The Rooster
Friday, September 22, 2006
This is not a joke folks. Click on for Supercell Satellite. It's not slowing.
September 17, 2006.
Rogers, Minnesota.
Photographer states :: This is what is left of my house after a direct hit by an F2 tornado.
If anyone recalls the tornadoes of Kentucky and Illinois earlier this year? They touchdown overnight. It occurred for two weekends in one month, two weeks apart. This a huge system with dramatic differences in temperatures. See map above. There is a very good chance of overnight tornadoes. The temperature boundaries are too severe to believe otherwise. Be sure alarms are on and working.
Tornado Moving Through Chicago Suburbs, Weather Service Says (click on)
By Margot Habiby
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A tornado was spotted in the far western suburbs of Chicago, near the intersection of Interstate 88 and Kirk Road, the U.S. National Weather Service said.
People in the suburbs of Schaumburg, Medinah, Hoffman Estates, Itasca, Rolling Meadows and Elk Grove are in the path of the storm and should immediately take cover, according to a tornado warning issued by the weather service's forecast office in Romeoville, Illinois.
Local law enforcement reported seeing a funnel cloud, and emergency-management officials in Dupage County reported that it had a ``strong rotation,'' the weather service said. The storm was moving northeast at about 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour.
To contact the reporter on this story: Margot Habiby in Dallas at mhabiby@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: September 22, 2006 18:03 EDT
Morning Papers
Cheney Observer
Matthews: ‘I Have Been…Against This Bullshit War From The Beginning’
This morning on Imus, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews blasted the media for not covering the Iraq war. Matthews said that while people are still fighting and dying the Iraq, war “has been taken off television, and Bush must love it.”
Matthews said that most of the media was sold a bill of goods by the Bush administration, but that he’s been “a voice out there against this bullshit war from the beginning.” He added that Cheney was “totally wrong” about Iraq but still “talks like God on television, and we are supposed to believe every word.” Watch it:
Digg It!
Transcript:
MATTHEWS: It is like we are at war — we have killed 15,000 people that died over there in that war, we still get guys knocked off every couple of days, a couple more guys are killed — and yet it is not on the tube. It’s like, are we bored with the war now? Is that the new thing? We don’t cover a war guys are fighting? And I watch the news, I don’t see the war any more. It has been taken off television, and Bush must love it. Certainly Karl Rove loves the fact that the Iraq War has gotten boring for the American people.
IMUS: It probably had something to do with the tainted spinach, you know, if you’ve been thinking about it.
MATTHEWS: How can we be in a war and not watch it?
IMUS: Well, I don’t know, that’s a good question.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/21/matthews-against-war/
Matthews claimed he has opposed Iraq war "from the beginning," that media coverage of war "sucks" -- but he has frequently contributed to problematic war reporting
Summary: Chris Matthews complained that the news media "sucks lately in covering the Iraq war," later asserting, "I have been a voice out there against this bullshit war from the beginning." But Media Matters has documented numerous instances during the past three years in which Matthews lauded President Bush's handling of the war, advanced false and misleading claims about the war, and attacked Democratic critics of the war.
On the September 21 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, Hardball host Chris Matthews complained that the news media "sucks lately in covering the Iraq war," later asserting, "I have been a voice out there against this bullshit war from the beginning." Matthews further challenged host Don Imus to "check everything -- get your Nexis-Lexis out, get your Google out ... every column I've written from the day they started talking about Iraq has been against it."
However, Media Matters for America has documented numerous instances during the past three years in which Matthews lauded President Bush's handling of the war, advanced false and misleading claims about the war, and attacked Democratic critics of the war. Matthews has also repeatedly expressed support in recent months for two potential 2008 Republican presidential candidates, Sen. John R. McCain (AZ) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, each of whom has been supportive of the war and Bush. In fact, as recently as September 19, Matthews wondered "whether there is a strong, serious alternative to the president's philosophy, which is this sort of neoconservative, we're going to go around the world and democratize other countries with force. I don't know whether there's a strong counter to that at a time of terrorism, and I'm waiting to see if there is one, a strong alternative which says, 'We can create peace, create less enemies, and we can have less terrorism if we do a different thing than he's doing.' "
http://mediamatters.org/items/200609210010
Iraq torture report by UN angers Washington
By Tim Reid of The Times in Washington
The Bush Administration angrily rejected a claim by a United Nations official today that more Iraqis are being tortured now than when Saddam Hussein was in power.
Manfred Nowak, the UN's chief anti-torture campaigner, has never been to Iraq but said he based his claim on interviews with people in Amman, Jordan and other sources.
"What most people tell you is that the situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand," Mr Nowak said in Geneva.
"The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein."
Nowak, an Austrian law professor, was speaking following a UN report which showed that the number of Iraqi citizens killed in July and August was 6,599, a record-high number.
More than 5,100 were murdered in Baghdad and many victims had been tortured. Violent civilian deaths in July reached an unprecedented 3,590, an average of more than 100 a day.
A State Department official in Washington, asked about Professor Nowak's comments, told The Times: "How anyone could compare state-sanctioned torture under a dictator to the situation today is beyond us.
"We definitely don't agree with his remarks. We don't agree with his assessment of the situation at all."
According to the UN report, torture is rampant in Iraqi detention centres and in sectarian killings across the country.
Bodies found in the Baghdad morgue "often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones - back, hands and legs - missing eyes, missing teeth and wound caused by power drill or nails," the report said.
"You have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have these militias. There are so many people who are actually abducted, seriously tortured and finally killed," Mr Nowak said.
"It’s not just torture by the government. There are much more brutal methods of torture you’ll find by private militias," he added.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2368770,00.html
U.S. threatened to bomb Pakistan after 9/11: Musharraf
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf (R) salutes members of the House International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, September 21, 2006. (REUTERS/Jim Young)
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss September 21, 2006
NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that after the September 11 attacks the United States threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with America's campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Musharraf, in an interview with CBS news magazine show "60 Minutes" that will air on Sunday, said the threat came from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was given to Musharraf's intelligence director.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,"' Musharraf said. "I think it was a very rude remark."
Armitage was not immediately available to comment. A Bush administration official said there would be no comment on a "reported conversation between Mr. Armitage and a Pakistani official."
But the official said: "After 9/11, Pakistan made a strategic decision to join the war on terror and has since been
a steadfast partner in that effort. Pakistan's commitment to this important endeavor has not wavered and our partnership has widened as a result."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/09/21/musharraf_us_threatened_to_bomb_pakistan_after_911/
Top U.S. Leader On S. America Warns Against Venezuela
September 21, 2006 6:35 p.m. EST
Matthew Borghese - All Headline News Staff Writer
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A U.S. military commander says Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez continues to export political instability to Latin America.
Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, the outgoing head of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees South America, says Chavez has become "bigger than a nuisance."
"I think there's an exporting of instability coming out of Venezuela. I think it's unfortunate. There's a glut of money there from oil. Money talks in a lot of parts of the world. It buys things, influence."
According to the Pentagon, Craddock's comments came on the same day Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called President Bush "a devil" during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. The general said the United States should take such inflammatory speeches seriously.
Improving relations between Venezuela and Iran is also "of concern." The General adds, "We have to watch that."
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004940286
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez boosts heating oil program for U.S. poor
Ian James, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, September 21, 2006
NEW YORK (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited a Harlem church Thursday and promised to more than double the amount of discounted heating oil his country ships to needy Americans, while he also took another sharp swipe at U.S. President George W. Bush.
A day after he called Bush "the devil" in a speech to the UN General Assembly, Chavez said of the president: "He's an alcoholic and a sick man."
Chavez received a round of applause from the crowd at Mount Olivet Baptist Church, which included activists and other supporters as well as actor Danny Glover.
Bush has acknowledged that he had a drinking problem when he was young but gave up alcohol 20 years ago.
Chavez also called Bush's policies in Iraq criminal, adding he hopes Americans will before long "awaken" and elect a better president. The Venezuelan leader said that while he opposes Bush, the American people "are our friends."
Some in the church laughed and applauded when Chavez compared Bush to the cowboy movie icon John Wayne.
Chavez also announced that Citgo, the U.S.-based refining arm of Venezuela's state-run oil company, plans to more than double the amount of discounted heating oil it is offering Americans this winter to 380 million litres, up from 150 million litres.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=d7785063-3c00-454f-a59d-d3f2a23d7668&k=38778
CHAVEZ'S ANTI-U.S. FERVOR
Emerging force among nonaligned nations
Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, September 21, 2006
He pops up almost everywhere -- Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America and this week at the United Nations, denouncing U.S. policy with revolutionary fervor.
Like a recurring bad dream for the Bush administration, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is molding himself into one of the world's most pre-eminent anti-American leaders.
Days before he addressed the United Nations -- where he called President Bush the devil Wednesday -- Chavez hosted the equally anti-American Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Caracas. They cemented an increasingly close alliance by signing more than 20 trade and investment deals, and Chavez promised to cut off oil supplies to the United States in the event of a U.S. military attack on Iran.
At last week's summit in Cuba of the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement, Chavez emerged as the heir apparent of the movement's longtime patron, the ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro. However, Chavez has something Castro never had -- huge oil revenues that will last for decades to come.
"Unlike Castro, who depended on the Soviet Union, Chavez is completely independent economically, which gives him a large margin to maneuver," said Luis Lander, a professor of social sciences at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas.
Although Chavez came to power in 1999, his global influence has expanded dramatically in the past two years as his oil revenues boomed. He is pouring aid into leftist allies Cuba and Bolivia, providing discounted oil to Caribbean and Central American nations, buying high-tech weaponry from Russia and even spreading Venezuelan wealth around western Africa. If Venezuela succeeds in its attempt to gain a two-year rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council, Chavez will have a big new megaphone on the global stage.
"Chavez is wildly popular in places where you wouldn't imagine people had even heard of him," said Carlos Mendoza, who was Venezuela's ambassador to Russia until last year and previously was ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "In the (Persian) Gulf states, for example, everyone knows who he is, they admire him and love him."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/21/MNGPDL9LS51.DTL
At least six buyout firms interested in Telecom Italia - report
09.22.2006, 12:57 AM
HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - At least six private-equity firms are interested in the assets of Telecom Italia SpA, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition, citing people familiar with the situation.
A number of the firms have held talks with Italian businessman Mario Resca, chairman of MCDonald's Italy, in connection with his plans for the company, the report said.
At least one consortium has been formed to look at Telecom Italia, it said, identifying the group as comprising Texas Pacific Group, Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners Inc.
It is unclear whether this group or any of its members were involved in talks with Resca, but other buyout firms including Bain Capital LLC of the US and Permira of Germany were among those talking with Resca, the report said.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/09/21/afx3037103.html
NASA needs the slam-bang tang reminiscent of its impetuous youth - not privatization
By Llewellyn King
(EDITORS: The writer is addressing the question, "Can the U.S. revive its space program by abolishing NASA and turning over its functions to the private sector?")
WASHINGTON - It is true NASA gave us Tang, the awful synthetic orange drink that was concocted for astronauts. But it has given us much, much, much more. It has given us the life we live today, from satellite communications to GPS navigation.
Its contribution in materials has revolutionized the clothes we wear, the sporting equipment we use, and the medical devices that prolong our lives. As might be expected, modern aircraft are chock full of NASA-generated technology. Watch any large aircraft at an airport and note the vertical fins on the tips of the wings, known as winglets. These reduce the turbulence coming off of the wings. But they are only a visual indication of the NASA goodies that make modern aircraft safer, stronger and more efficient.
Unfortunately, much of the sheen has come off of NASA. It has faded in public esteem. And without its glamour, it no longer attracts the best engineers and scientists.
It is also suffering from years of political interference. John F. Kennedy told NASA to get to the moon. Today, politicians want to tell NASA how to get there, in what vehicle, and with which contractors.
As recently as the 1970s, NASA was still the super-agency - so much so that when the energy crisis struck, many people looked to NASA to come up with solutions. NASA was invincible.
Not so today. It looks sclerotic, bumbling and unable to perform safely.
Now, some of the people who question NASA and interfere with its objectives and aspirations have a solution: privatize it. How would this be done? Would it be sold to one of the contractors who is already a NASA contractor, such as Boeing or the ubiquitous Carlyle Group, which has large satellite holdings?
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_4375290
Carlyle to Build Massive Logistics Center in Hamburg
September 22, 2006
By Marshall Taylor, European Correspondent
Wulf Meinel
The Carlyle Group, the global private equity firm, has inked a deal with H&M Hennes & Mauritz, a European clothing retailer, to build a 1.5 million square-foot warehouse and distribution center for H&M in Hamburg. H&M has signed a 15-year lease for the logistics center, which will supply H&M stores in Germany and the Netherlands. Carlyle is committing close to a €100 million (U.S.$128 million) to the project, which is being developed on land it acquired from the city of Hamburg.
"The deal is structured as a 100-percent participation for Carlyle Europe Real Estate Partners II, our opportunistic property fund," Wulf Meinel (pictured), managing director at The Carlyle Group, told CPN. "This is our fourth investment in Hamburg, and we're confident that this is the best of all German markets in take up and rent performance. Hamburg is situated in a very export-related regional economy and it has always been a strong logistics market."
Meinel noted that the H&M build-to-suit deal will generate an income yield "a little bit higher than 7 percent." He said, "Today in Germany property returns are seen in an international context. German income yields of 5- to 7-percent are globally arbitraged."
Carlyle now has invested €350 million (U.S.$448 million) in Germany, which represents 20 percent of the firm's global real estate investments. "Our target markets are Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Dusseldorf," Meinel said. In Hamburg, in addition to the H&M center, Carlyle has invested in two speculative central-business-district office and retail buildings under development and an office/warehouse facility.
http://www.cpnonline.com/cpn/property_type/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003155782
Church to defy IRS summons
By Janette Williams Staff Writer
Video: All Saints Church
PASADENA - All Saints Church leaders defiantly vowed Thursday to take the IRS to court, challenging the tax agency's right to demand records relating to a politically themed guest sermon delivered just before the 2004 presidential election.
All Saints Rector Ed Bacon said that two Internal Revenue Service summonses for church records served last week undermined the free-speech rights of all faiths to preach on "issues of war, poverty, bigotry, torture and terrorism" without endangering their tax-exempt status.
Bacon said he will not appear to testify on Oct. 11, as the IRS had demanded.
The church's 26-member vestry - its board of governors - voted unanimously Thursday to refuse to comply with the summonses, Senior Warden Robert Long said.
Although the liberal Episcopalian congregation of about 3,500 - for decades touted as the largest, and perhaps the wealthiest, in the West - has a "long history" of speaking out on issues of the day, it has never crossed the line into politicking, Long said.
"We have nothing to hide," he said. "We have reviewed the documents \ and we believe they fully support our position that we have always been mindful and respectful of the regulations, and have always been in compliance with them."
An IRS statement Thursday did not comment directly on the All Saints investigation, saying only that there are constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religion, but not to tax-exempt status for nonprofits that get political.
Only rarely has the IRS actually revoked the tax-exempt status of charities or churches.
Long said that taking the IRS to court rather than agreeing to turn over documents will be expensive, utilizing funds that would be better used for church programs.
But the IRS challenge "can be addressed only by standing up now and protecting ourselves from the chilling effect on free speech and the free exercise of religion," Long said. He said the move will also be "a stand for the churches, synagogues and mosques across our country who may find themselves in similar circumstances, but less able or well-funded to make such a challenge," Long said,
In a show of interfaith solidarity with the church's decision, about 40 representatives of Southland religious communities crowded All Saints' altar.
Shakeel Sayed, president of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, spoke of his group's "total and complete solidarity" with All Saints'
decision; Rabbi Neil Commess-Daniels of Beth Shir Shalom handed over a donation for the church's legal fund, and asked others to contribute.
Ed McCaffery, dean of USC School of Law and an expert on taxation, said he was surprised the IRS has continued to press the investigation.
"My own view is that the IRS is wrong. They have an incorrect interpretation of the statute" governing church involvement in politics, McCaffery said.
But, he said, that doesn't mean the IRS will not prevail in asserting its right to review church documents.
"My guess would be that the IRS would win" in court. But, he said, it was less certain the IRS would win a battle over the the church's First Amendment rights.
Bacon said he has no idea why the sermon preached by All Saints Rector Emeritus George Regas triggered the IRS investigation. In it, Regas speculated on how Jesus would weigh in on a debate between presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas, while harshly critical of some Bush policies, told parishioners they'd be spiritually justified in voting for either candidate.
The church has filed a Freedom of Information request to see where the complaint originated, Bacon said.
McCaffrey said he saw "nothing wrong with the letter or spirit" of the sermon.
