Docudharma Times Tuesday April 21

 For The Rest

Of The World

Torture Is Illegal

For Former Bush

Administration Officials

And CIA Torturers

No Worries    

Health-Care Dialogue Alarms Obama’s Allies



By Ceci Connolly

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

As Congress returns to begin an intense debate over reshaping the nation’s $2.2 trillion health-care system, prominent left-leaning organizations and liberal House members are issuing a warning to their Democratic allies: Don’t cave on us.

The early skirmishing — essentially amounting to friendly fire — is perhaps the clearest indication yet of the uphill battle President Obama faces in delivering on his promise to make affordable, high-quality care available to every American.

Disputes over whether to create a new government-sponsored insurance program to compete with private companies shine a light on the intraparty fissures that may prove more problematic than any partisan brawl.

Thousands flee to safety as Sri Lanka breaks through Tamil Tigers’ defence

President calls for Tigers’ leader to surrender and ‘face charges for his actions’

Gethin Chamberlain in Colombo

Tens of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in Sri Lanka fled to safety today after the military smashed through one of the Tamil Tigers’ last major defensive lines. Video footage released by the Sri Lankan defence ministry showed civilians pouring through a breach in an earth barrier which the rebels had been using to hold back the military onslaught.

The civilians waded through a lagoon towards the army’s lines, some carrying possessions in bags on their heads.

The military clearly regards today’s events as a major breakthrough in its stand-off against the last remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and is expected to step up its offensive after issuing a deadline of noon tomorrow for the rebels to surrender.

A senior UN official told the Guardian that the UN had been briefed by the Sri Lankan government to expect thousands more people to come out of the area in coming days.

USA

Pressure Grows to Investigate Interrogations



By PETER BAKER and SCOTT SHANE

Published: April 20, 2009

WASHINGTON – Pressure mounted on President Obama on Monday for more thorough investigation into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, even as he tried to reassure the Central Intelligence Agency that it would not be blamed for following legal advice.

Mr. Obama said it was time to admit “mistakes” and “move forward.” But there were signs that he might not be able to avoid a protracted inquiry into the use of interrogation techniques that the president’s top aides and many critics say crossed the line into torture.

And while Mr. Obama vowed not to prosecute C.I.A. officers for acting on legal advice, on Monday aides did not rule out legal sanctions for the Bush lawyers who developed the legal basis for the use of the techniques.

Stimulus funds road projects – especially in Obama’s Illinois



By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – When President Barack Obama proudly announced last week that the government had approved its 2,000th transportation project under the economic stimulus plan, he hailed it as a moment “when a generation of Americans seized the chance to remake the face of this nation.”

Many of those Americans apparently live in Obama’s home state of Illinois.

The Obama list included 249 Illinois projects, far more than any other state. Six states – Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Alaska and Idaho – had no projects when he spoke, although Georgia has since added 22 projects, and the list has grown to 2,163.

Middle East

Hamas accused of killing Palestinians in Gaza

Human Rights Watch says Islamist group killed at least 32 in attacks on political rivals and suspected collaborators

Rory McCarthy

guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 April 2009 11.39 BST

Human Rights Watch today accused the Islamist movement Hamas of a campaign of killing and attacks against Palestinians in Gaza that has left at least 32 dead and dozens more seriously injured.

The attacks came over the past three months, beginning during Israel’s three-week war in Gaza. “Hamas authorities there took extraordinary steps to control, intimidate, punish and at times eliminate their internal political rivals as well as persons suspected of collaboration with Israel,” Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

During the Gaza war 18 Palestinians, many suspected of collaborating with Israel, were killed. Most had escaped from Gaza’s main prison after it was bombed by Israeli aircraft at the start of the war. A further 14, at least four of whom were in jail at the time, have been killed since the end of the war.

Iraqi children trained by al-Qaeda to be suicide bombers

 From The Times

April 21, 2009

James Hider in Baghdad

Iraqi security forces have arrested four children who were allegedly part of a group of youngsters being groomed by al-Qaeda to become suicide bombers, an Iraqi army general said.

The children, who were detained in a village near the northern city of Kirkuk, were part of a cell known as the “Birds of Paradise” and were being specially trained to avoid detection as they carried out attacks, security officials said.

“Special forces units have arrested an organisation of children consisting of four individuals under the age of 14 who call themselves the ‘Birds of Paradise’,” said General Abdelamir al-Zaidi, the commander of the Iraqi army division in Kirkuk. “The group relies on children and is connected to al-Qaeda. It works to recruit children and young people to carry out suicide attacks and to aid the terrorist groups in detonating roadside bombs.”

Africa

Pirates: the $80m Gulf connection

Crime syndicates laundering vast sums taken in ransom from ships and their crews hijacked in Horn of Africa

By Kim Sengupta In Nairobi and Daniel Howden Africa correspondent

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

Organised piracy syndicates operating in Dubai and other Gulf states are laundering vast sums of money taken in ransom from vessels hijacked off the Horn of Africa.

