05 November 2010 - By definition, they’re the people nobody wants. Conflict, disaster, persecution and other crises uprooted about 43 million people from their homes last year. Many millions were displaced by conflicts directly linked to U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. But despite its historical promise of refuge to the world’s huddled masses, America keeps its humanitarian floodgates tightly guarded.
Recently, the Obama administration proposed an annual cap of 80,000 on refugees entering the U.S.—a generous number by international standards but a tiny fraction of the unrelenting wave of displacement.
The annual cap will include around 17,000 Iraqis (though the actual number admitted may differ from the annual target). The figure is a modest acknowledgment of America’s moral debt to that country. It also may reflect geopolitical posturing at least as much as it responds to humanitarian needs—not surprisingly, the U.S. absorbs far more refugees from Iraq, Burma, Iran and Cuba than from the rest of the world combined. Regardless, opening our doors to 17,000 Iraqi refugees is not nearly enough, when measured against Washington’s responsibility in driving them from their homes.
Betsy Cooper of the U.S.-based Iraq Refugee Assistance Project, argues that from a historical standpoint: {read rest}
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Our Iraq War Helped Displace Millions -
'US can't lecture world on human rights'
6 November 2010 - The U.S. has for the first time ever faced unprecedented public scrutiny over its human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The U.S.delegation received strong criticism over human rights violations, including racial profiling, use of the death penalty and abuse allegations overseas. Council members in Geneva called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison and further investigation into alleged torture by US troops abroad. American representatives defended their nation's human rights record, but stressed they were not satisfied with the status quo. {YouTube Video}
So, Accountability NOW??
November 5, 2010 - Torture, considered a major crime against humanity, was authorized by former President George W. Bush. In a society with a sane media this would be a big deal, and there would be around the clock coverage, but agencies like ABC are far more interested in Bush's opinion of Kanye West's on-air criticism of his handling of the Katrina crisis than the fact that Bush said the buck stops with him, and that he is responsible for the crime of torture.
On Wednesday, November 3, R. Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post reported : {read rest}
Teaching? Resources for Green Technology
The teaching, outside of any really technical needs of design and researching advances {they also exist}, comes from the doing. There's masses of all ready highly skilled and mentally capable to quickly grasp experienced tradespeople, with years and decades of doing, all over. We can keep going on this need to grow this higher education 'industry', for bottom line, or we can get going right now and do it, just as those before us did and built what once was and is quickly disappearing or breaking down. Lets get started Now not after wasting more time so called teaching which is quickly thrown out in the doing and building.
TSI announce unique new teaching resources for Green Technology at BETT ME
November 06 2010 - On stand E30, Technical Solutions International along with LJ Create, a UK company who TSI represent in the Middle East, will be showcasing their new resources for teaching Green Technology.
The resources represent an exciting way to teach Green Construction and Sustainable Energy and incorporate teacher presentations, practical exploration and interactive lessons and simulations to introduce learners to the key aspects within these topics. {read rest}
SEAL: Gun Running Out of the War Zone
Nov 05, 2010 - He's accused of smuggling weapons from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and selling them to others here in the United States. On Friday, 33-year-old Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle was ordered held without bail.
As Bickle's family and friends left his arraignment in federal court Friday, they refused to comment on the host of weapons charges the Coronado-based Navy SEAL now faces.
According to a criminal complaint, the active-duty special warfare operator smuggled in more than 100 firearms from Iraq and Afghanistan and conspired to sell them with two others -- Richard Paul, 34, of Colorado and Andrew Kaufman, 36, of Las Vegas.
Neighbors say Andrew Kaufman's home was always busy with activity and there was a revolving door of trucks on their street.
"We didn't know what was going on," neighbor Rosalynn Nettles-May said.
ATF officers say they recovered five pounds of C-4 military explosives, grenades and night vision goggles from Richard Paul's home in Colorado.
After a five-month-long investigation, undercover officers purchased 18 machine guns and 14 other weapons from the trio and paid between $1,300 and $2,400 for each firearm. The officers say Bickle bragged that the weapons were "throwaway guns" and "untraceable". {read rest}
New generation of troops: All Sides
November 06, 2010 - The war is also being passed down among Afghan generations - most of whom have spent their entire lives watching their country engulfed in fighting that stretches back to the Soviet invasion in 1979
LANCE Cpl. Jacob Adams was in 5th grade math class when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. His parents took him out of school early that day.
