Ireland – Call by fire fighters for all-out strike

OLIVIA KELLY
www.irishtimes.com
Friday, March 12, 2010

THE STATE could be left without fire and ambulance services following calls from fire fighters for an all-out strike with no emergency cover.

John Kidd, national secretary of Siptu’s full-time fire officers’ committee, said members have demanded that Siptu serve strike notice immediately.

The action would involve a complete stoppage of fire and ambulance services and would be likely to cause the closure of Dublin airport and regional airports.

“Members want a national fire brigade strike in conjunction with a national ambulance strike with complete withdrawal of cover,” Mr Kidd said.

Fire fighters and ambulance personnel were working in unsafe conditions because of staff cutbacks, he said.

“In addition to the pay cuts, 108 members retired last year, around 30 so far this year, and there have only been no new recruits over the last two years. We cannot continue to provide a service like this.”

Branch officials are to meet this morning for talks with Siptu local authority sector organiser Paul Smith in relation to the members’ demand. However, the branch officials have already written to Siptu president Jack O’Connor requesting strike authorisation. Read more…

Activists Teach London Police A Lesson About Stop And Search Terror Laws

The Love Police prove they have infinitely more power than the Metropolitan Police

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Monday, March 8th, 2010

A group of British activists turned a potentially confrontational run in with London Metropolitan police into an educational experience recently, producing a viral youtube video entitled “How To Escape A Terror Stop”.

The group, known as The Love Police, reacted calmly and politely when confronted by police outside the Tower of London.

After making informative announcements on a bullhorn to crowds of tourists, employees at the Tower made a call to the Met, who promptly dispatched an Inspector, two Sergeants, five officers and four police cars.

The police attempted to search the activists under section 44 of the terrorism act, but received more than they bargained for.

Watch the video:

The use of “counter-terrorism” stop and search laws by the police in the UK was ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights in January, a decision that paves the way for protesters, photographers and everyday citizens to fight back against such gross invasions of privacy.

Under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, police can stop and search anyone without reasonable suspicion.

The court in Strasbourg has referred to that power as not in “accordance with the law”, and a violation of article eight – the right to respect for private and family life.

Judges noted that there is no grounds for considering the powers “necessary”, and that they are only “expedient”, adding that there is a “clear risk of arbitrariness in granting such broad discretion” to a police officer.

They also stated that the searching clothing and belongings interferes with the right to privacy as it involves an element of humiliation and embarrassment.

The use of the powers and their authorisation is “neither sufficiently circumscribed, nor subject to adequate legal safeguards against abuse”, according to the court.

The court also highlighted a lack of judicial oversight, stating “The absence of any obligation on the part of the officer to show a reasonable suspicion made it almost impossible to prove that the power had been improperly exercised”.

The freedom stripping powers, which were initially conceived only to be used in emergency situations, have come under intense scrutiny recently following the publication of multiple sets of figures highlighting huge increases in stops with a relatively miniscule success rate.

In May 2009, data released to the BBC revealed that the Metropolitan Police in London used section 44 of the Terrorism Act more than 170,000 times in 2008 to stop people in the capital. That figure equated to stopping and searching a member of the public every three minutes under terrorism laws.

The figures represented a more than 140% increase on 2007 numbers.

Of all the stops in 2008, only 65 led to arrests for terror offences, a success rate of just 0.035%. Furthermore, when you take into account how many of those arrests have translated into convictions, according to the Home Office, you come up with a round figure of 0.0%.

A separate Freedom of Information Act request in 2009 also revealed that the use of the stop and search power has increased exponentially by over ten times in less than ten years.

Furthermore, Ministry of Justice statistics, published in mid 2008, revealed that from 2006-2007 police used their powers to stop (but not search) nearly two million members of the public and demand they account for their behavior or actions, a rise of one third from the previous year.

This meant that in just one year around 3.5% of the entire British population was stopped in the street by the police under suspicion of terror related offences.

While not resulting in the prevention of any terrorism, the section 44 powers have been most notably used against the 82-year-old Walter Wolfgang for heckling Jack Straw at the Labour Conference; Sally Cameron for walking on a cycle-path in Dundee; the 80-year-old John Catt for being caught on CCTV passing a demonstration in Brighton; the 11-year-old Isabelle Ellis-Cockcroft for accompanying her parents to an anti-nuclear protest; and a cricketer on his way to a match over his possession of a bat.

