Idiology and International Blog

U.S. split over decision to put Sep 11 suspects on trial

2009-11-15T05:16:00.000-08:00

The Obama administration's decision to prosecute the September 11 suspects in federal court has been applauded and criticized.

It represents an important step forward for justice, Human Rights Watch said.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced that five of the suspects facing pending military commission charges at Guantanamo would be transferred for federal trial in the United States.

"The Obama administration recognized that a trial of this historic importance belongs in a fair and time-tested justice system," said Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program director at Human Rights Watch. "The military commissions at Guantanamo are simply not up to the task."

The trial will be held at a federal court in New York City, which bore the brunt of the September 11 2001 attacks. Many critics have pointed out the trial will signal a return to New York for al-Qaeda.

"What the Obama administration is telling us loud and clear is that the war on terror is over, from their point of view. We are no longer going to treat these people as if this was an act of war," Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York at the time of the attacks said Sunday.

"In this particular case, we are reaching out to give terrorists a legal benefit that is unnecessary. In fact, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, when he was first arrested asked to be brought to New York. I did not think we were in the business of granting the requests of terrorists," Guiliania, who believes the men should be tried in military tribunals, said.

Current Mayor Michael Bloomber disagrees, and says the decision to move the trial to a federal court, in New York, is "fitting."

Unlike the deeply flawed military commission proceedings, the federal civilian courts can give the defendants a fair and credible trial, one that will be recognized as such internationally, HRW said in a statement. Their use will also send a clear message that terrorists are criminals rather than soldiers in an armed conflict.

Holder has said he believes the men will be convicted, and if so will face the death penalty. A trial by military tribunal may well achieve the same result, but its legitimacy would be questioned.

Human Rights Watch said the importance of the 9/11 trial to America's reputation in the fight against terrorism cannot be overestimated. These historic proceedings must be fair - and be perceived as fair - and their verdicts must be viewed as credible. By moving them to federal court and out of the ad hoc, chaotic, and discredited military commissions at Guantanamo, the administration has taken a crucial step toward ensuring that the results of the trial will be recognized as legitimate, HRW said.

One concern for prosecutors, particularly with Mohammed, will be claims that part of the evidence was obtained by harsh interrogation, some aspects of which have been described as torture.

Another will be the making available of intelligence to defense counsel and their al-Qaeda clients. "We have to give them all kinds of information about our methods of intelligence that can only make them more efficient at killing us," said Andrew McCarthy, the chief prosecutor in Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman's trial over his role in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings. "It's a massively stupid decision when we're at war with them," he said.

Over 150 defendants have been convicted on terrorism charges in US federal courts since 2001. The military commissions have only tried three cases during the same period.

Human Rights Watch said the decision to transfer the five cases to federal courts was diminished by the administration's decision to keep other pending cases before military commissions, providing substandard justice. While the recently enacted Military Commissions Act of 2009 significantly improves upon the Bush administration's system of military commissions, it still departs in fundamental ways from the fair trial procedures used in US federal courts and courts martial. Human Rights Watch said that any trial before the revised system of military commissions will carry the stigma of Guantanamo.

The cases remaining before military commissions include that of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was 15 years old in 2002 when he allegedly threw the grenade that killed US Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer and wounded two others. The US government has refused to acknowledge his status as a child or to apply universally recognized standards of juvenile justice in his case.

No international tribunal since Nuremberg has prosecuted a child for alleged war crimes. The United Nations committee that monitors the rights of children found that the United States has held alleged child soldiers at Guantanamo without giving due account of their status as children and concluded that the "conduct of criminal proceedings against children within the military justice system should be avoided."

"Why would the Obama administration attempt to revive discredited military commissions by trying a child soldier?" Mariner said. "They should not be trying anyone before military commissions."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators were held for years without charge or trial in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency, and were not transferred to Guantanamo until September 2006. The five men were charged before the military commissions in February 2008.

Human Rights Watch called on the Obama administration to prosecute in federal court all the detainees at Guantanamo accused of terrorism and other crimes.

Members of al-Qaeda seek to be acknowledged as soldiers rather than denigrated as criminals, Human Rights Watch said. Putting them on trial in military commissions would have reinforced that view, handing al-Qaeda an enormous propaganda victory. Trial in federal court will deny them the status of warrior.

Judge William Young underscored this point in the 2003 trial of the "shoe bomber," Richard Reid. As Judge Young said at the defendant's sentencing, "You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. . . To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature."

Regardless of Human Rights Watch, the views of the former and current mayors of New York City, and those of the American public in general, the move to grant federal trials is controversial, and has split the nation.

Obama admits he is 'too clumsy' to Twitter

2009-11-15T05:14:00.000-08:00

US President Barack Obama Monday said he was 'too clumsy' to use popular social-networking websites such as Twitter, despite aides making extensive use of them during his election campaign.

Obama told some 500 students in Shanghai that he had never used Twitter but supported unrestricted access to all internet technology.

'My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone,' he said. 'But I am a big believer in technology and I'm a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information.'

Obama was responding to a question about access to Twitter and China's use of its 'Great Firewall' to block access to politically sensitive online content for the country's estimated 350 million internet users.

'I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable,' he said.

Obama joked that as US president 'there are times where I wish information didn't flow so freely because then I wouldn't have to listen to people criticising me all the time.'

He said the open criticism 'makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear.'

Online 'citizen participation' in governance had made the internet an 'even more powerful tool,' Obama said.

'In fact, one of the reasons that I won the presidency was because we were able to mobilise young people like yourself to get involved through the internet,' he told the students.

Obama criticises the Great Firewall of China

2009-11-15T05:12:00.000-08:00

London, Nov. 16 : President Barack Obama has criticized the "Great Firewall of China" or the internet censorship in the communist country by saying that the open internet use should be encouraged.

Obama, who steered clear of touching sensitive topics during his first day in the country, used a live question-and-answer session with Chinese students in Shanghai to criticise censorship of the internet.

The Chinese side was nervous at US requests for a live broadcast and online streaming. Finally, the session was shown live only on Shanghai television, The Times reports.

Obama was asked whether he knew of the "Great Firewall" - the popular term for the blocks that China's Government imposes on the Internet to keep out content its censors deem inappropriate for its citizens.

Obama said: "I have always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I am a big supporter of non-censorship. I recognise that different countries have different traditions."

He continued the subtle criticism of his hosts, by saying: "I should be honest, there are times when I wish information didn't flow so freely, then I wouldn't have to listen to people criticise me all the time. People naturally when in positions of power think 'How could that person say that of me? That's irresponsible'."

But Obama believed such openness made him a better leader, forcing him to listen to opinions he did not want to hear.

China's leaders are rarely required - or have the opportunity - to be exposed to criticism.

The Great Firewall filters out almost all such remarks and, in any case, few dare to post comments disparaging to the leadership for fear of retribution.

He averted possible objections from Communist Party censors who say that the Internet needs to be monitored to protect its people from harm.

"The good outweighs the bad so much. That is why I am so glad the internet is part of this forum," he said.

Up to 16 US soldiers committed suicide last month

2009-11-15T05:11:00.000-08:00

More U.S. soldiers likely committed suicide last month than were killed in the Fort Hood shootings earlier this month.

The U.S. army is investigating sixteen potential suicides among active-duty soldiers in October, about twice the number reported in September, Army officials said.

Of the 7 reported in September, three have been confirmed as suicides, and 4 still are under investigation to determine the cause of death.

In the nine months from January to October, the Army reported 133 potential active-duty suicides. Of those, ninety deaths have been confirmed as suicides, and the other 43 remain under investigation. For the same period in 2008, there were 115 suicides among active-duty soldiers.

"Stigma continues to be one of the most difficult challenges we confront," said Army Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, director of the Suicide Prevention Task Force. "The more we educate our Army community about the need to get help, the need to get it early, and that full recovery is often possible, the less stigma we'll see."

Suicide is not absent from the reserve components, as 69 potential suicides were reported among reserve-component soldiers not on active duty for the first ten months of 2009. Of those, 41 have been confirmed as suicides. For the same time period in 2008, there were forty seven suicides. October accounted for 8 of the potential suicides in 2009.

In an effort to curb suicides, the Army in March chartered the multidisciplinary task force McGuire heads up. Its mission was to make rapid improvements across the full spectrum of health promotion, risk reduction and suicide prevention programs. It has made more than 170 improvements to these programs, Army officials said.

Army leaders took it a step further when they announced the formal start of the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program on Oct. 1. The holistic program is designed to emphasize psychological, emotional and mental strength. The new program uses a balanced, multifaceted approach and a lifelong learning model that includes individual assessment, tailored virtual training, classroom training at all levels of Army education, and embedded resilience experts.

The goal of the program is to provide soldiers the critical skills then need to face any and all of life's challenges, officials said.

U.S. soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact Military OneSource at 1-800-342-9647, or the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. Both organizations provide trained consultants around the clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Clinton says aid to Afghanistan might have to stop

2009-11-15T05:10:00.001-08:00

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told ABC News that Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai must do more to fight corruption from within.

Ms Clinton said the Afghan government will need to establish a major crimes tribunal and an anti-corruption commission if it wants continued civilian aid from Washington.

Considering last month's fraud-tainted elections, she said any anti-corruption declaration from Mr Karzai would need to include a no impunity clause for corrupt Afghan officials.

Any US civilian aid sent to Afghanistan would need to be handled by government ministries that can be held accountable, she said.

Ms Clinton told the ABC that Washington was only in Afghanistan to defeat al-Qaeda and had no long term plans to build a modern Afghan democracy.

Israeli judge quashes conviction against Arab boy

2009-11-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

An Israeli judge has granted protection from the justice system to an Arab teenager who threw stones at a police car during a protest last month.

The judge has ordered that the youth not be convicted despite being found guilty of the offence, which occurred during a demonstration over the Israeli attack on Gaza earlier this year.

The youth, a 17 year old, was arrested during a protest on a road near Nazareth a few days after Israel launched its operation in Gaza last December.

He could have been sent to prison for 20 years had the judge allowed the conviction to stand.

The judge ruled that while prosecutors wanted to deter other members of Israel's Arab minority from committing similar offences, he would not jail the minor because it would be a case of the Israeli state "caressing with one hand the Jewish ideological felons, and flogging with its other hand the Arab ideological felons."

Judge Yuval Shadmi said discrimination in the Israeli legal system's treatment of Jewish and Arab minors in similar matters had become unbalanced.

He referred to the lenient treatment by the police and courts both of Jewish settler youths who have attacked soldiers in the West Bank and of religious extremists who have spent many months battling police to prevent the opening of a car park on the Sabbath in Jerusalem.

The legal group acting for Israel's Arab minority has said it will now use the ruling to assist it in proving that the Israeli state has pursued a policy of systematic discrimination in demanding harsher punishments for Arab citizens.

The prosecution has announced it will appeal against the decision.

The Earl dug coal-mines

2009-11-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

Mr. Sinclair began with a long dedicatory Epistle about nothing at all, to the Lord Winton of the period. The Earl dug coal-mines, and constructed "a moliminous rampier for a harbour." A "moliminous rampier" is a choice phrase, and may be envied by novelists who aim at distinction of "Your defending the salt pans against the Mr. Sinclair began with a long dedicatory Epistle about nothing at all, to the Lord Winton of the period. The Earl dug coal-mines, and constructed "a moliminous rampier for a harbour." A "moliminous rampier" is a choice phrase, and may be envied by novelists who aim at distinction of style. "Your defending the salt pans against the imperious waves of the raging sea from the NE. is singular," adds the Professor, addressing "the greatest coal and salt-master in Scotland, who is a nobleman, and the greatest nobleman who is a Coal and Salt Merchant." Perhaps it is already plain to the modern mind that Mr. George Sinclair, though a Professor of Philosophy, was not a very sagacious character.

Mr. Sinclair professes that his proofs of the existence of Devils "are no old wife's trattles about the fire, but such as may bide the test." He lived, one should remember, in an age when faith was really seeking aid from ghost stories. Glanvil's books--and, in America, those of Cotton Mather--show the hospitality to anecdotes of an edifying sort, which we admire in Mr. Sinclair. Indeed, Sinclair borrows from Glanvil and Henry More, authors who, like himself, wished to establish the existence of the supernatural on the strange incidents which still perplex us, but which are scarcely regarded as safe matter to argue upon. The testimony for a Ghost would seldom go to a jury in our days, though amply sufficient in the time of Mr. Sinclair. About "The Devil of Glenluce" he took particular care to be well informed, and first gave it to the world in a volume on--you will never guess what subject--Hydrostatics! In the present work he offers us

"The Devil of Glenluce Enlarged With several Remarkable Additions from an Eye and Ear Witness, A of undoubted Honesty."

Mr. Sinclair recommends its "usefulness for refuting Atheism." Probably Mr. Sinclair got the story, or had it put off on him rather, through one Campbell, a student of philosophy in Glasgow, the son of Gilbert Campbell, a weaver of Glenluce, in Galloway; the scene in our own time, of a mysterious murder. Campbell had refused alms to Alexander Agnew, a bold and sturdy beggar, who, when asked by the Judge whether he believed in a God, answered: "He knew no God but Salt, Meal, and Water." In consequence of the refusal of alms, "The Stirs first began." The "Stirs" are ghostly disturbances. They commenced with whistling in the house and out of it, "such as children use to make with their small, slender glass whistles." "About the Middle of November," says Mr. Sinclair, "the Foul Fiend came on with his extraordinary assaults." Observe that he takes the Foul Fiend entirely for granted, and that he never tells us the date of the original quarrel, and the early agitation. Stones were thrown down the chimney and in at the windows, but nobody was hurt.

