Which validates exactly what I said. This is just people, not some official government backed hoax. Come on, surely you of all people understand the power of misrepresentations being repeated over and over until it is believed. Barry
Villagers furious with Christian Missionaries Samanthapettai, Jan 16 (ANI): Rage and fury has gripped this tsunami-hit tiny Hindu village in India's southern Tamil Nadu after a group of Christian missionaries allegedly refused them aid for not agreeing to follow their religion. Samanthapettai, near the temple town of Madurai, faced near devastation on the December 26 when massive tidal waves wiped it clean of homes and lives. Most of the 200 people here are homeless or displaced , battling to rebuild lives and locating lost family members besides facing risks of epidemic,disease and trauma. Jubilant at seeing the relief trucks loaded with food, clothes and the much-needed medicines the villagers, many of who have not had a square meal in days, were shocked when the nuns asked them to convert before distributing biscuits and water. Heated arguments broke out as the locals forcibly tried to stop the relief trucks from leaving. The missionaries, who rushed into their cars on seeing television reporters and the cameras refusing to comment on the incident and managed to leave the village. Disappointed and shocked into disbelief the hapless villagers still await aid. "Many NGOs (volunteer groups) are extending help to us but there in our village the NGO, which was till now helping us is now asking us to follow the Christian religion. We are staunch followers of Hindu religion and refused their request. And after that these people with their aid materials are leaving the village without distributing that to us," Rajni Kumar, a villager said. The incident is an exception to concerted charity in a catastrophe that has left no one untouched.(ANI)
Religious aid groups try to convert victims Muslim clerics object as Western Christian groups hand out food and Bibles, reports Jason Burke in Banda Aceh Sunday January 16, 2005 The Observer Dozens of religious groups have moved in to Aceh, looking to help tsunami victims - and convert them and others, creating tensions in the disaster area. The arrival of Western Christian groups with records of aggressive preaching risks confrontation with local Muslim leaders which could jeopardise the provision of aid to the 600,000 local people made homeless by the disaster. The death toll in Aceh stands at around 110,000 and is expected to rise. Reacting to the attempts of one American group to fly hundreds of local children to a Christian orphanage, Din Syamsuddin, head of the Indonesian Council of Clerics, said any attempt to spread religion under the cover of aid was wrong. 'The Muslim community will not remain quiet. This a clear statement, and it is serious,' he said. Many survivors of the disaster are deeply traumatised by their experience and thus, experts say, vulnerable to religious groups. The disaster has led to a huge increase in religious sentiment. Many Acehnese speak of the wave as a punishment from God for immorality and lax Islamic practice, pointing out that in many villages only the mosque was left standing. 'I had faith but never did what I should have done,' said Shinta Ekhsani, a 29 year-old English teacher. 'I did not pray five times a day. I did not teach my children about Islam. I was too materialistic. Now I have changed.' Most Indonesians follow a moderate strand of Islam, very different from more hardline varieties increasingly prevalent in the Middle East. Local Muslim groups were among the first to bring help to victims. Aceh is Indonesia's most religiously conservative province. However, more radical Muslim groups started arriving in the province within days. These include the Islamic Defenders' Front, which has attacked bars and shops selling alcohol in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, and Lashkar Mujahideen, which endorses a militant ideology and has alleged links to the killing of Christians. Last week, speaking outside a tent at Banda Aceh's busy military airport under a banner reading 'Islamic Law Enforcement', Salman al-Farizi said his group were in Aceh to give medical and food assistance, remove corpses, evacuate refugees and to preach. 'The survivors will be helped to spread the true word of Allah,' al-Farizi said. Elsewhere, groups are handing out Korans and even veils alongside aid. Volunteers from the al-Azhar Foundation in Jakarta said they had distributed 1,993 Korans to refugees from Lokh Nga, one of the worst-hit villages. 'Many want to read the Koran to help them with their trauma,' said Anwar Sani, director of the foundation. Some Christian groups, however, are instructing workers not to display church names or wear crosses. 'We prefer to address the physical needs first,' said William Suhanda, an Indonesian whose Christian group, 'Light of Love for Aceh', is helping distribute food in Banda Aceh and hopes to bring 50 children to a Christian orphanage in Jakarta. 'We also want to expose them to Christian values... so they can see the other side, that we're about the love of Christ,' he said. Mark Kosinski, an American evangelist who arrived in Aceh from Malaysia last week, said: 'These people need food but they also need Jesus. God is trying to awaken people and help them realise salvation is in Christ.' One US Christian group was revealed last week to have tried to airlift 300 'tsunami orphans' to a Christian children's home. WorldHelp started raising funds for the operation until it learned that the Indonesian government had banned non-Muslims from adopting Acehnese orphans. 'What we were attempting to do in finding a home for these orphans is no different from what Mother Teresa did in placing Hindu orphans in a Christian children's home,' said Vernon Brewer, president of WorldHelp. The Church of Scientology has also established a presence in Banda Aceh, setting up a base opposite the governor's mansion. 'We are not here to proselytise. That would be distasteful,' said Greg Churilov. 'We hope we are just seen as another relief group.' However, there are also opportunities for co-operation. The US navy's high-profile effort to assist Indonesia deliver aid has helped counter anger over the Iraq war. The Islamic Defenders' Front spent much of this week removing corpses from collapsed homes alongside an Indonesian Christian group. Mormons have teamed up with Islamic relief operations to send aid to the region. Last week, the UN even asked Lashkar Mujahideen to unload a plane of relief supplies because it was short of personnel.