"Should a church be liable for the words of a guest sermon? Should the IRS be looking at words? I don't think so," McCaffrey said. "Why they don't find a reasonable way to end this saga is a puzzling question."
McCaffrey said if the IRS investigated pastors' words to check for political positions, it would cover sermons on such issues as abortion, the death penalty and teaching evolution in schools. "These are the things pastors talk about all the time," he said.
In purely practical terms, he said, the IRS hasn't even enough personnel to fulfill its mandate to collect taxes.
"Is this the appropriate agency to be looking at what's being said Saturdays and Sundays in religious places?" he said. "That's just nutty."
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_4377897
Rove Pledges October Suprise to Grab Election Victory
Political strategist Karl Rove is promising a mystery 'October suprise' which he hopes will prevent defeat in the November congressional elections. The Bush aide refuses to expand on the issue and is telling insiders to wait and see.
Rove said, "I'd rather let the balance [of plans for the elections] unroll on its own." The Democrats require 6 seats in the Senate and 15 seats in the House to alter the balance of power.
Other plans were shrouded in less secrecy, with an advertising blitz in the final two week run-up and the deployment of large numbers of volunteers recruited by the Republican National Committee being planned.
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=57143&rubrik1=Politics&rubrik2=US%20Politics&rubrik3=Election&sort=1&sparte=4
Goldwater Granddaughter Said No Karl Rove In Her HBO Film
Posted by Tim Graham on September 22, 2006 - 15:15
On "The Daily Show" Thursday night, host Jon Stewart interviewed filmmaker C.C. Goldwater about her HBO documentary "Mr. Conservative," about her grandfather, Barry Goldwater. Stewart praised the film, and asked about the surprising liberal tilt of the talking heads in the film. (There were a few more conservatives in there than advertised, including Richard Viguerie and Morton Blackwell.) But the granddaughter clearly has a very chilly feeling about the present-day conservative movement:
Stewart: “Barry Goldwater, what’s an interesting story in the film, a lot of the people that are talking are considered the leading voices of the Democrats or the liberal side. Hillary Clinton -- ”
Goldwater: “James Carville.”
Stewart: “—being a Goldwater girl. James Carville, Al Franken. George Will on the Republican side, but not a lot of sort of modern-day Republicans or conservatives.”
Goldwater: “Well, because we wanted to let Barry represent that thought. Barry wasn't -- you know, Barry's conservative message and what he was all about is not what the conservative party is today.
Stewart: “Right.”
Goldwater: “So when you see the film, you kind of get what the conservative, the seed of the conservative western thought process was all about. And you know, we have these various people on that were just representing a different, a whole different stream of consciousness thought because it would have been too predictable if we would have had Karl Rove on.”
What's predictable in the film is the media people in it declaring their liberalism, or denying a liberal bias. Here was some examples:
http://newsbusters.org/node/7829
Rove visit highlights stat e GOP's dilemma
Sam Howe Verhovek
By Sam Howe Verhovek
Los Angeles Times
BELLEVUE - A funny thing happened Friday when Karl Rove, the White House adviser, came to the Seattle suburbs to headline a fundraiser for freshman Republican Rep. Dave Reichert: The congressman did nothing to publicize the visit, and his challenger drew every bit of attention to it she could.
On the day Rove was in town, Darcy Burner, a former Microsoft Corp. executive who is Reichert's Democratic opponent, issued her fifth news release of the week casting the visit in a negative light, and while Rove and Reichert were attending a roundtable briefing for Republican donors, about 60 Burner supporters mugged for cameras outside.
But both of Rove's appearances - at the fundraiser and at the roundtable - were private and closed to the media, so there were no news photographs of Reichert with campaign mastermind Rove.
For Burner, 35, who is making her first run for public office, there was an obvious strategy in focusing attention on a reliable Republican boogeyman in what state pollster Stuart Elway described as a "classic swing district." The 8th District has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections yet consistently has sent a Republican to the House.
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060919/NEWS06/609190346
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Activists Re-enact Photo to Protest Prisoners' Treatment
By Brian Whitley / Daily Californian
BERKELEY, CA -- Few walking past Boalt Hall yesterday could avoid noticing the man wearing a black hood and clutching an electrical cord. One political activist group hopes the provocative recreation of the infamous Abu Ghraib photograph draws attention to an equally provocative message-that President George W. Bush is a war criminal.
A handful of UC Berkeley students were among about 40 people who attended a protest, organized by The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!, of what they call government-sanctioned torture by the U.S. military.
Several activists denounced the allegedly abusive treatment of prisoners at facilities like Guantanamo Bay, while others displayed signs with political slogans and sold T-shirts.
"My distinction, fellow citizens, is that I am a citizen of a country that practices torture," said Joanna Macy, who also teaches at Bay Area graduate schools. "That is my woeful distinction."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7920
Coalition protests Iraq war
Peace activists from all walks of life call for an end
By Rebecca Huval / South Florida Sun-Sentinel
A choir of seniors, pink-clad protesters and a Catholic prayer group initially may not seem to have a lot in common, but they all want peace.
And they'll do whatever it takes to get it, even making fools of themselves in a very public way.
"We look like a pink, Pepto-Bismol nightmare when we go places," said Lori Russell, co-coordinator of Code Pink and co-organizer of Peace Week. "If that's how you've got to do it, that's what you've got to do. I have red hair and pink doesn't go with it, but that doesn't matter. It's a conversation opener and makes people feel more at ease instead of shouting."
The Raging Grannies, Code Pink and Pax Christi all are part of the Palm Beach County Peace and Justice Coalition, which will run South Florida's second annual Peace Week starting today and running through Sept. 28. Protest events will highlight the Declaration of Peace, a national campaign that asks signers to take action if a plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq is not reached by today.
"People coming out to express their view is how the Vietnam War ended," said Susan Mosely, coordinator for Palm Beach County Peace and Justice Coalition and the other co-organizer of Peace Week. "We want the needless waste of human life to stop."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7922
Iraq deaths surge over last two months: UN
By Peter Graff / Reuters
BAGHDAD - Hundreds more Iraqis died in violence in July and August than in the previous two months, many of them tortured to death because of their religion with cables, acid and power drills, a U.N. report said on Wednesday.
The July total of 3,590 deaths was unprecedented, it said, while the August figure of 3,009, though lower, was also among the worst yet.
In its previous report two months ago, it gave a combined figure of 5,818 for the two months of May and June. The latest two-month figure shows an increase of more than 13 percent over that number, which it described as a sharp surge at the time.
"Hundreds of bodies have continued to appear throughout the country bearing signs of severe torture and execution-style killing," it said in a statement announcing its latest report.
"Terrorist attacks, the growth of militias, the emergence of organized crime reflects a lack of centralized and authorized control over the use of force in the country, which results in indiscriminate killings of civilians," it said.
Sunnis and Shi'ites were kidnapped by rival militia and tortured for information about their sect, it said.
"Detainees' bodies show signs of beating using electrical cables, wounds in different parts of their bodies, including in the head and genitals, broken bones of legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns," it said.
"Bodies found at the Medico-legal Institute often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails."
SURGE IN BODIES FOUND
Finding reliable data about deaths in Iraq is difficult. The United Nations obtains its figure from morgues and the Iraqi Health Ministry. Morgues no longer provide independent information to the media.
The U.N. report gave no breakdown for the kind of attacks that led to the deaths.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7916
No One Dares to Help
The wounded die alone on Baghdad's streets. An offer of aid could be your own death sentence, an Iraqi reporter writes.
Because this account of daily life in Baghdad reveals where the writer lives, his name is not being used to protect his safety. He is a 54-year-old Iraqi reporter in The Times' Baghdad Bureau.
Los angeles Times
BAGHDAD — On a recent Sunday, I was buying groceries in my beloved Amariya neighborhood in western Baghdad when I heard the sound of an AK-47 for about three seconds. It was close but not very close, so I continued shopping.
As I took a right turn on Munadhama Street, I saw a man lying on the ground in a small pool of blood. He wasn't dead.
The idea of stopping to help or to take him to a hospital crossed my mind, but I didn't dare. Cars passed without stopping. Pedestrians and shop owners kept doing what they were doing, pretending nothing had happened.
I was still looking at the wounded man and blaming myself for not stopping to help. Other shoppers peered at him from a distance, sorrowful and compassionate, but did nothing.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7919
Suspicions rise as gas prices fall
By Laura Misjak / Flint Journal
GENESEE COUNTY - UFOs, Big Foot, Elvis - and now gas prices.
Yes, everybody's thrilled that prices are plummeting at the pump.
But the drop has also spawned enough theories among local residents to satisfy any conspiracy buff.
The most prevalent: Cheaper gas is tied to the Nov. 7 elections.
"I'm wondering what's going on," said Flint resident Richard Westbrook Jr. "It has to be the elections. " Big oil companies have had record profits, and their friends in Congress probably said they have to do something to keep them down now."
AAA Michigan reported Monday that gas prices have fallen 15.4 cents per gallon statewide in the past week, making the Flint area's average price per gallon about $2.26 for regular unleaded. Last year at this time, the local average was $2.71.
It was even lower Monday at the Speedway station at Bristol Road and I-475, where Westbrook was filling up his pickup truck at $2.09 per gallon.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7913
Florida Republican raises money for Lieberman
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - Democrat Joe Lieberman got some help from a prominent Florida Republican on Wednesday night in his bid to win re-election to the U.S. Senate from Connecticut as an independent.
Lieberman attended a fund-raising reception hosted for him by Mel Sembler, a former finance committee chairman for the Republican National Committee.
Lieberman lost the Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut on August 8 to Ned Lamont, who made Lieberman's support for the Iraq war the main issue of his campaign.
He immediately filed to run as an independent in the November 7 general election against Lamont and Republican nominee Alan Schlesinger.
In addition to his fund-raising work for the RNC, Sembler was also the U.S. ambassador to Italy during President George W. Bush's first term and the ambassador to Australia during the term of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush.
About 100 guests attended the event at Sembler's office in St. Petersburg. His company develops shopping centers in Florida and nearby states.
Guests were asked to contribute a minimum of $1,000 up to a maximum of $2,100 to Lieberman's campaign.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=196
State sues California group over automated phone calls
PAC attacked Democratic congressional candidate Hill
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS – The state sued a California-based group Monday to stop it from making automated phone calls attacking Democratic candidate Baron Hill in the 9th District congressional race.
The group behind the calls, the Sacramento-based Economic Freedom Fund, is being funded by the Republican donor who helped bankroll the Swift Boat attack ads on Democratic Sen. John Kerry’s war record during the 2004 presidential campaign.
The attorney general’s office sued in Brown Circuit Court in Nashville seeking temporary and permanent injunctions against the calls as violations of Indiana’s telemarketing law and fines of $5,000 for each violation. A hearing in the case is set Sept. 27.
Attorney General Steve Carter received 12 consumer complaints over the calls, including one from Philip Wilkinson, 41, of Bloomington, who said he was on the state’s do-not-call list and is offended by negative political ads.
“When somebody gets real ugly, I’ll say, ‘Heck, I’ll vote for the other guy,’ ” Wilkinson said, adding that he does not support Hill or Sodrel.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=191
Barth calls ending Iraqi war 'first priority'
By Hadass Kogan / The Jeffersonian
Andy Barth remembers a time when government was "exciting and honorable."
Barth, who grew up in Washington during John Kennedy's presidency, wants to restore some of that idealism to public office.
"Government was respected and a chance to do good," he said.
Barth, a Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Ben Cardin, said citizens lost faith in government over the years, and he wants to work to return that trust.
Barth, who worked for 35 years as a reporter for WMAR-TV, is running for public office for the first time. He said his lack of political experience will serve as a plus if he is elected because it will give him a perspective that is not "politics as usual."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=169
Voter Registration Deadlines
http://www.rockthevote.com/2006-voter-registration-deadlines.php
Louisiana Voter Registration requires thirty day window to vote
http://www.vote-smart.org/voter_registration_resources.php?state_name=Louisiana&state_code=LA&go.x=7&go.y=10
Transcript of Chavez's U.N. speech
The Patriot-News
Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, "Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States." [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.]
It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time [flips through the pages, which are numerous] I will just leave it as a recommendation.
It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President] you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7921
Poll Finds Most Americans Displeased With Congress
By Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder / New York Times
With the midterm elections less than seven weeks away, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve reelection, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The disregard for Congress is the most intense it has been since 1994, when Republicans captured 52 seats to end four decades of Democratic control of the House and retook the Senate as well. It underlines the challenge the Republican Party faces in trying to hold onto power in the face of a surge in anti-incumbent sentiment.
By overwhelming margins, respondents said that members of Congress were too tied to special interests and that they did not understand the needs and problems of average Americans. Two-thirds said Congress had accomplished less than it typically does in a two-year session; most said they said they could not name a single major piece of legislation that cleared this Congress. Just 25 percent said they approved of the way Congress was doing its job.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=195
TODAY - SEPTEMBER 21 - IS
The International Day of Peace
HAPPY PEACE DAY!
Join the worldwide movement to create a Global Ceasefire and day of peace and nonviolence
http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/
Lamont calls Lieberman a 'turncoat'
By Dave Collins / Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. - Democrat Ned Lamont calls rival Sen. Joe Lieberman a "turncoat" in his latest ad. Not so, says the three-term Democratic lawmaker running as an independent, and he has some party support in Connecticut to prove it.
Lieberman welcomed the endorsements Tuesday from several local Democrats, including the mayors of the Connecticut cities of Norwich, West Haven and Waterbury. "This is part of a very encouraging trend that's happening," he said. "We now have a group of respected elected officials that are breaking away from Ned Lamont and are sticking with me."
Last month, Lamont stunned Lieberman in the Democratic primary, seizing the party nomination from the incumbent with a campaign built on his anti- Iraq war message. Lieberman filed as an independent candidate to hold onto his seat while several local and national Democrats shifted allegiances to Lamont.
Lamont dismissed suggestions that Democrats remain torn between the two candidates.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=193
Antiwar Push Starts Near White House; 34 Arrested
By Sue Anne Pressley Montes / Washington Post
A group of ministers, veterans and peace activists attempted to deliver a "declaration of peace" to the White House yesterday, kicking off a week of vigils and other activities in 350 communities across the country calling for the prompt withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Thirty-four people were arrested here and charged with disorderly conduct after they demanded to speak with President Bush, then refused to leave the west gate of the White House. As part of an initiative of more than 400 groups, many of them religiously affiliated, the activists said they had to "bear moral witness" against the U.S. military role in Iraq.
"We are in a time of peril, and people of morals have got to stand up," said the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., who founded the D.C.-based Hip Hop Caucus to involve youths in political and social action and helped to lead yesterday's protest. "If we don't stand now in the 21st century, there will not be a 22nd century. We will destroy ourselves -- we will either solve this together or die as fools together."
The day's activities also featured vigils for peace in dozens of cities and towns, including Little Rock; Tucson; Pasadena, Calif.; Miami; Decatur, Ga.; Pittsburgh; and Austin. In San Diego today, there will be a Dance Action for Peace. Tomorrow in Cincinnati, a tent city dedicated to peace will be erected. San Francisco is hosting a mass bicycle ride to protest the conflict in Iraq, and Madison, Wis., is holding community forums on the issue.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7934
Religious Leaders Join White House Sit-In for Peace in Iraq
By Michelle Vu / Christian Post
WASHINGTON – Religious leaders joined peace activists in front of the White House Thursday to call for the end of U.S. Iraq occupation and to kick-off the national week of “moral witness against the Iraq occupation.”
“Today is the first day of the Declaration of Peace Week of Action,” said Bishop Susan Morrison of the United Methodist Church. “We are standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are participating in more than 350 actions this week all across the country. It is a wonderful and marvelous witness.”
Hundreds of individual actions across the nation over the next seven days will take place ranging from vigils and fasts to sit-ins and marches.
The White House press conference and sit-in was part of the national Declaration of Peace (DOP) campaign which calls for a change in U.S. policy towards Iraq including the withdrawal of troops and a new comprehensive plan for peace. More than 500 groups are part of the campaign, including the Methodist Federation for Social Action, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, and the Roman Catholic Conference of Women Religious.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7926
Protesters expected today as Cheney stumps for Kuhl
By Joseph Spector
Gannett News Service
September 22, 2006
Powered by Topix.net
ROCHESTER -- Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Rochester today will be short, but it will be long on emotion.
Cheney will land at the Greater Rochester International Airport at 4 p.m. and attend a fundraiser for Rep. John R. Kuhl Jr., R-Hammondsport, at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center.
Cheney will speak at the $150-per-person event at about 5:35 p.m., according to the White House. He is scheduled to depart from the airport at 6:20 p.m.
