Docudharma Times Monday December 21

Obama’s Guantanamo policy rings a bell

After pledging to close the prison, the president is leaving open the possibility of indefinite detentions — a legal stance that for many people hews uncomfortably close to Bush administration polici

By David G. Savage and Christi Parsons

December 21, 2009

Reporting from Washington – President Obama began the year with a pledge to close the Guantanamo prison, and to restore due process and the core constitutional values that he said “made this country great.”

But his administration has set out a multi-pronged legal policy for the remaining Guantanamo prisoners that bears a striking similarity to that of the final year of George W. Bush’s presidency.

Some detainees could be held indefinitely without being charged, if they’re deemed impossible to prosecute but too dangerous to release.

Spanish quest to identify black soldier who fought against fascism in civil war

• US volunteer in picture killed in civil war battle

• Authorities plan to present image to Obama next year

Giles Tremlett in Barcelona

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 December 2009 16.50 GMT

As a volunteer in the International Brigades that fought in Spain’s civil war, the unidentified black soldier in the photograph was one of the first Americans to die fighting fascism.

Now Spanish authorities want to put a name to him so they can present his picture to President Barack Obama when he visits Spain next year.

The black and white picture of the African American volunteer forms part of an extraordinary collection of civil war photographs that was bought recently by the Spanish state.

USA

Labor Data Show Surge in Hiring of Temp Workers



By LOUIS UCHITELLE

Published: December 20, 2009

The hiring of temporary workers has surged, suggesting that the nation’s employers might soon take the next step, bringing on permanent workers, if they can just convince themselves that the upturn in the economy will be sustained.

As demand rose after the last two recessions, in the early 1990s and in 2001, employers moved more quickly. They added temps for only two or three months before stepping up the hiring of permanent workers. Now temp hiring has risen for four months, the economy is growing, and still corporate managers have been reluctant to shift to hiring permanent workers, relying instead on temps and other casual labor easily shed if demand slows again.

Fed’s approach to regulation left banks exposed to crisis

 

By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, December 21, 2009

Foreclosures already pocked Chicago’s poorer neighborhoods but the downtown still was booming as the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago convened its annual conference in May 2007.

The keynote speaker, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, assured the bankers and businessmen gathered at the Westin Hotel on Michigan Avenue that their prosperity was not threatened by the plight of borrowers struggling to repay high-cost subprime loans.

Bernanke, who was in charge of regulating the nation’s largest banks, told the audience that these firms were not at risk.

Asia

 China’s quiet satisfaction at tough tactics and goalless draw



Jonathan Watts in Copenhagen

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 December 2009 21.26 GMT

The Chinese government expressed quiet satisfaction at the outcome of the Copenhagen talks despite European accusations that it had systematically wrecked the negotiating process.

China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, described the outcome as “significant and positive”.

Among the achievements, he said, was the setting of binding emissions cuts for rich nations and voluntary mitigation actions by developing nations, such as China.

“It is not a destination, but a new beginning,” he said in a statement that asserted China’s right to continue its economic growth without the limits of legally binding emissions cuts.

Asia’s Las Vegas celebrates 10 high-rolling years

By Clifford Coonan in Beijing

Monday, 21 December 2009

Macau celebrated 10 years of Chinese rule yesterday, a frantic decade that has seen the once sleepy Portuguese colony transformed into an Asian gambling hub that makes more money from the tables than Las Vegas.

President Hu Jintao was on hand to oversee the celebrations, inspect the troops and inaugurate Macau’s new leader, Fernando Chui. He also promised two pandas to Macau as a birthday present.

The Chinese leader urged Mr Chui to diversify business in the 27-sq-km territory into other areas such as logistics, and said China was always at hand to help.

Europe

Anger as Pius moves closer to sainthood

One month before his first synagogue visit, Pope Benedict advances the case of his ‘silent’ predecessor

By Robert Mickens in Rome Monday, 21 December 2009

A leading rabbi accused Pope Benedict XVI of “insensitivity” towards Jews yesterday after the head of the Catholic Church moved his controversial World War II-era predecessor Pope Pius XII a step closer to sainthood.

Pius XII, who served from 1939 to 1958, is regarded by conservative Catholics as one of the greatest of modern popes. But his papacy was also controversial because of his failure to make any protest as millions of Jews were taken to Nazi gas chambers. His supporters claim that silence was necessary for the protection of Catholics around Europe. But the Vatican has infuriated critics by failing to open secret archives relating to his papacy before moving him closer to canonisation.

Stolen Auschwitz sign is recovered

From The Times

December 21, 2009

 Roger Boyes in Berlin

Police in Poland have found the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign that was stolen on Friday from the gate of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.

A police spokeswoman said the sign was recovered in northern Poland. Police have arrested five men aged between 25 and 39 and said they would transport them to Cracow for questioning.

The wrought iron sign, which translates as “Work Sets you Free”, has been cut into three pieces.

More than one million people, mostly Jews, died at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany built in occupied Poland during World War II. The Auschwitz site now stands as the world’s most chilling reminder of Nazi brutaility.

Middle East

Iran’s masses mourn the loss of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri

From The Times

December 21, 2009

Martin Fletcher

Tens of thousands of members of Iran’s opposition were heading for the holy city of Qom last night for the potentially explosive funeral of their spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.

His death on Saturday night removed the regime’s most powerful and outspoken critic, but his burial today could provide the platform for another massive demonstration by the “green” movement at a critical moment in its struggle with a Government it considers illegitimate.

The opposition has survived six months of brutal repression since President Ahmadinejad’s victory in the disputed election in June and was already planning huge protests next Sunday to mark Ashura, when Shias mourn the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson.

Hamas helping British lawyers target Israel

Activists from Hamas, the Palestinian group, have been helping British lawyers bring war crimes prosecutions against Israeli officials in London

By Con Coughlin

Published: 6:30AM GMT 21 Dec 2009

The group, considered a terrorist organisation in Britain, is believed to have provided information which helped sympathisers secure an arrest warrant against Tzipi Livni, Israel’s former Foreign Minister at Westminster Magistrates Court earlier this month.

Mrs Livni, who was a cabinet minister during last year’s Israeli military offensive in Gaza, was forced to cancel a trip to London last week.

A major diplomatic incident was averted only after Mrs Livni, who is now Israel’s opposition leader, was alerted to the warrant and pulled out of a speaking engagement at the last minute.

It has now emerged that a committee set up by the Hamas government was providing information to help pro-Palestinian lawyers investigating alleged war crimes.

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