statism watch

‘Helped’? An interview with a Gitmo prisoner has revealed that torture is actually worse under Obama. Are we to believe that the jailers there aren’t making full use of the tools and techniques available to them? Between this revelation and the mention of the use of insects for torture in the released memos, it all sounds pretty much identical to Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Love’.

Flashback: Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | After Obama praises torture ruling, civil liberties group appalled | Vets Sue CIA Over Mind Control Tests | Remembering Brainwashing | Chinese Torture Techniques Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo | Canadian MKULTRA project mind control victim to tell of pills, shocks, brainwashing

Joby Warrick, Peter Finn, Washington Post
April 18, 2009

Extent of Health Professionals’ Role at CIA Prisons Draws Fresh Outrage From Ethicists

When the CIA began what it called an “increased pressure phase” with captured terrorism suspect Abu Zubaida in the summer of 2002, its first step was to limit the detainee’s human contact to just two people. One was the CIA interrogator, the other a psychologist.

During the extraordinary weeks that followed, it was the psychologist who apparently played the more critical role. According to newly released Justice Department documents, the psychologist provided ideas, practical advice and even legal justification for interrogation methods that would break Abu Zubaida, physically and mentally. Extreme sleep deprivation, waterboarding, the use of insects to provoke fear — all were deemed acceptable, in part because the psychologist said so.

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Cliff Kincaid, Canada Free Press.com
April 18, 2009

Koh’s acknowledged mentor was Harvard Law Professor and international lawyer Louis B. Sohn

With the nomination of Harold Hongju Koh, the Dean of Yale Law School, as the Legal Adviser for the State Department, President Barack Obama is putting a world government team in place under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The other key appointment was Anne-Marie Slaughter, the dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, as Director of Policy Planning at State. Slaughter wrote the 2004 book, A New World Order, and believes in an international system dominated by the U.N. and other global institutions and networks.

Some conservatives in the media have been pointing out that Koh has extremely radical views that seem to subordinate U.S. laws and the U.S. Constitution to so-called international law. Some say he even would allow the application of Islamic Shariah law in the U.S. But the conservative media focus on Koh’s controversial and disputed comments about Shariah misses the point.

Based on his public statements, one has to conclude that Koh believes in a world government financed by global taxes. This is the huge issue that the media should bring to the fore. America’s future as a sovereign nation is at stake.

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Perhaps we lesser folk aren’t meant to trouble ourselves with such things, but this journal was curious to see exactly whom the Canadian taxpayer’s money was being given away to this time. As it turns out, the Inter-American Development Bank is viewed with only slightly less distrust in Latin America than the IMF, funnelling money to public and private partners for megaprojects such as multimodal transit corridors through the jungle, hydroelectric projects that displace indigenous peoples, etc. But perhaps equally telling, the President of the IDB sits on the board of the International Economic Forum of the Americas (along with Paul Desmarais, Thomas d’Aquino and the usual suspects), which is to host an upcoming conference in Montreal at which the IMF and World Bank are to hold court. The topic? “Adapting to the New World Order”. You can’t make this kind of stuff up. The keynote speaker at their last meeting? Kissinger. Thanks again, Harper.

Flashback: G20 Summit: Harper urges more global economic intervention, stages photo-op, visits Canada’s monarch | Harper vows Canada will remain open to international trade | Montreal, June 9 to 12, 2008 – Henri Kissinger to followup Bilderberg Conference with keynote address at International Economic Forum of the Americas | Canada, Colombia reach free-trade agreement | South American union is created

CBC News
April 18, 2009

Canada will double its funding of an institution that lends money to developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Saturday at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

He pledged $4 billion to bolster the Inter-American Development Bank during a meeting with leaders at the 34-nation summit in Port-of-Spain.

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Why post this on a news site devoted to holding states accountable for corruption? Because, whether or not you believe in global warming as caused by human activity, it’s quite clear that climate change is being used as a pretext to push for massive government intervention in our lives. The flood of propaganda around this point is overwhelming – drowning polar bears, etc. So when something like this pops up in the mainstream media, it must be documented and made note of so that it can be included in the debate.

Greg Roberts, The Australian
April 18, 2009

Ice is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.

The results of ice-core drilling and sea ice monitoring indicate there is no large-scale melting of ice over most of Antarctica, although experts are concerned at ice losses on the continent’s western coast.

Antarctica has 90 per cent of the Earth’s ice and 80 per cent of its fresh water. Extensive melting of Antarctic ice sheets would be required to raise sea levels substantially, and ice is melting in parts of west Antarctica. The destabilisation of the Wilkins ice shelf generated international headlines this month.

However, the picture is very different in east Antarctica, which includes the territory claimed by Australia.

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