Sgrena Sets the Record Straight

/ fatal / accidents? /
Let me say this in advance: my initial reaction to the shooting of Giuliana Sgrena by US troops, was not that it was an assassination attempt. I thought that this was an example of the absolute desperation (and viciousness) with which US troops are facing any perceived threat, no matter how remote: Shoot first, ask questions later. Indeed, had a similar "accident" happened with some unfortunate Iraqi family, you can pretty much bet that it would be a non-event (unless captured in gory detail). It seems natural that the occupation forces can shoot anyone they please with near-total impunity.

That, I thought, was the real scandal behind the shooting. I couldn't believe that the US would (at any level of decision making) actually proceed to murder such a high-profile western journalist and knowingly cripple Il Duce II's already problematic presence in Iraq against most of Italian public opinion.

Why would the US government (or even the US military, if one accepts that you have rogue American commanders in Iraq setting their own agenda), want to alienate one of the few actual allies that the US has in this criminal mess?

Sure, the republican dumbfuckery that seems to be the voice of the Bush administration's psychoanalytic Id in these matters, was quick to jump in and suggest all sorts of conspiracy theories (my favorite was that she staged her own abduction - it requires colossal voluntary suspension of higher brain functions, or complete cluelessness to suggest as much), or just screamed ACCIDENT!!! ACCIDENT!!! as loud as they could, before the corpse of Nicola Calipari was even cold, in a way that made one want to counter their preposterous claims with exactly what they were anxious to exorcise. But, really, the motive was lacking and without some very serious evidence to the contrary, it was hard to believe that she was in any way deliberately targeted. It made no sense: Whatever she had from Fallujah was either already known and dismissed anyway by the reality-impaired thuggery and their faithful following or unlikely to top the gruesomeness that already has emerged from that particular war-crime scene. The idea that this was punishment of the Italians for paying a ransom was disproportionate: a deliberate shooting of a high ranking intelligence officer would certainly jeopardize Italy's involvement in general - forget about ransom paying...

Well, apart form the fact that Berlusconi himself has stated that the Americans had been notified about the vehicle carrying Calipari and the driver of the shot vehicle has confirmed that there was communication with their superiors, or the issue of US occupation forces barring Italian policemen from examining the destroyed vehicle we also have from the title link, Sgrena telling Naomi Klein in an interview something that sort of complicates matters even further:

"This is treated as a fairly common and understandable incident that there would be a shooting like this on that road," Klein says. "I was on that road myself, and it is a really treacherous place with explosions going off all the time and a lot of checkpoints. What Giuliana told me that I had not realized before is that she wasn't on that road at all."

According to Klein, when Calipari was killed and Sgrena wounded, they were on a secured road that can only be accessed through the heavily-fortified Green Zone and is reserved exclusively for top foreign embassy and US officials. "It's a completely separate road, actually a Saddam-era road, it would seem, that allowed his vehicles to pass directly from the airport to his palace," says Klein. "And now that is the secured route between the U.S. military base at the airport and the U.S. controlled Green Zone and the U.S. embassy."

"It was a VIP road, for embassy people, not for normal people," Sgrena told Klein. "I was only able to be on that road because I was with people from the Italian embassy"...
..."It was not a checkpoint. Nobody asked us to stop," Sgrena told Klein "All the streets we were on were USA controlled so we thought they knew we were going through. They didn't try to stop us, they just shot us. They have a way to signal us to stop but they didn't give us any signals to stop and they were at least 10 meters off the street to the side."

Sgrena also says that the US soldiers fired at them from behind, which of course contradicts the claim that the soldiers fired in self-defense. "Part of what we're hearing is that the U.S. soldiers opened fire on their car, because they didn't know who they were, and they were afraid," says Klein. "The fear, of course, is that their car could have blown up or that the soldiers might come under attack themselves. And what Giuliana Sgrena really stressed with me was that the bullet that injured her so badly came from behind, entered through the back of the car. And the only person who was not severely injured in the car was the driver, and she said that this is because the shots weren't coming from the front..."" [emphasis mine]

Well, I'm sure that there is a good explanation for all this, but the least conspiratorial theory I can come up with right now is that bored soldiers simply shoot at any car they feel like shooting, never mind whether its a threat or not, knowing that they will get away with murder.

Anyway: It's slowly dawning on me that this reality-based thinking of mine might not be the appropriate means of figuring out the current US leadership's motivations... Any other ideas?

Republican Lawsuit Driven Lysenkoism

/ education / by lawsuit /
This boogles the mind, really. I thought it was a hoax, but no, here's the proposed bill on the Florida Senate website... This bill will allow students to sue their professors if they don't "respect" and cover their viewpoints... I don't think this can pass (surely?), but that this sort of thing is even attempted is rather worrying.
I blame this sort of thing on Ronald Reagan, he first legitimized idiocy in public office. This is the unavoidable result. Excerpt:

The bill sets a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative “serious academic theories” that may disagree with their personal views.

According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.

