Israel has given approval for the Palestinian Authority to equip its security forces with riot-control gear, such as tear gas grenades and rubber bullets.
The PA has approached Israeli firms to buy such equipment in advance of expected demonstrations on the West Bank around the Palestinians' request for United Nations recognition as an independent state.
Palestinian security officials told their Israeli counterparts in their regular meetings that they will do everything within their ability to contain demonstrations and prevent violent interactions with the Israel Defense Forces and settlers. But the two sides are also preparing for the possibility that demonstrations will escalate into violence the PA will find it difficult to control. Thus, the IDF recommended a few months ago to allow the PA to acquire such equipment, so the Palestinians could deal with demonstrations before the IDF had to.
The ministers involved gave their approval at the beginning of September.
Now, the PA is working furiously to buy the equipment, but seems to be having difficulty procuring the goods because time is so short. The IDF will finish its preparations this week for a possible escalation in the territories. The Central Command will receive reinforcements of a couple of regular infantry battalions tomorrow, as part of its preliminary preparations against violent demonstrations, in the IDF's overall plan named "Summer Seeds."
At this stage, an additional 20 percent of forces are being added on the West Bank. The battalions have trained to deal with possible scenarios, including violent marches toward settlements, IDF checkpoints and major roads serving the Israeli population.
In case of an overall escalation, the IDF has prepared to double its forces in the West Bank. This plan includes bringing in regular forces now in training plus calling up a few reserve battalions on short notice. The IDF plans to minimize the damage to its training schedule, but if necessary, battalions from various advanced training courses will be called in.
The IDF has made large purchases of equipment for dispersing demonstrations, in addition to the regular equipment used in such circumstances. For example, it has brought out equipment that disperses a horrible smell or makes noise at an intolerable frequency.
The most reasonable scenario the IDF expects in the short term is for violent demonstrations in several areas, despite the PA's intentions to prevent such violence. IDF forces are preparing to defend the settlements, and should demonstrators attempt to penetrate the settlements, the army is ready to use controlled sniper fire to prevent such intrusions. It is not clear that any such conflict - if it comes - will occur in September. Such violence could break out in October or near the end of the year, a sort of delayed response to political developments.
The IDF and Shin Bet security service are also worried about the recent rise in the number of attacks carried out by right-wing extremists, including on the IDF, mosques and left-wing activists. This only complicates the situation as the PA advances its move at the UN.
Amos Harel @'Haaretz'
Friday, 16 September 2011
Instead of attacking WikiLeaks, fix what it exposed
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates was right when he suggested that the WikiLeaks revelations were “embarrassing” and “awkward.” But his assessment — and that of so many other government officials — stems from the magnitude of what he left unsaid.
These revelations are not merely embarrassing. They also contain evidence of government actions and policies that are an abuse of power and that violate international human-rights standards to which we as Americans are committed.
For instance, through the information coming from WikiLeaks documents, the public is now aware of “FRAGO 242” — an official order not to report evidence of prisoner abuse by Iraqi security forces. This policy violates the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which was ratified by Congress in 1994. The treaty explicitly requires allegations of cruel or inhuman treatment to be investigated and brought to a halt.
In recent days, WikiLeaks has released cables that show government officials helped conceal the heinous execution of family members of suspected combatants in Iraq. The site of the murders, which included the execution-style slaying of two children and three infants, was obliterated by a subsequent coalition airstrike.
Taken as a whole, the material shows a pattern of concealing abuse by both U.S. and coalition forces. The information revealed by WikiLeaks is thus a critically important tool for those who seek to uphold basic human-rights standards and the professional conduct of U.S. military forces.
These revelations also bring our system of classification into question. Although Pfc. Bradley Manning has not yet been brought to trial, President Barack Obama has publicly declared that the former U.S. Army intelligence analyst “broke the law” by allegedly sending this restricted information to WikiLeaks.
Many civilians — and a surprising number of military personnel — are unaware that this system of classification is not grounded in any law passed by Congress. In fact, the entire edifice that allows the use of classification rests solely on the basis of executive orders that have been renewed and modified by various presidents. The ability to restrict information from the public is essentially an unchecked assertion of executive power.
However, according to Obama’s policy for classification of government documents (Executive Order 13526), there are several situations under which government information must never be classified. The government cannot use classification procedures “to conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency … or prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.”
Administration officials have not provided any evidence that these WikiLeaks revelations have harmed our national security. They have, however, acknowledged that some of the material is personally, and professionally, embarrassing.
But they continue to act as if evidence of illegal or otherwise unethical behavior simply does not exist.
If online conversations attributed to Manning are accurate, it appears that his self-described “turning point” came when his own commanding officer refused to acknowledge clear evidence of an abuse of power. According to these conversations, Manning says he was told to investigate 15 Iraqi academics who had been brought in for questioning by Iraqi security forces, for the crime of supposedly printing “anti-Iraqi literature.”
