Denial that former president has died unlikely to quell online and overseas speculation Reports of the death of the former president Jiang Zemin have been greatly exaggerated, the Chinese state media has insisted, amid a frenzy of online and overseas speculation. Xinhua issued a short and unusual denial that the 84-year-old statesman had passed away to quell rumours that began on Friday when Jiang failed to attend the biggest political event of the year – a 90th anniversary celebration to mark the founding of the Chinese Communist party. Asia Television of Hong Kong broadcast a report on Wednesday claiming Jiang had died of an unnamed illness. Japanese and South Korean media issued similar bulletins. Chinese journalists said they had been told to expect news on Thursday, but the only comment was a single line from Xinhua. “Recent reports of some overseas media organisations about Jiang Zemin’s death from illness are “pure rumour,” the newswire said , quoting unnamed “authoritative sources”. Despite the denial, speculation is unlikely to fully die down until Jiang is seen again in public. The last such big occasion was in October 2009 for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic . He was also present at an event in Sichuan last year, where his car was reportedly followed by an ambulance. Jiang is said to be suffering from an illness and possibly hospitalised, though it is hard to confirm because China treats the health of its leaders as a state secret. Until today, censors have tried to quell speculation by blocking references to related words on blogs and search engines : “Jiang”, “myocardial infarction”, “hung” – a euphemism for death – and “301 Hospital” – a reference to the medical facility where he was said to be treated. Searches for “jiang”, which means river, resulted in the warning: “Search results are not shown due to relevant laws and policies.” Netizens sidestepped the prohibition by using English words and allusions. The US-based dissident news site Boxun.com said Shandong News in eastern China had its website disabled by authorities for reporting Jiang’s death, though the newspaper dismissed Boxun’s report. Boxun showed what it said was a screenshot of Shandong News with a banner headline reading “Venerable Comrade Jiang Zemin Will Never Be Forgotten” next to a photo of the former leader. A woman in the news department at Shandong News said the newspaper’s site went offline on Wednesday because their servers crashed and they were still trying to fix the problem. The woman, who would only give her surname, Wang, said the website never posted news saying Jiang had died. “That’s a rumour,” she said. “Maybe someone with ulterior motives made that screenshot.” The internet cat-and-mouse game over the possible death of a former leader underscores how secretive China’s Communist party leadership remains – and the difficulties of maintaining that secrecy in a well-wired society. Jiang Zemin rose to power in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square killings, oversaw the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and led his country until 2002, by which time it was one of the world’s most powerful economies. He was replaced by the current president Hu Jintao. China Internet Censorship Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A US appeals court ordered the Obama administration to stop enforcing the ban on allowing gay men and women serving openly in the military A US appeals court has ordered the US government to immediately cease enforcing the ban on openly gay members of the military, a move that could speed the end of the 17-year-old rule. Congress repealed the policy in December and the Pentagon is already preparing to welcome gay military personnel, said the ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. There’s no longer any purpose for a stay the appeals court had placed on a lower court ruling that overturned “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the judges said. In the meantime, the court order blocks the military from discharging anyone based on sexual orientation, a Pentagon spokesman said, news that brought relief from gay rights advocates who say there are still dozens of gay or lesbian personnel under investigation. “The ruling …removes all uncertainty American servicemembers are no longer under threat of discharge as the repeal implementation process goes forward,” said R. Clarke Cooper, Log Cabin Republicans executive director. The Pentagon will comply with the court order and is taking immediate steps to inform commanders in the field, said spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan. The next step is the official end to “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Defence officials said the chiefs of the military services are scheduled