Naturally Gilbert Campbell carried his tale of sorrow to the parish Minister. This did not avail him. His warp and threads were cut on his loom, and even the clothes of his were cut while they were wearing them. At night something Naturally Gilbert Campbell carried his tale of sorrow to the parish Minister. This did not avail him. His warp and threads were cut on his loom, and even the clothes of his family were cut while they were wearing them. At night something tugged the blankets off their beds, a favourite old spiritual trick, which was played, if I remember well, on a Roman Emperor, according to Suetonius. Poor Campbell had to remove his stock-in-trade, and send his children to board out, "to try whom the trouble did most follow." After this, all was quiet (as perhaps might be expected), and quiet all remained, till a son named Thomas was brought home again. Then the house was twice set on fire, and it might have been enough to give Thomas a beating. On the other hand, Campbell sent Thomas to stay with the Minister. But the troubles continued in the old way. At last the family became so accustomed to the Devil, "that they were no more afraid to keep up the Clash" (chatter) "with the Foul Fiend than to speak to each other." They were like the Wesleys, who were so familiar with the fiend Jeffrey, that haunted their home.

Necromaunt in Three Chimeras

2009-11-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

"Fire and faggots, Worms and maggots," as Aytoun writes on the other fly-leaf, are indeed the matter of "The Death Wake." as Aytoun writes on the other fly-leaf, are indeed the matter of "The Death Wake."

Then, why, some one may ask, write about "The Death Wake" at all? Why rouse again the nightmare of a boy of twenty? Certainly I am not to say that "The Death Wake" is a pearl of great price, but it does contain passages of poetry--of poetry very curious because it is full of the new note, the new melody which young Mr. Tennyson was beginning to waken. It anticipates Beddoes, it coincides with Gautier and Les Chimeres of Gerard, it answers the accents, then unheard in England, of Poe.

Some American who read out of the way things, and was not too scrupulous, recognised, and robbed, a brother in Tom Stoddart. Eleven years after "The Death Wake" appeared in England, it was published in Graham's Magazine, as "Agatha, a Necromaunt in Three Chimeras," by Louis Fitzgerald Tasistro. Now Poe was closely connected with Graham's Magazine, and after "Arthur Gordon Pym," "Louis Fitzgerald Tasistro" does suggest Edgar Allen Poe. But Poe was not Tasistro.

So much for the literary history of the Lunacy.

The poem begins--Chimera I. begins:- "An anthem of a sister choristry! And, like a windward murmur of the sea, O'er silver shells, so solemnly it falls!"The anthem accompanies a procession of holy fathers towards a bier; "Agathe Was on the lid--a And who? No more! 'Twas only Agathe." A solitary monk is prowling around in the moonlit cathedral; he has a brow of stony marble, he has raven hair, and he falters out the name of Agathe. He has said adieu to that fair one, and to her sister Peace, that lieth in her He has loved, and loves, the silent Agathe. He was the son of a Crusader, "And Julio had fain Have been a warrior, but his very brain Grew fevered at the sickly thought of death, And to be stricken with a want of breath."

an autograph hunter

2009-11-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

Occasionally, like Hawthorne, they sigh for an historical atmosphere, and then, when they come to Europe and get it, they do not like it, and think Schenectady, New York, "a better place." It is not easy to understand what ailed Hawthorne with Europe; he was extremely caustic in his writings about that continent, and discontented. Our matrons were so stout and placid that they irritated him. Indeed, they are a little heavy in hand, still there are examples of agreeable slimness, even in this poor old country. Fond as he was of the historical past, Mr. Holmes remained loyal to the historical present. He was not one of those Americans who are always censuring England, and always hankering after her. He had none of that irritable feeling, which made a great contemporary of his angrily declare that HE could endure to hear "Ye Mariners of England" sung, because of his own country's successes, some time ago. They were gallant and conspicuous victories of the American frigates; we do not grudge them. A fair fight should leave no rancour, above all in the victors, and Dr. Holmes's withers would have been unwrung by Campbell's ditty.

He visited in youth, and fifty years later. On the anniversary of the American defeat He visited England in youth, and fifty years later. On the anniversary of the American defeat at Bunker's Hill (June 17), Dr. Holmes got his degree in the OLD Cambridge. He received degrees at Edinburgh and at Oxford, in his "Hundred Days in Europe" he says very little about these historic cities. The men at Oxford asked, "Did he come in the 'One Hoss Shay'?" the name of his most familiar poem in the lighter vein. The whole visit to England pleased and wearied him. He likened it to the shass caffy of Mr. Henry Foker-- the fillip at the end of the long banquet of life. He went to see the Derby, for he was fond of horses, of racing, and, in a sportsmanlike way, of boxing. He had the great boldness once, audax juventa, to write a song in praise of that comfortable creature--wine. The prudery of many Americans about the juice of the grape is a thing very astonishing to a temperate Briton. An admirable author, who wrote an account of the old convivial days of an American city, found that reputable magazines could not accept such a degrading historical record. There was no nonsense about Dr. Holmes. His poems were mainly "occasional" verses for friendly meetings; or humorous, like the celebrated "One Horse Shay." Of his serious verses, the "Nautilus" is probably too familiar to need quotation; a noble fancy is nobly and tunefully "moralised." Pleasing, cultivated, and so forth, are adjectives not dear to poets. To say "sublime," or "magical," or "strenuous," of Dr. Holmes's muse, would be to exaggerate. How far he maintained his scholarship, I am not certain; but it is odd that, in his preface to "The Guardian Angel," he should quote from "Jonathan Edwards the younger," a story for which he might have cited Aristotle.

Were I to choose one character out of Dr. Holmes's creations as my favourite, it would be "a frequent correspondent of his," and of mine--the immortal Gifted Hopkins. Never was minor poet more kindly and genially portrayed. And if one had to pick out three of his books, as the best worth reading, they would be "The Professor," "Elsie Venner," and "The Guardian Angel." They have not the impeccable art and distinction of "The House of the Seven Gables" and "The Scarlet Letter," but they combine fantasy with living human interest, and with humour. With Sir Thomas Browne, and Dr. John Brown, and--may we not add Dr. Weir Mitchell?--Dr. Holmes excellently represents the physician in humane letters. He has left a blameless and most amiable memory, unspotted by the world. His works are full of the savour of his native soil, naturally, without straining after "Americanism;" and they are national, not local or provincial. He crossed the great gulf of years, between the central age of American literary production--the time of Hawthorne and Poe--to our own time, and, like Nestor, he reigned among the third generation. As far as the world knows, the shadow of a literary quarrel never fell on him; he was without envy or jealousy, incurious of his own place, never vain, petulant, or severe. He was even too good-humoured, and the worst thing I have heard of him is that he could never say "no" to an autograph hunter.

Alexandria Bank Statement on Over Selling

2009-11-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

Amid this much ado, Alexandria Bank was forced to issue a statement in which it would respond to what was said over selling its share in the Egyptian-American Bank. It, in the statement, confirmed that it abided with all the agreed-upon measures concerning a strategic share selling. It also declared commitment to the measures according to which the public association's shares in Banks and joint ventures were sold.

The deal would further enhance the financial position of Alexandria Bank as it achieved about 950 million pounds, representing capital profits. Those profits would be used in covering all the bank's needs. This would be positively reflected in the soon Bank privatization, enhancing its situation during negotiations with investors. The selling operation would further attract a direct foreign investment at the sum of 3801 million dollars, represented in the share of "Credite Agricole Calion" in the deal, while the bank record cost would not exceed 50 million pounds.

The statement indicated that American Express Bank was the main shareholder in the Egyptian-American Bank as it possessed a rate of 8.4%. It also enjoyed the right of administration. Consequently, it had to be replaced by a strong financial association that had the banking experience to be able to run the bank in the future. Here came Credite Agricole Clion Group. Alexandria and American Banks agreed to sell their joint shares that reached 6.74% to a strategic investor. "Credite Swiss First Boston" was chosen.

It was considered one of the biggest financial advisers and international marketers. The share selling was declared to several financial international and regional associations. The number of the initial offers were reduced to a brief list: Credite Agricole ( Calion), HSBC, US Saudi Bank ( Samba). All were considered of the biggest regional and international banks. The Egyptian Central Bank board initially approved that those banks would be examined and would prove that any of them had a rate that reached 100% in the mentioned bank capital, being paid to the Egyptian-American Bank according to the related rules in this respect. This would include the whole public money share provided that rights of the Egyptian-US Bank employees are maintained.

The world economy in Singapore Transformation

2009-11-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

While economic growth continued in the second phase of development (1974-1984), overall growth slowed down, reflecting the less favourable circumstances in the world economy partly associated with the two international oil shocks. Domestic-market and low value, labour intensive industries such as food and beverages, textiles and wood products declined in relative importance while industries which expanded rapidly included petroleum refining, chemical products, fabricated metal products, electrical and electronic products and components as well as machinery and precision equipment (Tan, 1995:57). Singapore also consolidated its role as an international financial centre in the 1970s. In the late 1970s, sustained economic expansion, which by now was resulting in an increasing dependence on foreign workers led the government to embark on a 'second industrial revolution' to force the pace of technological upgrading. R&D capacity and technical skills were given special attention, evident for example, in expanded government R&D funding, including support to a new Software Technology Centre and the opening of a Science Park.

However, the desired economic transformation did not take place. In the third phase of development (1985-1986), real GDP declined as international economic conditions contributed to the only recession so far encountered by independent Singapore. The government appointed a ministerial committee to identify the causes of the downturn and to identify 'new directions' for growth. The Committee proposed various diversification strategies, with recommendations for a number of substantive economic areas, such as manufacturing, tourism, construction, commerce, trade and services. One of the important orientations of pertinence to the discussion in this paper is the recommendation to encourage overseas headquarters to relocate to Singapore and to build a 'total business centre' in which Singapore would become an important strategic node of global companies for the Asia-Pacific region (EDB, 1988:12).

The most recent phase of economic development, led by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong who replaced Lee Kuan Yew in 1990, is shaped by a central document, the Strategic Economic Plan (MTI, 1991), which is partly a restatement of established goals. It speaks of positioning Singapore as a global city, by making it a 'total business hub' for the Asia-Pacific and offering a business location on par with other leading global cities. The attraction of high tech, knowledge-intensive industries is to be intensified, along with investment to enhance labour skills and innovation capacity. Another important dimension of 1990s strategy is a regionalisation drive, which has involved Singapore-based companies moving their operations to regional locations, a strategy aimed at enhancing their competitiveness and expanding Singapore's economic space beyond its limited geographical boundaries.

European-Aryan country

2009-11-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

On one point-and that is for our purpose the most important one - the advocates of both hypotheses have approached each other. The leaders of the defenders of the Asiatic hypothesis have ceased to regard Asia as the cradle of all the dialects into which the ancient Aryan tongue has been divided. While they cling to the theory that time Aryan inhabitants of Europe have immigrated from Asia, they have well - nigh entirely ceased to claim that these peoples, already before their departure from their Eastern home, were so distinctly divided linguistically that it was necessary to imagine certain branches of the race speaking Celtic, others Teutonic, others, again, Greco-Italian, even before they came to Europe.

The prevailing opinion among the advocates of the Asiatic hypothesis now doubtless is, that the Aryans who immigrated to Europe formed one homogeneous mass, which gradually on our continent divided itself definitely into Celts, Teutons, Slays, and Greco-Italians. The adherents of both hypotheses have thus been able to agree that there has been a European-Aryan country. And the question as to where it was located is of the most vital importance, as it is closely connected with the question of the original home of the Teutons, since the ancestors of the Teutons must have inhabited this ancient European-Aryan country.

al-Jadida bomb attack

2009-10-19T03:03:00.000-07:00

On 14 May 2005, the four men were shown on the Iraqi TV channel al-'Iraqiyya admitting responsibility for the al-Jadida bomb attack but all showed visible signs of having been assaulted. Relatives who saw the programme told Amnesty International that the four men had injuries to their faces which led them to suspect that they had been subjected to torture or ill-treatment in order to force them to make confessions.

Later, when the men gained access to a lawyer in July 2005 they repudiated their confessions and alleged that they had been systematically tortured for 27 days while being held by the Wolf Brigade in a Ministry of Interior building in the al-Ziyouna district of Baghdad. They stated that they had been beaten with cables and had electric shocks applied to their hands, wrists, fingers, ankles and feet. They also said they were burnt on the face with lighted cigarettes and were placed in a room with water on the floor while an electric current was passed through. They alleged too that a US military officer was present at one time in the room in which they were being interrogated.

pilots plain English

2009-10-19T02:05:00.000-07:00

The language used between pilots and air traffic controllers differs from plain English in that it requires the consistent use of specifically formulated terms. This consistent use has great importance since any substitution of non-technical terms can cause misunderstanding and therefore, even air disasters. Misunderstandings between the control tower and pilots have been an important factor in air accidents.

Therefore, The International Civil Aviation Organization (hereafter ICAO) was formed in 1944 (Illman, 1989, p. 24) and required a standard and unambiguous language system for communication between pilots and air traffic controllers. To meet this need, a successful semi-artificial international language, known as the 'lingua franca' of pilots and air traffic controllers was created (Robertson, 1988). Since I have been teaching English a number of prospective pilots and air traffic controllers, the safety issues related to the use of ICAO terminology is of both professional and personal interest to me.

Contribution of Vedic Thought to World Peace

2009-10-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of creation the world is torn between two conflicting emotions and thoughts love and hate. The ultimate object is to bring heaven on earth by the materialization of long cherished dream of one world where there may be no conflict, no war, and where peace should reign supreme. Several attempts were made for unification of world at various levels as -

(a) At physical level which means the use of military force.
(b) At socio economic level, which means the removal of social and economic inequalities by taking possession of the power by the state.
(c) At religious level, which means the use of religion supported by military might.
(d) At spiritual level, which means the realization by individual of principals of brotherhood of man and common interest of mankind.

