Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, announces that the whistleblowing website is suspending publishing operations to fight ‘arbitrary and unlawful’ financial blockades
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enlarge Credit: AP Occupy Portland As soon as the Occupy Wall Street movement began, right-wing operatives have been begging for a violent episode to occur and they certainly have been predicting it will happen because only Marxist, Lenin loving Communist supporters go to those events . Well, it looks like the first violent outburst we’ve seen outside of police crackdowns has been in Occupy Portland and against the protesters. Occupy Maine protesters say Sunday morning’s attack with a chemical explosive has left them with a mixture of anxiety and resolve. “We are more motivated to keep doing what we’re doing,” said Stephanie Wilburn, of Portland, who was sitting near where the chemical mixture in a Gatorade bottle was tossed at 4 a.m. Sunday. “They have heard us and we’re making a difference.” Wilburn said she was startled and briefly lost hearing in her left ear when the device exploded beneath a table about 10 feet away. Wilburn’s hearing returned and police said no injuries were reported. Portland police Sgt. Glen McGary said the bomb was thrown into the camp’s kitchen, a tarped area where food is cooked and served. Protest organizers said the explosion lifted a large table about a foot off the ground. “There was no fire . . . We had a good 20 feet of thick smoke rolling out from under the table,” Wilburn said. They could see the “G” on the 24-ounce bottle and its orange cap, as well as bits of silver metal, she said. She and a friend who ran over to look at it breathed in fumes that smelled like ammonia, she said. Witnesses said a silver car had been circling before the attack, its occupants shouting things like “Get a job” and “You communist.” They believe someone from that car threw the device, according to a statement from Occupy Maine. The demonstrators are protesting what they describe as unfairly favorable treatment given banks and other corporate interests at the expense of working people and those trying to find a job. Shane Blodgett of Augusta was sleeping in his tent in the middle of the park when the explosion woke him up. “I heard a sound which I thought was a gunshot,” he said, gesturing at the collection of three dozen tents that cover the south side of the park at Congress and Pearl streets. “I was in fear for my life. I thought someone was walking around with a gun. I didn’t dare poke my head out,” Blodgett said. He eventually went back to sleep. Outside of the sheer violence of a chemical bomb being thrown into a group of protesters, these words sound like they were uttered by Fox News or CNBC analysts: “Get a job” and “You communist.” They believe someone from that car threw the device, according to a statement from Occupy Maine. This bomb could have done serious injury, but they were lucky. We’ll reserve judgment until more news comes out and you can bet Fox will forget to mention this episode. We just sent a bunch of pizzas to #OccupyPortland last week . The other Portland – the one in Oregon. Not the one that was bombed. They sent us this great video back. Here’s what their website says: In Peaceful Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Peaceful, so who broke the peace? Not them. I think we need to send some “occu-pies” to the other Portland.
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enlarge Credit: AP Occupy Portland As soon as the Occupy Wall Street movement began, right-wing operatives have been begging for a violent episode to occur and they certainly have been predicting it will happen because only Marxist, Lenin loving Communist supporters go to those events . Well, it looks like the first violent outburst we’ve seen outside of police crackdowns has been in Occupy Portland and against the protesters. Occupy Maine protesters say Sunday morning’s attack with a chemical explosive has left them with a mixture of anxiety and resolve. “We are more motivated to keep doing what we’re doing,” said Stephanie Wilburn, of Portland, who was sitting near where the chemical mixture in a Gatorade bottle was tossed at 4 a.m. Sunday. “They have heard us and we’re making a difference.” Wilburn said she was startled and briefly lost hearing in her left ear when the device exploded beneath a table about 10 feet away. Wilburn’s hearing returned and police said no injuries were reported. Portland police Sgt. Glen McGary said the bomb was thrown into the camp’s kitchen, a tarped area where food is cooked and served. Protest organizers said the explosion lifted a large table about a foot off the ground. “There was no fire . . . We had a good 20 feet of thick smoke rolling out from under the table,” Wilburn said. They could see the “G” on the 24-ounce bottle and its orange cap, as well as bits of silver metal, she said. She and a friend who ran over to look at it breathed in fumes that smelled like ammonia, she said. Witnesses said a silver car had been circling before the attack, its occupants shouting things like “Get a job” and “You communist.” They believe someone from that car threw the device, according to a statement from Occupy Maine. The demonstrators are protesting what they describe as unfairly favorable treatment given banks and other corporate interests at the expense of working people and those trying to find a job. Shane Blodgett of Augusta was sleeping in his tent in the middle of the park when the explosion woke him up. “I heard a sound which I thought was a gunshot,” he said, gesturing at the collection of three dozen tents that cover the south side of the park at Congress and Pearl streets. “I was in fear for my life. I thought someone was walking around with a gun. I didn’t dare poke my head out,” Blodgett said. He eventually went back to sleep. Outside of the sheer violence of a chemical bomb being thrown into a group of protesters, these words sound like they were uttered by Fox News or CNBC analysts: “Get a job” and “You communist.” They believe someone from that car threw the device, according to a statement from Occupy Maine. This bomb could have done serious injury, but they were lucky. We’ll reserve judgment until more news comes out and you can bet Fox will forget to mention this episode. We just sent a bunch of pizzas to #OccupyPortland last week . The other Portland – the one in Oregon. Not the one that was bombed. They sent us this great video back. Here’s what their website says: In Peaceful Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Peaceful, so who broke the peace? Not them. I think we need to send some “occu-pies” to the other Portland.
