June 2009 archive

mcjoan posted an interview yesterday at the Orange with Glenn Sulmasy, a National Security and Human Rights Fellow at Harvard, Professor of Law and Commander and Judge Advocate, U.S. Coast Guard Academy.  The interview spoke of how we should deal with the folks left at Gitmo, the notion of preventive detention.  He wrote a book:

His book presents a “third way” solution for trying the detainees in what he proposes to call the “war against al Qaeda,” and to deal with the thorny issues of the Guantanamo detainees. He proposes scrapping military commissions, forgoing military courts and federal civilian courts and establishing a new court system, a national security court, overseen by civilian judges that allows for habeas appeals and focuses exclusively on trying the “quasi-warriors” picked up on the battlefield in the war against al Qaeda.

It was an interesting post and mcjoan had a lot of criticism of Sulmasy’s ideas on how to deal with those pesky terrorists.  Sulmasy goes into great detail on how we can extricate ourselves from the mess Bush left Obama in making these decisions about what to do with the Gitmo detainees.

But there’s something wrong here and I haven’t seen it expressed to my satisfaction so I’m going to give it a shot.

“His speech was deceitful

and I call on those who listened to this speech

not to be deceived,” said Mr. Erekat, who added that

Netanyahu would have to wait “1,000 years

to find one single Palestinian who accepts his plans.”

Iran Bans Opposition Rally as Critics Are Detained



By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHI

Published: June 15, 2009



TEHRAN – The Iranian authorities denied permission Monday for the opposition to hold a major rally to protest the outcome of Friday’s presidential vote, according to news reports and an opposition Web site, deepening a mood of confrontation as violence and acrimony over the disputed election intensified.

Word spread on Sunday that more than 100 prominent opposition members had been detained; riots erupted in Tehran and other cities; and the triumphant incumbent hinted that his top challenger risks punishment for questioning the result.

Early Monday, security forces raided a dormitory at Tehran University and 15 people were injured, opposition Web sites reported, but there was no immediate confirmation of the incident from the authorities.

Netanyahu’s speech prompts anger from Palestinians, praise from the White House

Palestinian negotiator Erekat calls it a ‘slap in the face,’ while the White House calls the speech ‘an important step forward.’

By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent

from the June 14, 2009 edition

TEL AVIV – The White House praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s endorsement Sunday of a Palestinian state as “an important step forward,” giving the Israeli leader a key victory in his attempt to mend a diplomatic rift with the US over the Israeli-Arab peace process.

In Israel, however, the foreign policy speech immediately drew fire from Palestinians and all sides of the Israeli political spectrum. But Mr. Netanyahu appeared to garner enough initial backing to keep his governing coalition out of danger of faltering.

PALESTINIANS NOT IMPRESSED

Although right-wing ideologues in his coalition assailed the speech as “dangerous” for supporting the creation of a Palestinian state, Palestinians said Netanyahu closed the door for peace talks by ruling out the repatriation of refugees to Israel and by insisting that Jerusalem remain united under Israeli rule.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat assailed the speech as a “slap in the face” to President Obama’s recent efforts to bring peace to the region.

USA

Obama Is Pressed to Tax Health Benefits

Seeking GOP Votes, Democrats Split Over Plan for New Levy

By Lori Montgomery and Ceci Connolly

Washington Post Staff Writers

Monday, June 15, 2009

The White House is caught in a battle within its own party over how to finance a comprehensive overhaul of America’s health-care system, as key Democrats advocate a tax plan that could require President Obama to break his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class.

Sensitive to voter anxiety about a soaring federal deficit, Obama and congressional leaders have vowed to pay for a sweeping expansion of the health-care system — expected to cost more than $1 trillion over the next decade — without additional borrowing.

Much of the money is likely to come from reining in spending on federal health programs for the elderly and the poor.

Some Safety

The revolution may not be televised, but it will be Twittered.

Right now, people in Iran are fighting and dying for their freedom:

IRAN is on fire! ppl are fighting in ALL CITIES for their VOTE and against the DICTATORSHIP! #iranelection,RT pls

# sources from Tehran: ppl are killed, ppl are in blood, tehran is hell. #iranelection #cnnfail15 minutes ago from web

“sadatabad, tehran. violent street battles between Basij and people. cars on fire.” @iran09 #Iranelection

RT @StopAhmadi It’s getting rough in Rasht tonight. Armed forces waiting for ppl to make their move to beat them #IranElection

There is fight in Shiraz between people and police in Mollasadra, Sinama Sadi and other down town streets. #iranelection

Hospitals around Tehran surrounded by secret police who refuse to let people with injuries get through, humanity at its worst #iranelection

