Live From Afghanistan: Rachel Maddow of MSNBC -Tuesday & Wednesday

TV cameras overlook a rather tame scene (Photo from The Maddow Blog)

Just found this info from Christopher Hayes via Twitter - a report that Rachel Maddow will be on The Today Show today, Tuesday, and also live on The Rachel Maddow Show from Kabul. See my blog - No More Crusades for more information for more information - GO - here

Call Torture by its Real Name (Christopher Hayes on The Ed Show)

Nation in the News. July 2, 2010 See at original site here

Nation in the News
July 2, 2010

"Imagine for a moment our country elected a bunch of people who thought rape should be legal…" This is what Nation Washington editor Christopher Hayes asks us as guest host of The Ed Show. He says that the pro-rape people know that just coming out and promoting rape would not be accepted by the general populous. So instead, they get everyone to call it "unilateral, physical intimacy." But Hayes knows, "this is not a neutral phrase, this is propaganda."

Guest-hosting The Ed Show, Nation Washington Editor Christopher Hayes examines the GOP's farcical cross-examination of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

Hayes uses the same argument for the pro-torture euphemism, "enhanced interrogation techniques." He refers to a Harvard University study that compares how the media described the practice of waterboarding before the Bush administration and after. From the 1930s to the early 2000s, the New York Times called or characterized waterboarding as torture, 82 percent of the time. From 2002 to 2008, it was only 1 percent of the time. As for the Los Angeles Times: from the 1930s to the early 2000s waterboarding was called or characterized as torture 96 percent of the time and only 5 percent of the time from 2002 to 2008. During that later period, USA Today never referred to it as torture. "The term enhanced interrogation technique from the beginning was designed to fuse our moral circuitry," Hayes says. "It’s the job of the independent press to trigger our moral alarms. The New York Times and the LA Times failed this basic duty."

—Melanie Breault
Nation in the News
July 2, 2010

Just IN from Christopher Hayes via Twitter reported that Rachel Maddow will be on The Today Show and also live on The Rachel Maddow Show from Kabul. See my blog:
No More Crusades for more information GO - here

Related: Jon Stewart points out the hypocrisy of withholding the torture photos here

Guest-hosting The Ed Show, Nation Washington Editor Christopher Hayes here

The Ed Show - msnbc.com
Guest host Chris Hayes discusses a new report showing newspapers giving soft ... Veteran talk radio host Ed Schultz hosts 'The Ed Show' from 6 p.m. EST to 7 here

Musings on the Dying of the US 4th of July (Independence ? Day)

Internet cache or johnnydeppwatch

Our American 4rth of July began yesterday on the 3rd of July since Saturday was better for public displays of the annual fireworks and for commercial gains as this national holiday brings family and friends together. (Also more time and excuses for the drinkers to drink and buy lots of alcohol.) Everyone was out Saturday already strolling the shops and streets and eating barbecue. "The Fourth" began for me quite a few days ago in our neighborhood...

Certainly, I appreciate fun children have with the fireworks. They love doing their own and they go crazy at the larger brilliant rainbow shows in the sky. Everyone here enjoys the family events and community cook-outs that go along with the fireworks.

But each time they go off every year, I'm sure at first that a mass shooting has hit our neighborhood. The loud echoing and popping sounds like staccato gun-firings all across the area. And each year they seem to get louder! Or is that just my ears growing older? Or maybe it's my patience growing thin for celebrations of war long ago when my nation is still provoking them?

The kids are willing to do all manner of jobs in order to buy even more fireworks often illegally imported to our state. Noise sells well especially with boys.

I've been hearing the "practice sessions" of noisy firecrackers from China going off in the neighborhood now for a week it seems at all hours of the day and night and I'm tired of short nights and my son's poor whimpering dog crawling in corners and following me around everywhere I go!

But I'm even more disgusted with the annual overplaying of our National Anthem. Like many others I'm sick of a song glorifying war.

"O'er the land of the free (?) and the home of the brave...
...In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave..

And where is that band...
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. (?)
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued (?) land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! (?)
Then conquer we must, when our cause. it is just (? was it ever, is it now?)
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust" (OH who's God is this? or is it in the Pentagon? Blackwater, our commanders? More Occupied land? Power? Misplaced pride? Zionist Israel? Never being "wrong"?, more oil, guns, bombs, drones?)
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

(No longer do others call us Americans brave in battle! You see why many of us are sick of our nationalism or patriotism -- sick of our flag?)

Some have suggested we change our anthem to "America the Beautiful" and yes, I used to love it too. One of the first movies ever I saw was as a young girl and I was so engrossed in the media of film as I watched over and over early circular cinema enraptures and feeling I was flying on a real plane over the gorgeous planes mountains and ecstatic variety of venues across our country.

