Friday, December 17, 2010
Ivory Coast Tense Amid Political Showdown
Ivory Coast Tense Amid Political Showdown
Ivory Coast's main city is quiet but tense, as fears loom that a political power struggle will spark more deadly clashes.
Armed forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo are patrolling Abidjan, where the streets are otherwise deserted and businesses closed.
Mr. Gbagbo is refusing to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of last month's presidential election.
Mr. Ouattara called on his supporters to march through Abidjan Friday for a second attempt to seize a state broadcaster's building.
During a failed attempt to take the building Thursday, clashes between Mr. Ouattara's supporters and armed forces killed at least 20 people.
International pressure on Mr. Gbagbo mounted on Friday, when French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned him to give up power by the end of this week or face EU sanctions.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the African Union must be ready to use military force to remove Mr. Gbagbo and preserve democracy.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Refugee Agency said Friday that more than 4,200 Ivorians have fled to Liberia because of fears the political crisis will lead to violence.
The United States has also issued a new travel warning for Ivory Coast, urging citizens to avoid traveling there. The State Department has authorized non emergency personnel and some family members of embassy workers to leave the country.
Armed forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo are patrolling Abidjan, where the streets are otherwise deserted and businesses closed.
Mr. Gbagbo is refusing to cede power to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of last month's presidential election.
Mr. Ouattara called on his supporters to march through Abidjan Friday for a second attempt to seize a state broadcaster's building.
During a failed attempt to take the building Thursday, clashes between Mr. Ouattara's supporters and armed forces killed at least 20 people.
International pressure on Mr. Gbagbo mounted on Friday, when French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned him to give up power by the end of this week or face EU sanctions.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the African Union must be ready to use military force to remove Mr. Gbagbo and preserve democracy.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Refugee Agency said Friday that more than 4,200 Ivorians have fled to Liberia because of fears the political crisis will lead to violence.
The United States has also issued a new travel warning for Ivory Coast, urging citizens to avoid traveling there. The State Department has authorized non emergency personnel and some family members of embassy workers to leave the country.
Top U.S. Spy Flees Pakistan After His Name Is Revealed
Top U.S. Spy Flees Pakistan After His Name Is Revealed
By ISMAIL KHAN and SALMAN MASOOD
Published: December 17, 2010
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The top American spy in Pakistan left the country on Thursday amid threats to his life after his name was revealed in a lawsuit over alleged American drone attacks, United States intelligence officials said Friday.
The C.I.A. station chief in Islamabad is perhaps the agency’s most important undercover assignment overseas because that person oversees its secret war in Pakistan using armed drones that target Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The suit that named the C.I.A. station chief, who was working undercover and whose name is classified, was filed over attacks that killed at least two Pakistanis.
The breach of security comes as attacks attributed to American drones in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas continued to intensify, with three strikes on Friday killing 26 militants.
The threats against the station chief “were of such a serious nature that it would be imprudent not to act,” according to one American intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
C.I.A. spokesman George Little would not confirm that the station chief had to leave Pakistan, but did say that “station chiefs routinely encounter major risk as they work to keep America safe,” and that “their security is obviously a top priority for the C.I.A., especially when there’s an imminent threat.”
North West Ambulance Service tells its patients to make their own way to hospital | Mail Online
North West Ambulance Service tells its patients to make their own way to hospital
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338829/North-West-Ambulance-Service-tells-patients-make-way-hospital.html#ixzz18O4bsNtB
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:43 PM on 15th December 2010
Ambulance bosses have told patients they will have to make to make their own way to hospital because their vehicles are too busy to attend all emergency call-outs.
North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said it has issued the instructions to its patients after a staggering rise in emergency calls and because cases of life-threatening illnesses are up almost a third on this time last year.
NWAS covers a vast swathe of the North West, taking in Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside and says its paramedics have struggled to cope.
Overstretched: NWAS has been tied up with a huge rise in 999 calls
Self-service: Patients are being asked to make their own way to hospitals such as Blackpool Victoria by NWAS
It has meant less seriously ill patients have had to wait up to three hours for 999 crews to arrive.
Now Darren Hurrell, chief executive of the NWAS has instructed people in the NHS Trust catchment area: 'If your life is not in danger and we won’t get to you for several hours is there someone else you can call - your son-in-law, your brother - to get a lift to hospital?'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338829/North-West-Ambulance-Service-tells-patients-make-way-hospital.html#ixzz18O4bsNtB
Should Hank Paulson Be In Jail?
Should Hank Paulson Be In Jail?
Washington’s Blog
Dec 17, 2010
Leading bank analyst Chris Whalen has raised the question of whether criminal charges should be brought against former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.
