News Brief: Syria Update, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, Singularity, Neverwhere
by Tony Longworth on March 20, 2013
- Malala Yousafzai, the young girl shot in the head by the Taliban, returns to school in the UK. “I am excited that today I have achieved my dream of going back to school”
- The Chairman of the US House Intelligence Committee thinks there’s strong evidence that the Syrian government, not the rebels, used chemical weapons in the attack on Khan al-Asal. This finding may force the US into getting involved militarily.
- A hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre is growing.
- Twin explosions hit Ankara, Turkey.
- Check out these 16 major corporations that pay no tax.
- Cyprus rejected the EU-IMF bailout offer, despite warnings that doing so might result in their two largest banks collapsing.
- US Senate Democratic leaders have removed the assault weapons ban portion from their Gun Control bill. Dianne Feinstein is expected to reintroduce it separately, at a later date, with little chance of it passing.
- Elizabeth Colbert Busch has won the Democratic nomination to fill the vacant House seat for the first congressional district of South Carolina. Her brother Stephen has been actively campaigning for her, but promises not to go easy on her once she gets elected.
- A bill banning ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’ advances through the New Jersey Senate.
- The Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’ has uncovered a brilliant white rock, indicating the possible presence of water.
- Singuarity guru Ray Kurzweil discusses his first two months on the Google payroll.
- The Supreme Court threw out a $600k copyright infringement verdict against a student. The Thai graduate student had resold Wiley textbooks on Ebay that his relatives had purchased abroad for cut-rate prices.
- The first episode of the radio version of Neil Gaiman’s ‘Neverwhere’ is available for your listening pleasure. The radio play stars James McEvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Christopher Lee.
- Michele Bachmann runs away from a reporter.
News: Syria Chemical Attack, Sound Lasers, Henry Rollins
by Tony Longworth on March 19, 2013
- Syrian State TV is reporting that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian rebels in a firefight in Khan al-Asal. Rebels are accusing the government of having used the weapons. 25 people are reported dead, with scores more injured. If this proves to be true, it could severely affect support for the rebels from the International community.
- A tourist in Agra, India, jumped from her hotel room balcony to escape an attacker. The UK issued a travel advisory saying that women travelling in India should be cautious, after a Swiss tourist was gang-raped while camping with her husband last week.
- The US is performing another B-52 flight over the Korean peninsula today.
- Writer musician Henry Rollins asks what can be learned from the Steubenville rape verdict.
- Today’s handsomest scientists are creating a laser that uses sound waves instead of light.
- 5 amazing student projects that might change the World.
- Ian Mckellan will officiate at Patrick Stewart’s upcoming wedding.
A Short Film Featuring Bradley Manning’s Voice
by Nick Glossop on March 18, 2013
Providence
It burdens me emotionally.
Leaked audio recording of Bradley Manning describing his response to the July 12, 2007 Baghdad Apache airstrike video that documented the killing of two Reuters journalists.
By Laura Poitras and Jenny Perlin
Information about the release of the leaked audio of Bradley Manning’s statement: https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/bl…
Downloads, embed code, and transcript for full audio, as well as excerpts: https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/bl…
This video is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
You can download a copy of this video, along with all of the audio that Freedom of the Press Foundation published, from The Pirate Bay: https://thepiratebay.se/details.php?i…
News Brief: British Press Reform, Solar Power, Syria
by Tony Longworth on March 18, 2013
A deal has been struck to regulate the press in Britain by the three major parties, following the phone-hacking scandal. No comment yet from the press. The regulations would come with arbitration rights, but publishers could face fines of up to a million pounds and be required to immediately apologize.
Syrian warplanes hit Lebanon, near the Wadi al-Khayl Valley area.
Solar panel price drops lead to large surge in renewable power usage. Also, the UAE opened the World’s largest solar power plant. The CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) plant cost $600 million to build and will generate 100 Megawatts, enough to power 20,000 homes.
