text:
Filed under: Africa, Europe, Global, Middle East, North America
Greetings all,
Of course you will be following events on the ground and you will know that the carnage in Libya is far from over despite the fact that the pro-imperialist corporate media is now silent and has moved on. All of a sudden, as we would expect, they are no longer interested in massacres in Libya. They have gone silent to allow the NATO backed forces to get on with their job of exterminating Qaddafi loyalists. Thousands of Qaddafi loyalists who have managed to leave Libya are now regrouping and organising the Libyan Liberation Front throughout the region known as the Sahel. Tuareg tribal leaders across the region have called for a unified front to avenge the murder of their brother and leader. As you know the Tuaregs do not recognise the colonial imposed borders and tribal leaders are calling for the liberation of the entire Sahel.
I am sending this message to alert you to the fact that many of our brothers and sisters inside Libya are in grave danger. Thousands have been rounded up, imprisoned, tortured and murdered. NATO has installed a death squad regime and many, including whole families – children and elderly, are in hiding, knowing that if they are only identified they will be murdered. Al Qaeda thugs are running amok and you will have seen the Al Qaeda flag flying on public buildings including the courthouse in Benghazi. You will recall that even the corporate media commented on the fact that the crowds that showed up in the streets to celebrate the so-called liberation of Libya were small. Of course they were – they represented a tiny minority of Libyans. Those who dared to show themselves in the streets at that time and wave the Green Flag were killed, in some instances beaten to death. The list of NATO crimes is inexhaustible. The frightening thing is that it does not seem to matter how much their heinous crimes are exposed – the North Atlantic Tribes have been able to continue their reign of terror and acts of genocide with impunity for centuries – they have been and remain without doubt the most brutal terrorists the world has ever known – that is why it was no surprise to us to find them fighting alongside the US created terrorist network Al Qaeda. I hope all those who doubted the Brother Leader's warnings from the outset now see the Al Qaeda flags flying and the reports from civilians inside Libya that there are 'armed gangs everywhere and that they appear to be on drugs as they rampage through the cities, towns and villages, murdering and looting.
Only last month Dr Abu Zeid Omar Dorda, the former Libyan Ambassador to the UN was actually thrown out of a second floor window during interrogations by NATO agents but he miraculously survived in front of witnesses and is now recovering in a prison medical ward. Accounts from those inside Libya are that these NATO backed rebel forces are animals and that what is now taking place on the ground inside Libya is pure terrorism. We are asking for pressure to be applied wherever you can to draw attention to this carnage. I want to highlight the case of Dr Ahmed Ibrahim, a former Secretary for Education, a brilliant scholar and well known exponent of the Third Universal Theory. Dr Ibrahim is an ideologue of the Al Fateh revolution and a staunch revolutionary Pan Africanist. He has been captured and we believe he is being held in Sirte. Dr Moussa
Ibrahim, the spokesperson for the Al Fateh Revolutionary Forces is his nephew.
Dr Ibrahim, like so many, was offered safe passage out of Libya but refused to leave. He is an intellectual warrior who stood his ground in Sirte and is now a prisoner of war and should be treated as a prisoner of war.
To those of you who attended the Green Book Supporters conference in Tripoli in 2009 Dr. Ibrahim was the person who introduced the Brother Leader Muammar Qaddafi.
If any of you are in a position to publicise his case and the plight of hundreds of thousands of Libyans who fear for their lives please do so.
The struggle continues.
Filed under: Africa, Asia, Europe, Global, Middle East, North America
Filed under: Africa, Europe, Global, Middle East, North America
Filed under: Africa, Europe, Global, Middle East, North America
Filed under: Africa, Europe, Global, Indigenous
Filed under: Latin America
Filed under: Asia, Global, Middle East
Published Sep 23, 2011
On Thursday, September 22, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the U.N. General Assembly. Below is the complete text of his speech.
Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am grateful to the Almighty Allah who granted me, once more, the opportunity to appear before this world assembly. I have the pleasure to express my sincere thanks to H.E. Joseph Deiss, president of the sixty-fifth session for his tremendous efforts during his tenure. I also would like to congratulate H.E. Nassir Abdulaziz AI-Nasser on his election as the president of sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly and wish him all success.