Adams, 20, is now serving in a Marine battalion battling Taliban gunmen, many of whom were also just kids on Sept. 11, 2001. He’s part of a new generation of U.S. troops inheriting the wars spawned by the terror attacks.
Many of the men and women who took part in the initial invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have since left the military and moved on with their lives. The changing of the guard is a graphic and personal reminder that the fighting has dragged on longer than anyone ever imagined. ‘It’s kind of weird having watched it all on the news those first days,’ said Adams. ‘And then 10 years later, here I am, and here we are still fighting it.’ {read rest}
Khadr saga: Unanswered questions
{In this image released by the U.S. Defence Press Operations, Pentagone, on Oct. 31, 2010, shows a file photo of Canadian Omar Khadr constructing an IED (an improvised explosive device). Canadian extremist militant Omar Khadr was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Oct. 31, 2010, but only faces eight years under a plea deal. Courtesy U.S. Defence Operations/AFP/Getty Images}
{My question: What's the difference with what he was doing as to any soldier occupying his country, prepping munitions, using same, and most soldiers are fighting now are the young who've grown up in the carnage, both theaters! And his/others resolve could be hardened by his treatment in captivity with torture, no trial and no contact! Same with the criminal terrorist elements that seek retaliation well beyond the borders!}
Nov 05 2010 - On the upper deck of the ferry stand two svelte women with long braids, big smiles and camcorders capturing their final moments at the world famous naval base.
One woman, the blonde, is a Madonna impersonator. The dark-haired performer is a Cher lookalike.
They were brought to the island for a Saturday night show at the thatched roof Tiki Bar — a rally-the-troops, Bob Hope-style performance.
The night after the party, a military jury sentenced Toronto-born Omar Khadr to 40 years in prison, unaware that a plea deal capped his sentence at eight and gave him the chance to return to Canada by next fall.
“Madonna” commiserates with a reporter about the journalist’s tent accommodations, since the performers stayed at the VIP condos. She believes journalists were forced to live there because we wrote “bad” stories.
Just another vaudevillian Gitmo moment, but perhaps as good a starting point as any to reflect on 23 visits to this famous prison and dissect the eight-year Khadr saga. {read rest}
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Healing Green:
November 5 2010 - We all like to think we are good for our gardens, but are our gardens good for us? They sting us, give us creeping arthritis and the occasional rash, but fundamentally we are grateful to them, whatever the weather brings. As Bing Crosby well puts it in the film High Society, they are “positively therapeutic”.
Next Thursday, on the Remembrance Day for our war-dead, the therapeutic effects of gardening will be honoured in an unusual little ceremony. In the walled garden of the Scottish Agricultural College at Auchincruive in Ayrshire, retired army padre Jim Smith OBE of the Parachute Regiment will be holding a commemoration service with some special war veterans gathered in Scotland’s national collection of flowering poppies. The 67 poppy varieties include a Victoria Cross form of the “sleepy poppy” with a rare white cross on its scarlet petals. They have just become 68 with the addition of the scarlet Falklands poppy, a frilled “super-poppy” variety which was named to honour the 25th anniversary of the Falklands campaign. It is to be the symbol of this year’s remembrance. However, the veterans present will not be natural rememberers. They are sufferers from PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, the legacy of their intense experiences in battle. Through gardening they have begun to find the therapeutic route to normality, which happily-weary gardeners like you and I recognise in our own lives. {read rest}
'Britain's Abu Ghraib'
Video showing brutal mistreatment is submitted during high court proceedings brought by former Iraqi inmates
5 November 2010 - Evidence of systematic and brutal mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at a secret British military interrogation centre that is being described as the UK's Abu Ghraib emerged today during high court proceedings brought by more than 200 former inmates.
The court was informed that there is evidence detainees were starved, deprived of sleep, subjected to sensory deprivation and threatened with execution at the shadowy facilities near Basra operated by the Joint Forces Interrogation Team (JFIT).
It also received allegations that JFIT's prisoners were beaten and forced to kneel in stressful positions for up to 30 hours at a time, and that some were subjected to electric shocks. Some of the prisoners say they were subjected to sexual humiliation by female soldiers, while others allege that they were held for days in cells as small as one metre square. {read rest}
More Solar for Veterans Administration Centers
Adding this project to the others the VA has start or done, at VA centers, National Cemetery Buildings, more, mostly coming with Stimulus money recently which will greatly save, immediately, over the long term and be much cleaner and efficient needed energy generators.
