only sane, sensible, responsible course of action. Any Democrats who hope to be president should heed this. They are ten steps behind the rest of the country, and when they buy into the nonsense, they only ensure their electoral doom.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805Y.shtml

by Robert Reich, TomPaine.com

There's a fight in Congress between the upper-middle class and the super-rich.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051208/class_warfare_with_taxes.php

--------

Class Warfare with Taxes

Tax bills now wending their way through the House and Senate would cut about $60 billion in taxes next year and allow a two-year extension on stock dividends and capital gains.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121105G.shtml

THE CHAIR OF governors at a Bromsgrove school is urging residents to come forward and show their displeasure at proposed plans to add three more phone antennas to a mobile phone mast site near to the school.

Nigel Marns, governor at St John’s School, Watt Close and Revd at St John’s church spoke to The Standard the morning after a governors’ meeting held to discuss the antennas that Vodafone plan to put on the site.

Mr Marns said he believed the site at Perryfields Telephone Exchange on Hanover Street had already got too many masts and any more would cause a health risk to the children.

He said: “Enough is enough and we should oppose this proposal.”
Coun Rita Dent said she wanted more residents to come forward and show their feelings.

“As yet we are not aware of the health implications of these masts and we do not think they should be adding anymore masts on the sites.”

A Vodafone spokesperson said he understood developments of this kind sometimes caused concern, and added that base stations and masts operated well within the strict safety guidelines endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Omega read "Base Stations, operating within strict national and international Guidelines, do not present a Health Risk?" under: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/771911/

“Local residents who might be interested in this development should contact our Community Relations Team by phone on 0845 601 4815 or by emailing: community.relations@ngridwireless.com .”

http://www.bromsgrovestandard.co.uk/news/default1.asp?id=1503

From: Ricardo Ocampo

*LuxWeb* Iberamerican Web of Light Free New Info Selection Services Anahuak Radiant Centre
http://www.laneta.apc.org/redanahuak
http://www.egroups.com/community/luxweb/archives

From: Jose Medhina Awad
Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 03:26:48 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Urgent Action Today: Reject Court Stripping Amendment!

Please write your representatives and the members of the House and Senate Armed Services and Judiciary Committees to tell them to strip the Graham-Levin Amendment from the Military Authorization Bill and preserve the right to habeas corpus and judicial oversight. They will be ironing out the differences in the Senate and House versions of the bill tomorrow, Wednesday, December 7, 2005. PLEASE WRITE NOW!

This will be the third action alert we’ve sent you about this disastrous Amendment that would strip the courts of the right to hear habeas corpus petitions from the detainees at Guantánamo. And we may send a fourth. It’s difficult to make habeas corpus sound sexy, but it is perhaps the most fundamental right we have and the basis for our entire system of justice, dating back 800 years. Simply put, it’s what keeps the government from being able to lock people up and throw away the key. It guarantees the right to know the charges against you and to challenge your detention in a court of law. It is the basis of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances enshrined in our Constitution.

If we do not stop the Graham Levin amendment now, what starts with foreign detainees at Guantánamo will carry over to the rest of us and our rights here at home. There is already additional legislation in committee that seeks to curtail habeas rights for domestic criminal prisoners. In addition, any ground gained by the McCain Amendment forbidding the use of torture becomes meaningless if the detainees have no access to an attorney and no way to protest their abuse in court.

Last year the Supreme Court rejected the government's position that it can maintain a law-free zone at the Guantánamo Naval Base. The habeas corpus petitions on behalf of the men imprisoned in Guantánamo seek the most basic relief: a fair hearing with due process in federal court to challenge the factual and legal basis of their detention. Our system of justice is founded upon the notion that the Executive may not detain any individual without these fundamental protections. We are asking you to write your representatives to demand that they not to undo the work of the Supreme Court and that they uphold the rule of law and reject the Graham-Levin Amendment to the Military Authorization Bill.

You can also call your representatives through the US Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Senator Graham offered his amendment in the Senate very late in this session, and a vote was held with no hearings and very little debate. After the vote, a firestorm of criticism forced Senator Graham to accept a compromise--negotiated with Democratic Senator Carl Levin--that allows captives very limited recourse to federal appeals courts. But Republican Senator Arlen Specter, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, described the compromise as "a sophisticated, blatant attempt at court-stripping."

The Bush Administration is now negotiating with Graham and others to make the legislation even more restrictive. A Justice Department spokesperson says Attorney General Gonzales has stated that he is "particularly focused on thwarting some of the 160 habeas lawsuits filed by Guantánamo detainees." Graham and the Bush Administration oppose rights for the Guantanamo detainees in part because they refuse to face the fact that innocent people have been caught up in the system--a fact acknowledged by the military's own commanders at Guantánamo. According to the Wall Street Journal: "American commanders acknowledge that many prisoners shouldn't have been locked up here in the first place because they weren't dangerous and didn't know anything of value. 'Sometimes, we just didn't get the right folks,' says Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, Guantánamo’s current commander."

