Special Advisor Lobbying Scandal Builds

Once again a former special advisor to the Coalition government of the UK gets
a cushy job in the same sector he worked as a state official. In health for a
private firm(1).

We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in
your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business
 find the right way to get its way."(1) I agree Mr. Cameron.

Note:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/nov/23/david-cameron-privatisation-adviser-health-lobbyist

WB settlers stealing tons of soil from Palestinian land

West Bank settlers stealing tons of soil from Palestinian land

Roughly a month ago, infrastructure work began in one of the house-trailer neighborhoods in the West Bank settlement of Ofra. Brown soil was needed to cover the foundations. In properly functioning places, such soil is bought and paid for, but not in Ofra. Tzvi, a local farmer, nicknamed “Kishu,” found an alternative: He sent a rented tractor and truck to the outskirts of the settlement, next to the Palestinian villages of Silwad and Deir Dibwan, where they simply stole dirt. Tzvi claims that the land belongs to him.

The theft was made possible – even easy – by the fact that wide expanses of land belonging to Deir Dibwan and Silwad are enclosed within Ofra’s security fence, and the villages’ residents do not have free access to their own fields. Entry into Ofra requires coordination with the Israel Defense Forces and a constant security escort. The fence, like many parts of Ofra, was built without any permits.

In 2009 and 2010, residents of Silwad and Deir Dibwan petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice, demanding that the illegal sections of the fence be dismantled. The IDF responded to the petition, confirming that the fence was in fact built without permits and unnecessarily closes off land owned by others. At the same time, the army asked for time to build a new, modern security fence, closer to the houses in Ofra. The IDF requested until the end of 2012 to finish the job, but no work has yet begun at the site.(1)

 

The theft of Pal. land continues by the illegal settlers in the OPT.
And of course barely a blip from Obama

Note:
(1) http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/west-bank-settlers-stealing-tons-of-soil-from-palestinian-land.premium-1.469522

News International wins court ruling

News International wins court ruling on searches related to phone hacking

Lawyers acting for more than 170 phone-hacking victims, including Cherie Blair and Hugh Grant, were dealt a blow on Friday after losing a high court application to force News International to do a general search of its databases for potential evidence of illegal voicemail interception.
However, the high court did order News International to hand over nine previously undisclosed emails between News International and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who is at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal.
The phone-hacking claimants were seeking further disclosure in relation to Mulcaire's activities before 2001 in an effort to establish whether voicemail interception had taken place earlier than admitted by News International during the course of the civil litigation proceedings.
They were also seeking access to 433 emails in a file on the computer in the room of a senior News International executive labelled "3 - Neville Thurlbeck.pst", along with other documentation submitted to the Metropolitan police and the Leveson inquiry. The .pst suffix would ordinarily refer to personal Microsoft Outlook email folders.
Mr Justice Vos said the decision not to allow more generic disclosure "does not come easily to me" in the light of previous evidence that News International, even during the course of litigation, had failed to disclose material it should have, and had also admitted to the destruction of emails.(1)

I don't personally agree with the decision. But ah well. I'm sure more will be found out even without full cooperation of News International.

Note:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/05/news-international-ruling-searches-phone-hacking

 

Desmond Tutu expresses outrage at failing politicians in South Africa

The Guardian, 4th Sept. 2012

It was a cry, raw and anguished, that pierced the convivial party atmosphere and laid bare the sense of anomie gnawing away at South Africa.
The archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu had an emotional outburst on Monday night as he castigated politicians for greed, failing schools and the "nightmare" of the Marikana mine massacre. His impromptu speech shocked guests at a book launch in Cape Town, according to local media reports, which said a "chatty audience" including senior government officials was immediately silenced.
Reports vary on his exact opening words, but a spokesman for Tutu indicated that he shouted: "What the heck are you doing?"
Beeld newspaper then quoted a highly emotional Tutu as saying: "I am 80 years old. Can't you allow us elders to go to our graves with a smile, knowing that this is a good country? Because truly – it is a good country."
Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate described as the moral conscience of South Africa, has not been afraid to criticise the governing African National Congress (ANC), for example over the refusal to grant the Dalai Lama an entrance visa.
On Monday he was at the District Six museum for the launch of the struggle veteran Michael Lapsley's book Redeeming the Past, along with guests including Marius Fransman, the deputy foreign minister, and other high-ranking figures.
Lapsley was an ANC chaplain who lost an eye and both hands to a parcel bomb sent by the apartheid regime. Later, speaking from the podium, Tutu expressed frustration at the betrayal of such sacrifices after the dawn of multiracial democracy in 1994.
"Is this the kind of freedom people were tortured and people were maimed for?" he was quoted as saying. "I ask myself, why were we in the struggle? The highest price was paid for freedom, but are we treating it as something precious?
"How can we have children 18 years later who go to school under trees and whose education is being crushed without textbooks and no one is held accountable? Have we so quickly forgotten the price of freedom?
"People are going to sleep hungry in this freedom for which people were tortured and harmed … It is difficult to believe people are getting such money and benefits, and are driving such flashy cars while the masses suffer in cramped shacks."(1)

Soo good when instinctive outbursts for justice like these are heard. Viva La Tutu!