Elaborating above themes, in my presentation, I want to emphasize (d), India being the only country, which has used spiritual power in the cause of developing the concept of one world with the help of message of saints and sages, the message of Vedas.

American's political struggles

2009-10-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

"However, I realized that decades of armed and political struggles could not help to inch forward a resolution of this issue. Nevertheless, East Timor's issue was resolved without losing much time. Why? Because the entire game was in the hands of the great Satan, the USA. Organs like the UN and countries like India and Israel were simply the extension of its resources and that's why there was a failure to resolve the Palestinian issue, the Kashmir issue and the plight of Afghanistan.

"So I and many people all across the world realized that analyzing the situation in any narrow regional political perspective was an incorrect approach. This is a different ball game altogether for which a unified strategy is compulsory. The defeat of American global hegemony is a must if I want the liberation of my homeland Kashmir, and therefore it provided the reasoning for my presence in this war theater. " Ilyas continued, "When I came here I found my step justified; how the world regional powers operate under the umbrella of the great Satan and how they are supportive of its great plans. This can be seen here in Afghanistan." He added that al-Qaeda's regional war strategy, in which they have hit Indian targets, is actually to chop off American strength.

Taliban-led insurgency

2009-10-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

Despite what some reports claim, Ilyas was never a part of Pakistan's special forces, nor even of the army. Nearly 30 years ago when he joined the Afghan jihad against the Soviets from the platform of the HUJI, he developed expertise in guerrilla warfare and explosives. Within just months of arriving in the Afghan war theater in 2005, Kashmiri redefined the Taliban-led insurgency based on legendary Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap's three-pronged guerrilla warfare strategy. For the Taliban, the main emphasis was to be placed on cutting NATO's supply lines from all four sides of Afghanistan, and carrying out special operations similar to the Mumbai attack in Afghanistan.

Over the years, Ilyas has deliberately adopted a low key presence in the militants' hierarchy. His attacks are just the opposite, although he never issues statements or claims responsibility for any operation. His 313 Brigade is believed to be the main catalyst of high-profile operations such as the one in Mumbai and others in Afghanistan, as well as al-Qaeda's operations in Somalia and to some extent in Iraq. "Do you believe that the upcoming South Waziristan operation will be the 'mother of all operations' in the region, as some analysts say," I asked after we had finished lunch and I was alone with Ilyas and his trusted confidant.

Indonesian Forests Permit holders

2009-10-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

The study area consists of three districts in north-east Kalimantan: Bulungan, Malinau and Nunukan. Kalimantan is estimated to contain about 30% of Indonesia's forest area and around 50% of Indonesia's production forests i.e. forests designated by the government for timber extraction (Ismael 2000). Deforestation in Kalimantan is estimated to be around 706,000 ha/year (World Bank 2000a). IPPK permits have been rapidly issued in Bulungan and Malinau and at a somewhat slower rate in Nunukan,

Permit holders are liable for an area-based tax, known as the Third Party tax, equivalent to about $20/ha and a volume-based production tax equivalent to about $1.5/m3. A royalty, usually around $3/ m3 is negotiated with local communities. Exports require a permit and a fee equivalent to about $12/m3 for meranti species. In addition transport permits are required with the fee that varies amongst species. Much of the timber harvested from east Kalimantan is exported across the border to Sabah, Malaysia, where plywood companies face an acute shortage of raw materials due to the depletion of local timber stocks and increased enforcement of regulations on timber extraction. Data on the timber trade were therefore also collected from Tawau, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah Malaysia.

Data were collected by first using rapid rural appraisal methods, consisting of semi-structured interviews with key informants including government officials, timber industry actors and members of local communities. IPPK industry operators had to be identified through informal contacts, given their shadowy nature and their unwillingness to be formally interviewed. Data on corruption were collected through informal, confidential interviews with anonymous IPPK operators. Rapport was established by requesting their cooperation in understanding the IPPK system and the problems its operators face. We emphasised that we were not requesting information on specific companies or officials. Given the sensitive nature of the data, and the time consuming process of establishing rapport, information was collected opportunistically from very small samples, often single to three or four cases. In addition, primary and secondary documents on government statistics and laws at the district level were also reviewed.

Russia Local elections

2009-10-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

Local elections across Russia on Sunday may have been marred by fraud, according to observers. While some 30 million people were eligible to vote in the mayoral, regional and district council elections, many who turned up found that votes had already been cast in their names. Opposition parties have said they were refused registration to take part in some of the voting which took place in all regions, including troubled Chechnya and Ingushetia. But Russia's Central Election Commission has claimed the elections were valid, with a high turnout. Concerns over the polling led to opposition leaders calling on voters to boycott the elections.

Afghanistan election fraud

2009-10-05T07:03:00.002-07:00

There have been serious allegations of election fraud in Afghanistan by UN officials. The top United Nations official in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission, has acknowledged there was significant fraud in the August 20th vote. Addressing a press conference in Kabul on Sunday, he said although fraud was widespread, officials are working to determine the extent. He would not be specific about problems with the vote, saying he did not want to influence the recount process.

Eide appeared at the news conference along with ambassadors from the United States, France and Britain, who were showing their support. Only days ago, Mr Eide's former deputy, Peter Galbraith, publicly accused him of suppressing evidence of widespread fraud in the election. Galbraith had warned that allowing polls to operate in unsafe areas increased the likelihood of voter fraud. In addressing Galbraith's comments, Mr Eide said closing the suspect polling stations would only have served to disenfranchise many Afghans.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dismissed Galbraith a week and a-half ago after he was critical of the way the UN was dealing with evidence of fraud. Galbraith had also said that UN gathered data gathered showed that most of the fraud benefited incumbent President Hamid Karzai.

Ramadi Bomb Blasts

2009-10-05T07:03:00.001-07:00

A series of coordinated bomb blasts has shaken the western Iraq city of Ramadi. Many people were dead and dozens wounded as ambulances arrived to take away bodies from the first blast scene, in a parking lot near a provincial government building. As rescuers arrived on the scene a second car bomb detonated. Soon after, a bomb exploded at Ramadi's main hospital, where victims of the earlier attacks had been rushed for medical treatment. No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's violence but it is being assumed Al-Qaeda used one of its favoured methods in the attack.

the Kerry Lugar Bill vs Pakistan's

2009-10-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

US President Barack Obama was apprised of Pakistan's current political situation, especially with regard to the wide scale criticism that the Kerry Lugar Bill has received in that country, during an important meeting here, The News reports. Sources said Obama was briefed about the recent developments in Pakistan during an important meeting in the White House. Concerned over the increasing clout of Al-Qaeda and Taliban even after putting in place a revamped AFPAK strategy, Obama had convened a 'situation room meeting' on Pakistan.

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the meeting would primarily focus on Pakistan, as the Obama administration believes that it is very necessary to have an apt strategy for Pakistan in view of the fact that top Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders have taken refuge in the lawless tribal region of that country. When enquiries were made about the agenda of the meeting, Gibbs pointed out that most of the 9/11 masterminds have now shifted to Pakistan, so the focus of the meeting would be Pakistan.

"I don't have the agenda with me. This one is going to focus on Pakistan, but without getting into detail, yes, the President was and many that were staffing the meeting understood what needed to be prepared for this one," he said. "The group of people that attacked us through Al-Qaeda on 9/11 and is planning through intent, actively planning and intending to try to attack us ... mostly are now (based) in the country of Pakistan," Gibbs added.

Kabul Suicide Bomb

2009-10-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Thursday said the suicide attack in Kabul was directed at the Indian embassy. "I believe that the suicide bomb was directed against the embassy because the suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives, obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy," Rao said. "All the personnel inside the embassy building at that time are safe. Three of our personnel from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), who were guarding the perimeter wall of the embassy have been slightly injured because of shrapnel from the bomb blast. But there has been no loss of life," she added.

"I have spoken to India's Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad and he has informed me that all the members of our embassy (officers and staff and personnel) are safe. The intensity of the blast was more or less similar to the one that occurred outside our embassy in Kabul in July 2008," Rao said. A Ministry of External Affairs spokesman said the blast took place at 8.27 a.m., and added that the walls of the complex had sustained some damage. Other unconfirmed media reports said that at least seven people had been killed in the incident.

Hamid Karzai's condem Indian embassy bombing

2009-10-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Strongly condemning the bomb blast outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday described it as a "heinous act of terror" planned to target civilians. "This heinous act of terror was an obvious attack on civilians. The perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it are vicious terrorists who kill innocent people for their malicious goals," he said in a statement. Karzai extended his heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims. At least 12 people were reportedly killed and over 83 injured in a suicide car bomb explosion near theIndian embassy in Kabul on Thursday morning.

Andhra Pradesh flood-ravaged states

2009-10-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

The Armed Forces have rescued 3,600 people in the flood-ravaged states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. According to a Defence Ministry release, two Army columns each continue flood relief operations in Kurnool and Vijayawada districts of Andhra Pradesh, besides one column has been deployed in Guntur district. As life returns to normalcy in Karnataka, the Army yesterday withdrew its last column of men, deployed in Karwar district. The Navy has also withdrawn three teams of its divers from Kurnool district in Karnataka.

But two diving teams continue relief and rescue operations in Uttar Kannada and Karwar districts. In Andhra Pradesh, five Naval teams remain deployed in Vijayawada district for relief operations. The Naval teams have rescued 1740 persons and distributed 2000 food and 1000 water packets so far. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has so far deployed thirty-two aircraft and helicopters, carrying out 340 sorties. The IAF has delivered over 206 tons of rescue equipment and relief materials, besides airlifting around 1100 people, including doctors, paramedics, rescue teams and flood affected victims, who were rescued.

Rambo style armed offensive

2009-10-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

The Indian Air Force (IAF) said Thursday that it was not contemplating a 'Rambo style' offensive against the Maoists. Speaking on the sidelines of the Air Force Day parade, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik said that IAF request for permission to fire in self defence did not mean an all-out 'armed offensive' against the people of India. He said the force was only taking counter measures to defend itself against firing from the ground by Maoist guerrillas who are increasingly becoming aggressive across the country.

'We have approached the government to fire in self defence to protect ourself. It is not free for all where you go like Rambo and fire at everybody. There are laid down procedures. You have to ensure minimum use of force, minimum collateral damage, firing has to be permitted by the captain of the helicopter and so on,' Naik told reporters here. IAF helicopters providing air support and non-offensive roles in Maoist affected areas have been fired at in the past. The IAF has carried out surveillance, reconnaissance and casualty evacuations during anti-Maoist operations.

On Nov 14 last year, the IAF lost an aircrew when Maoists fired at a Mi-8 helicopter in Pedia in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region. The IAF has sought permission from the defence ministry to fire in self-defence. 'We are not indulging in armed offensive against the people of India. We are trying to protect our men, women and crew who fly these machines,' said Naik.

'In the helicopters going for anti-Naxal operations the measures will be taken in self defence. The first being armour, then body armour for the crew, tactical maneuvering and sanitisation of place before taking off and landing by the local agencies,' said Naik. However, once permission is granted, the IAF will mount guns manned by Garud, the IAF's special force, the chief revealed.

New Delhi Bilateral Donor

2009-10-05T06:37:00.001-07:00

She said the stringent measures taken by New Delhi following the earlier had worked 'effectively'. This included putting up high-rise walls around the embassy and a multi-layered entry procedure. Rao said 'the suicide bomber came up to the outer perimeter in a car loaded with explosives'. The attack occurred a day after India pledged to continue to 'invest and endure' in Afghanistan and asked the international community to maintain a long-term commitment to that country.

New Delhi has pledged $1.2 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, making it the sixth largest bilateral donor. Even before the Taliban claimed responsibility, an Indian official told IANS in New Delhi: 'It's the handiwork of people who do not want India to continue with its reconstruction activities that Afghan people are happy with.' President Karzai called it 'a terrorist act against our innocent people'. US ambassador Timothy Roemer told reporters in New Delhi: 'Our heart goes out to India and the victims of terrorism... It is deeply troubling.' On July 7 last year, over 50 people, including two Indian diplomats and two Indian security personnel, were killed in a similar suicide attack at the embassy. That attack wounded 147 people. Most of the dead and wounded were Afghans.

senior Indian embassy officials killed

2009-10-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

In a statement posted on the insurgent's website, the Taliban claimed that some senior Indian embassy officials were killed when one of their bombers, identified only as Khalid, targeted the building. 'The embassy building, the main target of the attack, was destroyed in the powerful blast,' it said, adding the interior ministry was also damaged. Indian ambassador Jayant Prasad said all his staff were safe. 'The explosion I heard at my residence was exactly the same that I heard at my home (in July 2008),' Prasad told CNN-IBN news channel from Kabul.

He said the bombing damaged a watch tower and that the injuries suffered by the ITBP personnel were not serious in nature. The embassy wall bore the brunt of the blast. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi that the explosion was 'more or less similar' to the July 2008 bombing that killed over 50 people including two Indian diplomats and was blamed on Pakistan's intelligence agencies. Islamabad denied responsibility.

Taliban suicide bomber at the embassy

2009-10-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Taliban suicide bomber exploded near the Indian embassy in Kabul Thursday, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 90 in the second such attack since July 2008. No Indian was killed in the devastating bombing on the busy road outside the embassy. Afghan officials said the dead were one police officer and 11 Afghan civilians, most of whom were Indian visa seekers. The deafening 8.27 a.m. blast extensively damaged the embassy's outer wall and blew off windows and doors, injuring three Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel deployed outside the fortified mission.

The attack was heard in a large area of Kabul and caused a panic run as scores of people fell bleeding and others ran for cover screaming for help. Zemarai Bashary, an interior ministry spokesman, confirmed the attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the US joined India to condemn the attack that left some of the injured in serious condition. The road on which the car bomb exploded also houses the Afghan interior ministry and some government departments, but the Taliban said the target was the Indian embassy.