Students who believe their professor is singling them out for “public ridicule” – for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class – would also be given the right to sue.

“Some professors say, ‘Evolution is a fact. I don’t want to hear about Intelligent Design (a creationist theory), and if you don’t like it, there’s the door,’” Baxley said, citing one example when he thought a student should sue.

This Baxley fellow is the sponsor of the Bill, so he's using the above as a rational example...

The whole "spreading ignorance by lawsuit" mentality brought to you by the well-known deity of rabid wingnuttery: David Horowitz.

WTO-AIDS: Deadly committments

/ TRIPs / deadly /

India's lower house of parliament passed a patents bill on Tuesday making it illegal to copy patented drugs, a practice that has made cheaper medicines available in India and abroad...
...The bill was approved after the government conceded demands from its communist allies and included some of the amendments suggested by them which included allowing export of pharmaceutical products to least developed countries.
Earlier, the legislation had faced resistance from the ruling coalition's allies and opposition parties who were concerned about the availability of affordable drugs in India...
..."Fifty percent of people with AIDS in the developing world depend on generic drugs from India," Ellen 't Hoen, director of policy advocacy and research at relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, told a news conference.
"The patent law will cut the lifeline to other countries. Besides, the Doha declaration also says that countries should design products so that they protect public health"...

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is supporting the law after most of its proposed amendments were accepted. This is their (rather defensive) explanation of events.
Humanitarian organisations are far from happy. Medecins Sand Frontiers report that despite "The worst-case scenario for people living with life-threatening diseases" being averted, but "only in the short-term". They say that, among other problems:

...People who rely on low-cost medicines will have to wait three years before a generic company can even make an application for a right to produce the drug. Whereas people in wealthy countries will have access to new medicines immediately when they are proved safe and effective, people in poor countries will have to wait years...

It is indicative that there protests about the Indian law change in countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, where HIV patients are dependent on cheap Indian generic anti-HIV drugs. The Guardian quotes a South African anti-AIDS activist:

Campaigners say African countries, where health budgets are already stretched will find it almost impossible to fund the new medicines.

"In Cameroon we pay $200 a year for each Aids patient's treatment, which is an Indian generic manufacturer's product," said Fatima Hassan of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign. "The latest drugs are only supplied by western multinationals and they cost $4,800 a year. We cannot afford those prices."

Furthermore:

Many in the generics industry say what is being given away goes against the national interest. Yusuf Hameid, the head of Cipla, one of the main generic manufacturers of HIV drugs, says India can "not afford monopolies".
He added: "Medicines in India used to be unaffordable until we adopted our patent laws in the 1970s.
"Our population and pattern of diseases means we have to increase affordability and accessibility."

Older Guardian report on the AIDS divide. Of immediate relevance is this story.

Taliban Nostalgia

/ liberation / unconvincing /

A wave of crime in [Kandahar] -- including [a child's] killing two months ago, and a bombing Thursday that killed at least five people -- has evoked a growing local nostalgia for the Taliban era of 1996 to 2001, when the extremist Islamic militia imposed law and order by draconian means.

Residents reached their boiling point last week, after a second kidnapped boy was killed. Hundreds of men poured into the streets, demanding that President Hamid Karzai fire the provincial governor and police chief. Some threw rocks at military vehicles and chanted, "Down with the warlords!" Witnesses recalled some adding, "Bring back the Taliban!"

Thus does the Washington Post describe the reactions of the residents of Kandahar. As far as the issues concerning the majority of the population, it seems that the current group of warlords that Karzai is allied with, are making life for the vast majority of people (outside Kabul) even worse than under the Taliban. And Kandahar id a Karzai-friendly city: "The rising discontent in Kandahar could prove particularly problematic for Karzai, who was born here and has drawn much support from the region's Pashtun ethnic group to which he belongs. Many Kandaharis, once alienated by the harsh rule of the Taliban, say their early support for Karzai is now giving way to a grudging nostalgia for the Taliban era."
It's worth noting as well, that VCRs and Satellite dishes are reported as being now available in Afghanistan. As this is one of the poorest countries in the world we're talking about - it's quite obvious that those that would take advantage of the availability of such merchandise are either warlords, western employees or entrepreneurs taking advantage of the recent liberalization of agricultural production in the country. A step in the right direction surely for the "liberation" of Afghanistan. Elites living in westernized comfort in their heavily guarded and luxurious homes, while the rest of the population is kept under chaotic random violence and left to their misery and superstition. Sounds like a winning recipe...

A Brief History Lesson

/ defining / democracy /

Dilip Hiro reminds everyone on some basic facts about US history in bringing democracy to the Middle East. Should be required reading, for anyone that has bought into the Bushite pro-democracy rhetoric...:

"The United States flaunts the banner of democracy in the Middle East only when that advances its economic, military, or strategic interests. The history of the past six decades shows that whenever there has been conflict between furthering democracy in the region and advancing American national interests, U.S. administrations have invariably opted for the latter course. Furthermore, when free and fair elections in the Middle East have produced results that run contrary to Washington's strategic interests, it has either ignored them or tried to block the recurrence of such events."

