Journalism at Risk
Rather, CBS to part ways after 44 years
By DAVID BAUDER
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Former anchorman Dan Rather has reached an agreement to leave CBS after 44 years, the network announced today.
The 74-year-old Rather, who has complained of being virtually forgotten at CBS Corp. since his exit as anchor last year, six months after a discredited story on President Bush's military service, is considering an offer to do a weekly show at the HDNet high-definition network.
"There will always be a part of Dan Rather at CBS News," said Sean McManus, CBS News president. "He is truly a 'reporter's reporter,' and he has helped to train several generations of broadcast journalists. His legacy cannot be replicated."
Rather, whose final CBS News report aired on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend, will be the subject of a prime-time special on his career this fall, CBS said. The network also said it had made a contribution to Rather's alma mater, Sam Houston State University.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/3985676.html
30 jobs chopped at Toronto Sun
Jun. 20, 2006. 01:37 PM
RICK WESTHEAD
BUSINESS REPORTER
Toronto Sun parent company Quebecor Inc. today told employees that 30 positions at the paper will be cut as part of a round of layoffs that will affect 120 employees across the media company’s newspaper chain.
Brad Honywill, president of the 151-member Local 87M of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, said that 14 union positions will be cut at the Sun. Of the remaining 16 job losses at the paper, it’s unclear how many will be managers or freelance writers.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1150796888590&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News
Governor denounces slay of journalist-couple
By Ben O. Tesiorna
NORTH Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol denounced the murder of a journalist-couple in Kidapawan City Monday afternoon and offered a P50,000 reward for anyone who could help identify the suspects and bring them to justice.
One of the victims, Maricel Vigo, was Piñol's co-graduate in the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency Accreditation Program of the University of Southern Mindanao last April.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dav/2006/06/22/news/governor.denounces.slay.of.journalist.couple.html
In Leak Cases, New Pressure On Journalists
By ADAM LIPTAK (NYT) 1650 words
Published: April 30, 2006
Earlier administrations have fired and prosecuted government officials who provided classified information to the press. They have also tried to force reporters to identify their sources.
But the Bush administration is exploring a more radical measure to protect information it says is vital to national security: the criminal prosecution of reporters under the espionage laws.
Such an approach would signal a thorough revision of the informal rules of engagement that have governed the relationship between the press and the government for many decades. Leaking in Washington is commonplace and typically entails tolerable risks for government officials and, at worst, the possibility of subpoenas to journalists seeking the identities of sources.
But the Bush administration is putting pressure on the press as never before, and it is operating in a judicial climate that seems increasingly receptive to constraints on journalists.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F4081EF63B5B0C738FDDAD0894DE404482
Court: Newspaper laws unconstitutional
Ruling in favor of major newspaper companies here, the Korean Constitutional Court yesterday concluded that a set of newly passed newspaper legislations are anti-constitutional.
The disputed laws became effective in July last year, but the top tier newspapers appealed to the constitutional court.
The Chosun Ilbo and The Dong-a Ilbo, two of the nation's leading newspapers, alleged that a dozen articles under the new newspaper law and five others under a separate press arbitration law counter the country's Constitution.
Buried under the false pretense to protect the press, the newspapers claim, is a covert government agenda to strengthen its grip on the media.
With so many clashing interests on the line, the newspaper industry has so far been widely divided over the legislation.
The significantly right-wing newspapers that currently dominate the local markets and would inevitably incur the biggest damage from the new laws cried foul, while small-cap and left-leaning newspapers welcomed it with open arms.
But a more in-depth analysis may reveal different answers.
"The law may serve as a temporary solution for instilling better journalistic values into dominant newspapers, but whether it can be the answer remains foggy," said Choi Young-hae, professor of media information at Hallim University.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/06/30/200606300009.asp
DRC journalist killed as voting day nears
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
09 July 2006 07:06
A local journalist in the Democratic Republic of Congo was shot dead on Saturday at his home in Kinshasa, press rights group Journalists in Danger (JED) said, calling it an "ignoble crime".
Bapuwa Mwamba (64) was killed by three armed men around midnight at his house in the Matete district where he lived with a nephew, JED said.
The nephew managed to escape and reach the nearest police station, the group added. When he returned he found the journalist bleeding to death from a wound in his left leg. Mwamba died on his way to hospital from a haemorrhage.
Bapuwa Mwamba worked for a number of newspapers in the capital, including the opposition daily Le Phare.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=276718&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Egyptian press law infuriates journalists
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Cairo: A last-minute intervention by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier this month to abrogate jail term as punishment in the publishing law is not enough, according to journalists.
"This [cancellation] is a small step on the road to nurturing freedom of the press," said Jamal Fahmi, the head of the Freedoms Committee at the Egyptian Press Syndicate.
"This step was taken in response to huge pressure from the journalists and political powers. But there are still scores of articles, which restrict freedom of expression," Fahmi told Gulf News.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Egypt/10053974.html
Siniora criticises West for failing 'model democracy'
Los Angeles Times-Washington Post
Beirut: A week after Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers provoked a war that Lebanese leaders are powerless to stop, the government here has finally started to speak out.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called Western ambassadors to his office earlier this week and lectured them on the impact of Israel's offensive.
He showed the diplomats photos of the death and destruction. In a blunt and undiplomatic speech, Siniora said Lebanon "has been torn to shreds" and vowed to seek compensation from Israel for the "unimaginable losses".
Siniora is a US ally who came to power last year after the first Lebanese elections in three decades held without Syrian interference.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10054034.html
Siniora criticises West for failing 'model democracy'
Los Angeles Times-Washington Post
Beirut: A week after Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers provoked a war that Lebanese leaders are powerless to stop, the government here has finally started to speak out.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called Western ambassadors to his office earlier this week and lectured them on the impact of Israel's offensive.
He showed the diplomats photos of the death and destruction. In a blunt and undiplomatic speech, Siniora said Lebanon "has been torn to shreds" and vowed to seek compensation from Israel for the "unimaginable losses".
Siniora is a US ally who came to power last year after the first Lebanese elections in three decades held without Syrian interference.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10054034.html
PBS's Lip-Reading Effort
By Lisa de Moraes
Thursday, July 27, 2006; C01
PASADENA, Calif., July 26
The Federal Communications Commission's unclear edicts about language on television have paralyzed documentary filmmakers working for PBS, and its tenfold fine increase could put some PBS stations out of business, new Public Broadcasting Service chief Paula Kerger told TV critics Wednesday.
"We need to do a better job . . . letting the American people know that this is not just about Janet Jackson, that this is about filmmakers [who] have powerful stories that now are not being allowed to tell those stories on public television or on broadcast television," Kerger told critics at Summer TV Press Tour 2006.
PBS will file papers next week in support of KCSM, a small public-television station in Northern California that was hit with a $15,000 fine for rerunning before 10 p.m. an episode of the Martin Scorsese documentary "The Blues."
In the episode, musicians and the relative of a record industry executive use two words that the FCC has deemed unspeakable on the air between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Unless spoken by actors playing World War II soldiers in big-budget flicks, preferably with Tom Hanks attached. Then it's cool, as the ABC stations that ran the network's unedited broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan" found out on Nov. 11, 2004, leaving the 66 stations that opted out because of FCC fine fears feeling pretty foolish.
