Freedom and human rights in America are doomed

This is about four days old, but those studying International and Public Affairs at the University of Columbia were told to shut  up about Wikileaks or forget a job with the Federal government.

Yes, I paraphrase.

"[The alumnus] recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter," said the e-mail. "Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government."

The university later retracted this in a statement from SIPA Dean John H. Coatsworth:

"Freedom of information and expression is a core value of our institution," he said. "Thus, SIPA's position is that their students have a right to discuss and debate any information in the public arena that they deem relevant to their studies or their roles as global citizens, and to do so without fear of adverse consequences. The WikiLeaks documents are accessible to SIPA students (and everyone else) from a wide variety of respected sources, as are multiple means of discussion and debate both in and outside of the classroom." 

The Library of Congress has blocked Wikileaks and here is their explanation why.

This is the official stance of the U.S. government on Wikileaks:

"Wikileaks’ illegal, outrageous, and reckless acts have compromised our national security and put lives at risk around the world. No responsible company – whether American or foreign – should assist Wikileaks in its efforts to disseminate these stolen materials." 

Looking into the frozen eyes of Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Joe Lieberman is like looking into the pits of evil. 

Think I'm being dramatic? Read this press release. It explains why the senator has introduced anti Wikileaks legislation. Choice quotes include:

Julian Assange and his cronies, in their effort to hinder our war efforts, are creating a hit list for our enemies by publishing the names of our human intelligence sources.

WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and Assange is not a journalist.

Lieberman, you're just pissed off because Wikileaks has shown that your government's "war efforts" are disgusting, needless and costly. You rant on about how Wikileaks has put American lives in danger. Your government has killed its own people. You have killed thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians using murderous polices and horrifying weaponry.

The U.S. government is fulfilling Osama bin Laden's prophecy: "I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed.... The U.S. government will lead the American people into an unbearable hell and a choking life."

Go the the website for the U.S. government and see everything they have to say about Wikleaks.

"I could pick a good girl, but they're probably boring."

You know when you wake up with no concept of reality? You don't remember how you got into bed the night before. Then everything slowly comes back to you, or if you're really unlucky, reappears in short, sharp, painful flashes leaving you completely bewildered and more than slightly insecure about what you may or may not have said. You check the outbox on your phone and recoil in horror. To add to your complete confusion, you find $150 slipped under your bedroom door and what appears to be a black tutu lying on the floor. Your head feels like someone's doing roadworks on it and to make things completely unbearable the guy next door has decided to mow his lawn. You got told that if you yell at him again he'll file a complaint so you just roll into a ball and put the pillow over your head. Then you smell mint. That's right. Some motherfucker, probably you, has left chewing gum in the bed.

Last night is like a roll of film that's fallen out of the camera... take a quick look at the frames, then chuck it in the garbage because its no use to you now.

This is Melbourne based MC Ry who has a new release coming out next week called The Wonderkid. Check out Right Now (Chillin') below...

 

And download his version of the Kanye West track Devil in A New Dress right here, its pretty cute.

Man tasered 41 times by WA police

From The Age

Brutal video that shows corrective services officers in anti-riot gear Tasering Aboriginal man Kevin Spratt has finally been released.

The footage, which had been kept under wraps since the first evidence emerged of Mr Spratt being Tasered multiple times at the East Perth Watch House, was shown on the opening day of a Corruption and Crime Commission inquiry into the conduct of police and Watch House guards towards Mr Spratt.

Mr Spratt made headlines when it was revealed he was Tasered 13 times as nine officers surrounded him at the Watch House on August 31, 2008. It was yesterday revealed Mr Spratt was actually shocked 14 times in this initial incident.

 

 

Kevin Spratt and his partner Tayunna Schatkowski appear at the Corruption and Crime Commission hearing.

A week later, on September 6, Mr Spratt was Tasered 11 times when a number of helmet-clad corrective service officers, carrying riot shields, tried to "extract" him from his cell.