to submit their recommendations on the repeal to Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Friday. As soon as the Pentagon certifies that repealing the ban will have no effect on military readiness, the military has 60 days to implement the repeal. Officials said they believe the ban could be fully lifted by the end of September. The services have been training their forces on the new law for the past several months. The Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps are largely done with the training, and the Army is on track to finish the active duty training by July 15. The ruling on Wednesday came in response to a motion brought by Log Cabin Republicans, a group for gay Republican Party members, which last year persuaded a lower court judge to declare the ban unconstitutional. After the government appealed US District Judge Virginia Phillips’ decision, the 9th Circuit agreed to keep the policy in place until it could consider the matter. The appeals court reversed itself with Wednesday’s order by lifting its hold on Phillips’ decision. It cited as a reason the Obama administration’s recent position in another case involving same-sex marriage that it is unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law. “The circumstances and balance of hardships have changed, and (the government) can no longer satisfy the demanding standard for issuance of a stay,” the panel said. Although the stay is lifted, the 9th Circuit scheduled an August 29 hearing to consider whether the government’s appeal of the lower court’s decision is valid. But it’s unclear whether the Pentagon will pursue the appeal, since defence officials already have said they’ll stop enforcing the ban. Organisations that represent gay military members and veterans cautioned those on active duty or hoping to enlist against rushing to declare their sexual orientations until the government says that it intends to abide by the ruling. During the eight-day period last fall before the 9th Circuit put Phillips’ injunction prohibiting enforcement of “don’t ask, don’t tell” on hold, several of the estimated 14,000 veterans who had been discharged under the policy unsuccessfully tried to re-enlist. “As the news goes out over the wire, troops will see again, as they did last fall, that ‘DADT is dead’,” said an Air Force officer who co-founded a gay service member support group called OutServe and asked not to be identified by name for fear of being discharged. “More gay troops will think this is over; straight soldiers will inadvertently ‘out’ their friends. Since most of the troops have been trained, the best course is to let the decision stand.” Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defence Network, said his group currently has a load of about 40 cases involving servicemembers who are under investigation for being gay or lesbian. Among the group’s clients are a man and a woman who appeared this year before base review boards that recommended their dismissals to the secretaries of their respective services, Sarvis said. Although he thinks those clients are no longer in danger of being discharged and that further “don’t ask, don’t tell” investigations would be prohibited under the court’s order, Sarvis said that gay military personnel would remain unnecessarily fearful until President Obama, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen “get on with that important certification.” “We have a court here issuing a wakeup call to the Pentagon,” he said. “This order is welcome, but it does add another layer of confusion and the solution is certification by the president, the defence secretary and Admiral Mullen in days, not weeks.” The order was signed by the 9th Circuit’s chief judge, Alex Kozinski, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, and by Judges Richard Paez and Kim Wardlaw, who both were appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton. Gay rights United States US politics US military guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Phone Hacking Scandal – Bearing a strong resemblance to a Ouija Board. Click here to view this media With almost daily revelations surfacing on the News Of The World/News International/Newscorp/Rupert Murdoch scandal , there is still very little being said in our own mainstream media regarding what could very well become the potential takedown of a government. No big surprise there. As these revelations now involve the former Communications Director for Prime Minister David Cameron, Andy Coulson who was, prior to his appointment, editor of News Of The World and who has subsequently resigned his post with Cameron in January, questions continue to rise over how much Coulson knew and how far reaching actually is this scandal. It’s been said to have taken on Nixonian proportions, and that may well