After running the printed material through a translator, Manning realized that it was actually an article titled “Where Did the Money Go?” which sought to expose corruption within Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet. Manning’s commanding officer is said to have told Manning to “shut up” and find out how he could bring in more detainees. The message was clear: He could not rely on the chain of command to address evidence of wrongdoing.
This incident would be consistent with other revelations that have since emerged from the WikiLeaks embassy cables. Several diplomatic cables express concern about al-Maliki’s politicization of his security forces, using them to abuse political opponents.
In July, the Red Cross and a group of Iraqi parliamentarians asked for an investigation into an alleged torture facility being run by one of al-Maliki’s elite units in Baghdad’s Green Zone. That same month, the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction issued a report that noted more than $17 billion in funds that have gone missing.
The pattern of ignoring or otherwise concealing clear evidence of abuse has become so familiar that, to many, it now seems normal. But pretending that problems don’t exist won’t make them go away.
A recent report from the Council of Europe, which convenes the European Commission on Human Rights, stated that the current “deficit of transparency” among Western security and intelligence institutions leaves no choice but for the public to rely on whistle-blowers to hold governments accountable.
Instead of punishing and silencing alleged whistle-blowers like Manning for revealing uncomfortable truths, we should honor their courage to stand up for what’s right.
That’s all we should ask any American to do.
Ann Wright @'Stars & Stripes'
These revelations are not merely embarrassing. They also contain evidence of government actions and policies that are an abuse of power and that violate international human-rights standards to which we as Americans are committed.
For instance, through the information coming from WikiLeaks documents, the public is now aware of “FRAGO 242” — an official order not to report evidence of prisoner abuse by Iraqi security forces. This policy violates the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which was ratified by Congress in 1994. The treaty explicitly requires allegations of cruel or inhuman treatment to be investigated and brought to a halt.
In recent days, WikiLeaks has released cables that show government officials helped conceal the heinous execution of family members of suspected combatants in Iraq. The site of the murders, which included the execution-style slaying of two children and three infants, was obliterated by a subsequent coalition airstrike.
Taken as a whole, the material shows a pattern of concealing abuse by both U.S. and coalition forces. The information revealed by WikiLeaks is thus a critically important tool for those who seek to uphold basic human-rights standards and the professional conduct of U.S. military forces.
These revelations also bring our system of classification into question. Although Pfc. Bradley Manning has not yet been brought to trial, President Barack Obama has publicly declared that the former U.S. Army intelligence analyst “broke the law” by allegedly sending this restricted information to WikiLeaks.
Many civilians — and a surprising number of military personnel — are unaware that this system of classification is not grounded in any law passed by Congress. In fact, the entire edifice that allows the use of classification rests solely on the basis of executive orders that have been renewed and modified by various presidents. The ability to restrict information from the public is essentially an unchecked assertion of executive power.
However, according to Obama’s policy for classification of government documents (Executive Order 13526), there are several situations under which government information must never be classified. The government cannot use classification procedures “to conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency … or prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.”
Administration officials have not provided any evidence that these WikiLeaks revelations have harmed our national security. They have, however, acknowledged that some of the material is personally, and professionally, embarrassing.
But they continue to act as if evidence of illegal or otherwise unethical behavior simply does not exist.
If online conversations attributed to Manning are accurate, it appears that his self-described “turning point” came when his own commanding officer refused to acknowledge clear evidence of an abuse of power. According to these conversations, Manning says he was told to investigate 15 Iraqi academics who had been brought in for questioning by Iraqi security forces, for the crime of supposedly printing “anti-Iraqi literature.”
After running the printed material through a translator, Manning realized that it was actually an article titled “Where Did the Money Go?” which sought to expose corruption within Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet. Manning’s commanding officer is said to have told Manning to “shut up” and find out how he could bring in more detainees. The message was clear: He could not rely on the chain of command to address evidence of wrongdoing.
This incident would be consistent with other revelations that have since emerged from the WikiLeaks embassy cables. Several diplomatic cables express concern about al-Maliki’s politicization of his security forces, using them to abuse political opponents.
In July, the Red Cross and a group of Iraqi parliamentarians asked for an investigation into an alleged torture facility being run by one of al-Maliki’s elite units in Baghdad’s Green Zone. That same month, the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction issued a report that noted more than $17 billion in funds that have gone missing.
The pattern of ignoring or otherwise concealing clear evidence of abuse has become so familiar that, to many, it now seems normal. But pretending that problems don’t exist won’t make them go away.
A recent report from the Council of Europe, which convenes the European Commission on Human Rights, stated that the current “deficit of transparency” among Western security and intelligence institutions leaves no choice but for the public to rely on whistle-blowers to hold governments accountable.
Instead of punishing and silencing alleged whistle-blowers like Manning for revealing uncomfortable truths, we should honor their courage to stand up for what’s right.
That’s all we should ask any American to do.
Ann Wright @'Stars & Stripes'
What's happening to those named WikiLeaks sources?
