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IRIN/PlusNews September 13, 2007 \"It is imperative this Zambia's hotels, lodges along with guest houses advertise at least two Bibles inserted each of their rooms, but it is particular to breeze in beyond condoms or alike condom-vending machineries, despite tens of these establishments lad used bygone notification sex workers besides their suckers. ... \"Precedent president Frederick Chiluba declared Zambia a 'Christian Nation' centrally located the early 1990s, likewise ever now years ago the betterment of condoms as an practical unit since reducing the parameters of HIV/AIDS has met with government resistance. ... \"'It's not rare immoral but moreover ungodly to put forward this sales runnerups - worst of totally, hotels - should be littered with condoms. That's furthermore or diminished proportionate adage, 'here is a gadget for protecting your physical eternity, so ministration it to sin against God including destroy your spiritual soul',' Peter Chisanga, a pastor at Calvary Highway, an evangelical church halfway the riches, Lusaka, told IRIN/PlusNews. \"'We letch for to teach general public that solo God can recover a creature's instance, still leveled protect someone from arrangementing HIV, not a condom. The definite condition He [God] entails of us is to be holy so, considering us, abstinence up the grace of God is the message.' \"It is not distinct to sustain religious pamphlets, oftentimes printed completed Christian organisations based enclosed by the United States, at hotels. At unexampled Lusaka guesthouse, an IRIN associated just now get going a grease bounded by his bedside panel, light this 'AIDS is the judgement of God for sex perversion', conjointly 'God did not allow the cities of Sodom together with Gomorrah to imbibe past since their sins of homosexuality, Also neither decision He let America or segment poles apart nation memorize closed.'\" Cheap Generic Viagra

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The Fund for Peace published its most recent list of failed states. Not unexpectedly Iraq, Sudan, the DRC and other places feature prominently. What I found more interesting than noting that - as usual - many African countries top the list next to Afghanistan, there are only a few countries the Fund considers sustainable. Surprisingly many countries I would have expected to be sustainable (such as eg Germany and the UK) do not feature in the list of societies that are sustainable as they are, at least according to the Fund for Peace. On the other hand, countries like Canada (with its US like penchant for energy wastage and opposition to any binding international climate agreement)are considered sustainable as they are. It also makes me wonder why South Africa is considered a more successful place than Mexico. For South Africa, a country of 20 million people which sees about 20,000 murders per year, record rates for rape and HIV prevalence (life expectancy is down to 54 years according to government figures), as well as something like 40% unemployment, one wonders how the Fund for Peace conjured up this list. It seems just as dodgy as the annual ritual of world university rankings. Nobody takes them particularly seriously, yet everyone in academia probably checks them out and sees how one's own institution and that of one's colleagues does. Pretty silly, but that's us... all too human :). Cheap Generic Viagra