The visit -- which includes a $1,000-per-person reception with him before the speech -- is stirring emotions as the country is divided over the war in Iraq and national policies.
And it comes as Kuhl looks to rally supporters and raise money in a competitive race against Democrat Eric Massa of Corning.
http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060922/NEWS01/609220331
Getting Around Rochester
Rochester Riverside Convention Center is the pivot point of Rochester's Downtown Convention District.
The District offers 3 first-class hotels, all within one block of the Center. Visit meetinrochester.com for information about other area hotels.
Area Maps & Directions
(click on map for a larger view)
From East:
Thruway to Exit 45 (490 west). 490 west to Rochester. Follow signs to DOWNTOWN. Exit Clinton Avenue. Merge to Clinton. 3 traffic lights to Broad Street. Left onto Broad. Go through 1 light. Make a right into Parking Garage. The convention Center is connected to the Garage.
Deliveries from East:
Same directions until Clinton, then turn left onto Mortimer and left onto St. Paul Street. After 1 traffic light, loading dock is on right.
http://www.rrcc.com/gettingaround.htm
Capitol Police officers question protest organizer Medea Benjamin, center, from Codepink Women For Peace after demonstrators unfurled a banner calling for the firing of President Bush, and protesting support for the war in Iraq in the
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/iraq/082701iraqplane/im:/060922/480/38e95c90181c49308dfdf3c0cf6f8d15;_ylt=Aur5nJ9Pto.zY2DuoDInkdXKps8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-
Unhappy voters imperil heartland Republicans
By Andrea Hopkins / Reuters
MONROE CITY, Indiana - In a dozen districts across the U.S. heartland, voter unhappiness has imperiled Republicans, setting the stage for what could be the biggest anti-incumbent midterm election since 1994.
Pat Wilkerson says U.S. troops and veterans are her first priority, believes family values are important and voted Republican in 2004. But in November she'll switch parties -- though not because Democrats have won her over.
"When I vote now, it's not who I'm voting for, it's who I'm voting against," said the 59-year-old administrator, adding she is fed up with the war in Iraq and wants troops home.
"I think a lot of Republicans who are in office are at risk," Wilkerson said as she watched sweating politicians work the crowd at a town festival in Monroe City in southwest Indiana.
Polls show U.S. voters are overwhelmingly unhappy with the direction of the country.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=199
Rural voters might spell trouble for GOP
By David Yepsen / Des Moines Register
A new poll being released today shows rural voters in battleground states and congressional districts are up for grabs in November’s election.
That could be bad news for Republicans.
The nation’s rural voters are conflicted: While President Bush is more popular with them than he is among all Americans, it’s still not a great rating, and rural voters tend to agree with Democrats on the need to get out of Iraq. They also believe economic growth in the country is uneven.
Since Republicans must count on significant votes from rural areas to offset Democratic margins in more urban places, the poll is likely to be troubling to the GOP.
“Rural is in play,” said Dee Davis, the president of the Center for Rural Strategies, the Whitesburg, Ky., think-tank that commissioned the survey. “Who wins rural matters. The Republicans won’t hold Congress with the rural margins we are seeing now.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=200
The Declaration of Peace
http://www.declarationofpeace.org/
Journalism at Risk
The death knell of newspapers sounds premature
Jack Fuller, a former editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune
Published September 1, 2006
The other day during a visit to one of Chicago's leading civic institutions, the conversation turned to the press.
Everyone in the room was a member of the 50- or 60-something generation and deeply engaged in the life of the city. So naturally they viewed with alarm the toll the Internet has taken on newspapers.
One of the organization's leaders reported direly that a young staff member--who is very civically engaged--said she gets absolutely none of her news from the papers.
It wasn't the first time I had heard this. But it was entirely inaccurate. Not that the staff member was lying. She just didn't realize where news actually comes from.
Nobody gets all his news from media other than newspapers, simply because newspapers originate most of the information that finds its way into all media.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0609010295sep01,1,3013326.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
$20,000 a month for Black means life on the cheap
Published September 1, 2006
Wonder if Conrad Black and wife, Barbara Amiel, have broken out the Ramen noodles yet? A ketchup sandwich, perhaps? Maybe some Spam?
After all, with Black under indictment for looting millions from his old company, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, they're going to have to make ends meet on a mere $20,000 a month, per a Canadian court order.
That might sound like a lot of money, but it's less than the $276,000 Amiel received from the Sun-Times in 2002 for whatever it was that she did, which was no doubt important and absolutely vital but apparently did not require her to actually show up at the paper.
It's a busy time for Black, and he can ill-afford to be distracted by hunger.
He and three other executives for what used to be known as Hollinger International (now the Sun-Times Media Group) are facing federal fraud and racketeering charges in the United States, and they want permission to depose lawyers and accountants who used to do work for their company.
In a filing this week in Chicago, defense lawyers Edward Genson and Mark Martin asked U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to allow them to question a half-dozen attorneys at Toronto's Torys law firm and three accountants at KPMG International.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0609010029sep01,1,5834694.column?coll=chi-business-hed
10 Miami journalists take U.S. pay
At least 10 local journalists accepted U.S. government pay for programs on Radio Martí or TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald fired two of them Thursday for conflict of interest.
By Oscar Corral / Miami Herald
At least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from El Nuevo Herald, received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years.
Those who were paid the most were veteran reporters and a freelance contributor for El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language newspaper published by the corporate parent of The Miami Herald. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and writes an opinion column, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio Martí and TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture, received about $71,000, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covers the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7819
China unveils curbs on foreign news distribution
1.20pm Monday September 11, 2006
BEIJING - China announced rules on Sunday requiring foreign media to seek approval from its state news agency to distribute news, pictures and graphics domestically, and warned against reports that "endanger national security".
The rules, released by Xinhua and with immediate effect, also empowered the news agency to censor news distributed in China by foreign media and delete contents deemed forbidden.
Xinhua did not identify any foreign news agency.
The rules said foreign news, pictures and graphics can be sold in China only through agents approved by Xinhua.
Xinhua will conduct annual reviews to decide whether to renew business licenses of foreign media. Violations can elicit warnings or a grace period to correct mistakes.
Business licenses of foreign news agencies can be suspended or revoked if they break the rules such as publishing objectionable news or directly developing clients.
The rules said foreign news agencies should not carry reports that endanger national security, fan ethnic hatred and racial discrimination or promote cults and superstition.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10400776
Al-Qaeda-linked group says it killed Sudanese newspaper editor
MOHAMED OSMAN
Associated Press
KHARTOUM — A group claiming to be al-Qaeda's branch in Sudan said Tuesday that it killed the chief editor of a Sudanese independent daily who provoked a furor with an article denounced as blasphemous.
The claim in the slaying of Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, whose body was found last week, was issued by a previously unknown group called al-Qaeda in Sudan and Africa. The authenticity of the claim, posted on the website of Al-Arabiya television, could not be independently confirmed.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was based in Sudan until the late 1990s when the government threw him out and he moved to Afghanistan. Since then, members of the group have operated in eastern Africa. But until Tuesday's claim, no group had announced itself as al-Qaeda's branch in Sudan, along the lines of those in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Ahmed, the editor-in-chief of Al-Wifaq, was snatched from his home in eastern Khartoum on Sept. 5 and his body was found a day later.
“Thanks to God's grace, ... execution was carried out against a dog of the dogs of the ruling party, the atheist journalist Mohammed Taha, who defamed our Prophet Mohammed,” the statement said.
It said he was “slaughtered” by three members of the group, who it said fled Khartoum on Thursday. The phrasing has been used by al-Qaeda in Iraq for people it has beheaded, but Sudanese officials have not said whether Mr. Ahmed was decapitated.
The statement was signed “Abu Hafs al-Sudani,” identified as the group's leader. It was e-mailed to several Sudanese papers Tuesday, according to Al-Arabiya.
Mr. Ahmed sparked controversy last year after his paper republished an article from the Internet that questioned the parentage of the Prophet Mohammed. In May, 2005, scores of Sudanese gathered in front of the capital's courthouse demanding a death sentence for Mr. Ahmed.
The paper was temporarily suspended by the government and was eventually fined more than $3,000. Mr. Ahmed apologized in a letter to the press saying he did not intend to insult the prophet. Blasphemy and insulting Islam can bring the death penalty in Sudan, which has been governed by strict Islamic Sharia law since 1983.
Major General Abdel Azeem al-Rufai, the operations director for the National Security and Intelligence Service, said authorities investigating Mr. Ahmed's death “do not rule out involvement of external hands, which could be revealed later.”
Mr. Bin Laden has pointed to Sudan as a possible front for al-Qaeda attacks. In an April audiotape, he called on militants to attack UN peacekeepers if they deploy in the country's war-torn western region of Darfur.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060913.wsudan0913/BNStory/International/home
SF Chronicle Reporters to Be Jailed
By MARCUS WOHLSEN
SAN FRANCISCO - Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters were ordered jailed Thursday for a maximum 18 months, pending an appeal, for refusing to testify about who leaked them secret grand jury testimony from Barry Bonds and other elite athletes.
Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada published a series of articles and a book based partly on the leaked transcripts of the testimony of Bonds, Jason Giambi and others before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a Burlingame-based nutritional supplement company exposed as a steroid ring two years ago.
Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White to send the reporters to prison for the full term of the grand jury investigating the leak, or until they agree to testify. Both sides agreed to stay the ruling pending an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Williams and Fainaru-Wada have said repeatedly they would go to jail rather than comply with the grand jury's subpoena and reveal their source or sources.
The reporters agreed with the government that they are in contempt of court, but had sought a "nominal monetary fine" and other punishment "short of full blown incarceration," including house arrest and weekend jailing, according to court documents.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/09/22/ap/sports/d8k9jgqo0.txt
Judge says journalists in BALCO case must be jailed
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A federal judge said on Thursday the two journalists who refused to reveal their source in the BALCO steroids scandal should go to prison, but he would not implement his decision pending an appeal of the case.
San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams have declined to name the source who allowed them access to transcripts of grand jury testimony from top athletes involved in the long-running doping probe, including San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds.
"The only appropriate sentence is to incarcerate these two individuals," said U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White.
Last month, White had ruled they must disclose the source. Unauthorized distribution of grand jury transcripts is a crime.
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6097151,00.html
Iran Cracks Down on Dissenters
by Mike Shuster
All Things Considered, September 21, 2006 · In Iran, journalists, reformers, and student activists feared that the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might lead to repressive policies and restrictions. After a year of comparative calm, however, observers say that it now appears that their fears were justified.
Iran's government has recently jailed several prominent students and activists -- and at least one has died in prison under mysterious circumstances.
Within the past three months, at least two political deaths have occurred in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. One was a longtime political prisoner who the authorities said suffered a heart attack during a hunger strike.
Another was Akbar Mohammadi, a student activist who has been in and out of prisons for the past six years. He, too, died during a hunger strike. Mohammadi was buried before his parents could see his body, prompting suspicions that he was tortured or beaten.
As for the crackdown on journalists, the government has just closed Iran's most prominent and popular daily newspaper, Shargh, which means "East" in Farsi. The offending material, according to sources in Iran, was a front-page cartoon depicting President Ahmadinejad as a donkey.
The government also convicted a prominent reform journalist, Issa Saharkhiz, for his critical writing about Iran's Supreme Religious Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Saharkhiz is appealing his case and remains out of prison for the moment.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6119289
Correspondent detained by Iraqi security forces
New York, September 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the arrest and detention of a reporter in Tikrit today. Kalshan al-Bayati, 33, an Iraqi correspondent for the London-based, Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat, was arrested by Iraqi forces around noon when she went to collect her previously confiscated personal computer from local authorities, according to CPJ sources.
Al-Bayati appeared before a judge in Tikrit, about 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of Baghdad, and remanded to a women’s prison in the city, her sister told CPJ. It was not immediately clear whether she had been formally charged.
Al-Bayati had been jailed for three days earlier this month before being released by local authorities, according to news reports and CPJ sources. Iraqi forces raided al-Bayati’s house in al-Zuhour neighborhood of Tikrit early on September 11, arresting her and seizing her personal computer, notes, and articles, those sources said. Al-Hayat quoted al-Bayati at the time as saying that security authorities investigated her for possible ties to insurgents but found no link. Her brother Najad was also arrested at the time; his status could not be immediately determined.
Al-Bayati had been working on an article for the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat about insurgents in Saleheddin province when she was first detained by security forces, according to CPJ sources. Her prior reporting had been critical of security forces in Tikrit.
“We are troubled that Kalshan al-Bayati has been detained twice in a month,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “We call on Iraqi authorities to make public the evidence against al-Bayati immediately or release her at once.”
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/mideast/iraq20sept06na.html
Blogger to do time for keeping protest video
September 20 2006 at 07:28PM
San Francisco - A US blogger was on his way back to jail on Wednesday for refusing to give a federal grand jury raw videotape he took of a G8 summit protest that turned violent in San Francisco.
At the request of prosecutors, a three-judge Ninth circuit court of appeals panel revoked Josh Wolf's bail and ordered him to either hand over the unedited video by midday Wednesday or be returned to a federal detention centre.
Wolf, 24, would turn himself in at the deadline to begin serving time anew in the case, according to his lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes.
Wolf was jailed for a month before being granted bail while he appealed the contempt finding.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1158772862142U253
BURUNDI: Journalist jailed for five months for remarks in a bar
New York, September 19, 2006—A reporter for the Burundian state news agency was sentenced to five months in jail on Monday for slandering the state in a private barroom conversation, according to media reports and the journalist’s lawyer. Aloys Kabura, a correspondent for Agence Burundaise de Presse in the northern province of Kayenza, has been in prison since May 31 after a conversation in which he criticized police in Bujumbura for attacking journalists on April 17.
Defense lawyer Raphael Gahungu told CPJ that Kabura’s imprisonment had no legal basis but was part of a government clampdown on critical journalists. The charge— speaking words deemed harmful to the state—is based on a conversation in which Kabura made critical comments to a state intelligence agent. The government alleged that the comments included a slur, but Gahungu said his client disputed that characterization.
CPJ sources speculate that Kabura is being punished for his reporting on alleged corruption. The sources noted that police had detained Kabura in March in connection with a story alleging police involvement in a purported sugar trading scandal.
Evode Ndayizigiye, Agence Burundaise de Presse editor, called the detention illegal and said that the court should have ordered Kabura’s immediate release, The Associated Press reported.
“It is a staggering indictment of Burundi’s justice system that a journalist can be hauled off to prison for remarks made in a private conversation in a bar,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “We call on authorities to release Kabura immediately.”
Kabura’s detention is part of a pattern of press freedom abuses in Burundi. In August, police raided the home of Alexis Sinduhije, director of private radio station Radio Publique Africaine, and stopped local broadcasts of RPA in the northern province of Ngozi. Sinduhije, a 2004 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, said the moves were in retaliation for his station’s critical reporting, especially in the wake of an alleged coup attempt in March. Several leading opposition figures have been jailed in connection with the alleged attempt.
Gabriel Nikundana, editor of another private station, Radio Isanganiro, has also complained of threats after his station aired an interview in August that cast doubt on the veracity of the coup attempt.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/burundi19sept06na.html
2 Chronicle reporters at center of media, government standoff
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Two Chronicle reporters will appear in court Thursday to tell a federal judge why they shouldn't be jailed for refusing to reveal who leaked them confidential grand jury testimony they reported in exposing the use of performance-enhancing drugs by elite athletes.
The articles by the reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, helped change the culture of sports, inspiring a tougher steroids policy in Major League Baseball and creating a greater awareness of the abuse of steroids among young athletes. And it was precisely those confidential documents that made the stories so potent, the reporters say.
If San Francisco U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White orders Williams and Fainaru-Wada jailed for refusing to reveal their source or sources, analysts say, the larger impact will be a chilling effect on all sorts of investigative reporting. Some legal and journalism experts say that chill is already going on, as the Bush administration has aggressively pushed to plug leaks at all levels of government, not just those involving national security.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/20/MNGNDL90AR1.DTL
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO :
Journalist jailed for more than a week over corruption allegations
New York, September 20, 2006—A journalist has been jailed for the past week and charged with defamation over a story that alleged corruption by a top tax official, according to local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger (JED) and a public official. Feu d’Or Bosange, editor of private newspaper Tapis Rouge (Red Carpet) has since retracted the story but remains in jail, according to the same sources.
Bosange was arrested on September 12 in connection with an August 16 article headlined “Scandal at the DGI,” a copy of which CPJ obtained. The article alleged that the director of the General Directorate of Taxation (DGI), Sam Bokolombe, had embezzled public funds. In an interview with CPJ today, Bokolombe said accusations were untrue. He noted that police summoned him for questioning following the article’s publication.