Continue reading …NYT Denies Broad Anti-Semitism at OWS; Quick to See Racism at Tea Party Rallies
October 24, 2011 No Comment
While the New York Times was hypersensitive to any signs of racial prejudice among the massive, peaceful Tea Party protests, reporter Joseph Berger raised and dismissed the idea of anti-Semitism at Occupy Wall Street, in Saturday’s “ Cries of Anti-Semitism, But Not at Zuccotti Park .” Just two of many references: Reporter David Herszenhorn assumed racism was a force in the movement in an April
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Kenyan Red Cross reports one dead and eight injured in explosion, hours after grenade attack at bar in capital At least one person has died in an explosion at a bus stop in Nairobi, hours after a grenade attack at a bar in the Kenyan capital. The second blast, at a crowded bus stop in a working-class neighbourhood, was reported by the Kenyan Red Cross. It said on Twitter that one person had been killed and another eight had been taken to Kenyatta national hospital. The grenade blast wounded a dozen people, three critically. The attacks, which have not been linked, have raised fears of reprisals from Islamist groups for Kenya’s support in fighting Islamists in neighbouring Somalia. The US embassy in Kenya warned two days ago of an imminent attack, Reuters said. Mathew Iteere, the Kenyan police commissioner, said there was no firm link between the two blasts and Somalia’s al-Shabaab rebels, who have been linked to al-Qaida. Kenya Africa Jo Adetunji guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Focus on HIV-Aids cost family planning a decade, says UN population chief
October 24, 2011 No Comment
Babatunde Osotimehin says it was hard to talk about cutting birth rate as families lost their children The international community has “made a mistake” with the intensity of its focus on the global HIV-Aids epidemic and lost ground on family planning issues as a result, according to the head of the United Nations population agency. In an interview with the Guardian as the world population reaches seven billion, Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of the UN Population Fund (UNPF) , said efforts to expand family planning services in the developing world stalled for a decade while global health organisations turned their energies to fighting HIV-Aids. “We made a mistake. We disconnected HIV from reproductive health. We should never have done that because it is part and parcel,” he said. About 60 million people have been infected with or died from HIV-Aids in the 30 years since the virus was first identified in the US. Meanwhile, the global population is due to hit seven billion on 31 October. About 1.8 billion are young people, the vast majority of whom are living in the world’s poorest countries. By criticising decades of development policy by the UN and world governments, Osotimehin’s remarks are hugely controversial. Experts on HIV-Aids and population challenged his views. “I find it difficult to understand how any development leader can believe that funding for Aids in Africa was a distraction from other priorities. Aids was, and continues to be, a make-or-break emergency in much of sub-Saharan Africa,” said Siddharth Dube , a former senior adviser at UNAids and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York. Erika Larson, an international policy advocate for Population Action International , said: “There is no doubt that the incredible investment in a rapid response to address the HIV/Aids crisis has saved many lives.” Osotimehin, a doctor and former health minister in Nigeria who is the father of five children, suggested HIV-Aids was a bigger setback than the policies of George Bush – who cut funding to the UNPF and other family planning efforts. He said family planning was already “off the radar” at the time because of the preoccupation with HIV-Aids. “A lot of us that were trained and had skills in reproductive health moved to HIV and the world believed at the time that HIV … could be solved as an emergency. You could wipe it off and come back to business as usual,” he said. He had found it difficult to talk about family planning at the height of the HIV-Aids crisis. “It was going to be impossible for me to stand up in a country where young men and women are dying and to say ‘Excuse me I think you need to cut down on birth rates’. It was just not kosher,” he said. “You couldn’t begin to tell people ‘You know, you are still having too many children,’ when they had just lost their kids.” The international community was not working to integrate its programmes on HIV-Aids and family planning, said Larson. But it was a challenge. “Often times, the HIV and reproductive health communities were pitted against each other, but it was the woman who had to visit three different clinics to get what she needed,” she said. “Family planning has a role in fighting the HIV-Aids epidemic, especially in preventing unwanted pregnancy among HIV-positive women and reducing mother-to-child transmission. Family planning should be available to all women, regardless of HIV status.” Osotimehin said the international community was regaining momentum in its efforts to make family planning services available to women in all countries. He rejected setting a population target and did not attach much importance to the symbolic value of world leaders limiting their own family size. Instead, he viewed family planning as an integrated part of development. “It’s not just about population. It’s also about consumption,” he said. He argued it was crucial for developing countries to devote a larger share of their own resources to family planning and health. The 20 countries projected to have the fastest population growth are the poorest in the world, but Osotimehin argued that they could not continue to rely on development assistance for health and family planning programmes. “A country must take ownership of the welfare of its people at some point,” he said. HIV infection Sexual health Aids and HIV Health United Nations Population Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Focus on HIV-Aids cost family planning a decade, says UN population chief