Ameresco chosen for US$6.6 million solar project for VA center in Salt Lake City
05 November 2010 - Ameresco was chosen by the Department of Veterans Affairs to build a renewable energy project at the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ameresco will design and build the solar PV system, which holds a valued cost of over US$6.6 million. The design phase will start right away, with construction slated to begin early next year with completion anticipated within a 10-month time frame. {read rest}
VFP Maine Peace Walk
November 5th 2010 - Maine Veterans for Peace kicked off their Maine Walk for Peace, Human Needs, and Veterans Care in Farmington on Tuesday.
Today, they made a stop in Bangor.
The VFP says the goal of their walk through the state is to bring light to the amount of money Mainers have put into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
They say that money could have been put to better use on the home front. {read rest}
Friday, November 05, 2010
U.S. in human rights hot seat
Nov 5, 2010 - The United States has been defending its human rights record before the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council.
A 30-strong US delegation was grilled by more than 80 states on issues ranging from the Guantanamo detention centre to racial discrimination. Switzerland called for a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.
The US was the 136th UN member state to be scrutinised by allies and adversaries in the UN rights body, as the Obama administration opens itself up to a council that was shunned by his predecessor.
US Assistant Secretary of State Esther Brimmer, head of the high-level delegation, said she was honoured to present the first US Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
“We take our place in the UPR process with pride in our accomplishments, honesty in facing continued challenges, and a commitment to using the international system to elevate and advance the protection of human rights at home and abroad,” she told the packed meeting room in Geneva.
Cuba, Venezuela, Russia and Iran, some of the US’s fiercest critics, were among the first to speak during the three-hour meeting. {read rest}
CIA Officials Caused Missionaries Deaths
New CIA Report Says Fatal Shootdown of Missionary Plane Could Have Been Prevented
5 November 2010 - CIA officials caused the deaths of an American mother and child in a tragic plane shootdown above Peru, according to a blistering new report, by operating a counter-drug program outside the rules for six years and then lying about it to their superiors.
The report also says that after Roni Bowers and her daughter Charity died, the officials tried to cover up how it happened by "repeatedly" lying to Congress. Details from the report, and footage from the 2001 shootdown, are featured in this week's edition of "Brian Ross Investigates." {read rest}
Fort Lewis Soldiers Fed Up!!!
November 2, 2010 JOINT BASE LEWIS MCHORD, WASHINGTON – An anonymous group of soldiers in 4-9 Infantry Brigade have released a statement detailing how the Army drove one soldier to suicide. It details the humiliation that soldiers who seek help for mental problems face from their superiors. This comes on the heels of a rash of incidents involving soldiers from JBLM who had untreated mental issues, including one soldier who shot a police officer in Salt Lake City, UT. The letter reads: {read rest}
HEY boehner and mcconnell
I'll refine the banner later for some more contacts seen as how they haven't a clue as to the question!
Hey what else does a hard working A+ type personality of the Construction Industry have to do when forced into early retirement and sitting on his butt ;o}
"Gasland" the Documentary
Executive Order on “Controlled Unclassified Information”
Instead of New Tier of Secrecy in Previous Bush Order,
Obama Policy Restricts "Controlled Unclassified Information"
Markings Must Be Based on Statute, Regulation or Government-wide Policy,
With Public Input on Implementation
Washington D.C., November 4, 2010 – President Obama’s new Executive Order on “Controlled Unclassified Information” {four page pdf} issued today builds on recommendations from open government groups and the findings of the National Security Archive’s 2006 audit of “Pseudo-Secrets” that uncovered 28 different and uncoordinated policies on marking and restricting official unclassified information.
“Over the years, government officials came up with more than 100 creative acronyms like LOU or UCNI or SHSI or SBU to stamp as secret those records that did not qualify for the normal national security classification system,” remarked Tom Blanton, director of the Archive. “The new Order will bring some much-needed standards and restrictions to this out-of-control bureaucratic process – and help fulfill President Obama’s pledges for a more open government.”
Patrice McDermott, director of the OpenTheGovernment.org coalition, commented that “The [previous] Bush policy and earlier drafts could have created a fourth level of classification. Instead, this Order is a victory for openness, for both our community and the Administration. We applaud the Administration for the time, effort, and thoughtful consideration of input from inside and outside government it took to make this the outcome.” {read rest}
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Time For 'Accountability', NOW!!