Your voice is urgently needed to preserve habeas corpus -- the most critical safeguard against torture and unchecked Executive power.


Sincerely,
Ron Daniels
Executive Director,
Center for Constitutional Rights


Informant: Martin Greenhut

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453711.9284722223.html


Informant: beefree

Published by: Passport administrator, WWF-International,
07/12/2005

Send an e-mail
http://passport.panda.org/campaigns/action_email.cfm?uNC=46339141&uCampaignId=1081&uActionId=1801

A quarter of all animals caught in fishing gear, about 20 million metric tonnes of marine life, are wasted each year, thrown back dead into the sea.


© Press Association
Children from across Europe present a petition to the Chair of the Fisheries Council

The incidental capture, or bycatch, of fish, sea-birds, cetaceans, turtles, sharks and numerous other species is one of the greatest threats to the marine environment. This includes edible fish species that cannot be landed - because they are immature, undersize or have gone rotten in nets.

Urgent action is needed to stop wasteful practices and bad management. This December, the future of Europe’s marine environment is once again in European Union (EU) Fisheries Ministers’ hands.

Take action now to help stop wasteful fishing in Europe’s waters
http://passport.panda.org/campaigns/action_email.cfm?uCampaignId=1081&uActionId=1801

http://www.sobran.com/columns/2005/051011.shtml


Informant: Lew Rockwell

----- Original Message -----
From: Mehr Demokratie e.V. Berlin-Brandenburg
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 12:28 PM
Subject: Dringende Aktion: Veröffentlichungspflicht für Politiker-Nebeneinkünfte in Gefahr!

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

kurz vor Ende der letzten Legislaturperiode wurde im Bundestag eine Veröffentlichungspflicht für die Nebeneinkünfte von Abgeordneten beschlossen. Dass es dazu kam, dazu hatte auch eine Kampagne der Online-Plattform Campact beigetragen, an der Mehr Demokratie sich beteiligt hatte. Jetzt, nach der Bundestagswahl, steht das bereits Erreichte erneut auf dem Spiel…

Bitte helfen Sie mit, dass die verschärfte Transparenzpflicht nicht wieder kassiert wird, beteiligen Sie sich an der Protest-Aktion von Campact!

Mit freundlichen Grüße,
Christian Posselt
Pressesprecher Mehr Demokratie e.V.


* Bundestagspräsident Lammert will Veröffentlichung von Politiker-Nebeneinkünften auf Sankt Nimmerleinstag verschieben!

Schicken Sie ihm eine Protest-E-Mail unter http://www.campact.de Rufen Sie ihn in Berlin (030 - 227 77645) und in seinem Wahlkreis Bochum (02327 - 964 315 / 02327 - 964 312) an.

"Von wem erhalten Bundestagsabgeordnete eigentlich sonst noch wie viel Geld?" Eine Antwort soll die Veröffentlichung von Politiker-Nebeneinkünften geben, wie sie vom Bundestag beschlossen wurde. Doch Bundestagspräsident Norbert Lammert (CDU) will die verschärfte Transparenzpflicht jetzt noch verhindern: In einem Brief an die Fraktionsvorsitzenden schlägt er vor, die gesetzliche Neuregelung 'einer weiteren Beratung zu unterziehen' und bis zum Abschluss aller notwendigen vorbereitenden Arbeiten auszusetzen. Im Klartext: Lammert will die Transparenzpflicht auf den Sankt Nimmerleinstag verschieben. Die Fraktionen haben drei Wochen Zeit auf den Brief zu antworten, dann soll im Bundestag entschieden werden. (Weitere Infos:
http://www.campact.de/nebenekft/infos/5min )

Nach monatelangen Beratungen im Vorfeld des Bundestagsbeschlusses ist das eine kaum zu überbietende Frechheit! Wir fragen Herrn Lammert: Warum decken Sie die Dunkelmänner im Parlament?

Mit unserem gemeinsamen Protest wollen wir Herrn Lammert klar machen, dass wir Bürgerinnen und Bürger uns nicht an der Nase herum führen lassen:

Schicken Sie ihm eine Protest-E-Mail: http://www.campact.de Rufen Sie ihn in Berlin (030 - 227 77645) und in seinem Wahlkreis Bochum (02327 - 964 315 / 02327 - 964 312) an.

Leiten Sie diese Mobilisierungs-E-Mail am 8. und am 9.12.2005 an möglichst viele Freunde und Bekannte weiter.

