Archive for July 24, 2010
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Lockerbie: Megrahi Was Framed – John Pilger
By John Pilger
September 04, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — The hysteria over the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber reveals much about the political and media class on both sides of the Atlantic, especially Britain. From Gordon Brown’s “repulsion” to Barack Obama’s “outrage,” the theater of lies and hypocrisy is dutifully attended by those who call themselves journalists. “But what if Megrahi lives longer than three months?” whined a BBC reporter to the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond. “What will you say to your constituents, then?”
Horror of horrors that a dying man should live longer than prescribed before he “pays” for his “heinous crime”: the description of the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, whose “compassion” allowed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to go home to Libya to “face justice from a higher power.” Amen.
The American satirist Larry David once addressed a voluble crony as “a babbling brook of bullsh*t.” Such eloquence summarizes the circus of Megrahi’s release.
No one in authority has had the guts to state the truth about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the Scottish village of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 in which 270 people were killed. The governments in England and Scotland in effect blackmailed Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his immediate release. Of course there were oil and arms deals under way with Libya; but had Megrahi proceeded with his appeal, some 600 pages of new and deliberately suppressed evidence would have set the seal on his innocence and given us more than a glimpse of how and why he was stitched up for the benefit of “strategic interests.”
“The endgame came down to damage limitation,” said the former CIA officer Robert Baer, who took part in the original investigation, “because the evidence amassed by [Megrahi's] appeal is explosive and extremely damning to the system of justice.” New witnesses would show that it was impossible for Megrahi to have bought clothes that were found in the wreckage of the Pan Am aircraft – he was convicted on the word of a Maltese shopowner who claimed to have sold him the clothes, then gave a false description of him in 19 separate statements and even failed to recognize him in the courtroom.
The new evidence would have shown that a fragment of a circuit board and bomb timer, “discovered” in the Scottish countryside and said to have been in Megrahi’s suitcase, was probably a plant. A forensic scientist found no trace of an explosion on it. The new evidence would demonstrate the impossibility of the bomb beginning its journey in Malta before it was “transferred” through two airports undetected to Flight 103.
A “key secret witness” at the original trial, who claimed to have seen Megrahi and his co-accused al-Alim Khalifa Fahimah (who was acquitted) loading the bomb on to the plane at Frankfurt, was bribed by the US authorities holding him as a “protected witness.” The defense exposed him as a CIA informer who stood to collect, on the Libyans’ conviction, up to $4m as a reward.
Megrahi was convicted by three Scottish judges sitting in a courtroom in “neutral” Holland. There was no jury. One of the few reporters to sit through the long and often farcical proceedings was the late Paul Foot, whose landmark investigation in Private Eye exposed it as a cacophony of blunders, deceptions and lies: a whitewash. The Scottish judges, while admitting a “mass of conflicting evidence” and rejecting the fantasies of the CIA informer, found Megrahi guilty on hearsay and unproven circumstance. Their 90-page “opinion,” wrote Foot, “is a remarkable document that claims an honored place in the history of British miscarriages of justice.” (Lockerbie – the Flight from Justice by Paul Foot can be downloaded from the Private Eye website for £5).
Foot reported that most of the staff of the US embassy in Moscow who had reserved seats on Pan Am flights from Frankfurt canceled their bookings when they were alerted by US intelligence that a terrorist attack was planned. He named Margaret Thatcher the “architect” of the cover-up after revealing that she killed the independent inquiry her transport secretary Cecil Parkinson had promised the Lockerbie families; and in a phone call to President George Bush Sr. on 11 January 1990, she agreed to “low-key” the disaster after their intelligence services had reported “beyond doubt” that the Lockerbie bomb had been placed by a Palestinian group contracted by Tehran as a reprisal for the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by a US warship in Iranian territorial waters. Among the 290 dead were 66 children. In 1990, the ship’s captain was awarded the Legion of Merit by Bush Sr. “for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer.”
Perversely, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991, Bush needed Iran’s support as he built a “coalition” to expel his wayward client from an American oil colony. The only country that defied Bush and backed Iraq was Libya. “Like lazy and overfed fish,” wrote Foot, “the British media jumped to the bait. In almost unanimous chorus, they engaged in furious vilification and op-ed warmongering against Libya.” The framing of Libya for the Lockerbie crime was inevitable. Since then, a US defense intelligence agency report, obtained under Freedom of Information, has confirmed these truths and identified the likely bomber; it was to be centerpiece of Megrahi’s defense.