Let me seize the moment to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives in the past year, particularly to the victims of the tragic famine in Somalia and the devastating flood in Pakistan and especially the earthquake and the ensuing explosions in the nuclear power plant in Japan. I urge everyone to intensify their assistance and aid to the affected populations in these countries.
Over the past years, I spoke about different global issues, and the need to introduce fundamental changes in the current international order.
Today, considering the international developments, I will try to analyze the present situation from a different angle. As you all know, the dominance and superiority of human beings over other creatures lie in the very nature and the truth of humankind, which is a divine gift and manifestation of the divine spirit, including: faith in God, who is the ever-lasting creator and planner of the entire universe.
Showing compassion to others, generosity, justice-seeking and having integrity both in words and in deeds.
The quest for dignity to reach the pinnacles of perfection, the aspiration to elevate one's material and spiritual status, and the longing to realize liberty; defying oppression, corruption and discrimination in trying to support the oppressed; seeking happiness, and lasting prosperity and security for all.
These are some of the manifestations of common divine and human attributes, which can clearly be seen in the historical aspirations of human beings as reflected in the heritage of our search for art and literary works both in prose and poetry, and in the socio-cultural and political movements of human beings in the course of history.
All divine Continue reading
Filed under: Africa, Global, Middle East
Source: MR Zine
11 September 2011
The Foreign Ministers of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, meeting in Caracas, Venezuela on 9 September 2011, recalling the Special Communiqué of the Political Council on 4 March 2011 and the Special Communiqué of the Ministerial Social Council on 19 March 2011, condemns the NATO intervention in Libya and its illegal military aggression, carried out under the cover of a UN Security Council resolution, opportunistically exploiting the situation of the internal political conflict in that country.
The ALBA foreign ministers denounce the NATO for carrying out a military operation for regime change in Libya under the doctrine of preventive war, manipulating the UN to suit its geopolitical and economic interests in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
The ALBA foreign ministers demand the immediate and unconditional cessation of the NATO bombings and military intervention in the Libyan territory.
The ALBA foreign ministers deplore the fact that the NATO has disregarded the persistent efforts of the African Union in search of a solution to the internal conflict in Libya based on dialogue to achieve peace.
The ALBA foreign ministers also deplore the complicity of various major international media, which have colluded with those interested in aggression and lent themselves to the purpose of distorting information about the state of affairs in Libya.
The ALBA foreign ministers issue their most urgent warning on the danger that the Libyan precedent may be repeated against Syria, by means of exploiting the ongoing political troubles in that Arab nation.
The ALBA foreign ministers reiterate their firmest commitment to the right to self-determination of the peoples of Libya and Syria.
The ALBA foreign ministers most energetically reject any Continue reading
Filed under: Global, Latin America, North America
The latest effort in the process of regional integration of the Latin American and Caribbean countries took place on Feb. 22-23 in Cancún, Mexico, with the participation of 32 independent nations.
The new organization, called the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CLACS), is an attempt to create a body that would not include the United States or Canada, in order to establish an independent bloc that can respond to and pursue the interests of the region — not only among the member states at the hemisphere level, but in the international arena as well.
Of the 33 countries in the region, only Honduras was not invited. It was expelled from the Organization of American States last summer due to the criminal military coup of June 2009 that deposed the democratically elected president, José Manuel Zelaya.
CLACS is considered by many regional presidents as the alternative to the U.S.-dominated OAS. In fact, the failure of the OAS to respond in an effective manner, which could have reversed the Honduras coup, hastened the convening of the new Community. Most of the governments in CLACS have made it clear they consider the Honduran coup an Continue reading
Filed under: Africa, Global, Middle East, North America
Under the most incredibly difficult conditions – including NATO bombing, mercenary landings, Special Forces operations and the destruction of civilian infrastructure – the heroic resistance to imperialist conquest in Libya has continued.
All the corporate media lies claiming mass surrender, the fleeing of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, the arrest of his sons and more have turned out to be nothing but lies and psychological warfare. After 159 days of bombing, incredibly, the resistance continues.
The continued resistance also exposes the lie of the so-called democratic "rebel" forces – forces that have been set up by Britain, France and the U.S. to facilitate the imperialist invasion of the oil-rich country. Meanwhile, arms have been distributed by the Libyan government to the whole population – something a hated dictator would never do.