On Tuesday, Bosange retracted his story and apologized in his paper, according to JED and Bokolombe. Bokolombe told CPJ that the journalist would be released once he writes a personal letter of apology. Other press and public officials contacted by CPJ could not provide details.
Bosange was first held in a lockup of the judicial police, before being transferred to Kinshasa central prison on September 16, according to JED.
“Regardless of the quality of the story, this should not be a criminal matter,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “Feu d’Or Bosange should be released immediately, and any legal proceeding should be handled in civil court.”
This is not the first time that Bosange has been jailed for his work. In December 2004, he was held for six days over a December 16, 2004, article accusing national tax office directors of corruption. Journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo face a constant threat of imprisonment under the country’s archaic defamation laws.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/drc20sept06na.html
CHINA: Founder of popular Aegean Sea Web site arrested
New York, September 20, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the arrest in China of the founder of Aegean Sea, the popular Web site closed down March 9. Zhang Jianhong was detained September 6 on allegations of “inciting subversion” through his online political essays, according to news reports and CPJ sources. Zhang’s most recent Internet essay, written under the pen name Li Hong, was sharply critical of the government’s treatment of Chinese citizens two years ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Zhang’s detention comes amid a sustained crackdown on dissident journalists, essayists, activists, lawyers and scholars who use the Internet to advocate for citizens’ rights, protest human rights abuses or call for greater democracy. Activist Yang Maodong (who goes by the pen name Guo Feixiong), and China Democracy Party activist Chen Shuqing were jailed last week on charges of illegal publishing and inciting subversion through their online writings.
“China, which invited international scrutiny when it agreed to host the 2008 Olympic Games, remains determined to stifle all domestic criticism,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “We call on the authorities to release Zhang Jianhong immediately, and abide by the commitments that the government has made ahead of the Games to allow media freedoms.”
Authorities have not clarified their allegations against Zhang, but many of his essays were highly critical of central government actions. An essay written two days before his detention called attention to international organizations’ criticism of the government’s human rights record and in particular the poor treatment of journalists and their sources two years before the start of the Olympics. Zhang referred to the situation as “Olympicgate.”
Police took Zhang from his home in Ningbo, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, according to Chinese-language online news reports and CPJ sources. His computer equipment was confiscated and his family was later notified by the local Public Security Bureau that he had been arrested on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state authority,” a crime that brings a prison sentence of several years.
Zhang, 48, was a founder and editor of the popular literary and news Web site Aegean Sea (Aiqinhai) until it was closed in March for unauthorized posting of international and domestic news. He had also been a recent contributor to several U.S.-based Chinese-language Web sites, including Boxun, the pro-democracy forum Minzhu Luntan, and Epoch Times, which is affiliated with the banned Chinese religious group Falun Gong.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/asia/china20sept06na.html
AP Counters Blog Charges Against Jailed Photog
Published: September 19, 2006 9:15 PM ET
NEW YORK The U.S. military's imprisonment of an Associated Press photographer in Iraq has spurred a new round of debate about the role of journalists in a war zone, especially those covering insurgents and terrorists.
Internet critics of the news media said the AP's announcement on Sunday that Bilal Hussein, who covered the war in Fallujah and Ramadi, was in a U.S. military prison as a security threat was vindication of their accusations that he was aiding the enemy.
But advocates of the press coverage questioned whether the critics wanted to block any coverage that doesn't portray the U.S. policy in the best light. An independent press must fully and accurately cover a conflict from all sides, they said.
On Tuesday, the international group Reporters Without Borders formally called for the U.S. military to charge Hussein or release him. "We call on the U.S. authorities to put an immediate end to this violation of the rule of law," it said in a statement.
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003124699
10 Western Media Stereotypes About Russia: How Truthful Are They?
Download the PDF version of the report
Special Report by The Real Russia Project of Discovery Institute
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. media’s overarching, if unspoken, perception of Russia and Eastern Europe is that this region doesn’t matter much any more. Though some still see Russia as a dangerous enemy, most mainstream media appear to have lost interest in what happens there, except for occasional sensational events. As a result, there is inadequate awareness in America of the fascinating cultural, political and economic developments taking place in today’s Russia.
Relying on old Cold War stereotypes ignores centuries of Russia’s history and shows a lack of curiosity about its future. Such indifference is not in the interest of America or its citizens, and it threatens to shut down imagination about potential cooperative relations with Russia and her neighbors. The Real Russia Project aims to focus on the emerging new Russia with accurate and fair reporting and analysis—without fear or favor.
Ambassador Bruce Chapman
President of Discovery Institute
Click the extended post link to read the text version of the report
1 -- Putin is a former KGB agent who is suppressing opposition and accumulating power
“He has beaten all his adversaries: independent media, oligarchs, regional governors, communists, liberal parties, the parliament as such and even the government apparatus. The power they once wielded is being seized by Mr Putin’s KGB friends ... the KGB men move into the commanding heights of the economy … a whole floor of former or current KGB in newly prominent positions on the president’s staff.” (“Putin’s Quest for Power is Harming Russia” by Anders Aslund, Carnegie Endowment; Financial Times, August 23, 2004)
RussiaBlog: Like many others in the Russian elite, it is true Putin was once a KGB officer. The KGB, however, no longer exists; it disintegrated in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union. And by the early 1980s, the organization had been almost completely transformed. One thing KGB became known for was hiring bright, capable young people. If Putin was preoccupied with power, he would be seeking a third term as a President, but he has made it clear that he has no such desire. After all, he could be drawing a higher salary with less pressure as the head of Gazprom.
Liberal democratic parties in Russia are largely unpopular for their association with Yeltsin’s corrupt regime; they lack the ability to unite as one oppositional force and do not have a clear economic or political plan for the nation. Many Russians greeted the abolition of direct governors’ elections with relief because the governors lacked accountability and were violently abusing their powers. Many criminals and oligarchs were buying their way into legal immunity with bribes during election campaigns.
The years 2005 and 2006 have been especially rich with dissent and protests. The still-popular Communist Party marched alongside Russian fascists in Moscow on May 1, 2006, displaying anti-government banners, including one which read, “Putin and successors go to hell!” Consider, by contrast, how unlikely an anti-government march of that kind would be in Iran, China or North Korea.
http://www.russiablog.org/2006/09/10_western_media_stereotypes_a.html
Eritrea: Journalists Still Jailed Incommunicado After Five Years, Brutal Conditions And Three Deaths Reported
Committee to Protect Journalists (New York)
PRESS RELEASE
September 19, 2006
Posted to the web September 19, 2006
Five years after Eritrea's brutal crackdown on the independent press, the Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the release of 13 journalists held incommunicado in secret jails and two other journalists forced into extended military service. Basic information about the jailed journalists - most of whom were swept up in a September 18, 2001, crackdown - has become nearly impossible to obtain from official sources in Africa's most repressive country. But a recent report circulated on several Web sites, and deemed by CPJ sources to be generally credible, paints a picture of brutal prison conditions.
"Not only is the government continuing to hold these prisoners without charge or trial, it is withholding even the most basic information about them - including whether they are still alive," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. "Eritrea's blatant disregard for human rights and due process makes it the worst jailer of journalists in Africa."
With 15 journalists in prison or otherwise deprived of their liberty, Eritrea is also the fourth leading jailer of journalists in the world after China, Cuba and Ethiopia. Most of the journalists were jailed in a crackdown in which the government swept up opposition leaders and shut down the entire private press. At the time, Eritrean officials variously accused the journalists of avoiding the military draft, threatening national security, and failing to observe licensing requirements, but CPJ research indicates that they were targeted as part of a drive to suppress political dissent ahead of scheduled elections, which the government subsequently canceled without explanation. Since then, the Eritrean government has refused to divulge any information about the prisoners' whereabouts or conditions.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200609190774.html
Journo jailed for criticising cops
19/09/2006 13:49 - (SA)
Bujumbura - A reporter for the government's official news agency has been sentenced to five months in jail for criticising police - not in print, but in conversation during a night out at a bar in Burundi.
According to a court official who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said: Aloys Kabura, 36, was sentenced on Monday on charges of "contempt in relation to the established powers". Kabura was not working when he made the comments.
Evode Ndayizigiye, the government news agency's chief editor, said: "I still believe that his detention is irregular. The court has taken a whole month to deliberate on the case. My feeling is that they must release him immediately."
30 journalists arrested
Kabura was detained on May 31 after he criticised police for beating journalists who were at the home of an ousted ruling party official for a press conference in April.
Police were demanding that reporters hand over material recorded at the press conference to intelligence officers.
Some 30 journalists were held at the politician's home for six hours before being released without handing over their material. Others were taken to hospital for injuries suffered during the confrontation.
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2000915,00.html
9th Circuit: Freelancer must return to jail
By The Associated Press
09.19.06
SAN FRANCISCO — A freelance video journalist who has refused a federal grand jury's subpoena to turn over his footage of a political protest will return to jail, after an appeals court ordered his bail revoked.
Yesterday's order by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came a week after the same panel upheld a lower court's decision to hold Josh Wolf in contempt.
Wolf, who argues that reporters should be shielded from revealing confidential sources and unpublished material to federal authorities, plans to turn himself in at the federal prison in Dublin before tomorrow's 1 p.m. deadline, said Jose Luis Fuentes, one of Wolf's attorneys.
A grand jury investigating the July 2005 protest during the G-8 economic summit subpoenaed Wolf to acquire 30 minutes of unpublished material, but he refused and was jailed Aug. 1.
The appeals court allowed Wolf to be freed on bail a month later while it considered his case.
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=17411
Libel suits by president's husband raise fears for press freedom
fears for press freedom
By Carlos H. Conde International Herald Tribune
Published: September 19, 2006
MANILA A flurry of libel cases filed against dozens of journalists by the husband of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has heightened concerns that press freedom in the Philippines, long envied in Asia, is fast deteriorating.
Jose Miguel Arroyo, the president's husband, has sued 42 journalists, columnists, editors and even subscription managers, for stories and commentary that accused him, directly or through innuendo, of corruption and of using his wife's position for personal gain.
Arroyo has also allegedly ordered the axing of television and radio programs that were critical of him. Two columnists who wrote about the cancellation of one such program have also been sued.
Journalists' groups have expressed alarm over Arroyo's libel suits, which he began filing in 2005, saying that they contribute to the deterioration of freedom of expression in the Philippines, where the press is widely regarded as Asia's freest and most rambunctious.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/19/news/phils.php
UNESCO chief voices ‘grave concern’ over death of jailed journalist in Turkmenistan
Koïchiro Matsuura
19 September 2006 – The head of the United Nations organization entrusted with defending freedom of expression and the press today voiced “grave concern” over the death in jail of a Turkmen journalist and called on the authorities of the former Soviet Central Asian country to investigate the circumstances and try those responsible in the event of foul play.
“Using force to silence a journalist is an unacceptable crime against an individual, against the basic human right of freedom of expression and against society as a whole, which relies on the media to make informed choices,” UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the children of Ogulsapar Muradova, 58, a former correspondent of United States stations Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty who was sentenced to six years in prison last month alongside two other human rights activists, identified her body in the morgue of Ashgabat , Turkmenistan’s capital, on 14 September.
Witnesses reported seeing a head wound and many other marks on the rest of her body, RSF said.
Over the weekend, The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed serious concern over Ms Muradova’s death and urged the authorities to launch a full and independent investigation into what happened.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty had voiced serious concern about her trial which was held behind closed doors.
UNESCO has a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom, and Mr. Matsuura has issued frequent condemnations of the murder of journalists around the world.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19885&Cr=UNESCO&Cr1=press
A little dated
Press Freedom Awards Honor Chinese, Brazilian, Uzbek Journalists, Zimbabwean Lawyer
By Barbara Schoetzau
New York
22 November 2005
The recipients of the 2005 Independent Press Freedom awards include a jailed Chinese Internet journalist, an exiled Uzbek correspondent and a pioneering Brazilian editor. And for the first time, the independent Committee to Protect Journalists is also honoring a lawyer with its annual award in New York Tuesday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, gives its annual awards to journalists who put their lives at risk in order to do their jobs. An increasing number of journalists are doing just that, according to the group's director, Ann Cooper. She says media freedom is deteriorating, partly due to the war on terrorism.
"Increasingly, governments see that they can crack down on the press and use the excuse of fighting terrorism to justify their crackdowns," said Ms. Cooper. "Some of them even occasionally accuse journalists themselves of being terrorists or of aiding and abetting terrorism just because they're reporting on terrorist groups or perhaps doing an interview with a leader who the government doesn't want shown on TV or heard on the radio."
Ms. Cooper says the Philippines tops the group's list of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, followed by Iraq, Bangladesh, Russia and Colombia.
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-11/2005-11-22-voa58.cfm?CFID=53926708&CFTOKEN=32856191
BANGLADESH: Journos hit out at move for punitive provision
Journalists criticize proposed provision granting the Press Council greater power to control the media
The Daily Star
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Eminent journalists yesterday strongly criticised Bangladesh Press Council chairman's suggestion for adding a punitive provision to the council's law.
"He should have held open and in-depth consultation with working journalists, editors and publishers before making any suggestions for a law to give punitive power to the press council," Ataus Samad, advisory editor of the daily Amar Desh, said.
President of Jatiya Press Club Reazuddin Ahmed said such a punitive provision goes against the very concept of the Press Council.
Besides, Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) in a statement said it would never accept any initiative to enact a law to control the journalists.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=34297
BANGLADESH: Govt decides to form judicial probe body
Judicial body will investigate Apr. 16 police attack on journalists at Chittagong stadium
Daily Star
Friday, April 21, 2006
The government yesterday decided to form a one-member judicial enquiry commission to probe the police atrocities on journalists at Bir Sreshtha Shaheed Ruhul Amin Stadium in Chittagong on April 16.
A seven-member body was also constituted to suggest compensation and treatment for the journalists after assessing the damage.
Following successful talks between the Sangbadik-Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SSKOP) and the government, the agitating sports journalists, who had been boycotting the coverage of Bangladesh-Australia second Test match, withdrew all agitation programmes and resumed covering the Test match and all other sports news from yesterday.
As protest and condemnation continued fifth day into the police atrocities yesterday, State Ministers for Home Lutfozzaman Babar, State Minister for Youth and Sports Fazlur Rahman and Deputy Information Minister Abdus Salam Pintu sat with SSKOP leaders at the home ministry yesterday.
SSKOP co-convenors Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Fazle Imam and Mozammel Haque, Member Secretary Ruhul Amin Gazi, joint member secretaries Motiur Rahman Talukder and Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul were present among the Parishad leaders.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southasia.asp?parentid=43754
BANGLADESH: Photojournalist arrested on extortion charge
Owner of computer centre claims Ittefaq photographer demanded toll
Daily Star
Monday, April 24, 2006
Police arrested a photojournalist on charge of extortion in Rajshahi city yesterday.
Boalia police said they arrested Nazrul Islam Zulu, who works for the daily Ittefaq, and sent him to jail custody as he was found involved in an extortion case in a primary police investigation.
Shamsur Rahman Rumu, owner of a computer centre at Seroil area, filed a case accusing Zulu that he demanded Tk 20,000 as toll from the trader.
Zulu also threatened him to kill when he declined to pay, the trader alleged.
Police said Zulu was accused in two other cases including one for assaulting a ward commissioner.
He was earlier arrested twice a few months ago, but was released for he was carrying anticipatory bail from the higher court.
Date Posted: 4/24/2006
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southasia.asp?parentid=43898
BANGLADESH: Police attack on journalists
Protests call for dismissal of policemen involved in the attack on journalists at Chittagong stadium
Daily Star
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Amid countrywide protests against Sunday's police attack on journalists during Bangladesh-Australia test match at the Chittagong stadium, the authorities yesterday suspended a police sergeant and closed the deputy commissioner (port), who led the attack.
Journalists, political leaders, artists, intellectuals and sports organisers yesterday staged angry protests in the capital, Chittagong and elsewhere in the country against the police attack in which at least 20 journalists were injured.
They demanded that the government dismisses and arrests DC (Port) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Ali Akbar Khan and other policemen involved in the assault on journalists within the next 24 hours.
Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) decided to observe a token work stoppage in all newspapers and news agencies from 10:00am to 2:00pm on Wednesday if their demands are not met by today.
The programmes were announced from a protest rally organised by BFUJ and DUJ outside the National Press Club yesterday.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southasia.asp?parentid=43429
ETHIOPIA:
Two more journalists detained as police raid newspapers
and local journalists' association
New York, November 28, 2005— Ethiopian authorities have arrested another two journalists bringing the number detained since political unrest erupted four weeks ago to at least 12. Sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Serkalem Fassil, publisher of the Amharic-language weeklies Menilik, Asqual and Satanaw, and her husband Iskinder Nega who is also a journalist, were being held at an undisclosed location. Security forces raided the offices shared by the three publications in Addis Ababa on November 22, they said.