October 24, 2011 No CommentBabatunde Osotimehin says it was hard to talk about cutting birth rate as families lost their children The international community has “made a mistake” with the intensity of its focus on the global HIV-Aids epidemic and lost ground on family planning issues as a result, according to the head of the United Nations population agency. In an interview with the Guardian as the world population reaches seven billion, Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of the UN Population Fund (UNPF) , said efforts to expand family planning services in the developing world stalled for a decade while global health organisations turned their energies to fighting HIV-Aids. “We made a mistake. We disconnected HIV from reproductive health. We should never have done that because it is part and parcel,” he said. About 60 million people have been infected with or died from HIV-Aids in the 30 years since the virus was first identified in the US. Meanwhile, the global population is due to hit seven billion on 31 October. About 1.8 billion are young people, the vast majority of whom are living in the world’s poorest countries. By criticising decades of development policy by the UN and world governments, Osotimehin’s remarks are hugely controversial. Experts on HIV-Aids and population challenged his views. “I find it difficult to understand how any development leader can believe that funding for Aids in Africa was a distraction from other priorities. Aids was, and continues to be, a make-or-break emergency in much of sub-Saharan Africa,” said Siddharth Dube , a former senior adviser at UNAids and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York. Erika Larson, an international policy advocate for Population Action International , said: “There is no doubt that the incredible investment in a rapid response to address the HIV/Aids crisis has saved many lives.” Osotimehin, a doctor and former health minister in Nigeria who is the father of five children, suggested HIV-Aids was a bigger setback than the policies of George Bush – who cut funding to the UNPF and other family planning efforts. He said family planning was already “off the radar” at the time because of the preoccupation with HIV-Aids. “A lot of us that were trained and had skills in reproductive health moved to HIV and the world believed at the time that HIV … could be solved as an emergency. You could wipe it off and come back to business as usual,” he said. He had found it difficult to talk about family planning at the height of the HIV-Aids crisis. “It was going to be impossible for me to stand up in a country where young men and women are dying and to say ‘Excuse me I think you need to cut down on birth rates’. It was just not kosher,” he said. “You couldn’t begin to tell people ‘You know, you are still having too many children,’ when they had just lost their kids.” The international community was not working to integrate its programmes on HIV-Aids and family planning, said Larson. But it was a challenge. “Often times, the HIV and reproductive health communities were pitted against each other, but it was the woman who had to visit three different clinics to get what she needed,” she said. “Family planning has a role in fighting the HIV-Aids epidemic, especially in preventing unwanted pregnancy among HIV-positive women and reducing mother-to-child transmission. Family planning should be available to all women, regardless of HIV status.” Osotimehin said the international community was regaining momentum in its efforts to make family planning services available to women in all countries. He rejected setting a population target and did not attach much importance to the symbolic value of world leaders limiting their own family size. Instead, he viewed family planning as an integrated part of development. “It’s not just about population. It’s also about consumption,” he said. He argued it was crucial for developing countries to devote a larger share of their own resources to family planning and health. The 20 countries projected to have the fastest population growth are the poorest in the world, but Osotimehin argued that they could not continue to rely on development assistance for health and family planning programmes. “A country must take ownership of the welfare of its people at some point,” he said. HIV infection Sexual health Aids and HIV Health United Nations Population Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
