Riots, Strikes & Protests - The Great Global Grain Wars EFood Direct   The Sovereign Society Offshore - A Letter April 5, 2008 By Erika Nolan, Executive Director In the past year, riots broke out in 12 different countries. We've also seen street protests in Jakarta. Strikes in Italy. Unprecedented government controls in 20 different countries. And over what? Oppressive government? Long work hours? Inequality? No. It's much more basic than that. They're rioting and protesting because they can no longer afford to eat with these skyrocketing food costs. And it's no wonder. In the last six months alone, the basics people live on have surged dramatically in price. Corn prices have jumped 51%. Barley has soared 38%. Oats, 53%. Wheat, 56%. And rice - the mainstay of diets in emerging countries home to over 3 billion - shot up a devastating 67%! You may not have heard the hungry protesters or seen the riots - yet - but I'm guessing you've felt this uncomfortable inflationary squeeze in your grocery bills. Here in the U.S., you now have to fork over another 32% more for a loaf of bread than you did just three years ago. A carton of eggs costs you 50% more since this time last year. And overall your food bills have climbed 5% since 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.       Everyone but the Farmers Benefit from Global Food Shortage EFoods Direct By Mike Burnick, Senior Editor & Global Markets Analyst Right now, countries around the world are facing food shortages. There's just not enough to go around, when prices of corn, soybeans, rice and other basic staples are soaring in price. Agricultural commodities have been stellar performers in recent months, while commodities soared as a whole. However, increased volatility has crept into the grain markets here too. But there's good reason to believe that any downside in soft commodities will be limited by the fact that we are in the midst of a global food crisis. click on linked headline for complete story         We are facing a humanitarian drama of incalculable consequences Granma    Speech by Esteban Lazo Hernández, vice president of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, at the Presidential Summit on Food Sovereignty and Security for Life, given on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 in Managua, Nicaragua Click on linked headline for complete letter         Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear Vanity Fair

Six accused in plot to bomb Chicago's Sears Tower to be retried LA Times   Two previous trials in the "Liberty City Seven" case ended in hung juries. But one of the South Florida men was acquitted. MIAMI — Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that they would put six South Florida men on trial for a third time in January for allegedly plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower. The two previous trials in the so-called Liberty City Seven case -- named for the blighted Miami neighborhood where the defendants lived -- ended in hung juries. But one of the seven men arrested in June 2006 after an FBI sting operation was acquitted. Prosecutors contend that the men sought funding from Al Qaeda as part of a plot to bomb the Chicago landmark and FBI buildings in other cities. At the time of the men's arrest, federal officials deemed them to be "homegrown terrorists" and asserted that the sting had prevented a major terrorist strike. The alleged ringleader, Narseal Batiste, testified at both trials that he was only trying to bilk the man posing as an Al Qaeda financier of $50,000 to set up a construction firm for himself and the other defendants. Lyglenson Lemorin, 33, was acquitted in December but remains in custody as immigration officials seek to deport him to his native Haiti. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard, who presided over the first trials, agreed last week to allow four of the remaining defendants to be released on bond. The men, who each face four terrorism conspiracy charges, could get up to 70 years in prison if convicted.   A Prosecutor's Holy Grail: Another Scalp Huffington Post           Al-Jazeera Cameraman Freed from Guantanamo Bay Moscow News KHARTOUM, Sudan - An Al-Jaze­era cameraman released from U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay re­turned home to Sudan early Friday after six years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests. Sami al-Haj, along with two other Sudanese released from Guan­tanamo prison in Cuba Thursday, arrived at the airport in Sudan's capital Khartoum on a U.S. military plane. Al-Haj was detained in December 2001 by Pakistani authorities as he tried to enter Afghanistan to cover the U.S.-led invasion. He was turned over to the U.S. military and taken in January 2002 to Guantanamo Bay, where the United States holds some 275 men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, most of them without charges. Reprieve, the British human rights group that represents 35 Guan­tanamo prisoners including al-Haj, said Pakistani forces apparently seized al-Haj at the behest of the U.S. authorities who suspected he had interviewed Osama bin Laden, said. But that "supposed intelligence" turned out to be false, Reprieve said in a news release. "This is wonderful news, and long overdue," said Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's Director who has represented al-Haj since 2005. "The U.S. administration has never had any reason for holding Mr. Al Haj, and has, instead, spent six years shamelessly attempting to turn him against his employers at Al-Jazeera." The U.S. military says it goes to great lengths to respect the religion of detainees, issuing them Qurans, enforcing quiet among guard staff during prayer calls throughout the day. All cells in Guantanamo have an arrow that points toward the holy city of Mecca. Al-Haj was the only journalist from a major international news organization held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his detention as punishment for a network whose broadcasts angered U.S. officials. Al-Haj said he believed he was arrested because of U.S. hostility toward Al-Jazeera and because the media was reporting on U.S. rights violations in Afghanistan. The military alleged he was a courier for a militant Muslim organization, an allegation his lawyers denied.        