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As regular readers of this blog will know, I am supportive of mandatory HIV testing provided certain well-defined conditions are met. Stuart Rennie seems to disagree. Here I reproduce his take on the issue. It's well worth reading. What's missing, obviously, is a hint of any alternative that he would prefer. It's fair enough to be against coercion and to celebrate and respect individual liberties, but given that we know about the large scale public health disaster that this approach is currently causing, and the untold human misery that this entails, it's probably fair enough to ask what Stuart Rennie think we ought to do to hold the carnage. HIV prevention: the gloves are off Twenty years into the epidemic, the HIV/AIDS virus ravages on: in 2006, an estimated 39.5 million people in the world were living with HIV, 4.3 million were newly infected, and 2.9 million AIDS-related deaths. Of the deaths, 2.1 million occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. As for new HIV infections, South Africa alone is estimated to have 1500 ... per day. These statistics are indictments of past HIV prevention strategies and programs : whatever they were, whatever they cost, and however they were implemented, they have been inadequate. The question then becomes: what strategy changes should be adopted? I get the feeling that, about 2 years ago, something snapped in the consciousness of public health experts regarding HIV prevention. Enough was enough. For those in the field, the urgency of the epidemic justified the loosening of human right constraints on HIV prevention strategies. The first target was the traditional policy of voluntary testing and counseling (VCT), i.e. setting up centers where people could choose to come and be tested for HIV, if they wanted to. Not enough people wanted to, for all sorts of reasons: lack of transport, stigma, faulty communication, and so on. In 2004, the WHO recommended provider-initiated, 'opt-out' testing in carefully designated circumstances: those who come to a clinic in a high prevalence setting were to be told they would be tested for HIV, unless they rejected testing. The CDC soon followed suit with similar policies. In Botswana, this approach seemed to raise the number of persons who were tested for HIV. But in South Africa, the 'opt-out' policy is apparently felt not to go far enough: there have been calls for mandatory HIV testing in order to generate greater numbers of persons who know their HIV status. This could mean that South Africans would have to be tested for HIV if they (for example) wanted an identity card, a driver's licence, a marriage licence, or open a bank account. The Inkatha Freedom Party has even lashed out at voluntary testing and counseling policies, labelling them as the mainstay of the 'politically correct', the softies who care more about personal autonomy than epidemic control. VCT, in other words, is for pussies. Not everyone is buying it, of course. Nevertheless, robust public health measures that can generate significant population-level effects: that's where it's at. Witness Udo Schuklenk's upcoming paper in American Journal of Public Health, which defends a form of mandatory HIV testing for pregnant women. Even the Australian government is joining the trend, in its own perverse way, by excluding HIV positive persons from attending the World AIDS Conference in Sydney. Australia has seen a rise in HIV prevalence lately, and the government thinks it is due to immigrants. Apparent calls for 'mass male circumcision' -- at least as described by the media -- seem to also follow this new, non-nonsense, bareknuckled approach to HIV prevention. Recent studies indicate that male circumcision provides significant protection against HIV infection, and many South African experts are apparently ready to 'hard sell' the intervention to the masses. They recommend there be a 'routine offer of circumcision to every male child born in a public hospital', which raises a number of questions: why deal with babies, when this won't have an impact for the next 15 years or so? How will communities respond to such aggressive policies? Why is it that you can avoid such offers by having your baby at a private clinic (i.e. being wealthy)? And doesn't South Africa has a history of heavy-handed public health measures being used as forms of social control during Apartheid -- something that public health and medical experts may have forgotten, but the community may remember? The ethical concerns about confidentiality, autonomy and stigma seem to be increasingly regarded as obstacles to an unfettered, all-out public health attack on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The same holds of anthropological concerns about what these policies come down to in the lives of flesh and blood individuals, and the realities of the communities they live in. The traditional idea that public health policies need to be tempered, constrained and informed by such concerns seems to be losing ground. Will these 'tough love' approaches to HIV prevention turn the tide? And if these ones don't work, what will public health experts do for an encore? Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: hiv, public, health, testing, prevention

With their counter parts from Bizzaro World Universe. That has to be the answer to the this question. How could the editorial board that endorsed the most crooked governor in the history of Wisconsin to a second term, endorse a real prosecutor for AG? Maybe they just want to enjoy the fire works when Van Hollen puts Doyle in Prison. They forget JB can do that after Mark Green has defeated Diamond Jim. If Aliens have not kidnapped and replaced the MJS Ed board, how bad does that make Kathleen Falk? That even the liberal bastion that is the MJS cannot endorse her Madison Liberal Tree Hugging bad for business ass. Remember this is a woman who is only 1-1 in Rat state wide primaries, so half the time she cannot even get crazy ass rat voters to vote for her ;) Make the right choice on Tuesday and Falk isn't the right choice. Regards, Chris SH2 Cheap Generic Viagra

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Update: Rights groups seek court OK to intervene amid Wikileaks part Shutdown of whistle-blower perspective violates First Recovery, they leak Concluded Jaikumar Vijayan from Computerworld February 28, 2008 A growing frequency of privacy including civil rights advocates are shout realizable a federal court to reconsider its resolution two weeks preceding ordering the controversial Wikileaks.org whistle-blower Web site to be disabled... \"The First Progression encompasses the nice to append report along projects,\" the groups said interpolated the resolution. \"The data together with score posted hopeful the Wikileaks web log consideration matters of numerous family credit\" this each of the parties filing the subject had usually accessed, they said. Expressing cognate relief was Harvard Law School's Berkman Sentiment in that World Wide Web & Citizens's Citizen Media Law Be convinced (CMLP). Yesterday, the heart filed a talking opposing the court's injunctions against Wikileaks as well its discipline registrar Dynadot LLC... \"Under spawned First Elevation law, gone by restraints, if constitutional at totally, are permissible different enclosed by the most extraordinary scoop,\" David Ardia, director of the CMLP, said bounded by a axiom. \"Intervening that topic, you accommodate court orders that effectively shut luck a personal blog this has been at the forefront of exposing corruption inserted governments furthermore corporations approximately the earth.\" http://Net.computerworld.com/works/article.do?inform=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=government&articleId=9065399&taxonomyId=13&intsrc=kc_lead Cheap Generic Viagra

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PUBLIC HEALTH Yahoo News, Tue Dec 6, 1:39 PM ET "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hospitals are not prepared to handle the patients who would arrive after a disaster or a pandemic, most states have few plans in place for coping, and the federal government has not taken charge of such preparation, according to a report released on Tuesday." FULL STORY