As in Iraq and Afghanistan, an arrogant declaration of U.S. victory and "mission accomplished" does not mean an end to local people's resistance, which takes many forms. The Libyan people have heroically withstood not only half a year of Continue reading
Filed under: Africa, Global, North America
Published Aug 27, 2011
The Obama administration has rejected a call for a posthumous presidential pardon for Marcus Garvey, calling it a waste of time and resources.
The denial of a pardon came only recently, in response to a campaign waged by attorney Donovan Parker, who had been writing Obama weekly since January 2011 calling for Garvey's pardon.
The denial letter stated: "Many posthumous pardon requests would likely be based on a claim of manifest injustice, and given that decades have passed since the event and the historical record would have to be scoured to objectively and comprehensively investigate such applications, it is the Department's position that the limited resources which are available to process requests for Presidential clemency — now being submitted in record numbers — are best dedicated to requests submitted by persons who can truly benefit from a grant of the request."
So the Obama administration says pardoning Continue reading
Filed under: Global
"Nihilistic and feral teenagers" the Daily Mail called them: the crazy youths from all walks of life who raced around the streets mindlessly and desperately hurling bricks, stones and bottles at the cops while looting here and setting bonfires there, leading the authorities on a merry chase of catch-as-catch-can as they tweeted their way from one strategic target to another.
The word "feral" pulled me up short. It reminded me of how the communards in Paris in 1871 were depicted as wild animals, as hyenas, that deserved to be (and often were) summarily executed in the name of the sanctity of private property, morality, religion, and the family. But then the word conjured up another association: Tony Blair attacking the "feral media," having for
so long been comfortably lodged in the left pocket of Rupert Murdoch only later to be substituted as Murdoch reached into his right pocket to pluck out David Cameron.
There will of course be the usual hysterical debate between those prone to view the riots as a matter of pure, unbridled and inexcusable criminality, and those anxious to contextualize events against a background of bad policing; continuing racism and unjustified persecution of youths and minorities; mass unemployment of the young; burgeoning social deprivation; and a mindless politics of austerity that has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with the perpetuation and consolidation of personal wealth and power. Some may even get around to condemning the meaningless and alienating qualities of so many jobs and so much of daily life in the midst of immense but unevenly distributed potentiality for human flourishing
Filed under: Africa, Global, Middle East, North America
By the Historical Research Group of the Nation of Islam (FinalCall.com) – The U.S.-led attack on Libya is an American operation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), planned and initiated long before any "protests" started in Libya this February. Under the guise of "protecting innocent civilians," the U.S. military, Africom, NATO, and the United Nations are now bombing Libya, raining destruction upon the Libyan economic and military infrastructure and killing untold numbers of innocent Africans. Here are just 10 of the many obvious reasons why this so-called "spontaneous" protest was from beginning to end another CIA operation.
1. The United States' motives are suspect. The "humanitarian" concern expressed by the American government has not taken long to evaporate. The claim that Col. Muammar Gadhafi was "slaughtering his own people" cannot be substantiated by any independent evidence, and no "journalists" are even asking for evidence. The White House's policy advisor and Israeli lobby official Dennis Ross claimed that "up to 100,000 people could be massacred, and everyone would blame us for it." Ross has produced no proof of a massacre—and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen both confirmed, "We've seen no confirmation whatsoever." Russian military has been monitoring the unrest via satellite from the very beginning, and they say that the claimed "slaughter" is imaginary.
CIA √ 2. The world media have shown a shocking lack of curiosity. Just as with the U.S. debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan, the New York Times leads a coordinated campaign of propaganda, rumor-mongering, and the demonization of Muammar Gadhafi. Some articles appear to be written in advance and closely follow the prescription of the Washington consulting firm Wirthlin Group, which determined that "the message most likely to motivate public support for war on Iraq was Continue reading
Filed under: Africa, Global, Middle East
There is no doubt, Israel is an Apartheid state; There is only one word, boycott!
We, students and youth of a post Apartheid South Africa, who bear the scars of a racist history and who continue to fight for complete liberation, have a duty and responsibility to stand in solidarity with those facing oppression worldwide. Israeli apartheid is one such form of oppression.