The shocking footage of this incident can now been viewed by the public for the first time.

It shows at least six guards dressed in anti-riot gear overpowering Mr Spratt, dragging him out of his cell after verbal warnings that he would be Tasered if he did not comply.

"Turn around and lay down mate, if you don't lay down I'm going to Taser you," a designated negotiator is heard saying upon entering the cell.

"I'm not going to ask you again, if I have to ask you again I'm just going to Taser you."

The footage then shows a Taser being discharged against Mr Spratt and the man dragged out of his cell and forced to the ground in an outside corridor. The officers then hold Mr Spratt on the ground and repeatedly Taser the small of his back while ordering him to comply with directives.

Mr Spratt is heard screaming to God and saying sections of the Lord's Prayer during the ordeal, and at one point he turns to his aggressors and yells, "Hello Devil".

This incident and the 14-Taser incident were just two examples highlighted where Tasers were deployed on Mr Spratt by Counsel assisting the CCC Peter Quinlan, with the inquiry told he had been Tasered a total of up to 41 times over a seven-day period.

On September 6 alone, he was hit 19 times by police and corrective services officers as he was being moved from the East Perth Watch House to Casuarina Prison. 

The inquiry was also told of a litany of other injuries sustained by Mr Pratt while in custody at the East Perth Watch House.

When Mr Spratt was assessed after the second Taser incident, he was revealed to have rib fractures, a collapsed lung, a dislocated right shoulder and a fractured arm, along with several cuts, abrasions and puncture wounds caused by the stun-gun darts.

Mr Quinlan told the hearing Mr Spratt was subject to force other than stun guns, saying the cause of his numerous injuries was yet to be determined.

"Mr Spratt was also the subject of restraints by a number of officers, including during a cell extraction by the DCS on September 6, 2008," Mr Quinlan said.

The lawyers of three police officers applied for their clients names to be suppressed but CCC Commissioner Len Roberts-Smith rejected all three.

Sergeant Aaron Grant Strahan and Senior Constable Troy Gregory Tomlin both discharged their Tasers on Mr Spratt in the East Perth Watch House, while Detective Constable Brett Andrew Fowler helped arrest him.

During the Watch House Tasering, Mr Spratt refused to move into another room to be strip-searched. CCTV footage showed Constable Tomlin discharging his stun gun seconds after speaking to him.

"Give us your hand or you're going to get f...ing Tasered, do you understand? Now," Constable Tomlin said.

Constable Tomlin and another officer each grabbed one of Mr Spratt's legs while he was stunned repeatedly.

Outside the hearing Mr Spratt was supported by his visibly upset fiancée, Tayunna Schatkowski.

"I am pleased that the footage of what has been referred to as my 'cell extraction' in September 2008 has finally been made public," Mr Spratt said.

"Much has been made by the police and others of my criminal record and manner which I conduct myself in the presence of police. They are matters which I deeply regret.

I would like to properly acknowledge the support I received from my family, my fiancée Tayunna, my employer and my friends."

'Lack of confidence' in police

Opening the inquiry earlier this morning, commissioner Roberts-Smith said there had been "community disquiet" over the incident, which had generated a "lack of confidence" in the WA police force.

The Tasering of Mr Spratt at East Perth Watch House first came to light with the release of a report by the CCC into Taser use in WA.

CCTV footage showed the unarmed and subdued now 41-year-old being Tasered 13 times as nine officers surrounded him.

No one was charged over either incident despite a police internal inquiry finding two officers had used undue and excessive force.

In his opening address, Mr Roberts-Smith said the inquiry would need to address allegations of misconduct by public officers and the conduct of internal investigations by the WA police and the Department of Corrective Services.

Mr Roberts-Smith said that following the release of footage showing Mr Spratt's Tasering, Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan gave several media interviews and the WA Police released a timeline of his criminal history.

"The public debate led to the revelation of other incidents in which Taser devices were said to have been used on Mr Spratt by police and Department of Corrective Services personnel," he said.