Joe Conason
The New York Observer
12/06/05

California's 'Duke' heads to the pokey Washington infected with a culture of corruption

For a crude bully who used to bray about lining up Democrats and anti-war protesters to be “shot,” Randy (Duke) Cunningham cried like a little baby the other day when he finally admitted taking millions in bribes from defense contractors.

Forced to resign his office immediately as part of his plea bargain with federal prosecutors, the once-powerful California Congressman, whose leverage derived from his chairmanship of an important defense subcommittee, was a dominant type in the Republican Party of this era.

During his career on Capitol Hill, Mr. Cunningham's style was loud, mindlessly reactionary and full of flag-waving bluster. He once described Bill Clinton as a “traitor” and compared Senator John Kerry to Jane Fonda on the House floor.

This hyper-patriotic scoundrel also turned out to be avaricious, deceptive and as eager to sell himself as a male escort. He misused his authority to steer federal contracts to the contractors who bribed him, and he doesn't seem to have hesitated to damage the national interest if his personal interests were served.

Among the items acquired by Mr. Cunningham, thanks to the illicit generosity of his friends in the defense industry, were a hillside mansion with pool in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; a yacht called “The Dukestir”; a Rolls-Royce sedan, plus repairs; a 17th-century Louis-Philippe commode, along with assorted other antiques and Oriental carpets; and roughly $1.8 million in cash considerations, plus hundreds of thousands in the usual campaign contributions. He also avoided paying federal income taxes, as most crooks tend to do.

In short, he peddled his principles and his patriotism rather cheaply.

Yet while the disgraced Duke may be the most ostentatiously greedy member of the House, his sleazy story is but a single episode in the expanding saga of Republican scandal. As he pondered his next term-which he will serve in a federal correctional institution-another high-rolling crook on Capitol Hill confessed to corrupting Congress.

That would be Michael Scanlon, the former communications director for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who pleaded guilty to felony fraud for his role in helping super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff to relieve several Indian tribes of about $80 million while lobbying to improve their gambling businesses. The cooperation provided by Mr. Scanlon to the Justice Department is expected to embroil no fewer than a half-dozen other members of Congress and a squad of current and former staffers like him.

Many more politicians may ultimately be implicated in Mr. Abramoff's influence-peddling scam, however, with the slime rising to the top of the leadership both inside and outside the Congress. Former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed profited handsomely from the Abramoff gambling boodle, as did Grover Norquist, the conservative strategist, lobbyist and unofficial aide to White House political boss Karl Rove. House Speaker Dennis Hastert performed favors for Abramoff clients and collected more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from the lobbyist's firm and clients since 2001.

On a single June evening two years ago, according to the Associated Press, the Speaker's Keep Our Majority political-action committee took in more than $20,000 from the Abramoff network at a fund-raiser in a Washington restaurant owned by the lobbyist. A week later, Mr. Hastert and several of his top deputies sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, asking her to disapprove a gambling license sought by a tribe competing with one of Mr. Abramoff's clients. While the Speaker's spokesman insists there was no connection between his actions and the money steered into his accounts, such indignant assertions now provoke knowing smiles even among Republicans.

Indeed, thoughtful Republicans are well aware that the typical complaints and excuses proffered by their leaders and pundits sound utterly false these days. This swelling tsunami of scandal cannot be attributed to partisan enemies or the “liberal media.”

The Abramoff schemes were aired in public hearings chaired by Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican. The Cunningham scams came to light in a brilliant investigation by the conservative Copley News Service, whose featured columnists include Jack Kemp and Phyllis Schlafly. The criminal prosecutions of Mr. Scanlon, Mr. Cunningham and many others yet to be indicted are the work of prosecutors answerable to a Republican Attorney General.

Has the capital been infected by a “culture of corruption”? That culture has existed for well over a century, in both parties, at least since Mark Twain described Congress as America's only native criminal class. Before the Republicans won control of the House in 1994, its Democratic overlords had certainly proved capable of self-dealing and misconduct. A few of them went to jail, too.

What has happened since then seems unprecedented, however — at least during the postwar era. The sale of influence has been institutionalized in ways that earlier generations of politicians never imagined. Friends of Newt Gingrich — not a morally squeamish man — say he is dismayed. Members of the generation he brought to power are not revolutionaries but grifters, who have made a bad situation much worse.

Joe Conason writes for the New York Observer and Salon.com, and is the author of Big Lies: The Right- Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth.