be true. That now it is revealed Police bribes and sand bagging have been ongoing since 2009 and earlier suggest the scandal is far more prevalent than previously thought. That this scandal is being paid scant attention here in the U.S. begs to entertain a more sinister atmosphere (not merely the breezy smokescreen that it’s the code of ethics among members of the Fourth Estate not to discuss such matters) and that this is a scandal very much about to break on our own shores involving people who have taken the lead of fact-free and loosely procured sources in the name of journalistic integrity, fairly expose the root of what has been a problem ever since our introduction to the ways of The News Of The World and the tabloid atmosphere so much a part of the Murdoch empire. So as a manner of getting you up to speed and keeping this story from being buried, I am posting three clips that have come out as of today (July 6th). First up is a piece first broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 Today program featuring interviews with Director of Corporate Affairs for News International, Simon Greenberg, Former Managing Editor of The Times Professor George Brock and BBC Business Editor Robert Preston who offers this assessment: Robert Preston (BBC Business Editor): “George Brock has said that this a hugely damaging set of revelations about a very important bit of Rupert Murdoch’s empire. What is quite striking is that the initial disclosures about the hacking into celebrity’s voice mails didn’t appear to do much damage to the News Of The World circulation or indeed its advertising. But, we’re seeing advertisers saying they’re questioning whether or not to continue advertising and it will be very interesting to see whether or not the News Of The World’s circulation starts to suffer. News Of The World are a hugely important part of this empire because of the series of disclosures that there, to quote a number of commentators, there were no depths to which some journalists would stoop in terms of invading the privacy of vulnerable people.” enlarge Credit: Associated Press Andy Coulson – new revelations. Click here to view this media Next up is a BBC Radio 4 Profile on former Communications Director Andy Coulson whose resignation from the Cameron government in January sparked further revelations over the extent of Phone Hacking at News Of The World and this reaction from David Cameron: David Cameron: “He did a very good job as Director of Communications both for the government and for the country. He ran the Downing Street Press Office in a very professional and straight forward and correct way, and I think has done some very good work. But I understand why he wants to go with the things that happened at The News Of The World, the stories about that. Obviously he resigned at the time and I’ve always felt he’s been punished for the same offense twice, but I quite understand his position and I wish him well for the future.” Suspicions are now raised, since the revelations of Police bribes, triggering a Scotland Yard investigation that perhaps David Cameron may have known more than he let on and that this new call for further investigations could be a deflection of sorts of many potential key players, not the least being Rupert Murdoch whose attempt at trying to buy a 100% stake in the Sky Channel may well be the tipping point. At the moment it would seem the attempted lid placed on the scandal has done nothing but fly off at least once a day. How far it will go would be mere speculation at this point. The last clip is an interview done earlier today with Graham Foulkes whose son David was one of the victims of the bombings in London on July 7th 2005 and whose phone was one of those hacked by News Of The World reporters. Click here to view this media The revelations don’t appear to be over by any stretch. My suspicion is it’s only a matter of time before revelations about Newscorps activities in the U.S. are discovered. My hunch, and only a hunch not based on anything other than speculation based on reports I’m hearing today, is that this may very well have the potential to bring down the Cameron Government – or at least do serious damage to credibility some weeks or months down the road. Asked if this is causing cracks in Rupert Murdoch’s empire the answer at the moment is no. But strains are appearing. It’s interesting the New York Times are being assailed as whistle blowers in all this, blaming a feud with The Wall Street Journal (another Murdoch paper) for setting off the firestorm. I guess it doesn’t occur to anyone that, when you have achieved a certain level of perceived impunity it sets up the misconception you have become bullet proof. Scandals are almost always the product of the assumption you’re above everything. Sound familiar? Stay tuned.
