statism watch

While there’s been no official word yet, it appears Omar Khadr will be transferred to GITMO North as well. Way to ‘close’ Guantanamo with a little porkbarrel politics thrown in , Obama.

Flashback: Guantanamo won’t close by January: Obama | U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | Guantanamo January closing deadline may slip | Pentagon-handpicked 9/11 families want Gitmo kept open | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing — overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | CIA waterboarded 2 al-Qaida suspects 266 times | Psychologists Helped Guide CIA Interrogations | Document lays bare CIA torture techniques | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes | Tortured Guantanamo detainee set free | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | After Obama praises torture ruling, civil liberties group appalled | Obama shuts network of CIA ‘ghost prisons’ | Obama requests Guantánamo Bay tribunals suspension

Kent Klein, Voice of America
December 15, 2009

President Barack Obama has ordered the purchase of a state prison in the central U.S. to house some terror suspects now being held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The underused Thomson Correctional Center is in the president’s home state of Illinois.

Shortly after taking office, President Obama said he wanted Guantanamo Bay closed by January 2010. Administration officials now admit that that deadline will not be met.

But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the acquisition of the Illinois prison will move the president closer to his goal.

“The announcement today that the president has instructed the Bureau of Prisons to begin the purchase of the Thomson facility in Illinois is a big step in that process of closing Guantanamo Bay,” said Robert Gibbs.

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Flashback: If Climategate Is No Big Deal, Why Are Questions About It Met With An Armed Response? | 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 15, 2009

Carbon Billionaire refuses to correct the record on statements regarding CRU emails

An attempt by a journalist to ask Al Gore to correct the record on the Climategate emails scandal was met once again with an armed response from UN security thugs at the Copenhagen climate change summit.

For the second time in three days, journalist and film maker Phelim McAleer was met with physical resistance from UN guards as he attempted to ask questions about the biggest scientific scandal in history. [Ed. Note: That's debatable.]

In recent interviews the world’s first carbon billionaire said that the Climategate emails were “sound and fury signifying nothing”, adding that the most recent one is more than 10 years old.”

Of course, if Al Gore had bothered to read any of the emails or spend five minutes looking at any reports related to the story, he would know that the emails cover a period of ten years, with the most recent being sent just one month ago on November 12th.

Some of the most damning emails, where the scientists debate being unable to account for a lack of warming, discuss how deceptive their figures may be, and advocate deleting all their emails to avoid freedom of information requests are less than one year old.

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Flashback: Canada ‘defended’ torturer | 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’

CBC News
December 15, 2009

An emergency meeting of the special Commons committee on Afghanistan could not go ahead Tuesday when all seven Conservative members failed to show up.

The committee, which is looking into what Canada knew about alleged abuse of prisoners in Afghan jails, requires a quorum of seven members. The no-show by Conservative MPs left it with just six.

The Liberal, NDP and Bloc Québécois members invited the media into the room to show them the empty chairs and talked informally among themselves.

However, no clerk was present and nothing was accomplished in terms of deciding what witnesses to hear from next or in scheduling future meetings.

The Tory boycott left opposition MPs frustrated and fuelled speculation that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is planning to prorogue Parliament – a move that would block further committee meetings until as late as March.

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Keep those wars coming, boys, their’s gold in them thar pipelines. Black gold, that is. Texas tea. What’s a few more dead rebel hillbillies?

Flashback: Pakistan anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan ‘over’ | Refugee flood reveals human cost of South Waziristan’s invisible war | ‘Taliban’ resist Pakistan onslaught | Pakistani troops assault ‘Taliban’ stronghold | Militants attack Pakistani cities | Pakistan launches air strikes before offensive

Saeed Shah, The Globe and Mail
December 15, 2009

Chinese style web censorship, coming to a formerly free country near you.All a part of the general initiative to set the precedent of constricting, controlling, and ultimately choking off the free flow of information. You may know too much already, citizen. You may be a thought criminal.

Flashback: In Australia, censored hyperlinks could cost you | Australian web censorship plan to begin trial despite house opposition | Protests in Australia over proposal to block Web sites | Australia to Implement Mandatory Internet Censorship

BBC News
December 15, 2009

The banned sites will be selected by an independent classification body guided by complaints from the public, said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

A seven month trial in conjunction with ISPs found the technology behind the filter to be 100% effective. [Ed. Note: lol]

However, that claim has been questioned and there has been opposition from some internet users.

Twitter users have been voicing their disapproval by adding the search tag “nocleanfeed” to their comments about the plans.

“Successful technology isn’t necessarily successful policy,” said Colin Jacobs, a spokesperson for Electronic Frontiers Australia, a non-profit organisation that campaigns for online freedom.

“We’re yet to hear a sensible explanation of what this policy is for, who it will help, and why it is worth spending so much taxpayers’ money on.”