Israeli media boast that a mission of 150 Israeli propagandists will be sent to universities in 5 countries to fix Israel's "serious image problems". The Israeli mission will begin on South African campuses on the 11th of August, with a delegation that includes at least two aides from the Israeli parliament. A delegation member was clear about the intention of their trip: "We have to create some doubt in their [South African students'] minds."
Don't patronize us! We lived apartheid, we suffered apartheid, we know what apartheid is, we recognise apartheid when we see it. And when we see Israel, we see a regime that practices apartheid. Israel's image needs no changing; its policies do! We urge Israeli students to instead join the growing and inspiring internal resistance to their regime, particularly the boycott from within movement, rather than waste time and money on these propaganda trips to deceive us Black students, South Africans have no need for these Muldergate-like trips.
A "major focus" of the Israeli trip will be the University of Johannesburg (UJ). On 1st April 2011 UJ's Senate, with the full backing of UJ's Student Representative Council, terminated its institutional relationship with Israel's Ben-Gurion University. Indeed, UJ set an academic boycott of Israel precedent that all other South African and international universities can follow.
Following UJ's decision, and in response to a letter sent to us by Palestinian students, we urge all SRCs, student groups and other youth structures to Continue reading
Filed under: Middle East, North America
By Chris Hedges
May 09, 2011 "Truthdig" — News personalities, politicians, self-appointed experts on the Muslim world, and law enforcement and intelligence officials, as well as the Christian right, have successfully demonized Muslims in the United States since the attacks of 2001. It is acceptable to say things openly about Muslims that could never be said about any other ethnic group. And as the economy continues to unravel, as we face the possibility of revenge attacks by Islamic extremists, perhaps on American soil, the plight of Muslims is beginning to mirror that of targeted ethnic minority groups on the eve of the war in the former Yugoslavia, or Jews in the dying days of the Weimar Republic.
The major candidates for the Republican nomination for the presidency, including Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee, along with television personalities such as Bill Maher, routinely employ hate talk against Muslims as a way to attract votes or viewers. Right-wing radio and cable news, including Christian radio and television, along with websites such as Jihad Watch and FrontPage, spew toxic filth about Muslims over the airwaves and the Internet. But perhaps most ominously—as pointed out in "Manufacturing the Muslim Menace," a report by Political Research Associates—a cadre of right-wing institutions that peddle themselves as counterterrorism specialists and experts on the Muslim world has been indoctrinating thousands of police, intelligence and military personnel in nationwide seminars. These seminars, run by organizations such as Security Solutions International, The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, and International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association, embrace gross and distorted stereotypes and propagate wild conspiracy theories. And much of this indoctrination within the Continue reading
Filed under: Africa, Europe, Middle East, North America
Bomb Everything in Libya
Pirates of the Mediterranean
By William Bowles
"The media rush to glorify Obama the 'warrior president' is symptomatic of a Western society that has come to view war as entirely normal… It is by now almost impossible to imagine that the West would not always be attacking, or targeting for attack, some defenceless nation or other." — 'You Cannot Kill An Ideology With A Gun' By Media Lens
May 20, 2011 "Information Clearing House" – All things being equal, which undoubtedly they are not, and surely that's point, the long overdue arrival of a truly socialized, globalized planet would have been able to tackle the mess capitalism has made of things. After all, our disasters are now planetary in scale and thus can now only be handled by the planet as a whole. That means all of us, not just a privileged few.
And, it is surely an irony that 'globalization' has been heralded, nay crowed over by the Pirates as the solution to all our problems, yet it's the nature of capitalist 'globalization' that is the main source of not only our local but also now the global crises that multiply by the day as the Empire desperately seeks to hang on to its ill-gotten gains. Problems that now threaten our future as a species, never mind a better future for all.
No doubt when comrade Marx first branded our socialist vision with 'Workers of the World, Unite', he had no idea just how badly his world would screw up everything, for although he was the first true globalist and experienced first-hand the awesome power of industrial capitalism to 'tame nature', I am sure given the lack of knowledge about the real nature of the biosphere as well as capitalism's astounding ability to consume everything in its path, nothing could have prepared him for Fukushima or Chernobyl.
Operation Odyssey Dawn however would have been ever such familiar territory to him. Such 'escapades' formerly known as Gunboat Diplomacy had helped build the world Marx inhabited. The only difference was that back then they didn't need a pretext, might was right, end of story. Nowadays, with all the talk of 'human rights' and war crimes, gunboat diplomacy is a tad out of sync with all the horseshit being peddled by the Pirates.