Meanwhile Tony Karon in the Haaretz warns that Arab democracy might not have the results that the neocons think it will. He also makes an excellent point about extremists and elections - well beyond the capacity of the Bush clique to grasp:

If the Bush doctrine is a clear-eyed attempt to weaken the appeal of terrorism by creating genuine democracy in the Arab world, giving the Islamists and other radical groups a peaceful channel to challenge their regimes, then it is indeed a shift of profound significance. Having Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood and similar groups participate in electoral politics is infinitely preferable to allowing them to serve as a mythic symbol of popular frustration, unburdened by any accountability for good governance.

But whether the Bush administration is pursuing democratization fully cognizant of the consequences of success - oblivion for many of its traditional allies, and the empowering of long-time nemeses - is an open question. The triumphalist rhetoric of recent weeks suggests that when it comes to the consequences of Arab democracy, many eyes in Washington remain tightly shut.

Via the Cursor...

Sierra Leone: Female circumcision is a vote winner

/ barbarity / institutionalized /

"When the president's wife sponsors the circumcision of 1,500 young girls to win votes for her husband, you know you've got a problem persuading ordinary people and the government that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a bad idea.

And when the woman who is now Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Women's Affairs, threatens to 'sew up the mouths' of those who preach against FGM, you realise that you are facing a really big uphill struggle."

One woman's struggle against a barbarous custom.

Dubleya Standards

/ censorship / paths / many /
Mark Ames over at the exile takes on the idea of state cenorship highlighted in the recent Putin press pool incident, to demonstrate that the style may change but censorship is alive and well in the the USA as well. He actually makes a case that censorship is more of a problem when made invisible by mountains of doctrinaire doublethink, then when everybody is aware of it - as in Russia. Ecxerpt:

...That is where Russians misunderstand America, and American methods. In Russia, everyone knows there's censorship, and maybe that's why it's effected so crudely as it is on Russian state television. And since Russian censorship is so crude, it only ensures that most people are aware of the censorship.

In America, on the other hand, most people literally don't see the censorship, and refuse to see it even when it happens in front of their faces.

But wait! That means all of America is complicit in this ideological double speak, this enraging imperial hypocrisy! Perhaps this is why, of all the ideologies I've seen tested out on the public over the past ten years, none seems to be catching on more strongly than this increasingly irrational and hysterical anti-Americanism. It's gotten so insane that one TV report recently blamed the US for Russia's loss in the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War, while another program I watched blamed American drug companies for shipping tainted vaccines to Russia and infecting their children.

I'm just mentioning two small things, but believe me, every time an American helicopter crashes in Iraq or a hurricane hits Florida, nearly all of Russia stands up and cheers. And no wonder. The whole country I've left behind is a collaborationist country. And the fucked thing is, I'm a refugee in a country whose regime is even worse than America's, but far less effective, thanks to the people, who have remained, in their bitterness, so much more awake.

War Crimes Unpunished

/ warfare / chemical / endorsed /
It's an old story, but one might expect that some recompensation of the victims of the USA's extensive use of chemical weapons in Vietnam, would be given - at least for symbolic reasons.
No:

Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange are outraged a U.S. court has dismissed their lawsuit against the chemical's manufacturers for crimes against humanity. The U.S. military in the Vietnam War sprayed the defoliant, which Vietnamese say has caused illnesses ranging from cancer to birth defects. A federal judge in New York Thursday decided the suit had no basis in law, and the plaintiffs had failed to prove a clear link between Agent Orange and their illnesses...
...Eighty-six-year-old Nguyen Mai, a retired government official, says someone should pay for the devastation Agent Orange has caused Vietnam. He says human morality teaches us that those who commit crimes have to take responsibility. Therefore, he says, the United States has to compensate generations of Vietnamese suffering the effects of Agent Orange...

This is dioxin we're talking about, which "was not proven" to harm the plaintiffs.

Some justice.

Typing error causes nuclear scare

/ terror / error /
But wouldn't they have noticed?

"The Sudanese government had a nasty shock this week, when it read on a US Congress website that the Americans had conducted nuclear tests in the country.
A House of Representatives committee report mentioned tests conducted in Sudan between 1962 and 1970.
However, when alarmed Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail raised it with US officials in Khartoum, it turned out to be a typing error.
The report should have said Sedan, a test site in the US state of Nevada."

Spanish Muslims issue fatwa against Osama Bin Laden

/ appropriate / rememberence /
The first fatwa against the former CIA trainee. The Spanish Islamic Comission also thanks the people of Spain and their government:

Joining the commemorations in a symbolic act of solidarity, the commission invited Spanish-based imams to condemn terrorism at Friday prayers. It also urged imams to publicise a document designed to “thank the Spanish people and the Government for their attitude towards Muslims” in the past year, in particular for not taking “disproportionate” measures similar to those which the September 11 attacks prompted in the United States.

Via Non Tibi Spero.