Yet how often is America STILL beautiful to either people abroad or those of us still living right here? How have her citizens allowed our name to be so undignified and trampled upon by our own war-mongers and torturers?

Some have suggested changing our anthem to "This Land is Your Land".

"This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me...

(Was it really? What about the people who's land we occupied?)

...I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

(Oh, who's voice was that?)

...As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!"

(Well, the day for tress passin' is over now on OUR land and OTHER'S land. Nope, that song won't work anymore!)

Chorus

"In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me."

While I have sorta liked that song in the past and sung it often...it doesn't cut it for me anymore.

How about an equally skilled songwriter composing one entitled:

"THIS WORLD IS YOUR WORLD, THIS WORLD IS MY WORLD?"

And how about EVERY nation -- including (and ESPECIALLY) the United States of America -- asking herself IF this world is our world, this land is our land, this people worldwide are OUR people, how then should we act? How then should we love? How then should we make peace? What might be the Unique Part we each could play? Enough of National Flags and Anthems that are all about war and bombs dropping to tap the worst impulses of our peoples and our nations!

Every Fourth a few of us stand on the road leading to the fireworks at the College and near our courthouse with simple signs: "Peace Works" - "Let Peace Come" and a few lanterns. Every year here and at our weekly vigil more and more people give us a peace sign or a honk of agreement or tell us glad we're out there standing up for both the troops who need to come home and the people who are hurt by our warmongering...sometimes someone comes by who's knows someone, maybe a loved one who's been injured or died in the current war or even from Vietnam
and thanks us profusely for standing in their stead.

Well, I did enjoy the glorious rainbow of fireworks that lit the sky last night - shot off from our local college -- as I drove home from purchasing my EAR PLUGS. And I reminded myself that kids all over the nation were enjoying the same view and lighting some of their own.

And I was and am excited that my immediate family was going to be together this Sunday.

Yet, the larger questions need to keep reverberating throughout this beautiful land:

How and When are we going to call our young and all the others HOME from occupying foreign land? When are we going to restore the Bill of Rights, the US Constitution and our profound international agreements? When will we start living out those beautiful words attached to Lady liberty and found on the pedestal of her statue?

"...Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

(From Emma Lazarus' poem)

I hear the song made from these words still wringing in my ear on this 4th of July:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...",

Why then have we NOT left alone the pomp and glory of other cultures but rather have destroyed the same? And why do we so often imprison and torture many of these same poor as well as middle class and so many innocent and others from within and without our citizenry and those usually untried or if so unfairly so from distant lands?

What sort of legacy are WE going to give and leave our dear beloved children, each and all?

Also as a young girl of twelve or so I sang in a school choir the song:
"Let There Be Peace on Earth" and I've been singing and loving it ever since. This is the question for us each and all, no?

"Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me."

Well, the kids in my neighborhood and many will keep shooting their firecrackers and works for some days to come and the dog will keep whimpering and following us around. (In fact one particularly resounding firecracker just went off now!) Bless the innocence and may there be plenty of fun for All children everywhere.

And thanx be for earplugs!

Photo credit for Lady Liberty: REENA ROSE SIBAYAN / THE JERSEY JOURNAL

Human Rights Watch: 62-page report : "No Questions Asked..."

Don’t Accept Torture Intelligence From Abusive Countries


Human Rights Watch

"Berlin, Paris, and London should be working to eradicate torture, not relying on foreign torture intelligence. Taking information from torturers is illegal and just plain wrong."

(London) June 28, 2010 -- France, Germany, and the United Kingdom use foreign intelligence obtained under torture in the fight against terrorism, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 62-page report, "No Questions Asked: Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture," analyzes the ongoing cooperation by the governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom with foreign intelligence services in countries that routinely use torture. The three governments use the resulting foreign torture information for intelligence and policing purposes. Torture is prohibited under international law, with no exceptions allowed.

"Berlin, Paris, and London should be working to eradicate torture, not relying on foreign torture intelligence," said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Taking information from torturers is illegal and just plain wrong."

The intelligence services in France, Germany, and the UK do not have detailed instructions on how to assess and follow-up on information coming from countries that torture, Human Rights Watch said. Parliamentary oversight in each country is also inadequate.

Intelligence services in all three countries claim it is impossible to know the sources and methods used to acquire shared information. But officials in the UK and Germany have made public statements indicating that they believe it is sometimes acceptable to use foreign intelligence even if it is obtained under torture. Such statements send the wrong message to abusive governments, Human Rights Watch said.

Information tainted by torture has also been used in criminal and other proceedings in France and Germany, Human Rights Watch said, despite both international and domestic rules banning the use of torture evidence in any proceedings.