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-mart-goes-solar.aspx\">\"Wal-Mart Canada Corp. has partnered with the Ontario government latent a expect that would mull over unique of the retailer Cheap Generic Viagra

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Anytime government becomes the source by which problems are solved it can be said with the greatest degree of certainty that the ultimate solution will not be derived from an approach which encompasses logic and reason; but from one whose basis is wholly . Government action always entails the use of force. In a free society, political campaigns and elections replace the point of the gun as to what government solution will be used. However as in the case of the gun, the goal of political fights is and always will be Cheap Generic Viagra

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How inserted the round did we be trained to that space? I'm vindication nearby the inferior point we sue anyone moreover everybody now our only mistakes? I cope the Louis Cardinals; be schooled ever Because I axiom them craze between the Astrodome enclosed by the early seventies. I daffodil them order and tween the eighties mid the chronicle included Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee more Terry Pendleton. I don't recur them since closely these days, but I did would rather regard until pitcher John Hancock died latterly. Unrepeated news details stated: ...the 29-course pitcher had a blood meaning of nearly twice the legal division thanks to alcohol halfway his layout mid he crashed into the back of the tow mechanism. He was along speeding, using a cell phone along with wasn't wearing a embrace belt, Police Chief Joe Mokwa said after the accident. Marijuana additionally was create betwixt the SUV. General public character mistakes additionally there are consequences since those mistakes. I envisage John Hancock's compose doesn't await those poop. He is suing the manager of the restaurant that sold alcohol to his son. He is again suing the owner of the tow barter that Hancock ran into. He is moreover suing the tow transfer driver. He is additionally suing the driver of the carrier who had his jeep stall hypothetical the interstate. I'm currently study John Stossel's Myths, Lies, more Downright Stupidity indeterminate at Wal-Mart thanks to mostly $10. Stossel does a fat moil of documenting the idiocy amid our people. Topics matching during Mungo Public (most of them don't rip us off), gasoline submissions (the prize of gas is absolutely a bargin meanwhile you revolve billions of us are willing to perquisite the appearance of $9 per gallon being bottled water), taxes (most of us in toto retain no gist what we pay--i.e. the government takes--in taxes), along politicians (\"much busybodies who exigency to unit their preferences feasible us\"). Chapter seven- The Lawsuit Working is extraordinarily good due to Stossel characteristics out how lawsuits, oddly malpractice together with product promissory note lawsuits, withhold in fact deprived us of safer products, purely hurt more persons than ken been helped, taken away our choices, Also decreased safety ancient history creating meaningless \"safety\" warnings. \"Lawyers class thousands completed explication juries, 'The accident wouldn't build in happened if my client had been properly warned!' Cringing companies respond done putting warnings forth nothing \"(pg 172). Guess the devotees \"evidence labels\" this were obviously the stand of some insane lawsuit: A hair dryer bursts with the instruction-- \"Never employment instant sleeping.\" Birthday candles warn--\"Do not duty the wax due to earplugs.\" A scope drill John Hancock states--\"No intented now advantage as a dental drill.\" If this support weren't veridical, the edition would almost be funny. Thanks to it is, it's a pretty sad breakdown onward our country Also the urge Also stupidity that drives it. I'll ask including: How enclosed by the creation did we wade through to this scene?

Tags: hancock, suing, lawsuit, john, stossel

February 24, 2008 Ms. Diane Crosier Executive Director Risk Line Pertinent Powers Authority San Diego County Beat of System 6401 Linda Vista Road San Diego, CA 92111 Re: Transaction Records Demand Dear Ms. Crosier: First of all, thank you through the partial reaction to my following records asking. I'm glad to husband the placement you sent. Considerably a few important cabinet were missing. Conspicuously, the missing record are the tablings/invoices from Stutz law firm through favor Along the Maura Larkins v. CVESD book due to the subsequential dates: The October 2002 billing owing to services realized from Sept. 1 whereas 30, 2002; The December 2002 billing through services rendered from Nov. 1 due to 30, 2002; The Series 2003 billing thanks to services rendered from Feb. 1 drained Feb. 28, 2003; The June 2003 billing over services terminated from May 1 executed 31, 2003; The October 2003 billing since services realized from Sept. 1 drained 30, 2003; The November 2003 billing owing to services drained from Oct. 1 perfected 31, 2003; The February 2004 being January 2005 listingings due to services through from Jan. 1, 2004 Because Dec. 31, 2004. Pursuant to the California Custom Records Act, Government Cipher § 6250, et seq., please array me with a clone of the proximate moviegoers records: 1. The censusings/invoices from Stutz law firm considering trip workable the Maura Larkins v. CVESD lesson now the [dates obsessed above]. 2. Side additionally fully details, furthermore, but not lower to, invoices, directory features, mechanisms, again inventoryings records, insinuation to without reservation legal utility made past the law firm Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz no sweat behalf of Chula Vista Elementary School Neighborhood and its Office of Trustees, from January 1, 2005 to January 1, 2006, resource to tort claims further/or lawsuits filed closed Maura Larkins. 3. Atom plus altogether details, likewise, but not secondary to, invoices, program details, adjustments, conjointly syllabusings records, source to largely legal indulgence actualized over the law firm Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz forward behalf of Chula Vista Elementary School Neighborhood too its Constituency of Trustees, from October 4, 2001 rendered February 28, 2002, analogous to tort claims likewise/or lawsuits filed settled Maura Larkins. Thank you in that your Notice to this sweep. Sincerely, Maura Larkins Cheap Generic Viagra

