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POPSFormer UK Ambassador: CIA Sent People to be ‘Raped with Broken Bottles’ Murray alleged that in the late 1990s the Uzbek ambassador to the US met with then-Texas Governor George W. Bush to discuss a pipeline for the region, and out of that meeting came agreements that would see Texas-based Enron gain the rights to Uzbekistan's natural gas deposits, while oil company Unocal worked on developing the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline. "The consultant who was organizing this for Unocal was a certain Mr. Karzai, who is now president of Afghanistan," Murray noted. "There are designs of this pipeline, and if you look at the deployment of US forces in Afghanistan, as against other NATO country forces in Afghanistan, you'll see that undoubtedly the US forces are positioned to guard the pipeline route. It's what it's about. It's about money, it's about oil, it's not about democracy."
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POPSWe broke the law, admits CIA agent convicted of rendition One of the Americans convicted in absentia by an Italian court for her part in the 2003 abduction of a Muslim cleric by CIA operatives has acknowledged they "broke the law" and complained she was given insufficient protection by her superiors in Washington.
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POPSItaly Convicts 23 Americans In CIA Terrorist Kidnapping Case 
One of those convicted, former Milan consular official Sabrina De Sousa, accused Congress of turning a blind eye to the entire matter. "No one has investigated the fact that the U.S. government allegedly conducted a rendition of an individual who now walks free and the operation of which was so bungled," she said, speaking through her lawyer Mark Zaid. Despite the convictions capping the nearly three-year Italian trial, several Italian and American defendants – including the two alleged masterminds of the abduction – were acquitted due to either diplomatic immunity or because classified information was stricken by Italy's highest court. The case has been politically charged from the beginning, with attempts to mislead investigators looking into the cleric's disappearance and derail the judicial proceedings once the trial was under way. But the Italian-American relationship, conditioned on such issues as participation in the Afghan campaign, is unlikely to be hurt by the convic
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POPSItalian court convicts 23 CIA agents over rendition Italian prosecutors had charged the Americans and seven members of the Italian military intelligence agency in the abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as //Abu Omar, on Feb. 17, 2003. Prosecutors said he was snatched in broad daylight, flown from an American air base in Italy to a base in Germany and then on to Egypt, where he asserts that he was tortured.//
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POPS23 Americans Convicted in Italy for CIA Kidnapping The Americans were accused of kidnapping Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, on Feb. 17, 2003, in Milan, then transferring him to U.S. bases in Italy and Germany. He was then moved to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. He was released after four years in prison without being charged. The trial is the first by any government over the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, which transferred suspects overseas for interrogation. Human rights advocates charge that renditions were the CIA's way to outsource the torture of prisoners to countries where it is permitted. Italy's government has denied involvement. Among the Americans acquitted was Jeffrey Castelli, a former Rome CIA station chief, who prosecutors had alleged coordinated the abduction. The two other acquitted Americans were also assigned to the U.S. Embassy in the Italian capital and thus were covered by broad diplomatic immunity.
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POPSDanger--America Becoming Statist: First Bush, Now Obama Note: First the Security or Police State then the Nanny State. This is a must-read article, and hopefully an eye-opener to those still stuck in the "left" or "right" paradigm of thinking of partisan politics, both of which pick and chose which parts of the Constitution they want to dismantle for desired ends. Put the Bush and Obama policies together, sprinkle in a couple more terrorist attacks, and one or two more state-caused financial calamities, and you have a recipe for . . . * The destruction of American liberty * The blossoming of a Leviathan State
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POPSObama: Less State Secrets In the Bush Era many bad policies (torture, secret prisons, wiretappings, etc.) were covered up by being declared "state secrets." In a few court cases in the new Obama Administration, this was still the case because that was still the way the law, administrative procedure was. Now it's changed. No more easy covering up of wrongdoing by declaring it is a "secret." The new procedures certainly require more justice and more review.
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POPSOnce Again The Animals Were Conscious of A Vague Uneasiness
It came then to pass that we received those tools. The Democratic president and Congress, and after some finagling even the sixty-seat majority in the Senate. I was advised to watch for the great change to come rolling over us like a flood; we would soon be awash in progressivism. Our boys would come home from foreign wars, we would close our illegal prison camps, abandon torture and rendition. The rich would again be taxed, environmental abuses rolled back, people put ahead of corporations. We would get universal health care. Some of this would happen immediately upon Barack Obama taking office. Much would be in place in a magical, marvelous "first hundred days." What great changes a year would bring. I don't have to tell you there is great and crushing disappointment among those who most fervently supported candidate Obama and his campaign for Change We Can Believe In. We are still wasting money and lives in Iraq. We are wasting money and lives in Afghanistan at the highest rate si
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POPSOsama bin Laden Message Surfaces in Wake of 9/11 Anniversary Bin Laden also links President Obama to the Bush Administration, saying "the sour reality is that the new administration is still covering you in the shroud of darkness. So how's that "appeasement" working out for you Dems? The 11 minute audio message was released in a video from al Qaeda's as-Sahab's propraganda arm. The title, "Message to the American People" is superimposed over an artist's rendition of the New York City skyline with the World Trade Center towers still standing. Oh yeah, but Bin Laden is dead, right?