In 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred Megrahi’s case for appeal. “The commission is of the view,” said its chairman, Dr. Graham Forbes, “that based upon our lengthy investigations, the new evidence we have found and other evidence which was not before the trial court, that the applicant may have suffered a miscarriage of justice.”
The words “miscarriage of justice” are missing entirely from the current furor, with Kenny MacAskill reassuring the baying mob that the scapegoat will soon face justice from that “higher power.” What a disgrace.
Anger Rises Over U.S. Tax Dollars for Settlements
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH, Jul 24, 2010 (IPS) – Anger has arisen in Palestinian areas over reports that millions of tax-exempt dollars from the U.S. are being funneled towards Israel’s illegal settlement building in the Palestinian West Bank — in flagrant violation of international law.
This is happening under the nose of the U.S. administration despite its claims of support for a two-state solution and criticism of Israel’s continued settlement building.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) based in Ramallah has expressed outrage. “Adhering to international law is a big step towards holding Israel accountable for its actions,” PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib told IPS from the Muqata (government) headquarters in Ramallah.
“Settlements violate international law, and the United States is supposed to be sponsoring a two-state solution, yet it gives deductions for donation to the settlements,” said Saeb Erekat the PA’s chief negotiator.
According to a recent report in The New York Times 40 U.S. groups have raised more than 200 million dollars in tax-deductable donations for Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the last ten years. U.S. tax rules prohibit the use of charitable funds for political purposes at home or abroad.
But U.S. tax laws encourage citizens to support non-profit groups whose ideologies might diverge from official government policy as long as their missions are educational, religious or charitable. Religious groups have no obligation to divulge their finances, meaning settlements may be receiving sums that cannot be traced.
Direct donations to foreign charities are illegal but the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows donations to U.S. non-profit organisations which support charitable projects abroad. This is how many “clearing house companies” based in the U.S. are able to send the money to help finance and support the settlements.
The money has also financed items which might well be illegal under international law, such as guard dogs, bulletproof vests, rifle scopes and vehicles to secure outposts and settlements.
There are currently half a million Israeli settlers in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. All of the settlements are illegal under international law and are in violation of various UN resolutions.
Although a lot of the tax-exempt money has gone towards supporting West Bank settlements, which although illegal under international law are legal under Israeli law, money has also gone towards the outposts which are illegal even under Israeli law.
“Friends of Itimar is an American organisation which provides tax-exempt funds for the Itimar settlement near Nablus in the northern West Bank. Friends of Bet El likewise support the Bet El settlement near Ramallah,” Hagit Ofran from Israel’s Peace Now movement which monitors Israeli settlements told IPS.
Both settlements have built outposts.
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America vs the rest of the world
As far back as 1987, We, The People, vetoed United Nations Calls on Israel to simply abide by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of the Palestinians.
No more than that. Just abide by them.
And We, The People said, “NO” to the Geneva Convention Rules.
I thought everyone went by those rules. Everyone.
Not really:
Not us.
(Below is a list of UN resolutions vetoed by We, The People of the United States of America as well as resolutions in the General Assembly of the United Nations where the USA vote is against the majority of the world.
We used our veto over 70 times during the 20th century. On the majority of occasions, we vetoed resolutions that were favoured by the majority of the rest of the world’s nations.
Check our voting record: www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa03.html)
Do not simply believe anything on this site.
Always check for yourself.
Treat the stories and quotes in these pages as pointers to find out more.
Learn to think for yourself, check all information sources.
Check out how many times your representatives voted against your interests, here at home
AND THEN VOTE THEM OUT
Researchers confirm subsea Gulf oil plumes are from BP well
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Through a chemical fingerprinting process, University of South Florida researchers have definitively linked clouds of underwater oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico to BP’s runaway Deepwater Horizon well — the first direct scientific link between the subsurface oil clouds commonly known as “plumes” and the BP oil spill, USF officials said Friday.
Until now, scientists had circumstantial evidence, but lacked that definitive scientific link.
The announcement came on the same day that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that its researchers have confirmed the existence of the subsea plumes at depths of 3,300 to 4,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf. NOAA said its detection equipment also implicated the BP well in the plumes’ creation.
Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA’s chief — that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.
“What we have learned completely changes the idea of what an oil spill is,” said chemical oceanographer David Hollander, one of three USF researchers credited with the matching samples of oil taken from the water with samples from the BP well. “It has gone from a two-dimensional disaster to a three-dimensional catastrophe.”
The other scientists involved in making the link, USF said, were biological oceanographer Ernst Peebles and geological oceanographer David Naar.
The finding is important because oil that escaped from the mile-deep, blown-out well had been treated with dispersants, which broke the oil in the water column into tiny droplets, and therefore did not form an oil slick at the surface, said Richard H. Pierce, senior scientist and director of the Center for Ecotoxicology at Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory.
“It’s more readily taken up and absorbed and ingested by marine animals,” he explained.
Although dispersed oil degrades more quickly over the long-run, in the short-term, it poses a more toxic threat to marine life, Pierce said.
“So, we’ve been very concerned, and it is critical USF has verified it,” he said.
The full report was not released Friday, but will be available sometime next week, USF spokeswoman Vickie Chachere said.
BP declined to comment on the USF discovery. “We have only seen media reports, and have not yet seen the report and underlying data,” BP spokesman Phil Cochrane said in an e-mail.
US Senate drops bill to cap carbon emissions
Plan to charge large polluters abandoned in favour of narrower legislation focusing on increasing firms’ liability for oil spills
Senate Democrats hope to pass a narrower energy bill next week that would increase the liability of companies for oil spills, for instance in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features
A major climate change bill that would have capped carbon emissions has been abandoned by Democrats in the US Senate in the face of opposition from both sides of the house.
Under pressure from falling popularity ratings, Barack Obama had hoped the bill would add to the two biggest legislative successes of his presidency: the comprehensive health care bill and reform of the US banking and financial sector.
Democrats have been trying to pass a plan that charges power plants, manufacturers and other large polluters for their carbon dioxide emissions, the leading contributor to global warming, for more than a year. But it ran into opposition from Republican senators, as well as Democrats eager not to jeopardise their chances in November’s midterm elections.
Republicans said the bill would create a “national energy tax”, warning costs would be passed to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills and fuel costs that would lead manufacturers to take their factories overseas, putting jobs at risk.
The failure to pass sweeping energy legislation is likely to weaken the US negotiating position heading into the international climate negotiations in Mexico at the end of the year.
Democrats hope to instead pass a narrower energy bill next week that would increase the liability of companies for oil spills in the light of public anger towards BP over the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
The Most Effective Weapon of Every Arbitrary Government
by Becky Akers
Government Security News reports that “the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now interested in acquiring portable versions of [advanced imaging technology (AIT) systems] which could be transported anywhere to quickly establish ‘high throughput security checkpoints.’” Translation: the vile scanners at airports that allow screeners to peer through our clothing at our bare bodies aren’t staying in airports.
Soon they’ll be popping up in bus, subway, and ferry stations. Look for them to spread as well to public schools, courthouses, post offices, bureaucracies such as Social Security and Departments of Motor Vehicles, the banks and hospitals our rulers increasingly control, and perhaps one day every intersection and sidewalk. Indeed, you may not even realize that officials are violating you since the next generation of these contraptions digitally divest crowds of their clothing collectively from a distance rather than requiring victims to pose one at a time after entering a booth.
Often compared to Superman’s X-ray vision, this technology first cursed the world in the 1990′s. Its clients were primarily “correctional and prison facilities, … military zones, … and border crossings,” where the subjects of the humiliating and dangerous scans (we’re talking radiation, after all – but without the lead apron your dentist provides) had little or no choice about their exposure.
Ditto for one of its newer customers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The Feds hatched this Orwellian monster in 2002 when they nationalized American aviation’s “security.” And though most taxpayers associate the agency with airports alone, its “mission” actually encompasses “the Nation’s transportation systems” – proving Jefferson’s thesis that “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild [sic], and government to gain ground.”
The TSA has already invaded subways, ferries and busses. In fact, it’s even barred dissidents-sorry, it’s even screened those attending political conventions. But far from “protecting” us, these generalized searches instead train us to expect that the State’s lackeys can and will grope us whenever and wherever they please, without a warrant or even the slightest suspicion.
