We Win
By Barry Chamish
chamish@netvision.net.il
11-7-5
One week before Nov. 4, the tenth anniversary of the Rabin murder, the country's largest circulation newspaper, Yediot Achronot publishes a poll:
Do you believe in the conspiracy theory about Rabin's murder?
Yes 25% Not sure 9%
It was the lowest result of five polls taken in the past four years but it shocked the nation. As Yediot wrote; "Unbelievable, but one in four Israelis believe Rabin was shot by the Shabak." In fact, the figure was more. Yediot's poll included 20% Arab respondents, who are utterly unaware of the issue. Factor them in with the not sures and over 40% of the nation's Jews no longer believe the government.
Sunday, five days before Nov. 4, Yigal Amir's prosecutor Pnina Guy admits the second shot to Rabin was from point blank range, a fact I exposed almost a decade before. Still, it is redemption for me. Since Amir never shot point blank, he announced that he wanted a new trial: Yigal Amir, who never denied assassinating Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, is now strongly considering requesting a new trial - now that the case prosecutor has raised some major questions herself. Atty. Penina Guy, the prosecutor in Amir's trial in early 1996, said Sunday morning that some aspects of the murder are still not clear to her: "It's still a mystery to me how he managed to shoot three bullets and at the same time even approach Rabin, and, according to the ballistic evidence, actually touch Rabin's jacket for the third bullet."
However, Amir himself was surprised by the end of Prosecutor Guy's statement. According to his wife, Larissa Trimbobler, Yigal was surprised to hear that the murderer came as near as Rabin's jacket. "Yigal has always said that this is not true," she told Arutz-7 today. "He did not approach Rabin; rather, Rabin got further and further away from him. Yigal also says that he certainly never touched Rabin or his jacket."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/639822.html
However, it was not a day before Amir's webmaster and handler Mike Guzovsky changed this stance to one of ugly incitement. Now, according to Amir's Shabak-run website, anyone who was in favor of disengagement, also deserved to be slaughtered.The Amir issue was ended, but not before Shimon Peres used it for maximum advantage:
Yigal Amirís mother said: ëThose who were in favor of the disengagement should be hung in the streets. What rubbish! Who is she? And who are the hilltop youth? And rabbis give orders to the army? Who appointed them? On this issue, we must be the most blunt, determined, united and serious as we can be. There will be no concessions here and no looking the other way. This is vital not only for the IDF but for the existence of the state.
My webmaster David Rutstein no longer consults with me. He added two provocative images of Peres to the site, one behind bars, the other with his hands dripping in blood. I wasn't in favor but he promised results, and they did come in. Major media from Channel 10 -TV to both Maariv and Yediot's websites condemned the images and the state attorney general presented them to the Knesset cabinet to decide whether to prosecute or not:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3161933,00.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3161933%2C00.html http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3160375,00.html
http://www.nfc.co.il/archive/003-D-12436-00.html?tag=22-25-11
Tuesday, Nov 1, I became legitimate. I was invited to appear on a highly respected and staid tv program, Law And Judgement. This is a prime time show on the government's second channel. The situation is three prominent attorneys interviewing guests with relevant legal issues to share. The guest before me was the new state attorney general.
He was interviewed alone and I assumed I was to be. But no. Fifteen minutes before the start of the program I was informed I would be sharing the show with prosecutor Pnina Guy and former head of the Mossad Danny Yatom.
It was now five against one. I had been set up.
But, as numerous viewers told me after, I won.
Guy had backtracked from her doubts of two days before as she was obviously scripted to do. Yatom was all prepared to smear every rabbi, religious Jew and anyone from the Right.
But I brought evidence and had it filmed before I began my shpiel. I was not given a lot of time, and under great pressure I showed Israel the ambulance beside Rabin's car, the watch showing how Shamgar lied about the murder time, the infamous songsheet. I defended myself with the facts and my co-guests did not even try to answer them.
After sitting quietly for nearly ten minutes while Yatom spewed ugly venom against the supposed inciters of the Rabin murder, I became brazen. I told the host,"Do you know he just slandered half the country and you let him?"
After the show, neither Yatom nor Guy would accept my book as a present. But I knew a little about Yatom, so here I am telling the former head of the Mossad, "Are you aware that the London Observor wrote that Netanyahu gave you the Mossad job in return for silence about Rabin?" Yatom turned red and replied, "I already had the job from him."
That night, somebody decided I was serious enough to sit on the same panel as the country's most famous prosecutor and the former head of the Mossad. Even odder, they agreed to sit with me.
And the next night was just as significant. I was invited as a guest on Channel Ten's prime time talk show, London And Kirschenbaum. The guest before me was Ami Ayalon, former head of the Shabak. My, what company I was suddenly keeping.
Yaron London is the nation's most influential literary critic and Moti Kirschenbaum was chairman of the Israel Broadcasting Authority at the time of Rabin's murder. In my book, I lambast him for authorizing two staged reports about Yigal Amir and Avishai Raviv's phoney organization, Eyal.
And he was hopping mad about that. He had his say and I didn't think I'd get mine. But I reminded him that other guests were permitted to speak freely and I was off and running. I presented an overview of Israel television's role in creating Eyal and Amir and he agreed that mistakes were made. Most important of all, he admitted the reports on Eyal were staged.
London interrupted and told me, "I'm really mad at you."
I smirked broadly and answered, "Why aren't I surprised?"
He continued, "Why wasn't I in your book for something?"
I replied, "Send a director to stage tv reports for the government and next time you will be."
London, the preferred literary critic of the country, then lifted my Rabin book to the camera and recommended it as an alternative to his way of thinking.
I won.
And I kept winning. The major web sites suddenly wrote very positive things about my work and most of the reactions were highly positive.
http://news.msn.co.il/news/Internal/Internal/200510/20051026083543.htm http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//803088
9:30, Thursday, November 3, the conspiracy finally goes public for good. Channel two broadcast a one hour documentary proving Rabin was shot a third time and from the front. This is only my core claim for the past nine years. Rabin's clothing had been sitting untouched in the prime minister's archive for the past decade. The filmmakers retrieved them and found a frontal bullet hole in the shirt and undershirt. It wasn't where I said they'd be but now my central claims that Rabin had been shot point blank was verified by Pnina Guy, and from the front, by Channel Two. I couldn't watch the show properly so many people called to congratulate me. One complaint: the film used so much of my discoveries ie. the change in the time of the murder, Prof. Hiss reporting the hole in the front of Rabin's shirt, Health Minister Sneh reporting three bullets etc. and gave me no credit.
But it didn't matter. The viewers knew I had won, we had won.
The film was followed by an hour panel discussion where Hiss' lies finally caught up with him and Sneh tried to obfuscate his statement on the night of the murder by attacking the right wing inciters. This time, everyone agreed he sounded hollow.
Most important of all, the Left, for once showed integrity. Ronen Bergman of Haaretz eloquently demanded a reinvestigation of the Rabin murder, "to dispel once and for all the conspiracy theories threatening our democracy." Of course if that third bullet hole is for real, Amir didn't cause it, so he'll get his conspiracy whether he likes it or not. And the next day, Tom Segev of Haaretz demanded that every point of the conspiracy theories be re-examined.
Haaretz became our ally? I never thought I'd live to see the day.
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/6924.htm
http://www.a7.org/news.php?id=128258
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=92079
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=92268
http://web.israelinsider.com/views/6949.htm
Friday, Nov. 4 was the best anniversary Yitzhak Rabin could have ever wished for. His personal bodyguard, Dror Yitzhaki appeared on Channel Two with his own deep suspicions of the Shabak's involvement in the murder. He joined the media chorus to reinvestigate the Rabin murder.
And what a chorus it was this year. The Friday papers presented excellent long analyses of the conspiracy. The chorus included Makor Rishon, Yated Neeman, and Hashavuah. As expected the Jerusalem Post barely mentioned the number one issue of the nation this Nov. 4. But best of all was Maariv's 4 page investigation of the conspiracy claims. Reporter Navah Tsuriel did a fair and excellent overview of the conspiracy claims and found that many were not wanting. And congratulations to her for finally solving the riddle of the death of Yoav Kuriel. Yes, he was a Rabin bodyguard and yes, he was murdered. She got eye-witnesses at the burial society to speak out after ten years.
I never thought I'd live to see the day when not just Haaretz, but Channel Two and Maariv stopped protecting the establishment and started acting like journalists. I never thought I'd ever see the day when Channels 33 and 10 invited me to prime time programs to debate the establishment.
I never thought I'd see the day when the Israeli public would wake up and admit Rabin was murdered in a political coup.
I never thought I would live to see myself vindicated.
I never thought we would actually win.
I never thought I'd be so glad I was wrong.
end
And look how flimsily the foreign media is covering all this.
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2197732005
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/051104/w110416.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11
/06/wrabin06.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/06/ixworld.html
Monday, 7 November 2005
Sunday, 6 November 2005
promising new type of energy
Labels:
energy
Fuel's paradise? Power source that turns physics on its head
· Scientist says device disproves quantum theory
· Opponents claim idea is result of wrong maths
Alok Jha, science correspondent
Friday November 4, 2005
The Guardian
It seems too good to be true: a new source of near-limitless power that costs virtually nothing, uses tiny amounts of water as its fuel and produces next to no waste. If that does not sound radical enough, how about this: the principle behind the source turns modern physics on its head.
Randell Mills, a Harvard University medic who also studied electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims to have built a prototype power source that generates up to 1,000 times more heat than conventional fuel. Independent scientists claim to have verified the experiments and Dr Mills says that his company, Blacklight Power, has tens of millions of dollars in investment lined up to bring the idea to market. And he claims to be just months away from unveiling his creation.