"Other serious allegations were made about police treatment of him, that police had been engaged in a 'cover-up' and that they presented a false statement of material facts about Mr Spratt to a court.

"Much of the political comment was inflammatory."

This poppy is way too tall

Clenching her fist in front of her, Prime Minister Julia Gillard declared yesterday, "the foundation stone of this Wikileaks issue is an illegal act. So lets uh, not try put any glosses on this."

Ms Gillard is essentially begging us not to look too deeply into the millions of cables released by Wikileaks detailing exchanges between international diplomats, causing politicians to freak out and the media to froth at the mouth.

And why would you listen to anything put forth by a rapist anyway? That's right, the man at the centre of it all, Australia's own Julian Assange has surrendered himself to police in London over allegations of sexual assault from two women in Sweden which he denies. He has been refused bail on the grounds that he has "weak community ties" in the UK and has the "means and ability" to abscond. However, the charges themselves are flimsy, if examined for more than two minutes. According to Assange's barrister, James D. Catlin, the basis of the charge is having consensual sex without a condom, which is punishable in Sweden as rape.

But with the word "rape" and Assange's name repeatedly appearing together, governments across the world are now breathing a sigh of relief in that the attempt to vilify and destroy Assange's attempts to create a more transparent and accountable world have partly succeeded. 

There have been many who believe that Wikileaks has brought no real revelations anyhow. We already know, for instance, that the US sees China as a threat, and that the war in Afghanistan is being miserably lost.
But Wikileaks has shaken the world like a snowglobe, politicians and corporations bumping around in bewildered outrage.
Most importantly, it has reaffirmed the militaristic and domineering nature of the US, and its intentions to rule the world by force.
Take for example classified US diplomatic cables which show that nine Nato divisions have been identified for combat operations in the event of an attack on Poland.
There is also no link between the rape charge that Julian Assange faces and Wikileaks, as Kevin Rudd has reminded the Australian public, despite the it being revealed by Wikileaks that the US ambassador to Australia dubbed former PM  Rudd a "control freak".
Many seem to be losing this salient point, and we are being told that Assange is a criminal and what he did was illegal (although Julia Gillard could not list one reason why) and he is a "dangerous anarcho-Marxist with paranoid tendencies and enough conspiracy theories to keep the Grassy Knoll Society busy for a month".
Pissing off conservatives worldwide, vitriolic attacks on both Wikileaks and Assange are being countered by claims that the Wikileak's editor-in-chief is the Ned Kelly of the Digital Age.
But the net around Assange appears to have finally tightened, and the future of Wikileaks and its ability to disseminate information that everyone deserves to know (not just elites in suits) is facing a great hurdle, challenging Assange's insistence that "the truth will always win".
Skip the bullshit from politicians and the agenda of the media and read the op-ed written by Julian Assange for The Australian today. Thank God its not 1984 yet.

In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide’s The News, wrote: “In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win.”

His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch’s expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.

Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.

I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.

These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia , was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.

WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?

Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.

People have said I am anti-war: for the record, I am not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars. But there is nothing more wrong than a government lying to its people about those wars, then asking these same citizens to put their lives and their taxes on the line for those lies. If a war is justified, then tell the truth and the people will decide whether to support it.

If you have read any of the Afghan or Iraq war logs, any of the US embassy cables or any of the stories about the things WikiLeaks has reported, consider how important it is for all media to be able to report these things freely.

WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the US embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain ‘s The Guardian, The New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables.

Yet it is WikiLeaks, as the co-ordinator of these other groups, that has copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the US government and its acolytes. I have been accused of treason, even though I am an Australian, not a US, citizen. There have been dozens of serious calls in the US for me to be “taken out” by US special forces. Sarah Palin says I should be “hunted down like Osama bin Laden”, a Republican bill sits before the US Senate seeking to have me declared a “transnational threat” and disposed of accordingly. An adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister’s office has called on national television for me to be assassinated. An American blogger has called for my 20-year-old son, here in Australia, to be kidnapped and harmed for no other reason than to get at me.