Note:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/04/desmond-tutu-expresses-outrage-failing-politicians

Israel Not Likely to Strike Iran pre-November

Senior U.S. intelligence official: Israel won't strike Iran before November

Haaretz, Sept. 4, 2012

There is a growing American assessment that Israel will not attack Iranian nuclear facilities before the U.S. presidential elections on November 6. 

U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who visited Israel last week, told a breakfast panel at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday that he believes the Israeli government is likely to wait until after the elections. 

Rogers said that after his trip, during which he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he’d been left with “no doubt in my mind” that the U.S. election cycle was part of Israel’s calculations. Asked why he thought Israel would wait, Rogers said, “Because I think they believe that maybe after the election they can talk the United States into cooperating.” 

Rogers’ remarks were published on the website of the Washington newspaper The Hill, which reports primarily on the U.S. Congress. 

During Rogers’ meeting with Netanyahu, the prime minister criticized U.S. President Barak Obama’s attitude toward Iran, according to a report in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth. This led to a sharply worded exchange between Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, who was present at the meeting, the paper said. Shapiro subsequently denied the report. 

On Monday, former CIA director Michael Hayden told Haaretz that a decision on attacking Iran need not be made right now, as current assessments point to Iran achieving nuclear-weapons capabilities no earlier than 2013 or 2014. 

Hayden said he believes those assessments are still valid, even though the time needed for the Iranians to make the leap into actual production of nuclear weapons has decreased, since the bottleneck in that plan was the missile development and the lack of enriched uranium needed to make warheads, not Tehran’s ability to turn the material into weapons. 

Hayden added that if and when a decision is made to attack Iran, the U.S. would be better equipped to conduct it than Israel(1) 

 Not too surprising. They have to calculate the US election cycle. They want US money, diplomatic cover for the Occupation, etc, and to have a reasonable possibility for a successful strike on Iran would require a joint operation with the US military.

Note:

(1)  http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/senior-u-s-intelligence-official-israel-won-t-strike-iran-before-november-1.462712

The court is not amused: Canadian judge rejects royal privilege argument

QUEBEC - An attempt to invoke royal privilege in a Canadian courtroom was rejected by a judge Monday.

Quebec Superior Court dismissed arguments that the province's former lieutenant-governor should be granted immunity from fraud charges.

Marc Labelle, the lawyer for Lise Thibault, had argued that his client should benefit from sovereign immunity, because the Crown's prosecution cannot prosecute the Crown.

Superior Court disagreed and said Thibault's trial will proceed on Sept. 10.
Thibault, who served as the lieutenant-governor from 1997 to 2007, has pleaded not guilty to two counts each of breach of trust, fraud and creating false or counterfeit documents.

The auditor-generals of Quebec and Canada concluded in a joint report in 2007 that Thibault was reimbursed for $700,000 in expenses that were not related to her mandate.

Labelle's novel argument was based on the principle that the Queen can do no wrong, which dates back to the Middle Ages.

 

Note: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/court+amused+Canadian+judge+rejects+royal+privilege+argument/7152310/story.html#ixzz24w95vdhL

 

Perfect example of the need for a republican state.

Libyan militants bulldoze Sufi mosque in broad daylight

Police 'stood by' as Salafi extremist group razed Tripoli mosque in most blatant sectarian attack since Gaddafi's overthrow

Armed men have bulldozed a mosque containing Sufi Muslim graves in the centre of the capital, Tripoli, in broad daylight, in what appeared to be Libya's most blatant sectarian attack since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

Government officials condemned the demolition of the large mosque and blamed an armed group who, they said, viewed its graves and shrines to Sufi figures as unIslamic.

It was the second razing of a Sufi site in two days. Ultra-conservative Islamists wrecked Sufi shrines with bombs and another bulldozer and set fire to a mosque library in the city of Zlitan early on Friday, an official said.

Libya's rulers have struggled to control armed groups competing for power a year after Gaddafi's fall.

The president of Libya's newly elected National Congress, Mohamed al-Magariaf, called the prime minister to an emergency meeting on Sunday.

"What is truly regrettable and suspicious is that some of those who took part in these destructive activities are supposed to be of the security forces and from the revolutionaries," Magariaf told reporters.

He did not elaborate on how security forces took part.

A Reuters reporter witnessed the bulldozer level the Sha'ab mosque as police surrounded the site and prevented people from approaching. They did not stop the demolition.(1)

Very disgusting. Of course removing Qaddafi wasn't for the benefit for the population. Letting crazies like this loose is hardly in the interest of the people there.

 Note:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/26/libya-militants-bulldoze-sufi-mosque?fb=optOut