Contractors research

US Contractor Accused of Fraud Still Winning Big Afghan Projects.
Blackwater's Black Ops.
SourceWatch: Private Military Corporations
BlackwaterWatch - Press coverage of Blackwater.
Cowboy Contractors: Armed and Dangerous.
This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prison Industrial Complex Research

Etnicitet og fængsling.
IPS NEWS: Money for Prisons, Not for Social Services.
Litteraturhenvisninger.
Wikiartikel om The Prison-Industrial Complex.

PRISONS: HUMAN RIGHTS.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/11/confronting-human-rights-abuses-in-us-prisons/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0712-08.htm
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Human_Rights/Rights_Police_USA_RFA.html

War on drugs.

According to FBI data released yesterday, police arrested 1,663,582 people on drug charges in the United States last year, slightly fewer than the 1,702,537 arrested in 2008. A little more than half of the drug arrests involved marijuana, and nearly 9 out of 10 marijuana arrests involved possession, as opposed to sale or manufacturing. The number of marijuana arrests, 858,408, was up slightly from the previous year's total, 847,863, but still lower than the historic peak of 872,721 in 2007.

As I've noted before, there is no obvious relationship between marijuana arrests and marijuana use. Although arrests have more than doubled since the early 1990s, the number of pot smokers was no lower in 2008 than it was in 1990 and perhaps somewhat higher, even allowing for methodological changes that seem to have boosted self-reported drug use after 2001.

http://reason.com/blog/2010/09/16/drug-arrests-down-pot-arrests


Omtale af en ny rapport som omhandler narkorelaterede fængslinger i USA.


“Despite comparable usage of illicit drugs, in 2008, African Americans, who make up 12.2 percent of the general population, comprised 44 percent of those incarcerated for drug offences, according to the report.

Researchers say that disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in communities of colour destabilises families and communities and decreases the likelihood of positive outcomes for children and other family members left behind.

Due to the prolonged economic meltdown, many states are now making drastic cuts in funding for social services - such as health, education, and public housing - but not on policing and prison improvement and expansion.”

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52868

Greenwald om Obama

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/17/obama/index.html

Presstitution

Project Censored: US Corporate Media Downplays Pentagon’s Special Commando Assassination Unit

Study: Newspapers stopped describing waterboarding as 'torture' during Bush years.

Underreported: US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza.

US Government

FOREIGN POLICY:
Obama seeks to expand arms exports by trimming approval process

MILITARY: INTELLIGENCE.
Washington Post: Top Secret America.

PRISONS: HUMAN RIGHTS.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/11/confronting-human-rights-abuses-in-us-prisons/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0712-08.htm
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Human_Rights/Rights_Police_USA_RFA.html

Brain Food July

TECH:
Potatoes May Power The Batteries Of The Future.
Researchers design more reliable invisibility cloak.
Plastic Bags Into Power?
Electric Vehicle Preview: 526-horsepower Mercedes-Benz SLS E-Cell.
'Regenerated lung tissue implanted in rat'.
At German Airports, Bees Help Monitor Air Quality.
‘Programmable matter’ may shape future tools.
Beetle-Inspired Bottle Harvests Drinking Water From Thin Air.
Green machine: A salty solution for power generation.

ANCIENT HISTORY:
Separation between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens might have occurred 500,000 years earlier.
How our species owes its success to religion.
Respect Your Elders, Human!

PHYSICS / SPACE:
Every black hole may hold a hidden universe.

MIND:
Science historian cracks the 'Plato code'.
Ecstasy may help trauma victims.

LIFE:
Plants 'can think and remember'.
Thousands of undiscovered plant species face extinction.

Brain Food June

ANCIENT HISTORY:
Mystery seafaring ancestor found in the Philippines.
Crocodile and Hippopotamus Served as 'Brain Food' for Early Human Ancestors.
Some Like It Hot: Site of Human Evolution Was Scorching.
Sahara cave may hold clues to dawn of Egypt.
Skulls show New World was settled twice.
Pagan Antiquities Unearthed in Israel.
Ancient cave paintings found in Romania.
Turkmen capital is 8 thousand years old, archeologists say.