New Documents Detail FBI Eavesdropping On Americans' Emails, IMs and Phone Calls InfoWars Fresh documents reveal that the FBI is actively engaged in the monitoring of electronic communications and cell phone calls of American citizens without the prior approval of a court         UN Human Rights Official Wants Investigation Into US Government Role In 9/11 InfoWars Steve Watson An official in the newly formed UN Human Rights Council has called for a fresh investigation into the events of 9/11 in order to examine the possible role that neoconservatives may have played in the attacks. click on linked headline for complete story           Permissible Assaults Cited in Graphic Detail Washington Post By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer Thirty pages into a memorandum discussing the legal boundaries of military interrogations in 2003, senior Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo tackled a question not often asked by American policymakers: Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out? Or, for that matter, could he have "scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance" thrown on a prisoner? How about slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb? What about biting? These assaults are all mentioned in a U.S. law prohibiting maiming, which Yoo parsed as he clarified the legal outer limits of what could be done to terrorism suspects as detained by U.S. authorities. The specific prohibitions, he said, depended on the circumstances or which "body part the statute specifies." But none of that matters in a time of war, Yoo also said, because federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes by military interrogators are trumped by the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief. The dry discussion of U.S. maiming statutes is just one in a series of graphic, extraordinary passages in Yoo's 81-page memo, which was declassified this past week. No maiming is known to have occurred in U.S. interrogations, and the Justice Department disavowed the document without public notice nine months after it was written. In the sober language of footnotes, case citations and judicial rulings, the memo explores a wide range of unsavory topics, from the use of mind-altering drugs on captives to the legality of forcing prisoners to squat on their toes in a "frog crouch." It repeats an assertion in another controversial Yoo memo that an interrogation tactic cannot be considered torture unless it would result in "death, organ failure or serious impairment of bodily functions." Yoo, who is now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, also uses footnotes to effectively dismiss the Fourth and Fifth amendments to the Constitution, arguing that protections against unreasonable search and seizure and guarantees of due process either do not apply or are irrelevant in a time of war. He frequently cites his previous legal opinions to bolster his case. Written opinions by the Office of Legal Counsel have the force of law within the government because its staff is assigned to interpret the meaning of statutory or constitutional language. Yoo's 2003 memo has evoked strong criticism from legal academics, human rights advocates and military-law experts, who say that he was wrong on basic matters of constitutional law and went too far in authorizing harsh and coercive interrogation tactics by the Defense Department. "Having 81 pages of legal analysis with its footnotes and respectable-sounding language makes the reader lose sight of what this is all about," said Dawn Johnsen, an OLC chief during the Clinton administration who is now a law professor at Indiana University. "He is saying that poking people's eyes out and pouring acid on them is beyond Congress's ability to limit a president. It is an unconscionable document." Yoo defends the memo as a "near boilerplate" argument in favor of presidential prerogatives, and says its fundamental assertions differ little from those made by previous presidents of both parties. In comments to The Washington Post and other news organizations, Yoo has also criticized the Justice Department for issuing new legal opinions that do not include detailed discussions of specific interrogation tactics, which he views as crucial to defining the boundaries of what is lawful. "You have to draw the line," Yoo said in an Esquire magazine interview posted online this past week. "What the government is doing is unpleasant. It's the use of violence. I don't disagree with that. But I also think part of the job unfortunately of being a lawyer sometimes is you have to draw those lines. I think I could have written it in a much more -- we could have written it in a much more palatable way, but it would have been vague." The 2003 memo includes long discussions of the relative illegality of a wide variety of coercive interrogation tactics, including a British technique in which prisoners are forced to stand in a spread-eagle position against a wall and an Israeli technique, called the Shabach, in which a suspect is hooded, strapped to a chair and subjected to powerfully loud music. Various courts had declared both tactics to be inhumane, but not torture, Yoo noted. This meant that they were illegal under a provision of the Geneva Conventions that the administration said had no relevance to unlawful combatants in its custody. Click on linked headline for complete story     Al-Hajj's Guantanamo cartoon banned Al Jazeera   'Free' Uighurs stuck in Guantanamo Al Jazeera   Virginia Quarterly Review Special Essay: The Octopus in the Cathedral of Salt       Detailed Report: "Collateral Damage" The Center for Public Integrity After more than a year of reporting and research, combing through thousands of foreign lobbying records and haggling with government officials over Freedom of Information Act requests, we have published one of the most comprehensive resources on U.S. military aid and assistance in the post-9/11 era. "Collateral Damage" couples the reporting of 10 of the world's leading investigative journalists on four continents with a powerful database combining U.S. military assistance, foreign lobbying expenditures, and human rights abuses into a single, easily accessible toolkit.