Actual old musicians -- not so much. That explains why the FCC, in response to a single complaint about the rerun, slapped the fine on KCSM, which, PBS execs say, broadcasts no children's programming at any time. Which presumably means not too many children watch the station.
KCSM is appealing the fine. The FCC cannot fine TV networks, only stations. (Though when the commission fines only the CBS stations that are actually owned by CBS over the debut of Janet Jackson's right breast at a Super Bowl halftime show and not the CBS stations owned by other parties, as is the case with Washington's WUSA, someone might get the impression that maybe the commission is trying to spank the network.)
Continuing the federal government's tear on TV since Jackson's breast-unveiling in 2004, Congress recently upped the amount the FCC can fine TV stations by a factor of 10, to a max of $325,000 per word. That move is particularly onerous to PBS stations, Kerger told the gathered critics.
"It's a moving target . . . it's paralyzing," said Kerger, who hasn't been on the job five months but who has a long history with PBS, most recently as executive vice president of the parent company of WNET and WLIW in New York, two of the country's largest public TV stations.
"When you have stations whose operating budgets in some cases are only a couple million dollars, even, frankly, the old fines . . . were daunting. The fines now would put stations out of business," she said.
Since late May, PBS programs broadcast before 10 p.m. not only have had certain words bleeped out, but the speaker's mouth also has been pixelated. Nice touch on a documentary film.
"Our current policy is, we try to follow the zig or the zag here of the FCC," PBS programming chief John Wilson explained to critics.
"We are now blurring lips when . . . to a reasonable person making this judgment . . . you can tell what they are saying. That's on the advice of counsel."
Kerger said the FCC commissioners think they are communicating clearly what standards should be.
"My point to them is that we, as public television, don't have the resources to try to understand what they're thinking. . . . I can't tell you, as I stand here today, that I . . . have a clear understanding. When you look at the rulings as they have transpired . . . I don't see a clear path."
Kerger said she recently visited FCC commissioners to try to find out whether adult language in Ken Burns's upcoming 14-hour documentary on World War II, "The War," would cause PBS stations to be fined if aired earlier than 10 p.m. PBS's current plans call for airing it at 8, though it's not scheduled to debut until fall '07.
"No one said, 'Oh, go ahead and run it.' They said, 'Well, you know, we understand.' So I can't really . . . read their minds. I don't know."
She defended the language in the project. "If you have someone telling a story about their experiences in the war and in telling that story a profanity is uttered, sometimes it makes a really big difference. And the impact of it is washed away or radically diminished if it's just bleeped out."
And airing the documentary at 10, she explained, would greatly reduce the number of people who would see the project, which, she said, Burns believes is his most important work.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072602003_pf.html
UK official advocates jail time for data trading
Traders in illicitly obtained personal information should be jailed for up to two years, according to the U.K. information commissioner, Richard Thomas.
Traders in illicitly obtained personal information should be jailed for up to two years, according to the U.K. information commissioner, Richard Thomas.
Thomas this week became the first commissioner to use his special powers under the Data Protection Act to present a report to the U.K. Parliament warning of the "pernicious" and "pervasive" trade in data such as bills, addresses, and bank and health records.
For such crimes, violators face only a fine of up to '5,000 (US$9,411) in a Magistrates' Court. By contrast, the trade is highly lucrative, according to the results of an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office. One agent involved in tracing individuals charged up to '120,000 per month, while telephone account information sold for '750 a go.
http://www.pcwelt.de/news/englishnews/138106/
Court out of step with free society
The media is, obviously, under siege. A Nairobi court ruled yesterday that journalists must disclose sources of information given to them in confidence.
The court said the "allegation" that a journalist cannot be compelled to reveal a source of information has no legal foundation.
Journalists, unlike lawyers, do not have privileges inserted in the Evidence Act. Therefore, a decision not to reveal sources is not available to them, the court ruled.
The court’s decision does not augur well for the freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution and other international instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Kenya is a signatory.
It also puts at risk journalists’ way of gathering and disseminating information. The public, and sometimes Government officials, give information to the media only on condition that the source is not identified. Better still, journalists receive anonymous tips to follow up stories which are published upon verification.
http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_s.php?articleid=1143955995
Newspapers closed, reporters arrested and beaten as Gambia prepares for poll
July 28, 2006
Banjul, Gambia: Scores of reporters jailed, some emerging with tales of police beatings. Newspapers shuttered. A journalist forced into hiding.
This country, a sliver on the West African coast, bills itself to foreigners as a cheerful beach resort, but critics say it shelters a corrupt regime that is using state terror to attack the media and silence opponents before September presidential elections.
The situation has deteriorated since Gambia hosted the African Union (AU) summit late last month, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Since then, a reporter for a pro-government paper has gone missing, a nascent publication has been shut down after one issue and its Nigerian founder arrested, and a reporter for a shuttered publication has gone into hiding, the CPJ said.
Though the country's newspapers circulate about 2 000 copies each, the papers have been some of the few organisations to openly criticise President Yahya Jammeh, who seized power in a 1994 coup.
http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=272&fArticleId=3363447
VENEZUELA:
IAPA SAYS PRESS FREEDOM "DETERIORATING"
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has expressed concern that press freedom in Venezuela may become more restricted in the run-up to presidential elections in December 2006. Following a mission to the country on 17-19 July, the organisation said press freedom conditions have deteriorated sharply, marked by restrictive laws, prosecution of journalists and a hostile attitude toward private media outlets.
The mission expressed concern over several restrictive laws passed in recent years, "particularly those stiffening penalties for crimes committed through the press, an insult law and the Contents Act." IAPA said it observed a growing tendency of the government to file libel actions against journalists, who face stiffer penalties under a Penal Code that was amended in 2005. Under the Code, anyone convicted of slandering public officials and state institutions in the press can be jailed for up to four years.
The Organization of American States' Special Rapporteur on Free Expression has called the Penal Code amendments incompatible with the American Convention on Human Rights, a treaty Venezuela has ratified.
The IAPA mission also highlighted what it called coercive action against privately-owned Venezuelan radio and television stations, which have had to "significantly cut back the amount of news they broadcast under the terms of a law passed in 2004. The Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television allows the government to decide editorial content and staff hiring policies, and set strict time limits on newscasts, says IAPA.
IAPA voiced regret that senior government officials, including President Hugo Chávez, refused to meet with the mission. According to the BBC, the Venezuelan government did so because it said the IAPA represented the interests of media tycoons.
Visit these links:
- IAPA: http://www.sipiapa.org/
- BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5197684.stm
- IAPA Report Called "Biased": http://english.eluniversal.com/2006/07/20/en_pol_art_20A748645.shtml
- IFEX: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/65789
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/75909/
Petition calls for release of arrested journalists
Region :None
Country :Turkmenistan
Topic :Press Freedom
27/07/2006
A press freedom watchdog has organized an online campaign urging the release of two journalists and a human rights activist detained in Turkmenistan since mid-June.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced the petition on July 24, as well as a special fund to help journalists and activists who are jailed in Turkmenistan.
