Qualcosa per il weekend

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Qualcosa per il weekend

Non che uno debba leggersi 5000 pagine nel finesettimana, ma finalmente sono state rese pubbliche le trascrizioni delle testimonianze dei detenuti di Guantanamo (File *.pdf) davanti al Tribunale di revisione dello status dei combattenti. Almeno un'occhiata preliminare è consigliatissima. Poi ci penso io a fare un Guantanamo digest.
Sono stati resi noti anche i nomi: tempo fa il giudice federale Jed Rackoff aveva infatti respinto l'obiezione dell'amministrazione secondo la quale si sarebbe violata la privacy dei prigionieri.

Filed in: Guantanamo Usa

posted by mirumir at 3/04/2006

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It's an Arab, Arab world

"'Credo che un Pakistan prospero e democratico sarà un partner affidabile per l'America, un vicino pacifico per l'India, e una forza nel promuovere la libertà e la moderazione nel mondo arabo,' ha aggiunto il presidente.

In seguito il segretario dell'ufficio stampa della Casa Bianca Scott McClellan ha spiegato ai giornalisti che Bush intendeva dire che il Pakistan sarebbe stato una forza nel mondo musulmano. Il Pakistan non è un paese arabo."

Ehm.

Fonte: msnbc

posted by mirumir at 3/03/2006

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Libro illustrato rimosso dalla sezione bambini nelle Biblioteche Pubbliche
di Savannah e St. Joseph in northwest Missouri.

Genitori sono arrabbiati perché il libro sui pinguini maschi, Roy e Silo, che adottano un uovo abbandonato … potrebbe rendere i loro bambini gay.

written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

Parents Complain About Book's Undertones
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 4, 2006

SAVANNAH, Mo. -- A children's book about two male penguins that raise a baby penguin has been moved to the nonfiction section of two public library branches after parents complained it had homosexual undertones.

The illustrated book, "And Tango Makes Three," is based on a true story of two male penguins, named Roy and Silo, who adopted an abandoned egg at New York City's Central Park Zoo in the late 1990s.

The book, written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, was moved from the children's section at two Rolling Hills' Consolidated Library's branches in Savannah and St. Joseph in northwest Missouri.

Two parents had expressed concerns about the book last month.

Barbara Read, the Rolling Hills' director, said experts report that adoptions aren't unusual in the penguin world. However, moving the book to the nonfiction section would decrease the chance that it would "blindside" readers, she said.

Washingtonpost

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Graphic shows number of closed criminal cases in the federal district courts system that have sealed records, 2003 through 2005. (AP Graphic)

AP: Thousands of Federal Cases Kept Secret
AP: More Than 5,000 Federal Defendants' Cases Kept Secret, Despite Guarantee of Public Trials
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN and JOHN SOLOMON
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years. Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.

An Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains with the government.

Most of these defendants are involved in drug gangs, though lately a very small number come from terrorism cases. Some of these cooperating witnesses are among the most unsavory characters in America's courts multiple murderers and drug dealers but the public cannot learn whether their testimony against confederates won them drastically reduced prison sentences or even freedom.

In the nation's capital, which has had a serious problem with drug gangs murdering government witnesses, the secrecy has reached another level the use of secret dockets. For hundreds of such defendants over the past few years in this city, should someone acquire the actual case number for them and enter it in the U.S. District Court's computerized record system, the computer will falsely reply, "no such case" rather than acknowledging that it is a sealed case.

At the request of the AP, the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts conducted its first tally of secrecy in federal criminal cases. The nationwide data it provided the AP showed 5,116 defendants whose cases were completed in 2003, 2004 and 2005, but the bulk of their records remain secret.

"The constitutional presumption is for openness in the courts, but we have to ask whether we are really honoring that," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "What are the reasons for so many cases remaining under seal?"

"What makes the American criminal justice system different from so many others in the world is our willingness to cast some sunshine on the process, but if you can't see it, you can't really criticize it," Levenson said.

ABC News

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Rice: No sanctions for now Photo: AP
Rice: No Iran sanctions for now
U.S. Secretary of State says Security Council unlikely to impose Iran sanctions at this stage
Click: Reuters


Iran: Sunday Times, Forze Israeliane Infiltrate Cercano Siti Nucleari
ADN Kronos - Dom 5 Mar,

Londra, 5 mar . - (Adnkronos) - Forze speciali israeliane si sarebbero infiltrate in Iran ''nel tentativo urgente di localizzare i siti segreti per l'arricchimento dell'uranio''. E' quanto rivela il ''Sunday Times'', che cita una fonte dell'intelligence dello Stato ebraico: ''Abbiamo trovato molti siti sospetti lo scorso anno, ma ce ne devono essere altri''. Le forze israeliane starebbero operando da una base nel nord dell'Iraq, controllata da decine di militari dello Stato ebraico con l'approvazione dei militari americani.