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enlarge Phone Hacking Scandal – Bearing a strong resemblance to a Ouija Board. Click here to view this media With almost daily revelations surfacing on the News Of The World/News International/Newscorp/Rupert Murdoch scandal , there is still very little being said in our own mainstream media regarding what could very well become the potential takedown of a government. No big surprise there. As these revelations now involve the former Communications Director for Prime Minister David Cameron, Andy Coulson who was, prior to his appointment, editor of News Of The World and who has subsequently resigned his post with Cameron in January, questions continue to rise over how much Coulson knew and how far reaching actually is this scandal. It’s been said to have taken on Nixonian proportions, and that may well be true. That now it is revealed Police bribes and sand bagging have been ongoing since 2009 and earlier suggest the scandal is far more prevalent than previously thought. That this scandal is being paid scant attention here in the U.S. begs to entertain a more sinister atmosphere (not merely the breezy smokescreen that it’s the code of ethics among members of the Fourth Estate not to discuss such matters) and that this is a scandal very much about to break on our own shores involving people who have taken the lead of fact-free and loosely procured sources in the name of journalistic integrity, fairly expose the root of what has been a problem ever since our introduction to the ways of The News Of The World and the tabloid atmosphere so much a part of the Murdoch empire. So as a manner of getting you up to speed and keeping this story from being buried, I am posting three clips that have come out as of today (July 6th). First up is a piece first broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 Today program featuring interviews with Director of Corporate Affairs for News International, Simon Greenberg, Former Managing Editor of The Times Professor George Brock and BBC Business Editor Robert Preston who offers this assessment: Robert Preston (BBC Business Editor): “George Brock has said that this a hugely damaging set of revelations about a very important bit of Rupert Murdoch’s empire. What is quite striking is that the initial disclosures about the hacking into celebrity’s voice mails didn’t appear to do much damage to the News Of The World circulation or indeed its advertising. But, we’re seeing advertisers saying they’re questioning whether or not to continue advertising and it will be very interesting to see whether or not the News Of The World’s circulation starts to suffer. News Of The World are a hugely important part of this empire because of the series of disclosures that there, to quote a number of commentators, there were no depths to which some journalists would stoop in terms of invading the privacy of vulnerable people.” enlarge Credit: Associated Press Andy Coulson – new revelations. Click here to view this media Next up is a BBC Radio 4 Profile on former Communications Director Andy Coulson whose resignation from the Cameron government in January sparked further revelations over the extent of Phone Hacking at News Of The World and this reaction from David Cameron: David Cameron: “He did a very good job as Director of Communications both for the government and for the country. He ran the Downing Street Press Office in a very professional and straight forward and correct way, and I think has done some very good work. But I understand why he wants to go with the things that happened at The News Of The World, the stories about that. Obviously he resigned at the time and I’ve always felt he’s been punished for the same offense twice, but I quite understand his position and I wish him well for the future.” Suspicions are now raised, since the revelations of Police bribes, triggering a Scotland Yard investigation that perhaps David Cameron may have known more than he let on and that this new call for further investigations could be a deflection of sorts of many potential key players, not the least being Rupert Murdoch whose attempt at trying to buy a 100% stake in the Sky Channel may well be the tipping point. At the moment it would seem the attempted lid placed on the scandal has done nothing but fly off at least once a day. How far it will go would be mere speculation at this point. The last clip is an interview done earlier today with Graham Foulkes whose son David was one of the victims of the bombings in London on July 7th 2005 and whose phone was one of those hacked by News Of The World reporters. Click here to view this media The revelations don’t appear to be over by any stretch. My suspicion is it’s only a matter of time before revelations about Newscorps activities in the U.S. are discovered. My hunch, and only a hunch not based on anything other than speculation based on reports I’m hearing today, is that this may very well have the potential to bring down the Cameron Government – or at least do serious damage to credibility some weeks or months down the road. Asked if this is causing cracks in Rupert Murdoch’s empire the answer at the moment is no. But strains are appearing. It’s interesting the New York Times are being assailed as whistle blowers in all this, blaming a feud with The Wall Street Journal (another Murdoch paper) for setting off the firestorm. I guess it doesn’t occur to anyone that, when you have achieved a certain level of perceived impunity it sets up the misconception you have become bullet proof. Scandals are almost always the product of the assumption you’re above everything. Sound familiar? Stay tuned.