Investigating the Root Of The U.K. Riots
Nearly 2,000 people have been funneled through British courts, under charges that they participated in the riots that inflamed London and other U.K. cities this August. As judges try to get to the bottom of who did what, The Guardian newspaper and London School of Economics are partnering up to find out why the riots happened in the first place. They are launching a new project that will dispatch researchers into communities where rioting took place, to investigate the root causes. The Guardian's Paul Lewis, who's leading the project, speaks with Michele Norris.
Audio/transcript
@'npr'
Do riots show that tensions of earlier decades still smoulder?
Scum, thugs, feral rats, wolves, an army of ants on their BlackBerrys … the dehumanising epithets flew like bricks through a JD Sports window last week. Then came the fightback to mend what David Cameron called "criminality, pure and simple" in our "sick" and "broken" society. The government seems to blame the recent havoc across England solely on individuals with too many rights and too few responsibilities, and appears to think that badly parented kids just woke up one morning and decided to do a bit of free shopping.
There is even talk – from the very same David Cameron who not long ago was saying the state should not intervene to change individuals' behaviour – of curfews, banning face masks, evicting criminals from council housing, tougher court powers, curbing social media, not to mention more "robust" policing and teaching parenting skills. "We've got to get out there and make a positive difference to the way people bring up their children … and we've got to be less sensitive to the charge that this is about interfering or nannying," Cameron said on Monday.
I studied in Liverpool in October 1981, three months after the Toxteth riots. I then moved to Tottenham, north London, in the wake of the Broadwater Farm riot in 1985, and then – after 15 riot-free years in the capital – on to Bradford not long after the 2001 riots.
In all three conflagrations, I remember race being a major factor – between the black community and the police in Toxteth and Tottenham, and between the Asian and white communities in Bradford. There were other factors, too, such as recession and unemployment, to the extent that the Scarman report after Toxteth (though prompted by the 1981 Brixton riots) blamed poverty and deprivation for the troubles. Yet the spark (for Toxteth, Tottenham and Bradford) was a racial one.
The so-called sus laws – heavy-handed stop-and-search methods by police – had been taking their toll, and the arrest of a black man in public led to nine days of rioting in Toxteth. On the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham four years later, the death of a black woman during a police search of her home triggered a battle with police that ended with the murder of a policeman.
During the Bradford riots 10 years ago, Asian and white youths turned on each other and the police, caught in the middle, were accused by the Asian community of failing to provide protection. Ted Cantle's subsequent report on the Bradford riots concluded that part of the problem was segregated communities living "parallel lives", and coined the concept of "community cohesion", later adopted by the Labour government.
Since the riots of 1981 and 2001, Liverpool and Bradford have undergone major regeneration and racial tension has ceased to be an overriding issue. Research published last month by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that Bradford's real problem – poverty – has been overlooked, and that is despite the £3bn regeneration. Broadwater Farm saw major redevelopment, leading to a dramatic drop in crime and improved community spirit.
Cantle, now founder and executive chair of the Institute of Community Cohesion, believes that last week's riots were not about race. "In the 1980s, the riots were definitely about the black community, who were discriminated against, disadvantaged and had a hard time from the police and felt abused by them. A lot of that has changed. With the current riots, clearly, there's an element of basic criminality and sheer vandalism and opportunism. People look around and see newspaper hacking, burgeoning debts, the scandal of bankers' bonuses, MPs fiddling expenses, and they think, 'This is our turn to get our noses in the trough.' People forgot the difference between right and wrong."
But he thinks the issue of parenting is more nuanced than the government has portrayed it. "There's been so much emphasis on outsourcing parenting – pretending schools, Sure Start centres and community organisations are there to look after the kids, rather than reflect that actually parents are still responsible – that I think there's a major concern about how parents have partly felt disempowered by all that, but have also been prepared to take advantage of that disempowerment," he says.
But Claudia Webbe, an independent adviser to the Metropolitan police's Operation Trident, which aims to tackle gun crime in the black community, says underlying issues around stop and search remain.
"If you look at young black people in Tottenham now, they are still six, seven, eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts. Young people generally, black and white, are facing increasing stop and search. It's meant to be a tool of last resort used with the consent of the community," says Webbe. "A lot of tension around stop and search was bubbling up and part of that spilled over."
According to Steve Kavanagh, Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner, there was a fear of stop and search in the early 2000s but he insists that as long as it is used appropriately, communities support it.
"In Haringey this year, there was a 100% increase in street robbery. Now that is people from the black, Asian, Turkish and white communities being robbed of their mobile phones, jewellery and everything else. The overwhelming number of black community representatives don't want us to be fearful of engaging around young, black, disenfranchised people who are committing crimes. They want a police service that is sensitive, professional, but assertive when it needs to be."
Police-community links, he adds, were strong throughout the recent rioting. "The police were not going to solve this alone, they were always going to solve it with the communities. We've had communication teams trying to get rid of rumours, getting emails out with messages that we've all signed up to. That's a hell of a journey from Scarman and even [Stephen] Lawrence. It's not a race issue or an age issue."