The problem is that according to the rules of quantum mechanics, the physics that governs the behaviour of atoms, the idea is theoretically impossible. "Physicists are quite conservative. It's not easy to convince them to change a theory that is accepted for 50 to 60 years. I don't think [Mills's] theory should be supported," said Jan Naudts, a theoretical physicist at the University of Antwerp.
What has much of the physics world up in arms is Dr Mills's claim that he has produced a new form of hydrogen, the simplest of all the atoms, with just a single proton circled by one electron. In his "hydrino", the electron sits a little closer to the proton than normal, and the formation of the new atoms from traditional hydrogen releases huge amounts of energy.
This is scientific heresy. According to quantum mechanics, electrons can only exist in an atom in strictly defined orbits, and the shortest distance allowed between the proton and electron in hydrogen is fixed. The two particles are simply not allowed to get any closer.
According to Dr Mills, there can be only one explanation: quantum mechanics must be wrong. "We've done a lot of testing. We've got 50 independent validation reports, we've got 65 peer-reviewed journal articles," he said. "We ran into this theoretical resistance and there are some vested interests here. People are very strong and fervent protectors of this [quantum] theory that they use."
Rick Maas, a chemist at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNC) who specialises in sustainable energy sources, was allowed unfettered access to Blacklight's laboratories this year. "We went in with a healthy amount of scepticism. While it would certainly be nice if this were true, in my position as head of a research institution, I really wouldn't want to make a mistake. The last thing I want is to be remembered as the person who derailed a lot of sustainable energy investment into something that wasn't real."
But Prof Maas and Randy Booker, a UNC physicist, left under no doubt about Dr Mill's claims. "All of us who are not quantum physicists are looking at Dr Mills's data and we find it very compelling," said Prof Maas. "Dr Booker and I have both put our professional reputations on the line as far as that goes."
Dr Mills's idea goes against almost a century of thinking. When scientists developed the theory of quantum mechanics they described a world where measuring the exact position or energy of a particle was impossible and where the laws of classical physics had no effect. The theory has been hailed as one of the 20th century's greatest achievements.
But it is an achievement Dr Mills thinks is flawed. He turned back to earlier classical physics to develop a theory which, unlike quantum mechanics, allows an electron to move much closer to the proton at the heart of a hydrogen atom and, in doing so, release the substantial amounts of energy he seeks to exploit. Dr Mills's theory, known as classical quantum mechanics and published in the journal Physics Essays in 2003, has been criticised most publicly by Andreas Rathke of the European Space Agency. In a damning critique published recently in the New Journal of Physics, he argued that Dr Mills's theory was the result of mathematical mistakes.
Dr Mills argues that there are plenty of flaws in Dr Rathke's critique. "His paper's riddled with mistakes. We've had other physicists contact him and say this is embarrassing to the journal and [Dr Rathke] won't respond," said Dr Mills.
While the theoretical tangle is unlikely to resolve itself soon, those wanting to exploit the technology are pushing ahead. "We would like to understand it from an academic standpoint and then we would like to be able to use the implications to actually produce energy products," said Prof Maas. "The companies that are lining up behind this are household names."
Dr Mills will not go into details of who is investing in his research but rumours suggest a range of US power companies. It is well known also that Nasa's institute of advanced concepts has funded research into finding a way of using Blacklight's technology to power rockets.
According to Prof Maas, the first product built with Blacklight's technology, which will be available in as little as four years, will be a household heater. As the technology is scaled up, he says, bigger furnaces will be able to boil water and turn turbines to produce electricity.
In a recent economic forecast, Prof Maas calculated that hydrino energy would cost around 1.2 cents (0.7p) per kilowatt hour. This compares to an average of 5 cents per kWh for coal and 6 cents for nuclear energy.
"If it's wrong, it will be proven wrong," said Kert Davies, research director of Greenpeace USA. "But if it's right, it is so important that all else falls away. It has the potential to solve our dependence on oil. Our stance is of cautious optimism."
Alternative energy
Cold fusion
More than 16 years after chemists' claims to have created a star in a jar imploded in acrimony, the US government has said it might fund more research. Mainstream physicists still balk at reports that a beaker of cold water and metal electrodes can produce excess heat, but a hardy band of scientists across the world refuse to let the dream die.
Methane hydrates
The US and Japan are leading attempts to tap this source of fossil fuel buried beneath the seabed and Arctic permafrost. A mixture of ice and natural gas, hydrates are believed to contain more carbon than existing reserves of oil, coal and gas put together.
Solar chimneys
Sunlight heats trapped air, which rises through a giant chimney and drives turbines. Leonardo da Vinci designed such a power tower and the Australian company Enviromission plans to build one. Despite being scaled down recently, the concrete chimney will still stand some 700 metres over the outback.
Nuclear fusion
Turns nuclear power on its head by combining atoms rather than splitting them to release energy - copying the reaction at the heart of the sun. After years of arguments the world has agreed to build a test reactor to see whether it works on a commercial scale. Called Iter, it could be switched on within a decade.
Wave generators
No longer a dead duck, the hopes of engineers are riding on bobbing floats again. The British company Trident Energy recently unveiled a design that uses a linear generator to convert the motion of the sea into electricity. A wave farm just a few hundred metres across could power 62,000 homes.
David Adam
us: voting machines very suspicious
20 Amazing Facts About
Voting in the USA
by Angry Girl
Nightweed.com
| 1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold 2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry. 3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers. |
See also : The 2004 US Elections: The Mother of all Vote Frauds
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/usa_vote_facts.html
Saturday, 5 November 2005
le mythe de la creation de valeur
Labels:
business,
economic reforms,
eu,
français,
spain
.
http://archives.lesechos.fr/archives/2005/LesEchos/19534-66-ECH.htm?texte=Le%20mythe%20de%20la%20cr%E9ation%20de%20valeur
Le mythe de la création de valeur
Les Echos n° 19534 du 04 Novembre 2005 • page 19
PAUL FABRA
Au troisième trimestre de cette année, le taux de chômage en Espagne est tombé au-dessous de la moyenne européenne. Cela n'était encore jamais arrivé depuis son entrée (1986) dans la Communauté européenne. Pas question, évidemment, de minimiser ce résultat, ni de dédaigner l'exceptionnel dynamisme de l'économie espagnole. Mais il s'agit aussi d'un bon poste d'observation pour s'interroger sur les limites, voire, jusqu'à un certain point, l'illusion des performances économiques actuelles dans l'Europe de l'Ouest, sans parler des Etats-Unis.
Il y a à peine plus d'un demi-siècle qu'une vaste classe moyenne formant la majorité de la population s'est développée de l'autre côté des Pyrénées. Vivace y est la mémoire des transformations sociales profondes qui en sont résultées ; tout aussi aiguë la conscience que les espoirs légitimes qu'elles avaient suscitées se sont soudainement et inexplicablement évanouis pour beaucoup de jeunes.
Dans toute l'histoire de l'Espagne, aucune tranche d'âge n'a été mieux préparée que celle qui a maintenant entre 25 et 40 ans, née donc entre 1965 et 1980 (la date charnière de la mort de Franco remonte à novembre 1975). Aucune non plus ne fut plus nombreuse, ce fut là-bas celle du baby-boom, ni élevée avec plus d'enthousiasme familial dans l'idée de construire une société et une économie modernes.
Aujourd'hui, plus de la moitié des contrats d'embauche signés par des jeunes l'ont été pour une durée déterminée, le plus souvent six mois (la loi va changer). Pas plus de 40 % des personnes en âge de travailler et ayant fait des études supérieures occupent un poste de travail correspondant à leur niveau de formation. Sous le titre « La génération des mille euros », notre confrère « El Pais », dans son édition du dimanche 23 octobre, consacre un long article d'exploration aux nombreux jeunes et moins jeunes gens et filles qui passent d'un boulot précaire et loin de leurs aspirations à l'autre. En moyenne, ils gagnent quelque 1.000 euros par mois.
Certes, le modèle de vie a changé, mais « on finit par s'en lasser », dit Carolina (l'inventrice du néologisme « mileurista »). Elle partage à Barcelone un petit appartement avec trois copines : « Tu peux décider de partir loin, sans consulter personne et rompre avec tout. » Dans les années 1960 et dans les années 1970, il naissait en Espagne quelque 650.000 bébés par an. Ce chiffre est tombé à 366.000 en 1997. Le taux de fécondité a chuté de 3 à 1,1 enfant par femme, le plus bas du monde. Ce n'est pas qu'elles n'en désirent plus, mais le nombre d'années à vivre n'est pas assez long pour arriver au « statut » (notamment matériel) qu'elles jugent désormais nécessaire pour songer à procréer. Caroline (qui revient, émerveillée et envieuse, de Berlin où ses amies allemandes vivent tellement mieux qu'elle !) et ses colocataires sont stupéfaites par la montée « météorique » du prix d'achat des logements et par celle des loyers. Leurs pouvoirs d'achat s'en trouvent rognés d'autant.
