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September 17, 2007: Draft Edition News from 9] to 9 |
CORRUPTION UPDATES 117
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France: Prepare for war over Iran
Story Highlights:
France's FM warns world should ready for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons
Koucher says European leaders considering economic sanctions
Iran insists its atomic activities are aimed only at producing energy
CNN, 9-17-07
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09/17/france.iran.ap/index.html
PARIS, France (AP) -- France's foreign minister warned Sunday that the world should prepare for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and said European leaders were considering their own economic sanctions against the Islamic country.
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking on RTL radio, called for "more effective sanctions" against Iran if it continues to resist the demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
"We will not accept that such a bomb is made. We must prepare ourselves for the worst," he said, specifying that could mean a war. He did not elaborate on what kind of preparations that would entail.
"We have decided, while negotiations are under way ... to prepare for eventual sanctions outside the United Nations, which would be European sanctions," he said.
Kouchner was not specific about what penalties Europe might impose, other than to say they could be "economic sanctions regarding financial movements."
"Our German friends proposed this. We discussed it a few days ago," he said.
Sarkozy reportedly floated the possibility of European sanctions against Iran this summer. In a major foreign policy speech last month, he mentioned the possibility of an attack on Iran, which he said would be as "catastrophic" as Tehran getting a nuclear bomb.
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister was quoted as saying on state television that enriched uranium fuel is ready to be shipped from Russia to Iran's first nuclear power plant.
The project has been beset by repeated delays due to payment problems on the Iranian side, according to the Russians. Iran, however, maintains it is because Moscow has been caving into Western pressure to halt the project.
Sunday's announcement comes after talks in Moscow between Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Russian nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko to address delays in completing the $1 billion Bushehr power plant.
Iran currently has the ability to enrich small amounts of uranium for nuclear fuel but still nowhere near enough to power a nuclear plant, much less create a weapon. Russian officials say the Bushehr plant cannot open until six months after the current fuel is delivered.
American "Diplomacy" Leaves a lot to be Desired
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August , 2007
Bush is using the same approach to American international authority in "diplomacy" as he takes to his domestic police powers. Bush's grab of domestic Police State Powers have given him the power to be Judge, Jury, and Executioner in conducting American Law. Bush is claiming these same powers for himself in international diplomay.
Internationally, Bush claims the power to define the outcome of the negociations or elections before they take place. And watch out if the other party refuses to comply, or elects the wrong candidates, or god forbid, throws out our dictator.
If you have the termidity to disobey, Bush will try to use sanction to starve you into submission. Or fund death squads against your supporters. Or arm and fund the election loser to stage a coup. Or repeatedly kidnap, torture, and detain your diplomats, as Bush is doing to Iran now. The final options are to bomb Iran into the stone age, as Israel just did to Lebanon, or to invade, and break your country, as the US just did to Iraq.
But the preferred outcome is for the offending parties to obey, and maintain the pretense of democracy and freedom while supplicating to the domination of a foreign power.
Iran is not going to swallow the predigested demands of "diplomacy" we are trying to spit into their mouths. Iran is not going to elect another American Shah. They are not going to starve under our sanctions. Our death squads and terror cannot get far past their borders, and none of their generals will stage a coup as a tool of American Power.
But I'm sure France has got them quaking in their boots.
After Bush gets done whinning and pouting, he is going to go to war with Iran, either by taking the Jewish Option, and bombing Iran into the stone age, or the American Option, and staging another disasterious invasion.
I believe Bush will take the first option, and try to bomb Iran after creating some kind of hokey pretext. This will draw us into the second option, and we will be dragged into committing ground troops to Iran.
This will lead to a regional war between Shite and Sunni across the Middle-East, and will become a critical point of realingment of the world balance of power for the rising global powers of China, Russia, and India against the United States.
Enjoy the ride. We enjoyed the benefits of getting here, to our status as a thieving global empire. Lets see how we enjoy getting back to a democratic republic.
The only was to fight these corrupted politicians is at the most fundamental level. We must dienfranchise their illicit hold on political power by ending their power to purchase politicians, parties, and elections.
Our initiative will short-circut the direct hold that wealth and power have taken on our government, making the voters the basis of political power, rather than the special interests.
Check it out, and begin spreading the word that legitimate governments are elected from and by the voters, not the corporations.