For Stephen Nze, who was involved in the action in Toxteth as a "naive 16-year-old" in 1981, last week's riots were a combination of reaction to the government and the banking crisis, as well as unemployment – youth unemployment is running at 20% in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. Now a youth worker in Toxteth, he says: "Everywhere's on a tinderbox, with the government and the bankers and all that. These kids are not stupid. I don't agree with violence and looting, none of it – this time round I've been out on the streets supporting the police and trying to stop kids from getting involved – but I do understand it. They went out and reacted. A little five-year-old has a tantrum, well these kids had a tantrum on a big scale.
"Some of these kids, whose parents were most likely involved in 1981, are saying, '[The government's] just cut out EMA [educational maintenance allowance], we can't go to college or university, they can't give us a job,'" he says. "You've got to think as a young person thinks, and some think there's no future, no hope."
Webbe agrees that a lack of jobs or opportunities were a factor in Tottenham. "The local authorities and other institutions put investment into Broadwater Farm to help to rebuild it, yet they did nothing about the circumstances of the people," she says. Cuts to youth services are not helping either, she says.
A survey by the Unite union shows that up to 3,000 local authority youth workers in England face losing their jobs by next April, with average budget cuts of 28% this financial year.
"The cuts meant youth services went, such as summer programmes for children and young people who can't afford to go on holiday. This is where the youth services are supposed to step in," she says. "Connexions services – which are about information, advice and guidance, for example on careers, or sexual health – they've cut all those as well. So a 16- to 17-year-old who can't get an EMA and who can't sign on until they are 18, there's no one for them to talk to."
Cantle, though, claims that the riots weren't about poverty – a view he shares with the prime minister. "A lot of the people arrested were not jobless, not without hope and not without money. There were some middle-class people arrested as well," says Cantle.
But he believes that government cuts could fuel tensions: "I think the cuts will make things worse. What we need at the moment is more investment in social institutions. We're not going to get out of this by heavier policing, however, it has to be done by communities and society itself. That requires money and a change in our values. The way we value things seems to rely heavily on materialism, possessions, the consumer society. But everybody would be suspicious of any government initiative on values. It's got to be a community-led process."
Matthew Connolly @'The Guardian'
There is even talk – from the very same David Cameron who not long ago was saying the state should not intervene to change individuals' behaviour – of curfews, banning face masks, evicting criminals from council housing, tougher court powers, curbing social media, not to mention more "robust" policing and teaching parenting skills. "We've got to get out there and make a positive difference to the way people bring up their children … and we've got to be less sensitive to the charge that this is about interfering or nannying," Cameron said on Monday.
I studied in Liverpool in October 1981, three months after the Toxteth riots. I then moved to Tottenham, north London, in the wake of the Broadwater Farm riot in 1985, and then – after 15 riot-free years in the capital – on to Bradford not long after the 2001 riots.
In all three conflagrations, I remember race being a major factor – between the black community and the police in Toxteth and Tottenham, and between the Asian and white communities in Bradford. There were other factors, too, such as recession and unemployment, to the extent that the Scarman report after Toxteth (though prompted by the 1981 Brixton riots) blamed poverty and deprivation for the troubles. Yet the spark (for Toxteth, Tottenham and Bradford) was a racial one.
The so-called sus laws – heavy-handed stop-and-search methods by police – had been taking their toll, and the arrest of a black man in public led to nine days of rioting in Toxteth. On the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham four years later, the death of a black woman during a police search of her home triggered a battle with police that ended with the murder of a policeman.
During the Bradford riots 10 years ago, Asian and white youths turned on each other and the police, caught in the middle, were accused by the Asian community of failing to provide protection. Ted Cantle's subsequent report on the Bradford riots concluded that part of the problem was segregated communities living "parallel lives", and coined the concept of "community cohesion", later adopted by the Labour government.
Since the riots of 1981 and 2001, Liverpool and Bradford have undergone major regeneration and racial tension has ceased to be an overriding issue. Research published last month by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that Bradford's real problem – poverty – has been overlooked, and that is despite the £3bn regeneration. Broadwater Farm saw major redevelopment, leading to a dramatic drop in crime and improved community spirit.
Cantle, now founder and executive chair of the Institute of Community Cohesion, believes that last week's riots were not about race. "In the 1980s, the riots were definitely about the black community, who were discriminated against, disadvantaged and had a hard time from the police and felt abused by them. A lot of that has changed. With the current riots, clearly, there's an element of basic criminality and sheer vandalism and opportunism. People look around and see newspaper hacking, burgeoning debts, the scandal of bankers' bonuses, MPs fiddling expenses, and they think, 'This is our turn to get our noses in the trough.' People forgot the difference between right and wrong."
But he thinks the issue of parenting is more nuanced than the government has portrayed it. "There's been so much emphasis on outsourcing parenting – pretending schools, Sure Start centres and community organisations are there to look after the kids, rather than reflect that actually parents are still responsible – that I think there's a major concern about how parents have partly felt disempowered by all that, but have also been prepared to take advantage of that disempowerment," he says.