More than 70 TYC inmates cause disruption Dallas Morning News More than 70 inmates at a Texas juvenile prison ran from their dorms and climbed into trees or on top of buildings before staff got them all back inside, Texas Youth Commission staff said Tuesday. No injuries were reported in Monday's night's incident at the Giddings State School in Giddings, the agency said. The incident started at about 8:30 p.m. when 74 inmates forced open fire exit doors and ran out of their dorms. Some of them climbed trees and others climbed to the roofs of buildings, said TYC spokesman Jim Hurley. "There were no fights, no injuries. They just ran around like, well, kids," Hurley said. The Giddings facility currently holds 375 inmates. Giddings police and the Lee County sheriff's office helped secure the perimeter to prevent escapes while TYC staff got the inmates back into their dorms. The final group of students climbed down from the gymnasium roof about 3:15 a.m. "TYC works with a unique population juvenile offenders. You have to be prepared for offender behavior, but you can also expect juvenile behavior," said Tim Savoy, TYC communication director. "Fortunately, the youth in this situation were not attempting to assault staff or other youth, or cause major property damage." Giddings is about 50 miles east of Austin.       Texas Youth Commission aims to abandon large, remote prisons Dallas Morning News   AUSTIN – The Texas Youth Commission's conservator is taking steps toward abandoning the state's long-time strategy of farming youth offenders out to large, remote prisons. Richard Nedelkoff said Wednesday that he has the wheels in motion to move juveniles to the facilities closest to their homes – which will probably mean phasing out or closing less-populated rural prisons. Lawmakers believe the isolation of the youth prisons, which were the subject of widespread reports of physical and sexual abuse last year, contributed to their poor conditions. "Right now we have kids all over the place," Mr. Nedelkoff said at a legislative hearing on the TYC. "We've got to put the kids in the community, closer to where they belong, and build the services there. That's what we're attempting to do." But closing rural youth prisons won't come without strong local opposition. Traditionally, plans to shut institutions – which are major employers in their communities – have caused outrage in the towns where they are located. If the West Texas State School in Ward County is closed, "anywhere from 150 to 200 families would be affected in terms of their job situation," County Judge Greg Holly said. "It would have a tremendous negative effect." The "regionalization" plan, one that emphasizes a decentralized, mostly community-based juvenile justice system, was first raised publicly by Sen. John Whitmire. The Houston Democrat held up the state's juvenile probation system – which has taken responsibility for hundreds of youth misdemeanants released from the TYC since last year – as a model. The probation system has an 18 percent recidivism rate, compared to the TYC's 50 percent, a spread Mr. Whitmire called unacceptable. And he questioned the TYC's continued incarceration of more than 150 misdemeanants and 100 19-year-olds – youths who were supposed to be released under the agency's reform legislation last year. Between the probation department's success and the release of these remaining youth, Mr. Whitmire said, the TYC's population will only continue to decline, making regionalization even more cost effective. TYC officials said 77 of the remaining youth offenders with misdemeanors are overdue for release and will be freed within 30 days. The others were incarcerated before the new law went into effect and still must meet their minimum stay. The Attorney General's office has upheld keeping them in custody, the officials said. Mr. Nedelkoff also said the TYC has begun renovating juvenile prisons with violence-prone open bay dorms, in favor of single-room cells. While many lawmakers at Wednesday's hearing seemed to support regionalization in theory, the plan may face greater opposition when specific youth prisons are on the chopping block. In some cases, even school districts have fought to keep TYC prisons open, to prevent losing state education dollars. "That's not our highest priority, to try to help a school district maintain its funding," Mr. Whitmire said. "It's got to make sense overall." And while the TYC doesn't need legislative approval to move youth offenders closer to home, officials may need it to close youth prisons. The reallocation of funds directed to those facilities would probably need lawmakers' stamp of approval, agency spokesman Jim Hurley said. The state's first responsibility is to the youth offenders, said Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen. Many offenders are living in prisons so remote that they aren't getting adequate medical or mental health care, he said. Some facilities, like the West Texas State School where abuse allegations first surfaced last year, are "so isolated… that we can't even find the proper professionals to provide the services these youth need," Mr. Hinojosa said. "We're trying to find ways to eliminate, or do away with, some of those facilities."         Company wants to build a mega-prison in county Union-Tribune (San Diego) By Leslie Berestein The private prison company that operates a detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Otay Mesa is proposing to build a nearly 3,000-bed mega-prison nearby. According to county records, Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America has applied for a permit to build a "secure detention facility" in two phases on a parcel of about 40 acres northwest of Alta and Lonestar roads. A portion of the latter road has yet to be constructed. The proposed prison would have 2,880 beds and would employ 375 people, according to an application the company filed. It would hold more than four times the number of people that the immigration agency now holds in San Diego. The agency, known as ICE, contracts with Corrections Corporation of America to house up to 700 detainees – individuals awaiting deportation or a decision in immigration cases – at the company's private San Diego Correctional Facility, which sits on land leased from the county. A spokesman for the company said the proposed prison would not be built as part of its existing contract with ICE or as a speculative venture, but as a way of ensuring it retains the immigration agency's detention business if the company loses its existing facility. The lease on the land that the San Diego Correctional Facility sits on is set to expire by the end of 2015. Click on linked headline for complete story     Thousand Kites A dialog project addressing the criminal justice system

