Docudharma Times Sunday April 26

Torture Has Achieved

Nothing But Disgrace For

The Bush Administration

Effectiveness Of Harsh Questioning Is Unclear

Detainee May Have Faced Few Traditional Tactics

By Joby Warrick and Peter Finn

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, April 26, 2009

During his first days in detention, senior al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheik Mohammed was stripped of his clothes, beaten, given a forced enema and shackled with his arms chained above his head, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was then, a Red Cross report says, that his American captors told him to prepare for “a hard time.”

Over the next 25 days, beginning on March 6, 2003, Mohammed was put through a routine in which he was deprived of sleep, doused with cold water and had his head repeatedly slammed into a plywood wall, according to the report. The interrogation also included days of extensive waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning.

Global flu fears as 68 die and virus spreads

• BA cabin steward in isolation ward

• Mexico invokes special measures

Tracy McVeigh and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City

The Observer, Sunday 26 April 2009

A British Airways cabin steward is being treated in an isolation unit at a London hospital after falling ill on a flight from Mexico, where a killer virus is believed to have caused at least 68 deaths and sparked widespread panic. Health experts say it has the potential to become a global pandemic.

The BA steward was undergoing tests in a London hospital for the swine flu virus after arriving on a flight from Mexico City. It is the first suspected case of the new flu strain to be reported in Europe, prompting fears it may have spread across the Atlantic from Mexico.

The World Health Organisation says the swine flu strain – a unique mix of human, pig and bird viruses – constituted a public health emergency of international concern.

Torture? It probably killed more Americans than 9/11

A US major reveals the inside story of military interrogation in Iraq. By Patrick Cockburn, winner of the 2009 Orwell Prize for journalism

Sunday, 26 April 2009

The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11, says the leader of a crack US interrogation team in Iraq.

“The reason why foreign fighters joined al-Qa’ida in Iraq was overwhelmingly because of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and not Islamic ideology,” says Major Matthew Alexander, who personally conducted 300 interrogations of prisoners in Iraq. It was the team led by Major Alexander [a named assumed for security reasons] that obtained the information that led to the US military being able to locate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa’ida in Iraq. Zarqawi was then killed by bombs dropped by two US aircraft on the farm where he was hiding outside Baghdad on 7 June 2006. Major Alexander said that he learnt where Zarqawi was during a six-hour interrogation of a prisoner with whom he established relations of trust.

Major Alexander’s attitude to torture by the US is a combination of moral outrage and professional contempt. “It plays into the hands of al-Qa’ida in Iraq because it shows us up as hypocrites when we talk about human rights,” he says. An eloquent and highly intelligent man with experience as a criminal investigator within the US military, he says that torture is ineffective, as well as counter-productive. “People will only tell you the minimum to make the pain stop,” he says. “They might tell you the location of a house used by insurgents but not that it is booby-trapped.”

USA

Students Fall Ill in New York, and Swine Flu Is Likely Cause



By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: April 25, 2009

Tests show that eight students at a Queens high school are likely to have contracted the human swine flu virus that has struck Mexico and a small number of other people in the United States, health officials in New York City said yesterday.

The students were among about 100 at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows who became sick in the last few days, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City’s health commissioner.

“All the cases were mild, no child was hospitalized, no child was seriously ill,” Dr. Frieden said.

Health officials reached their preliminary conclusion after conducting viral tests on nose or throat swabs from the eight students, which allowed them to eliminate other strains of flu. Officials were also suspicious since some St. Francis students recently had been to Mexico, where the outbreak is believed to have started.

Military embraces green energy

A Mojave Desert Army base is full of plug-in cars, solar panels and new experiments. Liberal agenda? Nah, it’s about saving money, even lives. But the Defense Department could cement a national trend.

By Alexandra Zavis

April 26, 2009

Reporting from Ft. Irwin, Calif. — Inside a futuristic-looking dome that rises from the sandy wasteland of the high Mojave Desert, soldiers in plywood cubicles work at computers powered by solar panels and a towering wind turbine.

Plug-in cars shuttle the troops across the vast expanses here at Ft. Irwin in San Bernardino County. At night, tents lined with insulating foam provide a cool retreat at the end of a 100-degree day.

The desert base, which houses the Army’s premier training center for troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, has become a testing ground and showcase for green initiatives that officials estimate could save the services millions, trim their heavy environmental “boot-print” and even save lives in the war zones, where fuel convoys are frequent targets.

The Department of Defense is the single largest energy consumer in the United States. Last year it bought nearly 4 billion gallons of jet fuel, 220 million gallons of diesel and 73 million gallons of gasoline, said Brian Lally, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment.

Europe

Green party committed to coalition and EU reform treaty

Gormley says it is vital to back the Lisbon agenda on climate change, which was inspired by Ireland

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor

The Observer, Sunday 26 April 2009

The Greens remain committed to coalition government, Ireland’s environment minister and leader of the Green party, John Gormley, vowed yesterday.

Gormley said he detected no clamour or panic within the Greens to pull out of the Brian Cowen-led coalition. He also condemned the dissident republican death threat against Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness.

Gormley revealed that he has received similar threats, both as a minister and party leader.

Speaking at the Northern Ireland Green party’s annual conference in Belfast, Gormley repeated his support for a yes vote in a second referendum on the EU’s Lisbon reform treaty.

Brothels cut prices to beat the recession

German prostitutes are offering discounts, loyalty cards and ‘extras’

By Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin  

Sunday, 26 April 2009

It has not taken long for the global financial crisis to affect the world’s oldest profession in Germany.