Informant: Alan Dicey

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/handy_folder_kinder.pdf


Nachricht von Ulrich Weiner

--------

Kinder und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/311977/

Mobilfunk in der Schule
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/338094/

Schule und Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/403986/

Die namhaften europäischen Hersteller haben sich bisher geweigert, DECT-Schnurlostelefone so zu modifizieren, dass die Basisstation im Stand-By-Betrieb nicht strahlt. Auch die ausdrückliche Forderung des Bundesamts für Strahlenschutz an die Industrie, schnurlose DECT-Telefone mit geregelter Sendeleistung und Strahlungsfreiheit im Stand-By-Betrieb zu entwickeln, blieb bisher ungehört. Der richtige Zeitpunkt für einen chinesischen Hersteller, die Nachfrage nach verträglicheren Geräten nun zu befriedigen. Näheres unter der ergänzten Rubrik „Fragen&Antworten“:

http://www.umweltinstitut.org/frames/all/m392.htm

Gibt es schon "strahlenarme" DECT-Schnurlostelefone?

Ja, inzwischen sind modifizierte DECT-Schnurlostelefone erhältlich, bei denen die Basisstation abschaltet, kurz nachdem das Mobilteil in die Ladeschale gelegt wird. Auch das Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz fordert die Industrie seit Juni 2005 auf, schnurlose DECT-Telefone mit bedarfsgerechter Leistungsregelung und Strahlungsfreiheit im Stand-By-Betrieb zu entwickeln. Die namhaften europäischen Hersteller haben sich lange gegen die Einführung entsprechender Geräte gewehrt und dem chinesischen Hersteller Orchid den Vortritt gelassen. Dessen Telefone Orchid LR108 und Orchid LR128TAM (mit eingeb. Anrufbeantworter) haben zwar keine Regelung der Sendeleistung, sie sind aber im Stand-By-Betrieb strahlungsfrei. Diese Geräte werden derzeit nur von wenigen Händlern angeboten:

ESnord ® Technologies
http://www.esnord.de/

A. H. Communication
http://www.schnurlostelefon.de/

http://www.umweltinstitut.org/frames/all/m282.htm



Kommentar der Bürgerwelle e.V.

Nun gibt es DECT-Telefone, die im Standby nicht mehr strahlen, wenn der Hörer in der Ladeschale liegt. Liegt der Hörer wie üblich in der Wohnung, strahlt die Basisstation also munter weiter. Damit besteht kein Unterschied zu den bisherigen DECT -Telefonen. Würde der Hörer nämlich im Standby in der Ladestation liegen, ginge ja auch ein Schnurtelefon. Man muss davon ausgehen, dass der Hörer nur selten in der Ladeschale liegt. Also besteht weiterhin das Problem. Weiterhin sind während des Telefonates der Telefonierer und die Personen im nahen Umkreis um den Hörer und natürlich der Basisstation Strahlungsleistungen ausgesetzt, die z.B. die Blut-Hirn-Schranke öffnen usw. Dies gilt aber auch für CT 1+ Telefone. Auch die analoge Strahlung öffnet die Blut-Hirn-Schranke. CT 1+ hat eben den Vorteil, das nach Beendigung des Gespräches die Basisstation nicht mehr sendet, egal wo sich der Hörer befindet.

Schlussfolgerung: Wenn jemanden etwas an seiner Gesundheit und der seiner Menschen im Umfeld liegt, gibt es nur eine Empfehlung. Ein ganz normales Schnur-Telefon. Sollte jemand unbedingt ab und zu schnurlos telefonieren müssen, z.B. im Garten usw., geben wir die Empfehlung ein Schurtelefon und ein CT 1+ Telefon. Nur wenn es am Schnurtelefon nicht möglich ist zu telefonieren, so kurz wie es geht das CT 1+ Telefon benützen. Beugen Sie damit der vorzeitigen Demenz vor. Ihr Gehirn wird es Ihnen danken!

http://openpr.de/in/71735
http://www.news4press.com/1/MeldungDetail.asp?Mitteilungs_ID=87572

Strike the Root
by David MacGregor

12/07/05

The welfare state turns us all into busybody brother's keepers. This impulse to interfere in the lives of others is then translated to the ballot box -- leading to the election of governments who propose more and more draconian legislation in the attempt to impose standards of 'public health'...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/52/macgregor/macgregor8.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Hawaii Reporter
by Don Newman

12/07/05

When people complain about the 'outsourcing' of American manufacturing jobs they rarely take into account that it is government policies that often drive companies away. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of Clark Foam Co., which was forced to close its doors recently due to harassment by the EPA and local county fire officials. This is a perfect example of government regulation run amuck...