Under the rule of President Saparmurat Niyazov, neither independent reporting nor dissent is tolerated. Human rights groups say that authorities arrested Annakurban Amanklychev on June 16 and Ogulsapar Muradova two days later.
Amanklychev had been contacted by a French journalist about helping with a travel documentary on Turkmenistan. Muradova had been working as a correspondent for the U.S.-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Also detained is Sapardurdy Khajiev, a local activist with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.
The government newspaper Neytralnyy Turkmenistan said the three detainees were accused of passing "slanderous information with the aim of sowing discontent among the population."
The online petition: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18343.
RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18342.
Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/20/turkme13588.htm.
International Freedom of Expression Exchange: http://www.ifex.org/es/content/view/full/75754/.
Committee to Protect Journalists: http://www.cpj.org/attacks05/europe05/turkmen_05.html.
RFE/RL: http://snipurl.com/tyjc.
http://www.ijnet.org/Director.aspx?P=Article&ID=305313&LID=1
Berger is Nakasa winner
“Forthright, fearless, courageous and committed” were the words used to describe this year’s Nat Nakasa Award winner, Professor Guy Berger of Rhodes University ‑‑ to which most journalists would have added “controversial,” before adding congratulations, according to a media release.
Usually at the forefront of controversy, the amiable professor was the unanimous choice of judges, who announced tonight he was the 2006 recipient of the R20 000 award.
Sponsored jointly by Print Media South Africa (PMSA), the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and the Nieman Foundation, the Nat Nakasa is South Africa’s pre-eminent award for courage in journalism.
Former winners include photographers Alf Kumalo and Debbie Yazbek, reporters Buks Viljoen and Justin Arenstein, and editors Mathatha Tsedu and Jon Qwelane.
Prof Berger is the ninth winner of the award, and the first academic.
http://www.journalism.co.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4290&CAMSSID=0155b35d4ed0f3bfa8beaa1c2d61e072
THE AUDIO is very good.
Experts Discuss G-8 Summit Outcomes
By Judith Latham
Washington
25 July 2006
This is the first G-8 Summit hosted on Russian soil.
The G-8 – or Group of Eight industrialized nations - recently concluded their annual summit in Saint Petersburg, the first time a summit had been held on Russian soil. This year’s G-8 agenda was overwhelmed by a surge of violence in Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. President Putin’s agenda was to have focused on energy security, the fight against infectious diseases, and education.
John Kirton is the director of the G-8 Research Group. He also served as a Special Officer in Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs for devising a strategy for Canada's G-8 participation
John Kirton, director of the G-8 Research Group at the University of Toronto in Canada, says that – despite tumultuous events in the Middle East – the summit in Saint Petersburg was one of significant achievement with regard to its stated agenda. Speaking in Saint Petersburg with Carol Castiel, host of VOA News Now’s Encounter program, Professor Kirton says that behind the scenes the summit also did much to “deepen democracy in Russia.”
Pamela Jordon is professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan. Her current research work includes "Russia's Membership in the Group of Eight"
Although Pamela Jordon, professor of history and expert in US-Russian relations at the University of Saskatchewan, agrees with Professor Kirton that the event was well organized, she says she does not think that Russia’s international reputation will improve as a result of the summit. For example, there was broad media coverage on how Russian security officials and militia had physically harmed Russian civil society activists and jailed two German journalists for photographing a protest demonstration.
http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/2006-07-25-voa40.cfm
Broadcast from Saint Petersburg, Russia, the site of the G-8 Summit, host Carol Castiel talks with John Kirton, Director of the G-8 Research Group at the University of Toronto in Canada and Pamela Jordon, Professor of History and an expert in US-Russian relations at the University of Saskatchewan, about the significance of the first G-8 Summit hosted on Russian soil.
http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/encounter.cfm
Former altar boy writes comic book about clerical sexual misconduct
By Simon Caldwell
7/25/2006
Catholic News Service (http://www.catholicnews.com/)
LONDON - A former altar boy who says he was abused by a priest has written a comic book to help to educate churchgoers about clerical sexual misconduct.
The man says that as a child he suffered a series of indecent assaults at the hands of John Lloyd, a former parish priest in Treforest, who was sentenced to eight years in jail in 1998 for a series of sexual offenses.
Writing under the pseudonym Martin O'Shea, the author uses his own experiences to unveil a "perception of scenarios" likely to occur following a complaint of abuse.
In the comic book, "The Least Among Us," O'Shea and illustrator Tony Wright tell a story of how a fictional bishop tries to deal with a clerical abuse scandal.
The comic, which will be published by Ascendant Press Aug. 21, follows the classic comic strip genre. Some of the cartoons show priests breaking the news to the bishop that a priest has been accused, and others show the bishop taking hostile questions from journalists at a press conference.
Copies have been sent to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury.
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=20661
53rd Sydney Film Festival—Part 4
Middle East and North African focus
By Richard Phillips
25 July 2006
Use this version to print Send this link by email Email the author
This is the fourth part of a series of articles on the 2006 Sydney Film Festival, held June 9-25. The first part was posted July 17, the second on July 19 and the third on July 22.
Fifty years ago, the first Australian film festivals aimed to provide local audiences with access to the best available international cinema. Programmers no doubt hoped to give patrons a more visceral appreciation of the world and thus help to overcome Australia’s insular cultural climate.
While new and innovative European cinema was readily available, there were few films—dramas or documentaries—screened in Australia from the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt, and a handful of other Arabic-speaking countries, had long-established film industries, but their movies made only rare appearances at Australian festivals. This gradually began to change in the 1990s.
An important feature of this year’s event, therefore, was several films from or about Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Morocco. These were screened under the “Shifting Sands: the changing face of the Middle East and North Africa” section of the festival.
War crimes
Prisoners 345, a documentary by Ahmad Ibrahmin and Abdallah el-Binni, examines the plight of Sami Al-Haji, a 36-year-old cameraman who has been incarcerated without charge in Guantánamo Bay since June 2002. The Sudanese born Al-Hajj, who is married and has a child, was sent by Al Jazeera to cover the US-led military invasion of Afghanistan. It was his first assignment for the network, and he never returned.
Al-Hajj and another journalist travelled to Afghanistan in October 2001 but were arrested by Taliban not long after entering the country. Released after the regime collapsed, the two men travelled to Pakistan, where they waited for a new assignment.
In December, Al Jazeera directed Al Hajj back to Afghanistan to report on the situation there. But Al Hajj was arrested at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and jailed in a Pakistani prison. He was then handed over to the US military who transported him, hooded and shackled, to the US air base at Bagram in Afghanistan. Al Hajj was beaten and accused of being linked to Al Qaeda. The US military also claimed he had made videos for Osama bin Laden. He was then moved to Kandahar and imprisoned there for the next five months, and in June 2002 was transported to Guantánamo, where he still remains.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/sff4-j25.shtml
Is this the end for 'fake sheikh'?
By Chris Summers
BBC News
The acquittal of three men accused of plotting to buy a substance which prosecutors claimed could have been used to build a dirty bomb has called into question the tactics used by the News of the World's controversial investigative journalist Mazher Mahmood.
Mazher Mahmood is highly thought of at the News of the World, where he holds the title of Investigations Editor and is on a handsome salary.
Not surprisingly really, considering the number of exclusive stories he has brought in over the last 15 years.
