Deserved credit - Update

After initial criticism of the US for being too slow to respond and responding too little, it has now been announced that the US has increased its pledge for South Asian relief from $35 million to $350 million. Some people call it a pure PR on US part but whatever it is, that is a fact that this money can help millions of people in South Asia and THAT'S what counts at this critical time. So, without politicizing this issue, I do believe the US deserves credit for doing this and I, for my part, am greatful to the US for this pledge.

Update:
Japan has just raised aid to $500 million.

Tsunami victims: How to help

Millions of the survivors of the Tsunami are in desperate need of help.
In this link, you can find many organizations (in Canada) that are accepting donations for the victims. Please give.

“Imprisoned Bloggers were tortured” says ex-VP

Here there is a translation of what Iran's Ex-Vice president says about the torture of the jailed bloggers in Iran.

And here is the original post in Farsi.

The existance of torture in Iran is no surprise to anybody but this post is significant because it is written by a man who not long ago was Iran's Vice President.

Mass killing in the anniversary of mass killing - Update

After the devastating earth quake in the ancient city of Bam in Iran which killed about 30,000 sleeping people just a day after Christmas last year, looks like god/nature is once again busy killing thousands of people, right in the anniversary of the previous year's devastation, this time in south Asia.

The death toll in South and Southeast Asia from an earthquake off Indonesia is nearing 24,000. And Indonesia's vice-president said early Tuesday the number of dead in his country alone may eventually top 25,000.
Sri Lanka has reported 12,000 deaths. India is estimated to have lost more than 7,000 people and those figures are expected to rise. Deaths have been reported in the Maldives, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Somalia, Mynmar and Thailand.

Update:

The death toll resulted from the recent devastation in South Asia is rapidly rising, but there are also hundreds of thousands of people who are in desperate need of assistance. Canadian Red Cross is accepting donations for these victims. You can either donate online, or call 1-800-418-1111, 24 hours a day. Wherever in the world you are, you can help by contacting either Red Cross or other relief agencies who will be involved in this common effort of helping those in desperate need of help. Please be generous and donate. Every bit counts.

No one could help fundamentalism more than Bush

It has been rightfully said so many time that the so-called fight against terrorism and extremism policies of the Bush administration has not only not helped the world to become a safer place, but has helped fundamentalism grow with an otherwise unimaginable speed. It has been exactly the same policies which made many fundamentalists cross their fingers for the "re"election of George Bush for another 4 year term as the president of the United States. Another term that might be sufficient enough for them to recruit more people and grow even more than they could not otherwise even imagine.

As far as the Iraq war is concerned, it has been clear that the US leaders live in fantasyland and want to take the US public into the same wishful land, but that is just a dream. The reality on the ground in Iraq only suggests that the US is not winning, but is losing. And the winners are, in big part, religious fundamentalists.

The US's stupid foreign policies do not only end with Iraq. Us's policies towards Israeli/Palestinian conflict and its unconditional support of the Israeli occupation, and alienating secular Palestinians and PLO, has only resulted in stronger and more popular fundamentalist Palestinian groups such as Hamas.

In each day that this administration is in power, there is one more defeat for humanity and one more victory for fundamentalism of all type.

If this is not barbarism, then what is?

American soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners by strangling them, beating them and placing lit cigarettes in their ears, even after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal came to light in April 2004, according to new allegations.

Internal FBI memorandums made public on Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union include detailed reports of detainees in Iraq being chained for long periods, left to defecate on themselves in cold prison cells, and other inhumane treatment.

...."President Bush issued an executive order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq."

According to the documents, those methods included "sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc."

Read the rest here.

... "The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor with a pile of hair next to him," the (FBI) memo said. "He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night."

Read the rest here.

Not only brainless, but heartless too

President Bush granted four pardons Tuesday, bringing to just 31 the total of pardons and sentence commutations he has issued during his first term, the Justice Department announced.

The number of clemency orders issued by Bush is far off the pace of most modern presidents and less than half the 77 granted by his father, President George H.W. Bush...

...President Clinton, by contrast, granted clemency for 456 people during his eight years in office, including 176 on his last day at the White House.

This man not only has no functioning brain in his head, but he also lacks human heart in his chest.

Discrimination against women, even in the form of execution

Capital punishment is barbaric (period). However, some forms of capital punishment are even more barbaric. "Stoning to death" is the one that comes to my mind right a way. This is a form of execution that is practiced in many countries, and occasionally in Iran. Looks like the form of execution in Iran also depends on the gender. If one is supposed to be executed by stoning, depending on the gender, the person is buried up to certain level of the body. If the person is a male, he is buried up to his waists but if the person is a female, she is buried up to her breasts for the purpose of execution by stoning. This is important because apparently if the convicted person manages to get himself or herself out of the hole while being stoned, he/she can go free. So, if the convict is physically stronger, the possibility of getting out of the hole is higher. This is where the discrimination against women even in the form of execution becomes clear as it is obviously easier for the person who is buried up the waists to get out of the hole, especially if the person is physically stronger which is generally the case with men relative to women.

Unless something happens, unless we act fast, a women will certainly be executed by stoning before December 21. Amnesty International wants us to act to try to stop this barbarism. Please, don't just sit. Please spend some time to act as Amnesty is directing. You never know, may be your own action would have an impact. Amnesty's calls for actions have been effective before. It might be effective again. Please click here and act as Amnesty wants you to act.