The outrageous call by Gen. Sir Richard Davis the other day to bomb everything in Continue reading
Filed under: Africa, Europe, Middle East, North America
Libya War Lies Worse Than Iraq
By Thomas C. Mountain
Source:Information Clearing House
July 23, 2011 "Information Clearing House" — Asmara, Eritrea: The lies used to justify the NATO war against Libya have surpassed those created to justify the invasion of Iraq. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both had honest observers on the ground for months following the rebellion in eastern Libya and both have repudiated every major charge used to justify the NATO war on Libya.
According to the Amnesty observer, who is fluent in Arabic, there is not one confirmed instance of rape by the pro-Gadaffi fighters, not even a doctor who knew of one. All the Viagra mass rape stories were fabrications.
Amnesty could not verify a single "African mercenary" fighting for Gaddafi story, and the highly charged international satellite television accounts of African mercenaries raping women that were used to panic much of the eastern Libyan population into fleeing their homes were fabrications.
There were no confirmed accounts of helicopter gun ships attacking civilians and no jet fighters bombing people which completely invalidates any justification for the No-Fly Zone inSecurity Council resolution used as an excuse for NATO to launch its attacks on Libya.
After three months on the ground in rebel controlled territory, the Amnesty investigator could only confirm 110 deaths in Benghazi which included Gadaffi supporters.
Only 110 dead in Benghazi? Wait a minute, we were told thousands had Continue reading
Filed under: Africa, Middle East, North America
Filed under: "canada"
I often find it hard to feel empathy for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But when I saw the grim picture of him talking on the phone following the end of his confinement in the locked down House of Commons yesterday, I sensed in him a vulnerability he rarely exhibits. Harper, like his fellow MPs, Parliamentary staff, media, visitors and children in the downstairs daycare, had likely hunkered down behind locked doors, no doubt traumatized by uncertainty when an armed gunman entered the building. Because no one knew who the gunman was after, all were potential targets. For half a day, everyone on lockdown no doubt felt the fear, despair, sadness and fragile sense of mortality that people in Iraq and Syria have experienced daily for decades, an extra punch of which they will soon receive at the hands of Canadian CF-18 bombers.
It's the kind of trauma not to be wished upon anyone, and I hope all affected will get the kind of counselling and therapeutic support necessary to deal with what may emerge as multiple cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), otherwise known as the condition that you get denied proper treatment for when you are a returning Canadian military veteran.
Like those in Afghanistan who suffered 13 years of Canadian bombardment (upwards of a billion Canadian bullets fired), night raids, transfers to torture, and the daily indignities of life under military occupation, those Parliamentarians with the power to declare war — and send somebody else overseas to fight it for them — felt, in a relatively limited fashion, what it's like for millions of the world's war-weary populations. The image of a cowering John Baird or Jason Kenney hiding in a barricaded office must have proven a stark contrast to the swaggering, macho manner in which these men urged Canada to declare war on ISIS, further fuelling the flames of fear and hatred against Muslims.
Out-of-the-blue violence
Thankfully, most of yesterday's hostages to violence in Parliament went home last night to warm houses with showers, uninterrupted electricity supply, food in the fridge, and the knowledge that this horror is unlikely to happen tomorrow and four or five times for the remainder of the month or periodically for the rest of their lives. But had this happened in Iraq, such relative safety would not be guaranteed, in part due to Canada's role in obliterating that nation's economy, electricity and water supply, and health-care system, first though intensive bombing in 1991, military enforcement of a decade's worth of brutal sanctions that killed a million Iraqis, and renewed support and participation in the 2003 invasion that was made possible by Canadian weapons, technical components, navy personnel and equipment, embedded troops, and high-ranking military officials. It was also out of Iraq's torturing prisons during the occupation that numerous ISIS leaders emerged.
The tragic murder of a young Canadian reservist and the Parliamentary shootout was all the more shocking because of its sudden, seemingly out-of-the-blue fashion. In the same way, on a daily basis in tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Yemen, in Somalia, children in schools, celebrants at weddings, and other individuals and families are suddenly, shockingly killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a remote control-operated drone, likely with the Canadian-built targeting camera courtesy of L-3 Wescam in Burlington, Ontario.