So this is the game they want to keep playin, just heard on the News they're going to try and do a Clinton on this Administration investigative hearings every week!! OK Now's the time for the DoJ to open up criminal investigations into the crimes of the bush administration and the republican congresses especially as to the Wars and especially Iraq, the Brits and others already have a ton of testimony to start picking from on what was going on here and there!! Way over time for Accountability as the World, and especially Iraqi's and Afgans, has been watching and waiting!!!!
Mitch McConnell Challenges Obama With Bold Speech
4 November 2010 - Barely an hour after President Barack Obama invited congressional Republicans to post-election talks to work together on major issues, the Senate's GOP leader had a blunt message: His party's main goal is denying Obama re-election.
In a sign that combat and the 2012 elections rather than compromise could mark the next two years, Sen. Mitch McConnell on Thursday called for Senate votes to repeal or erode Obama's signature health care law, to cut spending and to shrink government.
"The only way to do all these things it is to put someone in the White House who won't veto any of these things," McConnell said in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation. {read rest}
AFN to air "Wartorn: 1812-2010"
02 Nov 2010 - HBO's new documentary about the psychological toll of combat will be aired on AFN this Veterans Day, the same day it premieres in the States.
"Wartorn: 1812-2010" looks at post-traumatic stress disorder through all its incarnations throughout our history: hysteria, melancholia, shell shock, combat fatigue, and now, PTSD. The film shows vignettes about servicemembers from the Civil War through the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Catch the documentary Thursday, Nov. 11, at 8:30 p.m. local time in Europe and Pacific. "Wartorn" will air in Iraq at 10:30 p.m. and in Afghanistan at midnight. For more about the film, its Pentagon premiere last week and to watch the trailer, click here.
bush: "I broke International and Domestic Law!"
In his new memoir, former president says his reply was "Damn right," when asked if CIA could waterboard detainee.
Nov. 3, 2010 - Human rights experts have long pressed the administration of former President George W. Bush for details of who bore ultimate responsibility for approving waterboarding of CIA detainees, the simulated drownings that many legal experts say was illicit torture.
In his memoir due out Tuesday, Bush makes clear that he personally approved the use of that coercive technique against alleged Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, an admission the human rights experts say could one day have legal consequences for him.
In his book, titled "Decision Points," Bush recounts being asked by the CIA whether it could proceed with waterboarding Mohammed, who Bush said was suspected of knowing about still-pending terrorist plots against the U.S. Bush writes that his reply was "Damn right," and he states that he would make the same decision again to save lives, according to someone close to Bush who has read the book.
Bush previously had acknowledged endorsing what he described as the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation techniques — a term meant to encompass irregular, coercive methods — after Justice Department officials and other top aides assured him they were legal. "I was a big supporter of waterboarding," Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged in a TV interview in February.
The Justice Department later repudiated some of the underlying legal analysis for the CIA effort. But Bush told an interviewer a week before leaving the White House that "I firmly reject the word 'torture,'\u2009" and he reiterates that view in the book.
Since the 2003 waterboarding of Mohammed and similar interrogations of two other CIA detainees in 2002 and 2003, the intelligence agency has forsworn the technique, which involves pouring water onto someone's face while strapped to a board, to convince them they will shortly drown. {read rest}
Iraqi Christians
Part of what we have given to Iraq after tearing off the lid of the Pandora's box of a once greater majority of Peaceful People!
Christians consider their future after deadly attack
4 November 2010 (IRIN) - The latest attack on 31 October on Iraq’s dwindling Christian community, which left 58 people dead, and warnings by al-Qaeda that more killings will follow, is raising questions about the future of one of the oldest Christian congregations in the Middle East.
“We’ve had enough now. Leaving Iraq has become a must,” said Jamal Habo Korges, a 44-year-old mechanic. “We’ve been suffering since 2003 and we can’t take it any more. The latest carnage is the final warning,” the father of three told IRIN.
Two years after the 2003 US-led invasion, when minorities were being targeted by Sunni extremists and Shia militiamen, Korges’s family left Iraq for neighbouring Syria. But with relative security restored since early 2008, the family returned home.
“We were wrong with that decision,” Korges said. “We didn’t realize that security was fragile… Now we are preparing to leave again to Syria and then apply for asylum; this is the only wise decision.” {read rest}
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Welcome your freshman class of climate deniers
Received this e-mail this morning, wish these groups would post up these on their sites as well, but oh well.
