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Pakistan's internet link crippled
(BBC NEWS, 28 June 2005)
A fault in an undersea cable has crippled many of Pakistan's internet and mobile phone links overseas. . . . The fault occurred late on Monday and systems are still down. One internet official said it could take two weeks to repair. . . . The fault has been traced to a point in the Arabian Sea 35km (21 miles) south of Karachi and technicians from Dubai are travelling to make repairs. . . . Pakistan has more than 10 million internet users. . . . Disruption could also occur in India, the United Arab Emirates, Djibouti and Oman, which are also linked by the cable, Pakistani telecommunications officials said. . . . Mr Ahmed said the consortium of 92 countries that owns the cable had asked operating agent Singtel of Singapore to fix the fault. . . . He said Singtel had called in Dubai-based E-Marine but its ship could take a day just to reach the site. . . . Internet Service Providers Association general secretary, VA Abdi, said: "I fear it could take two weeks to repair because it will require the removal of the faulty portion of the cable. . . . "The cable provides Pakistan's major outer communication means and its fault has disrupted almost all communications with the rest of the world." . . . In Pakistan, much internet-based work ground to a halt.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 5:42 PM

 

Canada set to back gay marriages
(BBC News, 28 June 2005)
Canada's parliament is set approve a bill that will legalise same-sex marriage, despite opposition from conservative MPs and religious groups. . . . A majority of the lawmakers are expected to back the bill with the vote due at about 2000 (2400 GMT, 28 June 2005). . . . Same-sex marriage is already legal in several Canadian provinces, but the proposed law is still controversial. . . . The move would make Canada only the third country after the Netherlands and Belgium to allow gay marriages. . . . The national co-ordinator of Canadians for Equal Marriage, Alex Munter, said the vote would be "a victory for Canadian values". . . . "I think this is going to be a proud and exciting day to be a Canadian because we are... affirming to the world that we are a country that is open, inclusive and welcoming," he said.

[COMMENT by Lorenzo: . . . B R A V O C A N A D A ! ! ! !]

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 5:07 PM

 

The Coming Draft and Bush's Middle East Plans
(Kurt Nimmo, www.dissidentvoice.org, June 14, 2005)
"Ephraim Halevy, the former chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence service and the current national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, says plans have been made for a substantial U.S. military presence in the Middle East lasting decades," al-Jazeera reports. "High-ranking U.S. policymakers have 'raised the idea of establishing an American trusteeship regime in the areas of the Palestinian Authority, if it should turn out that the Palestinians are not ripe for self-rule. That arrangement would require an American operational military presence along Israel’s border with the Palestinian territories.' " . . . since the Arab demographic trend is against the Israelis (Arabs have more kids than Israelis) and there is no way the Israelis will ever have enough soldiers to muster an "operational military presence" on the so-called border, it will be up to your kids and your kids' kids (since Halevy says this will last decades) to keep the Arabs in check (and suffering from malnutrition and disease). . . . But wait. It’s worse. . . . "U.S. entanglement in the Middle East in the name of 'democracy' has further destabilized the region and made more likely violent revolutions to occur, especially in countries such as Saudi Arabia," notes al-Jazeera. "In [an early April] visit to the United States," remarked Halevy, "I was told by several well-informed observers that should one of the more severe scenarios come to pass, the United States will have no choice but to deepen its presence in the Middle East. To that end, it will have to renew the draft, to ensure that there are enough forces to deal with developing situations in countries like Saudi Arabia. . . . Speaking in a semi-closed forum during a visit to Israel a few months ago," continued Halevy, "Bill Kristol, one of the most influential 'neocons' in the United States, noted in this connection that the American presence in Europe after World War II lasted for nearly 60 years. Israelis who are trying to promote a role for NATO in the region, in one form or another, are actually promoting a generation-long American presence. . . . The war-strained all-volunteer U.S. military has a growing manpower problem and a cross-section of Washington policymakers has proposed a solution -- increase the size of the regular military by 30,000, 40,000 or even 100, 000 or more," the San Francisco Chronicle opined in April. "The military draft, which coughed up its last conscript in 1973, could make a comeback if recruiting doesn’t pick up and if America's commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan turn into long-term occupations or if the Bush administration's tough-minded foreign policy means military action in places like Iran or North Korea," or Saudi Arabia and "Israel’s border with the Palestinian territories," as indicated by the straight talking Ephraim Halevy. In January, Bill Kristol signed a Project for the New American Century letter addressed to Congress demanding the government takes "steps necessary to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps," in other words a return to the draft, since dangling paltry bonuses and go-to-college-free tickets in the faces of high school students does not do the trick. The PNAC, of course, are the folks who brought us the invasion and occupation of Iraq, predicated on lies and dissembling. . . . Like I said, suit up the kids in body armor -- or move to New Zealand.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 3:51 PM