LIFE:
The real Avatar: Ocean bacteria act as 'Superorganism'.
Hormone that triggers love can also lead to war.
All Modern Life on Earth Derived from Common Ancestor.
A new view of fossils: The behavior of ancient life forms.
Sperm whale faeces 'helps oceans absorb CO2'.
Chimpanzees kill to win new territory.

AGRICULTURE:
The Story of Soil.
Fertile ground: The dark side of nitrogen.
From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Why Are Indian Farmers Committing Suicide and How Can We Stop This Tragedy?

MIND:
The God Chemical: Brain Chemistry And Mysticism.
Psychologist Says Antidepressants Are Just Fancy Placebos.
Coffee Consumption Unrelated to Alertness: Stimulating Effects May Be Illusion.
Relaxed people 'heal twice as quickly'.
Intelligent people have 'unnatural' preferences and values that are novel in human evolution.

TECH:
Finally! 3D Without the Glasses.
Scientists take first steps in growing working livers.
Solar plane set for night flight.
Researchers Develop 90% More Efficient Air Conditioning!
You Want Range? Mid-East Electric Vehicle Promises 2,236 Miles.
Building organs block by block.
UAE Announces Plans for World's Largest Solar Plant.
Noninvasive Ultrasound Pulses Could Treat Neuro Disorders, Enhance Cognitive Function.
EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in 5 yrs.
Highly Efficient Solar Cells Could Result from Quantum Dot Research.
MIT Uses Carbon Nanotubes to Boost Lithium Battery Power 10x
New tech moves beyond the mouse, keyboard and screen.

MASSEFÆNGSLINGER.

Udvikling i USA

Army National Guard Advertises for “Internment Specialists”


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8801


Sammenlignende site.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/worldbrief/wpb_stats.php?area=all&category=wb_poptotal

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/worldbrief/wpb_country.php?country=190


Kina / Laogai [genopdragelses- og arbejdslejre]:

Wikipedia-article


Human Righs Watch: Reeducation through Labour in China.



USA – Current developments.




HISTORISK RELEVANTE ARTIKLER OG LINKS.

Colonial Burma’s prison: continuity with its pre-colonial past?

“The practice of confining convicted criminals in prison for a stipulated period of time – to punish or reform – is a modern western innovation. Pentonville in north London, opened in 1842 and said to be the first modern prison, had four wings radiating from a central hub from which guards could observe every cell, each holding a single prisoner. The ‘modern’ prison then became one of many western innovations (including the railway, scientific medicine and the filing cabinet) transported to the colonial world from the mid-19th century.”

http://www.iias.nl/nl/39/IIAS_NL39_05.pdf


Koncentrationslejrenes opståen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camp#Concentration_camps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concentration_and_internment_camps

Gulag:

Katorga. Precursor to the Gulag: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katorga

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/Prisoner_of_War_Camps.pdf


Reconcentrados:

http://chss.montclair.edu/witness/Reconcentrados.html

http://www.historyofcuba.com/gallery/gal10.htm



US Citizen Isolation Camps: A Conservative Hails FDR’s Concentration Camps
http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory31.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment



The Ideological Uses of Japanese-Americans in U.S. Concentration Camps:

http://www.paradigme.com/sources/SOURCES-PDF/Pages%20de%20Sources04-1-3.pdf


The Civil War Concentration Camps:

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v02/v02p137_Weber.html



FRANSK KOLONIALISME / IMPERIALISME


The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam.

Description: Peter Zinoman's original and insightful study focuses on the colonial prison system in French Indochina and its role in fostering modern political consciousness among the Vietnamese. Using prison memoirs, newspaper articles, and extensive archival records, Zinoman presents a wealth of significant new information to document how colonial prisons, rather than quelling political dissent and maintaining order, instead became institutions that promoted nationalism and revolutionary education.

Excerpt.

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8991/8991.ch01.pdf

Neurofood 2010

WEEK NINE.