Several of them ended up on the paper's front page - such as the exposés of the Countess of Wessex, actor John Alford, Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon and DJ Johnnie Walker.
Many others were splashed across the paper's centre pages - such as numerous exposés of paedophiles, brothel owners and drug dealers, many of which led to successful prosecutions.
Mr Mahmood won the coveted title of Reporter of the Year at the 1999 British Press Awards.
But his tactics have come under increasing criticism in recent years and more questions will be asked after the acquittal of the defendants in the "red mercury" trial.
Three men - Dominick Martins, 45, Abdurahman Kanyare, 53, and Roque Fernandes, 44 - were acquitted at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.
Secret hearing
The trial began in April just as MP George Galloway was succeeding in blowing Mr Mahmood's cover by publishing a photograph on the Respect Party's website.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4471142.stm
Somalia: 'Any Person Can Kill You...'
July 23, 2006
Posted to the web July 24, 2006
Joyce Mulama
Nairobi
Martin Adler, 2006; Kate Peyton, 2005; Duniya Muhyadin Nur, 2005; Abdullahi Madkeer, 2003; Ahmed Kafi Awale, 2000; Marcello Palmisano, 1995; Miran Krovatin, 1994; Ilaria Alpi, 1994; Pierre Anceaux, 1994; Jean-Claude Jumel, 1993; Hansi Krauss, 1993; Hosea Maina, 1993; Dan Eldon, 1993; Anthony Macharia, 1993*.
The list of journalists killed in Somalia since the overthrow of dictator Muhammad Siad Barre in 1991 contains 14 names. And, it risks growing longer as the country teeters on the brink of renewed large-scale conflict, with the breakdown of talks between an interim government and Islamic militants grouped under the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).
Dangerous conditions for reporters also make it consistently difficult to cover events in a part of the world that should arguably be one of the prime targets of media attention, for its alleged role in the war on terror -- and its potential to destabilise other East African countries.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200607240324.html
Journalist Speaks Out Against “One Man Rule” in Islamic Republic
Posted Monday, July 24, 2006
Tehran, 24 Jul. (IPS) In one of the strongest attack on the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, an influential Iranian journalist said the problems the nation face have their roots in the “centralization of all powers in one hand”, a direct reference to the leader of he regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i.
“What is happening, what we are witnessing are nothing but the result of he concentration of all powers in the hand of the “vali e faqih” (the Jurisconsult, or, in this case, Ayatollah Khameneh’i) and his direct control of the violent military-security gang”, said Mr. Isa Saharkhiz, a former director for the press at the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry under the previous government of president Mohammad Khatami, speaking at the meeting of some students groups which had participated in the international hunger strike movement that was launched by the prominent Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji in defence of political prisoners.
“What is happening, what we are witnessing are nothing but the result of he concentration of all powers in the hand of the “vali e faqih.
This was the harshest, strongest criticism ever expressed concerning the present Iranian political system, is considered as being “sacred”, because “divine” and its leader, Ayatollah Khameneh’i, political analysts said.
http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2006/july-2006/saharkhiz_24706.shtml
Erap has own SONA, hits Arroyo administration 'lies'
Former president Joseph Estrada on Monday delivered his own State of the Nation Address (SONA) that criticized President Arroyo and her SONA, ABS-CBN News learned.
Estrada, through son, Sen. Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, had his SONA read hours before Mrs. Arroyo's.
He said: "Sa okasyong ito, gaya ng dati pipilitin tayong maniwala sa isang malaking kasinungalingan na nasa mabuting kalagayan daw ang ating lipunan at ang ating bansa (We will again be forced to believe a big lie that the country is in great condition)."
The former president said the true state of the nation can be seen in the killings of journalists, activists and the "many instances of this selective administration of justice where those who criticize this regime are summarily charged and arrested."
Estrada also underscored the government's treatment as criminals of rebel soldiers suspected of plotting to unseat the President and Catholic Church leaders who are corrupted by cash offers.
"[The soldiers] do not deserve to be treated like common criminals just because they seek to institute reforms in government [because] these are the same soldiers who fought and risked their lives to overrun rebel camps in Mindanao," he said.
"This government has come to almost destroying the respect and integrity of even the Church. But the irony is that when bishops criticize this regime the separation of the Church and state is at once cited."
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/topofthehour.aspx?StoryId=45292
Gov'ts Play Gag the Press Games
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
NEW DELHI, Jul 24 (IPS) - Across South Asia, ruling establishments have introduced or are attempting to introduce laws that curb the working of independent media, while claiming to uphold democratic values.
India's federal information and broadcasting ministry has put out the draft of a proposed ‘Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2006' which ostensibly seeks to regulate ‘objectionable' content on television news and prevent media monopolies. Controversial provisions in the bill have been opposed by the journalist fraternity in a country that is often described as the world's largest democracy.
Information and Broadcasting Minister, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi's take on the bill that it is merely a set of proposals to be debated and discussed and that he is committed to preserving media freedom has not washed. Interestingly, India's law ministry too is reportedly against the bill.
The bill proposes to set up a regulatory authority which would classify news as ‘proper' or ‘improper'. In an extreme situation of "war or a natural calamity of national magnitude," the government could take over the "control and management of any of the broadcasting services", it has been proposed.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34073
Challenges for Russia's press
One recent Monday, a group of journalists and media representatives from the Vladivostok region of Russia spent a day at The Courier-Journal. With the help of two interpreters, the Russians and C-J reporters and editors were able to talk with each other about issues ranging from the newspaper's election and political coverage, to Internet postings and advertising, to managing a staff of journalists.
Their stop at The C-J was part of a three-week visit to the area to learn about American media. The visit was coordinated through World Learning, a nonprofit international organization; USAID, an independent federal agency; and the World Affairs Council of Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
The council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group whose purpose is to foster relationships and understanding among locals and people around the world. The organization does that by hosting folks from other countries in our community, and setting up exchanges and experiences for the international visitors while they're here – such as our visit with the Russians. I loved our day with them, and was inspired by their pioneering work.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060723/COLUMNISTS10/607230371
Real Heroes of the Middle East
During the Cold War, dissidents like Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa put a human face on the struggles of millions for freedom in Eastern Europe. Today, it’s in the Middle East where thousands are agitating for basic human rights. “It is not the unelected rulers or terrorists who speak for the people,” says Tom Melia of the human-rights group Freedom House. “Advocates for democracy are the true voices of the Middle East.”
In many nations, holding a political meeting is grounds for torture. In Lebanon, intellectuals are assassinated by the Syrian regime. In Egypt, judges are jailed for questioning election results. In Iran, demonstrators for women’s rights are arrested. Here are some of the heroes in this struggle for freedom:
Omid Memarian, 32, a former city council candidate in Tehran, was arrested for “ conveying a dark picture of Iran and stoking women’s issues” on his Internet blog. He was placed in solitary confinement for 55 days and repeatedly beaten. He has found refuge in the U.S.
Neila Charchour Hachicha, 50, founded the Liberal Mediterranean Party, which is seeking political freedom in Tunisia. Her husband has been jailed and her daughter harassed by security agents.