Last week, police also raided the offices of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA), in the capital, seizing computers and documents, sources told CPJ.
"The ongoing crackdown on the private press in Ethiopia is an outrage," said Ann Cooper, CPJ Executive Director. "The government must stop its attempt to shutter the entire local press, and release all jailed journalists immediately."
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Ethiopia28nov05na.html
Ethiopia - 22 journalists imprisoned
Eskinder Nega, Serkalem Publishing Enterprise
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15980
continued …
Matthews: ‘I Have Been…Against This Bullshit War From The Beginning’
This morning on Imus, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews blasted the media for not covering the Iraq war. Matthews said that while people are still fighting and dying the Iraq, war “has been taken off television, and Bush must love it.”
Matthews said that most of the media was sold a bill of goods by the Bush administration, but that he’s been “a voice out there against this bullshit war from the beginning.” He added that Cheney was “totally wrong” about Iraq but still “talks like God on television, and we are supposed to believe every word.” Watch it:
Digg It!
Transcript:
MATTHEWS: It is like we are at war — we have killed 15,000 people that died over there in that war, we still get guys knocked off every couple of days, a couple more guys are killed — and yet it is not on the tube. It’s like, are we bored with the war now? Is that the new thing? We don’t cover a war guys are fighting? And I watch the news, I don’t see the war any more. It has been taken off television, and Bush must love it. Certainly Karl Rove loves the fact that the Iraq War has gotten boring for the American people.
IMUS: It probably had something to do with the tainted spinach, you know, if you’ve been thinking about it.
MATTHEWS: How can we be in a war and not watch it?
IMUS: Well, I don’t know, that’s a good question.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/21/matthews-against-war/
Matthews claimed he has opposed Iraq war "from the beginning," that media coverage of war "sucks" -- but he has frequently contributed to problematic war reporting
Summary: Chris Matthews complained that the news media "sucks lately in covering the Iraq war," later asserting, "I have been a voice out there against this bullshit war from the beginning." But Media Matters has documented numerous instances during the past three years in which Matthews lauded President Bush's handling of the war, advanced false and misleading claims about the war, and attacked Democratic critics of the war.
On the September 21 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, Hardball host Chris Matthews complained that the news media "sucks lately in covering the Iraq war," later asserting, "I have been a voice out there against this bullshit war from the beginning." Matthews further challenged host Don Imus to "check everything -- get your Nexis-Lexis out, get your Google out ... every column I've written from the day they started talking about Iraq has been against it."
However, Media Matters for America has documented numerous instances during the past three years in which Matthews lauded President Bush's handling of the war, advanced false and misleading claims about the war, and attacked Democratic critics of the war. Matthews has also repeatedly expressed support in recent months for two potential 2008 Republican presidential candidates, Sen. John R. McCain (AZ) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, each of whom has been supportive of the war and Bush. In fact, as recently as September 19, Matthews wondered "whether there is a strong, serious alternative to the president's philosophy, which is this sort of neoconservative, we're going to go around the world and democratize other countries with force. I don't know whether there's a strong counter to that at a time of terrorism, and I'm waiting to see if there is one, a strong alternative which says, 'We can create peace, create less enemies, and we can have less terrorism if we do a different thing than he's doing.' "
http://mediamatters.org/items/200609210010
Iraq torture report by UN angers Washington
By Tim Reid of The Times in Washington
The Bush Administration angrily rejected a claim by a United Nations official today that more Iraqis are being tortured now than when Saddam Hussein was in power.
Manfred Nowak, the UN's chief anti-torture campaigner, has never been to Iraq but said he based his claim on interviews with people in Amman, Jordan and other sources.
"What most people tell you is that the situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand," Mr Nowak said in Geneva.
"The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein."
Nowak, an Austrian law professor, was speaking following a UN report which showed that the number of Iraqi citizens killed in July and August was 6,599, a record-high number.
More than 5,100 were murdered in Baghdad and many victims had been tortured. Violent civilian deaths in July reached an unprecedented 3,590, an average of more than 100 a day.
A State Department official in Washington, asked about Professor Nowak's comments, told The Times: "How anyone could compare state-sanctioned torture under a dictator to the situation today is beyond us.
"We definitely don't agree with his remarks. We don't agree with his assessment of the situation at all."
According to the UN report, torture is rampant in Iraqi detention centres and in sectarian killings across the country.
Bodies found in the Baghdad morgue "often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones - back, hands and legs - missing eyes, missing teeth and wound caused by power drill or nails," the report said.
"You have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have these militias. There are so many people who are actually abducted, seriously tortured and finally killed," Mr Nowak said.
"It’s not just torture by the government. There are much more brutal methods of torture you’ll find by private militias," he added.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2368770,00.html
U.S. threatened to bomb Pakistan after 9/11: Musharraf
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf (R) salutes members of the House International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, September 21, 2006. (REUTERS/Jim Young)
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss September 21, 2006
NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that after the September 11 attacks the United States threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with America's campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Musharraf, in an interview with CBS news magazine show "60 Minutes" that will air on Sunday, said the threat came from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was given to Musharraf's intelligence director.
"The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, 'Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,"' Musharraf said. "I think it was a very rude remark."
Armitage was not immediately available to comment. A Bush administration official said there would be no comment on a "reported conversation between Mr. Armitage and a Pakistani official."
But the official said: "After 9/11, Pakistan made a strategic decision to join the war on terror and has since been
a steadfast partner in that effort. Pakistan's commitment to this important endeavor has not wavered and our partnership has widened as a result."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/09/21/musharraf_us_threatened_to_bomb_pakistan_after_911/
Top U.S. Leader On S. America Warns Against Venezuela
September 21, 2006 6:35 p.m. EST
Matthew Borghese - All Headline News Staff Writer
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A U.S. military commander says Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez continues to export political instability to Latin America.
Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, the outgoing head of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees South America, says Chavez has become "bigger than a nuisance."
"I think there's an exporting of instability coming out of Venezuela. I think it's unfortunate. There's a glut of money there from oil. Money talks in a lot of parts of the world. It buys things, influence."
According to the Pentagon, Craddock's comments came on the same day Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called President Bush "a devil" during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. The general said the United States should take such inflammatory speeches seriously.
Improving relations between Venezuela and Iran is also "of concern." The General adds, "We have to watch that."
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004940286
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez boosts heating oil program for U.S. poor
Ian James, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, September 21, 2006
NEW YORK (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited a Harlem church Thursday and promised to more than double the amount of discounted heating oil his country ships to needy Americans, while he also took another sharp swipe at U.S. President George W. Bush.
A day after he called Bush "the devil" in a speech to the UN General Assembly, Chavez said of the president: "He's an alcoholic and a sick man."
Chavez received a round of applause from the crowd at Mount Olivet Baptist Church, which included activists and other supporters as well as actor Danny Glover.
Bush has acknowledged that he had a drinking problem when he was young but gave up alcohol 20 years ago.
Chavez also called Bush's policies in Iraq criminal, adding he hopes Americans will before long "awaken" and elect a better president. The Venezuelan leader said that while he opposes Bush, the American people "are our friends."
Some in the church laughed and applauded when Chavez compared Bush to the cowboy movie icon John Wayne.
Chavez also announced that Citgo, the U.S.-based refining arm of Venezuela's state-run oil company, plans to more than double the amount of discounted heating oil it is offering Americans this winter to 380 million litres, up from 150 million litres.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=d7785063-3c00-454f-a59d-d3f2a23d7668&k=38778
CHAVEZ'S ANTI-U.S. FERVOR
Emerging force among nonaligned nations
Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, September 21, 2006
He pops up almost everywhere -- Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America and this week at the United Nations, denouncing U.S. policy with revolutionary fervor.
Like a recurring bad dream for the Bush administration, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is molding himself into one of the world's most pre-eminent anti-American leaders.
Days before he addressed the United Nations -- where he called President Bush the devil Wednesday -- Chavez hosted the equally anti-American Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Caracas. They cemented an increasingly close alliance by signing more than 20 trade and investment deals, and Chavez promised to cut off oil supplies to the United States in the event of a U.S. military attack on Iran.
At last week's summit in Cuba of the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement, Chavez emerged as the heir apparent of the movement's longtime patron, the ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro. However, Chavez has something Castro never had -- huge oil revenues that will last for decades to come.
"Unlike Castro, who depended on the Soviet Union, Chavez is completely independent economically, which gives him a large margin to maneuver," said Luis Lander, a professor of social sciences at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas.
Although Chavez came to power in 1999, his global influence has expanded dramatically in the past two years as his oil revenues boomed. He is pouring aid into leftist allies Cuba and Bolivia, providing discounted oil to Caribbean and Central American nations, buying high-tech weaponry from Russia and even spreading Venezuelan wealth around western Africa. If Venezuela succeeds in its attempt to gain a two-year rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council, Chavez will have a big new megaphone on the global stage.
"Chavez is wildly popular in places where you wouldn't imagine people had even heard of him," said Carlos Mendoza, who was Venezuela's ambassador to Russia until last year and previously was ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "In the (Persian) Gulf states, for example, everyone knows who he is, they admire him and love him."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/21/MNGPDL9LS51.DTL
At least six buyout firms interested in Telecom Italia - report
09.22.2006, 12:57 AM
HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - At least six private-equity firms are interested in the assets of Telecom Italia SpA, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition, citing people familiar with the situation.
A number of the firms have held talks with Italian businessman Mario Resca, chairman of MCDonald's Italy, in connection with his plans for the company, the report said.
At least one consortium has been formed to look at Telecom Italia, it said, identifying the group as comprising Texas Pacific Group, Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners Inc.
It is unclear whether this group or any of its members were involved in talks with Resca, but other buyout firms including Bain Capital LLC of the US and Permira of Germany were among those talking with Resca, the report said.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/09/21/afx3037103.html
NASA needs the slam-bang tang reminiscent of its impetuous youth - not privatization
By Llewellyn King
(EDITORS: The writer is addressing the question, "Can the U.S. revive its space program by abolishing NASA and turning over its functions to the private sector?")
WASHINGTON - It is true NASA gave us Tang, the awful synthetic orange drink that was concocted for astronauts. But it has given us much, much, much more. It has given us the life we live today, from satellite communications to GPS navigation.
Its contribution in materials has revolutionized the clothes we wear, the sporting equipment we use, and the medical devices that prolong our lives. As might be expected, modern aircraft are chock full of NASA-generated technology. Watch any large aircraft at an airport and note the vertical fins on the tips of the wings, known as winglets. These reduce the turbulence coming off of the wings. But they are only a visual indication of the NASA goodies that make modern aircraft safer, stronger and more efficient.
Unfortunately, much of the sheen has come off of NASA. It has faded in public esteem. And without its glamour, it no longer attracts the best engineers and scientists.
It is also suffering from years of political interference. John F. Kennedy told NASA to get to the moon. Today, politicians want to tell NASA how to get there, in what vehicle, and with which contractors.
As recently as the 1970s, NASA was still the super-agency - so much so that when the energy crisis struck, many people looked to NASA to come up with solutions. NASA was invincible.
Not so today. It looks sclerotic, bumbling and unable to perform safely.
Now, some of the people who question NASA and interfere with its objectives and aspirations have a solution: privatize it. How would this be done? Would it be sold to one of the contractors who is already a NASA contractor, such as Boeing or the ubiquitous Carlyle Group, which has large satellite holdings?
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_4375290
Carlyle to Build Massive Logistics Center in Hamburg
September 22, 2006
By Marshall Taylor, European Correspondent
Wulf Meinel
The Carlyle Group, the global private equity firm, has inked a deal with H&M Hennes & Mauritz, a European clothing retailer, to build a 1.5 million square-foot warehouse and distribution center for H&M in Hamburg. H&M has signed a 15-year lease for the logistics center, which will supply H&M stores in Germany and the Netherlands. Carlyle is committing close to a €100 million (U.S.$128 million) to the project, which is being developed on land it acquired from the city of Hamburg.
"The deal is structured as a 100-percent participation for Carlyle Europe Real Estate Partners II, our opportunistic property fund," Wulf Meinel (pictured), managing director at The Carlyle Group, told CPN. "This is our fourth investment in Hamburg, and we're confident that this is the best of all German markets in take up and rent performance. Hamburg is situated in a very export-related regional economy and it has always been a strong logistics market."
Meinel noted that the H&M build-to-suit deal will generate an income yield "a little bit higher than 7 percent." He said, "Today in Germany property returns are seen in an international context. German income yields of 5- to 7-percent are globally arbitraged."
Carlyle now has invested €350 million (U.S.$448 million) in Germany, which represents 20 percent of the firm's global real estate investments. "Our target markets are Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Dusseldorf," Meinel said. In Hamburg, in addition to the H&M center, Carlyle has invested in two speculative central-business-district office and retail buildings under development and an office/warehouse facility.
http://www.cpnonline.com/cpn/property_type/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003155782
Church to defy IRS summons
By Janette Williams Staff Writer
Video: All Saints Church
PASADENA - All Saints Church leaders defiantly vowed Thursday to take the IRS to court, challenging the tax agency's right to demand records relating to a politically themed guest sermon delivered just before the 2004 presidential election.
All Saints Rector Ed Bacon said that two Internal Revenue Service summonses for church records served last week undermined the free-speech rights of all faiths to preach on "issues of war, poverty, bigotry, torture and terrorism" without endangering their tax-exempt status.
Bacon said he will not appear to testify on Oct. 11, as the IRS had demanded.
The church's 26-member vestry - its board of governors - voted unanimously Thursday to refuse to comply with the summonses, Senior Warden Robert Long said.
Although the liberal Episcopalian congregation of about 3,500 - for decades touted as the largest, and perhaps the wealthiest, in the West - has a "long history" of speaking out on issues of the day, it has never crossed the line into politicking, Long said.
"We have nothing to hide," he said. "We have reviewed the documents \ and we believe they fully support our position that we have always been mindful and respectful of the regulations, and have always been in compliance with them."
An IRS statement Thursday did not comment directly on the All Saints investigation, saying only that there are constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religion, but not to tax-exempt status for nonprofits that get political.
Only rarely has the IRS actually revoked the tax-exempt status of charities or churches.
Long said that taking the IRS to court rather than agreeing to turn over documents will be expensive, utilizing funds that would be better used for church programs.
But the IRS challenge "can be addressed only by standing up now and protecting ourselves from the chilling effect on free speech and the free exercise of religion," Long said. He said the move will also be "a stand for the churches, synagogues and mosques across our country who may find themselves in similar circumstances, but less able or well-funded to make such a challenge," Long said,
In a show of interfaith solidarity with the church's decision, about 40 representatives of Southland religious communities crowded All Saints' altar.
Shakeel Sayed, president of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, spoke of his group's "total and complete solidarity" with All Saints'
decision; Rabbi Neil Commess-Daniels of Beth Shir Shalom handed over a donation for the church's legal fund, and asked others to contribute.
Ed McCaffery, dean of USC School of Law and an expert on taxation, said he was surprised the IRS has continued to press the investigation.
"My own view is that the IRS is wrong. They have an incorrect interpretation of the statute" governing church involvement in politics, McCaffery said.
But, he said, that doesn't mean the IRS will not prevail in asserting its right to review church documents.
"My guess would be that the IRS would win" in court. But, he said, it was less certain the IRS would win a battle over the the church's First Amendment rights.
Bacon said he has no idea why the sermon preached by All Saints Rector Emeritus George Regas triggered the IRS investigation. In it, Regas speculated on how Jesus would weigh in on a debate between presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas, while harshly critical of some Bush policies, told parishioners they'd be spiritually justified in voting for either candidate.
The church has filed a Freedom of Information request to see where the complaint originated, Bacon said.
McCaffrey said he saw "nothing wrong with the letter or spirit" of the sermon.
"Should a church be liable for the words of a guest sermon? Should the IRS be looking at words? I don't think so," McCaffrey said. "Why they don't find a reasonable way to end this saga is a puzzling question."
McCaffrey said if the IRS investigated pastors' words to check for political positions, it would cover sermons on such issues as abortion, the death penalty and teaching evolution in schools. "These are the things pastors talk about all the time," he said.
In purely practical terms, he said, the IRS hasn't even enough personnel to fulfill its mandate to collect taxes.
"Is this the appropriate agency to be looking at what's being said Saturdays and Sundays in religious places?" he said. "That's just nutty."