Any discussion of whether Paulson committed unlawful actions as Treasury Secretary needs to start with Tarp.
As the New York Times wrote last year:
In retrospect, Congress felt bullied by Mr. Paulson last year. Many of them fervently believed they should not prop up the banks that had led us to this crisis — yet they were pushed by Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke into passing the $700 billion TARP, which was then used to bail out those very banks.
Indeed, Congressmen Brad Sherman and Paul Kanjorski and Senator James Inhofe all say that the government warned of martial law if Tarp wasn’t passed:
10,000 Child Porn Images Found On Ex-TSA Worker’s Computer
10,000 Child Porn Images Found On Ex-TSA Worker’s Computer
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 17, 2010
Yet another TSA worker has been exposed as a pedophile to add the the epidemic of cases that prove those who are inclined to work in jobs that allow them to sexually molest children via invasive groping measures at airports are the most unprofessional, perverted and criminally-minded individuals imaginable.
 | |
 | |
| Photo: Steve Jurvetson. | |
“A former TSA employee was arraigned on child pornography charges, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said Thursday,” reports WCVB-TV Boston.
“On Oct. 15, a search warrant was executed at Cheever’s home, where the suspected computer was registered, Leone said. As a result of the search warrant, multiple computers, hard drives and multiple pieces of external digital media were confiscated from the home, Leone said. An onsite preview of the computer and two external hard drives confirmed that Cheever was storing more than 10,000 child porn videos and images, Leone said.”
Cheever’s penchant for looking at naked pictures of children was undoubtedly a perk of the job when he applied to become a TSA screener, given the fact that body scanner images show intricate details of a person’s genitalia.
This is another alarming reminder of the fact that a statistically inflated number of people who are attracted to become TSA workers are criminally perverted.
As we previously highlighted, there is an epidemic of cases where TSA workers have been identified as rapists, sexual predators and pedophiles.
Mom defies doctor, has baby her way - CNN.com
Mom defies doctor, has baby her way
(CNN) -- On Thursday, December 2, as Aneka sat at home nine months pregnant, the phone rang.
It was her obstetrician wanting to know where the heck she was. Did Aneka forget that today was the day for her cesarean section? How could she have forgotten?
No, Aneka hadn't forgotten. She hadn't shown up intentionally.
"She told me, 'You're being irresponsible. Your baby could die. You could die,'" Aneka recalls. Then the doctor hung up.
Aneka (she doesn't want her last name used) had already resolved to not have a C-section, even though the doctor told her it was absolutely necessary. She wasn't going to be opened up surgically, no matter what her doctor said, no matter what any doctor said.
In some online communities, Aneka is a hero who defied the obstetrical establishment and gave birth her way. To many doctors, however, she's a risk-taker who put her and her baby in peril by giving birth at home.
'No, no, no, you can't do this'
Aneka's story begins nine years ago with the birth of her first daughter, Nya. After 10 hours of labor, her doctor told her she wasn't progressing quickly enough, and she needed a C-section.
"I didn't know any better, so I said OK," Aneka says.
In a postpartum visit six weeks later, the doctor told her she'd needed the surgery because her hips were too small to pass the baby.
"I thought to myself, what's she talking about, I don't have small hips," Aneka remembers.
Four years later, doctors told Aneka she couldn't deliver her second child vaginally, since Nya had been delivered by C-section. Studies show when a woman gives birth vaginally after having had a previous C-section, there's a higher chance her uterus will rupture since she's pushing against scar tissue.
Then again, when Aneka was pregnant with her third child, son Adasjan, she had a C-section for the same reason.
When she became pregnant with her fourth child, a boy named Annan Ni'em, she expected to have a fourth C-section. But about seven months into her pregnancy, Aneka started to read more about childbirth online, and noticed a documentary by actress Ricki Lake called "The Business of Being Born," a film released in 2008 that questions the way American women have babies.
WikiLeaks: Indian government accused of condoning torture in Kashmir - CNN.com
WikiLeaks: Indian government accused of condoning torture in Kashmir
CNN) -- A U.S. diplomatic cable written five years ago concluded that the government of India condoned torture of suspects held in detention centers in Jammu and Kashmir, a region that has seen a long guerrilla war by Muslim separatists, many supported by Pakistan.
The cable, obtained by WikiLeaks and published by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, describes a confidential briefing from a representative of the International Committee of Red Cross. In interviews with nearly 1,500 detainees over a three-year period, it had received reports that included sexual abuse, stretching and the use of water and electricity.
"The continued ill-treatment of detainees, despite longstanding ICRC-GOI [Government of India] dialogue, have led the ICRC to conclude that the New Delhi condones torture," the cable says.