And Australians should observe with no pride the disgraceful pandering to these sentiments by Prime Minister Gillard and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not had a word of criticism for the other media organisations. That is because The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, while WikiLeaks is as yet young and small.

We are the underdogs. The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn’t want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings.

Has there been any response from the Australian government to the numerous public threats of violence against me and other WikiLeaks personnel? One might have thought an Australian prime minister would be defending her citizens against such things, but there have only been wholly unsubstantiated claims of illegality. The Prime Minister and especially the Attorney-General are meant to carry out their duties with dignity and above the fray. Rest assured, these two mean to save their own skins. They will not.

Every time WikiLeaks publishes the truth about abuses committed by US agencies, Australian politicians chant a provably false chorus with the State Department: “You’ll risk lives! National security! You’ll endanger troops!” Then they say there is nothing of importance in what WikiLeaks publishes. It can’t be both. Which is it?

It is neither. WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time we have changed whole governments, but not a single person, as far as anyone is aware, has been harmed. But the US , with Australian government connivance, has killed thousands in the past few months alone.

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates admitted in a letter to the US congress that no sensitive intelligence sources or methods had been compromised by the Afghan war logs disclosure. The Pentagon stated there was no evidence the WikiLeaks reports had led to anyone being harmed in Afghanistan . NATO in Kabul told CNN it couldn’t find a single person who needed protecting. The Australian Department of Defence said the same. No Australian troops or sources have been hurt by anything we have published.

But our publications have been far from unimportant. The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts:

The US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties. Presumably Australian UN diplomats may be targeted, too.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US Officials in Jordan and Bahrain want Iran ‘s nuclear program stopped by any means available.

Britain’s Iraq inquiry was fixed to protect “US interests”.

Sweden is a covert member of NATO and US intelligence sharing is kept from parliament.

The US is playing hardball to get other countries to take freed detainees from Guantanamo Bay . Barack Obama agreed to meet the Slovenian President only if Slovenia took a prisoner. Our Pacific neighbour Kiribati was offered millions of dollars to accept detainees.

In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said “only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government”. The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth. 

Julian Assange is the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.

Ethics a trial to religious leaders

by Millicent Caffrey

Posted 2nd December

Ethics classes were enshrined in the Education Act by the NSW Government last week after the Coalition announced that it would abolish the lessons if it gained victory in the March election. Opposition leader Barry O’Farrell announced in September that he does not support Special Ethics Education as he believes it will compete with scripture class in NSW primary schools.

However, Teresa Russell of the St James Ethics Centre stated that ethics classes are not being proposed as an alternative to scripture. “Socrates stated that the unexamined life is not worth living,” Ms Russell said. “Ethics classes are about helping children to make decisions based choices.”

The Australian Christian Lobby also opposes ethics classes, despite a number of other faiths having supported the introduction of lessons. “The Uniting Church, the Baptists, the Islamic Council and the Hindu Council have had no issue with the implementation of ethics classes,” Ms Russell stated.

The Christian Democrats also contest the lessons, with a press release from Reverend Fred Nile condemning the “arrogant attitude” of NSW Labor for introducing the classes, in which he stated that “children simply share their ignorance.”

This directly contradicts descriptions of the classes by Crown Street Public School community group’s Lesley Holden. Crown Street is one of ten schools that participated in the trial of ethics lessons earlier this year. “There is no right or wrong answer in Special Ethics Education,” said Ms Holden, who described the trial as “absolutely fantastic” and “transformational”.

Ms Holden said that the lessons provided the opportunity for children to think broadly around issues relevant to their experiences. She also said they were beneficial for children in a school where approximately 60 per cent of students come from non-English speaking backgrounds and scripture classes may not represent a diversity of faiths.