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_4377897
Rove Pledges October Suprise to Grab Election Victory
Political strategist Karl Rove is promising a mystery 'October suprise' which he hopes will prevent defeat in the November congressional elections. The Bush aide refuses to expand on the issue and is telling insiders to wait and see.
Rove said, "I'd rather let the balance [of plans for the elections] unroll on its own." The Democrats require 6 seats in the Senate and 15 seats in the House to alter the balance of power.
Other plans were shrouded in less secrecy, with an advertising blitz in the final two week run-up and the deployment of large numbers of volunteers recruited by the Republican National Committee being planned.
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=57143&rubrik1=Politics&rubrik2=US%20Politics&rubrik3=Election&sort=1&sparte=4
Goldwater Granddaughter Said No Karl Rove In Her HBO Film
Posted by Tim Graham on September 22, 2006 - 15:15
On "The Daily Show" Thursday night, host Jon Stewart interviewed filmmaker C.C. Goldwater about her HBO documentary "Mr. Conservative," about her grandfather, Barry Goldwater. Stewart praised the film, and asked about the surprising liberal tilt of the talking heads in the film. (There were a few more conservatives in there than advertised, including Richard Viguerie and Morton Blackwell.) But the granddaughter clearly has a very chilly feeling about the present-day conservative movement:
Stewart: “Barry Goldwater, what’s an interesting story in the film, a lot of the people that are talking are considered the leading voices of the Democrats or the liberal side. Hillary Clinton -- ”
Goldwater: “James Carville.”
Stewart: “—being a Goldwater girl. James Carville, Al Franken. George Will on the Republican side, but not a lot of sort of modern-day Republicans or conservatives.”
Goldwater: “Well, because we wanted to let Barry represent that thought. Barry wasn't -- you know, Barry's conservative message and what he was all about is not what the conservative party is today.
Stewart: “Right.”
Goldwater: “So when you see the film, you kind of get what the conservative, the seed of the conservative western thought process was all about. And you know, we have these various people on that were just representing a different, a whole different stream of consciousness thought because it would have been too predictable if we would have had Karl Rove on.”
What's predictable in the film is the media people in it declaring their liberalism, or denying a liberal bias. Here was some examples:
http://newsbusters.org/node/7829
Rove visit highlights stat e GOP's dilemma
Sam Howe Verhovek
By Sam Howe Verhovek
Los Angeles Times
BELLEVUE - A funny thing happened Friday when Karl Rove, the White House adviser, came to the Seattle suburbs to headline a fundraiser for freshman Republican Rep. Dave Reichert: The congressman did nothing to publicize the visit, and his challenger drew every bit of attention to it she could.
On the day Rove was in town, Darcy Burner, a former Microsoft Corp. executive who is Reichert's Democratic opponent, issued her fifth news release of the week casting the visit in a negative light, and while Rove and Reichert were attending a roundtable briefing for Republican donors, about 60 Burner supporters mugged for cameras outside.
But both of Rove's appearances - at the fundraiser and at the roundtable - were private and closed to the media, so there were no news photographs of Reichert with campaign mastermind Rove.
For Burner, 35, who is making her first run for public office, there was an obvious strategy in focusing attention on a reliable Republican boogeyman in what state pollster Stuart Elway described as a "classic swing district." The 8th District has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections yet consistently has sent a Republican to the House.
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060919/NEWS06/609190346
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Activists Re-enact Photo to Protest Prisoners' Treatment
By Brian Whitley / Daily Californian
BERKELEY, CA -- Few walking past Boalt Hall yesterday could avoid noticing the man wearing a black hood and clutching an electrical cord. One political activist group hopes the provocative recreation of the infamous Abu Ghraib photograph draws attention to an equally provocative message-that President George W. Bush is a war criminal.
A handful of UC Berkeley students were among about 40 people who attended a protest, organized by The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!, of what they call government-sanctioned torture by the U.S. military.
Several activists denounced the allegedly abusive treatment of prisoners at facilities like Guantanamo Bay, while others displayed signs with political slogans and sold T-shirts.
"My distinction, fellow citizens, is that I am a citizen of a country that practices torture," said Joanna Macy, who also teaches at Bay Area graduate schools. "That is my woeful distinction."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7920
Coalition protests Iraq war
Peace activists from all walks of life call for an end
By Rebecca Huval / South Florida Sun-Sentinel
A choir of seniors, pink-clad protesters and a Catholic prayer group initially may not seem to have a lot in common, but they all want peace.
And they'll do whatever it takes to get it, even making fools of themselves in a very public way.
"We look like a pink, Pepto-Bismol nightmare when we go places," said Lori Russell, co-coordinator of Code Pink and co-organizer of Peace Week. "If that's how you've got to do it, that's what you've got to do. I have red hair and pink doesn't go with it, but that doesn't matter. It's a conversation opener and makes people feel more at ease instead of shouting."
The Raging Grannies, Code Pink and Pax Christi all are part of the Palm Beach County Peace and Justice Coalition, which will run South Florida's second annual Peace Week starting today and running through Sept. 28. Protest events will highlight the Declaration of Peace, a national campaign that asks signers to take action if a plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq is not reached by today.
"People coming out to express their view is how the Vietnam War ended," said Susan Mosely, coordinator for Palm Beach County Peace and Justice Coalition and the other co-organizer of Peace Week. "We want the needless waste of human life to stop."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7922
Iraq deaths surge over last two months: UN
By Peter Graff / Reuters
BAGHDAD - Hundreds more Iraqis died in violence in July and August than in the previous two months, many of them tortured to death because of their religion with cables, acid and power drills, a U.N. report said on Wednesday.
The July total of 3,590 deaths was unprecedented, it said, while the August figure of 3,009, though lower, was also among the worst yet.
In its previous report two months ago, it gave a combined figure of 5,818 for the two months of May and June. The latest two-month figure shows an increase of more than 13 percent over that number, which it described as a sharp surge at the time.
"Hundreds of bodies have continued to appear throughout the country bearing signs of severe torture and execution-style killing," it said in a statement announcing its latest report.
"Terrorist attacks, the growth of militias, the emergence of organized crime reflects a lack of centralized and authorized control over the use of force in the country, which results in indiscriminate killings of civilians," it said.
Sunnis and Shi'ites were kidnapped by rival militia and tortured for information about their sect, it said.
"Detainees' bodies show signs of beating using electrical cables, wounds in different parts of their bodies, including in the head and genitals, broken bones of legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns," it said.
"Bodies found at the Medico-legal Institute often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails."
SURGE IN BODIES FOUND
Finding reliable data about deaths in Iraq is difficult. The United Nations obtains its figure from morgues and the Iraqi Health Ministry. Morgues no longer provide independent information to the media.
The U.N. report gave no breakdown for the kind of attacks that led to the deaths.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7916
No One Dares to Help
The wounded die alone on Baghdad's streets. An offer of aid could be your own death sentence, an Iraqi reporter writes.
Because this account of daily life in Baghdad reveals where the writer lives, his name is not being used to protect his safety. He is a 54-year-old Iraqi reporter in The Times' Baghdad Bureau.
Los angeles Times
BAGHDAD — On a recent Sunday, I was buying groceries in my beloved Amariya neighborhood in western Baghdad when I heard the sound of an AK-47 for about three seconds. It was close but not very close, so I continued shopping.
As I took a right turn on Munadhama Street, I saw a man lying on the ground in a small pool of blood. He wasn't dead.
The idea of stopping to help or to take him to a hospital crossed my mind, but I didn't dare. Cars passed without stopping. Pedestrians and shop owners kept doing what they were doing, pretending nothing had happened.
I was still looking at the wounded man and blaming myself for not stopping to help. Other shoppers peered at him from a distance, sorrowful and compassionate, but did nothing.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7919
Suspicions rise as gas prices fall
By Laura Misjak / Flint Journal
GENESEE COUNTY - UFOs, Big Foot, Elvis - and now gas prices.
Yes, everybody's thrilled that prices are plummeting at the pump.
But the drop has also spawned enough theories among local residents to satisfy any conspiracy buff.
The most prevalent: Cheaper gas is tied to the Nov. 7 elections.
"I'm wondering what's going on," said Flint resident Richard Westbrook Jr. "It has to be the elections. " Big oil companies have had record profits, and their friends in Congress probably said they have to do something to keep them down now."
AAA Michigan reported Monday that gas prices have fallen 15.4 cents per gallon statewide in the past week, making the Flint area's average price per gallon about $2.26 for regular unleaded. Last year at this time, the local average was $2.71.
It was even lower Monday at the Speedway station at Bristol Road and I-475, where Westbrook was filling up his pickup truck at $2.09 per gallon.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7913
Florida Republican raises money for Lieberman
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - Democrat Joe Lieberman got some help from a prominent Florida Republican on Wednesday night in his bid to win re-election to the U.S. Senate from Connecticut as an independent.
Lieberman attended a fund-raising reception hosted for him by Mel Sembler, a former finance committee chairman for the Republican National Committee.
Lieberman lost the Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut on August 8 to Ned Lamont, who made Lieberman's support for the Iraq war the main issue of his campaign.
He immediately filed to run as an independent in the November 7 general election against Lamont and Republican nominee Alan Schlesinger.
In addition to his fund-raising work for the RNC, Sembler was also the U.S. ambassador to Italy during President George W. Bush's first term and the ambassador to Australia during the term of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush.
About 100 guests attended the event at Sembler's office in St. Petersburg. His company develops shopping centers in Florida and nearby states.
Guests were asked to contribute a minimum of $1,000 up to a maximum of $2,100 to Lieberman's campaign.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=196
State sues California group over automated phone calls
PAC attacked Democratic congressional candidate Hill
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS – The state sued a California-based group Monday to stop it from making automated phone calls attacking Democratic candidate Baron Hill in the 9th District congressional race.
The group behind the calls, the Sacramento-based Economic Freedom Fund, is being funded by the Republican donor who helped bankroll the Swift Boat attack ads on Democratic Sen. John Kerry’s war record during the 2004 presidential campaign.
The attorney general’s office sued in Brown Circuit Court in Nashville seeking temporary and permanent injunctions against the calls as violations of Indiana’s telemarketing law and fines of $5,000 for each violation. A hearing in the case is set Sept. 27.
Attorney General Steve Carter received 12 consumer complaints over the calls, including one from Philip Wilkinson, 41, of Bloomington, who said he was on the state’s do-not-call list and is offended by negative political ads.
“When somebody gets real ugly, I’ll say, ‘Heck, I’ll vote for the other guy,’ ” Wilkinson said, adding that he does not support Hill or Sodrel.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=191
Barth calls ending Iraqi war 'first priority'
By Hadass Kogan / The Jeffersonian
Andy Barth remembers a time when government was "exciting and honorable."
Barth, who grew up in Washington during John Kennedy's presidency, wants to restore some of that idealism to public office.
"Government was respected and a chance to do good," he said.
Barth, a Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Ben Cardin, said citizens lost faith in government over the years, and he wants to work to return that trust.
Barth, who worked for 35 years as a reporter for WMAR-TV, is running for public office for the first time. He said his lack of political experience will serve as a plus if he is elected because it will give him a perspective that is not "politics as usual."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=169
Voter Registration Deadlines
http://www.rockthevote.com/2006-voter-registration-deadlines.php
Louisiana Voter Registration requires thirty day window to vote
http://www.vote-smart.org/voter_registration_resources.php?state_name=Louisiana&state_code=LA&go.x=7&go.y=10
Transcript of Chavez's U.N. speech
The Patriot-News
Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, "Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States." [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.]
It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time [flips through the pages, which are numerous] I will just leave it as a recommendation.
It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President] you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7921
Poll Finds Most Americans Displeased With Congress
By Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder / New York Times
With the midterm elections less than seven weeks away, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve reelection, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The disregard for Congress is the most intense it has been since 1994, when Republicans captured 52 seats to end four decades of Democratic control of the House and retook the Senate as well. It underlines the challenge the Republican Party faces in trying to hold onto power in the face of a surge in anti-incumbent sentiment.
By overwhelming margins, respondents said that members of Congress were too tied to special interests and that they did not understand the needs and problems of average Americans. Two-thirds said Congress had accomplished less than it typically does in a two-year session; most said they said they could not name a single major piece of legislation that cleared this Congress. Just 25 percent said they approved of the way Congress was doing its job.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=195
TODAY - SEPTEMBER 21 - IS
The International Day of Peace
HAPPY PEACE DAY!
Join the worldwide movement to create a Global Ceasefire and day of peace and nonviolence
http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/
Lamont calls Lieberman a 'turncoat'
By Dave Collins / Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. - Democrat Ned Lamont calls rival Sen. Joe Lieberman a "turncoat" in his latest ad. Not so, says the three-term Democratic lawmaker running as an independent, and he has some party support in Connecticut to prove it.
Lieberman welcomed the endorsements Tuesday from several local Democrats, including the mayors of the Connecticut cities of Norwich, West Haven and Waterbury. "This is part of a very encouraging trend that's happening," he said. "We now have a group of respected elected officials that are breaking away from Ned Lamont and are sticking with me."
Last month, Lamont stunned Lieberman in the Democratic primary, seizing the party nomination from the incumbent with a campaign built on his anti- Iraq war message. Lieberman filed as an independent candidate to hold onto his seat while several local and national Democrats shifted allegiances to Lamont.
Lamont dismissed suggestions that Democrats remain torn between the two candidates.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=193
Antiwar Push Starts Near White House; 34 Arrested
By Sue Anne Pressley Montes / Washington Post
A group of ministers, veterans and peace activists attempted to deliver a "declaration of peace" to the White House yesterday, kicking off a week of vigils and other activities in 350 communities across the country calling for the prompt withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Thirty-four people were arrested here and charged with disorderly conduct after they demanded to speak with President Bush, then refused to leave the west gate of the White House. As part of an initiative of more than 400 groups, many of them religiously affiliated, the activists said they had to "bear moral witness" against the U.S. military role in Iraq.
"We are in a time of peril, and people of morals have got to stand up," said the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., who founded the D.C.-based Hip Hop Caucus to involve youths in political and social action and helped to lead yesterday's protest. "If we don't stand now in the 21st century, there will not be a 22nd century. We will destroy ourselves -- we will either solve this together or die as fools together."
The day's activities also featured vigils for peace in dozens of cities and towns, including Little Rock; Tucson; Pasadena, Calif.; Miami; Decatur, Ga.; Pittsburgh; and Austin. In San Diego today, there will be a Dance Action for Peace. Tomorrow in Cincinnati, a tent city dedicated to peace will be erected. San Francisco is hosting a mass bicycle ride to protest the conflict in Iraq, and Madison, Wis., is holding community forums on the issue.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7934
Religious Leaders Join White House Sit-In for Peace in Iraq
By Michelle Vu / Christian Post
WASHINGTON – Religious leaders joined peace activists in front of the White House Thursday to call for the end of U.S. Iraq occupation and to kick-off the national week of “moral witness against the Iraq occupation.”
“Today is the first day of the Declaration of Peace Week of Action,” said Bishop Susan Morrison of the United Methodist Church. “We are standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are participating in more than 350 actions this week all across the country. It is a wonderful and marvelous witness.”
Hundreds of individual actions across the nation over the next seven days will take place ranging from vigils and fasts to sit-ins and marches.
The White House press conference and sit-in was part of the national Declaration of Peace (DOP) campaign which calls for a change in U.S. policy towards Iraq including the withdrawal of troops and a new comprehensive plan for peace. More than 500 groups are part of the campaign, including the Methodist Federation for Social Action, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, and the Roman Catholic Conference of Women Religious.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7926
Protesters expected today as Cheney stumps for Kuhl
By Joseph Spector
Gannett News Service
September 22, 2006
Powered by Topix.net
ROCHESTER -- Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Rochester today will be short, but it will be long on emotion.
Cheney will land at the Greater Rochester International Airport at 4 p.m. and attend a fundraiser for Rep. John R. Kuhl Jr., R-Hammondsport, at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center.
Cheney will speak at the $150-per-person event at about 5:35 p.m., according to the White House. He is scheduled to depart from the airport at 6:20 p.m.
The visit -- which includes a $1,000-per-person reception with him before the speech -- is stirring emotions as the country is divided over the war in Iraq and national policies.
And it comes as Kuhl looks to rally supporters and raise money in a competitive race against Democrat Eric Massa of Corning.
http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060922/NEWS01/609220331
Getting Around Rochester
Rochester Riverside Convention Center is the pivot point of Rochester's Downtown Convention District.
The District offers 3 first-class hotels, all within one block of the Center. Visit meetinrochester.com for information about other area hotels.
Area Maps & Directions
(click on map for a larger view)
From East:
Thruway to Exit 45 (490 west). 490 west to Rochester. Follow signs to DOWNTOWN. Exit Clinton Avenue. Merge to Clinton. 3 traffic lights to Broad Street. Left onto Broad. Go through 1 light. Make a right into Parking Garage. The convention Center is connected to the Garage.