Ayman Nour, 41, challenged President Mubarak in Egypt’s 2005 election and was runner-up. Afterward, Nour was convicted of forging documents, although his main accuser later recanted. Nour is now serving a five-year jail term.
Anwar al-Bunni, a lawyer and human-rights activist, was arrested for criticizing Syria’s conduct in Lebanon. His family members have spent a total of more than 60 years in Syrian prisons.
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2006/edition_07-23-2006/Intelligence_Report
Jailed Senegalese journalist freed on bail
July 22 2006 at 11:15AM
Dakar - A Senegalese journalist who was jailed earlier this month, five months after sentence was handed down, for accusing a businessman of corruption, has been freed on bail, he said.
"One of my lawyers had lodged a bail application, which was granted," Moustapha Sow said on Friday, indicating he left prison on July 14 after eight days behind bars.
Sow, publishing editor of the Office daily newspaper, was sentenced in February to six months in jail for defamation after accusing Bara Tall, the chief executive of a construction company, of involvement in fraud.
The sentence was not implemented until early this month.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=qw1153552687453S524
Lugar, Pence push media shield bill
Hoosier Republicans say federal law is needed to protect public's right to know
Related articles
By Maureen Groppe
Star Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The public's ability to get information it needs in a democracy is hurt by a lack of federal protections for the news media, two Hoosier lawmakers said Tuesday.
"The press is hobbled in performing the public service of reporting the news," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., described a "disturbing new trend" of clashes between the media and government authorities. Three journalists have been jailed since 2000 and 88 were subpoenaed by the Justice Department from 1991 to 2001, according to Lugar.
The pair spoke at the National Press Club about legislation they introduced last year to protect journalists from revealing a source unless the information sought is necessary to prevent "imminent and actual harm" to national security.
The bill has received two hearings in the Senate, and a House hearing is scheduled for September. But Lugar acknowledged it would be a "tall order" for the bill to become law before Congress adjourns for the year.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060726/NEWS02/607260444/-1/ZONES01
Taricani urges legislators to pass shield law protecting journalists
BOSTON A reporter jailed for refusing to reveal an anonymous source today urged lawmakers to pass a shield law protecting the use of unnamed sources.
Jim Taricani said sometimes the only way for a reporter to get information that's vital to the public is through anonymous sources.
Taricani, a Rhode Island T-V reporter, was jailed in December 2004 for refusing to say who gave him a secret F-B-I videotape.
He was one of about a dozen lawyers and reporters at a public hearing before a Legislative committee considering a shield law.
The law would protect reporters from having to reveal unnamed sources. The exceptions would include cases where terrorism is involved or when there's an imminent public threat.
Thirty-two states have shield laws, and so does Washington D-C.
Opponents say a shield law would make it more difficult to prosecute criminals.
http://www.eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5200507&nav=F2DO
Chinese Researcher Faces Delayed Verdict
Judge to Miss Deadline, Attorney Says
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 26, 2006; Page A13
BEIJING, July 25 -- The court that tried New York Times researcher Zhao Yan in a closed-door proceeding last month will not be able to deliver a verdict within the legal time limit, his attorney said Tuesday.
"I asked the responsible judge last week and the justice clearly told me that he cannot give the verdict within the legal time limit, without telling me the reason," said the attorney, Mo Shaoping.
Zhao, a Chinese citizen, has been accused of fraud and leaking state secrets. Criminal procedure law in China requires that a verdict be rendered within 1 1/2 months of the trial. Zhao's case was tried on June 16.
The researcher was detained in September 2004, shortly after the Times published a story accurately predicting that former president Jiang Zemin was stepping down as chairman of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission. The Times denied that Zhao was its source for the information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR2006072501462.html
Election commisioners jailed — in Thailand
BANGKOK — Today’s papers scream with the astounding news that rocked this city yesterday: three election commissioners accused of malfeasance have been jailed, after being sentenced to four years imprisonment by the Criminal Court.
It was a spectacle never before seen in Thai, or for that matter, Philippine politics. Last night, the three top officials of the Election Commission (EC) were hauled off to Bangkok’s Klong Prem jail just hours after their sentencing. They will now likely be forced to vacate their posts, paving the way for their replacement just two-and-a-half months before new parliamentary elections will be held.
For sure, many Filipinos are probably wishing they can see that kind of swift justice in their own country. After all, the ruling of the Thai Criminal Court sounds like it could apply to our own scandal-wracked Commission on Elections (Comelec).
“The three commissioners are senior figures who should know that their office is vital for the development of democratic rule,” the EC decision read. “[But they] have stubbornly pursued their way even after the people and political parties lost trust in them.”
http://www.pcij.org/blog/?p=1087
New VOA News Series Focuses on Corruption
Beginning this week, VOA is releasing a 10-part series on corruption, with all stories appearing on VOANews.com and produced for both radio and TV. The stories include:
An Overview of Corruption - How corruption damages societies worldwide by causing people to lose faith in their institutions and impeding needed investment.
Business Corruption - Companies large and small are affected by corruption. What should be done to fight corporate corruption and make accountable those involved in it?
Corruption and the World Bank - What is done to ensure that money distributed to poor countries by the World Bank does not breed corruption?
Fighting Corruption with a Free Press - To fight corruption, you need a free press to shed light on the problem. Two of this year's Pulitzer Prizes in the U.S. went to corruption exposures. But journalists in many countries are killed or jailed if they report on corruption.
NGO's Against Corruption - a profile of Transparency International, the premier anti-corruption watchdog group.
Corruption in Africa - Corruption is seen as rampant on the continent. In Kenya, for example, palms must be greased to get children into public schools or to obtain proper treatment in hospitals.
Corruption in Mexico - Corruption continues to retard growth, perpetuate poverty and threaten democracy in Latin America by increasing public distrust in political parties and governments.
Corruption in China - How Hong Kong fought corruption and went from being one of the most graft-ridden cities in Asia to one of the cleanest.
Corruption in Russia - Corruption is everywhere in Russia, and it is getting worse. A Russian think tank reports the number and size of bribes to get out of conscription or to get into a university is increasing. And with the free press under pressure from the government, anti-graft watchdogs find no voice to push for reform.
Corruption in India - Corruption affects health care, banking and even small businesses in India. The government has now kicked off an anti-corruption campaign, but the problem remains endemic.
http://voanews.com/english/About/2006-07-26-corruption-series.cfm
The Cheney Observer
Helena traffic slowing down
By the Helena IR - 07/28/06
Thumbs down to slow days on the Helena traffic scene.
Construction projects are turning the city’s “rush moments” into something that more closely resembles rush hours, most notably on Highway 12 East and Custer Avenue.
Thumbs down to the mysterious illness that has quarantined dogs living at the Lewis and Clark Humane Society. It’s bad enough to have lost your home — and be facing a possible death penalty because of it — but to get sick, too? We wouldn’t wish that on a dog.
Thumbs up to state employees Grace Berger, Teri Ray and Barb McAlmond who have saved the state, and consequently the taxpayers, big money be scanning thousands of pages of documents onto compact discs rather than printing and mailing them to members of the Board of Realty Regulation. Gov. Brian Schweitzer presented them with what he calls his Corps of Recovery Award.