Iran Links
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US special forces 'inside Iran'
US commandos are operating inside Iran selecting sites for future air strikes, says the American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4180087.stm
Published: 2005/01/17 17:08:58 GMT
In the New Yorker magazine, Hersh says intelligence officials have revealed that Iran is the Bush administration's "next strategic target".
Hersh says that American special forces have conducted reconnaissance missions inside Iran for six months.
The authorities in Islamabad have also denied Hersh's charge that the special forces were working with a group of Pakistani scientists who had contact with Iranian colleagues.
"There is no such collaboration," Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said, adding that the report was "far-fetched" and that Pakistan knew little about the Iranian nuclear programme.Sniffers
Potential targets include nuclear sites and missile installations, he says.
The New Yorker journalist adds that President Bush has authorised the operations, defining them as military to avoid legal restrictions on CIA covert intelligence activities overseas.
They constitute a revival of a form of covert US military activity used in the 1980s, notably in support of the Nicaraguan Contras.
The task force has been penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan and leaving remote detection devices known as sniffers capable of testing for radioactive emissions in the atmosphere, Hersh says.
He reports as well that American special forces units have been authorised to conduct covert operations in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia.
Hersh bases his claims on anonymous sources, including former intelligence officials and consultants with links to the Pentagon.
One such consultant is quoted as saying that the civilians in the Pentagon wanted to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says that while Hersh could be wrong he has a series of scoops to his name, including the details of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal last year.
His track record suggests that he should be taken seriously, our correspondent says.
Seymore Hersh, The New Yorker “The Redirection”
Seymour M. Hersh, October 8, 2007, The New Yorker: Corruption Updates 120, th article on the page,The Administration’s plan for Iran.
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In divided Baghdad, fear rules
By Leila Fadel
McClatchy Baghdad Bureau, September 15, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-print/story/380262.html
"Today, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down. And ordinary life is beginning to return." -- President Bush, speaking Thursday
"Ordinary" isn't a word that residents of Baghdad use to describe their lives.
Gunmen are driving people from neighborhoods in the city's southwest. Electricity, depending on which block you live on, is available as little as two hours a day. Running water, if it's available, is unsafe to drink.
Car bombings are down, but most residents won't leave their neighborhoods, frightened that they'll encounter Shiite Muslim militiamen or Sunni Muslim extremists who'll kill them.
Some markets are reopening in the southern neighborhood of Dora under the watch of U.S. soldiers, but no one from outside the neighborhood visits.
Still, life is hardly back to normal. Dirty and disease-ridden, the water that comes from his tap is "terrifying."
In Saidiyah, in southwest Baghdad, Ali Mohammed, 30, a Sunni, said nearly all the stores in his neighborhood had closed as Shiite and Sunni gunmen battled to control the area. The only medical clinic closed three months ago. It didn't have any medicine anyway, he said.
A university student, he fears leaving the neighborhood because the checkpoints are manned by police commandos, units known to be rife with Shiite militiamen, who alert gunmen in civilian cars to attack suspected Sunnis. Three days ago, a father and son were killed at a checkpoint, he said.
America's president, he said, "is speaking the opposite of what's going on on the ground."
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
Corruption Updates 33, 3rd article on the page, "Sen. Warner Gets Cold Feet Over War"
Corruption Updates 43, 6th article on the page, "Bush impeachment on the table, Hagel says: Hegel accuses Bush of Everything but High Crimes and Treason
Corruption Updates 45, 1st article on the page, "McCaffrey Paints Gloomy Picture of Iraq"
Corruption Updates 56, 5th article on the page, "Batiste: Army Career Behind Him, General Speaks Out on Iraq"
Corruption Updates 58, 6th article on the page, War-torn Iraq 'facing collapse'
Corruption Updates 67, 1st article on the page, "'03 Iraq reports warned Bush: Bush is an Irresponsible Idiot"
Corruption Updates 79, 1st article on the page, "Iraq Ranks No. 2 of Failed States"
Corruption Updates 86, 2nd article on the page, Lugar shakes Capitol, calls Bush Iraq strategy a failure
Corruption Updates 94, 5th article on the page, Oil Law Stalls in Iraq
Corruption Updates 108, 2nd article on the page, Report Finds Iraqi Government Precarious
Corruption Updates 113, 1st article on the page, Poll: Americans see War as Failure
Corruption Updates 113, 2nd article on the page, Poll: Iraqis see War as Failure
NY Times, September 13, 2007; Compromise on Oil Law in Iraq Seems to Be Collapsing
McClatchy Baghdad Bureau, September 15, 2007; In divided Baghdad, fear rules
96_2: Bush Wars Push Saudi Arabia out of American Axis
97_1: Bush Arms Everybody
97_3: Failed war, failed state, failed empire
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Iraq War
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A ‘Disappointed’ Greenspan Lashes Out at Bush’s Economic Policies
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
NY Times, September 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/business/17greenspan.html?adxnnl=1&ref=
todayspaper&adxnnlx=1190041257-h6OdeuIy6aE8J8F8UaqXfA&pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 — After nearly two decades as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan wants to solidify his standing in history.