Sean Carroll on the arrow of time.
http://www.ted.com/talks/sean_carroll_on_the_arrow_of_time.html

Freethinking About Finances.
http://nobeliefs.com/finances.htm

Intelligent people have 'unnatural' preferences and values that are novel in human evolution
http://www.physorg.com/news186236813.html

NATURAL BUILDING: Idustrial-Strength Fungus.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1957474,00.html

Center For Cognitive Liberty and Ethics on Drug Policy
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/faqs/faq_drugpolicy.htm

US Waves White Flagin Disastrous 'War on Drugs'.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-waves-white-flag-in-disastrous-war-on-drugs-1870218.html

Indra's Net: Alchemy and Chaos Theory as Templates for Transformation
http://www.realitysandwich.com/indras_net_alchemy_transformation

America, the fragile empire
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ferguson28-2010feb28,0,7706980.story

Green fuels cause more harm than fossil fuels, according to report
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7044708.ece

Relevante Links..

Links til artikler.




Arbejderen: 14-årige i sikringscelle Forslaget om at sænke den kriminelle lavalder til 14 år er en politisk beslutning, fastslår Venstre - men eksperter står i kø for at advare.

Arbejderen: Politiet anklages efter ransagninger.

Globalization Is Killing The Globe: Return to Local Economies

By Thom Hartmann

February 10, 2010 "Huffington Post" -- Globalization is killing Europe, just as it's already wiped out much of the American middle class.

Spain and Greece are facing immediate crises that many other European nations see on the near horizon: aging boomer workers are retiring with healthy benefit packages, but the younger workers who are paying for those benefits aren't making anything close to the income (or, therefore, paying the taxes) that their parents did.

Globalists/corporatists/conservative "free market" and "flat earth" advocates say this is a great opportunity to cut benefits for the old folks (and for the young folks in the future), thus bringing the countries budgets back into balance, and this story is the main corporate media storyline.

But it overlooks the real issue (and the real solution): how globalization is killing these nations' economies and what can be done about it.

From the days of Adam Smith, classical economics pointed out that manufacturing and extraction are the only two ways to "create wealth."

"Wealth" is different from "income." Wealth is value, which endures at least for some time. Income is simply compensation for work. If you wash my car for $10 and I mow your lawn for $10, we have a GDP of $20 and it looks like we both have income and economic activity. But no wealth has been created, just income.

On the other hand, if I build your car, I'm creating something of value. And if you turn my lawn into a small farm that produces food we can all eat, you're creating something of value. Not only do we have an "economy" with a "GDP," we also have created wealth.

A stick on the ground has no commercial value, but if you add labor to it by carving it into an axe handle -- a thing of commercial value -- you have "created wealth." Similarly, metals in the ground have no commercial value, but when you add labor to them by extracting, refining, and forming them into products, you "create wealth." Even turning seeds and dirt and cows into hamburgers is a form of manufacturing and creates wealth.

This is the "Wealth of Nations" that titled Adam Smith's famous 1776 book.

On the other hand, when a trader at Goldman Sachs makes a "profit" trading stocks, bonds, or currencies, no wealth whatsoever is created. In fact, to the extent that that trader takes millions in commissions, pay, and bonuses, he's actually depleting the wealth of the nation (particularly to the extent that he moves his money offshore to save or invest, as many do).

To use the United States as an example, in the late 1940s and early 1950s manufacturing accounted for a high of 28 percent of our total gross domestic product (and much of the rest of the economy like agriculture that, in a classical sense is "manufacturing" wasn't even included in those numbers), and when Reagan came into office it was at a strong 20 percent. Today it's about ten percent of our GDP.

What this means is that we're creating less wealth here, because we're not making much anymore. (And the biggest growth in American manufacturing has been in the military sector, where goods are made that are then destroyed when they explode over foreign cities, causing even more of our wealth to vanish.)

The main effect of the globalism fad of the past 30 yearrs -- lowering the protective barriers to trade that countries for centuries have used to make sure their own local economies are self-sufficient -- has been to ship manufacturing (the creation of wealth) from developed nations to developing nations. Transnational corporations love this, because in countries with lower labor costs and few environmental and safety regulations, it's more profitable to manufacture products. They then sell those products in the "mature" countries -- the places that used to manufacture -- and people burn through the wealth they'd accumulated in the earlier manufacturing days (home equity, principally, along with savings and lines of credit) to buy these foreign-manufactured goods.