Parliament Extends President Paul Biya's Rule for Life Catholic Information Service for Africa In yet another setback for democracy in Africa, Cameroon's parliament adopted a constitutional bill removing a two-term limit to allow President Paul Biya to extend his 25-year rule on Thursday, despite opposition to the extension which caused of riots that killed dozens of people in February.     Cameroon: GOVERNMENT FORCES THREE BROADCASTERS OFF AIR International Freedom of Expression Exchange     Cameroon: Cameroonians Go to the Streets The Post           Morocco and Algeria: The Ongoing Rupture Al Hayat Discussing the issue of reopening the borders with Morocco is not on the Algerian government's agenda, as stated by Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci, linking the agenda to present circumstances. Those who live near the border area, and the rest of the Algerian and the Moroccan people, should probably prepare themselves for yet another phase of imposed rupture, as long as the two governments are unable to even institute normalized relations that would allow free movement across the border. This is Algeria's frank response to a previous statement by the Moroccan Foreign Ministry, calling for a return to normalizing relations and reopening the border. In essence, it means that there is no time now to discuss this issue. But since when does time press against the desires of the people? Even if we admit that there are deep-seated, core issues of dispute, is it the role of governments to submit to such a reality? Should they not work to overcome it, especially when it is an exception within the system of normalized relations between states? Time is time. If it does not work for the best, things will only worsen as disputes keep piling up. Ever since there have been relations between Algeria and Morocco, these relations have been stalling at a short distance from a détente, and in a deep abyss of disputes and crises. To the extent that an entire generation has failed to form constructive ideas over what agreement between the neighboring countries could achieve, whether on the bilateral level by moving towards economic complementarity and political coordination, or in the vast space of the hindered Arab Maghreb Union, or vis-à-vis the European Neighborhood Policy, not to mention the commitments to support joint Arab action. On the contrary, caution, mistrust and the ongoing political, economic and cultural rupture is shaping the vision of new generations in both countries. This may have a negative impact on the principles of solidarity and shared ties. However, a faint light has appeared at the end of the tunnel, as efforts to hold a conference of Maghrebine political parties have been initiated, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Tangiers Conference in April 1958. At the time, Morocco's Independence Party, Algeria's National Liberation Front and Tunisia's Destour Party were paving the way for the Maghrebine construction, which has proved unlucky at every stage. The Tangiers Conference reflected the highest degree of solidarity, agreement and coordination between the various Maghrebine liberation movements in confronting French Colonialism. It represents a forgotten page from a book whose reading has been subjected to multiple interpretations, on multiple bases and for multiple goals. Far from simply commemorating such an occasion, the conference, if it were to take place as a means to make the decision-makers feel the weight of the massive responsibility they bear towards ensuring the future of new generations, it may achieve a major goal: to steer the people of the Maghreb away from governmental disputes. No matter how divergent their stands are on any issue, this does not justify reinforcing rupture among the peoples themselves. Relations between Morocco and Algeria have never known the kinds of clashes and rancor that relations between Germany and France, for instance, have endured. Nevertheless, the two European countries have managed within a short span of time to unite their wills in a common effort to bring the European project into existence. It began with the shared importation of coal and steel, taking shape in a trend that soon attracted other European countries, becoming the European Economic Community, and ultimately unifying to produce the European Union. The European Union, which by expanding has become a leading political and economic force. Have relations between France and Germany ever reached the point of sealing the border?! What is certain is that the concept of borders is no longer suitable according to the modern view of international relations, which transcends geographical boundaries to reach the interaction of ideas, economy and invention, to benefit from the technological revolution produced by the revolution of ideas and creativity. How can these same borders become obstacles to the movement of persons and goods? The influence of disputes between Algeria and Morocco has affected many issues. Diverging stands on the issue of the Western Sahara, the complications of rebuilding trust, and the insistence on keeping the Arab Maghreb Union suspended between life and death, are not the least of those. If the political will is present, then there is no reason why an honest dialogue about these issues cannot be initiated. And if it is out of the question to tackle some or all of these issues for political considerations, then at least the demands of the people must be answered, and its pulse, whose echo rivals that of its disappointment, must be heard. At least the new generations must be given the hope of some day reviving the commitments of the Tangiers Conference, made over forty years ago.           Ethiopian soldiers pour into Somalia Press TV Thousands of Ethiopian soldiers have recently poured into Somalia's Hiiran region creating intense fear and concern among civilians. Around 7500 Ethiopian soldiers have entered the Hiiran's Janta Kuundishe base while another 8000 soldiers headed towards Buulo Burde town and its surrounding districts, a PressTV correspondent reports. Thousands of Al-Shabab fighters are still in the region, and with scores of Ethiopians arriving daily, people fear fresh violence and bloodshed. Reports state thousands of soldiers are also heading towards South Somalia, with 6000 of them setting up new bases in the Luuq district in the Gedo region. Most of these new soldiers seem to be fresh out of training and the majority are under 18 years of age.     