In an interview timed with the release of his memoir Monday, Mr. Greenspan sought to distance himself from the economic policies of President Bush and refute critics who say his policies at the Fed contributed to the housing bubble and bust that is now roiling the economy.
Mr. Greenspan unleashed bottled-up frustration about President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Republican leaders in Congress who, he contends, put politics ahead of Republican goals like fiscal discipline and lower government spending.
“I’m just very disappointed,” he said glumly, as he sat in his living room. “Smaller government, lower spending, lower taxes, less regulation — they had the resources to do it, they had the knowledge to do it, they had the political majorities to do it. And they didn’t.”
In the end, he said, “political control trumped policy, and they achieved neither political control nor policy.”
Mr. Greenspan, a lifelong Republican who presided over the longest sustained economic expansion in American history, sounded frustrated that neither a Republican White House nor Republican leaders in Congress were heeding his quiet pleas for greater fiscal discipline.
Mr. Greenspan said he met frequently at the White House with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, but his enthusiasm for the new administration cooled as he discovered that Mr. Bush ignored much of his advice.
His observations are in line with those of others who engaged Mr. Bush frequently, including the former Treasury secretary, Paul H. O’Neill, who was fired in December 2002.
4b) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Greenspan on the 'irresponsible' Bush
From The Sunday Times
September 16, 2007
Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil
Graham Paterson
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2461214.ece
AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.
In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.
However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.
Britain and America have always insisted the war had nothing to do with oil. Bush said the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam’s support for terrorism
Greenspan tells truth after Years of Lying:
Telling the Truth too Late
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October 13, 2007
Greenspan has been at the helm of the Fed during the concentration of the greatest amount of wealth in the fewest people's hands in all human history.
Greenspan's tireless work at the Fed was vital to making the political and economic policies of corporate fascism work.
Now, Greenspan's bitching about the consequences of his policy of serving unmitigated greed in our country sound like the Devil trying to talk his way into heaven.
Corruption Updates 59, 6th article on the page, Greenspan Remarks Deflate Market Mood
Abstracts on Economics
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Economics
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Bhutto's return to Pakistan set for Oct. 18
By Laura King
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bhutto15sep15,0,7727874.story?coll=la-home-world
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — To the cheers of supporters who set off celebratory firecrackers and flung pink flower petals, the party of exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto announced today that she would return to her homeland Oct. 18.
But it was not yet known whether Bhutto, who has been in exile for nearly nine years, would return as nominal ally or bitter rival of President Pervez Musharraf -- or whether she might face jail on still-active charges of corruption.
Bhutto has been in power-sharing talks for months with the floundering Musharraf, and while both sides have said at various points that the deal was nearly sealed, an accord has proved elusive.
The Bush administration hopes a deal between Bhutto and Musharraf, who seized power in a coup eight years ago, would pave the way for a smooth transition toward democratic rule. Without it, any number of chaotic scenarios could unfold -- including a declaration of emergency rule or, more drastically, martial law by Musharraf.
Either step would give the general sweeping powers to curtail civil liberties and would almost certainly lead to the postponement or cancellation of parliamentary elections that are to take place by the end of January.
Officials with Bhutto's party say the possibility of an accord with Musharraf remains but that the window of time for it is growing very narrow.
The government said that Bhutto was free to return but that she could face charges if she does.
, Musharraf is likely to attempt a controversial move: standing for election to another term as president by the outgoing national and provincial assemblies while retaining his role as military chief. His aides have said he would do so before Oct. 15.