The report cites the case of Djamel Beghal, whose statements made under ill-treatment in the United Arab Emirates were used against him in a French court, where he was on trial for plotting a terrorist attack. In another example, the alleged confession of a man known as Abu Attiya under ill-treatment in Jordan was used against terrorism suspects on trial in France. German courts have allowed as evidence the summaries of interrogations of three high-profile terrorism suspects in incommunicado US detention, as well as evidence collected as result of statements made by Aleem Nasir, a Pakistan-born German citizen suspected of terrorist ties, while in the custody of the notorious Pakistani intelligence services.

Human Rights Watch said that in practice, overseas torture material can end up being used in court because the burden falls on defendants to prove it was obtained under torture, a nearly impossible task.

"The rules meant to exclude torture from the courts don't work," Sunderland said. "It should be up to prosecutors to prove that evidence originating in countries that torture wasn't obtained through abuse."

The use of torture intelligence in the fight against terrorism by France, Germany, and the UK damages the credibility of the European Union, Human Rights Watch said. The actual practices of these leading EU states contradict the EU's anti-torture guidelines, which make eradicating torture and ill-treatment a priority in its relations with other countries. Over the long-term, abuses in the name of countering terrorism also feed the grievances that fuel radicalization and recruitment to terrorism, Human Rights Watch said.

The global ban on torture under international law imposes clear obligations: states must never torture or be complicit in torture, and they must work toward the prevention and eradication of torture worldwide. States must repudiate torture in their own territories, and never encourage or condone torture anywhere in the world. Cross-border intelligence cooperation is vital in the fight against international terrorism, but it cannot, under international law, operate in contradiction to these obligations.

France, Germany, and the UK can engage in necessary intelligence cooperation without undermining the global torture ban, Human Rights Watch said. To do so, they must make genuine inquiries of countries that provide information to determine whether torture was used to obtain it and to determine what steps the authorities have taken to hold to account those responsible for any abuse that comes to light.

Cooperation should be suspended in cases where there are grounds to believe torture or ill-treatment were used to obtain shared information. There is also a need for tighter parliamentary oversight of intelligence cooperation, and stronger rules to prevent torture material from entering the judicial process.

"Europe has been forced to confront its complicity in US counterterrorism abuses," Sunderland said. "It is time for France, Germany, and the UK to take responsibility for their own role in third-party abuse, and to ensure that their intelligence cooperation isn't perpetuating abuse."

Human Rights Watch called on the governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom to:

* Publically repudiate reliance on intelligence material obtained from third countries through the use of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment;
* Reaffirm the absolute prohibition on the use of torture evidence in any kind of proceeding;
* Clarify procedure rules on excluding torture evidence in criminal and civil proceedings to make clear that where an allegation that a statement was made under torture is raised, the burden of proof is on the state to show that it was not made under torture;
* Ensure that national intelligence services have clear guidance on appropriate engagement with partner services with known records of torture, and that intelligence cooperation arrangements with third countries include clear human rights stipulations, including the duty to discontinue cooperation in an individual case if credible allegations of torture come to light;
* Strengthen parliamentary oversight over national intelligence services; and
* Ensure that any form of complicity in torture is a criminal offense in domestic law, and that state agents who are complicit in torture anywhere in the world are prosecuted, including those who systematically receive information from countries and agencies known to practice torture.

To read, "No Questions Asked: Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture," please visit: here

Human Rights Watch Press release

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HREA - www.hrea.org

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international non-governmental organisation that supports human rights learning; the training of activists and professionals; the development of educational materials and programming; and community-building through on-line technologies.

UPDATED: Peace Demonstration in Toronto (against G20)

See updated video (some of protestors or usurpers may have encouraged riots which may not be in best interests of such a protest?) How can we who want peace strategize to minimize violent riots...or is the news merely giving ALL peace protestors a bad name? Are there other ways to protest which may be ultimately more effective?

See Al Jazeera item and more from 06-28 at:
Non Violent News from the most comprehensive global news network on the internet. International News and analysis on current events, etc. GO here

Canadian police have arrested nearly 600 people in the wake of violent protests at the G20 summit in Toronto. The latest clashes occurred on Sunday as several hundred protesters marched on a temporary detention centre for demonstrators arrested in riots the previous day during which police used tear gas against the public for the first time ever in the country's most populous city. The weekend...

==================
Sadly, looks like many many people wanted nothing to do with any violence at all:

25,000 people peacefully demonstrate against G20 in Toronto - GO:

here

(An event like many others "of the people" that) was hardly covered by the media,

its a great show of solidarity and a must watch!

Peace,

(Sent by a lovely peacemaker from a peace list)

--

Also from the leader who sent the above item:

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget. - Arundhati Roy

What's Rigged? What's Real?

image found at Caravan of Dreams dot com

Just for a little conversation...no particular intent here...I am on the same quest as you...