What is being treated as Canada's 9/11 is a day that recalls the comments made half a century ago by the great Malcolm X, who commented that the assassination of President Kennedy was a case of "chickens coming home to roost," a result of a "climate of hate" fostered by a U.S. political and corporate establishment regularly overthrowing governments and assassinating (or plotting against) a variety of leaders from Patrice Lumumba to Fidel Castro. At the time, Malcolm X was vilified for speaking the truth, one that America was not ready to accept, just as many Canadians may be unwilling to do now.
Indeed, how many Canadians reading that last paragraph would step back and say, "That's them, not us"? The horrible sound of gunfire in Parliament must have sounded a small bit of like some opening moments during the Canadian-supported coup against the democratically elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende in 1973, one of many coups Canada has given support to (including more recently the coups in Honduras, Egypt, Haiti, etc.). One reporter gasped that it was simply incongruous to see SWAT teams escorting her through the Parliament in which she worked, and yet Canadian policy throughout much of the world forces her counterparts to walk that ring of heavily armed men on a daily basis.
Rather than viewing yesterday's tragic events as a wake-up call to seriously examine Canada's negative role on the world stage and the inevitable "climate of hate" to which we are contributing, we can expect nothing less than a ride on the Platitude Express, which embarked within minutes of the first bullets being fired.
The Platitude Express
From endless references to the "loss of innocence" to the pronouncements that "things will never be the same" (especially in the "hallowed halls" of Parliament), we are witnessing the cranking up of our self-loving myth machine into high gear.
In this climate, do not expect our finest hour. Yesterday's events will be used as the springboard to call for greater militarization of the national culture and justification for unending war against ISIL/ISIS or any other convenient enemy-du-jour. This will lead to further increases in war spending, despite the fact that the War Dept. was supposed to come up with $2 billion in cuts. The wars in Ukraine and Iraq — costs for which are being kept secret, without much protest — will easily double that. These events will also be used to attack anyone who questions Canada's role in wars past or present.
New repressive laws
The events of yesterday will likely also have a congealing impact on Parliamentarians who, understandably, shared a trauma together. Wednesday was supposed to be the Harper government's opportunity to unleash a new round of legislative measures designed to give CSIS and the RCMP even more freedom to trade information with torturers, monitor people overseas, take part in extraordinary rendition programs, and be completely immune from prosecution and oversight by the creation of a special class privilege that would assert the right of CSIS agents and informers not to be questioned about their activities in any court of law, public or secret.
But after yesterday, what opposition leader who wants to appear prime ministerial will feel comfortable saying no to such an agenda? The Conservatives will no doubt frame the issue with the familiar refrain, "you're either with the terrorists or against them."
Perhaps the most immediate impact will be felt in certain communities targeted for racial and religious profiling. While Canadian soldiers have been told to stay indoors and not show themselves in public, individuals of South Asian or Middle Eastern heritage, and certainly anyone who may be a Muslim or perceived as one, may have second thoughts about being out in public. These communities will be the subject of demands from the media and some "community leaders" to "out" radicalized young people, to call in "suspicious" behavior (undefined), and to report their neighbours to CSIS or the Mounties. They will find greater difficulty travelling, and they will learn first-hand about something called the Passenger Protect Program (or no-fly list).
This is especially so since, while we do not know much about the shooter, media have been quick to point out that although he was a Canadian, he was of "Algerian" heritage, and a recent convert to Islam. Both are completely irrelevant factors, but so commonly part of the daily anti-terror discourse that no second thought is given to the consequences of bringing it up.
The game is no longer far away
Glenn Greenwald adequately summed things up by asking why Canada, a nation that has been at war for 13 years and counting, would be shocked that someone might actually (however unjustifiably), do what he felt was needed to fight back. But as a country that wages war but has never suffered from war the way Russia or France or Syria or Iraq have, we have always been insulated against the consequences of our actions, buoyed by a mythology that allows us to wear Canadian flags on backpacking trips through Europe.