That plan could be derailed by the Supreme Court, which has demonstrated a newfound independence in recent months, magnified after Musharraf tried and failed to fire Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
Bhutto's homecoming is to be in Karachi, the country's largest city and the main power base of her dynasty. Bhutto's father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was overthrown and then executed in 1979 by another military ruler, Gen. Zia ul-Haq.
Will US broker a Musharraf-Bhutto alignment between Army and Secular Corruption?
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 25, 2007
(originally written for CU104_2)
Musharraf's position as the Army's "candidate" for the upcoming presidential contest received the backing of the Army when they assaulted the Red Mosque. The Army demonstrated they would use military force to back Musharraf.
Musharraf's legitimacy is nakedly based on army bayonets and American dollars. Bush has responded to the collapse of even the appearance of legitimacy in Pakistan's military dictatorship by encouraging Musharraf to cut political deals with the opposition he had banished to maintain military control of the government.
Bush's plan is to replicate General Zia's "rump" style civilian government, created in 1988. Zia's rump was supposed to put a civilian face on the Army's control of real power in Pakistan. Bush's plan will prove to be as unworkable as Zia's.
The problem is going to be that Neither Bhutto's People's Party, nor Shariff's Pakistan Muslim League are going to allow the military to maintain political control when they resume political participation in Pakistan. Bush's plan is leading to chaos, if not civil war, in Pakistan.
Bush has funded and armed Musharraf's dictatorship, and is continuing to do so. Bush is pressuring Musharraf to allow the appearance of democracy, while supporting his military dictatorship. Rather than withdrawing support for Musharraf, and dealing with the ensuing administration, Bush's plan is to create a political frankenstein, stitching together tyranny and democracy into a political abomination which is doomed to destroy itself.
Here's how it will go down: Bhutto and Sharif will win the elections, forcing the Army to assert martial law, kill the protesters, and arrest the political opposition. The Army will reimpose a dictator, possibly forcing Musharraf out in the process.
The alternative scenario is just as grim. If Bush can force a deal between the Army and the parties, a Bhutto-Sharif government will be elected, and Musharraf will remain as president. Within six months the civilian government will be driven from office by the army. The army will assert martial law, kill the protesters, and arrest the political opposition.
Bush's support and accommodation of Pakistan's military dictatorship is a huge source of the political instability in Pakistan. Our only hope of having a stable long-term relationship with Pakistan is to demand the military step out of politics, and allow the people of Pakistan to run their own affairs. If we were a democracy, we would find and develop long term friendship with democratic players around the world. Instead, we align ourselves with dictators, kings, and petty tyrants.
Bush's plan bet all of our chips on Musharraf and the Pakistani Military, and that relationship has weakened both the US and Pakistan. Our participation in propping up Musharraf's dictatorship has destabilized Pakistan, and our continued support for Musharraf and military authority will only bring a bigger blowup when Pakistan finally rejects foreign supported military dictators.
Bush's new plan involves continuing the political ascendancy of the Pakistani military, which will only continue and deepen Pakistani political instability. It's kind of funny that Bush is only reaching for democracy in desperation, to save his military dictatorship in Pakistan.
If America actually stood for democracy and freedom, we would not be facing any of the dangers we now face in the Middle-East. American greed and aggression is conditioning the middle east to reject American "democracy" as nothing more than a cover for imposing dictators, suppressing the cultural and political voice of Muslims, and controlling the region's vast energy resources.
The whole world is coming to the clear conclusion that America does not stand for democracy or freedom. This will not change until Americans come to the same conclusion, and get off our asses and do something about our broken democracy.
Until then, our corporate fascist government will continue to rob us, and the world of its rights and resources.
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Sharif arrives in Pakistan
CNN, 9-10-07
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/09/pakistan.sharif/index.html
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The plane carrying former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif landed at the Islamabad airport Monday morning, marking a return to the country from which he was driven into exile for seven years.
It was not clear if the government would allow Sharif, who was ordered into exile following the 1999 coup that deposed him, to remain in the country.
Commandos entered the Pakistan International Airlines jetliner after it landed at Islamabad airport and surrounded Sharif, according to an Associated Press reporter on board the plane.
Sharif was refusing to hand over his passport to immigration officials who were also on the plane, the AP reported.
In Pakistan, ahead of his arrival, the government arrested more than 2,800 of Sharif's supporters, including members of parliament, police sources said. Most of those arrested were in Punjab province, a stronghold of support for Sharif, police sources said. Also arrested early Monday were Pakistan Muslim League Chairman Zafar ul Haq and Acting President Jawaid Hashmi.