 

The US war with Iran has already begun
(Scott Ritter, Aljazeera.Net , 20 June 2005)
On 16 October 2002, President Bush told the American people that "I have not ordered the use of force. I hope that the use of force will not become necessary." . . . We know now that this statement was itself a lie, that the president, by late August 2002, had, in fact, signed off on the 'execute' orders authorising the US military to begin active military operations inside Iraq, and that these orders were being implemented as early as September 2002 . . . These operations were designed to degrade Iraqi air defence and command and control capabilities. They also paved the way for the insertion of US Special Operations units, who were conducting strategic reconnaissance, and later direct action, operations against specific targets inside Iraq, prior to the 19 March 2003 commencement of hostilities. . . . President Bush had signed a covert finding in late spring 2002, which authorised the CIA and US Special Operations forces to dispatch clandestine units into Iraq for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein from power. . . . The fact is that the Iraq war had begun by the beginning of summer 2002, if not earlier. . . . This timeline of events has ramifications that go beyond historical trivia or political investigation into the events of the past. . . . It represents a record of precedent on the part of the Bush administration which must be acknowledged when considering the ongoing events regarding US-Iran relations. As was the case with Iraq pre-March 2003, the Bush administration today speaks of "diplomacy" and a desire for a "peaceful" resolution to the Iranian question. . . . But the facts speak of another agenda, that of war and the forceful removal of the theocratic regime, currently wielding the reigns of power in Tehran. . . . As with Iraq, the president has paved the way for the conditioning of the American public and an all-too-compliant media to accept at face value the merits of a regime change policy regarding Iran, linking the regime of the Mullah's to an "axis of evil" (together with the newly "liberated" Iraq and North Korea), and speaking of the absolute requirement for the spread of "democracy" to the Iranian people. . . . "Liberation" and the spread of "democracy" have become none-too-subtle code words within the neo-conservative cabal that formulates and executes American foreign policy today for militarism and war. . . . By the intensity of the "liberation/democracy" rhetoric alone, Americans should be put on notice that Iran is well-fixed in the cross-hairs as the next target for the illegal policy of regime change being implemented by the Bush administration. . . . The reality is that the US war with Iran has already begun. As we speak, American over flights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilotless drones and other, more sophisticated, capabilities. . . . The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence-gathering phase. . . . President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran. . . . The most visible of these is the CIA-backed actions recently undertaken by the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group, once run by Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services, but now working exclusively for the CIA's Directorate of Operations. . . . It is bitter irony that the CIA is using a group still labelled as a terrorist organisation, a group trained in the art of explosive assassination by the same intelligence units of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, who are slaughtering American soldiers in Iraq today, to carry out remote bombings in Iran of the sort that the Bush administration condemns on a daily basis inside Iraq. . . . But the CIA-backed campaign of MEK terror bombings in Iran are not the only action ongoing against Iran. . . . To the north, in neighbouring Azerbaijan, the US military is preparing a base of operations for a massive military presence that will foretell a major land-based campaign designed to capture Tehran. . . . Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's interest in Azerbaijan may have escaped the blinkered Western media, but Russia and the Caucasus nations understand only too well that the die has been cast regarding Azerbaijan's role in the upcoming war with Iran. . . . US military planners have already begun war games calling for the deployment of multi-divisional forces into Azerbaijan. . . . Logistical planning is well advanced concerning the basing of US air and ground power in Azerbaijan. . . . Given the fact that the bulk of the logistical support and command and control capability required to wage a war with Iran is already forward deployed in the region thanks to the massive US presence in Iraq, the build-up time for a war with Iran will be significantly reduced compared to even the accelerated time tables witnessed with Iraq in 2002-2003. . . . Most Americans, together with the mainstream American media, are blind to the tell-tale signs of war, waiting, instead, for some formal declaration of hostility, a made-for-TV moment such as was witnessed on 19 March 2003. . . . We now know that the war had started much earlier. Likewise, history will show that the US-led war with Iran will not have begun once a similar formal statement is offered by the Bush administration, but, rather, had already been under way since June 2005, when the CIA began its programme of MEK-executed terror bombings in Iran.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 5:18 AM

