WikiLeaks and the Global Future of Free Speech
Ecuador has acted in accordance with important principles of international human rights. Indeed, nothing could demonstrate the appropriateness of Ecuador’s action more than the British government’s threat to violate a sacrosanct principle of diplomatic relations and invade the embassy to arrest Mr. Assange. Since WikiLeaks’ founding, it has revealed the “Collateral Murder” footage that shows the seemingly indiscriminate killing of Baghdad civilians by a United States Apache attack helicopter; further fine-grained detail about the true face of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; United States collusion with Yemen’s dictatorship to conceal our responsibility for bombing strikes there; the Obama administration’s pressure on other nations not to prosecute Bush-era officials for torture; and much more. Predictably, the response from those who would prefer that Americans remain in the dark has been ferocious.
Education is Key to Avoiding Religious Tension in Egypt - Carnegie Middle East Center - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Sectarian tensions are high in Egypt. Unless Cairo acts to promote tolerance and understanding of various religious identities, to truly build a democratic, pluralistic society, sectarian conflict will continue to plague Egyptian society. A fundamental step in the right direction is the recent assertion of "basic freedoms" unveiled by Al Azhar, the highly respected religious authority among Sunni Muslims the world over.
Lie by Lie: A Timeline of How We Got Into Iraq
Illustration: John Ueland At A congressional hearing examining the march to war in Iraq, Republican congressman Walter Jones posed "a very simple question" about the administration's manipulation of intelligence: "How could the professionals see what was happening and nobody speak out?" Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, responded with an equally simple answer: "The vice president." But the blame for Iraq does not end with Cheney, Bush, or Rumsfeld. Nor is it limited to the intelligence operatives who sat silent as the administration cherry-picked its case for war, or with those, like Colin Powell or Hans Blix, who, in the name of loyalty or statesmanship, did not give full throat to their misgivings. It is also shared by far too many in the Fourth Estate, most notably the New York Times' Judith Miller.
Exclusive: How Gaddafi Spied on the Fathers of the New Libya
They are poets, journalists, writers, historians, intellectuals, aged between 50 and 70. Most occupied key roles within the Libyan opposition network. Until recently, seven of them were still living in exile: four in the UK, two in the US, one in Helsinki. Last August, one of them was appointed the Libyan ambassador in London.
Wikileaks' Julian Assange exposes truth about evil empires and their war on journalists, whistleblowers
(NaturalNews) Wikileaks' whistleblower Julian Assange rocked the world today, delivering a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange had recently sought political asylum from the government of Ecuador, and he was granted that asylum by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Shortly after being accepted into the embassy and treated with great compassion by the Ecuadorian staff, Julian was threatened by the terrorist government of the UK. That government showed its true warmongering nature by threatening an armed raid on the embassy for the purpose of kidnapping Julian Assange. This threat is, of course, an act of war against the sovereign nation of Ecuador.
An Independent Voice for Egypt’s al-Azhar?
Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb presented on June 20 what has been dubbed “The Al-Azhar Document,” an eleven-point program addressing many of the issues Egypt has faced since the January revolution. Based on a broad consensus of the eminent Islamic institution’s religious figures, the document advocates “a modern democratic state based on a constitution” which would guarantee citizens’ equal rights and the separation of powers. Al-Tayeb frames democracy as “the modern formula for the Islamic precept of shura (consultation),” which he explains as the true guarantor of pluralism and accountability to the people.
The Reichstag Fire, 68 years on
Book Review Alexander Bahar, Wilfried Kugel: Der Reichstagbrand - Wie Geschichte gemacht wird (The Reichstag Fire - How History is Created), edition q, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-86124-523-2, 864 pages, price: 68.00 DM 5 July 2001
FRA law
Signals Intelligence has existed in Sweden since 1905 when Swedish General Staff and Naval Staff respectively, had departments for signals intelligence and cryptanalysis. These departments succeeded, for instance, to decode the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet cipher. After World War I, this ability mostly ceased as politicians did not see its value and did not grant funding. The Swedish Navy still continued in a smaller scale and developed the competence further.
IQ.ORG
The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of behavior; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently toward one another....We are the state, and we shall continue to be the state until we have created the institutions that form a real community and society of men. Gustav Landauer, Schwache Stattsmanner, Schwacheres Volk!, June, 1910
Analyses - Madrassas
A madrassa is an Islamic religious school. Many of the Taliban were educated in Saudi-financed madrassas in Pakistan that teach Wahhabism, a particularly austere and rigid form of Islam which is rooted in Saudi Arabia. Around the world, Saudi wealth and charities contributed to an explosive growth of madrassas during the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. During that war (1979-1989), a new kind of madrassa emerged in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region -- not so much concerned about scholarship as making war on infidels. The enemy then was the Soviet Union, today it's America.
List Of George W. Bush Lies
The Two Most Essential, Abhorrent, Intolerable Lies Of George W. Bush's Memoir huffingtonpost.com
Sweden approves wiretapping law
Sweden's parliament has approved controversial new laws allowing authorities to spy on cross-border e-mail and telephone traffic. The country's intelligence bureau will be able to scan international calls, faxes and e-mails. The measure was passed by a narrow majority after a heated debate in the Stockholm parliament. Critics say it threatens civil liberties and represents Europe's most far-reaching eavesdropping plan. "By introducing these new measures, the Swedish government is following the examples set by governments ranging from China and Saudi Arabia to the US government's highly criticised eavesdropping programme," said Peter Fleischer of Google.
Comte Saint-Germain: The Immortal German Alchemist.
A Man Beyond His Time Many average, reasonable men can conceive wisdom only under the boring form of a sermon and think of the sage only in the semblance of a clergyman. For such men prudery, hypocrisy, and the most abject enslavement to ritual habit and prejudice must be the everyday virtues. When therefore it happens that a genuine sage, by way of amusing himself, mystifies his contemporaries, follows a woman, or lightheartedly raises his glass, he is condemned eternally by the army of short-sighted people whose judgment forms posterity.