A government official said the arrests occurred because the government has banned public rallies.
Security around Islamabad's airport was tightened, police sources said.
A number of journalists said police had beaten them.
Some government sources said Sharif may be deported to Saudi Arabia upon his arrival in Islamabad. But that possibility did not faze his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who is president of the Muslim League.
"If he (Gen. Pervez Musharraf) does anything unlawful or illegal against him ... there will be the whole entire Pakistan against him, and I think Musharraf's days will be numbered," Shahbaz Sharif said. "He's already mortally wounded."
Shahbaz Sharif, who was chief minister, or top executive, of Punjab province, is charged with ordering police to kill five men in Lahore in 1998. At the time of the killings, his brother was Pakistan's prime minister.
It was Nawaz Sharif whom Musharraf deposed in a 1999 bloodless coup. Convicted of tax evasion and treason, Sharif was released in 2000 in exchange for agreeing to 10 years of exile. He has been in exile in Saudi Arabia since then and under the agreement was not allowed to travel or directly take part in Pakistani politics.
But that agreement changed last week, when Pakistan's Supreme Court lifted the exile order and Sharif, who retains his Pakistani citizenship, announced his plans to return.
See Commentary Above
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For the full series of recent Sharif events go to the Homepage
Lawyers Appeal Sharif Exile
By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer
SF Chron, September 11, 2007
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/11/international/i000318D14.DTL
(09-11) 00:38 PDT ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) --
Lawyers for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif filed a petition in the Supreme Court Tuesday challenging his expulsion to Saudi Arabia, setting up another confrontation between the judiciary and Pakistan's military ruler as he battles to hold onto power.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf sent Sharif, the premier he ousted in a 1999 coup, back into exile on Monday hours after the opposition leader landed on a flight from London. Sharif, who had intended to return home to lead a campaign against Musharraf, was also charged with corruption during his four-hour stay in the country.
Sharif's lawyers on Monday petitioned the Supreme Court to start proceedings against the government for contempt in relation to the deportation. Last month, the court ruled that Sharif had an inalienable right to return home.
"We will fight this battle in the court of law," Sharif's nephew, Hamza Sharif, told reporters on the steps of the Supreme Court after the petition was filed. "We are fully confident that we will win, God willing."
The Supreme Court has emerged as a check on Musharraf's dominance since his failed attempt to sack the country's top judge earlier this year that sparked a nationwide protest movement.
It is already hearing petitions challenging Musharraf's holding of the post of army chief and president simultaneously and his eligibility to contest upcoming presidential elections. It is also pressing the government to provide information about the fate of hundreds of people allegedly held by Pakistan's shadowy intelligence agencies on accusations of terrorism and anti-government activities.
Analysts say Monday's decision to expel Sharif will deepen Musharraf's unpopularity in Pakistan and reinforce impressions that he is an authoritarian leader. It also could undermine the legitimacy of legislative elections due by January 2008.
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Pakistan frees 'al-Qaeda suspect'
A Pakistani computer expert alleged to have had links with al-Qaeda has been released without charge after three years in custody.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6955411.stm
Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, 25, has been reunited with his family in the city of Karachi, officials and his lawyer said.
Mr Khan was accused of acting as a link between al-Qaeda leaders and militants.
His detention led to the arrest of a suspect in the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa, and information on terror plots in the UK and US.
Never charged
...Mr Khan had been held without charge and had never appeared in court.
Security sources told the BBC that Mr Khan had been quietly released several weeks ago and that his home in Karachi was under surveillance.
The Supreme Court has been pressing the government for information about hundreds of people whose relatives say were picked up by intelligence agents in recent years.
Mr Khan was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore in July 2004.
Pakistan Operates Under Bush Rule of Law:
Secret Kidnapping, Disappearences, Torture, Political Prosecutions in Kangaroo Courts
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October 13, 2007
You don't want to be suspected of anything by the Dictator of Pakistan or his Master in Washington. You will disappear. If you show up again, you will either be tortured into submission, and find yourself before a military Kangaroo court in The United States, Egypt, or Pakistan.