A KidsPoll conducted by the NSW Commission for Children and Young People in July recorded that 65 per cent of 797 respondents supported the introduction of ethics classes in public schools. A comment on the poll also highlighted a voice that has been largely missing from the debate, that of children themselves. “I used to be so bored while my friends went to scripture. It would be good to learn something interesting instead.”

Demands for marriage rights get louder

by Millicent Caffrey
Posted: Thursday, 2 December 2010

Hundreds gathered to rally for marriage equality at Town Hall last Saturday, an event organised by Community Action Against Homophobia, a grass roots organisation which relies solely on the donations of mainly union and student groups. The rally came days after an ALP conference in the Northern Territory which passed a motion supporting alterations to the Commonwealth Marriage Act, increasing the demand for same sex equality in all states and at a federal level.

The rally challenged PM Julia Gillard’s repetitious stance on marriage as only appropriate between a man and a woman. The speakers included Aunty Shirley, an Aboriginal activist, who emphasised how solidarity between the LGBT community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) and Aboriginal people is fundamental in advancing the rights of each group.

“Julia Gillard is a hypocrite because she is living in ‘sin’ and not allowing you to marry,” Aunty Shirley said. “And as for us blackfellas, we don’t discriminate against anyone… we are the custodians of this country. We will not stand by and let other people be treated as badly as us blackfellas were.”

Spokesperson for the Organisation Intersex International, Gina Wilson, then took the stage and stated that the main reason marriage equality is denied to the LGBT community is because of “fear from a minority of people”. Ms Wilson also highlighted increasing incidents of self harm and suicide, stating, “thirty percent of transgender people have attempted to take their own lives”.

NSW ALP Senator Doug Cameron articulated how his views differ to the official stance of Labour. “All Australians have the right to marry. Gay commitment ceremonies are not alternatives to marriage”. He also argued that none of the cases against marriage equality “pass the test of intellectual fairness”.

Following the rally, overwhelming numbers of diverse individuals marched from Town Hall to Oxford Street in support of marriage equality, emphasising Mr Cameron’s argument that the concept of marriage must change with the times. “There has never been a permanent definition of marriage. If ideas of marriage had not changed, then inter race unions would still be illegal.”

Filipino activists protest US involvement in Korea, Los Angeles

South Korean anti-war protesters shout slogans during a rally against the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010. As U.S.-South Korean war games continued Tuesday, the United States and two crucial Asian allies agreed to meet in Washington for talks about North Korea's attack on a South Korean island and the North's nuclear weapons programs.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

LOS ANGELES – Filipino activists joined the Korean community and anti-war demonstrators in a protest in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles Monday night.

They blame the presence of the US military forces in Korea for North Korea’s attack last week that left 4 dead and another 18 wounded. They fear that as the US continues to train with South Korean military, this may escalate into a war between the north and south.

“The problem is the United States has 150 bases all over the world, so the US is becoming a threat towards peace. Instead of fostering peace, it becomes a policeman towards its political and economic interests,” said People’s Core activist Art Garcia.

Filipino activists claim tensions between North and South Korea is an issue of US occupation in Asia. The say the incident is related to the Visiting Forces Agreement between the US and Philippines. Activists have blamed the presence of US forces in the Philippines for political killings and human rights violations.

Kuusela Hilo from the Los Angeles branch of Bayan said, “We’ve actually seen more than 50,000 US troops go in and out of the Philippines in the last 10 years under President Arroyo’s deal with George Bush to continue the VFA, and we also demand that President Aquino can seriously consider ending the Visiting Forces Agreement. If this can happen to Korea, it can happen to the Philippines.”

During the protest, Hilo brought up the fact that President Obama proposed a salary freeze for federal employees, except for the military, earlier in the day. She told the crowd of some 50 protesters that the freeze is proof that the US government intends on continuing to engage in war.

“With cuts and the priorities, we see where the money is going, it’s going to war. It’s not going to help the working families here,” explained Hilo.

Activists add they are worried for some 50,000 overseas Filipino workers in Korea. Balitang America