statism watch

So, yes, as the most cursory online research makes clear, Epoch Times is run by the Falun Gong. But they’ve a legitimate beef with this repressive regime by any objective standard, and there are multiple sources of substantiation on the issue of organ harvesting in China: Harry Wu, USA today, the Canadian report cited below, the various sources that Epoch Times itself has brought forward in an attempt to expose the issue… it’s difficult to deny that vivisection is being carried out by the Chinese state.

Flashback: China creates mobile execution vans, organ theft suspected

Update (2009/12/21): It’s emerged in the past day that Israel had been harvesting organs from dead soldiers and Palestinians without the permission of next-of-kin, although they say this practice ceased in the 1990′s. Suffice it to say, China isn’t the only country engaging in grotesque practices of this sort though there is no suggestion that any organs were harvested from living victims in Israel. None of which moderates or excuses the behaviour, but the facts must be known.

Stephen Gregory, Epoch Times
December 14, 2009

‘Organ Crimes.’ Oil painting depicting the seizure of organs from a living Falun Gong practitioner in China. Xiqiang Dong is the artist. (Image courtesy of Xiqiang Dong.)

An eyewitness has recounted in vivid detail the story of a woman in China–a high school teacher in her 30s–who was detained, tortured, raped, and finally operated on to extract her organs while she was still alive.

“I have witnessed all these with my own eyes, but I regret that I didn’t take any photos,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

This testimony is the first eyewitness account of harvesting organs from a living Falun Gong practitioner. The Epoch Times broke the story of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in March 2006, but The Epoch Times investigations and those of independent researchers have relied on forms of evidence other than eyewitness testimony.

A 30-minute interview, in two separate conversations, was carried out by an investigator from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), and a recording is available on its Web site.

The events took place in 2002, but investigators located the policeman only this month.

According to the interview transcript, the witness worked for the public security system of Liaoning Province in 2002 and he himself had participated in torturing and interrogating Falun Gong practitioners “many times.”

No Anesthetics

On April 9, 2002, two military surgeons came to the makeshift “black jail,” a small hotel rented as a “training center,” according to the witness. One of the military surgeons was from the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the other one was a graduate of the Second Military Medical University, he said. They took the woman to a hospital.

“At that time, we had been interrogating and severely torturing her for about a week,” he said. “She already had countless wounds on her body. Also, [we] used electrical batons to beat her. She had already become delirious.”

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Flashback: Climategate: Investigations into climate fraud fixed | ‘Independent’ United Nations panel to examine Climategate evidence | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Climategate: Global Warming scientists placed under investigation | Latest Climategate revelation: Climate change data dumped | Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation | Obama’s ‘Science Czar’ John Holdren Friend of Climate Deception Lab | “Climategate”: Peer-Review System Was Hijacked By Warming Alarmists | Top Climatology Lab Hacked, E-Mails Reveal Biased Science | IPCC Crushes Scientific Objectivity, 91-0 | IPCC case for global warming melts on multiple fronts | Obama Science Advisor Called For “Planetary Regime” To Enforce Totalitarian Population Control Measures | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
December 14, 2009

Dissenting opinions against the world government will not be tolerated

The boilerplate response on behalf of the guardians of the global warming scam is to claim that the climategate scandal holds no significance whatsoever. If warmists really are that laid back over the whole controversy then why are questions about it by accredited journalists met with an armed response from UN thugs?

The latest effort to whitewash climategate comes in the form of an Associated Press “investigation” which involved a handful of AP writers looking through the leaked emails. Unsurprisingly for an organization that has vehemently thrown its full weight behind the climate change fraud, the AP concludes that “the messages don’t support claims that the science of global warming was faked,” despite emails which openly discuss using “tricks” to “hide the decline” in global warming.

However, even if we are to accept the ludicrous premise that climategate is a distraction or a non-issue, the question remains — if it’s such a side-issue and not severely damaging to the UN’s global carbon tax agenda, then why does mere mention of it by reporters cause United Nations officials to send in armed goons to silence them during press conferences?