Al-Qaeda car bomb

2009-10-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

UK Iraq War Veterans

2009-10-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

An inquest has been heard into the death of Iraq war veteran who died in the UK from lung cancer after receiving the lungs in a transplant. Matthew Millington, 31, a corporal in the Queen's Royal Lancers had received the diseased lungs from a heavy smoker. The donor, who smoked 30 to 50 cigarettes a day, had been checked for tumours at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, the country's main heart and lung transplant centre, before the operation on Mr Millington took place.

At that time X-rays on the lungs revealed no signs of cancer. But a tumour was found after the transplant, and Mr Millington was told he would not be able to have another pair of lungs, owing to hospital policy that denies cancer patients having transplants. The soldier had radiotherapy but died at home last year. The double lung transplant went ahead in April 2007 and the cancer was discovered only six months after the operation.

The inquest was told that an internal investigation at Papworth had found the cancer had grown quickly in the six month period and went undetected due to a lack of communication between radiographers and consultants. But discounting verdicts of neglect or misadventure, the coroner has decided that Mr Millington had died from complications of transplant surgery. The hospital has defended the use of smokers' lungs for transplants, saying that all organs are screened rigorously.

Pakistan military offensive

2009-10-05T06:27:00.000-07:00

A major military offensive has taken place in the South Waziristan area of Pakistan. The Pakistan Air Force, reacting aggressively to a terror attack on the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on the weekend, pounded wide areas of the Taliban stronghold killing at least 30 suspected terrorists. The jet fighters targeted Taliban hideouts on mountaintops and in caves believed to lead to underground bunkers. The PAF's operation came after the 24-hour hostage drama inside the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, where Taliban members had taken hostages. A military commando operation later routed the Taliban members and left nine attackers dead. Ten other people were also killed, including soldiers.

Amnesty International on man execution

2009-10-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

Amnesty International has highlighted a case of a man facing execution in Texas. The human rights group has revealed a Texas man faces execution after jurors at his trial consulted the Bible when deliberating his fate. Khristian Oliver, 32, is set to be executed on 5th November. Jurors used Biblical passages supporting the death penalty to help them decide whether he should live or die. Amnesty considers that the jurors' use of the Bible during their sentencing deliberations raises serious questions about their impartiality.

According to people in the jury room at the time, several Bibles with passages highlighted were passed around during deliberation. One juror read aloud from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors, including the passage "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death". A US federal appeals court acknowledged last year that the jurors' use of the Bible amounted to an external influence prohibited under the US Constitution, but nonetheless upheld the death sentence.

Amnesty International is asking for the death sentence to be commuted. Khristian Oliver was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder committed during a burglary. According to accomplice testimony at the trial, 20-year-old Oliver shot the victim before striking him on the head with a rifle butt.

Italian army barracks bombing

2009-10-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

An army barracks in Milan in northern Italy has been bombed by an attacker who was on foot. The attacker was one of the injured in the attack. He is said to be in a serious condition having lost a hand. A soldier was also injured when the man, thought to be from North Africa, threw the rudimentary device. The motive for the attack remains unclear.

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama

2009-10-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

The decision of US President Obama to meet Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama after Obama's China visit has raised hopes amongst the Tibetan exiles living in India. Obama will not be meeting the Dalai Lama during his five-day trip to the US capital. This is the first time in 18 years the exiled Tibetan leader has visited Washington without seeing the President.

Obama will wait until after his November summit with Chinese leader Hu Jintao before meeting the Dalai Lama, a decision that has made the Tibetan exiles hopeful of US help in resolving the Tibet issue with China. "The fact that the meeting will take place after his China visit is significant. Perhaps, the President would have the chance to brief His Holiness of the discussion. He would hold with senior Chinese leaders on the issue of Tibet," said Thubten Samphel, spokesperson, Tibetan government-in-exile.

The decision to break the precedent and delay the meeting was conveyed to the Dalai Lama last month when Obama's senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and State Department Under Secretary, Maria Otero travelled to Dharamsala, to explain the administration's stand on Tibet.

The Madras Atomic Power Station

2009-10-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

The Madras Atomic Power Station conducted a mock drill at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu to prepare villagers around the site in case of any possible radiation leakage. The drill was organised by the power station officials along with Kancheepuram district administration on Wednesday. "We have stipulated the frequency for the offsite emergency exercise to bring the awareness in surrounding villages and to the district machinery what is to be done and what is not to be done in case of an emergency. We write the procedure and we have the offsite emergency manual prepared," said K Rama Murthy, director of the Madras Atomic Power Station.

The drill was conducted in the Manamai village near the atomic power station. As part of the exercise, the power station director messaged Kancheepuram district collector about the radiation leakage from the nuclear reactor.

After alerting other officials concerned, a team of fire service, medical personnel, police officials, revenue officials, transport officials, veterinary doctors arrived at the site. The objective of the exercise was to check the preparedness of the district administration and the power station management to handle any emergency situation. The nearby villages surrounding the power station, which can be affected by the leakage, were also alerted. They were asked to remain indoors with doors and windows shut.

In the second step, villagers and their cattle were medically examined. And finally the villagers were sanitised with water showers before they were transferred to a safer place. The emergency exercise disrupted the normal routine of the villagers, but they welcomed it. "No accident should take place at Kalpakkam atomic station. However, in case of any emergence or any accident, this mock drill is useful in preparing us how to tackle a possible mishap and also how to take tablets and clean us from radiation," said Ghandhimathi, a villager. The drill is conducted once in every two years.

the controversial Kerry Lugar Bill

2009-10-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

US Senator John Kerry, the main sponsor of the controversial Kerry Lugar Bill, has said that there are no conditions in respect to the civilian and economic assistance attached to the Bill, rather it contains accountability measures to ensure that the amount is spent in exactly in the way it is being provided for. "There are measures of financial accountability in place to ensure the money is spent in a way that the American people want it to be spent," Kerry said.

Kerry said the US has no intention to impede Pakistan's sovereignty through the Bill, about which various Pakistani political parties have expressed concern. "There is no conditionality, whatsoever, in this legislation with respect to the civilian assistance and the economic assistance that is provided," The Daily Times quoted Kerry, as saying. He said the legislation was intended to transform the elationship between Pakistan and the US into a 'deeper, broader, ong-term strategic engagement'.

Fidel Castro on Obama Nobel

2009-10-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

Former Cuban president, Fidel Castro, has said he was obliged to acknowledge the Nobel Prize given to US President, Barack Obama, was a "positive measure," and especially important considering the "genocidal policies" of some former US presidents. He also said the decision was good compensation for the fact that the US had been defeated in Copenhagen when Rio de Janeiro was picked as a site for 2016 Olympic Games.

In an article titled "Reflections," published on the Internet, 83-year-old Castro said while he did not always share the views of those who award the Nobel, Obama's prize was "an appeal for peace and a search for solutions that lead to the survival of species." In his comments, he said: "Many will say that Obama has not yet earned the right to receive such a distinction. We prefer to see the decision as not so much a prize for the president of the US, but as a criticism of the genocidal policies pursued by a few presidents of that country, who led the world to the crossroads it is at today."

Radical Feminism Militant Wing

2009-10-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Freud's Fatal Error This theory regarding Freud and his error in this area is not exclusive to the recovery movement of the 1990s or the most militant wing of radical feminism. In 1984, Finkelhor had already taken up this argument once more, and had accepted it as valid. Finkelhor was in fact well-versed in the feminist proposals regarding pornography, abuse, and other similar subjects. For example, at that time he was already referring to the suggestions of authors such as Dworkin and Rush, who were outlining the relationship that existed between child publicity or pornography and pedophilia.

For one, Finkelhor cites a work concerning pornography and masculinity that was presented at a university in 1983; for another, he repeatedly makes use of a 1977 article entitled "The Freudian Cover-Up" [E38], as well as the 1980 book The Best-Kept Secret [E39], which deals with the issue of child sexual abuse. Rush's works deal with the reformulation as fantasies of Freud's patients' abuse memories, a subject which Masson later took up in a 1984 book entitled The Assault on Truth [E40], which Finkelhor also acknowledges in his sociological reflections on the problem of sexual abuse.

Long History of Social Denial

2009-10-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

In that same way that abuse victims, blind to their own condition, have to be subjected to the "truth's revelation" in order to be able to overcome all of their difficulties, society also had shown, and did show, blindness towards the reality of abuse. Individual dissociation is only the shadow of a long history of social denial. Therefore, society as well must be subjected to a therapeutic process which allows it to remove the blinders and confront its own shame.

An example of this reality relegated to our collective unconscious would be the vast network of Satanic cults which have ritually abused and murdered children with impunity for hundreds of years. For to fight abuse, be it on the individual or societal level, whether it be with this or that kind of weapon, is to fight to bring a great [101] truth to light. A truth which Freud was the first to acknowledge, in spite of his later -- some assert -- wrongly denying or minimizing it.

Trust and Power Abuse

2009-10-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

Sexual abuse is an abuse of power and trust, and the situation of powerless abused children entails suffering in silence and secrecy and the added weight of a heavy burden of shame and guilt. Sexual abuse can lead to social exclusion and a whole range of psychosocial problems. Many victims and families of victims are reluctant to report abuse due to the stigma attached. They also fear reporting their case, because the entire justice system is rife with entry points for further victimisation - from the time of reporting to the time of sentencing, and even beyond. Prevalence studies in the UK and USA suggest that less than 10% of cases are reported to the police and less than 1% result in the arrest and conviction of the abuser (Russell 1984; Morrison et al 1996). Elsewhere the rate of prosecution is even lower.

The phenomenon of child sexual abuse exists in every country, culture and transcends all socio-economic groups. However, poverty, the AIDS epidemic, war and natural catastrophes appear to make children more vulnerable. Groups particularly at risk include children in war and as refugees, child workers, street children, children with disabilities, those living in foster homes, in prisons and institutions, adopted children and children who are alone, children living illegally in a country or who belong to a minority group.

What is Terrorism ?

2009-10-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

Terrorism is defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as "The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are frequently employed by terrorists and can be categorized into five groups using the acronym CBRNE - Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive.

Homeland Security and The Progressive Votes

2009-10-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

So how did we get Kerry? We got him because too many of us bought into the "anybody but Bush" number. But as I've ponted out in Tikkun, that thinking disempowers us and makes us feel that only the media can tell us who will actually be the most successful alternative to Bush.

Yet, unless Nader agrees to one of two schemes to save his candidacy, he too will prove a big disappointment. Here's what he'd need to do: announce that he fully supports the Geneva Accord and demands that the US facilitate a referendum in Israel to see if the people are behind it. Next, he needs to tell his supporters two things: either that they should choose the Democratic Party electors for Kerry to be the ones for Nader as well, thus making a vote for Nader go to the Kerry electors, or that they and he agree hold a conference in any state in which the election is close two weeks before, so that they can tell Nader to drop out of any state where his presence might cause Bush to win that state. Unfortunately, we haven't yet heard from Nader whether he'd agree to this way of being cooperative rather than splitting the progressive vote.

That is why we've requested a meeting with Kerry to discuss this central Tikkun notion: if you want homeland security, you must give up on the theory that security comes through domination of the other, and instead recognize that it comes from a way of treating the other that involves generosity, open-heartedness, kindness and respect. These are the ingredients missing from our Occupation of Iraq and Israel's Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Bush-Sharon Political Myopia

2009-10-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

The apparent Democratic Party nominee gave 100% unqualified support to the Bush-Sharon Axis of Occupation, fully endorsing the deal that would have given Israel full support in annexing major parts of the West Bank. This is political myopia of the worst sort. Unfortunately, it is consistent with Kerry's failure to articulate a pricipled alternative to Bush's Iraq policy. For the sake of democratic choices, it is important for people to push him to stand for a genuinely Democratic Party alternative to the Republicans, not a "Bush lite" approach. We will be discussing this extensively in the July issue of the magazine and in the event that the Tikkun Community will run at the Democratic National Convention on Sunday and Monday, July 25-26. If you can come, we'd be delighted to have you there, but we particularly want you to push the delegates you may know to come to the Tikkun event.

Meanwhile, we've written a private letter to Kerry explaining our concerns, and if he doesn't respond soon we may make that letter public. While we don't ever endorse candidates, it is no surprise to us that many of our readers are deeply concerned about how to ensure that Kerry is elected. Our point is that it won't happen-unless Kerry starts to stand for something so very alternative to mainstream thinking that he inspires millions of people who have not even bothered to vote recently to become involved again. At this moment, he doesn't seem likely to be doing that kind of thing, but instead to be trying to show how mainstream he is. And this is not only morally misguided, but it is also self-destructive, because people will not switch horses midstream in what they believe to be a war of choice unless Kerry can articulate a very different vision and a strong reason to believe that what we are doing now is deeply mistaken. Minor repairs is not sufficient to stir people to take that risk. As of this writing, Kerry remains a captive of the centrist forces in the Democratic Party who think that being moderate and toned-down is what people want.

Protestant and Catholic Church

2009-10-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

Which isn't always easy. I've been shocked at the way that left groups continue to squabble among themselves, and even groups opposed to the Occupation often fail to support each other. When we planned our recent Teach-In to Congress, we first approached Americans for Peace Now and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, two organizations that agree with us in support of the Geneva Accord. We told them that we would not plan our program or invite speakers for months to allow them to go through whatever process they needed in order to decide to cosponsor with us. Neither group did so.