By day's end, Harper addressed the nation, his discourse unchanged from the bellicose rumblings of last week as he rammed through a Parliamentary vote to bomb Iraq and Syria: "Canada will never be intimidated…redouble our efforts…savagery…no safe haven…"
After a long day focused on these gripping events in the nation's capital, I have to wonder if this direct experience of fear and trauma will force us to examine our own addiction to violence as the solution to conflict. Yesterday provides us with an opportunity to reflect on our insidious contribution to the climate of hate, and the chance to disengage from our increasingly militarized culture.
Matthew Behrens is a freelance writer and social justice advocate who co-ordinates the Homes not Bombs non-violent direct action network. He has worked closely with the targets of Canadian and U.S. 'national security' profiling for many years.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Filed under: Uncategorized
By SASCHA BERCOVITCH, JUL 29TH 2013.
Caracas, July 29th 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – The consolidation of a system of "popular government" will be the primary goal of the second stage of Venezuela's Street Government initiative, President Nicolas Maduro announced yesterday during a ceremony at Caracas' Mountain Barracks, where the coffin of Hugo Chavez is being held, to honor the birthday of the late president.
In his speech, Maduro listed ten other objectives that the program would focus on moving forward.
Regarding the issue of insecurity, Maduro spoke of the strengthening of the Plan Secure Homeland, in which members of the military patrol crime-ridden areas. He also called for peace among Venezuelan youth, adding that numerous armed groups would soon turn in their weapons to be incorporated into various social programs.
Further objectives focused on restoring the supply of basic products and exchange rate controls to combat inflation; detecting and prosecuting cases of corruption; and stabilizing the country's system of electricity, which occasionally leaves blackouts in some regions of the country.
Maduro also expressed support for the Military Street Government program, an initiative launched under new Defense Minister Carmen Melendez.
"Don't stop: continue with your plans to visit barracks, military units, academies, and schools to strengthen and improve them. You know that you can count on me as President of the Republic and as commander in chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces," he said.
Since being launched at the end of April, Maduro's Street Government has approved 2,450 projects, which arose from over 2,000 popular assemblies and other activities held throughout the country. Maduro stated that the outreach had allowed the government to interact with over 3,483,000 citizens.
"It's a contact from the people to the people," Maduro said, "because we too are the people. Here, the bourgeoisie, the bigwigs of the right, are not governing. The working class people are governing."
At an earlier event yesterday in Sabaneta, Barinas state, the hometown of Chavez, Maduro indicated that the second phase of the Street Government would begin "very soon … from Sabaneta, through all of Venezuela."
Filed under: Uncategorized
By: Brad Michelson, Global Research, August 05, 2013
The CIA was smuggling weapons from Libyan weapons depots to the Syrian rebels during the 2012 attack on the US embassy in Benghazi. According to a report by CNN, an unnamed source has leaked that the alleged cover-up of the circumstances around the attack is to hide the reality of the smuggling, which occurred before the escalation of the Syrian civil war. This shows that the CIA has been arming the Syrian rebels since at least September 2012. The agents were running the operation out of the Benghazi "annex," which has been reported as a secret safehouse of the CIA in the city, not far from the embassy.
This development emerges just one day after reports of CIA intimidation on employees and foreign ground assets.
In an exclusive published by CNN, a source has revealed an "unprecedented" effort to keep anyone with information on the Benghazi embassy attack from speaking with the media or Congress. Survivors of the attack were asked to signed non-disclosure agreements, reports Fox News.
Transfer of Remains Ceremony for the return of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Libyan embassy employees (Getty Images)
According to the report, a nearly unheard of slew of polygraph testing has been conducted against CIA employees and on-ground assets with information regarding the attack, which resulted in the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Typically, the agency will only conduct one test over three or four years. Right now they're subjecting these people to the tests one or twice a month. This rate of polygraph testing is rare, to say the least.
CNN's source claims that this is a trend of intimidation that the agency is carrying out. In an exclusive communications in the CNN report, one insider writes, "You don't jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well." Another says, "You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation."
A new source told CNN that there were "dozens of people working for the CIA [...] on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret."
The source said that the number of assets was 35, and as many as seven were wounded. Some of those were injured seriously. Although the source did not specify how many of them were CIA, he or she did say that 21 American were working in a building called the "annex," which is believed to be run by the CIA.
This lack of transparency has begun to concern members of Congress. This list includes Frank Wolf, whose distract includes Langley, Virginia, which houses the CIA headquarters. He has gone as far as alleging the government is involved in a "cover-up."