For the ICRC, such a briefing for U.S. diplomats appears to have been unusual. Previously it had limited itself to general comments on the human rights situation in Kashmir "in order to respect their confidentiality agreement with the GOI." However, the relationship had become strained, with ICRC representatives unable to gain regular access to senior officials.
The cable gives a detailed summary of the ICRC's interviews with detainees. "In 852 cases, detainees reported what ICRC refers to as "IT" (ill-treatment): 171 persons were beaten, the remaining 681 subjected to one or more of six forms of torture: electricity (498 cases), suspension from ceiling (381), "roller" (a round metal object put on the thighs of sitting person, which prison personnel then sit on, crushing muscles -- 294); stretching (legs split 180 degrees -- 181), water (various forms -- 234), or sexual (302)."
The Associated Press: EU agrees new debt plan, but near-term help needed
EU agrees new debt plan, but near-term help needed
BRUSSELS (AP) — Even though EU leaders have agreed on a new rescue system for future debt crises, rating agencies' increasingly pessimistic view on some euro nations' ability to handle debts added pressure Friday to come up with more short-term measures to ease the crippling market turmoil.
EU leaders decided not to beef up the their existing bailout fund at a summit in Brussels, as they wrap up a punishing year that has rocked the world's confidence in their ambitious experiment to share a currency.
Markets seemed somewhat relieved by the one financial decision the EU leaders have made at this summit: to change the treaty that underpins their bloc to allow for a permanent rescue plan for countries that get buried in debt beyond 2013. Stocks and the euro rose slightly in European trading Friday morning, despite worries that the move doesn't do enough to deal with the current debt turmoil.
Rating agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded Ireland's government bonds by five notches Friday, citing the country's ailing banking sector, which was the main cause for a massive bailout from the EU and the International Monetary Fund last month. The downgrade follows warnings over the ratings of highly indebted Spain, Greece and Belgium earlier this week.
EU leaders Thursday night said they would do "whatever is required" to safeguard their common currency. But they stopped short of introducing new showstopping measures, such as boosting the size of the eurozone's existing euro750 billion ($992.85 billion) bailout fund or introducing pan-European bonds to ease vulnerable states' borrowing costs.
The heads of state did agree on tweaking the bloc's central treaty to allow them to set up a new tool to deal with debt crisis among the 16 countries that use the euro after 2013, when the existing bailout fund expires.
EU governments had decided to set up the so-called European Stability Mechanism at their previous summit in October and finance ministers outlined its broad features at the end of November.
Americans Will Need DHS Approval for Private Sector Jobs
Americans Will Need DHS Approval for Private Sector Jobs
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, December 16, 2010
You’ve heard of no fly and no buy lists – get ready for no work lists. Millions of workers now must apply to the DHS and prove they are not terrorists in order to be granted permission by the government to work.
On the Alex Jones Show today, a caller pointed to information posted on a union website for ironworkers spelling out details on the Department of Homeland Security’s TWIC and SWAC programs.
| |
 | |
TWIC is short for Transportation Worker Identification Credential and SWAC stands for Secure Worker Access Consortium.
TWIC “is a biometric credential that ensures only vetted workers are eligible to enter a secure construction site, unescorted,” Ironworkers Local 361 in Ozone Park, New York, explains. “Before issuing a TWIC, TSA must conduct a security threat assessment on the TWIC applicant. An applicant who, as a result of the assessment, is determined to not pose a security threat, will be issued a TWIC card.”
In other words, construction workers in New York will need permission from the TSA and DHS in order to practice their profession and earn a living. It was much the same in the former Soviet Union and authoritarian states such as China where the government determines all aspects of an individual’s life and where even the mildly rebellious are severely punished.
SWAC is even more draconian. It is “a large-scale collaborative effort among public and private authorities, facility owners, contractors, and labor organizations who are partnering to prevent terrorist activity by creating a trusted contractor community. Over 500 organizations, including the Port Authority of NY and NJ, which manages and maintains the bridges, tunnels, bus terminals, airports, PATH, and seaports that are essential to the bi-state region’s trade and transportation capabilities, have joined this effort,” according to the union website.
SWAC also requires a background investigation by the government, so if construction, port workers, longshoremen, and truck drivers are involved in political activity frowned upon by the feds – for instance, 9/11 truth, considered dangerous and subversive by the State Department – it is likely they will have to find another line of work.
A SWAC PDF specifically mentions “treason” in an exhaustive list of crimes and misdeeds that will result in the federal government denying a person the right to earn a living.
The TWIC Disclosure and Certification form states the following: “I acknowledge that if TSA or other law enforcement agencies determine that I pose an imminent threat to national security or transportation security, my employer may be notified.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)