Thumbs down to the argument that Libby residents sickened by asbestos shouldn’t be allowed to testify in the trial of W.R. Grace executives accused of knowingly endangering the community. One of the lawyers for the Grace officials said such testimony would “turn this case into a murder trial.” He said it, we didn’t.
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/07/29/opinions_top/a04072806_01.txt
Beating around the Bush
Elder statesman Neil Young has produced a blistering assault on George Bush with his new album titled Living with War, writes Lloyd Gedye
ove him or hate him, there is no denying the divisive impact President George Bush has had on the American public. His neo-liberal republican agenda has come under some severe criticism, not only from abroad but domestically too. Listening to three new albums to emanate from the red, white and blue, it seems America's songwriters are weighing in on the debate.
Elder statesman Neil Young has produced a blistering assault with his new album titled Living with War (Gallo). Lead single Let's Impeach the President holds no punches. "Let's impeach the president for lyin', And misleading our country into war," sings Young over his distorted guitar, backed by a 100-strong choir. This is Young's least subtle album as the song titles Shock and Awe, Flags of Freedom, Looking for a Leader and Living with War attest. Young has said he was hoping a younger songwriter would write these songs, but eventually felt the responsibility to do it himself.
http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2006/2006jul/060728-cds.html
Memos May Link Cheney to No-Bid Iraq Contract
Commentary by Willy E. Gutman
Friday July 28, 2006
I recently examined some 100 pages of documents that detail the multi-billion-dollar, no-bid contract awarded in 2003 by the U.S. Army to Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton Co.
Heavily redacted and often written in maddeningly abstruse government legalese, the documents were released by the Department of the Army on orders of U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina to Judicial Watch, the public interest watchdog that flags and prosecutes government corruption.
Several documents suggest that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may have lied publicly about the involvement of the vice president's office in awarding the contract. It will be remembered that Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton from 1995-2000.
In an e-mail dated April 22, 2003, Carol Sanders of the Army Corps writes, "Mr. Robert Andersen, Chief Counsel, USACE, participated in a (CBS) 60 Minutes interview today in New York regarding the sole source award of the oil response contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root. ... Mr. Andersen ... was able to make many of the points we had planned."
Sanders subsequently provided sound bites from the interview, including, "There was no contact whatsoever (with the vice president's office)."
This directly contradicts another e-mail uncovered by Judicial Watch in 2004. The e-mail, dated March 5, 2003, sent by an official of the Army Corps whose name was redacted, stated, "We anticipate no issue (with the KBR deal) since the action has been coordinated with the V.P.'s office."
The newly released documents also prove the Department of the Army abused the Freedom of Information Act process by improperly invoking exemptions. One document, for example, includes a frank admission by an Army Corps official:
"I am copying you on this crap since I honestly believe the competitive procurement will never happen."
The Army attempted to withhold this embarrassing document even though no appropriate exemption applied. It took the intervention of a federal district judge to force the Army to release the document.
"These new documents raise questions about the involvement of the vice president's office in the controversial KBR deal. One has to wonder whether the Army was being forthright about the issue," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Noting Cheney's prior (and perhaps ongoing but oblique) relationship with Halliburton, Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request to obtain documents pertaining to the lucrative no-bid contract. The vice president's associations with Halliburton "raise concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest or favoritism," Judicial Watch argued, "particularly since the contract was awarded to KBR without a bidding process and because the contract was not announced to the public until after it was approved."
In a carefully worded letter dated May 14, 2003, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, U.S. Army Chief of Engineers:
"Earlier this year, the Department of Defense awarded a sole-source contract to KBR ... for the reconstruction of the Iraqi oil industry. I understand that this contract was awarded as a short-term 'bridge' contract, with the expectation that a follow-up contract will be awarded later this year on the basis of full and open competition.
"I would appreciate additional information on the 'bridge' contract awarded to KBR. In particular, I would like copies of both the contract itself and each of the work orders issued under the contract to date. I understand this information is classified."
A record of a response to Levin's request could not be obtained.
Another caustic memo in which the dates and sender's and recipient's names are blanked out reads:
"Why don't you Army people understand we administer our own contracts? Your bunch mentions DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency) administration of the contract everytime (sic) we meet/talk. Is there a hidden agenda that we should be made aware of? If not, please explain your ASAALT (Assistant Secretary of the Army Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) reluctance for us to administer our own contracts? Wasn't cradle-to-grave the latest 'fad' you all were pushing last time I read your webpage (sic)?"
This is yet another example of the arrogance and self-granted dictatorial powers wielded by the Bush administration.
Police and other law enforcement agents no longer have to knock before barging in someone's home. Radio and TV stations can now be fined absurd amounts for airing what the White House-governed FCC deems indecent language. The communications of private citizens can be intercepted and scrutinized. People dubbed "enemy combatants" can be arrested without charge, secretly relocated abroad and detained indefinitely without trial. Banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States are being covertly mined.
With Judicial Watch's findings and revelations, we now learn that the very underpinning of American labor law - open, competitive bidding on government contracts - can be flouted and violated with shameless impunity.
Aldous Huxley and George Orwell must be smiling in their sleep.
http://www.the-signal.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=31818&format=html
Memories Of The Hammer
Cleaning up Congress without DeLay.
- Jeff Hauser and Joe Magid
One of the co-authors of the GOP's unlikely strategy to develop a strong relationship between the radical right and the Jewish community has been the rather ethically challenged Tom DeLay. (Ironically, potential Patrick Fitzgerald target Karl Rove is the other co-author.)
We wanted to take an opportunity upon his departure from Congress to remind our readers of some of DeLay's "greatest hits" racked up as he served a pivotal role helping lead the right wing revolution in the US House of Representatives.
DeLay expressed the wonderfully tolerant sentiment that, "Christianity offers the only viable, reasonable, definitive answer to the questions of 'Where did I come from?', 'Why am I here?', 'Where am I going?', 'Does life have any meaningful purpose?"It's wonderful to know that Jews -- or Muslims, Hindus, or any of the many patriotic Americans (including many who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country while serving in Iraq and elsewhere) who embrace creeds other than Christianity -- are incapable of reason on important issues in the eyes of arguably the most important Republican member of Congress.
Perhaps because he questions the ability of Jews and others to reason well, DeLay advocates supporting candidates not based on their political ideas, but their religion. DeLay told a Christian pro-Israel rally that, "This is the week you put people in office who stand for everything we believe in and stand unashamedly with Jesus Christ."
DeLay's reckless partisanship on matters of deep concern to the state of Israel have imperiled the bipartisan consensus on behalf of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship -- a consensus carefully built by generations of American Jews.
While we’re looking at this unsavory, now former, Representative from Texas, we’d also like to bring to your attention elements of the recently unveiled platform of the Texas Republican Party. Among the choice tidbits to be found in the document is the following from the preamble:
We believe that human life is sacred, created in the image of God. Life begins at the moment of fertilization and ends at the point of natural death. All innocent human life must be protected.
And, in case there is any doubt as to where the Texas GOP is headed with this, the document includes the following gems under the heading Promoting Individual Freedom and Personal Safety
Safeguarding Our Religious Liberties – We affirm that the public acknowledgement of God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom, prosperity and strength as a nation. We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state.
Christian Nation – America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian principles. We affirm the constitutional right of all individuals to worship in the religion of their choice.