Sur cette triste lapalissade arrêtons notre courte investigation espagnole. Son mérite est précisément de faire voir à l'oeil nu un trait distinctif de l'économie contemporaine. On ne cesse d'y parler de création de valeur là où il n'y en a aucune du point de vue économique. Il est évident que le gonflement de la bulle immobilière ne crée, à l'échelle de l'économie tout entière, aucune valeur supplémentaire. Disons plus clairement : aucun pouvoir d'achat en sus de celui qui est périodiquement créé par le système de production des biens et services. Comment n'en serait-il pas de même pour la fameuse « shareholder value » (la valeur actionnariale) ? Sauf, bien sûr, dans le cas où elle se confondrait avec une augmentation des profits distribués résultant du développement économique de l'entreprise. Mais la « shareholder value » (alias plus-value) provient de l'une des deux origines suivantes. Ou bien, elle découle d'une énième compression de la masse salariale, créant un effet d'optique d'élévation de la productivité (on divise le chiffre d'affaires par un nombre réduit de salariés !). Neuf fois sur dix, ce genre d'opération traduit la véritable nature du principe sacro-saint, mais injustifié, de la maximisation du taux de profit : une confiscation partielle et illégitime de la rémunération du travail. A priori injustifié parce que, quoi qu'on puisse prétendre, il n'est qu'une seule manière de s'assurer d'un profit maximisé : s'affranchir d'une façon ou d'une autre de la concurrence pour se mettre en position de manipuler les prix de vente.
Cela nous conduit tout droit à la deuxième origine habituelle de la « shareholder value ». Par exemple, les fusions et acquisitions visent à tirer parti des « synergies » existant entre les sociétés concernées. Synergie est le mot passe-partout pour désigner la création d'une position plus ou moins monopolistique, en attendant l'écrasement des concurrents de plus faible envergure. Dans les deux cas, la plus-value encaissée par l'actionnaire a pour contrepartie un pouvoir d'achat amoindri des salariés.
D'où l'enjeu crucial du droit de la concurrence européen. Dans notre chronique de vendredi dernier (« L'Europe dépossédée », « Les Echos » du 28 octobre), nous nous élevions contre le projet de la commission Barroso de faire disparaître la notion d'abus de position dominante, qui sert à la Commission européenne pour s'opposer à telle ou telle fusion ou acquisition. Cette notion (inconnue du droit américain) était inspirée de la doctrine « ordo-libérale » élaborée dans les années 1930 et 1940 par les libéraux allemands pour préparer l'après-hitlérisme. La fameuse « économie sociale de marché », qui servit de modèle pour l'institution du marché commun européen, en découle. S'en prendre aux positions dominantes sur le marché et veiller à la liberté d'action des PME avait un objectif autant politique qu'économique. Il s'agissait de barrer la route à la constitution de groupes privés trop puissants, et cela en vue de permettre le bon fonctionnement de la démocratie. Celle-ci n'est-elle pas de nos jours anesthésiée et amputée par les lobbies ?
Autre critique adressée par la commissaire à la Concurrence, Neelie Kroes, à la jurisprudence fondée sur la méfiance à l'égard des positions dominantes sur le marché : la préoccupation de promouvoir l'« efficacité économique » n'y est pas assez affirmée. Mais, pour les Neelie Kroes et leurs émules, le critère de l'efficacité, c'est la poursuite sans entrave de la maximisation du profit.
http://archives.lesechos.fr/archives/2005/LesEchos/19534-66-ECH.htm?texte=Le%20mythe%20de%20la%20cr%E9ation%20de%20valeur
Le mythe de la création de valeur
Les Echos n° 19534 du 04 Novembre 2005 • page 19
PAUL FABRA
Au troisième trimestre de cette année, le taux de chômage en Espagne est tombé au-dessous de la moyenne européenne. Cela n'était encore jamais arrivé depuis son entrée (1986) dans la Communauté européenne. Pas question, évidemment, de minimiser ce résultat, ni de dédaigner l'exceptionnel dynamisme de l'économie espagnole. Mais il s'agit aussi d'un bon poste d'observation pour s'interroger sur les limites, voire, jusqu'à un certain point, l'illusion des performances économiques actuelles dans l'Europe de l'Ouest, sans parler des Etats-Unis.
Il y a à peine plus d'un demi-siècle qu'une vaste classe moyenne formant la majorité de la population s'est développée de l'autre côté des Pyrénées. Vivace y est la mémoire des transformations sociales profondes qui en sont résultées ; tout aussi aiguë la conscience que les espoirs légitimes qu'elles avaient suscitées se sont soudainement et inexplicablement évanouis pour beaucoup de jeunes.
Dans toute l'histoire de l'Espagne, aucune tranche d'âge n'a été mieux préparée que celle qui a maintenant entre 25 et 40 ans, née donc entre 1965 et 1980 (la date charnière de la mort de Franco remonte à novembre 1975). Aucune non plus ne fut plus nombreuse, ce fut là-bas celle du baby-boom, ni élevée avec plus d'enthousiasme familial dans l'idée de construire une société et une économie modernes.
Aujourd'hui, plus de la moitié des contrats d'embauche signés par des jeunes l'ont été pour une durée déterminée, le plus souvent six mois (la loi va changer). Pas plus de 40 % des personnes en âge de travailler et ayant fait des études supérieures occupent un poste de travail correspondant à leur niveau de formation. Sous le titre « La génération des mille euros », notre confrère « El Pais », dans son édition du dimanche 23 octobre, consacre un long article d'exploration aux nombreux jeunes et moins jeunes gens et filles qui passent d'un boulot précaire et loin de leurs aspirations à l'autre. En moyenne, ils gagnent quelque 1.000 euros par mois.
Certes, le modèle de vie a changé, mais « on finit par s'en lasser », dit Carolina (l'inventrice du néologisme « mileurista »). Elle partage à Barcelone un petit appartement avec trois copines : « Tu peux décider de partir loin, sans consulter personne et rompre avec tout. » Dans les années 1960 et dans les années 1970, il naissait en Espagne quelque 650.000 bébés par an. Ce chiffre est tombé à 366.000 en 1997. Le taux de fécondité a chuté de 3 à 1,1 enfant par femme, le plus bas du monde. Ce n'est pas qu'elles n'en désirent plus, mais le nombre d'années à vivre n'est pas assez long pour arriver au « statut » (notamment matériel) qu'elles jugent désormais nécessaire pour songer à procréer. Caroline (qui revient, émerveillée et envieuse, de Berlin où ses amies allemandes vivent tellement mieux qu'elle !) et ses colocataires sont stupéfaites par la montée « météorique » du prix d'achat des logements et par celle des loyers. Leurs pouvoirs d'achat s'en trouvent rognés d'autant.
Sur cette triste lapalissade arrêtons notre courte investigation espagnole. Son mérite est précisément de faire voir à l'oeil nu un trait distinctif de l'économie contemporaine. On ne cesse d'y parler de création de valeur là où il n'y en a aucune du point de vue économique. Il est évident que le gonflement de la bulle immobilière ne crée, à l'échelle de l'économie tout entière, aucune valeur supplémentaire. Disons plus clairement : aucun pouvoir d'achat en sus de celui qui est périodiquement créé par le système de production des biens et services. Comment n'en serait-il pas de même pour la fameuse « shareholder value » (la valeur actionnariale) ? Sauf, bien sûr, dans le cas où elle se confondrait avec une augmentation des profits distribués résultant du développement économique de l'entreprise. Mais la « shareholder value » (alias plus-value) provient de l'une des deux origines suivantes. Ou bien, elle découle d'une énième compression de la masse salariale, créant un effet d'optique d'élévation de la productivité (on divise le chiffre d'affaires par un nombre réduit de salariés !). Neuf fois sur dix, ce genre d'opération traduit la véritable nature du principe sacro-saint, mais injustifié, de la maximisation du taux de profit : une confiscation partielle et illégitime de la rémunération du travail. A priori injustifié parce que, quoi qu'on puisse prétendre, il n'est qu'une seule manière de s'assurer d'un profit maximisé : s'affranchir d'une façon ou d'une autre de la concurrence pour se mettre en position de manipuler les prix de vente.
Cela nous conduit tout droit à la deuxième origine habituelle de la « shareholder value ». Par exemple, les fusions et acquisitions visent à tirer parti des « synergies » existant entre les sociétés concernées. Synergie est le mot passe-partout pour désigner la création d'une position plus ou moins monopolistique, en attendant l'écrasement des concurrents de plus faible envergure. Dans les deux cas, la plus-value encaissée par l'actionnaire a pour contrepartie un pouvoir d'achat amoindri des salariés.
D'où l'enjeu crucial du droit de la concurrence européen. Dans notre chronique de vendredi dernier (« L'Europe dépossédée », « Les Echos » du 28 octobre), nous nous élevions contre le projet de la commission Barroso de faire disparaître la notion d'abus de position dominante, qui sert à la Commission européenne pour s'opposer à telle ou telle fusion ou acquisition. Cette notion (inconnue du droit américain) était inspirée de la doctrine « ordo-libérale » élaborée dans les années 1930 et 1940 par les libéraux allemands pour préparer l'après-hitlérisme. La fameuse « économie sociale de marché », qui servit de modèle pour l'institution du marché commun européen, en découle. S'en prendre aux positions dominantes sur le marché et veiller à la liberté d'action des PME avait un objectif autant politique qu'économique. Il s'agissait de barrer la route à la constitution de groupes privés trop puissants, et cela en vue de permettre le bon fonctionnement de la démocratie. Celle-ci n'est-elle pas de nos jours anesthésiée et amputée par les lobbies ?
Autre critique adressée par la commissaire à la Concurrence, Neelie Kroes, à la jurisprudence fondée sur la méfiance à l'égard des positions dominantes sur le marché : la préoccupation de promouvoir l'« efficacité économique » n'y est pas assez affirmée. Mais, pour les Neelie Kroes et leurs émules, le critère de l'efficacité, c'est la poursuite sans entrave de la maximisation du profit.
iraq war is illegal says raf officer
Labels:
europe,
iraq,
middle east,
uk
RAF officer faces court martial over Iraq war
Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday October 17, 2005
The Guardian
Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday October 17, 2005
The Guardian
An RAF officer faces a court martial for refusing to serve in Iraq on the grounds that the invasion of the country was illegal, defence officials said yesterday.
Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a medical officer serving at RAF Kinloss, in Morayshire, faces four counts of disobeying a lawful command under the 1955 Air Force Act.
He is the first British officer to face charges on these grounds and his prosecution is likely to add to growing unease among the military about the war in Iraq. He may face a jail sentence, though senior military officers, concerned about the effect of Iraq on the morale of British armed forces personnel, will not relish the prospect of a martyr and another focus of opposition to the war and invasion of Iraq.
The 37-year-old lieutenant, who was decorated for service in Afghanistan and Iraq, believes the invasion was illegal, defence sources said.
A key part of his case, according to reports yesterday, will be that under RAF law an officer is justified in refusing to obey commands if they are illegal. The Queen's commission requires armed forces officers to act according to "the rules and discipline of war". Defence sources suggested the officer also had a conscientious objection to the war.
Some reservists have refused to serve in Iraq, but this is the first time that a full-time officer has objected.
The case of Flt Lt Kendall-Smith, who has dual UK-New Zealand nationality, is now before the RAF's prosecuting authority. The Ministry of Defence said no date had been set for his court martial.
Friday, 4 November 2005
congress debates saudi invasion
Labels:
middle east,
saudi arabia,
us
U.S. fears prospect of Saudi coup, weighs invasion plans
WASHINGTON — The United States has raised the prospect of a military invasion of Saudi Arabia.
The House Armed Services Committee considered the possibility of a Saudi coup and U.S. response during a hearing on Oct. 26.
 |
The scenario was outlined by Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, who cited a Saudi coup as one of several threats to the United States.
"How should the United States respond if a coup, presumably fundamentalist in nature, overthrows the royal family in Saudi Arabia?" O'Hanlon asked. "Such a result would raise the specter of major disruption to the oil economy."
The response could include the deployment of three U.S. Army divisions backed by fighter-jets and airborne early-warning and alert aircraft. In all, the U.S.-led mission could include up to 300,000 troops.
Congressional sources said the House hearing, which focused on future threats in the Middle East and other regions, marked increasing U.S. concern of Saudi instability. They said the open hearing echoed a series of briefings on Saudi and Gulf Arab instability given by non-government analysts to the State Department, Defense Department and National Security Council since 2002.
The House committee was told that U.S. concern of a Saudi coup appears greater than ever. O'Hanlon said such a coup would also destabilize Pakistan, a nuclear power since 1998.
"This type of scenario has been discussed for at least two decades and remains of concern today — perhaps even more so — given the surge of terrorist violence in Saudi Arabia in recent years as well as the continued growth and hostile ideology of Al Qaida along with the broader Wahabi movement," O'Hanlon said. In his testimony, O'Hanlon envisioned a Saudi coup as resulting in the emergence of what he termed a fundamentalist regime intent on acquiring nuclear weapons. Another prospect was that the new regime would seek to disrupt the oil market.
"Indeed, it might be feasible not to do anything at first, and hope that the new regime gradually realized the benefits of reintegrating Saudi Arabia at least partially into the global oil economy," O'Hanlon said. "But in the end the United States and other western countries might consider using force."
O'Hanlon envisioned a U.S.-led military operation designed to seize Saudi oil wells, located along the eastern coast. Washington and its allies would place the proceeds from Saudi oil sales into escrow for a future pro-Western government in Riyad.
A U.S.-led military force of 300,000 would be required to secure the entire Saudi Arabia, O'Hanlon said. He said about 10,000 troops could capture eastern Saudi Arabia, which contains virtually all of the kingdom's oil wells. But more than 100,000 additional troops would be required to protect the wells and other vital infrastructure.
"An operation to overthrow the new Saudi regime and gradually stabilize a country of the size in question would probably require in the vicinity of 300,000 troops, using standard sizing criteria," O'Hanlon said. "So in fact a coastal strategy, while easier in some ways and perhaps less bloody in the initial phases, could be fully half as large and might last much longer."
Tuesday, 1 November 2005
tamiflu gets rumsfeld richer
Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing.
October 31, 2005: 10:55 AM EST
By Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune senior writer
NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld. The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer. Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005. Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson. "I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco. What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004. Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he left Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last month, notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the Pentagon's general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond. As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought the advice of the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of Government Ethics. Those agencies didn't offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn't believe he possesses. So he's keeping his shares for the time being. --
Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing.
October 31, 2005: 10:55 AM EST
By Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune senior writer
NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld. The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer. Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005. Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson. "I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco. What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004. Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he left Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last month, notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the Pentagon's general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond. As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought the advice of the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of Government Ethics. Those agencies didn't offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn't believe he possesses. So he's keeping his shares for the time being. --
Friday, 28 October 2005
sharansky was a kgb agent
Labels:
gru/kgb/fsb,
israel,
middle east,
organized crime,
russian mob,
secret services
BARRY CHAMISH.COM
NATAN SHARANSKY THE LIAR
I was contacted by two distinguished Russian-Israelis last week, (Jan. 05). First, the respected journalist Effie Maideneck made a pitch to me to investigate the harassment of a "truthseeker like me," Dr. Yuli Nudelman. Then I was honored with three e-mails from the revered former Prisoner of Zion, Ida Nudel. She also wrote, "Yuli needs help." (Mrs. Nudel's correspondence will follow this article).
Dr. Yuli Nudelman is the former chief surgeon of Rambam Hospital. In the 1960s he was a leader of the movement to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. When the Soviets released him, he quickly made his mark in Israel as a major in the IDF, awarded for his battlefield surgery, then as a crusader against local medical corruption. He was a columnist for the left wing crusading newsmagazine HaOlam HaZeh and later the author of two powerful books exposing serious malpractice in the Israeli medical system.
In 1999 he released a book in Hebrew and Russian called, Sharansky Unmasked. Within, he claimed that Natan Sharansky, then Housing Minister, was a longtime KGB agent with deep ties to the worldwide Russian mafia. Soon after its release, Sharansky sued Dr. Nudelman for libel and the Jerusalem district court ruled that he had to pay Sharansky the unheard of compensation of nearly $200,000. This was widely acknowledged as a precedent aimed at restricting the most basic rights of freedom of expression. Dr. Nudelman's brother Boris was also his partner in the Sharansky research project and he died, overcome by the injustice of the trial.
On Jan. 20, Dr. Nudelman met me at my home for an intense interview. He also gave me his book on Sharansky and a thick stack of evidence which left me convinced of the veracity of his claims. I warn my readers that you will find the following report discouraging. However, I have long warned that the leadership of the Jewish people has been thoroughly infiltrated by frauds and criminals claiming they are working on our behalf. That Sharansky is just another crook serving ugly interests should not come as that much of a surprise.
Before presenting the quite shocking evidence, we begin with my interview of Dr. Nudelman: YN - In 1962, the KGB initiated a program of dissidence against the Soviet Union. By running the dissident groups, it could control the various factions which were dissatisfied with Soviet repression and later utilize the leaders as agents in the West. They were known as, spies of influence. By appearing to be anti-Soviet they were welcomed abroad and trusted. They could worm themselves into the top echelons of foreign governments. Sharansky was one of these agents, and possibly the most successful.
BC - But wasn't he a Zionist leader in the Soviet Union? Didn't he spend eight years in prison for his activities?
YN - He was never a leader. He was unknown to most of us until the Western media turned him into a hero. He supposedly spent seven years in jail and one year in a prison camp. No one saw him in jail except Mendelevich, and he claims he only saw his eyes through a peephole. Understand this, there is not one witness to him sitting in jail. He spent a year in a prison camp as a hut commander. That was the position given to KGB informers.
BC - But what about his wife Avital, who fought for his freedom in Israel?
YN - All a KGB show, like her supposed conversion to Judaism in 1974. She is from a family of spies. Her brother Michael was sent to Washington to infiltrate the CIA. He got into trouble there and fled to Israel. Not long after he arrived, he was poisoned to death at age 44.
BC - What was the point of this charade surrounding Sharansky?
YN - He infiltrated Israel as a worldwide hero. Remember, he got here through a spy exchange, not simply released from prison and allowed to leave like all the rest of us. Within a few years he was living in a $1.5 million dollar home. Where did he get that kind of money? Next, he was in the government cabinet. Now he's really useful. When the powers that run America want Netanyahu to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, who do they send to the Wye plantation? Their agents Sharon and Sharansky. When the same powers seek a justification for attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, who do they turn to but the trusted Sharansky. Just last week Condoleeza Rice called Sharansky the father of the movement to turn the Middle East democratic. When Putin is condemned worldwide for the slaughter in Chechnya, who comes to his rescue but Sharansky. Incidentally, that turned out to be a big mistake for Sharansky.
BC - Why?
YN - Because after my book was published, he called in his chips. He asked Putin to release his whole KGB file to him so no one could ever see it. Then he released on the Internet the parts of the file he thought would serve him best. He chose the wrong files to release because they revealed what we all knew. During his interrogation and trial in 1977-8, Sharansky gave the KGB a long list of Jewish activists. It was during his trial that the witch hunt against us began in earnest. Dozens of Jewish activists were arrested, some beaten severely. Sharansky was nothing but a dirty little snitch.