U.S. Missile Attack Missed Key Target The Nation (Nairobi) A US missile strike against the Somali town of Dobley may have missed its target - Kenyan terror suspect Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. Security sources also said in Mombasa Wednesday that Mr Nabhan's mobile communication was intercepted by the US Navy, leading to the Sunday attack. The Tomahawk missile fired from the sea may have hit when the suspect, born in 1968 in Mombasa, had already left the location, the sources added.       Making exceptions for Ethiopia Guardian By Tom Porteous, London Director Western policy towards Africa is ill-informed and inconsistent. That's the message of Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, in his interview in the Guardian last week. And there's some truth in what he says. But Meles should be careful what he wishes for. If the west was better informed about the war crimes and human rights abuses committed by Meles' military forces in Somalia and Ogaden, western taxpayers might balk at the thought that their governments are providing Ethiopia with hundreds of millions of dollars of military and economic aid. And if western governments were more consistent and less selective in their reaction to human rights abuses around the world, they might be less inclined to turn a blind eye to Ethiopia's failure to abide by international norms in pursuit of its military objectives in Somalia and Ogaden. Last year, Human Rights Watch documented a disturbing pattern of abuses by all sides, including Ethiopia, in the dangerous armed conflict which erupted after Meles sent his army into Somalia to dislodge the Islamic Courts Union, a group which many say has links to international terrorists. In its subsequent struggle with Somali insurgents, Ethiopia has committed serious violations of the Geneva conventions including the carpet-bombing of residential districts of Mogadishu, the deliberate targeting of hospitals and arbitrary executions. Human Rights Watch has also documented abuses by Ethiopian forces in its simultaneous counter-insurgency campaign against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in the Somali region of southeastern Ethiopia. These include the systematic use of rape, torture and execution as a means of terrorising and collectively punishing the civilian population, a partial trade blockade of districts deemed sympathetic to the rebels and the destruction of villages. Click on linked headline for complete report       Austrian troops join EU protection force in Chad Reuters Around 70 Austrian troops flew into Chad on Tuesday to join a European Union security force that is deploying in the Central African country's eastern borderlands to protect refugees fleeing violence. As the Austrian contingent disembarked, the United Nations reported that recent attacks in Sudan's Darfur had pushed thousands of new refugees, some previously uprooted by fighting, over the border into eastern Chad. click on linked headline for complete story   Darfur: The Colonial struggle over Sudan Khilafa As the West lead by George Bush and the outgoing Tony Blair have seemingly ratcheted up the pressure on Sudan over Darfur, once again the world is being told by the West that intervention in Darfur is urgently needed to save lives. Yet the reality is that Sudan, and the conflict in Darfur, is a result of the intense conflict between the major western nations over control of the regions natural resources. The new incoming leaders of Britain and France, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy, have recently declared that they will personally travel together to Darfur to help end the fighting there. Britain and France they said would help end "one of the great humanitarian disasters". Sudan is a country which since it's independence from Britain in 1956 has been plagued by outside interference. The Sudanese civil war, which lasted for decades, is a prime example of how state actors such as America have opportunistically preyed on such situations for strategic advantage. It is well established that America actively aided and supported the minority Christian rebels in Southern Sudan both diplomatically and militarily by providing them with arms without which the rebels would not have had the success they enjoyed in forcing the Sudanese government to sue for peace. This culminated with the eventual termination of the civil war in which the main rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the Sudanese government signed and formalised a peace agreement brokered by the Americans, more commonly known as the Naivasha peace accord, in January 2005.       Darfur: The rebel soldiers' story Al Jazeera The civil war that has engulfed Darfur in western Sudan has drawn in many young men who say they are fighting for the rights of the region's predominantly black African population against the Khartoum government. At the foot of the Jebel Marra - a mountain range in the heart of Darfur - the rebels have established what they call a "liberated zone". Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall travelled to the region to speak to the foot soldiers of the Sudanese Liberation Army.       Report: United States is the world leader in arms sales to developing countries Final Call “The abuse of small arms has caused untold distress, and the United Nations must lead the process to stem their proliferation,” stated Ghana’s President John Agyekum Kufuor at the opening of the UN General Assembly debate on Sept. 25. “As Africa had continued to make significant progress toward healing the wounds of long wars that had plagued regions of the continent, the trade of small arms and light weapons had wrought havoc on millions of people and fueled insecurity and instability,” said Pres. Kufor who also serves as chairman for the African Union for 2007. President Branko Crvenkovski of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia also called on the General Assembly to place disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation high on its agenda. A week after the two leaders addressed their fellow world leaders, a report was circulated to the media in Washington, D.C. from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Committee titled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations.” The report noted that the United States “maintained its role as the leading supplier of weapons to the developing world in 2006 followed by Russia and Britain. Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia were the biggest purchasers. Ironically, the three top arms dealing nations are also permanent members of the Security Council with veto power. Click on linked headline for complete report