Woman's torture in Iraq prison questioned Peter Finn Washington Post Jan. 20, 2005 12:00 AM An Iraqi woman who was granted refugee status in the United States after telling the Washington Post and U.S. officials that she had been imprisoned, tortured and sexually assaulted in Iraq during the 1990s appears to have made false claims about her past, according to a fresh examination of her statements. Jumana Michael Hanna also claimed her husband, Haitam Jamil Anwar, had been executed during the rule of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Her testimony led to the arrest of several Iraqi security officials. Based on her testimony, U.S. officials took her into protective custody in Baghdad, and then to the United States. She was the subject of a lengthy article in the Post in July 2003. Later, a writer who was interested in collaborating on a book about Hanna concluded that she was not telling the truth. The writer's article appears in this month's issue of Esquire magazine. In recent interviews in Baghdad, Hanna's in-laws - including her husband's brother, uncle and cousin - all said the husband, Haitam Jamil Anwar, was alive and had left Iraq several months ago. They also said that while Hanna was imprisoned in Baghdad in the 1990s, it was not for the reason she told the Post. "I don't believe this," Hanna said in a telephone interview Wednesday about the Post's finding. "You write what you like. I have nothing else to say." Hanna is currently living in Chicago. Her mother and two children were also granted refugee status. This Post reporter met Hanna in July 2003 at the Human Rights Society of Iraq in Baghdad, where she was seeking assistance. Over the next week, she was interviewed three times in the company of an Iraqi interpreter and a Post correspondent who spoke fluent Arabic. Hanna said at the time that she was imprisoned after she had eloped with her husband, whom she said was of Indian origin. The marriage, she said, was not valid under Iraqi law because she had not received the proper permission to marry a foreign national. She said she went to the Iraqi Olympic Committee building in Baghdad, hoping that Saddam Hussein's son Uday would help her rectify the situation. Instead, she said, she was arrested, and between November 1993 and early 1996, was held in cells at the adjoining police academy where she said she and other female prisoners were beaten and raped.
So if some Iraqi woman tells everyone she was raped and tortured, and then later is found to be a liar, it means that everyone that claims to be raped and tortured is lying? And if one Iraqi tells the world that they have witnessed Americans committing atrocities, then that must surely be true, because people always tell the truth, right? Especially when it is of benefit to them. "Looking for tidbits of evidence to support a incredulous fantasy sucketh." Barry
Did i say that? No. All i did was offer something to counteract all the anti-Iraqi pro-American propaganda that dominates the mainstream news. That's fair enough, isn't it? I mean, you have all the major western media outlets pushing your views, are people not entitled to see the other side of the coin if they so wish?
So is the Washington Post not a major Western media outlet? Isn't that were the article originated? And is Esquire magazine not a major Western magazine? Isn't that where the incident was exposed? Isn't the "other side of the coin" pretty evident in America after all? Nursey - contrary to the blabber that you and I do, I do not really think you are evil or even always wrong. What I do think is that you have a tendency to believe that the acts of a few people are "official policy" of the Government as a whole. America is made up of millions of people, and our freedom means that thousands of ideas and agendas are floating around. Averaged out, America is more good than evil. I just wish you would not vilify everything about this country. Barry
I haven't vilified everything about America. I've vilified everything about the corrupt, dual-loyalists who have seized power of America and are currently in the process of dismantling the American Constitution. And of course some stories inevitabley make their way into mainstream news, or in a minority of cases even surface there, but on the whole there is a clear bias in favour of the pro-war government line. This has been the most strictly managed media coverage of any war that America has ever seen. What needs to be taken into consideration is how stories like that are used for propaganda purposes (as in the case of the Jessica Lynch 'rescue')... ...and at times are manufactured specifically for such use (as in the case of the 'babies thrown out of incubators' story which helped swing the American public's decision on whether to go to war with Iraq in 1990). Also, it would appear that this woman's testimony is the pivotal source of the Iraqi prison rape claims... I don't doubt that it doesn't ever happen, i'm sure it happens everywhere..(i'm sure you will be well aware that there is widespread sexual abuse of male and female prisoners by staff in American jails..) But the sensationalistic, heartstring tugging lies that were widely promulgated by the pro-war media were nothing but further attempts to blacken and demonise Iraqis in the eyes of the American public in order to drum up further support for the war in the light rising casualty figures and the failure to find any 'WMD's. Here's excerpts from the woman's original story. It was even used by 'genocide watch' on it's site. It makes comical reading in the light of the recent revelations as to its fraudulent nature.