Pap/Zn/Adnkronos

IRAN, News Yahoo

[aprile crudele]

Arguti ed utilissimi questi "reader's digest" di bludanube

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Dubai & Dubya in dash for lifeboat
Bush team urges firm to get a U.S. partner
BY THOMAS T. DeFRANK and KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
published on March 4, 2006

WASHINGTON - The White House is quietly pushing a Dubai company to "significantly restructure" and partner up with a U.S. outfit to keep the port deal from sinking, sources told the Daily News yesterday.

Sarà mica la … Halliburton ?!

NYDailynews.com exclusive

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U.S. panel objects to software handover to Israeli firm
By: Associated Press
Published: March 2, 2006

Days after the Bush administration approved a ports deal involving the United Arab Emirates, the same review panel privately notified an Israeli software company it faced a rare, full-blown investigation over its plans to buy a smaller U.S. rival.

The company was told U.S. officials feared the transaction could endanger some of the government's most sensitive computer systems.

The objections by the FBI and Pentagon were partly over specialized intrusion detection software known as "Snort", which guards some classified U.S. military and intelligence computers.

Snort's author is a senior executive at Sourcefire Inc., which would be sold to publicly traded Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. in Ramat Gan, Israel.

3A Jabotinsky St. Ramat-Gan 52520,Israel

israelinsider

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Prof. Ilan Pappe (Haifa Univ.) on the Israel-Palestine conflict
Prof. Pappe speaks about Zionism, the Palestinian Nakba, teaching the truth in Israel, the desirability of a one-state solution, Israel-Palestinian labor relations and divestment.

“ Penso che il neo - conservatorismo sia principalmente un prodotto della guerra fredda e penso che come accaduto nell'Israele, così negli Stati Uniti, della gente trae molto giovamento economicamente, sociologico, politicamente, da una situazione di conflitto che comincia con i produttori delle armi e si conclude con la gente che ha la presa sull’apparato decisionale (decision-making apparatus) in nome della sicurezza nazionale. E naturalmente tutto questo era perso nel senso che quando l'Unione Sovietica è sprofondata, la guerra fredda si è conclusa. E penso che questo gruppo di persone stesse cercando un nuovo spettro, una nuova minaccia contro la sicurezza nazionale degli Stati Uniti e li hanno trovati a causa dell'influenza molto forte, io penso, dell'Israele fra le altre cose, nel mondo arabo e nel mondo islamico. Naturalmente, i movimenti islamici quale Al-Qaeda non hanno aiutato. Hanno fornito il pretesto ed il contesto e persino la spinta per queste idee ulteriormente. E che abbiamo adesso è le stesse persone, a next generation, chi farebbe tutto il possibile per perpetuare il conflitto, perché traggono beneficio dal conflitto. Traggono beneficio dalle situazioni di guerra, dei conflitti e così via e penso che sia questo la cosa che fa possibile la loro stretta sul potere decisionale in politica americana nel mondo nel suo insieme ed in Medio Oriente in particolare.”

informationclearinghouse

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waynemadsenreport



At heart of Dubai scandal: Taliban and Al Qaeda weapons smuggler and U.S. contractor Viktor Bout
Click: PBS

March 3, 2006 -- The Israeli, Dubai, Chertoff connection -- its just the tip of the Russian-Israeli mafia and "Al Qaeda" iceberg. Michael Brown, the former head of FEMA, deserves credit for blowing the whistle on the "agenda" of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. For years, a handful of prosecutors, FBI agents, and investigative journalists have stressed the connections between Russian-Israeli mafia tycoons, weapons and diamond smugglers, and terrorist networks associated with "Al Qaeda" and affiliated organizations. Yet, it is the much-maligned Brown, a one-time GOP operative and "golden boy," who has taken the initiative to call for Chertoff's firing and a complete overhaul of the Homeland Security Department. Even in these strange times, this is an amazing turn of events and begs the question of what Brown knows about Chertoff and his connections to Dubai and covering up terrorist investigations. Brown is in the unique position of being aware of Dubai's major role in horse racing (and possibly money laundering) and being briefed on various maritime and other terrorist threats as head of FEMA. Which means that Brown may have enough information to be very dangerous to the Bush crime family.

Chertoff is a long-time GOP political hack and neo-con operative. He was the Special Counsel for the Senate "Whitewater" Committee from 1994 to 1996, a costly effort to create a political scandal for President Clinton and Hillary Clinton where there was no scandal. Hillary Clinton, to her credit, cast the lone vote against Chertoff's confirmation as a federal judge in 2003. There is one thing that Hillary Clinton and Michael Brown agree on -- they both despise Chertoff. And with good reason.