These are serious allegations. Now we look at the evidence, much of which comes from the protocols of Nudelman's trial. What stands out is that a Who's Who of former Soviet Jewish activists testified on Nudelman's behalf, whereas not one witness except his wife, testified for Sharansky. He could find not even one witness who knew him from prison and who saw his bravery in action.
SHARANSKY THE SNITCH
Deposition to Judge Zvi Segal, Jerusalem District Court from Ida Nudel
I testify, as a former citizen of the USSR, grown and educated under a totalitarian regime persecuting any dissent, that Mr. Sharansky's behaviour during investigation resulted in the profound suffering of several people who were subjected to additional persecutions because the KGB's attention to them had been drawn by Mr. Sharansky's thirty-three page request to the chief investigator of his case, Col. V.I. Volodin...
An attentive reader, provided he is a former Soviet Citizen with an experience of conflict with the KGB, is struck by the difference between Sharansky"s description of his imprisonment in jails and camps on the one hand, and the personal experiences of many people, on the other hand...
Mr. Sharansky disregarded the ethical norms of the group with which he identified and based his defence on requesting the KGB investigators to interrogate activists and participants of the emigration movement...Upon completion of his case investigation, the KGB decided, on January 12 and 18, 1978 to open additional cases against 33 activists of the Jewish emigration movement. Six Jews from the list were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms: G. Goldshtein, L. Volvosky, B. Chernobylsky, V. Slepak, M. Slepak and I. Nudel.
Press Release from Vadim Rotenberg, Professor of Human Psychology, Tel Aviv University, 18/08/02
According to my personal experience, Mr. Sharansky has surrounded himself in Israel with cynical and dirty persons without moral values and mafia-like mentality and behaviour...
Some official documents presented to the court confirmed that Mr. Sharansky really collaborated with the KGB inquest and mentioned some names of refuseniks, afterward punished.
Letter Of Appeal submitted to Supreme Court Of Israel by attorney Yoram Mushkat
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Of Housing And Construction Natan Sharansky, had passed to the KGB interrogators the names of aliya activists and other Jews who tried to emigrate to Israel, and even requested the KGB interrogators to investigate them and study the files of tens of refuseniks all across the USSR who tried to emigrate to Israel at that time.
Contrary to his image as a prisoner of Zion who heroically struggled against the KGB, Sharansky betrayed his comrades, the aliyah activists and other Jews who tried to emigrate to Israel...
It was due to the exposure of Sharansky's, "Request Of Solicitation," that Prisoners of Zion, Ms. Ida Nudel, and Prof. Kislek (who was severely beaten after Sharansky requested he be investigated) understood why the KGB made hundreds of arrests of Jews after Sharansky's arrest and trial. This also explains why later in prison camp, Sharansky was appointed a dnyevalny, a ward orderly - a job reserved for informers and collaborators...
Despite the public standing of Minister Sharansky, and the grim matters exposed in court, not a single person came to testify in his favor.
Appeal to Prof. Elyakim Rubinstein, Attorney General of the State of Israel.
We, the undersigned, former Prisoners Of Zion, aliyah activists, and refuseniks are appealing to you in regard to a situation compromising state security in light of facts brought out in the suit of Sharansky vs. Nudelman. We have arrived at the following conclusions:
Sharansky had created his famous image based on a false myth concerning both his activities in the USSR and his "prominent" role in the Zionist movement, and his "heroic" deeds in prison. Some details of his camp life as written is his book do not look like the real ones we actually encountered in the labor camps.
In the initial stage of the hearings, Sharansky testified that he had never mentioned any names of people involved in Zionist activities while interrogated by the KGB. However, after being shown in the courtroom the KGB archive documents, he changed his testimony, claiming that while he had indeed given the names of aliyah activists, he did so, "to assure that the names should remain in the KGB archives for future use by historians."
We believe that Sharansky is not the person he is trying to picture and will pay for him to undergo a lie detector test to establish the facts.
Citizens of the State of Israel:
Michael Babel, Ilya Voitovestsky, Arye Vudka, Yigael Yehudi, Dr. Felix Kochubievsky, Eduard Kuznetsov, Silva Zalmanson, Ephraim Melamed, Yehudit Yehudi-Nepomniaschchi, Meir Nepomniaschi, advocate Jacov Maniovich, Ida Nudel, Dr. Victor Ben Zvi (Polsky), Prof. Vadim Rotenberg, Jakov Segal.
NATAN OF THE MAFIA
Appeal To The Attorney General, Babel et al:
In the courtroom Sharansky categorically denied receiving $100,000 from Grigory Luchansky, while the latter confirmed under oath to giving Sharansky the money and gave the bank account account that Sharansky asked the money be transferred to.
Affidavit of Grigori Luchansky, Presented To Jerusalem District Court I have met Israeli Minister Natan Sharansky about five times in Israel and abroad. Mr. Sharansky asked me for a contribution and I agreed to contribute the sum to an association whose account was in Bank Hapoalim.
Haaretz, Akiva Eldar, 14/3/02
Kutzenov added that Luchansky complained to him that, "Sharansky promised to help get him a passport, got money, but did nothing. Later in 1996, I asked Sharansky why he didn't help Luchansky. Sharansky said he can't help him since Luchansky appears in first place on a CIA list of members of the Russian mafia."
Either Luchansky signed a false affidavit or Sharansky committed perjury.
Haaretz 12.3/04
Gavriella's car was discovered after he went to Grigori Lerner's office where he met with Sofa Landver, formerly a Labor Party member of the Knesset. Lerner was convicted on three attempts to bribe elected officials...His arrest in 1997 dragged a parade of politicians to the National Unit For Serious And International Crime Investigations including Natan Sharansky, who received a $100,000 contribution from Lerner, and Labour MK Shimon Peres, who had promoted the career of Sofa Landver from being his Russian teacher to being a Knesset member...
From, How The Russian Mob Has Invaded America, Robert I. Friedman, Liberty Books
One politician already ensnared in the web of organized crime is Russian-born Natan Sharansky...Sharansky has publicly admitted that his party has accepted contributions from NORDEX president Grigori Luchansky. Officials from the US Congress, the State Department, and the CIA pleaded with Sharansky to sever his ties to Luchansky. Says Winer, "We told him about Luchansky's MO: bribery, influence peddling and that he was a bridge between governments and organized crime." Sharansky simply refused.
In March, 2004, Sharansky took personal responsibility for securing the release of Jonathan Pollard, and wangled a law giving him 4.5 million shekels a year until Pollard's release. Pollard was not amused. On March 11.04 Pollard wrote Sharansky:
I am stunned that you have authored a bill that legislates political lassitude and financial corruption. As head of the committee to secure my release, it was your job to know about this law and do exactly that - secure my release - not provide additional funds for your office.
Jerusalem Post 12/5/04 - Zelda Harris
I was in Moscow in 1977 when Sharansky was arrested and was partly responsible for bringing out legal documents to be used in his campaign for freedom. Now I feel it is time to say it like it is: I do not believe Sharansky was a sincere human rights activist. He used the platform to gain stardom at a time when Western eyes were focused on the Soviet Union. Once he got here, his lack of support from olim who had been his former compatriots showed what he really was: a self-seeker.
END
The former Jewish activists of the Soviet Union fought to live in a Jewish democracy. Today, too many realize they traded one dictatorship for another, more subtle one. The following letter from former Prisoner Of Zion, Ida Nudel, expresses this frustration and disappointment.
Dear Mr. Chamish, First of all, let me thank you for permitting to use your Internet address. I admire the courage of your challenging the political monopoly in our country and unveiling their secrets, deals and misdeeds. Your project Very Uncivil Obedience has raised my reminiscences of not-so-old personal experience of civil disobedience that was practiced by Soviet Jewish and other citizens in the 1970s. I would be most grateful if you could devote a bit of your time to my thoughts about your protest.
Having lived in Israel for 17 years, I cannot imagine people that might come forward and start the action at the level being proposed by you. You are actually appealing to intellectuals and businessmen the category of population that is most conservative when a risk is involved of loosing their social privileges. Something would probably become known on the fate of 34 officers who signed a protest letter. I very much fear that most of them will be morally broken and humiliated in a most primitive manner, and their dignity will be wrecked. Those who would prove stauncher if any will also pay for that wonderful day when they behaved like free citizens. I’ve come to Israel from a totalitarian country but with an experience of a citizen perceiving my personal responsibility to the society in which I live. I cannot help but to compare the moral and social environment and the unwritten laws of my both societies the past and the present. I’m sorry to say that the moral spirit and the cynical bureaucratic attitude towards the population in the Jewish land have little difference from the Bolshevik regime.
The fact that anybody can freely leave Israel makes it possible for the bureaucracy to conceal its Bolshevik character. Instead of being put in prisons and psychiatric hospitals as it was done in the USSR, the dissidents just leave the society and the country in the care of their more passive compatriots. The people are living in a fear of the omnipotent bureaucracy and realizing their complete helplessness against it. When talking to simple people, I hear it far too often: Whatever I could do I’ve done: my children live in America! With regard to demonstrations, I share your doubts as to the sincerity of the settlement leaders beyond the “green line”. They’re civil servants and encounter serious personal problems when challenging their employer the state. On the other hand, the youth participation in the demonstrations contributes to the development of their self-consciousness and of their perception of themselves as something more than merely toy soldiers. The passive and voiceless intellectuals are clones of their Soviet counterparts.