http://tinyurl.com/8xc6r



The freedom to move

Foundation for Economic Education
by Oscar W. Cooley and Paul L. Poirot

posted 12/07/05

Can we hope to explain the blessings of freedom to foreign people while we deny them the freedom to cross our boundaries? Freedom of movement underlies the concept of private property rights. A person has the right to exclusive possession and use of that which he has assembled and improved without trespass against others -- the right to the product of his own labor. Any move of a man might be deemed proper and beneficial when he acts to assemble, transport, or otherwise convert the free gifts of Nature so that they may satisfy human needs more readily. This involves no infringement on the equal right of others. It would seem to be the kind of movement that should not be discouraged by man or by government...

http://tinyurl.com/aqub8


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://tinyurl.com/8vekc



Report from the ninth ward

Common Dreams
by Mary Beth Appell

12/07/05

The residents of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans were finally allowed to return home on December 1, 2005. The neighborhood is home to nearly 20,000 African-American citizens and was devastated by the flooding during and after Katrina. This was the very first time they were legally permitted to visit their homes. ... Everywhere else in New Orleans you can see people fixing roofs, clearing debris, working hard to reclaim their homes. But not in the Lower Ninth Ward which has been officially closed for three months and guarded by heavily armed army and police. Three months after the floods and hurricane, all the shelters are closed. People are coming back home and have nowhere to go. I heard that at most one quarter of the residents are here, the rest are spread out across the south and the country. I write because the Red Cross has been saying to potential volunteers, 'We don't need you in New Orleans. Go to Pakistan.' My experiences in New Orleans say otherwise...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1207-23.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Nation
by Robert Scheer

12/07/05

Call it Tonto's revenge: The outrageous rip-off of Native American tribes by a top Republican lobbyist is leading inexorably to a reckoning for the allegedly morally superior religious and political right. 'I don't think we have had something of this scope, arrogance and sheer venality in our lifetimes,' Norman J. Ornstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote in Roll Call. 'It is building to an explosion, one that could create immense collateral damage within Congress and in coming elections.' Selling firewater to the natives -- or in this case charging them $82 million for government breaks on slot machine and other gaming licenses -- is not exactly what the high-minded prophets of the Republican revolution promised. And to see behind the scenes as Christian right superstar Ralph Reed, bought off by top Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, dupes his grassroots 'pro-family' followers into unwittingly supporting casino-rich Indian tribes under the guise of anti-gambling initiatives, is to glimpse moral corruption of biblical proportions...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051219/scheer1207


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Human Events
by James Plummer

12/08/05

Originally conceived as a tool to facilitate international cooperation in the pursuit of computer hackers and the like, the Cybercrime Treaty evolved during 15 years of negotiations to encompass any criminal offense that involves electronic evidence -- which in the 21st century is essentially limitless. As written, it could require more surveillance on Americans who have been accused of violating the laws of foreign countries -- even if they haven't violated U.S. law. Treaty cheerleaders paint menacing pictures of hackers and child pornographers. But in reality the Convention is drafted so broadly that it encompasses virtually every area of law where the possibility exists of computerized evidence. That could affect thousands of innocent people, including not only political dissidents, but also the politically incorrect...

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10723


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Slate
by Jacob Weisberg

12/07/05

George W. Bush arrived in Washington avowing an end to all that. He promised he would never parse, shade, or play nice with the truth the way that Clinton had. But if Bush has shunned spinning, it has been in favor of something far more insidious. If the Clintonites were inveterate spinners, the Bushies have proved themselves to be thoroughgoing propagandists...

http://www.slate.com/id/2131768/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Gary Leupp

12/07/05

'I cannot support a mission that leads to corruption, human rights abuse, and liars. I am sullied. I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more.' Having written a last note, and placed it by his bed in his trailer on a U.S. military base near Baghdad, on the afternoon of June 5, 2005 Colonel Ted S. Westhusing put his 9-mm. service pistol to his head and blew his brains out. He was 44, survived by a wife and three young children. ... What's special about this case is that Westhusing was a specialist on ethics, a West Point graduate who had taken seriously its code that 'a cadet will not lie, cheat or steal -- or tolerate those who do,' who had received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Emory University for a dissertation on the meaning of honor, and returned to West Point to teach philosophy and English. He didn't kill himself because of battle stress or feelings of guilt following his role in a specific firefight. Looks like he put a bullet through his head because he felt the mission itself -- the war -- was dishonorable...