Japan confiscates nuclear material from shipment enroute from North Korea to Myanmar. The shipment – containing alloy rods could have been used to make nuclear centrifuges – was seized in a Tokyo port last August.
Is tonight’s ‘Bates Motel’ (a ‘Psycho’ prequel on A & E) premiere worth watching?
An Ipad thief unknowingly sends photos of herself to the phone’s owner.
Documentary Exposes US Role in Iraq Sectarian Conflict
by Nick Glossop on March 16, 2013
This is one of the great untold stories of the Iraq War, how just over a year after the invasion, the United States funded a sectarian police commando force that set up a network of torture centers to fight the insurgency. It was a decision that helped fuel a sectarian civil war between Shia and Sunni that ripped the country apart. At its height, it was claiming 3,000 victims a month.
This is also the story of James Steele, the veteran of America’s Dirty War in El Salvador. He was in charge of the U.S. advisers who trained notorious Salvadoran paramilitary units to fight left-wing guerrillas. In the course of that civil war, 75,000 people died and over 1 million people became refugees.
Steele was chosen by the Bush administration to work with General David Petraeus to organize these paramilitary police commandos.
Watch the complete documentary here.
Manning Statement: Full Audio
by Nick Glossop on March 12, 2013
Today, Freedom of the Press Foundation is publishing the full, previously unreleased audio recording of Private First Class Bradley Manning’s speech to the military court in Ft. Meade about his motivations for leaking over 700,000 government documents to WikiLeaks. In addition, we have published highlights from Manning’s statement to the court.
While unofficial transcripts of this statement are available, this marks the first time the American public has heard the actual voice of Manning.
High traffic is apparently causing interruptions to audio streaming. Download the audio file or a written transcript here, or listen to edited excerpts of the statement courtesy of the Guardian here.
After the break, Daniel Ellsberg provides commentary on the case. Read the rest of this entry
Nomination Of Bradley Manning For Nobel Peace Prize 2013
by Nick Glossop on March 7, 2013
A chance for the Nobel Committee to redeem itself after a series of rash (Barack Obama, 2009) and absurd (European Union, 2012) choices:
Dear Norwegian Nobel Committee,
We have the great honour of nominating Private First Class Bradley Manning for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
Manning is a soldier in the United States army who stands accused of releasing hundreds of thousands of documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The leaked documents pointed to a long history of corruption, war crimes, and a lack of respect for the sovereignty of other democratic nations by the United States government in international dealings.
These revelations have fueled democratic uprisings around the world, including a democratic revolution in Tunisia. According to journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate the democratic Arab Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate influence on the foreign and domestic policies of European nations, and most recently contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to withdraw all U.S.troops from the occupation in Iraq.
Bradley Manning has been incarcerated for more then 1000 days by the U.S. Government. He spent over ten months of that time period in solitary confinement, conditions which expert worldwide have criticized as torturous. Juan Mendez, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has repeatedly requested and been denied a private meeting with Manning to assess his conditions.
The documents made public by WikiLeaks should never have been kept from public scrutiny. The revelations – including video documentation of an incident in which American soldiers gunned down Reuters journalists in Iraq – have helped to fuel a worldwide discussion about the overseas engagements of the United States, civilian casualties of war and rules of engagement. Citizens worldwide owe a great debt to the WikiLeaks whistleblower for shedding light on these issues, and so we urge the Committee to award this prestigious prize to accused whistleblower Bradley Manning.
We can already be reasonably certain that Bradley Manning will not have a fair trial as the head of State, the USA President Mr. Barack Obama, stated over a year ago on record that Manning is guilty.
Sincerely,
Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Member of Parliament for the Movement, Iceland
Christian Engström, Member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party, Sweden
Amelia Andersdottir, Member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party, Sweden
Margrét Tryggvadóttir, Member of Parliament for the Movement, Iceland
Þór Saari, Member of Parliament for the Movement, Iceland
Slim Amamou, former Secretary of State for Sport & Youth (2011), Tunisia
Read Pfc. Bradley E. Manning’s statement to the court.
Via Global Research