But Claudia Webbe, an independent adviser to the Metropolitan police's Operation Trident, which aims to tackle gun crime in the black community, says underlying issues around stop and search remain.
"If you look at young black people in Tottenham now, they are still six, seven, eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts. Young people generally, black and white, are facing increasing stop and search. It's meant to be a tool of last resort used with the consent of the community," says Webbe. "A lot of tension around stop and search was bubbling up and part of that spilled over."
According to Steve Kavanagh, Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner, there was a fear of stop and search in the early 2000s but he insists that as long as it is used appropriately, communities support it.
"In Haringey this year, there was a 100% increase in street robbery. Now that is people from the black, Asian, Turkish and white communities being robbed of their mobile phones, jewellery and everything else. The overwhelming number of black community representatives don't want us to be fearful of engaging around young, black, disenfranchised people who are committing crimes. They want a police service that is sensitive, professional, but assertive when it needs to be."
Police-community links, he adds, were strong throughout the recent rioting. "The police were not going to solve this alone, they were always going to solve it with the communities. We've had communication teams trying to get rid of rumours, getting emails out with messages that we've all signed up to. That's a hell of a journey from Scarman and even [Stephen] Lawrence. It's not a race issue or an age issue."
For Stephen Nze, who was involved in the action in Toxteth as a "naive 16-year-old" in 1981, last week's riots were a combination of reaction to the government and the banking crisis, as well as unemployment – youth unemployment is running at 20% in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. Now a youth worker in Toxteth, he says: "Everywhere's on a tinderbox, with the government and the bankers and all that. These kids are not stupid. I don't agree with violence and looting, none of it – this time round I've been out on the streets supporting the police and trying to stop kids from getting involved – but I do understand it. They went out and reacted. A little five-year-old has a tantrum, well these kids had a tantrum on a big scale.
"Some of these kids, whose parents were most likely involved in 1981, are saying, '[The government's] just cut out EMA [educational maintenance allowance], we can't go to college or university, they can't give us a job,'" he says. "You've got to think as a young person thinks, and some think there's no future, no hope."
Webbe agrees that a lack of jobs or opportunities were a factor in Tottenham. "The local authorities and other institutions put investment into Broadwater Farm to help to rebuild it, yet they did nothing about the circumstances of the people," she says. Cuts to youth services are not helping either, she says.
A survey by the Unite union shows that up to 3,000 local authority youth workers in England face losing their jobs by next April, with average budget cuts of 28% this financial year.
"The cuts meant youth services went, such as summer programmes for children and young people who can't afford to go on holiday. This is where the youth services are supposed to step in," she says. "Connexions services – which are about information, advice and guidance, for example on careers, or sexual health – they've cut all those as well. So a 16- to 17-year-old who can't get an EMA and who can't sign on until they are 18, there's no one for them to talk to."
Cantle, though, claims that the riots weren't about poverty – a view he shares with the prime minister. "A lot of the people arrested were not jobless, not without hope and not without money. There were some middle-class people arrested as well," says Cantle.
But he believes that government cuts could fuel tensions: "I think the cuts will make things worse. What we need at the moment is more investment in social institutions. We're not going to get out of this by heavier policing, however, it has to be done by communities and society itself. That requires money and a change in our values. The way we value things seems to rely heavily on materialism, possessions, the consumer society. But everybody would be suspicious of any government initiative on values. It's got to be a community-led process."
Matthew Connolly @'The Guardian'
English riots inquiry begins collecting evidence
attackerman attackerman
Just in case this wasn't blindingly obvious from my piece: Fuck any and everyone who has ever posted to an extremist forum.
_RichardHall Richard Hall
It's a sign of how bad things are when Israel warns Palestinians of "harsh and grave consequences" if it seeks a peaceful solution at the UN
Cocacabana
Brazil may be rising, but in Rio's favelas, drugs, crime, and killing are a way of life. A Hipstamatic tour - deep inside the gritty, gang-ridden streets - where few outsiders dare to tread.
Civil police officers, part of the homicide division, stand over a body while investigators try to determine the entry and exit wounds of an ex-community official rumored to have been working with drug traffickers, who was shot to death in the Favela Mineira on July 28.
A trafficker stands with his machine gun in Villa Korea, a Red Command controlled favela on the outskirts of the city on July 17. There are several notorious factions of drug gangs in Rio, the oldest and largest of which is Red Command.
Civil police officers, part of the homicide division, stand over a body while investigators try to determine the entry and exit wounds of an ex-community official rumored to have been working with drug traffickers, who was shot to death in the Favela Mineira on July 28.
An officer from the homicide division stands over the body of a woman found in the street. Her throat had been cut and while unconfirmed, investigators guessed that she had been raped.
MORE
Jared P. Moossy @'FP'
Bettie Page, FBI Consultant
When a 1957 police drug raid on a Harlem apartment turned up a cache of obscene magazines and photos, paddles, a riding crop, a whip, and lengths of chain, rawhide, and rope, FBI agents contacted Page for some expert guidance. Specifically, they wanted to know if the apartment was a photo studio where obscene material was produced.