Deliveries from East:
Same directions until Clinton, then turn left onto Mortimer and left onto St. Paul Street. After 1 traffic light, loading dock is on right.
http://www.rrcc.com/gettingaround.htm
Capitol Police officers question protest organizer Medea Benjamin, center, from Codepink Women For Peace after demonstrators unfurled a banner calling for the firing of President Bush, and protesting support for the war in Iraq in the
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/iraq/082701iraqplane/im:/060922/480/38e95c90181c49308dfdf3c0cf6f8d15;_ylt=Aur5nJ9Pto.zY2DuoDInkdXKps8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-
Unhappy voters imperil heartland Republicans
By Andrea Hopkins / Reuters
MONROE CITY, Indiana - In a dozen districts across the U.S. heartland, voter unhappiness has imperiled Republicans, setting the stage for what could be the biggest anti-incumbent midterm election since 1994.
Pat Wilkerson says U.S. troops and veterans are her first priority, believes family values are important and voted Republican in 2004. But in November she'll switch parties -- though not because Democrats have won her over.
"When I vote now, it's not who I'm voting for, it's who I'm voting against," said the 59-year-old administrator, adding she is fed up with the war in Iraq and wants troops home.
"I think a lot of Republicans who are in office are at risk," Wilkerson said as she watched sweating politicians work the crowd at a town festival in Monroe City in southwest Indiana.
Polls show U.S. voters are overwhelmingly unhappy with the direction of the country.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=199
Rural voters might spell trouble for GOP
By David Yepsen / Des Moines Register
A new poll being released today shows rural voters in battleground states and congressional districts are up for grabs in November’s election.
That could be bad news for Republicans.
The nation’s rural voters are conflicted: While President Bush is more popular with them than he is among all Americans, it’s still not a great rating, and rural voters tend to agree with Democrats on the need to get out of Iraq. They also believe economic growth in the country is uneven.
Since Republicans must count on significant votes from rural areas to offset Democratic margins in more urban places, the poll is likely to be troubling to the GOP.
“Rural is in play,” said Dee Davis, the president of the Center for Rural Strategies, the Whitesburg, Ky., think-tank that commissioned the survey. “Who wins rural matters. The Republicans won’t hold Congress with the rural margins we are seeing now.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=200
The Declaration of Peace
http://www.declarationofpeace.org/
Journalism at Risk
The death knell of newspapers sounds premature
Jack Fuller, a former editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune
Published September 1, 2006
The other day during a visit to one of Chicago's leading civic institutions, the conversation turned to the press.
Everyone in the room was a member of the 50- or 60-something generation and deeply engaged in the life of the city. So naturally they viewed with alarm the toll the Internet has taken on newspapers.
One of the organization's leaders reported direly that a young staff member--who is very civically engaged--said she gets absolutely none of her news from the papers.
It wasn't the first time I had heard this. But it was entirely inaccurate. Not that the staff member was lying. She just didn't realize where news actually comes from.
Nobody gets all his news from media other than newspapers, simply because newspapers originate most of the information that finds its way into all media.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0609010295sep01,1,3013326.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
$20,000 a month for Black means life on the cheap
Published September 1, 2006
Wonder if Conrad Black and wife, Barbara Amiel, have broken out the Ramen noodles yet? A ketchup sandwich, perhaps? Maybe some Spam?
After all, with Black under indictment for looting millions from his old company, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, they're going to have to make ends meet on a mere $20,000 a month, per a Canadian court order.
That might sound like a lot of money, but it's less than the $276,000 Amiel received from the Sun-Times in 2002 for whatever it was that she did, which was no doubt important and absolutely vital but apparently did not require her to actually show up at the paper.
It's a busy time for Black, and he can ill-afford to be distracted by hunger.
He and three other executives for what used to be known as Hollinger International (now the Sun-Times Media Group) are facing federal fraud and racketeering charges in the United States, and they want permission to depose lawyers and accountants who used to do work for their company.
In a filing this week in Chicago, defense lawyers Edward Genson and Mark Martin asked U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to allow them to question a half-dozen attorneys at Toronto's Torys law firm and three accountants at KPMG International.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0609010029sep01,1,5834694.column?coll=chi-business-hed
10 Miami journalists take U.S. pay
At least 10 local journalists accepted U.S. government pay for programs on Radio Martí or TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald fired two of them Thursday for conflict of interest.
By Oscar Corral / Miami Herald
At least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from El Nuevo Herald, received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years.
Those who were paid the most were veteran reporters and a freelance contributor for El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language newspaper published by the corporate parent of The Miami Herald. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and writes an opinion column, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio Martí and TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture, received about $71,000, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covers the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7819
China unveils curbs on foreign news distribution
1.20pm Monday September 11, 2006
BEIJING - China announced rules on Sunday requiring foreign media to seek approval from its state news agency to distribute news, pictures and graphics domestically, and warned against reports that "endanger national security".
The rules, released by Xinhua and with immediate effect, also empowered the news agency to censor news distributed in China by foreign media and delete contents deemed forbidden.
Xinhua did not identify any foreign news agency.
The rules said foreign news, pictures and graphics can be sold in China only through agents approved by Xinhua.
Xinhua will conduct annual reviews to decide whether to renew business licenses of foreign media. Violations can elicit warnings or a grace period to correct mistakes.
Business licenses of foreign news agencies can be suspended or revoked if they break the rules such as publishing objectionable news or directly developing clients.
The rules said foreign news agencies should not carry reports that endanger national security, fan ethnic hatred and racial discrimination or promote cults and superstition.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10400776
Al-Qaeda-linked group says it killed Sudanese newspaper editor
MOHAMED OSMAN
Associated Press
KHARTOUM — A group claiming to be al-Qaeda's branch in Sudan said Tuesday that it killed the chief editor of a Sudanese independent daily who provoked a furor with an article denounced as blasphemous.
The claim in the slaying of Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, whose body was found last week, was issued by a previously unknown group called al-Qaeda in Sudan and Africa. The authenticity of the claim, posted on the website of Al-Arabiya television, could not be independently confirmed.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was based in Sudan until the late 1990s when the government threw him out and he moved to Afghanistan. Since then, members of the group have operated in eastern Africa. But until Tuesday's claim, no group had announced itself as al-Qaeda's branch in Sudan, along the lines of those in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Ahmed, the editor-in-chief of Al-Wifaq, was snatched from his home in eastern Khartoum on Sept. 5 and his body was found a day later.
“Thanks to God's grace, ... execution was carried out against a dog of the dogs of the ruling party, the atheist journalist Mohammed Taha, who defamed our Prophet Mohammed,” the statement said.
It said he was “slaughtered” by three members of the group, who it said fled Khartoum on Thursday. The phrasing has been used by al-Qaeda in Iraq for people it has beheaded, but Sudanese officials have not said whether Mr. Ahmed was decapitated.
The statement was signed “Abu Hafs al-Sudani,” identified as the group's leader. It was e-mailed to several Sudanese papers Tuesday, according to Al-Arabiya.
Mr. Ahmed sparked controversy last year after his paper republished an article from the Internet that questioned the parentage of the Prophet Mohammed. In May, 2005, scores of Sudanese gathered in front of the capital's courthouse demanding a death sentence for Mr. Ahmed.
The paper was temporarily suspended by the government and was eventually fined more than $3,000. Mr. Ahmed apologized in a letter to the press saying he did not intend to insult the prophet. Blasphemy and insulting Islam can bring the death penalty in Sudan, which has been governed by strict Islamic Sharia law since 1983.
Major General Abdel Azeem al-Rufai, the operations director for the National Security and Intelligence Service, said authorities investigating Mr. Ahmed's death “do not rule out involvement of external hands, which could be revealed later.”
Mr. Bin Laden has pointed to Sudan as a possible front for al-Qaeda attacks. In an April audiotape, he called on militants to attack UN peacekeepers if they deploy in the country's war-torn western region of Darfur.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060913.wsudan0913/BNStory/International/home
SF Chronicle Reporters to Be Jailed
By MARCUS WOHLSEN
SAN FRANCISCO - Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters were ordered jailed Thursday for a maximum 18 months, pending an appeal, for refusing to testify about who leaked them secret grand jury testimony from Barry Bonds and other elite athletes.
Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada published a series of articles and a book based partly on the leaked transcripts of the testimony of Bonds, Jason Giambi and others before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a Burlingame-based nutritional supplement company exposed as a steroid ring two years ago.
Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White to send the reporters to prison for the full term of the grand jury investigating the leak, or until they agree to testify. Both sides agreed to stay the ruling pending an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Williams and Fainaru-Wada have said repeatedly they would go to jail rather than comply with the grand jury's subpoena and reveal their source or sources.
The reporters agreed with the government that they are in contempt of court, but had sought a "nominal monetary fine" and other punishment "short of full blown incarceration," including house arrest and weekend jailing, according to court documents.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/09/22/ap/sports/d8k9jgqo0.txt
Judge says journalists in BALCO case must be jailed
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A federal judge said on Thursday the two journalists who refused to reveal their source in the BALCO steroids scandal should go to prison, but he would not implement his decision pending an appeal of the case.
San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams have declined to name the source who allowed them access to transcripts of grand jury testimony from top athletes involved in the long-running doping probe, including San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds.
"The only appropriate sentence is to incarcerate these two individuals," said U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White.
Last month, White had ruled they must disclose the source. Unauthorized distribution of grand jury transcripts is a crime.
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6097151,00.html
Iran Cracks Down on Dissenters
by Mike Shuster
All Things Considered, September 21, 2006 · In Iran, journalists, reformers, and student activists feared that the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might lead to repressive policies and restrictions. After a year of comparative calm, however, observers say that it now appears that their fears were justified.
Iran's government has recently jailed several prominent students and activists -- and at least one has died in prison under mysterious circumstances.
Within the past three months, at least two political deaths have occurred in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. One was a longtime political prisoner who the authorities said suffered a heart attack during a hunger strike.
Another was Akbar Mohammadi, a student activist who has been in and out of prisons for the past six years. He, too, died during a hunger strike. Mohammadi was buried before his parents could see his body, prompting suspicions that he was tortured or beaten.
As for the crackdown on journalists, the government has just closed Iran's most prominent and popular daily newspaper, Shargh, which means "East" in Farsi. The offending material, according to sources in Iran, was a front-page cartoon depicting President Ahmadinejad as a donkey.
The government also convicted a prominent reform journalist, Issa Saharkhiz, for his critical writing about Iran's Supreme Religious Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Saharkhiz is appealing his case and remains out of prison for the moment.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6119289
Correspondent detained by Iraqi security forces
New York, September 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the arrest and detention of a reporter in Tikrit today. Kalshan al-Bayati, 33, an Iraqi correspondent for the London-based, Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat, was arrested by Iraqi forces around noon when she went to collect her previously confiscated personal computer from local authorities, according to CPJ sources.
Al-Bayati appeared before a judge in Tikrit, about 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of Baghdad, and remanded to a women’s prison in the city, her sister told CPJ. It was not immediately clear whether she had been formally charged.
Al-Bayati had been jailed for three days earlier this month before being released by local authorities, according to news reports and CPJ sources. Iraqi forces raided al-Bayati’s house in al-Zuhour neighborhood of Tikrit early on September 11, arresting her and seizing her personal computer, notes, and articles, those sources said. Al-Hayat quoted al-Bayati at the time as saying that security authorities investigated her for possible ties to insurgents but found no link. Her brother Najad was also arrested at the time; his status could not be immediately determined.
Al-Bayati had been working on an article for the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat about insurgents in Saleheddin province when she was first detained by security forces, according to CPJ sources. Her prior reporting had been critical of security forces in Tikrit.
“We are troubled that Kalshan al-Bayati has been detained twice in a month,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “We call on Iraqi authorities to make public the evidence against al-Bayati immediately or release her at once.”
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/mideast/iraq20sept06na.html
Blogger to do time for keeping protest video
September 20 2006 at 07:28PM
San Francisco - A US blogger was on his way back to jail on Wednesday for refusing to give a federal grand jury raw videotape he took of a G8 summit protest that turned violent in San Francisco.
At the request of prosecutors, a three-judge Ninth circuit court of appeals panel revoked Josh Wolf's bail and ordered him to either hand over the unedited video by midday Wednesday or be returned to a federal detention centre.
Wolf, 24, would turn himself in at the deadline to begin serving time anew in the case, according to his lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes.
Wolf was jailed for a month before being granted bail while he appealed the contempt finding.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1158772862142U253
BURUNDI: Journalist jailed for five months for remarks in a bar
New York, September 19, 2006—A reporter for the Burundian state news agency was sentenced to five months in jail on Monday for slandering the state in a private barroom conversation, according to media reports and the journalist’s lawyer. Aloys Kabura, a correspondent for Agence Burundaise de Presse in the northern province of Kayenza, has been in prison since May 31 after a conversation in which he criticized police in Bujumbura for attacking journalists on April 17.
Defense lawyer Raphael Gahungu told CPJ that Kabura’s imprisonment had no legal basis but was part of a government clampdown on critical journalists. The charge— speaking words deemed harmful to the state—is based on a conversation in which Kabura made critical comments to a state intelligence agent. The government alleged that the comments included a slur, but Gahungu said his client disputed that characterization.
CPJ sources speculate that Kabura is being punished for his reporting on alleged corruption. The sources noted that police had detained Kabura in March in connection with a story alleging police involvement in a purported sugar trading scandal.
Evode Ndayizigiye, Agence Burundaise de Presse editor, called the detention illegal and said that the court should have ordered Kabura’s immediate release, The Associated Press reported.
“It is a staggering indictment of Burundi’s justice system that a journalist can be hauled off to prison for remarks made in a private conversation in a bar,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “We call on authorities to release Kabura immediately.”
Kabura’s detention is part of a pattern of press freedom abuses in Burundi. In August, police raided the home of Alexis Sinduhije, director of private radio station Radio Publique Africaine, and stopped local broadcasts of RPA in the northern province of Ngozi. Sinduhije, a 2004 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, said the moves were in retaliation for his station’s critical reporting, especially in the wake of an alleged coup attempt in March. Several leading opposition figures have been jailed in connection with the alleged attempt.
Gabriel Nikundana, editor of another private station, Radio Isanganiro, has also complained of threats after his station aired an interview in August that cast doubt on the veracity of the coup attempt.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/burundi19sept06na.html
2 Chronicle reporters at center of media, government standoff
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Two Chronicle reporters will appear in court Thursday to tell a federal judge why they shouldn't be jailed for refusing to reveal who leaked them confidential grand jury testimony they reported in exposing the use of performance-enhancing drugs by elite athletes.
The articles by the reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, helped change the culture of sports, inspiring a tougher steroids policy in Major League Baseball and creating a greater awareness of the abuse of steroids among young athletes. And it was precisely those confidential documents that made the stories so potent, the reporters say.
If San Francisco U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White orders Williams and Fainaru-Wada jailed for refusing to reveal their source or sources, analysts say, the larger impact will be a chilling effect on all sorts of investigative reporting. Some legal and journalism experts say that chill is already going on, as the Bush administration has aggressively pushed to plug leaks at all levels of government, not just those involving national security.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/20/MNGNDL90AR1.DTL
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO :
Journalist jailed for more than a week over corruption allegations
New York, September 20, 2006—A journalist has been jailed for the past week and charged with defamation over a story that alleged corruption by a top tax official, according to local press freedom group Journaliste en Danger (JED) and a public official. Feu d’Or Bosange, editor of private newspaper Tapis Rouge (Red Carpet) has since retracted the story but remains in jail, according to the same sources.
Bosange was arrested on September 12 in connection with an August 16 article headlined “Scandal at the DGI,” a copy of which CPJ obtained. The article alleged that the director of the General Directorate of Taxation (DGI), Sam Bokolombe, had embezzled public funds. In an interview with CPJ today, Bokolombe said accusations were untrue. He noted that police summoned him for questioning following the article’s publication.
On Tuesday, Bosange retracted his story and apologized in his paper, according to JED and Bokolombe. Bokolombe told CPJ that the journalist would be released once he writes a personal letter of apology. Other press and public officials contacted by CPJ could not provide details.
Bosange was first held in a lockup of the judicial police, before being transferred to Kinshasa central prison on September 16, according to JED.
“Regardless of the quality of the story, this should not be a criminal matter,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “Feu d’Or Bosange should be released immediately, and any legal proceeding should be handled in civil court.”