The Texas GOP along with Ann Coulter in her book Godless: The Church of Liberalism thus converts Jews into Christians with a stroke of the pen. "I often refer to Christians and Christianity because I am a Christian and I have a fairly good idea of what they believe, but the term is intended to include anyone who subscribes to the Bible of the God of Abraham, including Jews and others."
It seems that just as right-wing fundamentalist Christians are so easily able to ascribe the particular translation of biblical texts they’ve adopted as the unaltered word of God, the leadership of the Texas GOP can similarly mind read back in time, in direct contradiction to the many explicit statements of the Constitution’s primary author, Mr. Jefferson.
While we wish Tom DeLay a hearty "Good riddance," we also note that there is much work to be done to counter the legacy he leaves behind.
Jeff Hauser is the political director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
Joe Magid is the treasurer of Grassroots for America.
http://www.pjvoice.com/v14/14101hammer.html
The Texas Republican Platform
http://www.n5gar.info/2006-Texas-GOP-Platform.pdf
Exclusive: Reagan conservative lashes out at 'hijackers of the conservative movement'
John Byrne
Published: Friday July 28, 2006 He didn’t support invading Iraq. He says national security decisions are too often made for political gain. And he maintains that Tom DeLay used “legal plunder” for the “immoral purpose of holding onto power.”
A Democrat? No – His name is Richard Viguerie, a conservative icon and key architect of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 victory. Known to many as the godfather of direct-mail campaign fundraising, his four-decade career has succored scores of conservative candidates and grassroots causes.
A balding grandfather with a wry Texan’s smile, Viguerie is a seasoned conservative who confidently brushes aside accusations that his criticism of Republicans is intended for personal gain. On Monday, he sat down with RAW STORY to talk about his new book, Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Exclusive_Reagan_conservative_lashes_out_at_0728.html
Anti-gambling bill full of problems, flaws
Ever experienced a "bad beat" by losing on the "river?" If you have no idea to what I am referring, the terms are those commonly used in the poker game, Texas Hold 'Em.
The game is wildly popular among college-aged students. In fact, Penn State is widely regarded as one of the top poker-playing schools in the country. Some students have even put off obtaining their degree indefinitely in order to pursue poker as a profession.
A proposed federal law would drastically change the world of online gambling by students. However, this flawed law is not intended to cure the evils of any gambling addictions.
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to make most online gambling illegal. If approved by the Senate and the president, this would change a 1961 anti-gambling law, called the Wire Act, to explicitly apply its terms to Internet gambling. The law requires the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department to write regulations to block money transfers that are related to gambling by American banks. Thus, if a person wants to use a gambling site you have to pay for, they will not be able to pay with a credit card or bankcard. This effectively prohibits U.S. citizens from accessing the gambling Web sites. The legislation does, however, exempt horse racing and state-run lotteries from Internet gambling restrictions.
The House sees Internet gambling as a scourge on society. They see it as a means by which a gambler can lose his or her house, ruin credit or ruin families, with just a few clicks of the mouse. But I find this to be a bit disingenuous. If the House really wanted to deal with the problems caused by gambling, it would ban all online betting among the states, not carve out exceptions for lucrative horse racing and state lottery Web sites.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2006/07/07-26-06tdc/07-26-06dops-column-01.asp
Lawmakers amend Indian gaming bill
Fate of the measure, which supporters say closes many loopholes, remains up in the air
Tom Lochner
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
The House Resources Committee has closed what it described as "loopholes" in an Indian gambling bill it approved earlier this year.
The amendments, co-sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., would bar tribes seeking to operate casinos from shopping for reservations across state lines.
They would also rename the original bill, H.R. 4893, the "Restricting Indian Gaming to Homelands of Tribes Act of 2006," or RIGHT Act, to reflect the intent of the legislation.
It is uncertain if or when the amended version will go to the full House, several congressional staffers said Thursday. The Senate is working on its own Indian gambling legislation.
The amended version of the House bill would require tribes to negotiate directly with local authorities such as county governments, rather than with a state's governor, to mitigate traffic and other local impacts of a new casino. The new version affirms governors' primacy to negotiate gambling compacts, subject to state law. In California, it would not affect the role of the Legislature, which must ratify gambling compacts to make them effective, said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for the House Resources Committee.
The amended version does away with a provision that would give tribes located within 75 miles veto power over any new Indian casino.
It also includes a grandfather clause that would exempt from the new rules tribes that submitted casino applications to the U.S. Department of the Interior before March 7.
Kennedy said he believes the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, which wants to open a casino in North Richmond, submitted its application before the deadline, but not the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, which is pursuing a casino in Richmond at Point Molate.
Kennedy said Pombo's bill would not affect the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians and its Casino San Pablo. That facility offers electronic bingo, which the tribe is entitled to under federal law, but not Las Vegas-style slots, which require state approval. The Legislature so far has balked at ratifying a compact between the tribe and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/15143387.htm
Pombo gets unlikely donation
John Upton
Tracy Press
The nation’s largest textiles union donated $5,000 to Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, during a primary campaign that saw Pombo attacked for blocking legislation that some lawmakers said would end textile-worker sweatshop conditions in the Northern Marianas Islands.
The UNITE HERE union, which represents 450,000 of the nation’s lowest-paid workers, including 350 employees at two Northern Marianas Islands hotels, made the donation through its To Insure Progress political action committee in May.
Joe McLaughlin, president of Sacramento Local 49 and the Californian State Council, said the donation was a reward for Pombo’s support of the casino, hotel and restaurant industries, which keep his members employed.
McLaughlin said Pombo had long been “a friend” of Local 49, which represents roughly 2,600 hospitality workers, including 1,100 in Indian casinos.
“We get a lot of legislative help from him — and he’s actually talked John Doolittle into (supporting) us,” he said. “He’s doing a good job, and we want to keep it that way; so we give him money.”
Doolittle, a Republican who represents a Californian congressional district that includes Roseville, has been under scrutiny for his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Political Director Tom Snyder said the union’s support for Pombo carried over from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, which merged with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in 2004 to create UNITE HERE.
“Richard Pombo has always been a supporter of our efforts to organize workers in California,” he said. “Right from the beginning, when he ran for office, he’s moved events out of restaurants and hotels where we had members on strike.”
Snyder said political donations were decided in consultation with local officials and that membership dues were not used for political donations. He said it would be illegal to use dues for this purpose.
Pombo had raised more than $1.4 million when the union’s $5,000 donation nearly doubled his contributions from labor during this campaign cycle to $12,000.
Pombo — who is chairman of the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over tribal affairs and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands — ignored fellow lawmakers’ pleas to investigate labor abuses there, said a spokeswoman for Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.
Pombo’s committee spokesman did not return phone calls.
Abramoff was hired to lobby for the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Northern Marianas Island’s government. He organized a 2004 trip to the Marianas for Pombo and other congressmen, and Pombo later returned $7,000 in campaign donations from the lobbyist, who is serving a six-year prison sentence for fraud.
BREAKING AWAY TO BE POWER BROKERS AND NOT UNIONS - The Democrats are 'out' as far as effective legislators - That is why the dissolving of interests with the AFL-CIO. The UNITE HERE union thought it could influence Republicans if they had a different name. Possibly a different purpose as well.