At first, it looks like a good deal to consumers in developed nations. Goods are cheaper! But over a decade or two or three, as the creation of real wealth is reduced and the residue of the old wealth is spent, the developed nations become progressively poorer and poorer. At the same time, the "developing" nations become wealthier -- because those are the places that are producing real wealth.

Which brings us to Spain and Greece -- and the problem of all developed nations including the USA. So long as globalism continues apace, the transnational corporations and their CEOs will continue to become fabulously wealthy. But, more importantly, they also acquire the political power that comes with that control of economies.

So they tell us that instead of putting back into place tariffs, domestic content laws, and other "protectionist" policies that built America from the time the were first proposed by Alexander Hamilton in 1791 (and largely adopted by Congress in 1793) until they were dismantled by Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush, we should instead simple "accept the reality" that we're "living beyond our means" and we have to "cut back our wages and social programs."

In other words, they get richer, our nations become poorer, and national sovereignty is reduced.

Nations -- and in large countries like the USA, even states -- must again rebuild their manufacturing base and become locally self-sufficient, so their own consumers are buying products manufactured by their own workers.

"But won't that make Wal-Mart's stuff more expensive?" whine the flat-earthers.

Yes, it will. But most Americans (and Greeks and Spaniards) would gladly pay 10 percent more for the goods in their stores if their paychecks were 20 percent higher. And manufacturing paychecks have always been higher, because manufacturing is where "true wealth" is generated (thus the basis for most union movements, which further guarantee healthy worker income and benefits).

The transnational corporations benefiting from globalization are also, in most cases, the transnational corporations that own our media, so even the word globalization is rarely heard in reports on economic crises around the world.

But globalization is the villain here, and one that needs to be taken in hand and brought under control quickly if we don't want to see virtually the nations of the world end up subservient to corporate control, a new form of an ancient economic system known as feudalism.

Degrowth economics: Why less should be so much more

by Serge Latouche

Last December we published an article about contraction economics - décroissance or ’degrowth’- a topic that has become a major subject of debate, not just within the counter-globalisation movement but in the wider world. The big question is: how should ’degrowth’ apply to the South?

THE logic of advertising so dominates the media that it views anything new - material, cultural or otherwise - as a product launch. And in any product launch, the key word is concept. So as discussion of décroissance (literally "degrowth", that is economic contraction or downscaling) spread, the media naturally started to ask what was the concept. We are sorry to disappoint the media, but degrowth is not a concept. There is no theory of contraction equivalent to the growth theories of economics. Degrowth is just a term created by radical critics of growth theory to free everybody from the economic correctness that prevents us from proposing alternative projects for post-development politics.

In fact degrowth is not a concrete project but a keyword. Society has been locked into thought dominated by progressivist growth economics; the tyranny of these has made imaginative thinking outside the box impossible. The idea of a contraction-based society is just a way to provoke thought about alternatives. To accuse its advocates of only wanting to see economies contract within the existing system rather than proposing an alternative to that system, and to suspect them (as do some counter-globalisation economists) of wanting to prevent the underdeveloped world from resolving its problems reflects at best ignorance and at worst bad faith.

Proponents of contraction want to create integrated, self-sufficient and materially responsible societies in both the North and the South. It might be more accurate and less alarming if we replaced the word degrowth with "non-growth". We could then start talking about "a-growthism", as in "a-theism". After all, rejecting the current economic orthodoxy means abandoning a faith system, a religion. To achieve this, we need doggedly and rigorously to deconstruct the matter of development. The term "development" has been redefined and qualified so much that it has become meaningless. Yet despite its failings, this magical concept continues to command total devotion across the political spectrum. The doctrines of "economism" (1), in which growth is the ultimate good, die hard. Even counter-globalisation economists are in a paradoxical position: they acknowledge the harm that growth has done but continue to speak of enabling Southern countries to benefit from it. In the North the furthest they are prepared to go is to advocate slowing down growth. An increasing number of anti-globalisation activists now concede that growth as we have known it is both unsustainable and harmful, socially as well as ecologically. Yet they have little confidence in degrowth as a guiding principle: the South, deprived of development, cannot be denied at least a period of growth, although it may cause problems.