 

Top Saudi says kingdom has plenty of oil
According to Saudi Arabia's top foreign policy advisor, Adel al-Jubeir, the country has more oil than the world could ever need: "The world is more likely to run out of uses for oil than Saudi Arabia is going to run out of oil." The Saudis also have the capability to use crude oil for other purposes -- including gasoline -- before it ships it overseas. This news contradicts the theory of some commentators who speculate that the Saudis aren't being entirely forthcoming about their oil reserves and that they may actually have much less than they say. But, according to al-Jubeir, the Saudis have a massive proven inventory of 261 billion barrels, with 100 billion more potentially available through new exploration and extraction technology. He also contends that the problem with US gasoline is that the US doesn't refine much of it, hence the higher prices. It's true that the US has not built a new refinery since the 1970s and is unlikely to build one soon. As al-Jubeir states: "If we send more oil to the United States and you can't refine it, it's not going to become gasoline."

. . . Read more!


posted by Hal 8:08 AM

 

The EVIL Pope Benedict
(BBC News, 10 June 2005)
The spread of HIV and Aids in Africa should be tackled through fidelity and abstinence and not by condoms, Pope Benedict XVI has said. . . . Speaking to African bishops at the Vatican, the Pope described HIV/Aids in Africa as a "cruel epidemic". . . . But he told them: "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids." . . . More than 60% of the world's 40m people with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. . . . In South Africa alone, 600-1,000 people are thought to die every day because of Aids. [COMMENT by Lorenzo: IMHO, Pope Bene the Rat has the blood of much of Africa already on his hands, as he has been the main voice in the Vatican that for years has taken this insane and inhuman view of sex. Thankfully, the Catholic Church is on its last legs. Think of the irony here, the only continent on which the Catholic cult is growing is Africa, and now the new Pope is doing all he can to wipe out much of its population. . . . Oh, the maddness.] . . . Pope Benedict, who was elected to succeed John Paul II in April, has already signalled that he will maintain a strictly traditional line on issues including abortion and homosexuality. . . . Some Catholic clergymen have argued that the use of condoms to stem the spread of the disease would be a "lesser of two evils". . . . The Pope warned that contraception was one of a host of trends contributing to a "breakdown in sexual morality", and church teachings should not be ignored. . . . "It is of great concern that the fabric of African life, its very source of hope and stability, is threatened by divorce, abortion, prostitution, human trafficking and a contraception mentality," he added. . . . The virus "seriously threatens the economic and social stability of the continent," the Pope said. . . . The UN estimates that without new initiatives and greater access to drugs, more than 80 million Africans may die from Aids by 2025 and HIV infections could reach 90 million, or 10% of the continent's population.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 4:36 PM

 

Amnesty Chief: US Kills Prisoners in Secret Jails
(CNN, 06 June 2005)
The chief of Amnesty International USA alleged Sunday that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is part of a worldwide network of U.S. jails, some of them secret, where prisoners are mistreated and even killed. . . . "The U.S. is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons, into which people are being literally disappeared, held in indefinite, incommunicado detention without access to lawyers or a judicial system or to their families," Schulz said. . . . "And in some cases, at least, we know they are being mistreated, abused, tortured and even killed." . . . London, England-based Amnesty International's report, released May 25, cited "growing evidence of U.S. war crimes" and labeled the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay as "the gulag of our times." . . . Schulz also answered questions about previous remarks in which he labeled Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as "alleged high-level architects of torture." . . . "Any nation that is party to the Geneva Conventions ... is obligated under international law to investigate those who are alleged to be involved with the formulation of a policy of torture or with its carrying out," Schulz said. . . . Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he thinks the Guantanamo Bay prison imperils the nation and should cease operating. . . . "This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world, and it is unnecessary to be in that position," Biden said on ABC's "This Week." . . . He called for an independent commission to review operations at Guantanamo and other U.S. military-run prisons and make recommendations to Congress. . . . "But the end result is, I think we should end up shutting it down," Biden said. . . . In a 2004 report, the Red Cross called the psychological and physical coercion used at Guantanamo Bay "tantamount to torture." . . . Human Rights Watch said U.S. interrogators had inflicted religious humiliation on Muslim detainees, a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 7:53 AM