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp12072005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Chronicle

12/02/05

At many colleges, students flash a photo ID at a food-service worker to get into a dining hall. Things work differently at the University of Georgia, where Gavin Beck, a senior, places his hand on a sensor that determines if the person waiting to eat really is Gavin Beck. The process, which measures the size and shape of the hand, takes only a few seconds. 'No system is foolproof, but this is far more efficient for us than a photo-based system,' says J. Michael Floyd, director of food services at Georgia. The university is among the first to use the biometric technology widely, having relied on it in one form or another in its dining halls since 1974. Hand scanners, electronic fingerprint readers, even retina scanners are not just for super-spies in Hollywood movies anymore. The technology is increasingly being used by colleges to allow students, professors, and staff members to gain access to dining halls, laboratories, gyms, and other facilities on their campuses...

http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i15/15a02801.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Wired News

12/07/05

Although John Gilmore lives just five blocks from San Francisco's Department of Motor Vehicles, his driver's license is expired. On purpose.The outspoken, techno-hippie, wealthy civil libertarian doesn't want to give his Social Security number to the DMV. Neither will he show his driver's license at airports, or submit to routine security searches. This refusal to obey the rules led him to file suit against the Bush administration (Gilmore v. Gonzales) after being rebuffed at two different airports on July 4, 2002, when he tried to fly without showing identification. One airline offered to let Gilmore fly without showing ID, but only if he underwent more intensive security screening, which he declined. On Thursday, Gilmore and his lawyers will get 20 minutes in front of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to make their argument against identification requirements and government secrecy, in a case that time and shifting public opinion has transformed from a quirky millionaire's indignant protest into a closely watched test of the limitations of executive branch power...

http://tinyurl.com/7eoo8


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Consumer Affairs

12/07/05

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) mistakenly put thousands of unsuspecting airline passengers on a 'terrorist watch' list, according to one agency official. The individuals were 'selectees,' meaning they were singled out for additional screening and verification before boarding an airplane. CNET News reported that Jim Kennedy, TSA's director of 'redress,' revealed the error at a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 'privacy and integrity' committee meeting on Dec. 6th. Kennedy said that 30,000 people were categorized as 'selectees' for various reasons, including 'fitting a certain profile, flying on a one-way ticket, or being selected randomly by a computer'...

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/tsa_watch_list.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent [UK]

12/08/05

In three different British courtrooms yesterday, three ordinary people stood accused of three very different crimes, but all based simply on their opposition to the war in Iraq. In the first case of its kind, a woman received a criminal conviction for standing outside Downing Street and reading aloud the names of the 97 British soldiers who have died in the Iraq conflict. At the same time as Maya Evans, 25, appeared in court yesterday to become the first person to be found guilty under the legislation designed to create an exclusion zone around Parliament Square, Douglas Barker, 72, a retired businessman from Wiltshire, was told by a magistrate that he faces jail for withholding part of his income tax on his investments, also in protest over Iraq. In a third courtroom in Aldershot, a military judge heard that Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, 37, an RAF medical officer based in Scotland, faced a court martial for refusing to serve in Iraq on the basis that the war was illegal...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article331782.ece


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.testticker.de/pcpro/news/security/news20051208008.aspx

Deutsche Unternehmen vernachlässigen die Sicherheit ihrer Funknetzwerke
http://www.rbi-aktuell.de/cms/front_content.php?client=1&lang=1&idcat=30&idart=2916

--------

Strahlend ins Internet - WLAN
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1054573/

West Midlands & Stafford Express and Star

Dec 7, 2005

Religious leaders have rejected concerns about the health of Black Country schoolchildren to allow a mobile phone mast to be set up.

The Ancient Arches Court of Canterbury has overturned a ruling that blocked plans by Emmanuel Church, Walsall, to allow a mast to be installed in its tower.

It is believed the church will earn around £6,000 a year in rent by allowing communication companies to place masts in or on its tower. The ruling follows a near 18-month campaign by nearby schools King Charles Primary and Bentley West Primary.

Staff and parents objected on the grounds the mast could damage the health of youngsters.

The case for and against was put to the country's top ecclesiastical court at a one-day hearing in September.

The decision has just been revealed.

--------

Churches and Cell Towers
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1296809/

This is the North East

08.12.05

ALMOST 200 people have objected to plans for a 52ft mobile phone mast at the entrance to a town.

Objectors say the controversial plan has galvanised residents into action because it would ruin an attractive view of Masham, near Ripon.

Mobile phone company Airwave MM02 has applied to Harrogate Borough Council for planning permission for the mast.

A decision will be made by the council's head of planning services, Tim Richards, and planning committee chairman Councillor Nigel Simms, who represents Masham on the council.

The decision will be made on December 19 and the deadline for objections is tomorrow. Nearly 200 objections have been received by Masham Community Office, which is co-ordinating responses and sending them to the borough council.

Masham Parish Council vice-chairwoman Flo Grainger said: "I am very pleased and surprised by the numbers of objections.

"The mast plan has brought so many objections because it would have a widespread impact and ruin the view of Masham."

The company, which said the mast was needed to improve police communications, plans to site it on a grass verge near Low Burton Hall, at the junction of the B6267 and A6108, from Bedale and Ripon.