The result is a stalemate where neither growth nor contraction suit. The proposed compromise of growth slowdown follows the tradition in these debates in that it lets everyone agree on a misunderstanding. Forcing our economies to grow more slowly will never deliver the benefits of a society free from constant growth (that is, being materially responsible, fully integrated and self-sufficient) but it will hurt employment, which has been the one undeniable advantage of rapid, inequitable and environmentally catastrophic expansion. To understand why the creation of a non-growth society is so necessary and so desirable for North and South, we must examine the history of the idea. The proposal for a self-sufficient and materially responsible society is not new; it is part of the tradition of development criticism. For more than 40 years an international group of commentators had analysed economic development in the South and denounced the harm it has done (2). These commentators do not just address recent capitalist or ultra-liberal development: for example, they have considered Houari Boumediene’s Algeria and Julius Nyerere’s Tanzania, which were both officially socialist, participatory, self-reliant and based on popular solidarity. And they have also noted that development has often been carried out or supported by charitable, humanist NGOs. Yet apart from a few scattered success stories, it has been an overwhelming failure. What was supposed to bring contentment to everyone in every aspect of life led only to corruption, confusion and structural adjustment plans that turned poverty into destitution.

Degrowth must apply to the South as much as to the North if there is to be any chance to stop Southern societies from rushing up the blind alley of growth economics. Where there is still time, they should aim not for development but for disentanglement - removing the obstacles that prevent them from developing differently. This does not mean a return to an idealised version of an informal economy - nothing can be expected to change in the South if the North does not adopt some form of economic contraction. As long as hungry Ethiopia and Somalia still have to export feedstuffs destined for pet animals in the North, and the meat we eat is raised on soya from the razed Amazon rainforest, our excessive consumption smothers any chance of real self-sufficiency in the South (3).

If the South is to attempt to create non-growth societies, it must rethink and re-localise. Southern countries need to escape from their economic and cultural dependence on the North and rediscover their own histories - interrupted by colonialism, development and globalisation - to establish distinct indigenous cultural identities. The cultural histories of many societies reveal inherently anti-economistic values. These need to be revived, along with rejected or forgotten products and traditional crafts and skills. Insisting on growth in the South, as though it were the only way out of the misery that growth created, can only lead to further westernisation. Development proposals are often born of genuine goodwill - we want to build schools and health clinics, set up water distribution systems, restore self-sufficiency in food - but they all share the ethnocentrism bound up with the idea of development. Ask the governments of countries what they want, or study surveys of populations duped by the media, and they do not ask for the schools and clinics that western paternalism considers fundamental needs. They want air conditioning, mobile phones, fridges and, above all, cars (Volkswagen and General Motors are planning to start producing 3m vehicles a year in China, and Peugeot is also investing heavily there). For the benefit of their governing elites, we might also add nuclear power stations, fighter jets and tanks to the wish list.

Or we could listen to the exasperated Guatemalan leader cited by Alain Gras (4): "Leave the poor alone and stop going on about development!" All the leaders of popular movements, from Vandana Shiva in India to Emmanuel Ndione in Senegal, say the same thing. Advocates of development may pontificate about the need to restore self-sufficiency in food; but the terms they use prove that there was self-sufficiency and that it has been lost. Africa was self-sufficient in food until the 1960s when the great wave of development began. Imperialism, growth economics and globalisation destroyed that self-sufficiency and make African societies more dependent by the day. Water may not have come out of a tap in the past, but most of it was drinkable until industrial waste arrived to pollute it.

Are schools and clinics really the right ways to achieve and maintain good standards of education and health? The great polemicist and social thinker Ivan Illich (1926-2002) had serious doubts about their effectiveness, even in the North (5). As the Iranian economist Majid Rahnema puts it, "What we call aid money serves only to strengthen the structures that generate poverty. Aid money never reaches those victims who, having lost their real assets, look for alternative ways of life outside the globalised system of production which are better suited to their needs" (6).