This is not the first time that Bosange has been jailed for his work. In December 2004, he was held for six days over a December 16, 2004, article accusing national tax office directors of corruption. Journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo face a constant threat of imprisonment under the country’s archaic defamation laws.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/drc20sept06na.html
CHINA: Founder of popular Aegean Sea Web site arrested
New York, September 20, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the arrest in China of the founder of Aegean Sea, the popular Web site closed down March 9. Zhang Jianhong was detained September 6 on allegations of “inciting subversion” through his online political essays, according to news reports and CPJ sources. Zhang’s most recent Internet essay, written under the pen name Li Hong, was sharply critical of the government’s treatment of Chinese citizens two years ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Zhang’s detention comes amid a sustained crackdown on dissident journalists, essayists, activists, lawyers and scholars who use the Internet to advocate for citizens’ rights, protest human rights abuses or call for greater democracy. Activist Yang Maodong (who goes by the pen name Guo Feixiong), and China Democracy Party activist Chen Shuqing were jailed last week on charges of illegal publishing and inciting subversion through their online writings.
“China, which invited international scrutiny when it agreed to host the 2008 Olympic Games, remains determined to stifle all domestic criticism,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “We call on the authorities to release Zhang Jianhong immediately, and abide by the commitments that the government has made ahead of the Games to allow media freedoms.”
Authorities have not clarified their allegations against Zhang, but many of his essays were highly critical of central government actions. An essay written two days before his detention called attention to international organizations’ criticism of the government’s human rights record and in particular the poor treatment of journalists and their sources two years before the start of the Olympics. Zhang referred to the situation as “Olympicgate.”
Police took Zhang from his home in Ningbo, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, according to Chinese-language online news reports and CPJ sources. His computer equipment was confiscated and his family was later notified by the local Public Security Bureau that he had been arrested on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state authority,” a crime that brings a prison sentence of several years.
Zhang, 48, was a founder and editor of the popular literary and news Web site Aegean Sea (Aiqinhai) until it was closed in March for unauthorized posting of international and domestic news. He had also been a recent contributor to several U.S.-based Chinese-language Web sites, including Boxun, the pro-democracy forum Minzhu Luntan, and Epoch Times, which is affiliated with the banned Chinese religious group Falun Gong.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/asia/china20sept06na.html
AP Counters Blog Charges Against Jailed Photog
Published: September 19, 2006 9:15 PM ET
NEW YORK The U.S. military's imprisonment of an Associated Press photographer in Iraq has spurred a new round of debate about the role of journalists in a war zone, especially those covering insurgents and terrorists.
Internet critics of the news media said the AP's announcement on Sunday that Bilal Hussein, who covered the war in Fallujah and Ramadi, was in a U.S. military prison as a security threat was vindication of their accusations that he was aiding the enemy.
But advocates of the press coverage questioned whether the critics wanted to block any coverage that doesn't portray the U.S. policy in the best light. An independent press must fully and accurately cover a conflict from all sides, they said.
On Tuesday, the international group Reporters Without Borders formally called for the U.S. military to charge Hussein or release him. "We call on the U.S. authorities to put an immediate end to this violation of the rule of law," it said in a statement.
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003124699
10 Western Media Stereotypes About Russia: How Truthful Are They?
Download the PDF version of the report
Special Report by The Real Russia Project of Discovery Institute
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. media’s overarching, if unspoken, perception of Russia and Eastern Europe is that this region doesn’t matter much any more. Though some still see Russia as a dangerous enemy, most mainstream media appear to have lost interest in what happens there, except for occasional sensational events. As a result, there is inadequate awareness in America of the fascinating cultural, political and economic developments taking place in today’s Russia.
Relying on old Cold War stereotypes ignores centuries of Russia’s history and shows a lack of curiosity about its future. Such indifference is not in the interest of America or its citizens, and it threatens to shut down imagination about potential cooperative relations with Russia and her neighbors. The Real Russia Project aims to focus on the emerging new Russia with accurate and fair reporting and analysis—without fear or favor.
Ambassador Bruce Chapman
President of Discovery Institute
Click the extended post link to read the text version of the report
1 -- Putin is a former KGB agent who is suppressing opposition and accumulating power
“He has beaten all his adversaries: independent media, oligarchs, regional governors, communists, liberal parties, the parliament as such and even the government apparatus. The power they once wielded is being seized by Mr Putin’s KGB friends ... the KGB men move into the commanding heights of the economy … a whole floor of former or current KGB in newly prominent positions on the president’s staff.” (“Putin’s Quest for Power is Harming Russia” by Anders Aslund, Carnegie Endowment; Financial Times, August 23, 2004)
RussiaBlog: Like many others in the Russian elite, it is true Putin was once a KGB officer. The KGB, however, no longer exists; it disintegrated in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union. And by the early 1980s, the organization had been almost completely transformed. One thing KGB became known for was hiring bright, capable young people. If Putin was preoccupied with power, he would be seeking a third term as a President, but he has made it clear that he has no such desire. After all, he could be drawing a higher salary with less pressure as the head of Gazprom.
Liberal democratic parties in Russia are largely unpopular for their association with Yeltsin’s corrupt regime; they lack the ability to unite as one oppositional force and do not have a clear economic or political plan for the nation. Many Russians greeted the abolition of direct governors’ elections with relief because the governors lacked accountability and were violently abusing their powers. Many criminals and oligarchs were buying their way into legal immunity with bribes during election campaigns.
The years 2005 and 2006 have been especially rich with dissent and protests. The still-popular Communist Party marched alongside Russian fascists in Moscow on May 1, 2006, displaying anti-government banners, including one which read, “Putin and successors go to hell!” Consider, by contrast, how unlikely an anti-government march of that kind would be in Iran, China or North Korea.
http://www.russiablog.org/2006/09/10_western_media_stereotypes_a.html
Eritrea: Journalists Still Jailed Incommunicado After Five Years, Brutal Conditions And Three Deaths Reported
Committee to Protect Journalists (New York)
PRESS RELEASE
September 19, 2006
Posted to the web September 19, 2006
Five years after Eritrea's brutal crackdown on the independent press, the Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the release of 13 journalists held incommunicado in secret jails and two other journalists forced into extended military service. Basic information about the jailed journalists - most of whom were swept up in a September 18, 2001, crackdown - has become nearly impossible to obtain from official sources in Africa's most repressive country. But a recent report circulated on several Web sites, and deemed by CPJ sources to be generally credible, paints a picture of brutal prison conditions.
"Not only is the government continuing to hold these prisoners without charge or trial, it is withholding even the most basic information about them - including whether they are still alive," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. "Eritrea's blatant disregard for human rights and due process makes it the worst jailer of journalists in Africa."
With 15 journalists in prison or otherwise deprived of their liberty, Eritrea is also the fourth leading jailer of journalists in the world after China, Cuba and Ethiopia. Most of the journalists were jailed in a crackdown in which the government swept up opposition leaders and shut down the entire private press. At the time, Eritrean officials variously accused the journalists of avoiding the military draft, threatening national security, and failing to observe licensing requirements, but CPJ research indicates that they were targeted as part of a drive to suppress political dissent ahead of scheduled elections, which the government subsequently canceled without explanation. Since then, the Eritrean government has refused to divulge any information about the prisoners' whereabouts or conditions.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200609190774.html
Journo jailed for criticising cops
19/09/2006 13:49 - (SA)
Bujumbura - A reporter for the government's official news agency has been sentenced to five months in jail for criticising police - not in print, but in conversation during a night out at a bar in Burundi.
According to a court official who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said: Aloys Kabura, 36, was sentenced on Monday on charges of "contempt in relation to the established powers". Kabura was not working when he made the comments.
Evode Ndayizigiye, the government news agency's chief editor, said: "I still believe that his detention is irregular. The court has taken a whole month to deliberate on the case. My feeling is that they must release him immediately."
30 journalists arrested
Kabura was detained on May 31 after he criticised police for beating journalists who were at the home of an ousted ruling party official for a press conference in April.
Police were demanding that reporters hand over material recorded at the press conference to intelligence officers.
Some 30 journalists were held at the politician's home for six hours before being released without handing over their material. Others were taken to hospital for injuries suffered during the confrontation.
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2000915,00.html
9th Circuit: Freelancer must return to jail
By The Associated Press
09.19.06
SAN FRANCISCO — A freelance video journalist who has refused a federal grand jury's subpoena to turn over his footage of a political protest will return to jail, after an appeals court ordered his bail revoked.
Yesterday's order by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came a week after the same panel upheld a lower court's decision to hold Josh Wolf in contempt.
Wolf, who argues that reporters should be shielded from revealing confidential sources and unpublished material to federal authorities, plans to turn himself in at the federal prison in Dublin before tomorrow's 1 p.m. deadline, said Jose Luis Fuentes, one of Wolf's attorneys.
A grand jury investigating the July 2005 protest during the G-8 economic summit subpoenaed Wolf to acquire 30 minutes of unpublished material, but he refused and was jailed Aug. 1.
The appeals court allowed Wolf to be freed on bail a month later while it considered his case.
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=17411
Libel suits by president's husband raise fears for press freedom
fears for press freedom
By Carlos H. Conde International Herald Tribune
Published: September 19, 2006
MANILA A flurry of libel cases filed against dozens of journalists by the husband of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has heightened concerns that press freedom in the Philippines, long envied in Asia, is fast deteriorating.
Jose Miguel Arroyo, the president's husband, has sued 42 journalists, columnists, editors and even subscription managers, for stories and commentary that accused him, directly or through innuendo, of corruption and of using his wife's position for personal gain.
Arroyo has also allegedly ordered the axing of television and radio programs that were critical of him. Two columnists who wrote about the cancellation of one such program have also been sued.
Journalists' groups have expressed alarm over Arroyo's libel suits, which he began filing in 2005, saying that they contribute to the deterioration of freedom of expression in the Philippines, where the press is widely regarded as Asia's freest and most rambunctious.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/19/news/phils.php
UNESCO chief voices ‘grave concern’ over death of jailed journalist in Turkmenistan
Koïchiro Matsuura
19 September 2006 – The head of the United Nations organization entrusted with defending freedom of expression and the press today voiced “grave concern” over the death in jail of a Turkmen journalist and called on the authorities of the former Soviet Central Asian country to investigate the circumstances and try those responsible in the event of foul play.
“Using force to silence a journalist is an unacceptable crime against an individual, against the basic human right of freedom of expression and against society as a whole, which relies on the media to make informed choices,” UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the children of Ogulsapar Muradova, 58, a former correspondent of United States stations Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty who was sentenced to six years in prison last month alongside two other human rights activists, identified her body in the morgue of Ashgabat , Turkmenistan’s capital, on 14 September.
Witnesses reported seeing a head wound and many other marks on the rest of her body, RSF said.
Over the weekend, The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed serious concern over Ms Muradova’s death and urged the authorities to launch a full and independent investigation into what happened.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty had voiced serious concern about her trial which was held behind closed doors.
UNESCO has a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom, and Mr. Matsuura has issued frequent condemnations of the murder of journalists around the world.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19885&Cr=UNESCO&Cr1=press
A little dated
Press Freedom Awards Honor Chinese, Brazilian, Uzbek Journalists, Zimbabwean Lawyer
By Barbara Schoetzau
New York
22 November 2005
The recipients of the 2005 Independent Press Freedom awards include a jailed Chinese Internet journalist, an exiled Uzbek correspondent and a pioneering Brazilian editor. And for the first time, the independent Committee to Protect Journalists is also honoring a lawyer with its annual award in New York Tuesday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, gives its annual awards to journalists who put their lives at risk in order to do their jobs. An increasing number of journalists are doing just that, according to the group's director, Ann Cooper. She says media freedom is deteriorating, partly due to the war on terrorism.
"Increasingly, governments see that they can crack down on the press and use the excuse of fighting terrorism to justify their crackdowns," said Ms. Cooper. "Some of them even occasionally accuse journalists themselves of being terrorists or of aiding and abetting terrorism just because they're reporting on terrorist groups or perhaps doing an interview with a leader who the government doesn't want shown on TV or heard on the radio."
Ms. Cooper says the Philippines tops the group's list of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, followed by Iraq, Bangladesh, Russia and Colombia.
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-11/2005-11-22-voa58.cfm?CFID=53926708&CFTOKEN=32856191
BANGLADESH: Journos hit out at move for punitive provision
Journalists criticize proposed provision granting the Press Council greater power to control the media
The Daily Star
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Eminent journalists yesterday strongly criticised Bangladesh Press Council chairman's suggestion for adding a punitive provision to the council's law.
"He should have held open and in-depth consultation with working journalists, editors and publishers before making any suggestions for a law to give punitive power to the press council," Ataus Samad, advisory editor of the daily Amar Desh, said.
President of Jatiya Press Club Reazuddin Ahmed said such a punitive provision goes against the very concept of the Press Council.
Besides, Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) in a statement said it would never accept any initiative to enact a law to control the journalists.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=34297
BANGLADESH: Govt decides to form judicial probe body
Judicial body will investigate Apr. 16 police attack on journalists at Chittagong stadium
Daily Star
Friday, April 21, 2006
The government yesterday decided to form a one-member judicial enquiry commission to probe the police atrocities on journalists at Bir Sreshtha Shaheed Ruhul Amin Stadium in Chittagong on April 16.
A seven-member body was also constituted to suggest compensation and treatment for the journalists after assessing the damage.
Following successful talks between the Sangbadik-Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SSKOP) and the government, the agitating sports journalists, who had been boycotting the coverage of Bangladesh-Australia second Test match, withdrew all agitation programmes and resumed covering the Test match and all other sports news from yesterday.
As protest and condemnation continued fifth day into the police atrocities yesterday, State Ministers for Home Lutfozzaman Babar, State Minister for Youth and Sports Fazlur Rahman and Deputy Information Minister Abdus Salam Pintu sat with SSKOP leaders at the home ministry yesterday.
SSKOP co-convenors Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Fazle Imam and Mozammel Haque, Member Secretary Ruhul Amin Gazi, joint member secretaries Motiur Rahman Talukder and Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul were present among the Parishad leaders.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southasia.asp?parentid=43754
BANGLADESH: Photojournalist arrested on extortion charge
Owner of computer centre claims Ittefaq photographer demanded toll
Daily Star
Monday, April 24, 2006
Police arrested a photojournalist on charge of extortion in Rajshahi city yesterday.
Boalia police said they arrested Nazrul Islam Zulu, who works for the daily Ittefaq, and sent him to jail custody as he was found involved in an extortion case in a primary police investigation.
Shamsur Rahman Rumu, owner of a computer centre at Seroil area, filed a case accusing Zulu that he demanded Tk 20,000 as toll from the trader.
Zulu also threatened him to kill when he declined to pay, the trader alleged.
Police said Zulu was accused in two other cases including one for assaulting a ward commissioner.
He was earlier arrested twice a few months ago, but was released for he was carrying anticipatory bail from the higher court.
Date Posted: 4/24/2006
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southasia.asp?parentid=43898
BANGLADESH: Police attack on journalists
Protests call for dismissal of policemen involved in the attack on journalists at Chittagong stadium
Daily Star
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Amid countrywide protests against Sunday's police attack on journalists during Bangladesh-Australia test match at the Chittagong stadium, the authorities yesterday suspended a police sergeant and closed the deputy commissioner (port), who led the attack.
Journalists, political leaders, artists, intellectuals and sports organisers yesterday staged angry protests in the capital, Chittagong and elsewhere in the country against the police attack in which at least 20 journalists were injured.
They demanded that the government dismisses and arrests DC (Port) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Ali Akbar Khan and other policemen involved in the assault on journalists within the next 24 hours.
Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) decided to observe a token work stoppage in all newspapers and news agencies from 10:00am to 2:00pm on Wednesday if their demands are not met by today.
The programmes were announced from a protest rally organised by BFUJ and DUJ outside the National Press Club yesterday.
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southasia.asp?parentid=43429
ETHIOPIA:
Two more journalists detained as police raid newspapers
and local journalists' association
New York, November 28, 2005— Ethiopian authorities have arrested another two journalists bringing the number detained since political unrest erupted four weeks ago to at least 12. Sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Serkalem Fassil, publisher of the Amharic-language weeklies Menilik, Asqual and Satanaw, and her husband Iskinder Nega who is also a journalist, were being held at an undisclosed location. Security forces raided the offices shared by the three publications in Addis Ababa on November 22, they said.
Last week, police also raided the offices of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA), in the capital, seizing computers and documents, sources told CPJ.
"The ongoing crackdown on the private press in Ethiopia is an outrage," said Ann Cooper, CPJ Executive Director. "The government must stop its attempt to shutter the entire local press, and release all jailed journalists immediately."
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Ethiopia28nov05na.html
Ethiopia - 22 journalists imprisoned
Eskinder Nega, Serkalem Publishing Enterprise
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15980
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