According to the below memo sent to Hoover, Page told investigators that she 'had never heard of that type of photography being made in Harlem.' An agent reported that Page also advised that the 'flagellation and bondage pictures that she had posed for' were shot 'in photographic studios or photographers apartments.'
The seized porn, which included 'two books and four pictures depicting Betty Page in various poses,' was shipped to Washington for 'examination' by the FBI Laboratory, according to a second memo. At some point, agents planned to quiz the apartment's inhabitants about 'what the source of these items was, and to what use they were putting them to.' The FBI documents were included in Page-related material released following a TSG Freedom of Information request. Page died in December 2008 at age 85.
View source documents
@'the smoking gun'
*Sigh*
Thursday, 15 September 2011
DUBTechformation I ·When HE-MAN Smoked a Joint!
Live in Mi casa, Recorded con Pioner Vinyl of 1981 And Laptop.
Buenos Aires Argentina
Sonic Youth - Old Greek Theatre, Melbourne (20th January 1989)
Info
Date:
Friday, January 20th, 1989
City:
Melbourne, Australia
Venue:
Old Greek Theatre
Setlist:
Brother James
The Wonder
Hyperstation
Teenage Riot
Hey Joni
The Sprawl
'Cross the Breeze
Eric's Trip
Candle
Kissability
I Love Her All The Time
Eliminator Jr
Silver Rocket
I have a few cassettes I recorded of Sonic Youth live dating as far back as Am*dam in 1985. Most of them have been in storage for quite a while and will probably be there a while longer...it's a very long story *yawn*
However, while searching tonight for some other things I found this tape I recorded back on my birthday in 1989.
Bearing in mind that it was recorded on a Walkman that was very much on its last legs and the fact that I was probably on my last legs of the night too, what you hear is what you get!
40 minutes of a rather enjoyable night (from what I can remember *ahem*)
An interesting little side note is that Spaceboy's mum was selling rather tasty home made SY tee shirts from a stall at the back of one of the greatest venues that Melbourne ever had that night with her then partner...I remember speaking to her back then but it would be another 18 years before we met up in a different time and place...
PS: Where the fuck have ALL those years gone?FLAC
mp3
Leonard Cohen - 4 New Songs
Leonard Cohen - Melbourne 5/02/09
(Photo by TimN)
Feels So Good
The Darkness
Born In Chains
Lullaby
Via
Michele Bachmann HPV row prompts fears for vaccine programme in US
The controversy was ignited by Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann, who claimed that the vaccine against human papillomavirus, which can cause cervical cancer, was a "very dangerous drug" that could lead to "mental retardation".
That claim immediately drew a barrage of criticism from the medical profession and even from Bachmann sympathisers on the right, forcing her to backtrack slightly. She told a conservative talkshow: "I have no idea. I am not a doctor, I'm not a scientist, I'm not a physician. All I was doing is reporting what this woman told me at the debate."
But doctors and scientists say that her remarks risk further reducing the already low take-up rates for the vaccine, as more parents will be convinced to reject the vaccine for their daughters.
Professor Gregory Zimet, co-leader of the cancer control programme at Indiana University, said of Bachmann's comments: "People will say there's no evidence for it and that is true, there is no evidence. But I would go further: Bachmann is absolutely wrong."
He added: "Part of the issue will be how long the discussion is prominent in the news. If this is brought up every time the Republican candidates have a debate, if misinformation is repeatedly expressed and covered nationally, it can have a negative effect."
The uptake of the vaccine has already suffered a major backlash in the US in response to what some critics viewed as an overly aggressive marketing strategy and anxiety from the religious right that the vaccine would promote sexual promiscuity among young girls.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive the HPV vaccine at the of age 11 or 12, before they begin having sex.
According to the CDC, around 49% of girls aged 13 to 17 received one dose of the vaccine in 2010, but only 32% received all three doses.
"From the public health point of view that is inadequate," said Zimet. "When you have a vaccine that likely prevents around 70% of cervical cancers, but fewer than half of girls are receiving all three doses, the ultimate effect is dampened."
In the US, around 6m people a year become infected with HPV, and some 4000 women die of cervical cancer each year.
Bachmann had focused on the HPV virus to attack her rival in the Republican nomination race, Texas governor Rick Perry, over his decision to issue an executive order requiring girls in the state to have HPV vaccines. She also suggested that he may have made the order in return for political donations from Merck, the manufacturer of the Gardasil, the vaccine used in the US.
Both allegations drew political blood, and Perry found himself on the back foot before the otherwise largely supportive Tea Party audience suspicious of "big government" intrusion on individual liberties.
But Bachmann appears to have badly overplayed her hand by then telling NBC television: "I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter," said Bachmann. "It can have very dangerous side effects."
Ed Rollins, Bachmann's former campaign manager, criticised her comments: "She made a mistake. The quicker she admits she made a mistake and moves on, the better she is," he said in an interview on MSNBC.
"Ms Bachmann's an emotional person who basically has great feeling for people. I think that's what she was trying to project. Obviously it would have been better if she had stayed on the issue," he said.