There is no prospect of just returning to the old ways - no more than there is a universal model of progress on contraction or non-growth lines. Those millions for whom development has meant only poverty and exclusion are left with a weak mixture of lost tradition and unaffordable modernity, a paradox that sums up the double challenge that they face. But we should not underestimate the strength of our social and cultural achievements: once human creativity and ingenuity have been freed from the bonds of economism and development-mania, there is every reason to believe that they can tackle the task.

Different societies have different views of the shared basic aim of a good life. If we must give it a name, it could beumran (thriving or flourishing), as used by the Arab historian and philosopher Ibn Kaldûn (1332-1406); Gandhi’s swadeshi-sarvodaya (self-sufficiency and welfare); bamtaare (shared well-being) in the language of the West African Toucouleurs; or fidnaa/gabbina (the shine of someone who is well-fed and free of all worry) in the vocabulary of Ethiopia’s Borana people (7). What really matters is that we reject continuing destruction in the name of development. The fresh and original alternatives springing up point the way towards a successful post-development society.

However, neither North nor South will overcome their addiction to growth without a collective and comprehensive detoxification programme. The growth doctrine is like a disease and a drug. As Rahnema says, Homo economicus had two strategies for taking over virgin territories: one operated like HIV, the other like a drug pusher (8). Growth economics, like HIV, destroys societies’ immune systems against social ills. And growth needs a constant supply of new markets to survive so, like a drug dealer, it deliberately creates needs and dependencies that did not exist before. The fact that the dealers in the supply chain, mainly transnational corporations, benefit so much from our addiction will make it difficult to overcome. But our ever-increasing consumption is not sustainable; sooner or later we will have to give it up.


Le Monde Diplomatique November 2004

Chomsky: Democracy is not a damocracy.

Rethink Afghanistan

Den meget interessante nye dokumentarfilm om krigen i Afghanistan, Rethink Afghanistan, baserer sig på en række forstyrrende footage, som enten for lov at tale deres eget klare sprog eller komplimenteres af kommentarer fra ledende eksperter som tilsammen udgør dokumentaristen Robert Greenwald's stærke argumentationen for, hvorfor Afghanistan-krigen, som et led i Krigen Mod Terror, savner al form for legitimitet og økonomisk ræson. Nedenstående er et 13 minutter langt klip fra filmen. Resten af filmen kan man også se på youtube.



KOMMENTAR.

DemocracyNow Interview med instruktøren Robert Greenwald.

En lille reminder

Interview med Goldstone

Goldstone-rapporten konkluderede for nylig at Israels angreb på Gaza implicerede krigsforbrydelser. Følgende er et citat fra et interview med Goldstone af to amerikanske rabbinere.

But in any event, even though Israel might have been entitled to use force, the real point of the report was that it was disproportionate force. Look at the thousands of homes destroyed, the factories, the agricultural land, this is almost impossible to justify militarily.

BW: Also in your view, in the view of your report, it was deliberate?

RG: I don't think there is any dispute about it. The Israeli army has very sophisticated weaponry, and I don't think they make many mistakes as to what they target.

BW: But I think that is the one piece where your critics are very upset about the report: the whole question of intention. And they do deny that there is intention, they claim that the civilians died accidentally

RG: I think we are talking at two different levels. When it comes to the destruction of infrastructure, they haven't really responded at all to that, and that was part of what the report addressed. None of the Israeli responses have even said a word about the property destruction, the bulldozing of agricultural fields, the bombing of water wells, the bombing of sewage works that caused a huge spill over a huge area. There has been no attempt to justify that. When it comes to the actual killing of civilians in urban areas, that is where the big dispute comes in. I think all I can do is refer to the 36 incidents that we report on. And with almost all of them, we found the Israeli response to be disproportionate.

KILDE.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali og virkeligheden.