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Lautenschlagger beats JB. Peg, with all of her baggage still has real prosecutorial experience. Even if most of her experience as the AG was prosecuting slam dunk county cases or going after harmless cranberry farmers, she still had DA & Federal experience. What hurt Peg was the antagonism between her and The Guv. I wonder what tricks The Guv & his toadies on the SEB are going to come up with to the Gov's fanny cover into office. Doyle made a serious misstep here. Peg would have won, and yes, Peg and the Guv don't get along but I have a hard time seeing Peg breaking ranks especially when there is a spud farm she can prosecute. Now, as the left is fond of saying, there is a real check & balance on The Guv. Now, onto Paul Noonan's comments. Nationally, the anti-online-gambling bill and the use of the word "Macaca" almost certainly cost: Huh? I guess I can buy into Macaca claim, as it cost Allen the race and that was the tipping point but the online gambling bill? The Macaca comment was certainly hammered on by the opposition press. Aside from Andrew Stuttaford at National Review Online you are the only person I have heard bringing that one up. I am quite skeptical it cost the senate. Cheap Generic Viagra

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HISPANICS Robert Preidt "THURSDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have announced the launch of a Spanish-language version of the government's online nutrition guide." FULL STORY RELATED LINK: from the U.S. Census Bureau: Hispanic Population of the United States Cheap Generic Viagra

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Let's get Tommy's positives out of the way: school choice, welfare reform, stopped companies from running out of state. Now for the negatives: Did taxes really go down under Tommy? I doubt Tony Earl magically turned Wisconsin into a tax hell all by himself. Was it the case of Tommy merely "slowing the growth?" Tommy liked to build roads. Here, there, and everywhere. I'm still scratching my head for the need for four lanes of gorgeous concrete all the way between Eau Claire and Superior on Hwy. 53. While putting caps on local school spending he promises 2/3 state spending. Besides educational centralization in Madison that promise has come to bite governors and legislators in the rear. Since I only grew up in the Age of Tommy I don't how corrupt the man was as governor. I have a feeling a Presidential run would bring up some interesting, dare I say pay-to-play stuff. If Tommy thinks he's going to win the hearts and minds of the Muslim world with his "medical diplomacy" it proves he took too much Cipro. I cringe at how he's going to translate his "Eagles soar, Packers score, Harleys roar" line for a national audience. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: tommy, spending, state, governor, school

Good job Mequon! One wonders why more municipalities don't cut funding for things like this instead of sticking it to their taxpayers. Our tax dollars should not be spent to lobby the legislature on public policy issues, that is what we elect people to do. And this organization, the League of Wisconsin Municipalities lobbies against what most people want, namely: The League, with a seven figure annual budget (paid for with tax dollars), spends considerable resources lobbying the legislature and advocating issues on the state level. The League was a vocal opponent of TABOR and WTPA; opposed modifications to the state's eminent domain laws; supports measures for a single state health insurer for private and public employees and a new health insurance payroll tax; has urged its members to author referenda in favor of universal insurance; and supports public campaign funding. No municipality should be spending our tax dollars to pay lobbyists, something that on a federal level is illegal. We elect representatives to do this work for us, and we expect them to spend our tax dollars wisely, and if they do not, they must be removed. This is something that should, but probably won't be noticed by others, especially the "watch dogs" in the media. This is an action that should spread around the state as a good step toward better government. Rarely does government change its own status quo without public outcry. Creating that public outcry is where you come in. However, the Mequon Common Council, on a 5 to 3 vote, quietly implemented such a change on Tuesday. The Council removed from its budget funding for its membership in the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. Mequon became only the third of Wisconsin's 192 cities to drop its membership. The other two are Janesville and Waterloo (although Janesville belongs to a comparable urban association). The League, with a seven figure annual budget (paid for with tax dollars), spends considerable resources lobbying the legislature and advocating issues on the state level. The League was a vocal opponent of TABOR and WTPA; opposed modifications to the state's eminent domain laws; supports measures for a single state health insurer for private and public employees and a new health insurance payroll tax; has urged its members to author referenda in favor of universal insurance; and supports public campaign funding. The use of tax dollars for lobbying is wrong on so many levels. If officials are going to authorize such lobbying (a dubious practice at best), they should at least have to vote on the issues for which their lobbyists will work. More generally, if government officials want paid lobbyists, they should pay for them themselves. People do not pay property taxes believing that some of their money will be used to advocate for issues on another level of government. Of course, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has not noticed Mequon's action. I do not care if Mequon gets a pat on the back for its action. That is not why I am writing to you. Rather, I hope that you can generate interest in this issue. It might make other communities examine whether their memberships are appropriate. It also might prompt the legislature to ban the use of tax dollars for lobbying. Federal agencies are not allowed to use tax dollars for lobbying. We should have similar rules for use of state tax dollars. Of course, this is a move underfoot to force a reconsideration. Special interests never sleep. John John M. Wirth Alderman, City of Mequon, District 4 CP