No, this is not the same one that I had a post about a few days ago.

Dead puppet cannot talk

Coincidence? May be. But just "may be". Only a few days after a Chilean judge announced that Pinochet is fit to stand trial, General Pinochet has just had a stroke. I am sure some powers would like to see him dead and not to go on trial. His death will be most beneficial to the US as dead Pinochet cannot tell the world that he was just a puppet. Dead Pinochet cannot tell the world that in what he did, he had a powerful partner called the United States of America.

Attack in bad weather

$85 million dollars which could have fed hundreds of thousands of starving people for quite some time, have gone wasted during the missile defense test which failed due to the bad weather.

Bush and his gang who represent some of the richest bastards of the world, from the oil companies to military hardware manufacturers, are doing nothing but servicing these monsters who are in the business of death and destruction. The more talk of and the more walk for weapons, the more money for these bastards and Bush, the dumb puppet, is providing the highest service to them and the highest disgrace for himself every time he provides these bastards more opportunity to exercise their endless greeds.

Any way, the US missile defence test failed; possibly due to the bad weather. It's funny to know that this system which, at least partially, is supposed to be installed in Alaska with its known harsh weather, has failed due to the harsh weather. Well, the imaginary future attackers against the US, should now be very happy. After all, they know by now that they can attack the US when the weather is bad and this multi-billion dollar so-called defence shield has caught cold.

I am disgusted - UPDATE

Mentally-ill girl who was sold for sex faces death penalty in Iran. It is just outrageous. It is disgusting.

I have looked but haven't yet seen any call from Amnesty International regarding this case but I am sure there will be action calls from the Amnesty to stop this horrific execution. Please let us know if you come across any action call from the Amnesty and then please write/act as directed by the Amnesty.

Update:
It turns out that Amnesty has indeed recommended action on this issue. Please contain your anger when writing letters as it can backfire and act only as recommended by the Amensty. Please spend a few minutes and act as required. Also, please encourage others to do the same. Please do.

Pinochet without Kissinger, an incomplete "team"

General Augusto Pinochet has been arrested on murder charges. Why is Kissinger not with him? After all, Kissinger was the main backer of Pinochet in his Coupe against the democratically elected President of Chile in 1973; September 11, 1973.

Pinochet's crimes were all shared by those who backed him in what he did against the will of the Chilean nation and representing the United States; Henry Kissinger was on top the list of his backers.

Israel accused of industrial spying

Israel accused of industrial spying from the US. But this story will not be widely publicized. The mainstream media won't let that happen. I guess, Americans are not supposed to hear it.

191 middle fingers for the Congressmen

Conservative U.S. lawmakers called for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's resignation. Instead he received a supportive standing ovation in the 191-nation General Assembly

Oil-for-food program was only the excuse, the real reason was that Annan had recently called the invasion of Iraq illegal. But hey, they got another embarrassment that they deserved.

Not surprising

The Israeli Rights group: Serious Suspicion that IDF Executed an Unarmed and Injured Palestinian (when there, click on "Press Releases")

And
Israeli soldiers 'shoot boy for fun'

More "nicely" packaged terrorism

The Central Intelligence Agency was aware that dissident military officers and opposition figures in Venezuela were planning a coup against President Hugo Chávez in 2002, newly declassified intelligence documents show. But immediately after the overthrow, the Bush administration blamed Mr. Chávez, a left-leaning populist, for his own downfall and denied knowing about the threats.

There is nothing new in this. This is a traditional US policy around the world. Trying to eliminate what it didn't like (or, didn't like anymore), US has done this to any government it opposed whether with "peaceful" means or by killing thousands of people as a result. This is only a wider but a similar behavior that terrorists share with the foreign policies of the US. The only difference is that the terrorists always choose violent method, because of their limited power, but the US sometimes may adopt the so-called peaceful means due to the existence of more options because of more resources available to the US. At the end of the day, terrorism is terrorism, only one is more nicely packaged.

Ottawa's air stank yesterday; Bush was in town

Bush, the mass murderer, put his dirty steps on Canadian soil yesterday. Ottawa's soil has been contaminated. Its air also stinks and will continue stinking for quite some time even after "the dirt" is out of the beautiful city.

He was greeted by angry protesters who were protesting the presence of the "disgrace of humanity" in Canada. The crowd could have been much larger if his visit was in the weekend. Crime-hater Canadians from all over the country would have been there to show how much a disgrace they consider Bush to be. Bush was supposed to address the parliament too but he chose not to. He knew he wouldn't be quite welcomed in there too. Expect his like-minded neo-conservatives of the new Conservative party, he is not liked by many representatives of the Canadians as he is not liked by the general Canadian public. Canadians don't like the murderer of 100,000 people. No decent being can like this monstrous creature who also happens to be so dumb. No decent being can like him.

Bush also took his dirty existence to the eastern Canadian city of Halifax to "thank" Canadians who took 7000 Americans into the warmth of their homes when their flights where redirected to Canadian eastern cities right after the September 11 attacks. After over three years of initially ignoring and not acknowledging the help of Canadians after 9/11 attacks, Bush wanted to thank eastern Canadians for their hospitality. I am sure people of eastern Canada did not do it for Bush. They did it because that is in Canada's nature. They did it because some people needed help, and helping those people was the right thing to do. Bush should have kept his stupid thank for himself as Canadians do dislike him and his fake thanks and gratitudes have no value to Canadians.