Kæden falder her helt af for Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Selvfølgelig har hun ret i at alle islamiske styreformer på jorden idag er despotiske. Hun har selvfølgelig også ret i, at det er langt at foretrække at leve under en forfatning der er funderet på oplysningstidens frihedstradition. Men…

Ayaan Hirsi Ali glemmer i hendes nærmest apologetiske næsegruse beundring for USA, at det altså er USAs og Storbrittaniens skyld at Iran idag er et islamisk diktatur, og subsidiært (indrømmet spekulativt) at den islamiske verden ikke i højere grad har set en demokratiseringsproces a la den der skete i Europa før og efter anden verdenskrig. Dette fordi man valgte at detronisere den demokratisk valgte Mossadeqh i 1953, da man fra briterne og amerikanernes side så sig truede på forsyningssikkerheden, idet Mossadeqh ønskede at nationalisere olien. Han blev så¨udskiftet med Shahen og dennes rædselsregime som ledtes indtil revolutionen i 1979.

Hun glemmer også lige, eller har en meget bevidst selektiv hukommelse, at USA og Vesten er hovedårsagen til at Saudi-Arabien idag er et diktatur styret af nogle af verdens rigeste mennesker. Vi er i høj grad meddelagtige i den nærmest ufattelige repression som dette styre udøver på deres egen befolkning, i og med at vi finansierer dette rædselsregime. Allerede præsident Carter foreslog, at man skulle omstille en stor del af den amerikanske energiproduktion til vedvarende energi for snart tredive år siden.

Dernæst kan vi med god ro fremhæve, at også Taleban og Al Qaidas opståen kan ledes tilbage til vestlig udenrigspolitik, ligesom vi også med god ro kan nævne, at staten Israel fortsat støttes diplomatisk, militært og økonomisk af det USA som Ayaan Hirsi Ali mener er så smukt et demokrati, på trods af de fakta at Israel udøver tortur, har udviklet masseødelæggelsesvåben, ingen respekt har for international lov, opretholder verdens største fængsel (Gaza) selvom størstedelen af de “indsatte” er uskyldige, og selvom man ikke giver palæstinenserne som bliver stillet for en dommer ved militærdomstolene nogen retssikkerhed.

Vi kan også her fremhæve, at mens Iran's præstestyre velsagtens kan beskrive som et helvede på jord for mange iranerne, så er det langt fra at være lige så slemt som i nabolaget, hvor det benevolente Vesten har jaget millioner på flugt, dræbt hundredetusinder samt ødelagt infrastruktur for milliarder.

Hendes nye arbejdsgiver American Enterprise Institute er en ærkekonservativ tænketank, men det er åbenbart gået henover hovedet på Hirsi Ali, at hvis der er nogen i Vesten der argumenterer mod homoseksualitet og aborter med argumenter hentet i deres tro, så er det den amerikanske konservative højrefløj, som hendes nye arbejdsgiver altså repræsenterer.

Det er nu ikke noget som godt gammeldags hykleri.

US NOW

With contributions from Clay Shirky, Alan Cox, Paul Miller, Don Tapscott and many others, Us Now explores the ways in which new technologies and a closely related culture of collaboration present radical new models of social organization.

The principles of trust, transparency, self-selection and open participation are coming closer and closer to the mainstream of our social and political lives. Us Now describes this transition, telling the stories of the online networks whose radical self-organizing structures may change the fabric of government forever.

The film is streaming online for free and the filmmakers intend to license all of the footage with a Creative Commons license.

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

Post-Election Iranian demonstrations. [Frequently updated]

IMPORTANT NOTICE: THE MOST RECENT NEWS/COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS ARE POSTED IN THE TOP!!!!

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Reuters: Iran's Revolutionary Guards threaten crackdown.


Youtube's New Citizen Tube Channel with footage from Iran.

Telegraph: Tehran Protest Diary: An angry muslim mother reports from inside Iran


Tehran Bureau: Iran Update.

Professor of Middle Eastern History, Juan Cole's blogpiece from today.

مکان: خیابان کارگر، تقاطع خسروی و شهید صالحی، ساعت 7:20 مورخه 20 ژوئن، سی خرداد، Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests

At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.
The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.
The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.
Please let the world know.

Tehran Bureau: Iran Makes History Again.

REUTERS: EU leaders step up Iran election criticism.

BBC NEWS: Khamenei Speech - Iran Reaction.

REUTERS: Highlights from Iran leader Khamenei's address to nation.

