Revealed: Secret meeting where French President offered Blair EU President jobTony Blair has been accused of 'knifing' Gordon Brown by holding secret discussions about a job as the first ever President of the European Union.
The Prime Minister was entertained in Paris by new French president Nicolas Sarkozy at an upmarket restaurant called Thiou, where they agreed a joint agenda on Europe.
French political sources have confirmed that President Sarkozy is keen for Mr Blair to take on a full-time paid role as the 'face' of the EU after he quits... (more)
|
|
Connecticut for Lieberman Party Chairman Calls for Lieberman to ResignWASHINGTON — Connecticut for Lieberman Party Chairman John Orman called Tuesday for Sen. Joe Lieberman to resign, saying his advocacy of a military strike against Iran could explode into a global conflict.
"He has crossed the line," said Orman, a professor of politics at Fairfield University. "His unilateral warmongering could lead to a new World War III."
During an appearance on "Face the Nation" on CBS Sunday, Lieberman said the United States should consider... (more)
|
|
Life in a CIA Torture CenterLate last week the Council of Europe released a report (.pdf) on the CIA's secret prisons in Eastern Europe. The report concluded that, contrary to those government's claims, that prisons existed in both Poland and Romania. Perhaps most importantly for opponents of torture, the report gives a detailed account inside one of these torture facilities. In this description we can see the results of decades of CIA study of how... (more)
|
|
'There Are Cracks in Everything'Every nation has a set of myths by which its people live and die; the USA is no exception. We just finished Memorial Day and soon we'll be approaching the tortured-celebrations of July 4th. Both these national spotlights involve public mythologies that have guided this nation for decades; yet the events that these holidays are meant to commemorate are no longer even remotely questioned. War is cheap for most Americans, because the lesser people among us fight our wars not us!
... (more)
|
|
Nightmare at Reagan National Airport: A Security Story to End all Security StoriesIf you travel enough, you've seen it all -- and possibly some of the awful things that can happen while traveling will have actually happened to you. But nothing I've read about or experienced comes close to what Monica Emmerson experienced while at Reagan National Airport on June 11th while traveling with her 19-month-old toddler. This isn't one of those Catch-22 bureaucratic snafus; this isn't about rules being applied to the letter. This story is mostly about what can happen simply because... (more)
|
|
A 10-Step Plan for Antiwar Activists I often hear from people asking me, "What should we do about all this? How can we stop Bush?"
I would first say that we must move beyond blaming Bush. The fact of U.S. empire is bigger than Bush. Hopefully by now, all of us are more clear how the Democrats have been, and are now, involved in enabling the whole U.S. military empire building plan. It is about corporate domination. Bush is just the front man for the big money.
So to me that is step #1.
S... (more)
|
|
DUI deputy may have wrongly jailed dozensTAMPA - Daniel Brock won high praise for jailing impaired motorists. Mothers Against Drunk Driving honored him. So did his bosses.
But one of Hillsborough County's most aggressive DUI deputies may have wrongly sent dozens of people to jail, the Sheriff's Office acknowledged Thursday.
The agency fired Brock on May 24.
In one year, Brock arrested 58 people whose blood-alcohol content was below 0.08, the level at which state law presumes a driver is impa... (more)
|
|
It Can Happen HereWASHINGTON—There was a time when the dark, political drama was my preferred weekend movie. That was before kids and suburbs and serial viewings of “Shrek.”
The films were almost always about some exotic country gripped in a vise of poverty and dictatorship, where human life is cheap and strongmen unaccountable for crimes that shock the conscience. The genre was popularized in the 1982 film “Missing,” by the master director Costa-Gavras. It was a ... (more)
|
|
'Now you are paralyzed, as we promised'"We have to make you do a little sports," the Shin Bet interrogator said, launching four successive days of questioning accompanied by brutal physical torture. The result: Luwaii Ashqar can no longer stand on his feet. He sits in his wheelchair, dressed in a fashionable quasi-military suit, super-elegant, new Caterpillar-brand shoes on his paralyzed feet.
"I love this color," he says about his uniform. "It's the color of the soldiers who came to arrest me for the interrogation tha... (more)
|
|
US occupiers complicit in Sammara blast The Leader of the Islamic Revolution has said the bombing of the holy Shia shrines in Samarra is aimed at provoking sectarian violence.
In a message on the recent bombing of the shrines of the two revered Shia Imams in the Iraqi town of Samarra, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei blamed the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and the occupation forces in Iraq for the bombing, saying such terrorist acts are meant to intensify sectarian violence in the Musl... (more)
|
|
Cleric blames US for shrine explosion Lebanon's senior cleric has said the explosions in Iraq's revered Shia shrine in Samarra are part of US conspiracies against Iraq.
According to Iran's Al-Alam news channel, Allameh Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said Thursday that it is essential for all Muslim leaders, whether Sunni or Shia, to denounce the savage crime and bring dishonor on Salafi Takfiri groups as well as the occupation forces.