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Leaks to press about woman’s background ‘came from DA’s office’ but show risk of prosecuting former IMF boss Relations between the maid in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case and the New York district attorney’s office appear to have irreparably broken down after her lawyers accused the office of leaking damaging information about her. Kenneth Thompson, representing the unidentified alleged victim of a sexual assault by the former IMF head, is calling for Cyrus Vance to quit the case. In a letter addressed to the chief prosecutor, Thompson wrote: “District Attorney Vance, we ask in earnest that your office voluntarily recuse itself from the Strauss-Kahn case and that you appoint a special prosecutor.” The extraordinary request is an indication of the dire state of the prosecution case. Vance has stated there were “major holes” in the maid’s account of events at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan where the alleged attack took place. Strauss-Kahn’s legal team met lawyers from the office on Wednesday to discuss how to resolve the case. Hours before Vance made his declaration to the Manhattan court last week, a story ran in the New York Times detailing problems with the maid’s testimony. Thompson accused Daniel Alonso, a senior member of Vance’s team, of having planted the leak with the newspaper. In his letter, obtained by Reuters, Thompson said quotes given in the Times article were almost identical to language used by Alonso to Thompson at around the same time. In the article, it was revealed that the maid had telephoned her boyfriend, who is held in an prison in Arizona on drugs charges. The Times said that in the conversation, recorded by police, she said words to the effect of “Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I am doing.” Thompson said “virtually the same words” had been used by Alonso to him just hours earlier. Thompson went on in his letter to complain that the office had failed to categorically deny a story in the New York Post alleging that the maid has been a prostitute. “Such apparent leaks by members of your office is, without question, an abrogation of the duties and responsibilities of the prosecutor.” Vance is caught in a case that could define the success or failure of his term as chief prosecutor in the city. On the one hand he is obliged to share serious doubts about the alleged victim with the courts and with the defence; on the other hand he cannot be seen to be discriminating against a poor apparently defenceless woman in favour of a very rich and powerful man. Dominique Strauss-Kahn New York United States France Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …On Friday, the Dearborn County Prosecutor’s Office released an embarrassing video of Republican Ohio State Rep. Robert Mecklenborg being stopped by police and failing a DUI test. After failing the roadside sobriety test, a blood test showed the lawmaker had a .097 blood-alcohol level and had traces of Viagra in his system. The 59-year-old married father of three also refused to explain why he had a 26-year-old female passenger in the car. Reports indicated that the woman worked at a strip club in Lawrenceburg. Mecklenborg is moving forward with a request that the Ohio Senate return next week to vote on a restrictive voter photo ID bill that he is sponsoring. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee noted that if the law is passed, Mecklenborg, who should have had his license confiscated at the time of his arrest, may be a victim of his own legislation.
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CBS's Bob Schieffer took on the role of a left-wing activist on Sunday's Face the Nation, as he pressed all four of his guests from both parties about cuts in state and local spending. Schieffer bewailed how both Republican Governors John Kasich and Scott Walker ” cut deeply into education ” and asked Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa if he felt good about making ” draconian cuts ” [audio clips available here ] The anchor brought on the governors of Ohio and Wisconsin, as well as the mayor of Los Angeles and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, for his half-hour program to discuss the impasse over the federal budget and the debt ceiling and its impact on their states. After an initial question to Governor Kasich, where Schieffer claimed how, apparently, “things are worse than ever” between the two political parties, Schieffer set up his first question to Governor Walker with his lament of the apparent cuts to education in the states of his two Republican guests: SCHIEFFER (to Kasich, and then, to Walker): …A lot of people say it's miraculous that you got your budget done, but in order to do it, you had to cut deeply into education . Now, Governor Walker up in Wisconsin, he had to do the same thing when he got his budget done. I guess, Governor Walker, I would ask you, is that going to be the wave of the future is to just cut deeply into education? It seems to be the thing that gets cut first now . Once the Wisconsin executive defended his state's budget, the CBS journalist turned to the Massachusetts governor and pressed him on whether he was going to sign a recently-passed budget into law: SCHIEFFER: Your legislature has just sent you a budget that, I have to say, looks a lot more Republican than Democrat, in Massachusetts, of all places . (Patrick laughs) It limited- it limits bargaining rights of state workers. There are deep cuts in the programs for the poor- no tax increases . I guess, for the benefit of the reporters for Massachusetts and the people up there watching this morning, are you going to sign this budget, Governor? After Governor Patrick avoided giving a direct answer (and some technical difficulties on