Professor of Middle Eastern history, Juan Cole, has an extensive piece on his blog on the most recent developments in Iran.

Teheran Bureau: Iran Updates.

SPREAD THIS!!!!!

"What I have witnessed." A powerful note from a female medical student in Iran, translated from Farsi by a trusty reader.

Hello,

It's painful to watch what's happening.

I don't want anything to do with what has been said this far, as I neither have the strength nor the resilience to face all these unfathomable events.

I only want to speak about what I have witnessed. I am a medical student. There was chaos last night at the trauma section in one of our main hospitals. Although by decree, all riot-related injuries were supposed to be sent to military hospitals, all other hospitals were filled to the rim. Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn. They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information. What can you even say to the people who don't even respect the dead. No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them. This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain cloths anti-riot militia, who in turn closed off the hospital and imprisoned the staff. The extent of injuries are so grave, that despite being one of the most staffed emergency rooms, they've asked everyone to stay and help--I'm sure it will even be worst tonight.

What can anyone say in face of all these atrocities? What can you say to the family of the 13 year old boy who died from gunshots and whose dead body then disappeared?

This issue is not about cheating(election) anymore. This is not about stealing votes anymore. The issue is about a vast injustice inflected on the people. They've put a baton in the hand of every 13-14 year old to smash the faces of "the bunches who are less than dirt" (government is calling the people who are uprising dried-up torn and weeds)

This is what sickens me from dealing with these issues. And from those who shut their eyes and close their ears and claim the riots are in opposition of the government and presidency!! No! The people's complaint is against the egregious injustices committed against the people.

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: Mass Arrests and Detentions Signal Increasing Repression.

TEHERAN BUREAU: Why Ahmadinejad Did not Win.

Important news from Iranian human rights activists: 32 deaths confirmed
Dead

17th of June 2009

Source: Majmu‘e-ye fa‘âlân-e hoquq-e bashar dar irân, Human Rights Activists in Iran
http://hra-iran.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1276:464&catid=103:107&Itemid=261

Numbers of dead in recent violence in Iran reach 32

Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 11:29.

The Association of Human Rights Activists in Iran can confirm the deaths of 32 Iranian citizens connected to the events of June 14 and June 15, based on its own fieldwork and despite numerous other reports.

Most of these citizens lost their lives in the attack on Tehran University dormitories on June 14 and the opening of fire by the paramilitary Basij forces on June 15. The violence started after Iranian citizens protested against the results of the tenth presidential elections, and the interference of security and paramilitary forces connected to the government.

In a statement, the public relations office of The Office to Consolidate Unity [Iran’s biggest student organization] yesterday reported the killing of at least seven students during the attack on dormitories of Tehran University and other universities around the country (Amnesty International said on June 15 there had been five deaths).

According to numerous and confirmed reports, the morgue at the Rasul Akram Hospital in Tehran has also stored eight people, who lost their lives during the shooting at defenseless people on Monday June 15.

In addition, Azerbaijani human rights activists have reported the killing of two citizens of Orumiyeh during fights in that city on June 15.

Finally, sources among the doctors at Erfan Hospital (which contains ICU, CCU, NICU and 14 emergency operation rooms) in Western Tehran reported that 15 people were dead in the hospital, all connected to the shooting on June 15.

Reports of civilian deaths across the country received by the Association are very high. However, it is impossible to confirm these because of the highly militarized atmosphere and widespread arrests, so the Association can only vouch for the deaths detailed above but will continue the process of documentation and reporting.

PICTURES FROM THE UPRISING.

Wikipedia article on the election protests.

Analysis by Iran-expert Rasmus Elling of Carsten Niebuhr Institute, Copenhagen University.

Q&A with NYU Prof. Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran

TEHERAN BUREAU: Iran’s Rural Vote and Election Fraud




June 16th.





Esfahan. 16th June 2009.



Support Demonstration in NY.





Where's My Vote?

Location: Toronto, Canada

This is my way of showing support for the millions of courageous people in Iran who are protesting the results of the Iranian Presidential Elections that took place on June 12, 2009. We must work together to give Iranians a voice outside of Iran.