Investigators hired by the shipping industry have told The Independent that around $80m (£56m) has been paid out in the past year alone – far more than has previously been admitted. But while some of this money has ended up in the pirate havens of Somalia, millions have been laundered through bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Middle East.

The so-called “godfathers” of the illicit operations, according to investigators, include businessmen from Somalia and the Middle East, as well as other nationalities on the Indian sub-continent. There have also been reports that some of the money from piracy ransoms has gone to Islamist militants.

‘Dozens killed’ in Kenya violence

 At least 24 people have died in fighting between residents of a central Kenyan town and suspected members of the outlawed Mungiki sect, police say.

The BBC

A police spokesman, Charles Owino, said residents of Karatina had decided to fight back because the sect had been extorting money from local people.

Media reports say there has been a spate of killings targeting the sect.

The Mungiki, mainly from President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu ethnic group, are seen as Kenya’s version of the mafia.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe urged local people not to take the law into their own hands.

Reports say groups of residents started attacking suspected Mungiki members and slashing some of them to death, after the gang had threatened to expel everyone from the town.

At least three more people were wounded in the violence.

Europe

Berlusconi and his new golden girl are laid bare

Premier and his starlet minister learn the dark art of satire, reports Peter Popham

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

Silvio Berlusconi’s light-hearted dalliance with a television starlet whom he subsequently appointed to his cabinet has been made the subject of an oil painting in which both are shown in the nude.

Two years ago the Italian Prime Minister told the starlet, Mara Carfagna – and millions watching on TV – that he would marry her like a shot if he wasn’t married already. His wife, Veronica Lario, demanded and obtained a public apology but last year Mr Berlusconi made her Minister of Equal Opportunities in his new government. Now Italy’s most celebrated virtual couple find themselves together on a gallery wall near Savona in Liguria. Mr Berlusconi is depicted with a pair of giant wings extending protectively around his naked minister. Both wear sober, almost prudish expressions. Mr Berlusconi might be about to whisper sweet political nothings in his protegée’s ear; Ms Carfagna, on the other hand, has her eyes directed towards the premier’s (discreetly covered) genitals

MEP Tom Wise charged with fiddling accounts and money laundering

From The Times

April 21, 2009

David Charter in Brussels and Frances Gibb

A Member of the European Parliament and his assistant have both been charged with false accounting and money laundering after an investigation into claims that they misused thousands of pounds of expenses.

Tom Wise, 60, who was hoping to stand for re-election in June, was elected for the UK Independence Party but now sits as an independent after being expelled from the party.

He and Lindsay Jenkins, his researcher, could face lengthy jail terms if found guilty.

The charges against Mr Wise, an MEP for the East of England, come less than two months before European elections for which an EU-wide survey has forecast a record low turnout. They follow a series of claims about the misuse of the generous expenses on offer in Brussels, including the Conservative Chief Whip Den Dover being required to pay back £445,000 in “unaccountable expenditure”.

Asia

 



By SHARON LaFRANIERE

Published: April 20, 2009

BEIJING – “Ma,” a Chinese character for horse, is the 13th most common family name in China, shared by nearly 17 million people. That can cause no end of confusion when Mas get together, especially if those Mas also share the same given name, as many Chinese do.

Ma Cheng’s book-loving grandfather came up with an elegant solution to this common problem. Twenty-six years ago, when his granddaughter was born, he combed through his library of Chinese dictionaries and lighted upon a character pronounced “cheng.” Cheng, which means galloping steeds, looks just like the character for horse, except that it is condensed and written three times in a row.

Spy versus spy in Iran, North Korea



By Donald Kirk

SEOUL – The case of the American freelance journalist sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran for spying for the United States has a disquieting relevance to the dangers facing two American journalists held at the other end of former United States president George W Bush’s “axis of evil” – North Korea.

While Roxana Saberi, 31, appeals her weekend conviction in Tehran after an in-camera trial that lasted one day, the two Americans, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, seized by North Korean soldiers on March 17, are in a “state guest house” near the capital Pyongyang on charges of “hostile acts”, including espionage.

They were on China’s northeastern Tumen River border with North Korea filming for former US vice president and environmental activist Al Gore’s Current TV network on an especially sensitive topic – the flight of North Korean defectors from the horrors of starvation, disease, jailing, torture and beatings.

Latin America

Drug cartels keep Catholic officials in fear

In one case, Archbishop Hector Gonzalez calls attention to a drug trafficker in his neighborhood and accuses the government of ignoring the situation. The prelate later apologizes for his comments.

By Tracy Wilkinson

April 21, 2009

Reporting from Mexico City — In the tense state of Durango, Roman Catholic Archbishop Hector Gonzalez announced over the weekend that the fugitive drug trafficker who tops Mexico’s most wanted list was living nearby.

And everyone knows it, he added. Except, it would seem, the authorities, who fail to make an arrest.

A shocking revelation indeed. But in Durango, most local newspapers and television stations declined to report the comments, and for some reason national papers that contained the remarks did not appear on many newsstands.

Was the prelate being censored? “We have no information on that,” a Durango government spokesman insisted.

Ignoring Asia A Blog