Mr Conroy said the filters included optional extras such as a ban on gambling sites which ISPs could choose to implement in exchange for a grant.

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Beware! Keep panicking! Join ‘The Resistance!’ The what? I’ll pick up the new Muse album but you should give it a rest, Butler-Jones. You’ve got 1976 on your hands again and you know it. Let us know how the Christmas party over at Glaxo-Smith Kline goes.

Flashback: Swine flu pandemic ‘less lethal than expected’ | Only 30% of Ontario residents have H1N1 shot | Santa Claus vaccinated in Montreal | UK: Millions more than thought have already had swine flu, Government scientists say | Dr. Richard Schabas — How they larded H1N1 facts with fear | Push is on to inoculate everyone against H1N1, Ontarians stay away in droves | UK Doctors say most Britons reject swine flu vaccine | Swine flu cases drop in England | H1N1 overplayed by media, public health: MDs | Elite Council Recording Suggests Creating False Scarcity To Drive Up Demand For H1N1 Vaccine | WHO pandemic definition too broad, doctor contends | Vaccine scarcity claims don’t add up | ‘No reason’ to delay seasonal flu shots, global health panel says | Flu Season Has Already Peaked in US, Little Benefit to H1N1 Jab: Study | Flu vaccine shortage expected to last a week | Mass Rejection Of Swine Flu Vaccine Continues Throughout Europe | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | Swine Flu Scam Reaches New Heights With Obama’s Emergency Declaration | US Government Hijacks Kids TV To Propagandize For Swine Flu Shots | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions

CBC News
December 15, 2009

Although about 40 per cent of Canadians have been immunized against the H1N1 virus, people should not be complacent, federal health officials warned Tuesday.

“As we approach the end of 2009, it’s tempting to think that perhaps, given the numbers, the pandemic’s done. This is wishful thinking that can lead to complacency,” Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, said in Ottawa.

“I want to counter the complacency by emphasizing once again the spread of H1N1 is not over and it can come back … We’re not done yet.”

In the last scheduled news conference on H1N1 of the year, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Butler-Jones highlighted Canada’s pandemic preparation and response.

For the week ending Dec. 5, there were 370 hospitalized cases reported that week, down from 804 the week before. Of these, 83 were in intensive care units, compared with 139 the previous week. The number of reported deaths was 33 versus 56 the previous week, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The holiday season is an ideal time for spreading the virus as people gather to celebrate, Butler-Jones noted.

Immunization rates vary from one-third to two-thirds depending on the jurisdiction.

Health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador are talking about “high 60s” and “high 80s” for school children being immunized, Butler-Jones said, while other areas are in the 25 per cent range.

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To quote the article which broke the news this report was coming; “Heartbreaking stories about the sexual abuse of children and teens filled the courtroom in Cornwall, Ont., for weeks. Their abusers were priests, probation officers, lawyers – men in positions of authority and trust. A provincial commission heard they were men backed by institutions that paid bribes to keep the victims silent, discouraged police investigation, offered the opportunity for the accused to leave quietly, or even welcomed them back to positions where they would have access to children.” Without any findings of fault, this report accomplishes little and so the cycle of sexual violence continues. Power doesn’t simply corrupt, it enables the most corrupt forms of corruption.

Flashback: Cornwall pedophile ring ‘fiction,’ church’s lawyer says | Cornwall sex abuse inquiry given deadline to wrap it up | Jailed whistleblower in Ont. child sex abuse inquiry set free | Supporters rally behind sex-crime whistleblower jailed for contempt | Sorting fact from fiction in the Cornwall sex abuse scandal

CBC News
December 15, 2009

Commissioner Normand Glaude’s report did not make a pronouncement on whether a pedophile ring existed or not, but he acknowledged that throughout the inquiry he heard evidence suggesting that there were joint cases of abuse. (CBC)

Children in Cornwall, Ont., who were sexually abused or at risk of being abused were sometimes further harmed by the authorities entrusted to help them, a public inquiry has found.

The authorities singled out in the inquiry headed by Normand Glaude included police, churches and corrections officials.

“I find there were systematic failures in the response of institutions to allegation of sexual abuse of children and young people in this community,” Glaude said in a statement Tuesday.

“For some, this resulted in revictimization by the institution from whom they sought help. The response of institutions became a further source of harm.”

Glaude suggested many institutions were more concerned about their own embarrassment or the hassle of possibly having to discipline their employees than about the people who said they were abused.

Shortly after Glaude delivered his report, the Roman Catholic Church responded with an apology, delivered by Paul André Durocher, the bishop with the diocese of Alexandria Cornwall.

Speaking in French, Durocher apologized to all of the victims of sexual abuse committed by priests. He said he would offer counselling to the victims to help them heal and rebuild their lives.

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