In one of the few countries where prostitution is legal, the industry has responded with an economic stimulus package of its own: modern marketing tools, rebates, discounts and gimmicks to boost falling demand.

Some brothels have cut prices or added free promotions, while others have introduced all-inclusive flat-rate fees. Free shuttle buses, discounts for seniors and taxi drivers, as well as “day passes” are among marketing strategies designed to keep business going.

Asia

Trapped civilians in Sri Lanka are facing starvation

By Ravi Nessman in Colombo

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Tens of thousands of civilians trapped in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone are facing starvation, the Tamil Tiger rebels warned yesterday. The UN sent its top humanitarian official to assess the crisis.

Reports of chaos in the northern war zone have increased in recent days as the Sri Lankan military pushed forward with its offensive to destroy the rebel group and end the quarter-century civil war. More than 100,000 civilians have fled the tiny coastal strip still under rebel control since Monday, flooding hospitals in the north and overwhelming displacement camps. Another 50,000 civilians remain trapped in a war zone which has claimed 6,500 civilian lives in the past three months.

Kim Jong Il son appointed to top government body

From Times Online

April 26, 2009

 Times Online

The youngest son of North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Il has been appointed to the country’s all-powerful National Defence Commission, a further sign that he is being groomed as his father’s successor.

Kim Jong Un, 26, has taken up a low-level post at the defence commission, several days after his father was reappointed as commission chairman, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

The defence commission is the top government body and Kim Jong Il has ruled the country in his capacity as its chairman. He also is the top official in the powerful Workers’ Party and supreme commander of the army.

Africa

Opposition parties cowed as ANC lion roars victory

From The Sunday Times

April 26, 2009

Rian Malan and Kevin Bloom in Johannesburg

AS jubilant African National Congress (ANC) supporters danced in the streets after their success in last Wednesday’s general election, South Africa’s battered opposition parties pondered their future with a degree of misgiving.

The ANC’s victory was never in doubt, but most pundits expected widespread voter disgruntlement to result in a sharply reduced majority.

In the event, the share of the vote was down – from 69.7% in 2004 to 65.9%, just short of a two-thirds majority – but the lead was decisive.

“The analysts are eating humble pie tonight,” crowed a trade union leader as champagne corks popped at the ruling party’s victory bash. Jacob Zuma, the president elect, was equally ebullient, saying opposition attempts to “belittle” the ANC had failed dismally.

Somalia: Has Piracy Drawn the World’s Attention To Country?



Hatari Patrick25 April 2009

Kigali – As Somali pirates increase and intensify their operations, in capturing ships on the Indian Ocean and taking hostage of all the crew members on these vessels for a ransom, the international community has also turned its attention to the activities of these pirates in a bid to end the crisis caused by their actions on this sea.

Recently, American war ships and marine forces rescued an American ship, dramatically rescuing its captain who had remained in captivity of the pirates. The operation took the lives of three Somali pirates while four of them captured. A few days ago, the French marine forces also rescued another ship from the pirates and captured ten more of them.

Middle East

Clinton Reiterates Iraq Commitment

Latest Attacks Fuel Residents’ Anxiety

By Mary Beth Sheridan

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, April 26, 2009

BAGHDAD, April 25 — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised the people of war-torn Iraq on Saturday that the Obama administration will not abandon them as it begins to pull out U.S. troops.

Clinton flew to the country Saturday morning on the heels of four suicide bombings in two days that killed more than 160 people. The violence signaled the difficulties the Obama administration may face as it tries to shift troops from Iraq to the escalating war in Afghanistan.

“I wanted to come today to repeat the commitment that President Obama and I and our government have to the people and nation of Iraq,” Clinton said at a town hall-style meeting at the U.S. Embassy that was broadcast on Iraqi television.

 Israel: No preconditions to talks with Syria



 By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Write

JERUSALEM – Israel’s foreign minister said Sunday he would be willing to immediately hold peace talks with Syria, but only without preconditions.

Syria recently said it would be willing to resume indirect peace talks with the new Israeli government, which broke off last year after Israel called early elections, as long as they focused on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

Israel captured the strategic plateau from Syria in the June 1967 Mideast war.

“I’d be glad to negotiate with Syria this evening, but without preconditions,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio.

“They say, first go back to ’67 lines and give up the Golan. If we agree to that, what is there to negotiate?” he said.

Latin America

‘News From the Empire’ by Fernando del Paso; translated from the Spanish by Alfonso González and Stella T. Clark

The unhappy adventures of Maximilian and Carlota, Mexico’s imperial couple

By Ben Ehrenreich

April 26, 2009

“What happens,” writes the Mexican novelist Fernando del Paso, “when an author can’t escape history? . . . what can you do . . . when you don’t want to avoid history, but do want to achieve poetry?” The question is rhetorical, and Del Paso has an answer waiting. “Perhaps the solution,” he writes, is “to try and reconcile everything that might be true in history using the exactitude available to invention. In other words, instead of pushing history to the side, place it alongside invention, alongside allegory, and even mix it together with some wild fantasy.”

More concretely, Del Paso’s answer consists of the page on which those words appear and all the many pages of “News From the Empire,” his variously fascinating, frustrating, hilarious, dull, mesmerizing, maddening, absurd and tragic novel, which, in its breadth and depth and massive reach, manages to achieve something of the noise and sweep of history itself.

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