'There is no record of his involvement in hostilities against the United States or its allies. In 2003, a military officer who reviewed Mr. Parhat's detention recommended his release.' editorial, washington post, July 7, '08
'The group is unsparing in its critique of a system more interested in the political interests of adults than the education rights of children. The system keeps unsuccessful teachers in classrooms, fails to place the best educators where they are needed most and rewards longevity over effectiveness.' editorial, washington post, July 7, '08
'In the early days of the Korean War, other U.S. officers observed, photographed and confidentially reported on such wholesale executions by their South Korean ally, a secretive slaughter believed to have killed 100,000 or more leftists and supposed sympathizers, ly without charge or trial, in a few weeks in mid-1950.' Charles J. Haney And Jae-Soon Chang, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 6, '08
'The Bush administration's last desperate act, its Gotterdammerung, could be war with Iran. UN weapons inspectors concur with U.S. intelligence that there is no proof Iran is working on nuclear arms, but the neocon war party in Washington is determined to loosen a final Parthian shaft by striking Iran. ' Eric Margolis, Toronto Sun, July 6, '08
'Chinese methods had been recycled and taught at Guantánamo.'Scott Shane, NYT, July 2, '08
'Israel’s treatment of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern' John Pilger, The Guardian/UK, July 2, '08
'you'll parade with your flags and your images of the Statue of Liberty. But do you know that the sculptor copied his mother's face for the statue, a domineering and intolerant woman who had forbidden another child to marry a Jew?' William Blum, July 4, '08
'The majority decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals said federal courts have no jurisdiction over his lawsuit because he was never technically inside the United States when U.S. authorities detained him at New York's Kennedy Airport. Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service, July 1, '08
'A U.S. court has compared a military decision to detain a Chinese Muslim as an enemy combatant to a nonsensical 19th-century poem by Lewis Carroll.' Associated Press, June 30, 2008
'The consequences of curbing, restricting or punishing free speech are worse than tolerating what we might not like to hear. Free speech is the lesser of evils.' Peter Worthington, June 23, '08
'Parhat never fought against the United States and the government concedes there is no evidence he ever intended to.' Pete Yost, Associated Press, June 23, '08
'Obama has named a foreign policy panel of former U.S. officials to give him advice and possibly fill top posts in his administration if he is elected in November.' Caren Bohan, Reuters, June 18, '08
'Khadr's gunshot injuries showed he'd been shot in the back, and shrapnel injuries to his eyes showed it was unlikely he could see anything.' Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service, June 17, '08
'On October 26, he was trying to level a power plant in a heavily populated area when a surface-to-air missile knocked a wing off his jet. Banged-up John McCain and what was left of plane splashed into Truc Bach Lake. A compassionate Vietnamese civilian left his air raid shelter and swam out to McCain. McCain’s arm and leg were fractured and he was tangled up in his parachute underwater. He was drowning. The Vietnamese man saved McCain’s sorry ass, and yet McCain has nothing but hatred for...maybe that repressed anger actually has its roots in a Vietnamese POW camp, where John McCain betrayed his forefathers and his country.' Douglas Valentine, Counter Punch, 13/06/08
'he court specifically struck down a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that denies Guantanamo detainees the right to file petition of habeas corpus. ' Mark Sherman, AP, June 12, '08
'The court ruled that foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo had a legal right known as 'habeas corpus' to challenge their detention in court.'
'He vowed to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and insisted Jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of the Jewish state in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby group.' Reuters, June 4, '08
'A cellphone call to police from a scared passenger sparked the bust of a TTC driver who allegedly blew three times over the legal limit while behind the wheel of a Lawrence Ave. W. bus yesterday morning.' Brett Clarkson, Sun Media, The Toronto Sun, June 4, '08
Khadr dreams of helping the world's neediest. Ottawa Citizen, June 3, '08
'none of the candidates represents so-called mainstream America. In poll after poll, voters make clear that they want the normal decencies of jobs, proper housing and health care. They want their troops out of Iraq and the Israelis to live in peace with their Palestinian neighbours. This is a remarkable testimony, given the daily brainwashing of ordinary Americans in almost everything they watch and read.' John Pilger, May 29, '08
'Israel’s systematic colonization and annexation of the Palestinian territories over the last 40 years, and equally systematic opposition to the creation of an independent Palestinian state—no longer a serious prospect, as was evident during President’s Bush’s recent visit to Israel—have turned Israel into an Arab-Jewish state under Jewish control.' William Pfaff, May 28, '08
'At a May 7 hearing, Col. Brownback threatened to suspend the entire case over the prosecution's failure to hand over Mr. Khadr's Guantanamo confinement records.' Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service, May 30, '08
'Clothianidin, like the other neonicotinoid pesticides that have been temporarily suspended in Germany, is a systemic chemical that works its way through a plant and attacks the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with' Alison Benjamin, May 23, 2008
'...Another of Khadr's lawyers, Nathan Whitling, said he is seeking a report prepared by the U.S. military on the events surrounding his arrest. He said Canada has it but is not obliged by the decision to produce it, and the U.S. side says it can no longer find it.' Randall Palmer, Reuters, May 23, 2008
[Shocking, racist views of John Hagee.]