Referring to more than four years of ... (more)
|
|
Feds Torture “Tax Protester” Irwin SchiffConsidering what the government is doing to “tax protester” Irwin Schiff, it makes sense the “tax protesters” Ed and Elaine Brown have vowed to die before allowing hired guns working in the service of the psychopathocracy to take them in.
According to a post on the Rumor Mill News website, political prisoner Schiff was “was given the diesel treatment,” tha... (more)
|
|
Terrorizing Artists in the USA"This film is dedicated to Hope.”
Thus reads the opening epigraph in Lynn Hershman Leeson’s film Strange Culture that opens the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival this Friday, June 15th in New York. It’s a lovely sentiment for our era of unremitting pessimism. When one realizes that Hope is not only the belief that events can turn out for the best, but a 45-year old woman who died prematurely of natu... (more)
|
|
Children Shame Speeding DriversTraffic police have unveiled their latest weapon against speeding drivers - embarrassment by schoolchildren.
During a three-day operation, motorists caught speeding outside Laleham Church of England Primary School were pulled over and had to face questions from the children they were putting in danger.
The road is a 30mph limit and the fastest speed recorded was 41mph.
The 60 year six pupils, wearing yellow bibs, used a police speed camera to catch sp... (more)
|
|
Americans unready to revolt, despite revolting conditionsThe latest NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll results vividly show a population incredibly dissatisfied with their nation’s political system. In other countries in other times such a depressing level of confidence in government would send a signal to those running the government that a major upheaval is imminent. But not here in the USA. Why?
First, here are the highlights of the poll that surveyed 1,008 adults from June 8-11, with a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 perc... (more)
|
|
Taping was legal, defense attorneys in wiretap case say Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed said he will review all evidence before deciding whether to prosecute an 18-year-old Carlisle man for taping a police officer during a traffic stop.
But two defense attorneys versed in wiretapping cases said Brian D. Kelly shouldn't even have been charged.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that taping police in such public situations is legal, they said.
Freed said the ... (more)
|
|
Anger at Blair's 'secret deal' to sign new EU constitution Tony Blair has been engulfed in a row over Europe after it became clear he is under huge pressure to sign a "son of constitution" treaty next week.
A leaked letter by current EU president Angela Merkel revealed that a deal is being drafted to revive almost all the controversial elements of the flopped European Constitution.
The disclosure sparked demands for a UK referendum on the new treaty - and angry claims that EU leaders were... (more)
|
|
Bush administration attacks 'shield' for bloggersWASHINGTON--The Bush administration on Thursday blasted a congressional proposal that would shield a broad swath of news gatherers, including some bloggers, from revealing their confidential sources.
The latest draft of the Free Flow of Information Act would pose a grave threat to national security and fe... (more)
|
|
Big Brother is watching looIT sounds like something out of Big Brother - the Advertiser can reveal that CCTV cameras are filming punters in two pubs' toilets.
The Skylark, in South Croydon, and the Ship of Fools, in West Croydon, have both recently installed cameras in the loos to clamp down on antisocial behaviour.
Unapologetic pub chiefs say the cameras have already had a dramatic effect on cutting vandalism and drug abuse and that these benefits outweigh any concerns about loss of privacy.... (more)
|
|
Nearly a million UK children on DNA database British authorities have stored details of almost a million children in the national DNA database, including those of children under 10, the opposition Liberal Democrats have discovered.
The National DNA database (NDNAD) included DNA records of 883,888 people aged between 10 and 17 and 108 records of children under 10.
"The Government’s onward march toward... (more)
|
|
Guantanamo inmate told: You can't return to UK, you've been away too long Gordon Brown is being urged to intervene to stop the Home Office banning a British resident from returning home after more than four years at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
Campaigners expressed fury after ministers said Jamil el-Banna's permission to stay in Britain had lapsed during the four-and-a-half years he has been held without charge at the US detention camp.
They warned that Mr Banna, a refugee whose wife and five children live in north Lon... (more)
|
|
Gonzales uses US Attorney appointment power that Congress bannedIn a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting Thursday morning, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) revealed that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales once again used an interim appointment authority at the heart of the US Attorneys controversy that Congress banned in a bill sent to the President for signature on June 4.
"Senator Feinstein’s U.S. Attorney bill....repeals that portion of the Patriot Act Reauthorization that had allowed the Attorney General to circumvent advice and c... (more)
|
|
No proof of Iran supplying weapons to Taliban - Gates contradicts Burns There's no proof that Iranian government is supplying weapons to Taliban, US Defense Secretary was forced to admit today, contradicting a statement by State Department official who accused the Iranian government of transferring the weapons.
"I have seen analysis suggesting a considerable flow of weapons and support from Iran," Gates Robert Gates told reporters in Bruss... (more)
|
|
Hamas uncovers PA, CIA intel troveHamas has uncovered a trove of thousands of documents, including classified correspondence with Israeli forces.
After seizing the Palestinian Authority's Security headquarters in Gaza City on Thursday afternoon, Hamas fighters report they have seized tens of thousands of sensitive intelligence documents, including correspondence between the PA, the American CIA, and the Zionists regarding security issues.
Hamas officials said the newly found information would help t... (more)
|
|
| 