More recently, Scotland Yard admitted that its officers have been photographing children who are stopped and searched, even after they have been found to be innocent, and keeping the pictures on a database for “intelligence-gathering purposes”.

In the past we have reported on instances where police have admitted stop and search records are permanently retained.

The Home Office guide to stop and search states that “if they don’t find anything, your details will be recorded for monitoring purposes, and you’ll be allowed to go.”

The government has continued to push for greater stop and search powers for police.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act bestows exceptional powers on the police to stop and search at random, once a particular geographical area has been designated by a chief officer as one that might be targeted by terrorists and authorised as such by the Home Secretary. The government has since extended this power to stop and search WITHOUT REASONABLE SUSPICION to include “troubled areas”, which since 2001 has included the whole of Greater London.

As of February 17 2009, Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act also prohibits photographing police and permits the arrest of anyone found “eliciting, publishing or communicating information” relating to members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers, which is “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”.

Essentially, under anti-terror laws, anyone caught photographing police could face a fine or a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

As we have recently reported, this section of the act is being used primarily to target journalists covering protests, who say they are being targeted by police surveillance officers more so than the actual protesters. The law has also been used against tourists snapping pictures of landmarks and members of the public documenting police misconduct.

A recent report by the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights confirmed that journalists and protesters were the primary targets of increased police misuse of anti-terror laws.

Anti-terror laws are intended for use on the general public, they always have been, and now we are seeing the rotten fruits of continued blind acceptance contaminate every section of society in this country.

The Love Police, the brainchild of “Charlie”, who features in the videos above and below, are committed to bringing people together in the face of the Orwellian state being built around us as a means of division.

The group has railed against the corporate mainstream media, mindless consumerist culture, the private banker takeover and the contrived war on terror and swine flu fiascos. The group also openly questions the official story behind the 9/11 attacks.

Anti abortion rallies across Spain on Sunday

There was a counter demonstration in Barcelona

By h.b. – Mar 8, 2010
www.typicallyspanish.com

There were large anti-abortion rallies across the country on Sunday in protest at the changes to the legislation passed in the Senate last week.

More than 100 demonstrations were held across the country, with the largest in Madrid attracting about 10,000 people. Other main demos were in Barcelona, Sevilla, Toledo, Ávila and Bilbao.

There were several Partido Popular politicians on the pro-life rallies who consider the new law allows for ‘indiscriminate abortion’ and introduces the doctrine of abortion into the schools.

In Barcelona there was a counter demonstration from a women’s collective and the regional police had to keep the two sides apart.

Source: www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_25339.shtml

How to Find UN Documents

snooper.wordpress.com

This blog post results from the discovery of the following search through Google.ca:  A/64/439/Add.2 (Part II), proj. de rés. XV someone at  the Canada Council for the Arts inquired about a United Nations document.  The  link to the Crusaders Armory blogspot was near the bottom of the first page of results. It is safe to assume that the searcher went through several other results before visiting my blog.

Many, if not most UN documents contain references to other UN documents.  Tracking down those references can be extremely difficult unless you have the right search engine.  Most of the search engine results will be to documents which reference the one you seek, few if any of them will provide a link to the desired document.

United Nations Publications has several interesting categories to check and a search window at the top of the page. That search produced irrelevant results.  It did, however, display a link to  another General Assembly  Document Search. which produced a report declaring that there is no matching document.

By removing the suffix from the search term, I got this result, a 151 page pdf. file; a report on the Third Committee’s Human Rights Protection & Promotion efforts.

If  you can not find  the document you need with that search engine,  and it is  directly related to human rights, there is another search engine you can tap. It is not my first choice because its output is in the form of a multi page table of descriptions and links. If you have the document symbol, try using it first to narrow the search results.

I recently discovered this resource: United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library which offers  a wide variety of search categories but requires omission of all punctuation from the search phrase. I was not able to find the Third Cmte. report there.  By back checking the link to the main library, I discovered a new resource: UN Pulse, which  alerts users to newly released documents. This may prove to be an extremely valuable resource for those who are interested in specific issues before UN bodies.