Rumsfeld cancels trip after accusations Friday 21 January 2005 US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cancelled a planned visit to Germany after a US human rights organisation asked German authorities to prosecute him for war crimes, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) has learned. Rumsfeld has informed the German government via the US embassy that he will not take part in the Munich Security Conference in February, conference head Horst Teltschik told dpa on Thursday. The New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights filed a complaint in December with the Federal German Prosecutor's Office against Rumsfeld accusing him of war crimes and torture in connection with detainee abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Rumsfeld made it known immediately after the complaint was filed that he would not attend the Munich conference unless Germany quashed the legal action. German legislation violations The organisation alleges violations of German legislation, which outlaws war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide independent of the place of crime or origin of the accused. The prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe reportedly is examining the roughly 170-page complaint to see whether an investigation is warranted. The Centre for Constitutional Rights said it and four Iraqis allegedly tortured in US custody filed a complaint with German authorities against Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet and eight other senior military and civilian officials over abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq. The organisation said it had turned to German prosecutors "as a court of last resort" because the US government "is unwilling to open an independent investigation" and had "refused to join the International Criminal Court".
If it makes you feel better to declare "victory" because I just got tired of responding to your repetitive mumbo-jumbo, so be it. As far as being a troll - Ask Schmed if I am a troll. I didn't even know what a troll was until a few days ago. Do trolls use their real name and location in their profile? I guess I learned my lesson about that too. Anyone wants my home phone number, send me a PM. I will be glad to talk. Barry
No, i don't think there's any need to do that. I just found it odd that you, who normally seems so self assured and prolific when it comes to stating your position on things, failed to even acknowledge that post. Oh wait a minute... "Notice too how every time i prove Barry wrong on anything, he refuses to even acknowledge it... never mind eat humble pie, and smoothly moves on to attempt to discredit some other part of my arguement." And repetitive? Yes. That's what the 'weekend' disclaimer at the beginning was in reference to. 'Mumbo-jumbo'? Hardly. The beauty of my posts is that even idiots like whipone can understand them. Are you and Schmed....intimate these days or something? I think we should be told. I didn't ask if you were a troll, i asked if you were trolling. You don't have to be a dancer to dance. [quote"ucicare"]Anyone wants my home phone number, send me a PM. I will be glad to talk. Barry[/quote] Is this how Schmed got touchy-feelyed into councillor Swope's grotto of gropes!?
I am self assured. That is why I do not have to respond to everything you write. The only place that I have been "proven wrong" is in your mind. Such a shame that a smart girl like you wastes your abilities on alarmist fringe gossip. I doubt that anyone other than me even bothers to read the long ones. Don't confuse mutual respect with intimacy. Schmed and I can at least can agree to disagree and still be friends. Barry
Darn. Triangulation requires a mutual third party. Guess our little drama is over. http://www.goddirect.org/glossary/t.htm#Triangulation http://www.goddirect.org/mindemtn/writings/january/psytrang.htm Barry
Once again, the ANTINURSE argues "black = white" despite clear evidence to the contrary. More of a shame that anyone of any savvy whatsoever can be fooled by the intelligence insulting propaganda being spewed by the Whitehouse. That's obviously what you're banking on when you say "The only place that I have been "proven wrong" is in your mind"... I wish i could Schmed, but whenever i am faced with the sight of that shiney, bald head bobbing in and out of your arse crack i have an irrepressible, instinctive urge to kick it. Back to the headlines.....