Now being a Vietnam Veteran, last year of my four, and an advocate as time permitted over the years since for my brother and sister veterans what happened in this election will Halt all the advancements made for Veterans since the 110th Congress, what wasn't done in the 108th and 109th while they started and rubber stamped two long running occupations of choice! As to what's been happening on the Green Economy and Energy issues, extremely important, we can look to see exactly the same thing happening or an extreme slow down, and don't look for those private capital funds coming in any time soon neither, ronnynomics doesn't really work that way, it goes to the top and that's where it stays!!
Last night an unprecedented number of climate contrarians were swept into office.
How did we get to such a place where attacking scientists and their work is not only acceptable, but helps win elections? And more importantly, what is UCS going to do about it?
First, we must acknowledge that these people didn't get into office on their own. They are backed by big oil, the coal industry, and electric utilities—opponents who have deep pockets and a singular goal of protecting their own interests.
UCS is going to continue to expose these polluting industries and their cronies who knowingly mislead the public about climate science. And we're going to challenge them to get their facts straight.
Because when it comes right down to it, the public's confidence in science and scientists remains high. In fact, just last night in California we saw a tangible example of science trumping industry spin, when voters thwarted an aggressive attempt by out-of-state oil companies to kill the state's landmark Global Warming Solutions Act.
It's examples like this that give me hope and remind me that we can—and will—still achieve concrete victories.
The truth of the matter is that it's been difficult to move Congress for months. The people who are supposed to be representing our interests in the nation's capitol have been too busy carrying water for narrow corporate interests rather than coming together to make real, positive change.
So we're moving forward, with them or without them. As the victory in California yesterday reminds us, there are plenty of other ways to effect change on the issues you and I care about. In the coming months, UCS will:
* Defend the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to reduce power plant, transportation, industrial, and agricultural global warming emissions;
* Push state utility commissions to shut down the oldest and dirtiest coal power plants;
* Pressure the administration to further boost fuel economy for cars and trucks and decrease tailpipe pollution, and cut our nation’s oil use in half by 2030;
* Advocate for strong, science-based state and regional climate programs that can reduce heat-trapping emissions at the local level;
* Bring agricultural experts and scientists together with government officials to build support for scientifically sound, forward-thinking farming practices that can improve our air, water, and climate; and
* Reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. security policy, further reduce their numbers, and prevent the development of new weapons.
No matter what changes happen in Washington, D.C., UCS will continue to do what we do best: develop and advance science-based solutions to major environmental and security issues.
I am deeply grateful for your support of our work and look forward to tackling the challenges we have ahead of us together!
Sincerely,
Kevin Knobloch
President: Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world.
Now being a Vietnam Veteran, last year of my four, and an advocate as time permitted over the years since for my brother and sister veterans what happened in this election will Halt all the advancements made for Veterans since the 110th Congress, what wasn't done in the 108th and 109th while they started and rubber stamped two long running occupations of choice! As to what's been happening on the Green Economy and Energy issues, extremely important, we can look to see exactly the same thing happening or an extreme slow down, and don't look for those private capital funds coming in any time soon neither, ronnynomics doesn't really work that way, it goes to the top and that's where it stays!!
Well Welcome Brother and Sister Vets!!
To Our Reality!
All you younger Vets to another, of many, DeJa-Vu moments, this time the Country can't afford what's comin!!
With the house take over and actually now, not in numbers except just enough, they also control the senate, no need to filibuster just vote in lockstep as they did the previous decade they controlled, and especially under the bush, as well as the total obstruction the last four years.
Got Veterans needs, there are still plenty, forget about even Hearings let alone Congressional Investigations into, as to any tweaking of the GI Bill more likely rollback on that and much that has been happening in the VA and from the Administration as to Military their Families and Veterans. These so called 'teabaggers' Don't Want To Pay, Even The Vets Within!
I refer you to two recent articles:
Military families feel disconnect on Memorial Day
Mr. Gates said, “in the absence of a draft, for a growing number of Americans, service in the military, no matter how laudable, has become something for other people to do.”
And remind you that there was rarely a mention of the Occupations, unless a flag needed waving on their false meme of National Security, and as rarely as to Veterans during the Campaign, you'll hear even less now and more danger to that 'National Security' meme!
We've had some forty plus years of fighting the Country and were finally even getting some of those battles won, after the 110th Congress actually did what the 108th and 109th didn't as two more Wars were waged and the 111th started moving forward, That All Stops, and may be even more damaging with some on the extreme right who were elected!