I am heading a small voluntary organization that works for the prevention of asocial behavior among new immigrant schoolchildren in the “developing towns” of the Negev region, and have gained an experience of dealing with the local municipal establishment. It is clear to me beyond any doubt how far is our society from a real democracy. It may rather be described as a two-faced creature whose outside-looking face is that of Western-style diplomats and scientists, while the inside looking one has all the features of a lazy and corrupt Turkish colonial official… Should your idea of disobedience be first implemented outside Israel, than some Israeli version might probably emerge. But who would help your great idea to materialize? Maybe Christian Zionists? The idea of a Jewish state isn’t too popular with the free world’s Jews, it causes them such a headache. With sincere wishes for your success and good health,
Ida Nudel 13/01/05
NATAN SHARANSKY THE LIAR
I was contacted by two distinguished Russian-Israelis last week, (Jan. 05). First, the respected journalist Effie Maideneck made a pitch to me to investigate the harassment of a "truthseeker like me," Dr. Yuli Nudelman. Then I was honored with three e-mails from the revered former Prisoner of Zion, Ida Nudel. She also wrote, "Yuli needs help." (Mrs. Nudel's correspondence will follow this article).
Dr. Yuli Nudelman is the former chief surgeon of Rambam Hospital. In the 1960s he was a leader of the movement to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. When the Soviets released him, he quickly made his mark in Israel as a major in the IDF, awarded for his battlefield surgery, then as a crusader against local medical corruption. He was a columnist for the left wing crusading newsmagazine HaOlam HaZeh and later the author of two powerful books exposing serious malpractice in the Israeli medical system.
In 1999 he released a book in Hebrew and Russian called, Sharansky Unmasked. Within, he claimed that Natan Sharansky, then Housing Minister, was a longtime KGB agent with deep ties to the worldwide Russian mafia. Soon after its release, Sharansky sued Dr. Nudelman for libel and the Jerusalem district court ruled that he had to pay Sharansky the unheard of compensation of nearly $200,000. This was widely acknowledged as a precedent aimed at restricting the most basic rights of freedom of expression. Dr. Nudelman's brother Boris was also his partner in the Sharansky research project and he died, overcome by the injustice of the trial.
On Jan. 20, Dr. Nudelman met me at my home for an intense interview. He also gave me his book on Sharansky and a thick stack of evidence which left me convinced of the veracity of his claims. I warn my readers that you will find the following report discouraging. However, I have long warned that the leadership of the Jewish people has been thoroughly infiltrated by frauds and criminals claiming they are working on our behalf. That Sharansky is just another crook serving ugly interests should not come as that much of a surprise.
Before presenting the quite shocking evidence, we begin with my interview of Dr. Nudelman: YN - In 1962, the KGB initiated a program of dissidence against the Soviet Union. By running the dissident groups, it could control the various factions which were dissatisfied with Soviet repression and later utilize the leaders as agents in the West. They were known as, spies of influence. By appearing to be anti-Soviet they were welcomed abroad and trusted. They could worm themselves into the top echelons of foreign governments. Sharansky was one of these agents, and possibly the most successful.
BC - But wasn't he a Zionist leader in the Soviet Union? Didn't he spend eight years in prison for his activities?
YN - He was never a leader. He was unknown to most of us until the Western media turned him into a hero. He supposedly spent seven years in jail and one year in a prison camp. No one saw him in jail except Mendelevich, and he claims he only saw his eyes through a peephole. Understand this, there is not one witness to him sitting in jail. He spent a year in a prison camp as a hut commander. That was the position given to KGB informers.
BC - But what about his wife Avital, who fought for his freedom in Israel?
YN - All a KGB show, like her supposed conversion to Judaism in 1974. She is from a family of spies. Her brother Michael was sent to Washington to infiltrate the CIA. He got into trouble there and fled to Israel. Not long after he arrived, he was poisoned to death at age 44.
BC - What was the point of this charade surrounding Sharansky?
YN - He infiltrated Israel as a worldwide hero. Remember, he got here through a spy exchange, not simply released from prison and allowed to leave like all the rest of us. Within a few years he was living in a $1.5 million dollar home. Where did he get that kind of money? Next, he was in the government cabinet. Now he's really useful. When the powers that run America want Netanyahu to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, who do they send to the Wye plantation? Their agents Sharon and Sharansky. When the same powers seek a justification for attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, who do they turn to but the trusted Sharansky. Just last week Condoleeza Rice called Sharansky the father of the movement to turn the Middle East democratic. When Putin is condemned worldwide for the slaughter in Chechnya, who comes to his rescue but Sharansky. Incidentally, that turned out to be a big mistake for Sharansky.
BC - Why?
YN - Because after my book was published, he called in his chips. He asked Putin to release his whole KGB file to him so no one could ever see it. Then he released on the Internet the parts of the file he thought would serve him best. He chose the wrong files to release because they revealed what we all knew. During his interrogation and trial in 1977-8, Sharansky gave the KGB a long list of Jewish activists. It was during his trial that the witch hunt against us began in earnest. Dozens of Jewish activists were arrested, some beaten severely. Sharansky was nothing but a dirty little snitch.
These are serious allegations. Now we look at the evidence, much of which comes from the protocols of Nudelman's trial. What stands out is that a Who's Who of former Soviet Jewish activists testified on Nudelman's behalf, whereas not one witness except his wife, testified for Sharansky. He could find not even one witness who knew him from prison and who saw his bravery in action.
SHARANSKY THE SNITCH
Deposition to Judge Zvi Segal, Jerusalem District Court from Ida Nudel
I testify, as a former citizen of the USSR, grown and educated under a totalitarian regime persecuting any dissent, that Mr. Sharansky's behaviour during investigation resulted in the profound suffering of several people who were subjected to additional persecutions because the KGB's attention to them had been drawn by Mr. Sharansky's thirty-three page request to the chief investigator of his case, Col. V.I. Volodin...
An attentive reader, provided he is a former Soviet Citizen with an experience of conflict with the KGB, is struck by the difference between Sharansky"s description of his imprisonment in jails and camps on the one hand, and the personal experiences of many people, on the other hand...
Mr. Sharansky disregarded the ethical norms of the group with which he identified and based his defence on requesting the KGB investigators to interrogate activists and participants of the emigration movement...Upon completion of his case investigation, the KGB decided, on January 12 and 18, 1978 to open additional cases against 33 activists of the Jewish emigration movement. Six Jews from the list were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms: G. Goldshtein, L. Volvosky, B. Chernobylsky, V. Slepak, M. Slepak and I. Nudel.
Press Release from Vadim Rotenberg, Professor of Human Psychology, Tel Aviv University, 18/08/02
According to my personal experience, Mr. Sharansky has surrounded himself in Israel with cynical and dirty persons without moral values and mafia-like mentality and behaviour...
Some official documents presented to the court confirmed that Mr. Sharansky really collaborated with the KGB inquest and mentioned some names of refuseniks, afterward punished.
Letter Of Appeal submitted to Supreme Court Of Israel by attorney Yoram Mushkat
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Of Housing And Construction Natan Sharansky, had passed to the KGB interrogators the names of aliya activists and other Jews who tried to emigrate to Israel, and even requested the KGB interrogators to investigate them and study the files of tens of refuseniks all across the USSR who tried to emigrate to Israel at that time.
Contrary to his image as a prisoner of Zion who heroically struggled against the KGB, Sharansky betrayed his comrades, the aliyah activists and other Jews who tried to emigrate to Israel...
It was due to the exposure of Sharansky's, "Request Of Solicitation," that Prisoners of Zion, Ms. Ida Nudel, and Prof. Kislek (who was severely beaten after Sharansky requested he be investigated) understood why the KGB made hundreds of arrests of Jews after Sharansky's arrest and trial. This also explains why later in prison camp, Sharansky was appointed a dnyevalny, a ward orderly - a job reserved for informers and collaborators...
Despite the public standing of Minister Sharansky, and the grim matters exposed in court, not a single person came to testify in his favor.
Appeal to Prof. Elyakim Rubinstein, Attorney General of the State of Israel.
We, the undersigned, former Prisoners Of Zion, aliyah activists, and refuseniks are appealing to you in regard to a situation compromising state security in light of facts brought out in the suit of Sharansky vs. Nudelman. We have arrived at the following conclusions:
Sharansky had created his famous image based on a false myth concerning both his activities in the USSR and his "prominent" role in the Zionist movement, and his "heroic" deeds in prison. Some details of his camp life as written is his book do not look like the real ones we actually encountered in the labor camps.
In the initial stage of the hearings, Sharansky testified that he had never mentioned any names of people involved in Zionist activities while interrogated by the KGB. However, after being shown in the courtroom the KGB archive documents, he changed his testimony, claiming that while he had indeed given the names of aliyah activists, he did so, "to assure that the names should remain in the KGB archives for future use by historians."
We believe that Sharansky is not the person he is trying to picture and will pay for him to undergo a lie detector test to establish the facts.
Citizens of the State of Israel:
Michael Babel, Ilya Voitovestsky, Arye Vudka, Yigael Yehudi, Dr. Felix Kochubievsky, Eduard Kuznetsov, Silva Zalmanson, Ephraim Melamed, Yehudit Yehudi-Nepomniaschchi, Meir Nepomniaschi, advocate Jacov Maniovich, Ida Nudel, Dr. Victor Ben Zvi (Polsky), Prof. Vadim Rotenberg, Jakov Segal.
NATAN OF THE MAFIA
Appeal To The Attorney General, Babel et al:
In the courtroom Sharansky categorically denied receiving $100,000 from Grigory Luchansky, while the latter confirmed under oath to giving Sharansky the money and gave the bank account account that Sharansky asked the money be transferred to.