Israel seizes thousands of acres of Palestinian-owned land in Jerusalem Associated Press January 23, 2005 JERUSALEM - Israel has quietly seized large tracts of Jerusalem land owned by Palestinian residents of the West Bank after they were cut off from their property by Israel's separation barrier, lawyers of the landowners said. The land was taken after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government decided several months ago to enforce a long-dormant law that allows Israel to seize lands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out during the 1948-49 Mideast war that followed Israel's creation. The new policy, first reported in the Israeli daily Haaretz, could affect hundreds of Palestinians who own property in Jerusalem and is sure to raise the stakes in the stormy battle over the city, which Israel and the Palestinians both claim as their capital. The landowners affected so far live in the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jalla, just south of Jerusalem. Their land was taken in August, after Israel's West Bank separation barrier cut them off from their land in the city. According to documents from Israel's Finance and Justice ministries, the land was transferred to the Custodian of Absentee Property, a body formed by a 1950 law that allowed the seizure of property of Palestinians who had left Israel during the 1948 war. Bethlehem resident Johnny Atik said Sunday that he lost eight acres of olive groves within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries as a result of the new policy. The land is just 100 yards away from his home, on the other side of an electronic fence and patrol road that are part of the separation barrier. ``The olives fall on the ground,'' he said. ``We see them, but we can't get to them.'' Atik said 40 families in his neighborhood alone have had land taken. Hundreds of other Palestinians are now at risk of having land seized, said lawyers Daniel Seidemann and Mohammed Dahla, who represent several of the landowners. Atik plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. However, Israeli legal analyst Moshe Negbi, who is often critical of Israeli moves in the West Bank, said an appeal to the high court would probably fail. ``I think it would stand up to a Supreme Court appeal, because unfortunately the law allows for this,'' he said. ``It isn't logical, because east Jerusalem was also part of the West Bank, but from the point of view of Israeli law, that's the situation.'' The Israeli Finance Ministry declined to discuss the new policy with a reporter, with a spokesman insisting he would only respond to written questions. However, the ministry's written response failed to address key issues, including how much land has been taken so far and whether landowners would be compensated. Israel's absentee land law was initially used in the 1950s to seize the properties of Arabs who had fled in 1948. At least 20,000 Arab homes in what is today the largely Jewish area of west Jerusalem were taken under this law, said Moshe Amirav, a former member of the Jerusalem city council. In the 1967 Mideast war, Israel captured the eastern half of Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan. After the war, Israel expanded Jerusalem's municipal boundaries and annexed the entire area to its capital, a move not recognized internationally. However, successive Israeli governments decided not to apply the absentee law to the Palestinian properties that fell within the city's new boundaries, even though many of the owners lived in the West Bank. ``It was very clear from the outset ... that if this law were applied, much of the property rights throughout east Jerusalem would be forfeited,'' said Seidemann, Atik's attorney. ``Successive Israeli governments refrained from doing this because of its far-reaching consequences.'' Only once, in the late 1980s, did then-Cabinet minister Sharon try to use the law in order to transfer property in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City to Jewish settlers, Seidemann said. A Justice Ministry committee halted the activities, citing legal problems. Sharon's office declined comment, except to confirm the government's decision that the Custodian of Absentee Property has the authority to ``transfer, sell or lease'' east Jerusalem lands belonging to absentee owners. The Finance Ministry said the properties of the Bethlehem-area landowners were already transferred to state custody after the 1967 war. Asked what the state would do with the land, the ministry said the question was ``not relevant.'' Amirav said that once the land seizures in Jerusalem are scrutinized in court, the expropriations of Israel's early years could also be challenged. ``This opens a Pandora's box,'' he said. ``The minute you open it, you open all the legal and moral questions of 1948.'' Dahla, an attorney who represents the Bethlehem municipality and some of the Bethlehem landowners, said he believes the land seizures are part of a plan to expand Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem. ``We're talking about land that those Palestinians in Beit Jalla have owned for hundreds of years,'' Dahla said. ``They are not absentees ... in fact they continued to cultivate the land up until now.''