So Welcome To The Reality Of Your Service To Country and Constitution, DeJa-Vu All Over Again!!
1st Message in my in-box This Morning
DOD Identifies Army Casualties
Think you'll hear any mention today or the next couple of much of anything related to the conflicts, don't count on it!!
All you younger Vets to another, of many, DeJa-Vu moments, this time the Country can't afford what's comin!!
With the house take over and actually now, not in numbers except just enough, they also control the senate, no need to filibuster just vote in lockstep as they did the previous decade they controlled, and especially under the bush, as well as the total obstruction the last four years.
Got Veterans needs, there are still plenty, forget about even Hearings let alone Congressional Investigations into, as to any tweaking of the GI Bill more likely rollback on that and much that has been happening in the VA and from the Administration as to Military their Families and Veterans. These so called 'teabaggers' Don't Want To Pay, Even The Vets Within!
I refer you to two recent articles:
Military families feel disconnect on Memorial Day
Mr. Gates said, “in the absence of a draft, for a growing number of Americans, service in the military, no matter how laudable, has become something for other people to do.”
And remind you that there was rarely a mention of the Occupations, unless a flag needed waving on their false meme of National Security, and as rarely as to Veterans during the Campaign, you'll hear even less now and more danger to that 'National Security' meme!
We've had some forty plus years of fighting the Country and were finally even getting some of those battles won, after the 110th Congress actually did what the 108th and 109th didn't as two more Wars were waged and the 111th started moving forward, That All Stops, and may be even more damaging with some on the extreme right who were elected!
So Welcome To The Reality Of Your Service To Country and Constitution, DeJa-Vu All Over Again!!
DOD Identifies Army Casualties
November 02, 2010 - The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Nov. 1 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
Killed were:
Spc. Jonathan M. Curtis, 24, of Belmont, Mass., and
Pfc. Andrew N. Meari, 21, of Plainfield, Ill.
Think you'll hear any mention today or the next couple of much of anything related to the conflicts, don't count on it!!
Afghanistan: Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
{Photo: Akmal Dawi/IRIN
Shah Wali, a father of five, forced by fighting to leave Helmand Province and come to Kabul}
3 November 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is concerned about the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) caused by conflict in Afghanistan, and the fact that it is often too dangerous to assist them.
Between June 2009 and September 2010, 120,000 people were forced out of their homes by armed conflict, increasing the number of IDPs to 319,000, it said.
“These figures do not include IDPs scattered in urban/semi-urban locations for which systematic accounting is problematic. These figures equally do not reflect IDP groups that have scattered across the inaccessible areas of the southern swathe of the country following recent armed offensives,” Nader Farhad, a UNHCR spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN.
In addition to conflict, some people are displaced by natural disasters (primarily floods), loss of livelihoods, and land disputes, aid workers say. The Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs (MoRR) puts the total number of IDPs at nearly 500,000.
Most IDPs are in the insecure south and east of the country and many are not accessible by aid workers.{A young boy carries a heavy bag in an IDP camp in Kabul, Afghanistan}
As winter approaches, UNHCR said it was planning to distribute warm clothes, charcoal and blankets to thousands of “extremely vulnerable” IDPs, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it was working closely with UNHCR to assist IDPs.
“WFP has been distributing a three-month emergency food ration to over 43,000 recently displaced people,” WFP spokesman Challiss McDonough told IRIN, adding that the organization would provide special winter food assistance to 320,000 vulnerable families - not all of them IDPs - across the country.
The government is also moving to help IDPs: “We have submitted a request for US$5 million to the President’s Office which, if approved, will be used to respond to some of the basic needs of IDPs,” said the MoRR’s Islamuddin Joraat. {read rest}
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
WAR! (don't look!)
Nov 2, 2010 - A new isolationism is metastasizing in the American body politic. At its heart lies not an urge to avoid war, but an urge to avoid contemplating the costs and realities of war. It sees war as having analgesic qualities - as lessening a collective feeling of impotence, a collective sense of fear and terror. Making war in the name of reducing terror serves this state of mind and helps to preserve it. Marked by a calculated estrangement from war's horrific realities and mercenary purposes, the new isolationism magically turns an historic term on its head, for it keeps us in wars, rather than out of them.
Old-style American isolationism had everything to do with avoiding "entangling alliances" and conflicts abroad. It was tied to America's historic tradition of rejecting a large standing army - a tradition in which many Americans took pride. Yes, we signed on to World War I in 1917, but only after we had been "too proud to fight".