Someone jumped the gun with the link to UN Pulse. The page is blank;  there is nothing within the body tags. I will check it periodically and  issue a new post about it after it goes live.

Source: http://snooper.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/how-to-find-un-documents/

National Day of Protest. STOP MANDATORY FILTERING OF AUSTRALIAN INTERNET!

TruthMovementAustralia.com.au
March 1st, 2010

Event: (NEXT SATURDAY)

6th March 2010 – Protest: STOP MANDATORY FILTERING OF AUSTRALIAN INTERNET! Events taking place at 12 noon (or 1pm) in every major Australian City. Visit the Facebook page for your local protest details. THIS IS IMPORTANT PLEASE MAKE THE EFFORT TO BE THERE. (if you live in Australia obviously)

Related Stories This Week:

Italy – Google ruling ‘threat to internet freedom’

Global – Leaked ACTA draft reveals plans for internet clampdown

Internet Freedom Under Attack – Australia – Anti internet censorship protest hits Sydney

Thanks to Open Your Eyes News for the details and links.

TMA members RSVP for the Protest HERE.

While you are here, why not sigh the EFA petition.

Universities worldwide mark ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’

By Danna Harman
Haaretz Correspondent in Europe
March 01, 2010

LONDON – A filmmaker, anthropologist and economic researcher are among those headlining events marking what pro-Palestinian organizers have declared as “Israeli Apartheid Week” – and all three speakers are Israeli.

University campuses in more than 40 cities around the world are marking the week with lectures, films, multimedia events, cultural performances and demonstrations.

Since they were first launched in 2005, the events have become some of “the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar,” according to its organizers.

Its aim, they state on their Web site, is to “contribute to this chorus of international opposition to Israeli apartheid and to bolster support for the boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) campaign.”

Though many of the details about those events were not being promoted on the Apartheid Week Web site, it did list several events being offered by Israelis.

Among them is Shir Hever, an economic researcher at the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem, who is scheduled to give a series of lectures at the University of Amsterdam entitled “Could the Economic Policies of Israel be Considered a Form of Apartheid?”

In addition, Israeli activist and filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Pollak is screening his 2006 documentary “Bil’in Habibti,” about Israel Defense Forces violence, at Boston-area universities.

Jeff Halper, the Israel-based professor of anthropology who is co-founder and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, was scheduled to speak on “Israeli Apartheid: The Case For BDS” at Glasgow University.

The participation of several Israelis in the anti-Zionist events is “atrocious,” said David Katz, a member of Britain’s Jewish Board of Deputies who grew up in South Africa and has long fought the comparison between that country’s racial segregation and Israel’s ethnic divisions. Read more…

Stop murdering Palestinians, Spanish kids say

www.presstv.ir
01 Mar 2010

The Israeli Embassy in Madrid has received hundreds of schoolchildren’s letters protesting against Tel Aviv’s conduct toward the Palestinians.

One letter directed at Israel’s ambassador in Madrid, Rafael Shotz, asked, “How many Palestinians have you murdered today?”

Another read, “Mr. Ambassador, you should think about not killing the Palestinian children and elderly. I don’t know if it doesn’t bother you, having to murder people. You should leave Palestine.”

Israel has blockaded all border crossings to the Gaza Strip for more than two years. The illegal Israeli imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has steadily tightened since 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the coastal enclave.

Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education. Poverty and unemployment rates stand at approximately 80% and 60% respectively in the Gaza Strip.

Three weeks of Israeli air strikes and a ground incursion into the Gaza between late December 2008 and early January 2009 resulted in the death of over 1400 people — mainly women and children.

The carnage also inflicted more than $1.6 billion of damage on Gaza’s economy.

“The Jersey Girls” support AE911Truth efforts!

www.ae911truth.org

We’re proud to have the endorsement of The Jersey Girls, who single handedly forced the Bush Administration to convene the 9/11 Commission after one year of inaction following the attacks of September 11

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is proud to be working for and on behalf of the 9/11 victims’ family members, in particular The Jersey Girls. We recommend “9/11 Press for Truth”, which is the story of the Jersey Girls and their struggle for the truth.