It is near morning there now, and the regime appears to have spent last night, among other things, attacking university dorms in Tehran and elsewhere:

all university’s own security and personnel already evacuated by police, there are only us students in here right now. #iranelection

@mohamadreza: they push ppl & students into the dorms then throw tear gas, sometimes attacking them with anything they have

@IranRiggedElect sources: “tear gas in the dorm. It’s un-uniformed police and riot guards. at least 100 students arrested.”#iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

to other sources: this isn’t the police! police is still outside! we’re under attack by Ansar-Hezbolah. #iranelection

@Change_for_Iran:typing as fastest as I can in bth English&Farsi,Still we need outside help,I really don’t want to be captured by Ansar

@Change_for_Iran: some students with urgent need of medical attention calling out to all ppl who can help don’t leave us #iranelection

They attacked protestors students in Guilan university. Blood and violence here… #IranElection

unconfirm: Shooting @ Tehran Univ. Dorm. Militia has attacked the student like 8 years ago

Friend: 17 y/o killed infront of me couldn’t get to him in time guards beating us up went to hospital but he stopped moving #iranelection

Students:”50 of our friends are in jail now. We were beaten. We expect Mousavi to stand up to this,we support him” #iranelection

The students and others are fighting back:

eyewitness: It’s 3am in Iran and ppl are still fighting on the streets. #iranelection #cnnfail

Guards are Shootings in Tehran and Police car being attack by protesters …

is there any end to police’s motorcycles?! how much more we should burn?! #iranelection

@iran09 best way to #counter-attack the riders: carry some MOTOR OIL! http://tinyurl.com/nz43zg #iranelection

@Ghattavi students hold two militias as hostage, loads of motor oil is spread on the streets [to make bikers slip]

Hackers toolkit for taking down Iranian propaganda websites. VERY EASY TO USE: http://sharebee.com/31922799 #iranelection

wwowowowowo!!!!! IRIB.ir id down!!!! #iranelection #WeWin #cyberattack

Mousavi has called for a demonstration tomorrow @ 4:00 pm (7:30 am EST) followed by a general strike on Tuesday.  The regime says the demonstration is illegal and there are reports of Revolutionary Guard tanks moving into the capital.  No one doubts what is at stake:

4pm all across IRAN RT @persiankiwi tomorrow we march. Will biggest in world history. 10 mill march tomorrow.

@flashpolitique we are moving either toward a north korean style dictatorship or a more open and democratic society

black joke:”George Orwell has requested to change his book’s name from 1984 to 1388.”(it’s year 1388 in iran. calendar) #iranelection

Stay tuned….

Iranian filmmaker Makhmalbaf reports on phone call from Ministry of Internal Affairs to Mousavi HQ

Bio: Persian: (born May 29, 1957, Tehran) is an Iranian film director, writer, editor, and producer. He is currently the president of the Asian Film Academy. Makhmalbaf’s films have been widely presented in international film festivals in the past ten years. The multi-award-winning director, belongs to the new wave movement of Iranian cinema. Time magazine selected Makhmalbaf’s 2001 film, Kandahar, as one of top 100 films of all time. In 2006, he was a member of the Jury at the Venice film festival.

Makhmalbaf’s Interview on Radio Farda

June 13, 2009, 12:00 AM

Translated for The Real News Network

Makhmalbaf:

Yesterday, twenty agents in civilian clothing attacked press offices of Mousavi’s campaign at Gheitarieh. They broke all communication devices and attacked the campaign staff, including Mr. Kharazi and Mr Amirzadeh. They beat up the staff and when the people confronted them, they fired tear gas at the crowd. These were agents in civilian clothing! Then the agents attempted to runaway. About seven of them were captured by the people and were kept at the campaign headquarters. Next the police arrived at the headquarters and demanded to have custody of the seven captives and said “We would punish these lawbreakers ourselves.” . “No, we need this to be court documented; we know that after the election, you will lose them”, said Mr. Amirzadeh.

[I think here he is referring back to before this recording begins. This has to do with the reports from the early counts at the polls indicating that Mousavi is the winner]

The Ministry of Internal Affairs contacts press offices of Mousavi’s campaign to prepare a message for declaring victory on Sunday which is Hazrate Zahra’s birthday. Mr Mousavi said that “within the next couple of hours I will declare victory and the celebrations would be on Sunday, which is Hazrate Zahra’s birthday and Mother’s Day [in Iran]”. Afterwards Mr. Khamenei is notified that Mr Mousavi has won the election. At first he says fine, you can communicate this to the people, but the message propagation and broadcasting should be well managed [and controlled].