Even when we joined, we did so as a non-aligned power with the goal of ending major wars altogether. Before Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Americans again resisted the call to arms, looking on Adolf Hitler's rise and other unnerving events in Europe and Asia with alarm, but with little eagerness to send American boys into yet another global bloodbath.
In the decades since World War II, however, "isolationism" has been turned inside-out and upside-down. Instead of seeking eternal peace, Washington elites have, by now, plunged the country into a state of eternal war, and they've done so, in part, by isolating ordinary Americans from war's brutal realities. {read rest}
111th Congress put policy before politics
Nov. 1: Rachel Maddow reviews the lengthy list of accomplishments of the Democratic Congress of the first half of President Obama's first term and talks with NBC presidential historian Michael Beschloss about the historical context of this remarkable productivity.
This is a Reminder:
To Veterans and Military personal as to even if the so called republicans gain seats, or do take the house especially, All Forward Movement, much a long time coming, Will Come To A Screeching Halt!!
Monday, November 01, 2010
Accountability for Atrocities Committed
Now for some Accountability in this Country, we can't keep on ignoring, others aren't!!!!
Clinton visits Cambodian genocide museum
November 1, 2010 - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed hope for accountability for atrocities committed by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime during an emotional visit to Cambodia's genocide museum.
A sombre-looking Clinton studied black-and-white photos of gaunt-faced prisoners on display, along with dozens of skulls of victims and paintings of people being tortured, during her visit on Monday.
She later described the tour of Tuol Sleng - the main torture centre of the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s - as a "very disturbing experience," but said she was impressed that Cambodia was confronting its dark history.
"Countries that are held prisoner to their past never break those chains and build the kind of future your children deserve," she told an audience of young Cambodians at a town hall-style meeting in the capital Phnom Penh. {read rest}
PTSD - Avoidance Coping Strategy
Nov. 1, 2010 - A Spanish researcher says self-blaming abuse victims are more likely to resort to avoidance coping -- behaviors that prevent confronting a problem.
Canton Cortes of the University of Granada in Spain and colleagues at the University of Cambridge in England says aspects of avoidance coping behavior -- sleeping more than usual, avoiding thinking about the problem, or resorting to alcohol and drug abuse -- were also more likely found in victims of child sexual abuse who blamed their family for not protecting them from the abuse.
snip
Cortes linked the three behaviors and the psychological after-effects to a greater likelihood of victims showing more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. {read rest}
Who Knows Benefits of Conserving Fuel
A short but good article pointing out two extremely important issues Not being talked about during this campaign cycle especially by those getting the most press {and their very own 24/7 cable channel hyping them}, the so called Mad electorate calling themselves the TEA party. Many, or most, are from the same that brought us these two long running occupations and are supporting those seeking representative jobs from the same political party with no ideology but quickly rubber stamped the credit card of dept and already have stated they won't Work for the Country, in no way to compromise but to raise the obstruction within!
Veterans know the benefits of conserving fuel
October 31, 2010 - The stack of mail that awaited me after a trek last week to three favorite national wildlife refuges on the Delmarva Peninsula included a slick and glossy brochure from an incumbent state legislator. The text, headlined with bold lettering, proclaimed the fellow's support for veterans' benefits and the like.
As if such benefits are being debated, at all.
They aren't.
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No, veterans' benefits are not on the debate table. But America's continuing - and growing - dependence on foreign sources of oil surely is. And American men and women in uniform are on the frontlines of the ongoing campaign to protect oil fields, most notably in the Middle East. (I won't identify the name of the politician whose mailer I mention above, but you can figure it out easy enough).
Political leaders - at all levels of government - who really, really, really want to deal with a real issue at the heart of national security would start hammering away at reducing our insatiable demand for fossil fuels, like Middle East petroleum.
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"The Obama administration set the country on a path to higher fuel efficiency in automobiles and lower consumption of oil. By increasing fuel efficiency, we will reduce our reliance on oil and thus enhance our national security," said Jonathan Murray of Operation Free, which has called for a standard of 60 mpg by 2025. "Today's announcement is welcome news among America's military families that are on the front lines of defending American security."