"I think the bottom line here is she has made what was a very positive debate and made the issue about Perry to where it's now an issue about her, and she needs to move on.''
Although offering the vaccine at such an early age is sometimes controversial, its effectiveness and safety have not been a political issue in the US.
Dr Marion Burton, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, hit back at Bachmann.
"The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35m doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record," Burton said.
The Institute of Medicine, which advises the government, last month found the HPV vaccine to be safe.
But while there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the vaccine is dangerous, there are some questions over the efficacy of Gardasil, the version of the vaccine used in the US.
Clinical trials show that Gardasil is highly effective against two strains of the HPV virus that together account for around 70% of cervical cancers. The vaccine works best in young people who have never had an HPV infection.
In countries with popular cervical cancer screening programmes, vaccination with Gardasil can reduce the number of abnormal smear test results by around 20%.
"That means sparing women from the psychological trauma and gynaecological procedures that arise from an abnormal result," said Anne Szarewski, a cervical cancer expert at the medical charity Cancer Research UK.
But questions remain over the value of Gardasil in preventing cases of actual cervical cancer where cervical screening programmes are widely subscribed to, said Diane Harper, a Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, who led the clinical trials of Gardasil and its main competitor, Cevarix, manufactured by GSK.
Smear test programmes that look for precancerous changes to cells in the cervix caused by the virus have reduced the incidence of cervical cancer in the US to around eight in 100,000 women.
"The very best you could achieve with Gardasil alone would be 14 cases per 100,000 women. So in an overall population, Gardasil is never going to prevent more cervical cancers than you are already preventing with a screening programme," Harper told the Guardian.
Another concern centres on how long the vaccine lasts. If a woman who received the jab was protected for only five years, any infection and resulting cancer would only be delayed until the immunity wore off.
Gardasil targets two strains of the HPV vaccine, while Cevarix is designed to protect against five strains. Mathematical models of Cevarix suggest the vaccine should protect against the virus for 30 years.
Bachmann's claims also drew criticism on the right.
Yuval Levin, a former domestic policy advisor to George Bush's administration and former chief of staff of the President's Council on Bioethics, called Bachmann's assertions "preposterously ill-informed" and "profoundly irresponsible".
"Baseless assertions to the contrary about various vaccines have for years been piling needless guilt upon the parents of children with autism and other disorders, and driving other parents away from vaccinating their children against diseases that could do them great harm. A presidential candidate should not be engaging in such harmful nonsense," he said in the conservative National Review Online.
Even the popular rightwing radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, said that Bachmann "may have jumped the shark" – an idiom generally used to mean having gone too far – by linking the HPV vaccine to mental retardation.
Limbaugh said that Bachmann appeared undercut her initial success in wounding Perry over the HPV issue by shifting the focus to her own credibility with her claims about the vaccine's safety.
"She scored the points and should have left it there," said Limbaugh.
Chris McGreal and Ian Sample @'The Guardian'
CNN/Tea Party Debate Fact Check
Breaking: Suicide bomber kills 15 in attack on Pakistan funeral - AP. More details soon...
Enter the grinderman
Cave emerged in 1973 with The Boys Next Door, later known as The Birthday Party, a hugely influential goth rock collective from Melbourne that disbanded in 1983. In 1984, he founded the even more profoundly influential group, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, with whom he released the seminal albums Henry's Dream, Murder Ballads and The Boatman's Call. The Bad Seeds toured and recorded continuously until 2006, before entering the chrysalis to re-emerge as the mangy, snarling critical darlings, Grinderman.
Over the years, Cave has stretched his dark fingers into all manner of art forms, from writing (The Death of Bunny Munro), to screenwriting (The Proposition), acting (Ghosts...of the Civil Dead) to soundtrack composition (The Road). Along the way, various pieces of short film have been created in his name or with his involvement, from music clips to documentaries to narrative fiction.
Join us for a trawl through Nick Cave's shorts, including the 1979 clip for 'Shiver' by The Boys Next Door and a host of others, footage of Cave reading from The Death of Bunny Munro and a documentary piece in which Cave's friends discuss 'Do You Love Me' and 'Red Right Hand'. Should be a grim and dramatic evening.
Red Hot Shorts' Nick Cave spotlight is on Friday 23 September at 7.30pm.
@'acmi'
FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’
At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”
These are excerpts from dozens of pages of recent FBI training material on Islam that Danger Room has acquired. In them, the Constitutionally protected religious faith of millions of Americans is portrayed as an indicator of terrorist activity.
“There may not be a ‘radical’ threat as much as it is simply a normal assertion of the orthodox ideology,” one FBI presentation notes. “The strategic themes animating these Islamic values are not fringe; they are main stream.”
The FBI isn’t just treading on thin legal ice by portraying ordinary, observant Americans as terrorists-in-waiting, former counterterrorism agents say. It’s also playing into al-Qaida’s hands.