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• Vatican thinktank wants global authority to police markets • Economy needs people-centred ethics, cardinals argue If Vatican cardinals have yet to join the Occupy Wall Street protesters on the barricades, a document released by the Holy See calling for a “world authority” to crack down on runaway capitalism suggests some are seriously considering it. Written by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and released on Monday, “Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of a global public authority” suggests a beefed-up United Nations could police the financial markets and inject a dose of ethics to replace rampant profiteering and reduce inequality. The pamphlet claims that in combination with a “central world bank”, such an authority would help restore “the primacy of the spiritual and of ethics”, as well as “the primacy of politics – which is responsible for the common good – over the economy and finance”. Financial transactions would be taxed to promote global development and sustainability, while “virtuous” banks helping out the “real economy” would qualify for state subsidy should they need it. Presenting the document at the Vatican, the council’s secretary, Bishop Mario Toso, said the 1944 deal on international finance signed at Bretton Woods had failed, while the G20 group of nations was unable to rein in deregulated markets. The document also says the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is no longer up to the job of stabilising the global financial system. Toso admitted that these ideas appeared to sympathise with those of ” los indignados “, the Spanish protest over mass youth unemployment, but stressed that the document was built on existing Vatican teaching, notably Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical , which criticised free market fundamentalism. According to the pamphlet, Benedict had singled out the moral as well as economic and financial roots of the crisis. “To function correctly the economy needs ethics, and not just of any kind but one that is people-centred.” The pope, it adds, “himself expressed the need to create a world political authority”. The document also picks up on the pope’s denunciation of a new “technocracy”, and raises concerns over automated trading. “Seventy per cent of financial transactions are today performed in milliseconds by algorithms,” said Leonardo Becchetti, an Italian professor of economics, who helped draft the document. The document adds: “The speculative bubble in real estate and the recent financial crisis have the same origin in the excessive amount of money and the plethora of financial instruments globally.” Letting Lehman Brothers fail, thanks to a “liberalist approach, unsympathetic towards public intervention in the markets”, only worsened the crisis, it adds. Looking ahead to the G20 conference in Cannes on 3 and 4 November, Cardinal Peter Turkson, the head of the pontifical council, said the pope would be keeping a close eye on proceedings and looking for “a clear vision of economic, social, cultural and spiritual aspects”. Global economy Vatican Italy Religion Catholicism Economics Occupy movement Banking reform Banking Financial sector Tom Kington guardian.co.uk
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NTC leader announces committee to look into circumstances of death and officials order halt to public viewing of corpse Libya’s new government has bowed to international pressure and announced an investigation into last week’s killing of Muammar Gaddafi, as officials in the coastal city of Misrata ordered a halt to public viewing of the dictator’s decomposing corpse. Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the ruling national transitional council (NTC), said a committee had been set up to look into the circumstances of the deaths of Gaddafi and his son Mutassim in Sirte, the scene of the regime’s last defiant stand. He said Libyans would have preferred to see the deposed leader stand trial and be held accountable for his crimes. New evidence of atrocities emerged with a report that the bodies of 53 Gaddafi loyalists, some of them bound and shot in the head, had been found in Sirte. No arrangements have yet been made for Gaddafi to be buried and the Misrata council has refused to release his body to his relatives. Al-Arabiyya TV reported that it was possible he would be buried at sea, and local residents were refusing to have him interred even in a special cemetery set aside for “invaders”. A third body in the Misrata meat storage facility is that of the old regime’s army commander, Abu Bakr Younis. Guards finally closed the doors on Monday as people queued up to have a look at the grisly scene inside. Libyan TV channels continue to screen video footage of Gaddafi’s final moments as well as scenes of rebel fighters squatting around his corpse and cursing him in the cold store. Monday’s newspapers showed yet more gory images on their front pages. “We have formed a committee to investigate how Gaddafi was killed during the clashes with his supporters while arresting him,” Abdel-Jalil said in Benghazi. “All Libyans wanted to prosecute him over what he did to them, from executions to imprisonment, corruption, wasting their money. Those who have an interest in killing him before prosecuting him are those who had an active role with him.” Observers suggested the NTC move had been prompted by expressions of concern from the US, Britain and other countries about the rule of law and human rights in post-Gaddafi Libya. John Jenkins, the UK ambassador, saw Abdel-Jalil in