It was very disappointing to us. But so too were we disappointed when none of the Protestant denominations and no major figure in the Catholic Church would get on board either. Each had their own institutional reasons, but since they don't cooperate wth each other either, the problem is not in Tikkun but in the lack of an ethos of "we all have to pull together." Yet without that kind of cooperation, the peace forces will remain way too weak. We at Tikkun are willing to work with anyone who wants to approach these issues with a stance of support for both sides (our progressive middle path) and with a spirit of open-heartedness and generosity that avoids trying to put all the blame on one side and instead recognizes that both sides have been hurtful and morally irresponsible and both sides need to do real repentance.

The Israeli Peace Camps

2009-10-04T06:15:00.000-07:00

I hope that you'll help us in the coming months by actively contacting your Congressional representatives in support of the Geneva Accord, but also try to get your local city council to pass a resolution in support of that approach. That makes far more sense than the attempts by various leftie groups to build support for sanctions against Israel. As Yossi Beilin argued in his interview with me in Tikkun two issues ago, such sanctions would push the Israeli peace camp into support for Sharon, because they cannot be seen as identified with or supportive of any attempt by outsiders to punish Israel. The trauma of the Jewish people is too recent to imagine that they feel strong enough to allow themselves to be coerced. But what would work are positive measures and visions, such as that embodied in the Geneva Accord, and it is for that reason that I'm still for supporting that approach. I'm hoping that the peace rally in Israel this coming Saturday night spreads a message of support for the Geneva Accord.

the Israel Moderates Moderation

2009-10-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

Yet it is also true that many Israelis now feel ready to stand up to the settlers, perceiving them as a real threat now that they have managed to defeat Sharon's plan. The problem is that this feeling is largely expressed in support for Sharon's plan-because the moderates remain moderate about their moderation, unwilling to fight for it.

The one hopeful sign remains the Geneva Accord. In my new book The Geneva Accord and Other Strategies for Middle East Peace (published officially this coming September, but available even now from North Atlantic Books-get your local bookstore to put it on a front table), I answer all the arguments against it from the Left and the Right. But then I have some of my own problems with it, which I also discuss, and suggest ways to overcome.

Hopefully there will be growing awareness of what you heard first in Tikkun-that the Geneva Accord provides a real potential path to a lasting peaceful settlement. But only if it can be accompanied by a discourse of compassion and open-heartedness, what I presented in my 2003 book Healing Israel/Palestine. Without that element of generosity of spirit, no deal will ever really hold or pass the test that it will face when armed reactionaries on each side do whatever they can to guarantee the failure of peace.

The Gaza Withdrawal plan

2009-10-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

The world (and Israeli leaders and leaders of the Jewish people) needs to learn a very important truth from the failed occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon: you decrease (not increase) your stability and homeland security when you have to occupy a people that doesn't want to be occupied. But the U.S. hasn't learned, and is instead following the path of no return.

The settlers' success in defeating the Gaza Withdrawal plan shows just how far politics have moved in Israel to the fearful dimension. Our task, however, is not to try to threaten Israel into withdrawal, but to find ways to appeal to the highest level of hopefulness and visions for peace that still reside in the hearts of many Israelis-and do the same for the Palestinian people (remembering, as we always do in Tikkun, that both sides are continuing to co-create this mess, and that a transformation in Palestinian society toward a principled non-violence and active, public repudiation by the masses of the acts of the terrrorists would create a sea-change in Israeli politics as well).

Settlers Ultra Right Extremism

2009-10-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

If you want to do more, take another call to a major media outlet (you can find phone numbers on our web-site at www.tikkun.org/community/index.cfm/action/media_list.html). Let them know that it is the Tikkun Community, not AIPAC, that is the real pro-Israel voice, because we are the voice that knows that Israeli and Palestinian well-being are intrinsically linked. This is a particularly good moment to challenge AIPAC, because its right-wing orientation has made it harder for it to this year support Sharon, because many AIPAC supporters are so tied to the settlers who just last week delivered an electoral defeat in the Likud Party to Sharon's partial withdrawal plan. Politically, AIPAC is divided in leadership between the ultra-right of Ariel Sharon, and the ultra-ultra-ultra-right extremism of the settlers.

We at the Tikkun Community are not fooled by this debate between the ultra-right and the ultra-ultra-ultra right in Israel. As we've explained before, Ariel Sharon's Gaza Withdrawal plan would have left the 1 million Gazans little better off than they are today (because they would still be surrounded by Israeli military, Israeli military would still come in to "pursue" Arab terrorists, and the people of Gaza would still lack fundamental self-determination but would be de facto still under the control of Israel) but "in exchange" the Israelis got a letter authorizing Israel to expand its de facto borders by incorporating into Israel significant sections of the West Bank and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. This is a path to disaster just as surely as is the settler plan to not even bother trying to trick Western societies into believing that Israel is withdrawing from the settlements.

The pro-Sharon lobby AIPAC

2009-10-04T06:09:00.000-07:00

The pro-Sharon lobby AIPAC will be bringing thousands of Jews to Congress next Tuesday, May (we only brought hundreds a few weeks ago-we can't pay for flights or hotel rooms, as AIPAC can, and we haven't had decades of well-financed funding behind us). Their message has been very successful: it identifies being pro-Israel with being supportive of the current right-wing government of Israel.

This is an important moment for us to be challenging that message. And YOU could make a big impact. All that you need to do is call your Congressional representative and tell them that you are someone from their district (to your Congressperson) or from their state (to your Senators) and that you want them to know that you oppose the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, that you believe that Israel, the U.S. and the Jewish people are all being put in danger by the current policies of Occupation, and that you urge them to understand that the way to be most effectively pro-Israel is to also be pro-Palestine, recognizing that neither side will achieve security and stability until the other side also achieves the same for itself. Tell them that AIPAC doesn't speak for you, and that recent polls indicate that a majority of American Jews believe that Israel's best interests would be served by ending the Occupation and the settlements, a path made possible by the recent Geneva Accords. If you don't know your Senators' or Congressional representative's phone number, call the main number at the Capitol 202-224-3121 and ask for them by name. Then ask to speak to the person in that office who advises the Congressperson or Senator about Middle East issues.

Americans Troops Torture and Sexual Abuse

2009-10-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Ditto the media. The remarkable fact is that most Americans know of this sexual abuse but have no clear picture of the level of torture being done in our name, though that torture actually has far greater impact on our future. As we have seen in the 37 years of Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and the frequent use of torture by the IDF (acknowledged as such by the Israeli Supreme Court which attempted to put some limits on the kind of torture allowable), torture creates more anger and more future killers who kill more people than the ones saved by the fantasized act of tortured prisoners spilling "all that they know" (not to mention that in most cases they know nothing of military significance, because they weren't actually the members of a secret army but rather just ordinary citizens, some of whom wanted to express their opposition to the US Occupation the same way we do). The media has once again failed us dramatically in not pressing the President to explain why he doesn't issue an executive order banning torture and rewarding whistle blowers who reveal past or present instances of U.S. torture.

Would anything change if Rumsfeld Troops were forced out of office by the campaign www.firerumsfeld.org? Well, the war would continue, as it might even if Kerry is elected (at least, that is what he seems to be saying when he talks about staying there until there is stability-a virtually unobtainable goal unless we define stability in very weak terms). But if Rumsfeld were forced to resign, that would give a very powerful message to the rest of the military establishment that torture is not o.k. Unfortunately, I doubt if that will happen-because the people around Bush don't want that kind of message to be given. The demand is simply another way of keeping alive our outrage at the torture and sexual abuse that has come to light.

Middle East-oriented Marshall Plan

2009-10-04T06:03:00.000-07:00

The best way to support our troops is to bring them home as quickly as we can get them onto airplanes or ships. True, Americans made the current version of the mess, and so have some responsibility to clear it up. But that could be accomplished far more effectively by a massive Middle East-oriented Marshall Plan paid for by the advanced industrial societies under the leadership of the U.S.-simultaneously with U.S. troops leaving and giving to the U.N. the task of working with the factions in Iraq to create a democratic procedure to guide how such a Marshall Plan could be implemented in Iraq.

It is certainly stunning to note that the only thing that has grabbed the attention of the American people was not the torture being done in our name, but the sexual exploitation and abuse. Let American troops kill thousands of Iraqi civilians and nobody notices a thing, and the media barely mentions it. But let some American set up acts of sexual depravity and everyone takes note. There is a great distortion here in the value system-even though there is something very hopeful about Americans expressing outrage at least at this moment, there were so many previous moments when outrage would have been even more appropriate in this invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The sexual longings of Americans, denied and then repressed, suddenly emerge in the desire to have "innocents" (in this case, totally powerless prisoners) treated with some modicum of respect. It's almost as if the part of our unconscious that remembers not being fully defended in our own childhoods, but also not feeling a right to be angry at our parents for allowing our vulnerability without giving us adequate protection from their anger and their distortions, now comes forward to defend the perceived innocents in this case (the thousands of ordinary Iraqis who fill up the prisons, most of them having committed no offense and incarcerated and tortured for no plausible reason). Please don't misunderstand-I'm happy and rejoice in Americans still capable of moral outrage (as opposed, for example, to the U.S. Senator at the Armed Services Committee hearings who expressed "outrage at the outrage" and insisted that if the people were in prison we could already think of them as terrorists engaged in horrendous crimes and hence deserving of torture). But though happy at the outrage, I can't help be perplexed and disturbed by the inability of Americans to identify with the victims of torture when it does not have this sexual dimension.

Saddam Hussein Regime and U.S. Invasion

2009-10-04T06:02:00.000-07:00

Indeed, it is this ability to see the complexity of the reality that distinguishes a Tikkunish perspective from those who wish to tell the story as one of good guys versus bad guys (in the case of the Left, the convenient forgetting of the evils of Saddam, which makes it easy to talk about the U.S. as totally evil; in the case of the Right, the convenient forgetting that the U.S. invasion and continuing Occupation is causing thousands of deaths, and that acts of armed rebellion against a military occupation are not understood in most of the world as "terrorism" but rather as legitimate acts of resistance against an outside invading force).

So, we can both celebrate the overthrow of Saddam and still know that the way that that was accomplished was wrong and continues to play out in destructive consequences for world peace and for the safety of people around the world and in the U.S. Similarly, we can condemn acts of barbarity against American civilians in Iraq and simultaneously insist that the best way to save American lives at this point is for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq immediately and allow the U.N. to work with the Iraqi people to create a process for democratic elections conducted in conditions of relative security. Nor do we worry about Iraq breaking up into separate ethnic communities-in fact, given that Iraq was created by the League of Nations by fusing together different ethnic communities, it is not hard to imagine the split into a Kurdish nation, a Sunni nation, and a Shiite nation being a perfectly legitimate outcome, and one that might reduce interethnic fighting and allow each group to achieve some modicum of dignity denied to them both by the U.S. Occupation and by the previous repressive regime of Saddam Hussein.

Free Speech Activists

2009-10-02T03:09:00.001-07:00

This is a natural dilemma in the world-circling Internet. ''The flip side of doing business all over the world is . . . That you're doing business with prosecutors who say, 'You're in my jurisdiction,' '' said Andrew J. Schwartzman, president of the Washington-based, nonprofit Media Access Project, a public-interest law firm.

So it will be with more than casual interest that some of the nation's biggest entertainment companies watch legal proceedings beginning Jan. 20 in Philadelphia. In response to a filing there by a coalition of free speech activists led by the ACLU, federal Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. Has agreed to consider the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act. In November, Judge Reed issued a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of the act--and raising confidence among the act's opponents that the bill's only result may be to create another judicial precedent against government regulation of the Internet.

Masculine vs Feminine Sex Drive

2009-10-02T03:03:00.001-07:00

We have pointed out earlier that men are biologically the "weaker" sex when it comes to survival. But in some other aspects, such as sex drive, they are the stronger, and it seems probable that these other factors are crucial in establishing the pattern of man-woman relationships. For example, the facts of endocrinological functioning mean that women are emotionally and physically subject to fluctuations. Periodically their efficiency is below its usual level, and their dispositions show corresponding irregularities.

This fluctuation is more extreme than the slight ups and downs that men have according to whether they are tired or hungry or for other minor reasons. Over a period of years in life, this periodicity of feminine functioning and the lack of periodicity in masculine functioning add up to a major difference in "drive" and in ability to carry certain kinds of continuous and grueling responsibilities. So in most families the man is, and has to be, the "stronger"; he has to be the bulwark for the family.

Disabilities Person Discrimination Experience

2009-10-02T02:54:00.001-07:00

OPA's mission is to promote the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. People who are marginalized in society are more likely to experience discrimination. They may also be less able to advocate for their own rights. OPA has a responsibility to advocate for individuals as well as to raise systemic issues of discrimination affecting people with disabilities. Discrimination and harassment against people with disabilities occurs because:

There may be stereotypical assumptions about what people with disabilities can and cannot do.
There may be misconceptions about the nature of some disabilities.
Our built environment historically has not catered for the needs of a diverse society.
Power imbalances in relationships may result in people with disabilities being vulnerable to others.

"People with lifelong disabilities and, notably, with profound cognitive impairments are (unfortunately) particularly vulnerable to discrimination. The disabilities they live with include acquired brain injury, degenerative cognitive impairments (such as dementia and Huntington's Disease), intellectual disabilities and mental illness. These individuals are often not in a position to protect their own rights. Consideration of how to ensure the right of this marginalized and vulnerable group of the population to equal and effective protection against discrimination is critical. Incorporating proactive elements into the EOA to support people unable to protect their own rights has considerable merit.

The Idiosyncratic Father's Molestation

2009-10-02T02:25:00.001-07:00

Sally, age 10, reported sexual abuse by her father. In describing the last time it happened, she said that she and her father were sitting on the couch watching TV. She was wearing her nightgown and he began to fondle her. She said, "But then I tricked him and told him I needed to go to the bathroom." She went into the bathroom and stayed from a long time. After a while, she snuck up into her bedroom in an attempt to avoid her father's molestation. But he came into the bedroom and continued his abuse.