Focusing on the religious behavior of American citizens instead of proven indicators of criminal activity like stockpiling guns or using shady financing makes it more likely that the FBI will miss the real warning signs of terrorism. And depicting Islam as inseparable from political violence is exactly the narrative al-Qaida spins — as is the related idea that America and Islam are necessarily in conflict. That’s why FBI whistleblowers provided Danger Room with these materials.
Over the past few years, American Muslim civil rights groups have raised alarm about increased FBI and police presence in Islamic community centers and mosques, fearing that their lawful behavior is being targeted under the broad brush of counterterrorism. The documents may help explain the heavy scrutiny...
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The Whole World Is Watching
Early in 2010, The Guardian reported plans by the British Police and Home Office for a remarkable new venture in domestic surveillance. Unmanned aerial drones, now used for tracking insurgents in Pakistan and Afghanistan, are to be adapted (unarmed, one hopes) to monitor Britain’s civil population. An initial aim of the project is crowd control during the 2012 London Olympics. Thereafter, these high-tech surveillance engines are to become a permanent feature of state security and law enforcement—much to the distress of civil libertarians and privacy advocates, who immediately objected to the plans. But no one can say this is especially new. With an estimated 1.7 million video cameras deployed on the ground, George Orwell’s homeland can probably already claim world leadership in state-sponsored monitoring of its population. And the intensification of all forms of institutional tracking of individuals isn’t restricted to Britain—it is occurring the world over. All told, the United States has probably contributed more to these trends than any other country as both the creator and exporter of different means of government and corporate surveillance. The sheer variety of forms implicated in this monitoring is striking. They include real-time recording of consumers’ buying habits and finances; tracking of travelers’ movements by air, train, and road; monitoring of private citizens’ telecommunications; and the mass harvesting of tidbits of personal data from social sites like Facebook.
The seemingly relentless pace of innovation in surveillance cannot be ascribed to any one interest, policy, organizational purpose, or political mood. Instead, it suffuses all manner of relations between institutions and individuals, from the allocation of welfare-state benefits to the pursuit of suspected terrorists.
The result has been change in the very texture of everyday life. Being “alone” is not what it used to be. Our whereabouts, our financial transactions, our uses of the World Wide Web, and countless other data routinely register in the automated consciousness of corporate and state bureaucracies. More importantly, the results of such monitoring in turn shape the treatment we receive from these organizations—sometimes in ways that we know, and often in ways we hardly imagine...
The seemingly relentless pace of innovation in surveillance cannot be ascribed to any one interest, policy, organizational purpose, or political mood. Instead, it suffuses all manner of relations between institutions and individuals, from the allocation of welfare-state benefits to the pursuit of suspected terrorists.
The result has been change in the very texture of everyday life. Being “alone” is not what it used to be. Our whereabouts, our financial transactions, our uses of the World Wide Web, and countless other data routinely register in the automated consciousness of corporate and state bureaucracies. More importantly, the results of such monitoring in turn shape the treatment we receive from these organizations—sometimes in ways that we know, and often in ways we hardly imagine...
Continue reading
James B. Rule @'Democracy'
Organ music 'instils religious feelings'
Many churches and cathedrals have organ pipes that are so long they emit infrasound which at a frequency lower than 20 Hertz is largely inaudible to the human ear.
But in a controlled experiment in which infrasound was pumped into a concert hall, UK scientists found they could instil strange feelings in the audience at will.
These included an extreme sense of sorrow, coldness, anxiety and even shivers down the spine.
Sound 'gun'
Infrasound has become the subject of intense study in recent years. Researchers have found that some animals, such as elephants, can communicate with low-frequency calls.
Infrasound can be detected at volcanoes and may provide a way to predict eruptions.
And recent work by some of the scientists involved in this latest study found that hauntings - the feeling that something or someone else unseen is in a room or building - may also be explained by the presence of infrasound.
To test the impact on an audience of extreme bass notes from an organ pipe, researchers constructed a seven-metre-long "infrasonic cannon" which they placed at the back of the Purcell Room, a concert hall in South London.
They then invited 750 people to report their feelings after listening to pieces of contemporary music intermittently laced sound from the cannon, played a 17 Hz at levels of 6-8 decibels.
Feel the bass
The results showed that odd sensations in the audience increased by an average of 22% when the extreme bass was present.
"It has been suggested that because some organ pipes in churches and cathedrals produce infrasound this could lead to people having weird experiences which they attribute to God," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist from University of Hertfordshire.
"Some of the experiences in our audience included 'shivering on my wrist', 'an odd feeling in my stomach', 'increased heart rate', 'feeling very anxious', and 'a sudden memory of emotional loss'.
"This was an experiment done under controlled conditions and it shows infrasound does have an impact, and that has implications... in a religious context and some of the unusual experiences people may be having in certain churches."
Sarah Angliss, an engineer and composer in charge of the project, added: "Organ players have been adding infrasound to the mix for 500 years so maybe we're not the first generation to be 'addicted to bass'."
Details of the organ infrasound study are being presented to the British Association's annual science festival, which this year is in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Jonathan Amos @'BBC'
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