Affidavit of Grigori Luchansky, Presented To Jerusalem District Court I have met Israeli Minister Natan Sharansky about five times in Israel and abroad. Mr. Sharansky asked me for a contribution and I agreed to contribute the sum to an association whose account was in Bank Hapoalim.
Haaretz, Akiva Eldar, 14/3/02
Kutzenov added that Luchansky complained to him that, "Sharansky promised to help get him a passport, got money, but did nothing. Later in 1996, I asked Sharansky why he didn't help Luchansky. Sharansky said he can't help him since Luchansky appears in first place on a CIA list of members of the Russian mafia."
Either Luchansky signed a false affidavit or Sharansky committed perjury.
Haaretz 12.3/04
Gavriella's car was discovered after he went to Grigori Lerner's office where he met with Sofa Landver, formerly a Labor Party member of the Knesset. Lerner was convicted on three attempts to bribe elected officials...His arrest in 1997 dragged a parade of politicians to the National Unit For Serious And International Crime Investigations including Natan Sharansky, who received a $100,000 contribution from Lerner, and Labour MK Shimon Peres, who had promoted the career of Sofa Landver from being his Russian teacher to being a Knesset member...
From, How The Russian Mob Has Invaded America, Robert I. Friedman, Liberty Books
One politician already ensnared in the web of organized crime is Russian-born Natan Sharansky...Sharansky has publicly admitted that his party has accepted contributions from NORDEX president Grigori Luchansky. Officials from the US Congress, the State Department, and the CIA pleaded with Sharansky to sever his ties to Luchansky. Says Winer, "We told him about Luchansky's MO: bribery, influence peddling and that he was a bridge between governments and organized crime." Sharansky simply refused.
In March, 2004, Sharansky took personal responsibility for securing the release of Jonathan Pollard, and wangled a law giving him 4.5 million shekels a year until Pollard's release. Pollard was not amused. On March 11.04 Pollard wrote Sharansky:
I am stunned that you have authored a bill that legislates political lassitude and financial corruption. As head of the committee to secure my release, it was your job to know about this law and do exactly that - secure my release - not provide additional funds for your office.
Jerusalem Post 12/5/04 - Zelda Harris
I was in Moscow in 1977 when Sharansky was arrested and was partly responsible for bringing out legal documents to be used in his campaign for freedom. Now I feel it is time to say it like it is: I do not believe Sharansky was a sincere human rights activist. He used the platform to gain stardom at a time when Western eyes were focused on the Soviet Union. Once he got here, his lack of support from olim who had been his former compatriots showed what he really was: a self-seeker.
END
The former Jewish activists of the Soviet Union fought to live in a Jewish democracy. Today, too many realize they traded one dictatorship for another, more subtle one. The following letter from former Prisoner Of Zion, Ida Nudel, expresses this frustration and disappointment.
Dear Mr. Chamish, First of all, let me thank you for permitting to use your Internet address. I admire the courage of your challenging the political monopoly in our country and unveiling their secrets, deals and misdeeds. Your project Very Uncivil Obedience has raised my reminiscences of not-so-old personal experience of civil disobedience that was practiced by Soviet Jewish and other citizens in the 1970s. I would be most grateful if you could devote a bit of your time to my thoughts about your protest.
Having lived in Israel for 17 years, I cannot imagine people that might come forward and start the action at the level being proposed by you. You are actually appealing to intellectuals and businessmen the category of population that is most conservative when a risk is involved of loosing their social privileges. Something would probably become known on the fate of 34 officers who signed a protest letter. I very much fear that most of them will be morally broken and humiliated in a most primitive manner, and their dignity will be wrecked. Those who would prove stauncher if any will also pay for that wonderful day when they behaved like free citizens. I’ve come to Israel from a totalitarian country but with an experience of a citizen perceiving my personal responsibility to the society in which I live. I cannot help but to compare the moral and social environment and the unwritten laws of my both societies the past and the present. I’m sorry to say that the moral spirit and the cynical bureaucratic attitude towards the population in the Jewish land have little difference from the Bolshevik regime.
The fact that anybody can freely leave Israel makes it possible for the bureaucracy to conceal its Bolshevik character. Instead of being put in prisons and psychiatric hospitals as it was done in the USSR, the dissidents just leave the society and the country in the care of their more passive compatriots. The people are living in a fear of the omnipotent bureaucracy and realizing their complete helplessness against it. When talking to simple people, I hear it far too often: Whatever I could do I’ve done: my children live in America! With regard to demonstrations, I share your doubts as to the sincerity of the settlement leaders beyond the “green line”. They’re civil servants and encounter serious personal problems when challenging their employer the state. On the other hand, the youth participation in the demonstrations contributes to the development of their self-consciousness and of their perception of themselves as something more than merely toy soldiers. The passive and voiceless intellectuals are clones of their Soviet counterparts.
I am heading a small voluntary organization that works for the prevention of asocial behavior among new immigrant schoolchildren in the “developing towns” of the Negev region, and have gained an experience of dealing with the local municipal establishment. It is clear to me beyond any doubt how far is our society from a real democracy. It may rather be described as a two-faced creature whose outside-looking face is that of Western-style diplomats and scientists, while the inside looking one has all the features of a lazy and corrupt Turkish colonial official… Should your idea of disobedience be first implemented outside Israel, than some Israeli version might probably emerge. But who would help your great idea to materialize? Maybe Christian Zionists? The idea of a Jewish state isn’t too popular with the free world’s Jews, it causes them such a headache. With sincere wishes for your success and good health,
Ida Nudel 13/01/05
Thursday, 27 October 2005
us gov office confirms stolen election
Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
October 26, 2005
As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove inner circle, a shocking government report shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the White House is crumbling.
The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the General Accounting Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage.
The government's lead investigative agency is known for its general incorruptibility and its through, in-depth analyses. Its concurrence with assertions widely dismissed as "conspiracy theories" adds crucial new weight to the case that Team Bush has no legitimate business being in the White House.
Nearly a year ago, senior Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers (D-MI) asked the GAO to investigate electronic voting machines as they were used during the November 2, 2004 presidential election. The request came amidst widespread complaints in Ohio and elsewhere that often shocking irregularities defined their performance.
According to CNN, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee received "more than 57,000 complaints" following Bush's alleged re-election. Many such concerns were memorialized under oath in a series of sworn statements and affidavits in public hearings and investigations conducted in Ohio by the Free Press and other election protection organizations.
The non-partisan GAO report has now found that, "some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes."
The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Rev. Jesse Jackson, among others, has asserted that "public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines." The CEO of one of the most crucial suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren O'Dell of Diebold, pledged before the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus the presidency to George W. Bush.
Bush's official margin of victory in Ohio was just 118,775 votes out of more than 5.6 million cast. Election protection advocates argue that O'Dell's statement still stands as a clear sign of an effort, apparently successful, to steal the White House.
Among other things, the GAO confirms that:
1. Some electronic voting machines "did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, thus making it possible to alter them without detection." In other words, the GAO now confirms that electronic voting machines provided an open door to flip an entire vote count. More than 800,000 votes were cast in Ohio on electronic voting machines, some seven times Bush's official margin of victory.
2. "It is easy to alter a file defining how a ballot appears, making it possible for someone to vote for one candidate and actually be recorded as voting for an entirely different candidate." Numerous sworn statements and affidavits assert that this did happen in Ohio 2004.
3. "Falsifying election results without leaving any evidence of such an action by using altered memory cards" can easily be done, according to the GAO.
4. The GAO also confirms that "access to the voting network was easily compromised because not all digital recording electronic voting systems (DREs) had supervisory functions password-protected, so access to one machine provided access to the whole network." This critical finding confirms that rigging the 2004 vote did not require a "widespread conspiracy" but rather the cooperation of a very small number of operatives with the power to tap into the networked machines and thus change large numbers of votes at will. With 800,000 votes cast on electronic machines in Ohio, flipping the number needed to give Bush 118,775 could be easily done by just one programmer.
5. Access "to the voting network was also compromised by repeated use of the same user IDs combined with easily guessed passwords," says the GAO. So even relatively amateur hackers could have gained access to and altered the Ohio vote tallies.
6. "The locks protecting access to the system were easily picked and keys were simple to copy," says the GAO, meaning, again, getting into the system was an easy matter.
7. "One DRE model was shown to have been networked in such a rudimentary fashion that a power failure on one machine would cause the entire network to fail," says the GAO, re-emphasizing the fragility of the system on which the Presidency of the United States was decided.
8. "GAO identified further problems with the security protocols and background screening practices for vendor personnel," confirming still more easy access to the system.
In essence, the GAO study makes it clear that no bank, grocery store or mom & pop chop shop would dare operate its business on a computer system as flimsy, fragile and easily manipulated as the one on which the 2004 election turned.
The GAO findings are particularly damning when set in the context of an election run in Ohio by a Secretary of State simultaneously working as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Far from what election theft skeptics have long asserted, the GAO findings confirm that the electronic network on which 800,000 Ohio votes were cast was vulnerable enough to allow a a tiny handful of operatives -- or less -- to turn the whole vote count using personal computers operating on relatively simple software.
The GAO documentation flows alongside other crucial realities surrounding the 2004 vote count. For example:
The exit polls showed Kerry winning in Ohio, until an unexplained last minute shift gave the election to Bush. Similar definitive shifts also occurred in Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico, a virtual statistical impossibility.
A few weeks prior to the election, an unauthorized former ES&S voting machine company employee, was caught on the ballot-making machine in Auglaize County
Election officials in Mahoning County now concede that at least 18 machines visibly transferred votes for Kerry to Bush. Voters who pushed Kerry's name saw Bush's name light up, again and again, all day long. Officials claim the problems were quickly solved, but sworn statements and affidavits say otherwise. They confirm similar problems in Franklin County (Columbus). Kerry's margins in both counties were suspiciously low.