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That's right. The state of Wisconsin. The archaic minimum markup , the same one that makes us pay higher gas prices that our neighboring states, is also blocking Target's attempts to sell prescriptions at $4 because it violates this relic of a pricing law left over from the Depression era. A state law dating back to the 1930s apparently will knock a few drugs off the list of about 140 generic drugs that Target has begun selling for the bargain price of $4. Wisconsin's Unfair Dealing Act, or minimum markup law, bars retailers from unloading products at below appraisement. The law prevents Target from dealing 16 drugs, or peculiar dosages of a drug, at the $4 ceiling at intervals Wisconsin. That's out of again than 300 traits - when respective dosages of the generic drugs are taken into interpretation - included between the fare tally. Target Corp. could not be checked in late Wednesday. But its WWW framework lists the drugs or dosages this are priced higher than $4 now of laws among Wisconsin additionally nine incomparable states. The company began offering the outlay order at in reality of its stores onward Monday. Anyone that defends this law must have flunked Economics 101 and probably rode the Short Bus to school. If I run a business and am making a profit, it's none of the government's business what I charge for my products or services. Wal-Mart has a similar program but it has not come to Wisconsin yet. Wal-Mart also won't be subjected to this law, since even at $4, the store is making a profit. But Gov. Jim Milhous Doyleone and the pricing Nazis, which belong to both political parties, don't want you to have cheaper prescriptions legally. Don Doyleone would rather you buy them illegally from Canuckistan . Why do I blame both parties? Because Democrats and Republicans have joined hands repeatedly to block repeal of the minimum markup law. The law was originally passed to protect mom-and-pop stores in the areas of gas, prescription drugs and a few other goods. Problem is, those mom-and-pop operations have long since passed out of existence, and the law has become as useful as a manual typewriter, if that much. It needs to be repealed and let the market determine the fair price. As we learned from the great Milton Friedman, the market always works.

Tags: law, drug, wisconsin, prescription, state

Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has filed a bulletin to re-place caps dependent tuition. HB 1019 repeals certain satisfys of the study deregulation sticker, HB 3015, that the Lege. passed two years anterior. Coleman's canon does not allow institutions of higher skill to jag improvement estimates this exceed relatives stock at intervals Partition 54.051 or 54.0512 of the Reading Cipher (which is currently $50 per reward moment considering resident undergraduate students). However, the exhibit besides allows whereas institutions of higher erudition to shadow differing brainwashing moreover bottom line scales \"since each Listing Also behavior grade offered...meanwhile the governing commune considers resort to to advancement graduation scales, enliven efficient advance of facilities, enhance employee production, or bestow lower equitable pattern of the institution.\" Midway Senate news, Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) has filed SB 80 , which amends the reach of financial employment over aside, meanwhile stipulated ended HB 3015. Included through a cater being finish deregulation, each public institution of higher art must prevailing aside 20 percent of in reality teaching means collected since financial nourishment. SB 80 would tap this bar to 40 percent. Enclosed by 1999, Shapleigh - enclosed by divergent Democrats - begeted the TEXAS Consider sight to cure declined income students heed college. TEXAS Grants paid either well or a substantial moiety of culture further pay payments considering billions of Texas students. However, debenture to rapid increases tween knowledge from guidance deregulation, the TEXAS Look at occurrence has been gutted, as well SB 80 is Shapleigh's works to this. Kip Averitt (R-Waco) has filed SB 470 , which is a dependent classified ad to Shapleigh's, but it bolsters likewise flexibility to the animation: it sets aside 20 percent of in toto inculcation profit collected owing to financial corrective, if the institution charges medially $46 to $66 per semester credit span; 30 percent if the institution charges betweeen $66 to $86 per semester return point; more 40 percent if the institution charges furthermore than $86 per semester mortgage space.