ALBA Might Have Trade Institute Prensa Latina The Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) is studying the creation of a Trade Institute to speed up transactions among its member countries. Martinican ambassador in Caracas Lannix Lawrence informed that was one of the proposals made during the second Commission of ALBA Technical Tables in that capital. Lawrence noted that Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Dominica would be represented in the initiative. The Caribbean diplomat attended the Energy table, where the parties discussed mechanisms to guarantee funding for hydrocarbon exploitation. Meanwhile, the minister of basic industries and mining, and Venezuela's representative in the group, Rodolfo Sanz, announced the creation of a mechanism to monitor the agreements. Sanz indicated that, among other issues, ALBA should keep bringing forward the literacy campaign on the continent, improve health systems, and guarantee the production of medical supplies. What is ALBA? (wikipedia) What is the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean?         First illiteracy-free department in Bolivia Granma ORURO, Bolivia (PL).— President Evo Morales announced this Thursday that Oruro is the first Bolivian department to be free of illiteracy, a goal that it is hoped to achieve on a national level before the end of this year. According to Ministry of Education officials and cultural authorities, in this – predominantly mining – area, just over 32,500 people aged 15 years and over have learned to read and write thanks to the Cuban "Yes I Can Do It!" audiovisual method and the cooperation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. According to Rafael Dausá, the Cuban ambassador in Bolivia, 85% of those who have acquired literacy skills in Oruro are women, indicating that this sector of the population has historically been marginalized and it is only now that they are benefiting from this important measure. The diplomat also recalled that the main municipality in this central department is now free of this social problem, becoming the 121st of the 327 departments in this Andean nation. Dausá also described literacy skills as a path towards a greater understanding and conscious support for the process of changes that the current head of state is promoting. Javier Labrada, national coordinator of the Cuban advisors of this program, explained that to date other departments are in the vanguard of developing this program, including La Paz, Cochabamba, Pando and Santa Cruz. "We hope that in November 2008, we can raise the white flag on a national level, a symbol that Bolivia has been declared an Illiteracy-Free Territory, becoming, after Cuba and Venezuela, the third country in Latin America to achieve this feat, he affirmed. Translated by Granma International         Verizon and AT&T dominate airwaves auction Rueters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc, the two largest U.S. mobile phone companies, grabbed the lion's share of a $19.12 billion auction of airwaves being vacated by television broadcasters. Verizon and AT&T won more than $16 billion of licenses, according to auction results released on Thursday, airwaves they plan to use to enhance existing voice and data services, as well as underpin a new wave of wireless technologies. The possibility of a nationwide video network was raised by a $711 million slice of the 700 megahertz airwaves won by Frontier Wireless, a partner of satellite television operation DISH Network Corp. DISH declined to comment. But No. 2 wireless provider Verizon and No. 1-ranked AT&T dominated the Federal Communications Commission auction that started January 24 and ended Tuesday after 260 round of bidding. "It means that the two big guys just got much bigger," said Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture with Vodafone Group Plc, won the biggest nationwide block of spectrum, with a $4.74 billion bid that trumped $4.71 billion offered by Internet leader Google Inc, FCC officials said. Verizon Wireless also won 25 regional licenses. AT&T won 227 licenses in regional licenses around the United States. The company can pair those airwave with a large piece of 700-megahertz spectrum it gained earlier this year in its $2.5 billion acquisition of Aloha Partners. "AT&T's strong spectrum holdings position the company to further enhance the quality and reliability of existing wireless broadband and voice services, and to set the foundation for new-generation wireless broadband technologies and services," Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T's wireless unit, said in a statement. Overall, AT&T spent a total of about $6.64 billion and Verizon spent $9.63 billion at the auction, Arbogast said. Verizon shares closed 2.8 percent higher to $36.12 on the New York Stock Exchange, while shares of AT&T ended up 2.2 percent at $36.85, also on the NYSE. The 700-megahertz airwaves are considered valuable because they travel long distances and can penetrate thick walls. Analysts say the major carriers will be able use them to offer consumers more advanced services such as broadband access via mobile phones and wireless broadband to laptop computers. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin called the auction "a significant success," citing the record amount of money raised for the U.S. Treasury and a requirement the nationwide spectrum won by Verizon be accessible to a range of devices and software. Martin said the auction would enhance competition, citing the spectrum won by Frontier Wireless. But the auction results dimmed hopes that the newly available spectrum would lead to a major new competitor in the wireless business. Google's participation in the auction had sparked some hopes that the company could jump into the wireless business. But Google won no licenses in the auction, the FCC said. Nevertheless, the auction was seen as a victory for Google, since the bidding was high enough to trigger the "open-platform" rules it requested for the nationwide airwaves eventually won by Verizon. Google called it a victory for American consumers. "Consumers soon should begin enjoying new, Internet-like freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices," said a statement from Google lawyers Richard Whitt and Joseph Faber. Google shares edged up 0.4 percent to $433.55 by Nasdaq's close. The FCC also said it would set aside a block of the 700-MHz airwaves that did not reach the $1.3 billion minimum bid. This block was to be shared with public safety agencies and drew a lone bid of $472 million, which was then subtracted from an earlier $19.59 billion tally for the auction. Industry analysts have speculated that the minimum price was too high, or that the rules for negotiations with emergency responders were too onerous. The FCC could decide to re-auction the so-called D-block airwaves and perhaps modify the rules to make it more attractive. For More Info go to Free Press           Colombia pays informant $2.7m BBC Colombia has paid $2.7m (£1.35m) to an informant who helped in a raid on a guerrilla base in neighbouring Ecuador in which a rebel commander was killed. Raul Reyes was killed alongside 18 more Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels and an Ecuadorean. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced the payment to the informant who will leave Colombia with his family to protect his anonymity. The 1 March raid fuelled tensions between Colombia and Ecuador. 'New life' Correspondents say the attack appeared to halt the chances of further releases of hostages held by the Farc, whom the guerrillas want to exchange for hundreds of their comrades in prison. Colombia's defence ministry refused to name the informant because, it said, of Farc's tradition of killing those who betray them. "In the coming days, they will leave Colombia to enjoy a new life," the ministry said in a statement. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has also said his government is considering bringing charges against Colombia in international courts for the violation of Ecuadorean sovereignty and the killing of an Ecuadorean citizen.     Plan Colombia US Department of State   "Stop Plan Colombia" (PDF) Colombia Action Network   Chávez receives hostages released by FARC Granma   Top Farc leader killed by troops BBC           Buying of the President Center for Public Integrity "Is it an election . . . or an auction?"     All is Not Well in Georgetown: Guyana’s Emerging Hemispheric Role Council on Hemispheric Affairs • Guyana and Venezuela’s longstanding territorial dispute—the "frozen conflict"—which is hopefully asleep for now • Will Guyana’s vulnerable Jagdeo become Washington’s new best friend on the continent? The latest confrontation between Venezuela and Guyana, which indisputably took place on Guyanese territory, has reminded Washington that Guyana exists and that complexities abound for the long troubled nation which is located in one of the South America’s newly emerging hot spots. The recent clash, which briefly revived memories of a dormant border dispute centering on the Essequibo long bedeviling the two nations’, has pushed Washington into approaching Georgetown in a less cautious, and more engaged, effort in order to gain its friendship at the hoped for expense of Washington’s most determined regional adversary, Hugo Chavez. The recent meeting between Guyanese and American military officials over defense issues may very well put Guyana’s weakened leader, President Bharrat Jagdeo ultimately in an untenable position where he may have to pick sides between Caracas and Washington, even though most specialists dismiss the recent Georgetown visit of senior U.S. naval officials as nothing more than a coincidence involved in carrying out a long-scheduled event. A "Frozen" Conflict Ever since Guyana gained its independence in the 1960’s, Guyana and Venezuela episodically have been involved in a recurrent territorial dispute. Caracas claims, but has not been heavily pressuring, its sovereignty over two thirds of Guyana’s total of 83,000 square miles, mainly in the sprawling timber and mineral-rich Essequibo region. In 1899, while the United Kingdom was Guyana’s colonial ruler (the country was then known as British Guiana), an international tribunal had demarcated the boundaries between the two states to be "a full, perfect and final settlement." Nevertheless, throughout the years, Venezuelans have held mental reservations about that ruling – which gave most of the disputed Essequibo to Britain—and, from time to time, raised questions as if the issue at hand had not yet been finally determined. Click on linked headline for complete report     Brazilian military’s experience comes full circle in Haiti Haiti Action By Kevin Pina On February 19, 2008, Brazilian military forces stormed the neighborhood of Village de Dieu on the outskirts of the capital of Port-au-Prince. Their troops entered with weapons drawn and began a massive sweep with UN police in tow that ended with the arrest of dozens of young men in the area. Residents claim this military incursion was executed without a single warrant being presented from Haiti’s courts or just cause. Residents of poor communities throughout Haiti say that terrifying raids led by Brazilian forces have been common occurrences since they arrived in 2004. For the families of those arrested and left traumatized by these incursions, it raises serious questions about the role Brazilian forces have played in Haiti. For an answer we have to look at the reporting of Pedro Dantas of the Brazilian daily Estadão de Hoje. Dantes wrote, "Army sources confirmed that techniques employed in the occupation of the Morro da Providéncia favela [slum] are the ones Brazilian soldiers use in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti." 1 Raúl Zibechi, a member of the editorial board of Montevideo's weekly Brecha, would later conclude, "This admission by Brazilian armed forces largely explains the interest of Lula da Silva's government in keeping that country's troops on the Caribbean island: to test, in the poor neighborhoods of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, containment strategies designed for application in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and other large cities." 2 Zibechi’s article does not fully explain, however, that the process began with the Brazilian military applying brutal tactics from their own historical experiences in the slums of Haiti upon their arrival in 2004. The learning curve of the Brazilian military for controlling poor urban populations was only accelerated by their experiences in Haiti. The military and police apparatus in Brazil already had a long history of using violence and terror towards solving the complex social challenges of the slums, known as favelas, in their own country. According to Brazilian anthropologist Alba Zaluar in April 2004, "Their approach is one of relentless confrontation with the poor communities. This military posture dates back to Brazil's dictatorship and will never win the loyalty of the favela against its own kind." 3 To fully understand the importance of this statement it is necessary to briefly touch upon the historical role of Brazil‘s military and police forces. Click on linked headline for complete report