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POPSCaptivity | captivity dictionary rendition, captivity definition, captivity rating, captivity book, hostel 2, captivity movie, breach, captivity dictionary, dead silence, cashback, daniel gillies, i know who killed me, captivity trailer, captivity torrent, control, elisha cuthbert, animal captivity, fracture, captivity review, define captivity, Captivity
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POPS The Alinsky Administration Some liberals have been stunned by the serial about-faces on extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention without trial, military-tribunal trials, the state-secrets doctrine, and other policies they associate with the Bush administration. Former supporters of Obama, including David Brooks, Christopher Buckley, Jim Cramer, and Warren Buffett, have expressed varying degrees of criticism of his early moves, surprised that he is more hostile to the free market than they had thought. One of Alinsky’s first lessons is: “Radicals must have a degree of control over the flow of events.” Setting aside the Right’s habitual complaint about the pliant liberal media, Obama has dominated the news by unveiling a new initiative or giving a major speech on almost every weekday of his presidency. The constant parade of events large and small ensures that whenever unpleasant news arises and overtakes the desired message —
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POPSNew CIA Docs Detail Brutal "Extraordinary Rendition" Process All of these practices are carefully engineered to facilitate the interrogation process. Nudity, sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation are used as standard preparatory steps. It then details the standard "corrective techniques:" these are a series of physical assaults labeled with innocuous titles like insult slap, abdominal slap, facial hold and attention grasp. "Coercive techniques" used include: walling (slamming a prisoner's head against the wall, with some protective measures to avoid severe injuries), water dousing, the use of the stress position (known to the inquisition as the strapado, to the Germans in World War II as Pfahlbinden), wall standing (referred to by the NKVD and KGB as stoika) and cramped confinement. Because of substantial redactions, it seems unlikely that this list is complete. None of this information is surprising. In fact it all tallies perfectly with the description of the renditions program that can be derived from the report prepared by the Intern
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POPSObama Health Care Endorses Cannibalism
who energetically supported a plea from a 1972 Andes airplane crash survivor where 16 soccer team mates lived after 72 days of dining off the corpses of their companions until help arrived. Obama embraced survivor Jose Louis "Coohe" Inciarte in his efforts to promote organ donation as a key stone of his revolving health care plan. "No longer will you have to lament the humane death of your grandma," the President said, " for her heart will live on!" A Fox news reporter was shouted down when he attempted to link this comment with tribal Zulu warriors practice of eating the raw heart of vanquished enemies killed in battles. Outside the front yard was filled with protesters with hastily made signs proclaiming "Don't Eat My Grandma"....and other signs commenting " Eat Shit, But Not My Sister!" Rahm Emanuel was said to have jumped all over the opportunity to promote the new policy, in part encouraged by the recent arrest of New Jersey Rabbis accused of trading in fresh kidney
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POPSRights Groups Appeal For UN Investigation of Rendition
Reprieve's Director, Clive Stafford Smith, said: "Enforced disappearance is a crime most associated with ruthless South American dictatorships, yet here we have the U.S. and British governments embroiled in the same dirty deeds. Kidnapping is a crime in anyone's language, and it is about time that powerful governments are held to account for their crime against Mustafa Nasser." Diego Garcia has featured prominently in at least two other current cases. In one, Reprieve is suing the U.K. government on behalf of British resident Binyam Mohamed, a recently released Guantanamo detainee, for allowing the island's airbase to be used to facilitate Mohammed's "rendition," by landing to refuel. Mohammed was first rendered from Pakistan to prison in Morocco, and finally to Guantanamo. The group claims he was tortured in all three locations. David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, has argued before the U.K. High Court that it must suppress evidence of torture because the U.S. has t
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POPSU.N. Asks for Investigation of U.S. Mercenaries The use of so-called "private security contractors," -- i.e. mercenaries by the USA for extraordinary rendition (and torture) is now a U.N. issue. Such private armies, btw, are a real and very dnagerous sign of growing fascism. The founder of Blackwater, one of the largest, has just been implicated in court of murder, murder of some folks who were going to expose some of Blackwater's war crimes. Blackwater, btw, was forbidden to be in Iraq anymore...so they changed their name and now do their thing in Afghanistan. It's all sick and ugly. If you count the mercenaries the USA actually has about TWICE as many forces in Iraq, 300,000 or more. Plus, since they are not "official army," it's easier for them to get away with murder...being beyond direct military or Iraqi control.
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POPSPlaying for Change: Peace through music "Stand By Me" Peace. new PBS special premieres August 1 and airs throughout August 2009. Check your local listings. Also, they have 22 gigs slated between Oct. 20th and Nov. 19th in U.S. and Canada. Check their website below for cities & playing dates. "Playing for Change" is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth in mind, Playing for Change set out to share it with the world. http://playingforchange.com
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POPSBanned in Alabama This is kinda hard to believe that they would ban this fine bottle of wine! The wine's label is copied from an 1895 French advertising poster for Cycles Gladiator bicycles. It shows a side view of a full-bodied nymph flying alongside a winged bicycle.
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POPSClosing Guantanamo Prison Easier Said than Done.
It seems this is another tarbaby President Obama is finding harder to get rid of then he thought. There are also legal concepts to split hairs over to keep lawyers at work for years. For example, "extraordinary rendition," is not the same as "rendition." For example, no where in the English-speaking or most of the world is habeas corpus an absolute right (when a nation is dealing with war situations or insurgent rebellion a common exception). English common law (upon which USA law is based) has a convenient clause: "You can't sue the King." The cool thing is innocent victims of this Bush nightmare are getting out: O-U-T. A Chad man released from Guantanamo today. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8096402.stm) The Pacific nation of Palau says it has agreed to a US request to resettle up to 17 Chinese Muslims. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8092502.stm) Obama is not Bush. If you don't get that you don't know the difference between night and day. He wor
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