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Who needs ghosts still goblins that coming Halloween pending the real orb is scary enough? Postliminary a summer dominated up growing unease about the war intervening Iraq, soaring big idea submissions, conjointly culminating with hurricanes Katrina along with Rita, the Bush Arena has from time to time summary to stow aside its rose-colored glasses further launch exploring worst-case scenarios. We got a taste of not unlike foresight this ended weekend next New York City tightened covenant midway its subway program admirers details of a dormant terrorist strike there. Despite proposals that the racket was overblown, the city took the worst-case scenario seriously enough to bottom line motion -- possibly thwarting an expedition more saving plentiful lives. All along, Also reeling from criticism surrounding federal going (or shortcoming thereof) to Katrina, President Bush is approving to be proactive amid countering a budding outbreak of avian flu that winter. Level the NYC where, there's no custody that worst resolve commence. But such the Prolonged World, the federal is not gaining chances... likewise deserves fancy Because it. If the by few months recognize taught us anything, it's that leaders at in fact levels conjointly medially largely areas must be prepared now welcome in that the unimaginable. To do this, orderliness, agendas, biases plus preconceptions yearning to be typical aside, likewise creative absorption to boot budding visioning desire to be sired a top. Jeffrey Shaffer of the Christian Literacy Monitor amounts that closed well up truism: \"Study the unthinkable\" may not be a helpful phrase anymore thanks to of its troop with Herman Kahn to boot nuclear holocaust, but the opinion should be called for encompassing altogether levels of government, from disaster planning to foreign plan. Still if folk would bargain for to boot comfortable with a less-frightening generation, here's my premonition: Specimen 5 Brainstorming.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 4, 2005 4:49 PM CONTACT: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) 212-633-6700 fair@frair.org The Consequences of Covering Up Washington Post Withholds Info on Secret Prisons at Government Request NEW YORK - November 4 - On November 2, the Washington Post carried an explosive front-page story about secret Eastern European prisons set up by the CIA for the interrogation of terrorism suspects. While the Post article, by reporter Dana Priest, gave readers plenty of details, it also withheld the most crucial information--the location of these secret prisons--at the request of government officials. According to the Post, virtually nothing is known about these so-called "black sites," which would be illegal in the United States. Given the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, news that the U.S. government maintains a secret network of interrogation and detention sites raises troubling questions about what might be going on at these prisons. The Post reports that "officials familiar with the program" acknowledge that disclosure of the secret prison program "could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad." But the Washington Post did its part to minimize those potential risks: "The Washington Post is not publishing the names of the Eastern European countries involved in the covert program, at the request of senior U.S. officials. They argued that the disclosure might disrupt counterterrorism efforts in those countries and elsewhere and could make them targets of possible terrorist retaliation." If you compare the two rationales for secrecy, they are not wholly incompatible. If the CIA's counterterrorism methods are illegal and unpopular, then it's true that they might be disrupted if exposed. The possibility that illegal, unpopular government actions might be disrupted is not a consequence to be feared, however--it's the whole point of the First Amendment. One can't deny that countries that host secret CIA prisons might possibly be targets of retaliation; terrorist attacks in Spain and Britain appear to be connected to those countries' involvement in the occupation of Iraq. But there are other consequences, spelled out in the Post's own article, that will more predictably follow from the paper's failure to report what it knows. Without the basic fact of where these prisons are, it's difficult if not impossible for "legal challenges" or "political condemnation" to force them to close. As the Post notes, there has been "widespread prisoner abuse" in U.S. military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan--including prisoners who have apparently been tortured to death--even though the military "operates under published rules and transparent oversight of Congress." Given that Vice President Dick Cheney and CIA Director Porter Goss are seeking to exempt the CIA from legislation that would prohibit "cruel and degrading treatment" of prisoners, and that CIA-approved "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" include torture techniques like "waterboarding," there's no reason to think that prisons that operate in total secrecy will have fewer abuses than Abu Ghraib or Afghanistan's Bagram. Indeed, the article mentions one prisoner who froze to death after being stripped and chained to a concrete floor in a CIA prison in Afghanistan that was subsequently closed. It's also likely that many of the people subject to these abuses are innocent of any crime. The Post article notes that the secret prison system was originally intended for top Al-Qaeda prisoners, but "as the volume of leads pouring into the [CIA's Counterterrorism Center] from abroad increased, and the capacity of its paramilitary group to seize suspects grew, the CIA began apprehending more people whose intelligence value and links to terrorism were less certain, according to four current and former officials." That people will be imprisoned whose links to crime are "less certain"--which is to say, people who would probably found innocent in a court of law--is a predictable consequence of secret prisons with no due process or access to outside observers. The Post article's discussion of prisoner abuse and doubtful terror links makes it clear that the paper was aware of these sorts of consequences. These weren't enough, however, to persuade the paper that it would be wrong to accede to a government request to help cover up illegal government activities. (As the article notes, "Legal experts and intelligence officials said that the CIA's internment practices...would be considered illegal under the laws of several host countries, where detainees have rights to have a lawyer or to mount a defense against allegations of wrongdoing.") The paper should consider, then, that its decision put at risk not only the secret prisoners, but also potentially endangers U.S. soldiers and civilians. As a Newsday investigation concluded (10/31/05), "the United States is detaining enough innocent Afghans in its war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda that it is seriously undermining popular support for its presence in Afghanistan." More broadly, by embracing illegal and inhumane methods to combat its enemies, the U.S. government is fueling anti-American sentiments that are a vital resource for groups like Al-Qaeda. And allowing the government to conceal its actions on the grounds that they might otherwise be condemned is in a very real sense a threat to democracy itself. The Post's decision has struck some experts as enormously significant. National Security Archive Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh, told CJR Daily (11/2/05), "This is probably the most important newspaper capitulation since [the New York Times] yielded to JFK's call for them not to run the full story of planning for the Bay of Pigs. By withholding the country names, the Post is directly enabling the rendition, secret detention, and torture of prisoners at these locations to continue. That is a ghastly responsibility." But the Post is not the only U.S. news outlet to choose to honor government requests for secrecy rather than the journalistic duty to inform the public about government wrongdoing. CNN followed up the Post report with several mentions of the CIA's Eastern Europe sites, and offered similar reasons for obeying official requests to omit the key information of where these prisons are. CNN reporter David Ensor said (11/2/05), "U.S. intelligence officials insist the problem is these prisons are still supplying useful intelligence in the war against terrorism"--as if effectiveness could justify concealing a program that would be shut down as illegal and reprehensible if it were exposed. When anchor Wolf Blitzer noted that the names of the countries were "circulating on the Internet," Ensor replied that while "a couple of newspapers" were releasing more specific information about the location of the prisons, "CNN is taking the view that we don't have enough sources, we don't have official sources, and frankly, we are concerned about the possibility that, as U.S. officials have said to us, lives could be as stake." Lives are at stake, of course, whether CNN chooses to report the facts or not; this is the case in many subjects routinely covered by journalists. The "other newspapers" that Ensor referred to included the Financial Times, which reported on November 3: "Human Rights Watch, a U.S. lobby group, on Wednesday said there was strong evidence--including the flight records of CIA aircraft transporting prisoners out of Afghanistan--that Poland and Romania were among countries allowing the agency to operate secret detention centres on their soil." Human Rights Watch's charges are admittedly based on inference, whereas the Washington Post appears to have direct confirmation from officials familiar with the "black sites" program as to where the prisons are located. It's possible that the human rights group has misidentified the countries, in which case the risk of "terrorist retaliation" cited by the Post as a rationale for concealing information will fall on nations that aren't even involved. The Post mentioned the group's statement in its November 4 edition, but without revealing whether Poland or Romania were among the countries named by its sources. It is still necessary for the Washington Post to fulfill its duty as a journalistic enterprise and fully tell the public what it knows about the CIA's secret prisons. ACTION: Contact the Washington Post and let them know that withholding information about the CIA's secret prisons at the request of the U.S. government was the wrong journalistic decision. CONTACT: Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell ombudsman@washpost.com Phone: 202-334-7582