The idiosyncratic event in this account is Sally's statement that she tricked her father and said she needed to go to the bathroom. Contextual material can also include any recollection the child has of his/her emotional state at the time, again the rationale of ascertaining this is that it would be unlikely that children could fabricate this piece of information. Emotional state is usually elicited by the interviewer asking, "Do remember how you felt when he did that?" or "What did you think when that happened?"

Popular Porn and Bondage Images

2009-10-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

Porn is immensely popular: in an 18-month study, the Carnegie Mellon researchers found 917,410 sexually explicit pictures, short stories and film clips online. The biggest demand is not for hard-core sex pictures but for "deviant" material including pedophilia, bondage, sadomasochism and sex acts with various animals. When TIME published a cover story on Internet pornography three weeks ago, a certain amount of controversy was to be expected. Computer porn, after all, is a subject that stirs strong passions. So does the question of whether free speech on the Internet should be sharply curtailed, as some Senators and Congressmen have proposed. But the "flame war" that ensued on the computer networks when the story was published soon gave way to a full-blown and highly political conflagration.

The main focus of discontent was a new study, Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway, purportedly by a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, which will be published by the Georgetown Law Journal this week and which was a centerpiece of TIME's story. In the course of the debate, serious questions have been raised regarding the study's methodology, the ethics by which its data were gathered and even its true authorship.

The New ideology of Childhood Trauma

2009-10-02T02:18:00.003-07:00

The recovery movement's famous phrase, penned by Bass & Davis, [132] illustrates this notion perfectly: "If you think you were abused and your life shows the symptoms, then you were." In a culture filled with stories of sexual violence against children it is not difficult, Krauthammer notes, to persuade vulnerable persons that their problems stem from a childhood experience which, by its very traumatic nature, they do not remember. Sexual abuse, this author comments, is perfectly adapted to the new ideology of childhood trauma.

Researchers, in many cases connected to or influenced by a certain feminist discourse, made themselves participants in this logic, collaborating in the search for that new and dreaded harm. The ritual abuse or recovery movement phenomena are nothing but the products of that same way of thinking, carried to its logical conclusion. Its professional bent allowed for the development of a flourishing sexual abuse industry (Money, 1999), leading to suspect offers of therapy and a heretofore unimagined degree of overlap between the realms of help and punishment; it has also affected the penal law in the area of sexual offenses, and has produced a combative atmosphere which is actually to no one's apparent benefit. This is what I shall focus on in the following chapter.

The City of Assos Civilizations

2009-10-02T02:18:00.001-07:00

But our focus is the city of Assos, which was not only one of the most important colonies of such continuous civilizations during history like the Ionians, Lydians and Persians, Greeks and Pergamon kingdom, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, but also famous for its trade harbour that still has many secrets to tell. It is known that the city was settled as early as Bronze Age by Lelegian people whom Homeros decribed as "sea men and pirates during the Trojan Wars." After Lelegians lost their power, Aeolian immigrants came from Methymna (Lesvos island), settled in Assos and made it their harbour (1000 B.C). Assos was also a well-known meeting place for philosophers such as Theoprastos, Dioskurides, Aristotle, who was one of the greatest philosophers of the world, worked and lived in the town for three years in the gymnasium at Assos.

The Feminist Ideology And Struggle

2009-10-02T02:11:00.001-07:00

The sexual abuse discourse is saturated by feminist logic and the feminist struggle. In the works of Nathan & Snedeker or Ofshe & Watters, which we have used in the exposition of those two related phenomena, references to a certain kind of feminism as the ideological promoter of these new dangers are constant. Finkelhor emphasizes feminism's role in bringing the problem of abuse to social awareness, although its contributions, this author notes, are greatly mediated by its ideology concerning male domination, into which the problem of child abuse is integrated in a coherent way.

More than being preoccupied with a vision of the problem from a dysfunctional-family point of view, feminism tends to blame the patriarchal society and male socialization in general, specifically rejecting those theories which, for example, speak of the role of mothers as incest's silent accomplices (Finkelhor, 1984 p. 4).

According to this same author, whereas the movements and professionals associated with protecting minors might entertain the possibility of intervening in cases of incest through support to the family as a global system, feminist groups were adopting a more victim-centered approach. Their intervention embraced forms similar to the support model for rape victims, with their recovery and the avoidance of subsequent victimizations being the central objectives. Suspicion towards proposals for reconciliation between victims and aggressors would be greater in this perspective, while at the same time, greater emphasis would be placed on penal sanctions.

An Antiporn Crusader Agenda

2009-10-02T01:57:00.001-07:00

Neither Carnegie Mellon nor the Georgetown Law Journal has officially backed away from the study (it was allegedly placed by a Journal editor who is an antiporn crusader; the university is also forming an investigative committee). Rimm's faculty adviser, Marvin Sirbu, a professor of engineering and public policy, continues to support him, saying the research has been deliberately mischaracterized by people with a political agenda. But Sirbu himself has been attacked by Carnegie Mellon colleagues for not properly supervising his student and for helping him secretly gather data about the pornography-viewing habits of the university's students. Meanwhile, some of the researchers listed as part of Rimm's "team" now say their involvement was minimal; at least one of them had asked Rimm to remove his name.

As a rule, computer-wise citizens of cyberspace tend to be strong civil libertarians and First Amendment absolutists. Some clearly believe that Time, by publicizing the Rimm study, was contributing to a mood of popular hysteria, sparked by the Christian Coalition and other radical-right groups, that might lead to a crackdown. It would be a shame, however, if the damaging flaws in Rimm's study obscured the larger and more important debate about hard-core porn on the Internet.

The existence of CIA Satanic Sects

2009-10-01T04:01:00.001-07:00

Robbins's article would, therefore, be more evidence that, within the scientific arena, it is possible to make more reasonable and less combative statements regarding the problem of abuse than those offered by the defenders of ritual abuse or the recovery movement. Many works in the sexual abuse field acknowledge the aspects commented upon by Robbins regarding the need to not confound the problem of abuse with that of recovered memory; to accept that, on occasion, the abuse is not so serious; that it is necessary to cast a critical eye towards these acts if there is no clear evidence; and, of course, that ritual abuse and the CIA being in league with Satanic sects are things that are more than debatable.

All of this is quite true, and obviously, we should not accuse everyone who has ever written about sexual abuse of irrationality. Robbins's article is an example of the fact that there are those who place limits on the irrationality in this field. Nevertheless, without negating what was said above, neither should we stop investigating the possible existence of relationships which, in my opinion, render suspect a noticeable and fluid interplay between the two phenomena in terms of ideas and authors, in addition to the same shared roots.

If Robbins rightly asserts that we should not confuse the problem of recovered memory with that of child sexual abuse, for our part we want to suggest that we must not forget that the two phenomena spring from closely-related origins, and that it is not precisely correct to simply speak of one as preceding the other, but rather, that the two are a reflection of the same discourse which is implicated in the strategy of that other historical phenomenon of major transcendence: the renewed perception of sex as danger. We see some indications that would justify what I am suggesting and which call for a more deliberate analysis than that which I have been able to carry out. Firstly, I shall refer to the connections between the ritual abuse panic and some of the most prominent and cited experts in the field,. of the sexual abuse of minors. Secondly, I will briefly address the role that feminism certainly played in that whole, already-described phenomenon.

Child Porn is illegal contraband

2009-09-28T02:09:00.001-07:00

The law generally treats child porn like heroin: mere knowing possession of it is a crime. Possession on behalf of a client to assist in an investigation or defense is no exception since "[e]ven an arguably laudable intent is not a defense." As one court put it: "Child pornography is illegal contraband." The company must take steps to minimize its own liability risks from an employee's illegal access to child porn, and those risks can loom large if the illicit images are mishandled.

When child porn is discovered within the company, the safest options are to consult with a digital forensics expert about other possible locations of illegal images, promptly refer the discovery of any images to law enforcement, and cooperate in any further government investigation. The steps undertaken by company counsel should be guided by fundamental questions. After discovering potentially illegal images on corporate computers, counsel should ask: Are those images anywhere else on the corporate network? This is important because the amount and location of child pornography may dictate how those images are handled, if at all.

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela

2009-09-28T01:59:00.001-07:00

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, whose outsized political persona has made him a YouTube star. Apart from having my students watch an excerpt of his "Bush as sulfurous devil" speech at the United Nations, I assigned a series of animated cartoons prepared by the Venezuelan state to educate children about the Bolivarian constitution championed by Chávez. These cartoons allow students see the ways in which the legacy of the 19th -century Venezuelan Liberator, Simon Bolívar, remains alive today.

The textual richness of these cartoons invites students to visually experience Bolivarian nationalism in a way that cannot be otherwise recreated in the classroom. It invites them to think critically about the ways in which icons such as Bolívar are creatively utilized to instill patriotism in children. In a similar vein, a Cuban cartoon about Cuba's founding father, José Martí, depicts how a child is transformed into the future champion of independence and social justice when he witnesses the horrors of slavery (this video has now been removed from YouTube). With regard to the Mexican Revolution, one of the most important units of the class, YouTube offers some fascinating period film of the revolutionary icons Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, and especially their deaths. Although I cannot say that these are visual texts that lend themselves to the kind of rich dialogue provoked by the aforementioned cartoons, they are nonetheless an engaging visual complement to readings, discussions and lectures.

The Military And Nationalist Politicians

2009-09-28T01:54:00.001-07:00

The Inpres is said to have disappointed military commanders who wanted a much stronger endorsement for offensive operations, including some legal protection against future accusations of human rights abuses. Nonetheless, the Inpres is seen in Aceh as an attempt to justify a military crackdown by presenting it as only one part of a broader strategy. Indeed, the military began to scale up its operations against GAM even before the Inpres was issued, according to Acehnese activists, and an offensive was officially announced on 2 May. There has been no discernible progress on the other five points of the program.

In theory, both the government and GAM are committed to resolving the conflict through dialogue, with a new round of negotiations now planned to start in Geneva in July. In practice, the Indonesian military appears to have taken advantage of the president's political weakness to push its own agenda in Aceh, while GAM continues to attack the security forces. At the time this report was written in June 2001, President Wahid seemed to be on the point of losing his long-running power battle with the DPR, and that he would either be replaced within months by his deputy, Megawati Soekarnoputri, or would have to cede his presidential authority to her while remaining a symbolic head of state. Either outcome would be likely to increase the influence of Megawati over Aceh policy. She is generally seen as more sympathetic than Wahid to the views of the military and nationalist politicians.

Aceh Foreign Political Relations

2009-09-28T01:49:00.001-07:00

The draft law gives the central government authority over Aceh's foreign political relations, external defence and monetary affairs, with all other responsibilities falling to the provincial government. Aceh would receive 80 per cent of the income from its natural resources, with the other 20 per cent going to the central government, and take equity stakes in state-owned companies operating in the province. The implications of this last clause for the state-owned oil company Pertamina and for ExxonMobil, which j ointly own the PT Arun natural gas plant, are not made clear in the draft law.

Civil and criminal law within Aceh would be based on the Islamic Sharia and the province would have the right to form its own police force and to be consulted on the deployment of Indonesian military units. The senior official in the province would be the governor, as at present, but he would be chosen by a body of Acehnese experts. The makeup and nature of this body is not clearly defined in the law. An Advisory Council of Ulama would also be created, composed of religious scholars, to give inputs to local government policy and the legal system.

The Corruption of Local Political Elite

2009-09-28T01:45:00.001-07:00

Sometimes the security forces involved in illegal logging are in competition: conflicts over control of timber access routes have led to armed clashes between military and police, both of whom are beyond the control of the civilian government. This kind of corruption does not stop at timber-felling. According to SKEPHI, logged-over areas are appropriated for oil palm plantations by the local political elite or converted to farmland by people including retired police and army personnel.

Law enforcement is at worst non-existent and at best extremely ineffective. In early 2004, for example, SKEPHI reported that the head of Southeast Aceh's district assembly and timber baron H. Umuruddin Deski was detained and investigated by the martial law authorities. Shortly after, he was reported to be operating again freely after bribing his way out of custody.

Warrant and FBI Special Agent

2009-09-28T01:39:00.001-07:00

The fall of Adam Vaughn began with a phone call on March 20. "This is Special Agent Straub from the FBI. I need to talk to you about something." Vaughn thought the agent might be contacting him about a case involving a stolen vehicle driven across state lines. He put on his badge and headed downtown. He was surprised to see an officer from Madison already sitting in the agent's office. Straub handed Vaughn a news article about Operation Candyman. Then he held up a thick manila envelope, saying, "I have a package from on you.

We have you logged on this site for a week. It was an FBI sting operation." Vaughn's head began to swim. He had joined hundreds of sites. He told the agent that he didn't remember joining the group. "We'd like to have a look at your home computer," Straub said. Vaughn asked him if he had a warrant. "We're just asking for consent," the agent responded. Vaughn consented. Straub told Vaughn to drive home and that he would follow. On the way, Vaughn tried frantically to reach his wife on her cell phone at work, but her battery had run down. Straub and the other officer arrived minutes later and confiscated Vaughn's computer.

The Centre for an Aceh Referendum (SIRA)

2009-09-23T18:29:00.001-07:00

There are a number of campaigning groups whose principal support comes from students and former students, and whose main demand is a referendum offering the Acehnese a choice between Indonesian rule and independence. The biggest of these groups is the Centre for an Aceh Referendum (SIRA) which was formed in January 1999, following President Habibie's offer of a referendum on independence for East Timor.

SIRA has campaigned for self-determination for the Acehnese because it believes that this approach will be more palatable internationally than calling for outright independence. Nonetheless, SIRA's own polling suggests that more than 90 percent of all Acehnese would choose the independence option in a referendum, so that the call for a referendum is in practice a call for independence. SIRA only accepts the idea of special autonomy as one option in this referendum, not as a substitute for it.