We are pleased that Patty and Lorie have signed our petition. We have also received signatures from Josef Princiotta, Manny Badillo, Bob McIlvaine, Ellen Mariani. Let us know if there are any of them we are not listing here!

We have taken a lot of criticism from so called debunkers & unconscious government officials that our work is “upsetting the family members”. Let it be clear that only the truth about the deaths of these innocent people will bring healing to their loved ones. AE911Truth has ever increasing support from them to reveal the truth to the American people.

February 25, 2010

We must applaud Mr. Richard Gage and his colleagues, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, for their tenacity in seeking to answer lingering questions concerning the total destruction of the World Trade Center complex, in particular buildings 1, 2 and 7.

As with any scientific report, conclusions must be able to be replicated and verified by subsequent public peer reviews. Mr. Gage and his colleagues have attempted to do just that with NIST’s Final Report of the Collapse of the WTC. There seem to be discrepancies and omissions in NIST’s conclusions, which Mr. Gage and his colleagues have brought to light.

With their combined professional training and work experience, this group of professionals is uniquely qualified to address the myriad oddities resulting in the collapse of the WTC high-rise buildings – including WTC 7, which was not hit by an airplane. This chosen course of action by the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, has often come at a high cost to them personally and professionally making this endeavor all the more admirable.

As family members of 9/11 victims, we have been seeking truth and transparency since 200l. Almost nine years later, in spite of the NIST Investigation and the 9/11 Independent Commission, a vast majority of our questions remain unanswered.

It was always our hope that both of these government investigations would uncover the cause of the WTC destruction and any loopholes or lapses in security protocols that could be remedied to protect us in the future. In this case, it was of utmost importance to determine what actually caused the collapses to ensure the future safety of high-rise buildings. Since the government failed to do that, we applaud Mr. Richard Gage and the many other professionals who are spending their own time attempting to seek the truth.

Sincerely,

Patty Casazza
Lorie Van Auken
Mindy Kleinberg
Monica Gabrielle

Watford man’s campaign to ban airport body scanners

By Michael Pickard
www.watfordobserver.co.uk
25th February 2010

A former Watford resident is spearheading a campaign to ban full body scanners from airports across Britain.

Adam Woodward, who was “born and bred” in Vicarage Road but now lives and works as an English teacher in Spain, is part of a band of people concerned at the introduction of the scanners.

A Facebook group, which has become the focal point for their campaign, has attracted more than 10,000 members.

And their cause is backed by organisations such as Big Brother Watch, Privacy International and former The Corrs musician Jim Corr.

The Facebook group claims “these machines will perform a virtual strip search, which records detailed images of a person’s genitalia, breasts and any cosmetic enhancements.

“We appear to be looking at a very expensive investment in largely ineffective technology that violates our right to privacy and poses a significant health risk”.

Adam said there were three main reasons why they opposed to the scanners – health reasons, privacy, and their effectiveness to target potential terrorists.

He said: “We want to raise awareness and get more people involved. We’re encouraging people to sign petitions against the scanners and in the near future, we will try to organise protests.

“Quite by accident we have found ourselves as the campaign [against scanners] and people are starting to take us seriously. It’s gathering strength.”

Earlier this month, the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned the use of the full body scanners may be unlawful. Read more…

British Tea Party Movement to launch on Saturday

By Daniel Hannan
blogs.telegraph.co.uk
February 25th, 2010

The inaugural British Tea Party will take place on Saturday in my home town of Brighton, and I’ll be speaking. Do try to come: here are the details.

Labour has raised more than a trillion pounds in additional taxation since 1997. Yet, unbelievably, Gordon Brown has still managed to run up a deficit of 12.6 per cent of GDP (Greece’s is 12.7 per cent). A far lower level of taxation brought Americans out in spontaneous protest last year.

If you happen to be coming to the Conservative Spring Conference, do please pop in: the Tea Party is five minutes’ walk from the conference venue. It is, however, outside the security zone, and anyone is welcome to come. Oh, and this being England, we’ll be serving actual, you know, tea. I hope to see some of this blog’s readers there.

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