Councillor Grainger said campaigners against the mast had been boosted by news that the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Beauty administration plans to object.

Apart from the mast's impact, residents are also concerned that the planned site is at an accident blackspot and on a gateway to the Yorkshire Dales.

Masham Parish Council has tabled a strong protest.

Its chairman, Councillor Andy Burrell, said: "This is not the place for a mobile phone mast.

"We could not object more strongly to this unwanted plan."

--------

This is yet another TETRA addition after O2 Airwave's V-P declared early this year that no more masts were needed (for police or any other service user yet to take it up) in support of the Firelink bid.

One objection to this mast might be to prove that it is needed, in the light of O2 Airwave's public statement that it would not be needed.

Andy

--------

Thanks for this Andy.

Next question: what happens to the much-publicised high-security encryption claimed for Airwave - so that people can't eavesdrop on confidential police communications?

This article makes it very clear that highly confidential information from the Police National Computer, as well as confidential emails, will be going over the ordinary public network. So what about all that concern for security that made Airwave so essential???

The whole thing is an utter (black) farce. If the Airwave contract had been awarded by a private company, rather than an arm of government, heads would be rolling at the very highest level in the boardrooms of that company. But since in this case we, the public, are the 'shareholders' of UK PLC, who's going to care?

I think it would be naive to rule out some sort of hidden agenda - there are more surprises in store yet (for those of us who haven't gone beyond being surprised by anything about this fiasco).

Grahame

--------

And what's more, reviewing what Rohill is saying about TETRA in Germany, Spain and Netherlands, they are waiting for TETRA standard 2 in order to provide end-to-end encryption. Either they are wrong, or Airwave is not fully end-to-end as stated and believed by our police forces.

Andy

--------

... And I recall reading in an earlier 'Computing' article that many (probably most) of the handsets currently in use will not support TETRA Standard 2, and will therefore need replacing. And I doubt that Airwave handsets are given away free with the coco-pops.

The beat goes on ...

Grahame

The Comet 08.12.05

A CONTROVERSIAL phone mast originally installed without planning permission and then allowed to remain temporarily could end up staying where it is for over 18 months.

The mast, situated by the terraces at Hitchin Town football ground in Fishponds Road, was installed by Vodafone in October last year.

The company then applied for permission and was told it could keep the mast there until April 2005.

But the mast has remained at the site since this deadline passed and Vodafone is now asking to be allowed to keep it there for another six months.

The company claims the site is needed to give coverage to west Hitchin and Ickleford until it finds a permanent solution.

If the new planning permission is granted the mast could remain at the football ground until either May or June next year, a move which is likely to prove unpopular with residents of nearby roads.

One resident, of Lancaster Avenue, has already written to North Herts District Council to object to the plan.

The resident insists the mast should have been removed and complains that it is visible from her sitting room and that it is not built on a brownfield site but on common land used for sport.

The matter is due to be discussed by the Hitchin Committee of NHDC next Tuesday.

Councillor Martin Stears, who represents Hitchin Bearton ward on the council, told The Comet: "It's a matter of concern that unless things have changed that we should not see it as a backdoor for something permanent when that's not appropriate.

"We have to look at the whole application from both sides and make a proper judgement on the night."

The Comet contacted Vodafone for a comment but they had not responded by the time the paper went to press.

Sidney Blumenthal asserts that Condoleezza Rice's contradictory, misleading and outright false statements about the US and torture have taken America's moral standing - and her own - to new depths.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805Z.shtml

The Citizen, Gloucester

09:30 - 08 December 2005

City planners have been urged to make a stand against the number of phone masts being set up in Gloucester.

Two applications were put forward at a meeting of the city council's planning committee on Tuesday evening. Both were submitted by telecommunications giant O2 (UK) Ltd, to erect 15 metre tall structures in Painswick Road.

The council can only turn down plans if it can prove the siting and appearance of the mast is unreasonable.

No health issues can be considered in any application and, if the council rejects a proposal, it could face large costs if the decision is overturned on appeal.

The first planned mast, on a grass verge outside Saintbridge RFC in Matson, was granted permission after councillors admitted they could not find a planning reason to reject the proposals.

However, the plans for the second mast, on a grass verge on land between Painswick Road and Briar Lane in Abbeydale, met with more opposition.

City actress Jean Carlin, who lives near the proposed site, spoke against the plans.

She said: "Soon people will not even be able to talk to each other, before too long everyone will just walk around speaking into these stupid little machines.

"This is a serious matter and I believe it is up to people like you to get the ball rolling and to say enough is enough."

Coun Andrew Gravells, who represents the Abbeydale area on the city council, also spoke against the plans.