A voting machine in Mahoning County recorded a negative 25 million votes for Kerry. The problem was allegedly fixed.
In Gahanna Ward 1B, at a fundamentalist church, a so-called "electronic transfer glitch" gave Bush nearly 4000 extra votes when only 638 people voted at that polling place. The tally was allegedly corrected, but remains infamous as the "loaves and fishes" vote count.
In Franklin County, dozens of voters swore under oath that their vote for Kerry faded away on the DRE without a paper trail.
In Miami County, at 1:43am after Election Day, with the county's central tabulator reporting 100% of the vote - 19,000 more votes mysteriously arrived; 13,000 were for Bush at the same percentage as prior to the additional votes, a virtual statistical impossibility.
In Cleveland, large, entirely implausible vote totals turned up for obscure third party candidates in traditional Democratic African-American wards. Vote counts in neighboring wards showed virtually no votes for those candidates, with 90% going instead for Kerry.
Prior to one of Blackwell's illegitimate "show recounts," technicians from Triad voting machine company showed up unannounced at the Hocking County Board of Elections and removed the computer hard drive.
In response to official information requests, Shelby and other counties admit to having discarded key records and equipment before any recount could take place.
In a conference call with Rev. Jackson, Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney Bob Fitrakis and others, John Kerry confirmed that he lost every precinct in New Mexico that had a touchscreen voting machine. The losses had no correlation with ethnicity, social class or traditional party affiliation---only with the fact that touchscreen machines were used.
In a public letter, Rep. Conyers has stated that "by and large, when it comes to a voting machine, the average voter is getting a lemon - the Ford Pinto of voting technology. We must demand better."
But the GAO report now confirms that electronic voting machines as deployed in 2004 were in fact perfectly engineered to allow a very small number of partisans with minimal computer skills and equipment to shift enough votes to put George W. Bush back in the White House.
Given the growing body of evidence, it appears increasingly clear that's exactly what happened.
--
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, available via http://freepress.org and http://harveywasserman.com. Their WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO, with Steve Rosenfeld, will be published in Spring, 2006, by New Press.
Wednesday, 26 October 2005
hariri murder: witness paid to charge syria
Labels:
lebanon,
middle east,
syria
.
http://www.arabmonitor.info/news/dettaglio.php?idnews=11679&lang=en (excerpt)
Central witness to Lebanon leader Hariri's
murder revealed to be a paid swindler
http://www.arabmonitor.info/news/dettaglio.php?idnews=11679&lang=en (excerpt)
Central witness to Lebanon leader Hariri's
murder revealed to be a paid swindler
Hamburg, 22 October 2005
Germany's leading political magazine, 'Der Spiegel', revealed today that the
central witness to the supposed plot to kill Lebanese leader Hariri, was a
dubious person with a criminal record as a convicted felon and swindler. The UN
Commission is raising serious doubts about the reliability and credibility of
Zuheir al-Siddiq's declarations, since the alleged former officer of the Syrian
secret services had in reality been convicted more than once for penal offences
related to money subtraction. (taking bribes.)
The UN investigating Commission is well aware that it had been lied by
Siddiq, since he initially said that he had left Beirut one month before the
assault on al-Hariri, but then later admitted to his direct involvement in the
implementation of the crime. Zuheir al-Siddiq's siblings also revealed that
they had received a phone-call from him from Paris, in late summer, in which
Siddiq announced "I have become a millionaire".
Steve's Note: The Bush Administration is currently asking the UN to
investigate allegations that Syria's president killed Lebanon leader Hairi, and
is seeking UN support for 'punishing' Syria. It is clear that the 'witness' has
been bribed to implicate Syria's president in this crime, when the greater
likelihood is that he attempting to give the U.S. 'justification' for invading
Syria.
central witness to the supposed plot to kill Lebanese leader Hariri, was a
dubious person with a criminal record as a convicted felon and swindler. The UN
Commission is raising serious doubts about the reliability and credibility of
Zuheir al-Siddiq's declarations, since the alleged former officer of the Syrian
secret services had in reality been convicted more than once for penal offences
related to money subtraction. (taking bribes.)
The UN investigating Commission is well aware that it had been lied by
Siddiq, since he initially said that he had left Beirut one month before the
assault on al-Hariri, but then later admitted to his direct involvement in the
implementation of the crime. Zuheir al-Siddiq's siblings also revealed that
they had received a phone-call from him from Paris, in late summer, in which
Siddiq announced "I have become a millionaire".
Steve's Note: The Bush Administration is currently asking the UN to
investigate allegations that Syria's president killed Lebanon leader Hairi, and
is seeking UN support for 'punishing' Syria. It is clear that the 'witness' has
been bribed to implicate Syria's president in this crime, when the greater
likelihood is that he attempting to give the U.S. 'justification' for invading
Syria.
Tuesday, 25 October 2005
21 detainees killed by us army
Labels:
afghanistan,
central asia,
human rights,
iraq,
middle east,
torture,
us,
war crime
.
Associated Press via WKRC-TV (Cincinatti, Ohio)
Analysis finds 21 homicides among deaths of U.S. prisoners overseas
LAST UPDATE: 10/24/2005 8:59:10 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - At least 21 detainees who died while being held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed, many during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The analysis, released Monday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides, and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports.
The 44 deaths represent a partial group of the total number of prisoners who have died in U.S. custody overseas; more than 100 have died of natural and violent causes.
In one case, the report said, a detainee died after being smothered during interrogation by military intelligence officers in November 2003. In another case cited by the report, a prisoner died of asphyxiation and blunt force injuries after he was left standing, shackled to the top of a door frame, with a gag in his mouth.
One Afghan civilian, believed by the ACLU to be Abdul Wahid, died from "multiple blunt force injuries" in 2003 at a base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, according to an autopsy report provided by the Defense Department.
Wahid, 28, was taken from his home by Afghan militia and accused of being a terrorist. The autopsy report said he died in American custody, though his father has blamed the militiamen.
The detailed list of prisoners whose deaths the report considered homicides includes two detainees who were beaten and died from "blunt force injuries" at the Bagram Airfield detention center in Afghanistan, according to the autopsies.
Earlier this month, Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti, a military intelligence interrogator with the 519th MI Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., became the 15th soldier to face charges since those 2002 deaths.
Details about the detainee abuse and deaths have been released by the Pentagon as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU. Many of the incidents have been made public previously, and in a number of cases soldiers and officers involved have been prosecuted and punished.
"The U.S. military does not tolerate mistreatment of detainees," said Army spokesman Col. Joseph Curtin. "Past cases have been fully investigated. When there is credible evidence, commanders have the prerogative to prosecute."
To date, there have been more than 400 investigations of detainee abuse, and more than 230 military personnel have received a court-martial, nonjudicial punishment or other administrative action.
"There is no question that U.S. interrogations have resulted in deaths," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU's executive director. "High-ranking officials who knew about the torture and sat on their hands and those who created and endorsed these policies must be held accountable."
The data includes detainees who were interrogated by military intelligence, Navy Seals and "Other Governmental Agency" personnel, which generally refers to the CIA.
---
On the Net:
ACLU documents: http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/102405/
Associated Press via WKRC-TV (Cincinatti, Ohio)
Analysis finds 21 homicides among deaths of U.S. prisoners overseas
LAST UPDATE: 10/24/2005 8:59:10 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - At least 21 detainees who died while being held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed, many during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The analysis, released Monday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides, and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports.
The 44 deaths represent a partial group of the total number of prisoners who have died in U.S. custody overseas; more than 100 have died of natural and violent causes.
In one case, the report said, a detainee died after being smothered during interrogation by military intelligence officers in November 2003. In another case cited by the report, a prisoner died of asphyxiation and blunt force injuries after he was left standing, shackled to the top of a door frame, with a gag in his mouth.
One Afghan civilian, believed by the ACLU to be Abdul Wahid, died from "multiple blunt force injuries" in 2003 at a base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, according to an autopsy report provided by the Defense Department.
Wahid, 28, was taken from his home by Afghan militia and accused of being a terrorist. The autopsy report said he died in American custody, though his father has blamed the militiamen.
The detailed list of prisoners whose deaths the report considered homicides includes two detainees who were beaten and died from "blunt force injuries" at the Bagram Airfield detention center in Afghanistan, according to the autopsies.
Earlier this month, Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti, a military intelligence interrogator with the 519th MI Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., became the 15th soldier to face charges since those 2002 deaths.
Details about the detainee abuse and deaths have been released by the Pentagon as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU. Many of the incidents have been made public previously, and in a number of cases soldiers and officers involved have been prosecuted and punished.
"The U.S. military does not tolerate mistreatment of detainees," said Army spokesman Col. Joseph Curtin. "Past cases have been fully investigated. When there is credible evidence, commanders have the prerogative to prosecute."
To date, there have been more than 400 investigations of detainee abuse, and more than 230 military personnel have received a court-martial, nonjudicial punishment or other administrative action.
"There is no question that U.S. interrogations have resulted in deaths," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU's executive director. "High-ranking officials who knew about the torture and sat on their hands and those who created and endorsed these policies must be held accountable."
The data includes detainees who were interrogated by military intelligence, Navy Seals and "Other Governmental Agency" personnel, which generally refers to the CIA.
---
On the Net:
ACLU documents: http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/102405/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_eukg_2.gif)