On human-animal hybrid embryos. Olivia Judson. (Comment number 121 is mine.)
'the world’s largest uranium producer, has told the Canadian nuclear regulator that its refinery might have leaked uranium, arsenic and fluorides into Lake Ontario.' Ian Austin, May 22, '08
'atrocities were committed in the interrogation centers in American military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.' editorial, May 22, '08
'The United States has snubbed Canada by denying lawyers for Omar Khadr permission to have the 21-year-old psychologically assessed by independent doctors at Guantanamo Bay.' Steven Edwards, May 22, '08
'After a super-majority of Ron Paul supporters captured control of the Republican state convention Saturday, state party officials abruptly canceled the event without electing delegates to the national convention.' Anjeanette Damon, RGJ.com, Apr. 27, '08
'Baker seems to want what Harper wants: Pro-Israeli voices should be heard loud and clear, but those who might question this or that policy of Israel should be silenced. This is not how Canada works. All groups, regardless of their religion, race or ethnicity, are free to speak, and the government of Canada makes foreign policy decisions in the interest of all Canadians. Canada is not Israel where Israeli Arabs are second-class citizens.' Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star, May 12, '08
WaPo article entitled, '5 Myths on Who's Really 'Pro-Israel', by Jeremy Ben-Ami, May 11, '08
'From the end of World War II through the height of the Cold War, the U.S. claim to superpower status rested on a vast sea of oil. As long as most of our oil came from domestic sources and the price remained reasonably low, the American economy thrived and the annual cost of deploying vast armies abroad was relatively manageable. But that sea has been shrinking since the 1950s' Michael T. Klare, May 9, '08
'Made up of Jewish and Arab men and women, the group meets regularly to share food and ideas, particularly ideas that promote mutual understanding. Several Jewish Potlucks members have described their eureka moment as suddenly recognizing Palestinians' profound sense of disenfranchisement, and all it implies; several Arab Potlucks members have recognized for the first time the justifiable reality of Jewish fear. Each side has come to accept the other's longing for a homeland.' Janice Kennedy, May 11, '08
'two new reports, by The Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch, have turned a critical spotlight on law enforcement’s overwhelming focus on drug use in low-income urban areas. These reports show large disparities in the rate at which blacks and whites are arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses, despite roughly equal rates of illegal drug use.' editorial, NYT, May 10, '08
'It's difficult to imagine what more the union could request. Its work-reduction demands are already astounding. The proposed salary increases would mean that an elementary teacher with the top qualifications and 10 years' experience would be making just under $93,000 in two years, a raise of $8,600. Two more contract years like that and elementary teachers would be in six figures. When does it stop?' Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen, May 10, '08
'Since the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, relaxing restrictions on the FBI's use of the power, the number of NSLs issued has seen an astronomical increase, to nearly 200,000 between 2003 and 2006. EFF's investigations have uncovered multiple NSL misuses, including an improper NSL issued to North Carolina State University.' Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 7, '08
'Prosecutors said the joint military task force that runs the Guantanamo prison has been unwilling to turn over a binder containing the records without making certain deletions, such as the names of guards. But Brownback set a May 22 deadline for handing over the volume...' Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters, May 8, '08.
'Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case.' Frank Rich, May 4, '08
New York Botanical Garden 'These days, the research has expanded. The garden has projects in South America, is helping the government in Micronesia with habitat preservation and has an emerging program in Southeast Asia.' Deepti Habjela, AP, May 2, '08
60 Minutes clip with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. [Comment: Shocking.]
'Testifying about his assertions for the first time, Colonel Davis said a senior Pentagon official who oversaw the military commissions, Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann of the Air Force Reserve, reversed a decision he had made and insisted that prosecutors proceed with evidence derived through waterboarding of detainees and other aggressive interrogation methods that critics call torture.' William Glaberson, Apr. 29, '08
'Child welfare officials and state troopers were standing guard outside a maternity ward in Texas where a teenage member of a polygamist sect was giving birth.' AP, Apr. 29, '08
'Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler has told a parliamentary committee the tribunal process is stacked against defendants and designed to ensure convictions.' Apr. 29, '08, Canadian Press
'The fact is that Bush invaded Iraq with the intent of turning Iraq into an American colony. The so-called government of al-Maliki is not a government. Maliki is the well-paid front man for US colonial rule. Maliki’s government does not exist outside the protected Green Zone, the headquarters of the American occupation. ' by Paul Craig Roberts, Lew Rockwell.com, Apr. 24, '08
'...he has been contacted by more than 5,500 service members and, occasionally, military families about incidents of religious discrimination. He said 96 percent of the complainants were Christians, and the majority of those were Protestants.' Neela Banerjee, Apr. 26, '08
'Roust all the men out of the Yearning for Zion ranch in Texas, send them off to shelters and serve them with restraining orders prohibiting them from being within five miles of the place. Take the women and children back - in limousines this time. Make sure they have the very best of food and provide them with an excellent education.' Lyn Cockburn, Edmonton Sun, Apr. 25, '08
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