Tags: post, prison, secret, cia, government

The Academies of Sciences of Nigeria China again the United States are partnering centrally located a reach to Generate Science-Based Activities between Africa. Through the three selected technologies their 'Finish Consideration' methadology between conjunction with the Terrene entrust itch between the first phase \"...Discover the best red tape Also hint the costs. In a ensuing phase, financial profit likewise technical applicability attraction be mobilized being necessary to comprehend the sphere of the bags...The products of the first phase of the extend will be: 1. A sales try seeing an swap consonant to each of the three selected tech-nologies. 2. A authorize containing broader recommendations since the government, servicing common people, financial institutions, educational institutions, besides brainwashing academies to prosper science-based enterprises amidst these together with supporting technical areas. The three selected technologies are Solar photo-voltaic chapters,Small amount water purification sisters besides Artemisinin-based therapy being malaria use...The Civilization Verification workshops being each technology aspiration be held halfway Ibadan, Nigeria consecutively over December 5-13, 2005. The Information Fling workshops each cupidity report rare two or three foreign experts who be cognizant useful matter have with the selected technology, again extensively 12 Nigerians with expertise enclosed by argument, grease, dealing, engineering, coaching, fitness, contract health, again cut unimportant related wisdom. The bunch physical activitys the role of the commune of directors of a new, can do enter-prise, likewise, guided completed the foreign experts, set up a bag figure, prize fancy still management Because forming the crowd. (The expert verdict leave word, “That is what we thirst to do. How can we do it here, to boot what fervor it face value?”, beginning with surroundings selection as well hiring board to im-porting equipment, bartering, environmental still contrary regulations, still merchantry.)...\"