As an American protectorate, clothes from the Northern Marianas Islands are stamped “Made in the USA.” However, many nonresident textile workers in the 25 to 30 factories there are paid less than the minimum wage of $3.10 per hour, which is set by the Federal Government, according to UNITE HERE’s Pacific Island organizer Morris Luka.
The Marianas Islands was listed in UNITE HERE’s Sweatshop Files — a publication of its Behind the Label program.
The union took each garment factory to court for labor violations, Luka said.
When UNITE HERE, the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union broke away from the AFL-CIO last year, they were critical of the umbrella group for donating too much to Democrats who gave too little in return.
UNITE HERE’s political action committee divided $24,000 among 10 Republican congressional incumbents this year, election filings show.
Pombo and Frank LoBiondo, R-New Jersey, were given $5,000 each. Donations of up to $4,000 went to John Sweeney and James Walsh from New York; Ray LaHood, Jerry Weller, Judy Biggert and John Shimkus from Illinois; Nancy Johnson from Connecticut and Tom Davis from Virginia.
All these representatives, except Johnson, sided with the Democrats in a failed June bid to force the Federal Aviation Authority back to the negotiating table with airline unions that are unaffiliated with UNITE HERE.
UNITE HERE also divided $4,500 between three Republican senators this year — Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island, Sam Brownback from Kansas and Tim Johnson from Illinois.
The union gave about $200,000 to 60 Democratic candidates this year.
http://tracypress.com/2006-07-26-Pombo.php
Dump Condi: Foreign policy conservatives charge State Dept. has hijacked Bush agenda
Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and foreign policy agenda.
The conservatives, who include Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle and leading current and former members of the Pentagon and National Security Council, have urged the president to transfer Miss Rice out of the State Department and to an advisory role. They said Miss Rice, stemming from her lack of understanding of the Middle East, has misled the president on Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"The president has yet to understand that people make policy and not the other way around," a senior national security policy analyst said. "Unlike [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell, Condi is loyal to the president. She is just incompetent on most foreign policy issues."
The criticism of Miss Rice has been intense and comes from a range of Republican loyalists, including current and former aides in the Defense Department and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. They have warned that Iran has been exploiting Miss Rice's inexperience and incompetence to accelerate its nuclear weapons program. They expect a collapse of her policy over the next few months.
"We are sending signals today that no matter how much you provoke us, no matter how viciously you describe things in public, no matter how many things you're doing with missiles and nuclear weapons, the most you'll get out of us is talk," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said.
http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Condi2.htm
The verdict is ...
Star-Telegram
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
VALERIE PLAME WILSON and JOSEPH C. WILSON IV, Plaintiffs,
v.
I. LEWIS (a/k/a "Scooter") LIBBY JR., KARL C. ROVE, RICHARD B. CHENEY and JOHN DOES NO. 1-10, Defendants.
JURY VERDICT
We the jury, find as follows:
1. Joseph Wilson, a retired diplomat, royally peeved Vice President Cheney by publicly disputing President Bush's 2003 State of the Union run-up-to-war claims that Iraq was seeking "significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
2. Cheney and his aide Scooter Libby wanted to pound this enemy and shoot down the notion that Cheney had any connection to Wilson's Africa trip to investigate the phantom yellowcake uranium.
3. When Cheney and Libby discovered that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked in a classified CIA position, they had a eureka moment: Let's say she put him up to the trip.
4. Libby started chatting up reporters, the White House press secretary and just about anybody who'd listen about Plame in order to kneecap her husband's credibility.
5. After Robert Novak outed Plame in a July 14, 2003, column based on unnamed administration sources, Cheney, Libby and Rove hit plausible deniability mode while special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald investigated the leak.
6. A federal grand jury indicted Libby on accusations of lying about his role in the charade, but no one's been charged with a crime for revealing Plame's name or her covert status.
7. Their lives upended and her CIA career ended, Valerie and Wilson sued Cheney, Libby and Rove on grounds of invading their privacy and violating their free speech rights by vindictively denying them equal protection of the laws, all because Wilson undermined the administration's justification for invading Iraq.
8. Cheney, Libby and Rove engaged in underhanded, cowardly, dirty-trickery instead of openly and honestly defending their administration's policy positions. That spiteful, self-serving deceit disserved the nation and disrespected the value of frank debate in a democracy.
9. When it comes to issues of serious public concern, the First Amendment protects speech both when it criticizes a hypersensitive administration and when officials in that regime counter with furtive, malicious retaliation. The fact is that the law doesn't right every wrong.
10. The plaintiffs, having landed their political counterpunch in this lawsuit, might have to settle for the satisfaction of trying to shine a public light inside an excessively secretive White House. The vice president should follow the advice of Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar, who wrote in the online magazine Slate that "perhaps he might read the [First] amendment -- heck, the whole Bill of Rights! -- and think of the rest of us."
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/15152788.htm
Iran cleric accuses UN of tyranny on atomic work
Reuters
Tehran: The United Nations Security Council risks committing "a historic act of tyranny" against Iran if it passes a resolution demanding Tehran to stop making nuclear fuel, powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday.
UN Security Council permanent members are wrangling over the text of a draft resolution that includes the threat of sanctions if Iran fails to halt making enriched uranium, which the West argues will be used in atomic warheads.
"On our nuclear issue, we are now witnessing a cruel act," Rafsanjani told Friday prayers worshippers in Tehran.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iran/10054006.html
Nasrallah 'more popular than Abbas'
Khalil Al Assaly, Gulf News Report
Ramallah: The popularity of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is soaring among the Palestinians, an expert has said.
"If we conduct a popularity poll on Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, today amongst the Palestinians, he will surely get more votes than the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas himself," said Dr Nabeel Al Koukaly, Director of the Opinion Polls Institute in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour.
An informal poll conducted by his institute before the current crisis in Lebanese showed that 80 per cent of Palestinians trusted Nasrallah, he told Gulf News.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10054001.html
Al Sistani calls for violence to end
Agencies
Baghdad: Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has called for an end to sectarian violence in Iraq, urging all Iraqis to stand "side by side" against it.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani issued a rare statement saying sectarianism was a "danger threatening the future of the country".
Calling for an end to Shiite-Sunni fighting, Al Sistani, a long-term voice of moderation, urged Iraqis to "exert maximum efforts to stop the bloodletting."
He said, "I repeat my call today to all Iraqis of different sects and ethnic groups to be aware of the danger threatening the future of the country and stand side-by-side against it."
He also warned that the violence would only prolong the presence of US forces in the country.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10053950.html
Siniora criticises West for failing 'model democracy'
Los Angeles Times-Washington Post
Beirut: A week after Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers provoked a war that Lebanese leaders are powerless to stop, the government here has finally started to speak out.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called Western ambassadors to his office earlier this week and lectured them on the impact of Israel's offensive.
He showed the diplomats photos of the death and destruction. In a blunt and undiplomatic speech, Siniora said Lebanon "has been torn to shreds" and vowed to seek compensation from Israel for the "unimaginable losses".
Siniora is a US ally who came to power last year after the first Lebanese elections in three decades held without Syrian interference.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10054034.html
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