The Obama Administration has signaled that it is looking to raise fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks to at least 47 miles per gallon and up to 62 miles per gallon by 2025. The new standards would apply to cars and light trucks in model years 2017-2025. Increasing fuel efficiency to 60 mpg would result in at-pump cost savings to consumers of more than $100 billion and cut oil consumption by 44 billion gallons in 2030, according to a recent study.
"Our current energy policy sends a billion dollars a day overseas for oil and some of it ends up in the hands of terrorists and regimes hostile to the United States. The existing policy puts our soldiers at risk as they face our enemies on the battlefield. Setting higher fuel efficiency standards will reduce the need for oil and the associated security risks. The administration's proposal complements the Department of Defense efforts to find new sources of clean energy to power our ships, planes and tanks and reduce our dependence on oil," said Murray.
Operation Free is a coalition of veterans and national security organizations dedicated to securing America with clean energy. Operation Free sponsors the Veterans for American Power National Tour, a 29-state tour by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans making the connection between energy policy and national security. Learn more at Operation Free. Operation Free is an advocacy campaign of the Truman National Security Project. {read rest}
Omar Khadr Sentenced
DOD Announces Sentence for Detainee Omar Khadr
October 31, 2010 - The Department of Defense announced today that a military commission sentenced Omar Khadr to 40 years in confinement after he pleaded guilty to murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism, and spying.
A pre-sentencing hearing took place in a military commission courtroom at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. During his Oct. 25 guilty plea, Khadr admitted to throwing a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer after a firefight between Khadr and his associates and coalition forces. Khadr admitted that prior to and during the firefight, he had the opportunity to safely leave but chose to stay and fight against the American and coalition forces. He admitted building and planting ten landmines, intending to kill as many Americans as possible.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Khadr received training at al Qaeda terrorist camps and assisted al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Prosecutors also called Speer’s widow, Tabitha Speer, giving her the opportunity to address the commission. She explained the effect the murder of her husband had on her and their two children, who were 3 years old and 9 months old at the time of Speer’s death. The defense presented evidence from a dean at Kings University College, in Edmonton, Canada, asserting that upon his release, Khadr will likely be admitted to that college at no cost to him. Khadr also provided an unsworn statement, not subject to cross-examination, in which he accepted responsibility for his acts, and stated he was sorry for the pain he caused Speer’s widow.
Khadr was sentenced to 40 years by a panel of military officers, known as "members" -- the equivalent of a jury in civilian courts. Under the rules provided by the Manual for Military Commissions, Khadr will not receive credit for the time (more than eight years) that he spent in law of war detention before his conviction. Khadr’s sentence is limited by the terms of his plea agreement to eight years confinement, but he receives the benefit of whichever is less -- the adjudged sentence or the eight-year sentence limitation. Consistent with the terms of Khadr's plea agreement, the governments of Canada and the United States exchanged notes reflecting that both would support Khadr's transfer to Canadian custody to serve the remainder of his approved sentence after he serves one year in U.S. custody.
After the military commission adjourns, the Office of Military Commissions finalizes the record of trial. The military judge and counsel from both sides then review the record to ensure it is accurate, after which it will be sent to the Convening Authority for Military Commissions. The Convening Authority may reduce, but not increase, Khadr’s sentence. He may also set aside the findings with respect to any charge. After reviewing the record, the Convening Authority will take final action on the findings and sentence, announcing the sentence that Khadr will serve.
Details of Omar Khadr Plea Agreement Released
October 31, 2010 - The United States Government (USG) has requested the assistance of the Canadian Government in implementing the plea arrangement the USG has made with Omar Khadr. As part of this plea agreement, Khadr has admitted his guilt for the following crimes: murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism, and spying. The USG requested that Canada consider a request for transfer made by Khadr under existing treaty arrangements for the transfer of offenders between the two countries.
Were Khadr to be transferred, the terms of his incarceration would be subject to existing Canadian laws pertaining to custody and conditional release. The USG understands that the Canadian Government has no authority to mandate terms of Khadr's incarceration if he were to return to Canada. These terms are determined by the National Parole Board, which is an independent administrative tribunal.
In these circumstances, the USG understands and acknowledges that Khadr would be eligible to apply for parole in Canada after serving one-third of his sentence, and may be eligible for statutory release in Canada after serving two-thirds of the time remaining after his return to Canada.
The USG has indicated the urgency with which it has raised this matter with the Canadian Government and fully understands the consequences of the application of Canadian law to Khadr's prison terms if he is transferred to Canada, including the rules regarding eligibility for parole and statutory release.
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