Harmonious Role of Women

2009-09-23T18:17:00.003-07:00

The State Ministry for the Role of Women is the coordinating ministry of all agencies and working units of ministries and organizations involved in women's affairs. The ministry's plan of action is based on the Broad Guidelines of the State Policy (GBHN) which provides guidance and direction for the formulation of each five-year development plan. The 1998 Broad Guidelines of the State Policy on the role of women emphasize:

Equal rights, obligations, and opportunities for women and men in all aspects of civic life and in all development activities;
Women's harmonious role in the family and society;
Respect for women's dignity, and protection of women's specific biological characteristics/ reproductive function;
A favorable socio-cultural climate for the wider participation of women in development;
The participation of NGOs such as the Family Welfare Movement/PKK and KOWANI.

Who is The International Crisis Group (ICG) ?

2009-09-23T18:17:00.001-07:00

The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a private, multinational organization committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community to anticipate, understand and act to prevent and contain conflict. ICG's approach is grounded in field research. Teams of political analysts, based on the ground in countries at risk of conflict, gather information from a wide range of sources, assess local conditions and produce regular analytical reports containing practical recommendations targeted at key international decision-takers.

ICG's reports are distributed widely to officials in foreign ministries and international organizations and made generally available at the same time via the organization's internet site, www.crisisweb.org . ICG works closely with governments and those who influence them, including the media, to highlight its crisis analysis and to generate support for its policy prescriptions. The ICG Board - which includes prominent figures from the fields of politics, diplomacy, business and the media is directly involved in helping to bring ICG reports and recommendations to the attention of senior policy-makers around the world. ICG is chaired by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari; former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans has been President and Chief Executive since January 2000.

Acehnese NGO Activists Report on GAM Movement

2009-09-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

Acehnese NGO activists, who do not necessarily support GAM, often explain its influence by depicting it as a vehicle for a deeply-rooted anger in Aceh at the exploitation of its natural resources by Jakarta and, most of all, the abuses of human rights committed by the security forces. The implication is that even if the current incarnation of GAM were to be driven back underground, as happened in the late 1970s and again in the early 1990s, then the movement will re-emerge as long as the underlying causes of Acehnese discontent are not comprehensively addressed.

At the same time, GAM is ruthlessly single-minded in suppressing dissent. People suspected of collaboration with the Indonesian authorities have been killed, while NGOs or local politicians and religious figures who do not espouse GAM's message have been threatened and in some cases abducted. ICG has heard credible accounts of atrocities by members of GAM, including the murders of 19 people over a period of several months in 2000 and the recent killings of ten non-Acehnese residents of Central Aceh who were accused of collaborating with the security forces. Since the latter event, dozens more people have been killed in the same area in circumstances that remain unclear.

GAM Gangsterism and Marijuana Province

2009-09-22T07:43:00.001-07:00

GAM's sympathisers tend to play down this aspect of the movement, while its Acehnese enemies put great emphasis on the role of terror (having often experienced it themselves.) It seems unlikely that a guerrilla-based movement like GAM could become as powerful as it has without a significant level of genuine support from the population. At the same time, fear is a factor in some cases and there is a clear threat to Acehnese who disagree with GAM, as well as to non-Acehnese people living in the province.

There have long been complaints in Aceh that GAM's original focus has been diluted by its rapid growth since 1998, which has loosened its internal controls and led to various forms of gangsterism. One activist told ICG of a local GAM leader who in was a former hoodlum. Since joining the movement, his house had been filled with electronic gadgets and other expensive furnishings. In another area, an source reported claims by villagers that the local GAM leader was growing marijuana, a major cash crop. There have also been persistent claims, by GAM leaders and others, that the Indonesian military makes use in its operations of armed Acehnese groups bearing the name of GAM, as a way of discrediting the guerrillas

Canadian Law on Criminal Seduction Cases

2009-09-20T19:13:00.003-07:00

Women described being subject to physical force in 39 percent of the files that contain details of the circumstances of the case, or 24 percent (N=51) of my total sample of seduction cases. The only other study of criminal seduction cases, Karen Dubinsky's work on Ontario, found that 20 percent of the cases involved violence. However, the Canadian law applied only to promises of marriage made to females under twenty-one years of age, and also encompassed sexual intercourse with girls aged between fourteen and sixteen years, and sexual intercourse with a female ward or employee under twenty-one years of age. As a result, Dubinsky's figures do not provide the basis for a comparison.

Prosecutors would not have regarded the force to which Polokoff subjected Martha as sufficient to constitute a rape. Only if a woman had suffered "observable injuries," New York DAs believed, would a jury agree that she had been assaulted, had resisted to the limit of her capacity, and had been raped. In my sample, most of the handful of rape cases involving adult women that ended in convictions, other than those where there was an eyewitness, or in which a white woman accused a colored man, involved a victim who had suffered such injuries.

Nineteen-year-old Susan Nicholas spent a week in hospital after being assaulted by Jonathon Reynolds in 1946 following a party at the Decker Record Company, where they both worked. She received two stitches in lacerations to her mouth and was treated for bruises on the throat, injuries and lacerations of her nose, and swelling of both of her eyes. When, like Martha, a woman had not suffered such grievous injury, a rape prosecution rarely produced an indictment, let alone a conviction.

In my sample, grand juries did not see injuries such as a knife wound, scratch marks on a woman's neck, bruises on her body, or even a fractured jaw, as establishing either that a man had used force to complete an act of sexual intercourse with a woman, or that she had resisted him to the utmost of her ability. Without Polokoff's promise of marriage, then, prosecutors would certainly have denied Martha access to the legal system.

The process of Criminal Justice of bastardy

2009-09-20T19:13:00.001-07:00

If seduction was the only criminal charge or civil action in New York law that formally provided marriage as an outcome, it was only one of a number of criminal charges that a woman and her family could bring to put pressure on a man to agree to marriage. And, until the end of the nineteenth century, the need to provide corroborative evidence to bring a charge of seduction, a requirement that did not apply to those other crimes, made it more difficult to prosecute seduction than those alternatives.

It is not surprising then that women and their families appear to have continued the longstanding practice of charging men with fornication and bastardy when they sought to promote a marriage, notwithstanding reforms in the mid-nineteenth century that placed control of the process of criminal justice in the hands of salaried city officials-professional police, district attorneys, and magistrates-in an effort to make the law less accessible to personal use.

The Free Speech Principles

2009-09-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last summer, the US Supreme Court made the first effort to extend the free speech principles of the First Amendment to cyberspace. It overturned the Clinton administration's Federal Communications Decency Act, which made it a crime to use a computer to transmit indecent material to someone under 18 or to display such material "in a manner available" to a person under 18. The indecent material was not precisely defined, being referred to as "patently offensive" descriptions or images of "sexual or excretory activities". Violations of the Act carried penalties of two years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine.

A coalition of Internet users, computer industry groups and civil liberties organizations challenged the Act. The US Chamber of Commerce entered the case in the final stages to argue that the law presented a threat to the country's ability to compete globally in an age of new communications. In the Supreme Court ruling, Justice John Paul Stevens held that speech on the Internet is entitled to the highest level of First Amendment protection, given to books and newspapers. He described the Internet as the "town crier" of the modern age, expanding the reach of the soapbox orator and the electronic pamphleteer.

Racial Element for Sex Tourists

2009-09-04T06:52:00.001-07:00

UN estimates suggest that about four million people are trafficked every year (UN 2000/2). Half a million women and girls are trafficked to EU countries every year. However, trafficking is not always for sexual purposes. ECPAT (2000) defines trafficking for sexual purposes to be:"any behaviour, which facilitates the entry into, transit through, residence in or exit from any territory. It is irrelevant whether force is used or the child has been misled into prostitution or the exploitative use of a child in other sexual practices, including use of a child in pornography and in marriages". .

For some sex tourists a racial element is involved when selecting children from other countries. The children may be regarded as exotic, while their age and human value is considered less important. Children from the South are also increasingly being imported to western societies for prostitution purposes. Social systems characterised by marked unequal power relations - like some caste and class societies - may further commercial sexual exploitation of children.

White House Closed-Door Negotiations

2009-09-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

Behind the scenes, however, it was a different story. During closed-door negotiations, the White House, several Internet industry associations, Time Warner Inc., the Motion Picture Association of America--even the Walt Disney Co.--fought the measure. Their reservations had less to do with free speech considerations than with economic ones: namely, that the modest little anti-pornography bill could encourage more efforts to regulate the Internet's content, and those restrictions, in turn, could hobble its money-making potential.

Movie and TV companies are rushing to become much more active in cyberspace, hoping to feed their products straight into the world's living rooms via a new generation of computerized tvs. For example, NBC thinks the Internet has the potential to deliver many more viewers at less cost than the much-touted digital TV technology, said B. Robert Okun, a vice president in NBC's Washington office. Moreover, TV programs distributed via the Internet would bypass many current government regulations, including public service obligations, price caps on political advertising, and curbs on tobacco and alcohol advertisements, Okun said. Hollywood industry lobbyists see the same opportunities for their movies, as more and more homeowners buy high-tech computerized televisions.

The Democratic Society Freedom of Expression

2009-09-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

He added: "The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship." The judge said that although children needed protecting from indecency, the "wholly unprecedented" breadth of the law threatened to suppress speech among adults as well as children. The decision has made it unlikely that any government-imposed restriction on Internet content will be upheld provided the material has some intrinsic value. So the responsibility for children's online activities now rests completely with the adults who watch over them.

Free pornographic pictures have long been available in encoded form on Internet news groups. There has also been an explosion in home-grown web sites that support themselves through advertising and provide pictures easily displayed on a personal computer. Parents, it seems, can now do three things. First, they can use one of the major online services which offer parental control options. Second, they can sit with their children and supervise them while they are online. Third, they can install software which filters the Web by blocking sites known to harbor explicit material. For example, Cyber Patrol blocks about 20,000 Web sites and allows parents to alter the list of prohibited destinations; Surf Watch blocks about 45,000 sites; and Net Shepherd allows as many as 400,000 sites to be blocked.

Online Smut And The Net Regulation

2009-09-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

The compromise to shield children from online smut included self-rating plans for Web sites, a V-chip for the Internet and new filtering software. But Clinton's effort to put a happy face on the demise of the CDA now appears to be falling flat. On Dec. 1, Internet industry groups and others concerned about regulation of the Net will meet for a second time in Washington to discuss the protection devices endorsed by the President. But now the consensus looks shaky. Nearly every participant in Clinton's July conference--Internet software companies, on-line service providers, 1st Amendment advocates, parents' groups, librarians and antipornography crusaders--has since voiced one concern or another about the President's proposals.

This is in marked contrast to the united front of last summer. Microsoft Corp. And Netscape Communications Corp., producers of the top two Internet browsers, pledged to include ratings mechanisms in their software. Four major ''search engine'' firms--Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, and Yahoo!--announced that Web sites registering for their listings would have to ''self-rate'' or else be excluded.

Indonesian Government Action

2009-09-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

The need for action is extremely urgent - to save lives in the short, medium and long term: to prevent more conflict casualties, to stop more deaths from floods and to maintain the natural resources which will sustain the lives of future generations of Acehnese. Recommendations To the Indonesian government : End the military approach in Aceh - restart negotiations to end the war in Aceh, Impose a logging moratorium on industrial operations in natural forests, Halt the Ladia Galaska road project and start inclusive consultations on alternative ways of developing Aceh's infrastructure, Shut down corrupt and unsustainable timber industries, Recognise and act on the need for wider reforms which recognise indigenous rights in forest areas, Direct funds towards reforestation/agroforestry schemes under community management

Kampung Medan Mini Genocide

2009-09-04T06:33:00.003-07:00

100 over Indians were slashed and killed by the UMNO controlled Malaysian government in the Kampung Medan mini genocide. Despite numerous appeals, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission has refused to hold a Public Inquiry. The UMNO controlled Malaysian courts struck off a victim's public interest civil suit for a Public Inquiry to be held without even the said UMNO controlled government having to file in their defence. The UMNO controlled Attorney General and the Inspector General of Police refused to investigate and / or initiate an inquest into the death of at least six Indians in this tragedy despite.

Every week one person at average is killed in a shot to kill policy and in every 2 weeks one person is killed in police custody. About 60% of these victims are Indians though they form only 8% of the Malaysian population.

Nazi Images over Compuserve

2009-09-04T06:33:00.002-07:00

Confirmation last week that Felix Somm, managing director of compuserve's German subsidiary, is to face charges of distributing pornography has focused attention once again on the role adult material is having on driving demand for Internet and online access. The German authorities maintain Somm could have prevented the alleged transmission of illegal child pornographic pictures and Nazi images over compuserve by its users. Compuserve denies he has any case to answer. Despite the problems on policing the content of its news groups, compuserve insists it acts quickly to exclude unacceptable content from its system.

Beyond the international censorship debate surrounding the publication and censorship of pornography on the Internet, a startling and unpalatable fact has come into relief. While mainstream advertisers, marketers and publishers are wondering how on earth to make money from the Internet, the sex industry is already coining it. Consider this statistic thrown up in a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University in the US: 83.5 per cent of all images on the Internet are of a sexual nature. Or how about these figures the adult Website Amateur Hardcore has racked up a staggering 50,449,545 hits between January 1 and mid March, while another newly launched adult site, ABC-Web, is attracting an average of 337,745 hits a day.

The Recreational Software Advisory Council

2009-09-04T06:33:00.001-07:00

"Regardless of the strength of the government's interest in protecting children, the level of discourse reaching a mailbox simply cannot be limited to that which would be suitable for a sandbox," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens. President Clinton announced plans to convene industry leaders and groups representing teachers, parents, and librarians to address the issue. "We must develop a solution for the Internet that is as powerful for the computer as the V-chip will be for the television, and that protects children in ways that are consistent with America's free speech values," he said.