Real ID Act a real intrusion on rights, privacy The Atlanta Journal-Constitution With the announcement last month by Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff of the final implementing regulations for the much-delayed Real ID Act, the debate over this thinly veiled national identification card project moved into high gear. The federal government for several years now has been fighting a guerrilla action with citizen groups and a number of state legislatures over imposing on the states and the citizenry this privacy-intrusive and costly mandate. With the announcement Jan. 11 of the final regulations, the debate is fully joined and pits those who support the principle of states’ rights against the legions of Big Government advocates.   Jim Sensenbrenner Confronted Over REAL ID Act YouTube       University Launches RFID People Tracking Experiment RFID Update RFID is serving as the network for the RFID Ecosystem Project, a social networking experiment at the University of Washington in Seattle that is exploring the intersection of the value of tracking systems and the loss of privacy that they can cause. Faculty, staff, and students are voluntarily being tracked within the university's Paul Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering, a research facility without classrooms that has been outfitted with approximately 30 RFID readers and 150 antennas. Volunteers carry Gen2 ID tags and can also apply tags to personal possessions. Ten people have been tracking themselves for a year, and project organizers are now recruiting 50 volunteers to expand the data collected and to test new applications. The readers are networked to a database that participants can access from computers in the facility. Participants use the location data to see where colleagues are in the building, to locate misplaced personal items such as cell phones, PDAs, books, and backpacks, and to improve their personal time management by reviewing how and where they spent their time during the day. The project is completely voluntary and participants can block anyone from accessing their data. "We are exploring the relationship of privacy and utility," project leader Magda Balazinska, a University of Washington assistant professor of computer science and engineering, told RFID Update. "What we're really trying to do is build better data management systems so people can easily integrate location information with their existing databases and systems." Privacy concerns are mitigated because participation is completely voluntary, participants control who can access their data, and participants have the option of changing data access or opting out of the program completely at any time. The project is very exploratory -- readers were installed to cover most of the six-floor facility (bathrooms and some other areas were excluded), and a location database was created to record readings. Participants have a lot of flexibility to use the data and create their own applications. Project leaders developed a find-a-friend application dubbed RFIDer (pronounced "fritter") which is somewhat akin to instant messaging. Participants can set the application to send them text messages or e-mails when friends are nearby. Click on linked headline for complete report

Camp Bond-Steel, Kosovo Hannah's Blog

Activist silenced for fear of surveillance Newsday Jennifer Flynn is not a rabble-rouser. She's not an aspiring suicide bomber. She doesn't advocate the overthrow of the government. Instead, she pushes for funding and better treatment for people with HIV and AIDS. Better keep an eye on her. Wait! Somebody already did. On the day before a rally by the New York City AIDS Housing Network at the 2004 Republican National Convention - a rally by an organization Flynn co-founded, and a rally that the NYPD had approved - she experienced something straight out of a spy novel. While visiting her family in Hillside, N.J., Flynn spotted a car with a New York license plate parked outside the house. When she left to head back to her Brooklyn home that evening, the car followed hers. Shortly after leaving Hillside, two more vehicles, also with New York plates, seemed to be tailing her, too. Trying to assure herself she wasn't nuts, Flynn tested her hunch - changing lanes, making turns, pulling over and parking. The drivers in those three vehicles mimicked her actions. At one point, she recalled, she slowed down and one of the other vehicles ended up alongside her car. She looked over to see several men in the vehicle. She gestured toward them. The men "threw up their arms as if to say, 'We're only doing what we're told,'" she remembers. On the New Jersey side of the Goethals Bridge, her followers pulled away. But later, when Flynn pulled up in front of her Flatbush home, she spotted another car, with two men inside, both with laptops. At 4 a.m., they were still there. Is Flynn paranoid? Well, she is now. She did, however, jot down the license plate number of one of the vehicles in Jersey - a blue sport utility vehicle. When a reporter asked for the number, Flynn couldn't find it. Recently, it was found in a file kept by Christopher Dunn, the civil liberties lawyer she called that day in a panic.

"Family Jewels" Documents The National Security Archive The "Family Jewels" documents were released June 26th by the Central Intelligence Agency and detailing 25 years of Agency misdeeds, is now available on the Archive's Web site. The 702-page collection was delivered by CIA officers to the Archive at approximately 11:30 this morning -- 15 years after the Archive filed a Freedom of Information request for the documents.