This poem is attibuted - as is - to Rumi (sorry not to know if this is an accurate translation?) Funny, I have not noticed it before? Is the line: "maybe a relationship with God" included in the same list as the other "positions" listed? How and when and in what manner are these goals worthy of our divine mission here, if there is one? How do they fit in with "the gold mine in you"?

What of all this is true and worthy of "the search" ?

IT'S RIGGED

It’s rigged — everything, in your favor.
So there is nothing to worry about.

Is there some position you want,
some office, some acclaim, some award, some con, some lover,
maybe two, maybe three, maybe four — all at once,

maybe a relationship
with
God?

I know there is a gold mine in you, when you find it
the wonderment of the earth’s gifts
you will lay aside
as naturally as does
a child a
doll.

But, dear, how sweet you look to me kissing the unreal:
comfort, fulfill yourself,
in any way possible — do that until
you ache, until you ache,

then come to me
again.

– Rumi



painting: Odilon Redon. Flower Clouds c. 1903. Pastel. The Art Institute of Chicago

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture - 26 June 2010

Joint Statement on the Occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture - 26 June 2010

Four United Nations mechanisms involved in preventing torture and helping its victims have stated that despite a well-built international legal framework, torture prevails in many regions of the world and is often accompanied by an alarming degree of impunity.

The United Nations Committee against Torture; the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture marked the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture with the following statement:

“We are deeply concerned that torture continues to be widespread and that certain practices amounting to torture as well as to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment were reinvigorated, in particular in the context of the so-called global war on terror after 11 September 2001. The prohibition against torture and other forms of inhumane treatment is absolute and cannot be derogated even under emergency situations."

“States must take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under their jurisdiction. In addition they should ensure that no reason based on discrimination of any kind be used as justification for torture or inhumane treatment The lack of criminalization of torture and inadequate sanctions are main factors contributing to impunity. We often see that in the few instances where perpetrators are held accountable they often receive sentences far below what is required by international law. In order to live up to their obligation to protect everyone subject to their jurisdiction from torture, States must ensure that all acts of torture are criminalized as offences in their domestic penal law and punishable with appropriate penalties that take into account their gravity.”

“Recent studies have shown that some States, invoking different types of emergencies, have been directly or indirectly involved in practices such as secret detention, disappearances, expulsion or extradition of individuals to countries where they were in danger of torture, and other unlawful treatment or punishment in violation of the Convention against Torture and other international human rights instruments and humanitarian law. We are dismayed to see that in almost no recent cases have there been judicial investigations into such allegations; almost no one has been brought to justice; and most victims have never received any form of reparation, including rehabilitation or compensation.”

“Torture leaves indelible traces on the body and minds of the victims and reparation can almost never be complete. Often, the right to a remedy and reparation for victims of torture is non-existent or severely limited. Adequate reparation, tailored to the needs of the victim including compensation and rehabilitation, is rarely provided or entirely dependent on the limited resources of private entities and civil society organizations. In light of these concerns, we call upon all States to ensure that victims of torture and other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment obtain full redress and urge them to adopt general guarantees of non-repetition including taking determined steps to fight impunity.”

“In this troublesome context, more than twenty years after its entry into force, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is still far from universal ratification. As of today, it has 147 States parties, of which only 64 States have made the declaration under article 22 recognizing the competence of the Committee against Torture to receive individual communications. We urge all States to become party to the Convention against Torture and make the declarations provided under article 22 of the Convention, on individual complaints, in order to maximize transparency and accountability in their fight against torture and its related impunity.

“Four years after its entry into force, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture has 51 State Parties. The Optional Protocol is a key instrument to prevent torture and ill-treatment by ensuring the establishment of independent and effective national preventive mechanisms empowered to visit places of detention. We therefore urge all States to ratify the Optional Protocol and thus to engage with the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture. We further call upon those States Parties to the Optional Protocol that have not yet done so to establish the National Preventive Mechanisms to thus live up to their obligations related to the prevention of torture and ill-treatment.”

“On this International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, we pay tribute to the Governments, civil society organizations and individuals engaged in activities aimed at preventing torture, punishing it and ensuring that all victims obtain redress and adequate compensation, including the means for as full a rehabilitation as possible. We express our gratitude to all donors to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, which currently supports the work of over 200 organizations in more than 60 countries, and hope that contributions to the Fund will continue to increase to make it possible for victims of torture and members of their families to receive the assistance they need. We call on all States, in particular those which have been found to be responsible for widespread or systematic practices of torture, to contribute to the Voluntary Fund as part of a universal commitment for the rehabilitation of torture victims and their families.”

UNITED NATIONS Press release
--
HREA - www.hrea.org

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international non-governmental organisation that supports human rights learning; the training of activists and professionals; the development of educational materials and programming; and community-building through on-line technologies.