He said: "I am upset by this application. The site slopes quite significantly and the impact of placing a 15 metre tall mast here would be massive upon many people in Abbeydale."

Coun Gravells added that he believed a more suitable site away from nearby houses could be found for the mast.

Coun Mary Smith, a member of the committee, agreed, saying: "We need to send a clear message that putting a mast in the middle of a residential area is not acceptable when just 100 yards up the road the houses are far more scattered."

The committee decided to refuse planning permission on the grounds that the mast would spoil the amenity of the surrounding area and would be situated on one of the main approaches to the city.

The Worst and Dumbest
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/douglas3.html

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3737/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.who.int/features/2005/health_survey/en/
http://www.who.int/features/2005/health_survey/form/en/index.html

I have received this - I think we should all contact WHO and let them know just what we think of them!

Cheers

Sylvia

--------

WHO, EMF, Electromagnetic Radiation and Mobile Phones
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1194586/

Beobachter 25/05

Text: Thomas Grether
Bild: Igor Kravarik

Haben Sie Schlafprobleme? Ist Ihr Mann ein extremer Schnarcher? Elektrosmog in den eigenen vier Wänden könnte schuld daran sein.
Nicht nur Handys und Mobilfunkantennen verursachen Elektrosmog. Auch Haarföhn, Fernseher, Radios, Lampen und Stromkabel bauen in der Wohnung elektrische und magnetische Wechselfelder auf. Die Menschen nehmen diese elektrischen Felder wie eine Antenne auf und stehen deswegen buchstäblich unter Spannung.

«Das ist besonders dann der Fall, wenn die Menschen keinen Kontakt zum Boden haben, zum Beispiel im Bett», sagt Elektrosmog-Spezialist Josef Peter von der Firma MPA Engineering in Effretikon ZH. Peter misst und saniert seit Jahren mit Elektrosmog belastete Wohnungen. «Wir prüfen neben der Stärke des elektrischen Felds immer auch die Körperspannung.»

Im Körper bewirken die Felder künstliche Wirbelströme, Stromflüsse sowie Zell- und Nervenreize. «Der Elektrosmog greift in biologische Prozesse ein und verändert sie», sagt Peter. Das bekam auch Elisabeth Kiefer aus Volketswil ZH zu spüren: «Ich hatte massive Schlafprobleme. Zudem litt ich unter hohem Blutdruck und musste dagegen Medikamente nehmen», sagt sie.

In Kiefers Schlafzimmer mass Peter eine elektrische Feldstärke von 7 Volt pro Meter; der von Baubiologen und Medizinern empfohlene Höchstwert liegt bei 0,1 Volt. Kiefers Körper stand mit über 7000 Millivolt unter Spannung – 350fach über dem Richtwert von 20 Millivolt.

Die Auswirkungen sind anerkannt

Die Europäische Union stellte bereits 1997 fest, dass Menschen auf Elektrosmog mit verschiedensten Symptomen reagieren: unter anderem mit Schlafproblemen, Hautausschlägen, Hormon- und Nervenstörungen, Verdauungs- und Herz-Kreislauf-Beschwerden sowie Augen- und Ohrenproblemen. Und die Weltgesundheitsorganisation schrieb im Februar 2003: «Das Phänomen der Elektrosensibilität ist klar anerkannt.»

Bewusst wahrnehmen können Menschen indes nur einen kleinen Bereich des elektromagnetischen Spektrums: Wärme und Licht. Handys und Schnurlostelefone senden mit digitalen elektromagnetischen Wellen. Zu Hause gilt es auch zu unterscheiden zwischen elektrischen Feldern, die als Folge der elektrischen Spannung von Geräten entstehen, und magnetischen Feldern infolge fliessenden Stroms.

Wenn der Handwerker nicht erdet

Elektrische Felder sind in der Lage, sich meterweit auszudehnen. Laut Elektrosmog-Spezialist Josef Peter sind die Verursacher oft versteckt. Die Felder entstehen wegen der elektrischen Spannung von Kabeln in Wänden, Leitungen und Steckdosen. «Und zwar auch dann, wenn Geräte eingesteckt, aber ausgeschaltet sind. Ich habe Häuser untersucht, in denen ganze Böden unter Spannung standen», sagt Peter. Ursache seien Geräte und Leitungen, die von Hand- oder Heimwerkern falsch installiert oder nicht geerdet worden sind.

Elisabeth Kiefer entfernte auf Rat von Experte Peter den Radiowecker und das digitale DECT-Schnurlostelefon aus dem Schlafzimmer.

Weiter unter:
http://www.beobachter.ch/asset_9587.asp?session=E6DCF491-6BCD-450D-B1A4-5F8154E4B43F