the audio feed between host and guest), Schieffer stayed on topic with his second Democratic guest and questioned why the mayor had to slash his budget, and zeroed-in on cuts to emergency services: SCHIEFFER: Mr. Mayor, you're not in charge of state budgets obviously, but you're in charge of a pretty good-sized budget out there in Los Angeles. You had to make some draconian cuts yourself. You have cut down on the number of fire stations, your number- cut down on ambulance service. Do you feel good about that? I mean, is that what government is supposed to be doing here? The CBS anchor has made his economic liberalism manifest on at least three occasions over the past few months. On April 17, Schieffer hit Democratic Senator Mark Warner from the left on taxes: “Senator, you are a Democrat, you are a conservative Democrat from a very conservative state, Virginia . Do you think that we can solve the deficit problem without raising taxes in some way? ” He also questioned the wisdom of tax cuts with Republican guest Rep. Paul Ryan: “W hy do these rich people need another tax cut? I mean, they're already rich. They seem to be doing pretty well as it is now. Why cut their taxes some more? ” On the June 13 edition of CBS Evening News , the journalist praised Republican Senator Tom Coburn for his “candor” for being open to raise taxes in order to decrease the deficit: “That is not the first time we have heard someone offer that analysis but it may be the first time a member of Congress has been willing to admit that Congress simply lacks the courage to do what everyone knows needs to be done .” The following morning, during a town hall meeting with four Republican politicians , Schieffer again sparred with Rep. Ryan, this time on the gridlock in Congress over the economy: “Let me ask you, the three members of Congress here: you've been here since January. To the best of my knowledge, you've done absolutely nothing. There's no jobs program . You've got unemployment at 9.1 percent. Why is that?…[ W ] ouldn't it be good to try to find some way to compromise on these things….instead of passing these things that people know will never get agreed to by the other house? ”
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Court could sentence Major Nidal Malik Hasan – charged over the killing of 13 people in military base rampage – to death A US army psychiatrist charged over a 2009 killing rampage at a Texas military base will face a court martial where he could be sentenced to death, a military commander has ruled. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 40, who US officials have linked to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen, has been charged over the Fort Hood shootings in which 13 people were killed and 32 wounded. Lieutenant General Donald Campbell, Fort Hood’s commander, referred Hasan’s case to a general court martial which “is authorised to consider death as an authorised punishment”, according to a statement issued by Fort Hood. A date had not been set for the court martial, the statement said. The first likely step would be for a military judge to inform Hasan of his rights at an arraignment. According to witnesses who testified at evidentiary hearings at Fort Hood in 2010, Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is Greatest” – just before opening fire on a group of soldiers undergoing health checks before being deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hasan is confined to a wheelchair after he was paralysed from the chest down by bullet wounds inflicted by civilian police officers during the incident on 5 November 2009. The attack raised concerns over the threat of “homegrown” militant attacks. US officials said Hasan had exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, an anti-American al Qaida figure based in Yemen. Fort Hood is a major deployment point for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fort Hood shootings United States US military guardian.co.uk
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Court could sentence Major Nidal Malik Hasan – charged over the killing of 13 people in military base rampage – to death A US army psychiatrist charged over a 2009 killing rampage at a Texas military base will face a court martial where he could be sentenced to death, a military commander has ruled. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 40, who US officials have linked to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen, has been charged over the Fort Hood shootings in which 13 people were killed and 32 wounded. Lieutenant General Donald Campbell, Fort Hood’s commander, referred Hasan’s case to a general court martial which “is authorised to consider death as an authorised punishment”, according to a statement issued by Fort Hood. A date had not been set for the court martial, the statement said. The first likely step would be for a military judge to inform Hasan of his rights at an arraignment. According to witnesses who testified at evidentiary hearings at Fort Hood in 2010, Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is Greatest” – just before opening fire on a group of soldiers undergoing health checks before being deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hasan is confined to a wheelchair after he was paralysed from the chest down by bullet wounds inflicted by civilian police officers during the incident on 5 November 2009. The attack raised concerns over the threat of “homegrown” militant attacks. US officials said Hasan had exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, an anti-American al Qaida figure based in Yemen. Fort Hood is a major deployment point for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fort Hood shootings United States US military guardian.co.uk
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