This is quite ironic considering that the Mesopotamians invented agriculture! The Ultimate War Crime: Breaking the Agricultural Cycle “U.S. declares Iraqis can not save their own seeds” "As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds, which include seeds the Iraqis themselves have developed over hundreds of years. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations. That is because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be living under the new American credo: Pay Monsanto, or starve ." "The American Administrator of the Iraqi CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) government, Paul Bremer, updated Iraq's intellectual property law to 'meet current internationally-recognized standards of protection'. The updated law makes saving seeds for next year's harvest, practiced by 97% of Iraqi farmers in 2002, and is the standard farming practice for thousands of years across human civilizations, to be now illegal.. Instead, farmers will have to obtain a yearly license for genetically modified (GM) seeds from American corporations. These GM seeds have typically been modified from seeds developed over thousands of generations by indigenous farmers like the Iraqis, and shared freely like agricultural 'open source.'" Iraq law Requires Seed Licenses November 13, 2004 "According to Order 81, paragraph 66 - , issued by L. Paul Bremer [CFR], the people in Iraq are now prohibited from saving seeds and may only plant seeds for their food from licensed, authorized U.S. distributors. The paragraph states, "Farmers shall be prohibited from re-using seeds of protected varieties or any variety mentioned in items 1 and 2 of paragraph [C] of Article 14 of this chapter." Written in massively intricate legalese, Order 81 directs the reader at Article 14, paragraph 2 [C] to paragraph of Article 4, which states any variety that is different from any other known variety may be registered in any country and become a protected variety of seed - thus defaulting it into the "protected class" of seeds and prohibiting the Iraqis from reusing them the following season. Every year, the Iraqis must destroy any seed they have, and repurchase seeds from an authorized supplier, or face fines, penalties and/or jail time." Iraqis Can't Save Seed January 19, 2005 The original article on this topic: Iraqi farmers aren't celebrating October 15, 2004 As per an Iraqi proverb, the day will come, sooner rather than later, when the Iraqis will shred Bremer’s Laws, soak them in water and offer the glass to Bremer to drink.
CIA Chiefs Quash Revealing Report Pointing Fingers For September 11 Detailed CIA report is ordered to be kept secret for fear that ‘prying eyes’ may uncover truth By Greg Szymanski An internal CIA report, naming individuals who may have been responsible for intelligence failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks, has been kept secret despite public outcries and congressional demands to release the incriminating evidence. The delays began last July on orders from CIA’s acting director, John McLaughlin, and have continued since Porter Goss took charge last September. Critics claim President George W. Bush has personally directed Goss, a Republican partisan, to keep the names from “prying eyes” in order to hide the truth exposing either government incompetence or outright complicity. Ever since 9-11, the public has called for government accountability, but the Bush administration has been trying to block truth-seeking efforts at every corner. The lack of government cooperation began with obstructing justice at ground zero by FEMA’s quick removal of hard evidence and continues now by keeping the CIA report secret. In between, critics have compiled a laundry list of government cover-ups concerning 9-11, but answers have been slow in coming due to a complacent media and lack of government cooperation. The public clamor still remains hidden on cyberspace conspiracy web sites and in alternative publications, but recently two federal lawsuits surfaced, one concerning FBI whistleblower, Sybil Edmonds, and the other a RICO conspiracy action filed against Bush and 56 other defendants. The Edmonds lawsuit has been dismissed by a partisan federal judge appointed by Bush, and the RICO action is still in the pretrial discovery stage. “We are in the process of serving all the defendants, including President Bush, his father and many others. It’s not going to be easy; expect a long hard fight,” said Phillip Berg, the attorney who filed the federal action on behalf of William Rodriguez, a World Trade Center maintenance worker who claims to have evidence showing government complicity. Besides the two lawsuits, a citizens petition has also been handed over to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer last November, demanding criminal action be taken against Bush and his cronies for complicity in 9-11. An official spokesman for the attorney general’s office said no action on the petition has been taken. And regarding the recent CIA internal report kept secret from congressional leaders and the public, this week a CIA spokesman would not comment about the status of the report or when it would be released. To date the names in the report remain unknown. They were compiled by the CIA’s inspector general, who began an independent investigation in December 2002 after a joint 9-11 congressional task force sought answers for obvious intelligence irregularities surrounding the attacks. The purpose of the report was to get the bottom of the intelligence breakdowns and to determine who should be held accountable for mistakes made. To date no one has been publicly held accountable or even reprimanded openly for obvious intelligence breakdowns. Further, the CIA has not provided a reason for its reluctance to turn over the report, even after a letter was directly sent by top House leaders on the Intelligence Committee to former director McLaughlin, demanding accountability. The letter, sent last September, has not been made public and has essentially been ignored by CIA officials. Last October, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va), personally asked Goss to turn over names in the report, but his demand has also been ignored by the CIA. Members of Congress expressed concern over the CIA’s failure to cooperate, saying it was a “definite departure from normal procedure.” House and Senate members are expected to further prod the CIA in turning over the sensitive report when the 109th Congress convenes. This time help is expected to come from an outspoken critic, Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who returns to the House after being ousted two years ago. McKinney is one of the few elected officials who publicly claimed the Bush administration had prior knowledge of the events leading up to 9-11, saying the administration allowed the events to occur in order to reap huge profits from the invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Political insiders claim McKinney, who was the first black woman ever elected to Congress from Georgia in 1992, was then targeted by the GOP for defeat in 2002 due to her anti-administration public expressions. McKinney recently won re-election and is expected to fight hard for those involved in the 9-11 truth movement despite its unpopularity on Capitol Hill.
