Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Government ordered to release Hillsborough papers
The government has been ordered to release cabinet records of discussions in the immediate aftermath of the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was briefed about the tragedy and held several meetings about the disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans died. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham ruled that the information was in the public interest.
The Cabinet Office said it had yet to receive the commissioner's ruling.
Mr Graham's judgement relates to a Freedom Of Information (FoI) request from the BBC which was refused by the Cabinet Office in 2009.
The government has either 28 days to appeal or 35 days in which to release the documents.
The secret files include reports presented to Mrs Thatcher and correspondence between her office and the then home secretary Douglas Hurd, and minutes of meetings she attended.
Mr Graham's decision notice said the "specific content of the information in question would add to public knowledge and understanding about the reaction of various parties to that event, including the government of the day, in the early aftermath".
Mr Graham also criticised the Cabinet Office for "unjustified and excessive delays" in handling the BBC request.
The request had been followed by an internal review which upheld the refusal.
'Cover-up' Relatives of the Liverpool fans who died in the Hillsborough tragedy said they were pleased they might discover Mrs Thatcher's thoughts on the disaster.
They expressed surprise that the commissioner had ordered the Cabinet Office to release the documents, despite the 30-year rule stopping publication of cabinet minutes.
Pat Joynes, a member of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, said: "I'm very pleased that the papers are going to be handed over.
"Twenty-two years ago, when Mrs Thatcher came to Liverpool Cathedral, my husband asked her face to face if there was going to be a cover-up, and she said: 'Mr Joynes, there will be no cover-up.'
"But there has been a cover-up which has persisted ever since."
Another member of the group Ann Williams, who lost her 15-year-old son Kevin in the tragedy, said: "This is good news. I'm very surprised.
"I thought the government would block it. At least now, we may get to the truth."
Ninety-five Liverpool supporters were killed in a crush of fans at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, where the club was playing an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.
The 96th victim was left in a coma for three years and died in 1992.
An inquiry into the disaster held that the main reason for the overcrowding was the failure of police control.
@'BBC'
At last! Maybe finally the truth will be for all for to see...
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
One Day on Earth - Motion Picture Trailer
onedayonearth.org
One Day on Earth creates a picture of humanity by recording a 24-hour period throughout every country in the world. We explore a greater diversity of perspectives than ever seen before on screen. We follow characters and events that evolve throughout the day, interspersed with expansive global montages that explore the progression of life from birth, to death, to birth again. In the end, despite unprecedented challenges and tragedies throughout the world, we are reminded that every day we are alive there is hope and a choice to see a better future together.
Founded in 2008, One Day on Earth set out to explore our planet’s identity and challenges in an attempt to answer the question: Who are we?
Via
Former Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor: David Hicks' War Crimes Charge Was a 'Favor' for Australia
Last week, the Australian government announced that it would initiate legal proceedings to try and seize royalty payments David Hicks has received following the publication of his memoir, "Guantanamo: My Journey," about the five years he spent at the prison facility, charging that he has violated the country's laws by profiting from a crime.
While Hicks' supporters have deplored the decision by Australia's Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, the court proceedings scheduled to begin next month could end up being a blessing for the former Guantanamo detainee and his defense team in that it may afford them an opportunity to show how the Bush administration and the government of former Prime Minister John Howard politicized his case, a fact much of the Australian media continues to ignore.
Hicks, 35, who gave his first interview to Truthout in February, pleaded guilty in 2007 to providing material support for terrorism. Hicks was the first detainee to be convicted before a military commission following the passage of the Military Commissions Act by Congress the previous year. The legislation was crafted in response to a Supreme Court decision that struck down the original military tribunal system set up by George W. Bush after 9/11, which the High Court said was illegal under the Geneva Conventions and US law.
Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor of military commissions at Guantanamo, recalled during a recent interview at his office in Washington, DC, how he was pressured into indicting Hicks for war crimes not long after the Military Commissions Act was signed into law by Bush in October 2006. (Truthout will publish a lengthy story based on our interview with Davis, a vocal critic of the Obama administration's handling of Bush-era torture, in the weeks ahead.)
Davis said he believed that Hicks, who attended training camps in Afghanistan and was sold to US forces by the Northern Alliance for a $1,500 bounty in November 2001, should not have been prosecuted for war crimes. He described the former horse trainer as a "knucklehead ... a little guy with not a lot of education who wanted to be a big shot and went off on this adventure to Jihad."
"After years at Guantanamo, there was no possibility David Hicks would ever repeat that experience," Davis said.
When he was selected as chief prosecutor in September 2005, Davis said he made it clear to his superiors at the Pentagon that "the one case I did not want to start with was David Hicks."
"The first case is the one that will get lots of attention," Davis said. "Unfortunately, Hicks' case was already in the pipeline. It was a terrible case. We told the world these guys are the 'worst of the worst.' David Hicks was a knucklehead. He was just a foot solider, not a war criminal. But when Congress passed the Military Commissions Act they authorized prosecuting material support, which is what Hicks was charged with, as a war crime. You could prosecute everyone at Guantanamo under that theory."
Despite Davis' concerns, the Bush administration was determined to charge Hicks, even if the evidence against him was thin, to help out an ally in the war on terror, US government documents obtained by Truthout show.
Davis also believes that's what happened. He said he arrived at that decision not long after he received an urgent phone call in January 2007 from Pentagon General Counsel William "Jim" Haynes who asked him, "How quickly can you charge David Hicks?"
Davis said that was the first and only time Haynes had ever called him about a specific case and he found it to be "odd." The phone call was made one day after US officials met with the ambassador to Australia, where Hicks' case and its impact on Howard's re-election campaign was discussed, according to a secret State Department document obtained by Truthout.
Davis informed Haynes, who Bush had twice nominated to serve on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, that he could not initiate charges against Hicks "even if he wanted to" because the "Manual for Military Commissions" had not been prepared yet by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and a "convening authority" who is supposed to oversee the process had not been appointed.
"The manual implements the law, in this case the Military Commissions Act of 2006," Davis said. "It fills in the details the statute doesn't. It fills in the elements of crimes, lays out the elements of crimes. When Haynes called me I said I couldn't charge Hicks because I did not know what the elements of the offense are. I said, 'wait for the manual to be written...'"
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Jason Leopold @'truthout'
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