The agency has also taught us to submit to its outrages without so much as a sigh by savagely and immediately punishing those few passengers who dare complain. Now that most serfs have learned that lesson, now that they recite – all together now -”If it keeps us safer, than [sic] I’m all for it,” the TSA has taken the next step: stripping us naked.
House OK’s possible Israeli raid on Iran
The US Congress
Republicans in the US House of Representatives have introduced a measure that would green-light a possible Israeli bombing campaign against Iran.
Resolution 1553 provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress backs Israel’s use of ‘all means necessary’ against Iran, “including the use of military force.”
The introduction of the measure coincides with a pattern of renewed calls for military strikes that have escalated since President Obama signed Congressional Iran sanctions into law.
Neoconservatives who were instrumental in orchestrating the Iraq War, such as Bill Kristol and Reuel Marc Gerecht, have led the stepped up calls for military action.
Hawkish former Bush Administration official John Bolton recently laid out the game plan to prod Israel into attacking Iran, arguing that outsiders can ‘create broad support’ for a strike by framing it as an issue of Israel’s right to self-defense.
Supporters for military strikes, Bolton says, should “defend the specific tactic of pre-emptive attacks” against Iran.
He said that Congress can ‘make it clear’ that it supports such strikes and that ‘having visible congressional support in place at the outset will reassure’ Israel.
In spite of support from the neocons, top US military leaders have warned of the many dangers of military strikes against Iran.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has argued “Another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need. In fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels.”
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has expressed his own serious reservations about an attack on Iran.
The US, which is already providing billions of dollars worth of arms to Israel every year, describes Tel Aviv’s military edge in the region as being in America’s interest.
7.3 magnitude quake hits Philippines
A 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck the Philippines’ Moro Gulf.
The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 6:08 a.m. local time on Saturday (2208 GMT Friday), was 106 kilometers (66 miles) off the coastal city of Cotabato, Mindanao, and 923 kilometers (573 miles) southeast of Manila.
The underwater quake struck at a depth of 595 km (361 miles).
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the temblor was an aftershock of an earlier earthquake. The initial quake that preceded the aftershock had a magnitude of 6.9, the USGS said.
The USGS initially announced that the aftershock had a magnitude of 7.5.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no tsunami was generated by the quake.
No damage reports have been issued so far.
The Philippines’ location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the archipelago prone to earthquakes and typhoons.
Around 20 earthquakes are registered daily in the Philippines, though most are too weak to be felt.
Scientific study shows soaring cancer rates in Fallujah; DU suspected
A new epidemiological study published by the International Journal of Environmental Studies and Public Health (IJERPH) reports that “the people of Fallujah are experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and sexual mutations than those recorded among survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the years after those Japanese cities were incinerated by U.S. atomic bomb strikes in 1945,” WSWS said Friday.[1] – “In a study of 711 houses and 4,843 individuals carried out in January and February 2010, authors Chris Busby, Malak Hamdan, Entesar Ariabi and a team of researchers found that the cancer rate had increased fourfold since before the U.S. attack five years ago, and that the forms of cancer in Fallujah are similar to those found among the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors, who were exposed to intense fallout radiation,” Tom Eley reported. – “In Fallujah the rate of leukemia is 38 times higher, the childhood cancer rate is 12 times higher, and breast cancer is 10 times more common than in populations in Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait. Heightened levels of adult lymphoma and brain tumors were also reported. At 80 deaths out of every 1,000 births, the infant mortality rate in Fallujah is more than five times higher than in Egypt and Jordan, and eight times higher than in Kuwait.” – Also on Friday, Iran’s Press TV quoted the Kuwait News Agency in reporting that after a joint Iraqi study said there were communities near the cities of Najaf, Basra and Fallujah with increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years, U.K. Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons on Thursday that “U.K. forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003.”[2] – A Google News search shows that, as usual, there is virtually no coverage of this news in any Western mainstream media outlet (Australia World News is an exception). – In the journal abstract, the authors write that “the results seem to qualitatively support the existence of serious mutation-related health effects in Fallujah.”[3] – The full article is available here as an 81KB PDF file. – BACKGROUND: For the legal case that U.S. use of depleted uranium and the destruction of Fallujah were crimes of war, see a Nov. 20, 2007, lecture by Prof. Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign….
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