Web software companies welcomed the mandate to advance methods of filtering content and verifying age on the Internet. "We think it's definitely going to accelerate our business," said Jay Friedland, vice president of marketing for surfwatch, filtering software from Spyglass. "Parents will recognize that they should take responsibility for what kids can see." The Recreational Software Advisory Council has provided sites with a self-rating system. Sites receive a tag compatible with the Platform for Internet Content Selection that a browser can read. "If anything, the CDA ruling will probably increase interest in filtering software," said Stephen Balkam, executive director of RSAC.

Racial Segregation Politicians

2009-09-04T06:33:00.000-07:00

Such prominent cases that have involved politicians and members of the media include: Senator Trent Lott (R-MS): for remarks made that seemingly approved of racial segregation when he praised Senator Strom thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign at a birthday party for the octogenarian). Senator George Allen (R-VA): for calling a 20-year-old volunteer for his Democratic opponent, James Webb, "macaca" (a term considered insensitive and demeaning). Dan Rather, former anchor of the CBS Evening for his 60 Minutes II story on President George W. Bush's texas national Guard service, which was based on memos called into serious question by bloggers

The Senate Floor Battle

2009-09-04T06:31:00.002-07:00

In the Senate Flooe, said Coats, the bill was hobbled by a ''rolling hold'' coordinated by the White House. ''Every time we were ready to move forward, we found there was a new objection, from a different member,'' each of which was no sooner resolved than the next objection appeared, he said. ''After a while, we suspected they were trying to run out the clock.'' Those obstacles prevented Coats' bill from reaching the Senate floor, so conservatives on Oct. 7 combined the Child Online Protection Act with the bill at the top of the Internet industry's wish list--the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which bars states from levying sales taxes on Internet commerce.

The combined bill was then rolled into the $500 billion omnibus spending act, just in time for closed-door budget negotiations between the Republican leadership and the White House. Even at this late stage, business lobbyists had not given up their fight against the bill. This is one of the most fierce battle in senate. ''I had a conversation or two,' with White House officials,'' said Sackler, Time Warner's lobbyist. ''We certainly told them what our position was.''

Clients Suing Former Attorneys

2009-09-04T06:31:00.001-07:00

The case law from around the country is replete with examples of clients suing their former attorneys and winning on issues of competence. For example: A lawyer must adequately prepare with respect to the reasonably discoverable facts in a case. Florida Bar v Morales, 366 So2d 431 (1978). If a lawyer is unfamiliar with an area of law, he or she must study the area in question in order to become competent. in re Green, 276 Or 1117, 557 P2d 644 (1976). A lawyer must be versed in the relevant law which should be determined through standard research techniques. People ex rel Goldberg v Gordon, Bernstein v Oppenheim & Co P.C.

The American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Model Disciplinary Rules have been around a long time. In this difficult area of child sexual abuse accusations, it's time to start enforcing them. Rule 1.1 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct refers to "Competence" and reads: A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.

Racial Equality and Equal Opportunities

2009-09-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is a job title clinical services manager. he must has recognised counselling/psychotherapy diploma and accreditation or working towards accreditation. while this is some knowledge he had had : knowledge of rape and sexual abuse and an understanding of the complex issues involved, and understanding of male issues around sexuality, rape and the myths involved, law regarding sexual violence and the implications on support, and commitment to racial equality and equal opportunities, understanding of the voluntary sector, recruitment procedures, team management, risk assessments, self limitations and strengths, up to date knowledge of the bacp code of ethics, funding processes, hr good practice, line management and supervision.

Parental Oversight on High-tech Industry

2009-09-04T06:29:00.000-07:00

President Clinton and Vice President Gore have repeatedly touted filters and parental oversight. Their support for the filters is part of a larger hands-off policy toward the Internet, designed to maximize the growth of the high-tech industry. This fall, when the Child Online Protection Act started moving through Congress, industry tried for a delay. On Oct. 1, Microsoft, AOL, and Disney met with the Republican leadership's top aides and requested that the bill be shelved for a year, pending further study.

Social conservatives--with strong support from activist groups and Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr., R-Va., the chairman of the House Commerce Committee--learned that the meeting had taken place and ''told leadership to stay the hell out of it,'' said Oxley. And when the movie lobbyists continued to lobby against COPA, ''we immediately went public with that,'' said Oxley. The resulting publicity on Oct. 7 caused the movie lobbyists to retreat--and prompted a public statement from Disney, supporting the Coats and Oxley bills. ''Whether those (requested) improvements were made or not . . . We supported the bills,'' said Preston Padden, Disney executive vice president for government relations. Microsoft also bowed out, fearing political damage should it be seen as opposing the bill, said a company official.

German Philologist and Ancient Philosophers

2009-09-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

German philologist of classical languages Konrad Gaiser in his book "Theoprast in Assos" (1985) tries to answer this question by exploring available documents of ancient philosophers and consulting professor W. v. Engelhardt from the university of Tübingen, Germany. The writer found out that many ancient philosophers agree "Asian Stone" (?) to be a good medicine to dry out wounds or cure such inflammation as gout, is not hard and easy to break, tasting like a salt and with a white powder on a surface. All these characteristics indicate "Asian Stone" to be alunite. In contrast to "Asian Stone" of Assos, sarcophagus is made from trachyte, which is hard and resistant without any alteration or weathering and still well preserved up to this time. So, the question is why did they use another name for the stone?

Prof. W. v. Engelhardt, after analysing the geological map of the area, suggested that Assos, situating on the volcanic rocks, might contain small veins of alunite. If alunite is in a closed system and affected by moisture, it transforms into sulphate which is a good condition for body decomposition. Based on our investigations in Assos since 1999, following results are determined.

Pedagogical Motivation and Sexual-political Discourse

2009-09-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

Finally, whereas most of Royalle's films have exceptional original music scores, there is nothing exceptional about the soundtrack to this film; on the contrary, it has the typical monotonous beat of much porn. Perhaps the pedagogical motivation became more important for the director and producer team of this production than aesthetics. Or perhaps they got carried away engaging in sexual-political activism with its jabs against prudishness and the conservative right. Or perhaps they wanted to do more than their budget allowed for. In either case, it remains an important film, addressing critical issues while capturing the diverse range of current attitudes to sex in the United States. As discourse, it has potential to give voice to many young American women and men

What is ASNLF (Aceh-Sumatra Liberation Front) ?

2009-09-01T00:18:00.000-07:00

The Aceh-Sumatra Liberation Front (ASNLF), later known as Free Aceh Movement or Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), was founded on December 4, 1976 by Hasan di Tiro, a descendant of the last sultan of Aceh. GAMs ideology was to free the province from the "foreign" regime in Jakarta, and the main goal was to create an independent Acehnes state. GAM was organized in a civilian and a military structure, and the total number of members is unknown to the public. However, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) states 3000 members in the military structure, plus civilian members, so most likely the total numbers can be between 3 to 6000 members.

When the peace agreement (MOU) was signed in 2005, the conflict had lasted for about 30 years. The conflict in Aceh resulted in about 14-15 000 people killed, civilian and military. GAM operated throughout the province, but dominated in certain areas like the Indonesia North-Eastern districts of Sumatra. Very early on in the conflict the leadership of GAM fled to Sweden and settled in Stockholm.

Apa itu Malon, strategi perang ?

2009-09-01T00:12:00.000-07:00

Malon atau biasa disebut maloca adalah taktik kavaleri berkuda orang orang Mapuche. Strategi perang ini dipakai dari abad 17 sampai 19. Strategi kavaleri ini dipioniri pemimpin perang seperti Lientur. Malon itu berupa serangan kejutan yg cepat sejumlah ksatria berkuda Mapuche melawan populasi kulit putih, haciendas, pemukiman, dan benteng di Chili dan Argentina, yg bertujuan merampas kuda, hewan ternak, dan sandera terutama perempuan muda.

Keefektifan taktik perang ini berupa serangan kilat tanpa pola sehingga tidak memberi waktu y cukup bagi lawan mengorganisasikan formasi pertahanan sehinga menyebabkan lawan tidak bisa menyerang balik maupun mengejar penyerbu. Di chili, untuk mengatasi taktik malon, Kavaleri spanyol membuat sistem benteng baru, La Frontera, yg menggunakan standing army yg menjaga perbatasan sepanjang sungai bio bio.

Bomber Taliban serang petinggi di mesjid

2009-08-31T23:52:00.000-07:00

Iya, ini ada berita perang di afganistan mengenai apa yg dilakukan taliban. Mereka menyerang petinggi pemerintahan afganistan. Baru baru ini, bomber bunuh diri taliban berhasil membunuh ketua intelejen. Penyerangan ini terjadi saat para petinggi meninggalkan mesjid di kota Mehterlam, 100 kilometer dari timur kabul.

Ada sekumpulan rakyat berkumpul di sekitar mesjid saat para petinggi keluar mesjid. Pembom bunuh diri ini meledakkan bom setelah mendekati, Abdullah Laghmani, ketua departemen pertahanan dan keamanan afganistan. Dua petinggi penting lain termasuk korban ledakan bersama masyarakt, bangunan, dan kendaraan yg hancur. Serangan kali ini membuktikan kembali kemampuan taliban melakukan pembunuhan pada figur politik penting dan spesifik. Taliban memilik pola melenyapkan petinggi pemerintah yg berpangkat demi melancarkan usaha mereka menguasai kembali afganistan.

Officials Podcasts Obama

2009-08-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

Officials are communicating with their constituencies in a variety of ways on their blogs. They are blogging or reporting on their activities, expressing their views on issues, chronicling their contacts and travels, and giving glimpses of their personal lives and interests. There are even limited instances of political officials posting podcasts and other media for their constituents to listen to and view on their blogs. In fact, Senator Obama has taken his blog to a second generation, as he now has a podcast page (http:// obama.senate.gov/podcast/).

Military Traditional on Blog

2009-08-29T01:16:00.000-07:00

The military is realizing that its traditional top-down structure, with long decision cycles and one-way flow of information, is not a good fit for today's needs. It is seeking to replace the traditional "push" model of information, where vast amounts of information flow down to the field, inundating commanders with data and consuming precious bandwidth, with a "pull" model, whereby soldiers can search and retrieve the right military information they need at the right time (Ratnam, 2006).

Thus the military is fast moving to a "networked battlefield" (Katzman, 2005). This is deemed vital today, as reflected in the view of General Lance Smith, commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command: "We cannot operate against the terrorists until we give our guys out there fighting in the field the same capability, as much information as we can, and the authority to act on that information in real time" (quoted in Rogin, 2006d, n.p.).

STRATCOM on Blog

2009-08-29T01:11:00.000-07:00

STRATCOM is now at the forefront of the military's attempts to revamp to fight the War on Terror in the Information Age. In response to the threat of a rapidly evolving enemy that can sense and decide quickly, STRATCOM is seeking to implement 24-hour, realtime, secure communications from generals to warfighters (Kelly, 2006). The centerpiece of the effort is the Strategic Knowledge Integration (SKI-web). Part of STRATCOM's classified network, SKI-web is nothing less than a 24/7/365 virtual intelligence meeting, with blogging and chat as essential parts of the operation. Blogging is central to Cartwright's efforts to transform the culture and information flow at STRATCOM.

Everyone, from generals to frontline warfighters, is encouraged to blog. Lieutenant General Kehler, the deputy commander of STRATCOM, observed that on SKI-web: "We expect and encourage everyone to blog. In fact, you buy your way into the blog with the value you add, not the rank you hold. We have a command chain in STRATCOM, not an infsormation chain, an infosphere, if you will, within which command is exercised" (Rogin, 2006e, n.p.). Inside STRATCOM, the nonhierarchical, free flow of information in blogs is proving to be nothing less than "an enormous cultural change" (Kelly, 2006).

Second Life For Politicians

2009-08-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

Nancy Scola of the George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet termed Second Life "a good place for politicians to connect with a new group of voters" (quoted in Grove, 2007, n.p.).

Representative Miller, who hopes bipartisanship will come to Second Life with the addition of Republican participants, recommends that other members of Congress take advantage of the virtual House, believing that the virtual world "is a very different forum for a member of Congress, [but] it's also very exciting, because it gives us an opportunity to interact with people that are interested in what's taking place in the United States and the Congress" (quoted in Gross, 2007, n.p.).

The United States is not alone in having politics and government spill into Second Life. Several members of the Dutch Parliament virtually traveled there to meet with their online constituents (a video of their visit can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqod_Fyyot0) (McCullagh, 2007).

As social networking and blogging evolve into new realms, both in the real Internet world and in the virtual environment, assessments will need to be made as to how to most effectively navigate in both worlds. Analysts and researchers will likewise have to develop means to assess and research the activities of both corporate and public sector organizations, officials, and/or candidates in Second Life and rival virtual communities. One could well imagine a future where in addition to websites and blogs, many public officials and candidates may well "go virtual" and enter Second Life.

Veteran Political Blogger

2009-08-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

What's coming? There are certainly indications that public officials are experimenting to "push the virtual envelope" in the era of Web 2.0 (see the sidebar "A Second Life for Politicians?" on page 32). Take for instance Texas State Representative Richard Peña Raymond (D-Laredo).

A veteran political blogger, Raymond has maintained his blog (http://www. acapitolblog.com/) since January 2005. In February 2007, Raymond, who represents a district with a heavily Hispanic populace, announced that he would add a new bilingual video blog to his online site. He hopes that the video blog (using videos which he has made and posted to YouTube ) will keep constituents and the media informed on issues and bills before the legislature. He also sees the video informed even if you are hundreds of miles away from the Capitol" (n.p.). Raymond's video blog can be viewed at http://www.richardraymond.com/pages/ mediacentral.htm.