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Flashback: UK: Chipped ID card scheme launched in Greater Manchester | UK Government plans to link criminal records to ID cards | UK national ID card cloned in 12 minutes | Alberta Hutterites need enhanced driver’s licence photos: top court | US: REALID tracking chip ID card resurrected by PASS initiative | India to issue all 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards | BC Bars swipe patron IDs, collect data | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | Ontario’s high-tech driver’s licences pose privacy risk: watchdog | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | RFID passport security defeated in minutes | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | Ontario Privacy Czar Worried about High-Tech Licences | North American ID card in the works through SPP

David Kravets, Wired.com
December 14, 2009

The United States’ quest for a national identification database associated with driver’s licenses won’t be finished by year’s end.

The deadline was Dec. 31 for the states to create what would be the largest identification database of its kind under the auspices of the Real ID program. The law also mandates uniform anti-counterfeiting standards for state driver’s licenses.

None of the states are in full compliance with the law, first adopted in 2005, requiring state motor vehicle bureaus to obtain and internally scan and store personal information like Social Security cards and birth certificates for a national database, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. About half the states oppose the mandate, or have said they would never comply.

Beginning Jan.1, the law was supposed to have blocked anybody from boarding a plane using their driver’s license as ID if their resident state did not comport with the Real ID program. But the Department of Homeland Security is set to extend, for at least a year, the deadline of the Real ID program that has raised the ire of privacy advocates.

Homeland Security officials point to the 9/11 hijackers’ ability to get driver’s licenses in Virginia using false information as justification for the proposed $24 billion program.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation suggest the plan is misguided, and might pave the way for requiring such IDs to vote or purchase prescription drugs.

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No doubt, these passages were blacked out by official censors to save the troops! At least, that’s the boilerplate reason we’re given by Stockwell Day for the massive redactions in the Colvin memos. Or was it to save face in Ottawa? Coverage of Khalid’s eventual sacking may be found here.

Flashback: Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press
December 14, 2009

OTTAWA—A former governor of Kandahar who is accused of personally torturing Afghans might have been removed from office as far back as 2006 if Canadian officials hadn’t defended him, according to diplomatic memos that have never been made public by the Canadian government.

The revelation about Asadullah Khalid, who stayed on as governor two years after concerns about his reputation were raised, opens up another embarrassing avenue of inquiry over Afghan prisoner abuse.

The new allegation is contained in a two-year-old report by Richard Colvin, the whistleblower foreign service officer. Colvin’s disgust that Canada would support a “known human-rights abuser” was palpable and formed the most incendiary paragraphs of the report. References to Khalid were entirely blacked out in the version of the report publicly released to the Military Police Complaints Commission.

But an uncensored version of the end-of-mission report was shown for the first time to The Canadian Press on a confidential basis.

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Flashback: Government will review ‘anti-terror’ security certificates: Van Loan | Judge eases restrictions on Harkat | CSIS bungled second terror case | Canadian Courts don’t buy word of government | CSIS forced to ‘reveal’ info on secret source in Harkat case | Judge orders recall of CSIS witnesses in Harkat case for potential perjury, obstruction | Tories aim to bring back anti-terrorism provisions | Lawyers slam CSIS on phone recordings | If released, security detainee Almrei to be surveilled, wiretapped, and GPS-tracked | Feds ordered to share evidence with defence in Harkat security case | More secrecy added to already secret process | Charkaoui set to fight new security certificate law | The New Security Certificate: Rushing injustice through the Senate | New security certificates issued | Court puts security certificates in limbo

The Canadian Press
December 14, 2009

Court ruling effectively frees Syrian native arrested in Mississauga

A federal judge has struck down a national security certificate against a Syrian-born man arrested eight years ago on terror suspicions.

The ruling by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley effectively frees Hassan Almrei.

The government had been trying to deport Almrei on a security certificate – a seldom-used provision of the immigration law for removing suspected terrorists and spies.

Almrei’s lawyer, Lorne Waldman, said from Toronto that his client was “very excited” about Justice Mosley’s ruling.

“He goes through all the different allegations that the government has made against Mr. Almrei and rejects all of them one by one,” Waldman said. “It’s quite incredible.”

There could be one more step in Almrei’s case, Waldman said. If the judge allows the government to appeal the ruling by formally certifying a question of law in the case, then the matter goes to the Federal Court of Appeal.

The government argued the Syrian native’s travel, activities and involvement in a false-document ring were consistent with supporters of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

The ruling says there were reasonable grounds to believe Almrei was a security danger when detained in October 2001, but there are no longer reasonable grounds to believe that today.

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