Corruption Updates 68, 2nd article on the page, Pakistan Questions 2 in Daniel Pearl Killing: Times Reports False Information: These Men have been Held in Secret Detention for 4 Years
CBC, June 5, 2007; Pakistan police arrest 2 in slaying of reporter Daniel Pearl: Held "suspects" under secret torture for years
BBC NEWS: 8-20-07; Paki Security chief gets jail warning
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Illegal Detentions
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Security chief gets jail warning
Pakistan's chief justice has told the head of the country's primary security agency to produce an illegally detained man or be sent to jail himself.
Story from BBC NEWS: 8-20-07
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6955329.stm
The order against Tariq Pervez was made during a hearing into a "missing people" case in Islamabad on Monday.
Hundreds of people have gone missing in Pakistan since 2001.
Human rights agencies say that many are being illegally detained by the security agencies, which often deny any knowledge of their whereabouts.
Unknown charges
"He must be produced today or you will be sent to the lock-up," Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry warned the director-general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tariq Pervez.
Mr Chaudhry gave his order after hearing of the case of Hafiz Abdul Basit, who has been missing since 3 January 2004.
His name is one of 287 missing people whose names appeared in a petition filed by their families and human rights organisations seeking their release.
The supreme court is now individually looking at each of the names and questioning officials as to their whereabouts.
Mr Basit was initially taken into custody by the police under unknown charges.
Mr Pervez, who was in the police at the time, was the officer responsible.
He told the court that Mr Basit was handed over to the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) soon after his arrest.
Mr Pervez also said that he was unaware of the man's whereabouts and asked the court for a few days to find out.
Abuse of power
But Mr Chaudhry declined his request, and told Mr Pervez to produce the man within a few hours.
But he later allowed the director-general until Tuesday to produce Mr Basit.
The missing people's case came into the spotlight in late 2006, when Mr Chaudhry started regular hearings and ordered senior government officials to produce those in illegal detention.
Mr Chaudhry was suspended in March 2007 by President Pervez Musharraf on charges of abuse of power.
But he was reinstated in July after the supreme court ruled the suspension to be illegal.
Since then, Mr Chaudhry has restarted his campaign of judicial activism, giving several anti-government judgements in political cases.
The court also ordered the immediate release of another missing man, Imran Munir.
The government says that he has been tried and court martialled for spying.
But a military appeal court is believed later to have declared a mis-trial, and his case is now under review.
His father told the court that Mr Munir was being detained as he had refused to marry the niece of a brigadier in the ISI.
Officials say Mr Munir has been brought to Islamabad and will appear in court on Tuesday.
"We will not adjourn this case till we have satisfactory answers," Mr Chaudhry said.
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
Corruption Updates , th article on the page,
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Argentine Church Faces ‘Dirty War’ Past
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
NY Times, September 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/americas/17church.html?_r=1
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LA PLATA, Argentina, Sept. 10 — A simple wooden cross hanging from his neck, the Rev. Rubén Capitanio sat before a microphone on Monday and did what few Argentine priests before him had dared to do: condemn the Roman Catholic Church for its complicity in the atrocities committed during Argentina’s “dirty war.”
“The attitude of the church was scandalously close to the dictatorship” that killed more than 15,000 Argentines and tortured tens of thousands more, the priest told a panel of three judges here, “to such an extent that I would say it was of a sinful degree.” The panel is deciding the fate of the Rev. Christian von Wernich, a priest accused of conspiring with the military who has become for many a powerful symbol of the church’s role.
The church “was like a mother that did not look for her children,” Father Capitanio added. “It did not kill anybody, but it did not save anybody, either.”
That past stands in stark contrast to the role the church played during the dictatorships in Chile and Brazil, where priests and bishops publicly condemned the governments and worked to save those being persecuted from torture and death.
Witnesses spoke about how Father von Wernich was present at torture sessions in clandestine detention centers. They said he extracted confessions to help the military root out perceived enemies, while at the same time offering comforting words and hope to family members searching for loved ones who had been kidnapped by the government.
He faces life imprisonment if found guilty...
. In Brazil, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva just last month released a 500-page report — after an 11-year investigation — that sought information about the cases of government opponents who were killed or “disappeared” by state security forces from 1961 to 1988. More than 350 people are known to have been killed.
And in Chile late last month, a court said it would put on trial a Catholic priest for his suspected involvement in the assassinations of 28 opposition figures in October 1973, at the beginning of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s rule.
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
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