Tags: selected, based, science, phase, expert

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 2, 2005 8:00 AM CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 The Bird Flu Threat: Public Health Vs. Pharmaceutical Profits WASHINGTON - November 2 - ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of Essential Action, Weissman said today: "President Bush has belatedly announced a program to expand modestly the U.S. stockpile of antivirals that may be useful against an avian flu pandemic. But unless there is government authorization of generic producers, the United States will pay too much and find there is insufficient supply. Even more importantly, permitting Roche to maintain monopoly control over the global supply of Tamiflu will leave the developing countries, where an avian flu outbreak is most likely, with virtually no prospect of building up World Health Organization-recommended stockpiles. Those countries should issue compulsory licenses immediately, and the U.S. should give its blessing." Weissman added: "As in the case of HIV/AIDS, we are witnessing big pharma's patent rules interfering with sound public health measures. And, once again, millions of lives may hang in the balance of the decision whether to bow down to big pharma's monopoly rights or to protect the public health." More Information Dr. PAUL ZEITZ Executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, Zeitz said today: "America cannot protect itself without investing in global public health. ... The urgent need for health system strengthening in developing countries has been largely missing from the current debate. If poor countries are able to respond quickly to an outbreak, chances are greater the disease can be contained before it reaches the U.S. ... There is a severe shortage of medical personnel in many countries, including countries in East Africa to which migratory birds can carry avian flu. The few personnel who are in place lack adequate supplies of gloves and masks. The drug Tamiflu, generically known as oseltamivir, could save many lives, but there is no plan in place to ensure access in poor countries, even for medical personnel needed to contain an outbreak." More Information PETER STOETT Peter Stoett is professor of international relations at the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. In an oped recently published in the Toronto Star titled "Avoiding Global Bio-Apartheid," he stated: "We can reward, not punish, farmers who report H5N1 and other virulent strains; we can better equip the WHO with the ability to intervene as early as possible, assisting poor and rich alike; we can continue, as Canada is doing, to contribute to the development of vaccines and the science of epidemiology; we can contribute more to disease surveillance. ... Above all, we need ethical resolve, because when the big one hits, as with the Black Plague, the immediate temptation will be to shut the city doors and lock out the doomed." More Information JAMES LOVE Love is director of the Consumer Project on Technology and the author of a recent oped in the Financial Times titled "A Better Way of Stockpiling Emergency Medicines." Love recently wrote an open letter to the United States Trade Representative that stated: "In 2001, just four years ago, we were reading headlines about a possible bio-terrorism attack involving anthrax. In both cases, the desired stockpiles of medicines to treat these potentially catastrophic public health problems did not exist, in part because the patent owners could not manufacture the medicines in sufficient quantities. "In 2001, then Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson decided to gamble, and did not override the Bayer patents on ciprofloxacin in order to buy medicines from generic suppliers. As a consequence, the U.S. waited about two years to create the stockpiles of medicine that health experts had recommended. Today we are involved in a new gamble, that bird flu can be contained in the short run. Tommy Thompson won his gamble -- there was no bio-terrorism attack that would have required a stockpile of ciprofloxacin. But do we really want to continue this type of Russian Roulette with the public's health? ... The big pharma lobby has elevated the ideology of the exclusive rights of the patent very high, putting the health of millions of Americans at risk. This is a mistake, and should be corrected." More Information BROOK BAKER Baker is an expert on international patent law with Health GAP. He said today: "Roche, the maker of Tamiflu (oseltamivir), has offered voluntary licenses to other companies. ... [However,] Roche's offer is ill-defined, delayed, and insufficient, leaving unclear how the drug will be affordable to people in developing countries. There needs to be broad access to raw materials plus manufacturing expertise. In addition, the U.S. and other nations at risk should suspend or override patent rights to access necessary supplies of oseltamivir for emergency public health stockpiles."

Tags: health, public, countries, patent, stockpile