Benghazi before Sunday’s ceremony marking the formal liberation of the country. Mahmoud Jibril, the NTC prime minister and the man credited with securing western and Nato support for the rebels, had already said he was in favour of an investigation. Abdel-Jalil indicated that the NTC still held to the initial official explanation that Gaddafi may have been killed in “crossfire” with his own men – a view many of his own officials do not appear to believe. Privately, most defend the killing. Ordinary Libyans canvassed in Tripoli and Benghazi since last Friday seem largely indifferent to the international concerns about how Gaddafi was killed or about the propriety of leaving his corpse on public display. “You think it’s bad?” one Tripoli resident said. “Gaddafi was very bad. And we suffered from him for 42 years.” Many expressed sentiments of raw vengeance. Ahmed al-Atrash, a university lecturer, said: “I don’t care how Gaddafi was killed. But I do wish he had been captured alive because it would have been interesting to hear what he had to say about everything he was involved in.” Farida, a lawyer, said: “I was sorry that his life ended so easily. He should have been brought to justice and faced the families who suffered because his troops raped their women or killed their men, or made to explain how he used money to manipulate people. Forget the 42 years, I’m just talking about what happened since February 17 [when the revolution began].” Detailing apparent evidence of a new atrocity in Sirte, Human Rights Watch said the 53 bodies were found on Sunday on the lawn of the abandoned Hotel Mahari, which saw heavy fighting last week as NTC forces battled for control of the town. “This requires the immediate attention of the Libyan authorities to investigate what happened and hold accountable those responsible,” said HRW’s Peter Bouckaert. “Some had their hands bound behind their backs when they were shot. This latest massacre seems part of a trend of killings, looting and other abuses committed by armed anti-Gaddafi fighters who consider themselves above the law. It is imperative that the transitional authorities take action to rein in these groups.” Disputes over the circumstances of the killings and the disposal of the bodies appear to reflect tensions between the rebel brigades and the NTC leadership. Western diplomats say the disarmament and demobilisation of the brigades – and their integration into the security forces of the new Libyan government – is the biggest single challenge of the coming months. HRW said it believed the hotel had been in the hands of anti-Gaddafi forces from Misrata before the killings, and it remained in their control until the fighting in Sirte stopped on 20 October. “The evidence suggests that some of the victims were shot while being held as prisoners, when that part of Sirte was controlled by anti-Gaddafi brigades who appear to act outside the control of the NTC,” Bouckaert said. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Africa Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Sunday that saving the jobs of police and firefighters was not the role of the federal government. CNN’s Candy Crowley reminded the Kentucky Republican that a recent Gallup/ USA Today poll found that 75 percent of Americans supported President Barack Obama’s plan to provide additional money for teachers, police and firefighters. “Republicans helped not break a filibuster, if you will, in a procedural vote,” Crowley explained. “You basically got rid of that jobs bill which would have given money to the states, designed to hire or retain fireman, policeman and teachers. When we look at the polling, 75 percent of Americans supported that and yet, the Republicans were against it. So, how do you justify that in your mind?” “Well, Candy, I’m sure that Americans do,” McConnell remarked. “I certainly do approve of firefighters and police. The question is whether the federal government ought to be raising taxes on 300,000 small businesses in order to send money down to bail out states for whom firefighters and police work. They’re local and state employees.” “The question is whether the federal government can afford to be bailing out states. I think the answer is no.” “The fact is that when you do ask people about this surtax on millionaires, and small businesses as you put it but millionaires in general, people support that, when it comes to not just firemen, policemen and teachers but also the infrastructure bill that’s coming up, which you’re also opposed to, as I understand it, which would help put people back to work on roads and bridges and rebuilding and that sort of thing,” Crowley noted. “It seems to me that politicians are always talking about doing the will of the American people, and that the Republican Party can be seen at least politically as going against that.” “Yeah, these bills are designed on purpose not to pass,” McConnell asserted. “I mean, the president is deliberately trying to create an issue here. Look, the American people don’t think, I’m sure, that it’s a good idea. Four out of five of the so-called millionaires are business owners, over 300,000 small businesses in our country that hire people. I don’t think the American people think that raising taxes on business, small business in the middle of this economic situation we find ourselves in is a particularly good idea.”
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