"I think it is a form of a cover-up, and I think it's an attempt to push it under the rug, and I think the American people are feeling the same way. We should have the people who were on the scene come in, testify under oath, do it publicly, and lay it out. And there really isn't any national security issue involved with regards to that."
U.S Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) (Getty Images)
Wolf attempted to contact people were had close ties with people who had information about the event and wanted to talk. Then they stopped taking his calls.
"Initially they were not afraid to come forward. They wanted the opportunity, and they wanted to be subpoenaed, because if you're subpoenaed, it sort of protects you, you're forced to come before Congress. Now that's all changed."
Other reports of cover-ups and conspiracy theories have been emerging since the event last September. In May, Dick Cheney said that Obama is involved in a Benghazi cover-up. Also in May, Slate reported a "smoking gun" indicating a systemic administration cover-up. Some outlets have even claimed and presented evidence that Ambassador Stevens died in the attack "because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered him there," supposedly on purpose with prior knowledge of the attack.
Filed under: Uncategorized
By: WorldTribune.com, July 25, 2013
The United States has been paying thousands of Syrian police officers who deserted the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Officials said the administration of President Barack Obama has approved tens of millions of dollars to pay the salaries of police officers who joined the rebels. They said the officers were working to maintain order in rebel-controlled territory, mostly in northern Syria.
Syrian police armored vehicle in Homs. /AFP/ Anwar Amro
"There are literally thousands of defected police inside of Syria," Assistant Secretary of State Rick Barton said. "They are credible in their communities because they've defected."
In an address to the Aspen Security Forum on July 19, Barton, responsible for State Department stabilization operations, did not say how many Syrian police deserters were on the U.S. payroll. He said the officers were receiving about $150 per month, a significant salary in Syria.
The address marked a rare disclosure of direct U.S. aid to Sunni rebels in Syria. Congress has approved more than $50 million for the Syrian opposition, much of which has not been spent.
Barton said the police officers remained in their communities despite their defection from the Assad regime. He said the U.S. stipend was meant to ensure that they stay on the job.
"We'd rather have a trained policeman who is trusted by the community than have to bring in a new crowd or bring in an international group that doesn't know the place," Barton said.
Barton said the rebel movement was awaiting a range of non-lethal U.S. equipment. He cited night vision systems and medical supplies.
Filed under: Uncategorized
By: Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, May 25, 2013.
This article, which describes how genetically modified seeds granted as "food aid" was instrumental in triggering famine. It was first published in The Ecologist in September 2000. It was one the first articles published on Global Research in September 2001. It was also published as a chapter in the second edition of Michel Chossudovsky's "Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order
The "economic therapy" imposed under IMF-World Bank jurisdiction is in large part responsible for triggering famine and social devastation in Ethiopia and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, wreaking the peasant economy and impoverishing millions of people.
With the complicity of branches of the US government, it has also opened the door for the appropriation of traditional seeds and landraces by US biotech corporations, which behind the scenes have been peddling the adoption of their own genetically modified seeds under the disguise of emergency aid and famine relief.
Moreover, under WTO rules, the agri-biotech conglomerates can manipulate market forces to their advantage as well as exact royalties from farmers. The WTO provides legitimacy to the food giants to dismantle State programmes including emergency grain stocks, seed banks, extension services and agricultural credit, etc.), plunder peasant economies and trigger the outbreak of periodic famines.
Crisis in the Horn
More than 8 million people in Ethiopia – representing 15% of the country's population – had been locked into "famine zones". Urban wages have collapsed and unemployed seasonal farm workers and landless peasants have been driven into abysmal poverty. The international relief agencies concur without further examination that climatic factors are the sole and inevitable cause of crop failure and the ensuing humanitarian disaster. What the media tabloids fails to disclose is that – despite the drought and the border war with Eritrea – several million people in the most prosperous agricultural regions have also been driven into starvation. Their predicament is not the consequence of grain shortages but of "free markets" and "bitter economic medicine" imposed under the IMF-World Bank sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
Ethiopia produces more than 90% of its consumption needs. Yet at the height of the crisis, the nationwide food deficit for 2000 was estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at 764,000 metric tons of grain representing a shortfall of 13 kilos per person per annum.1 In Amhara, grain production (1999-2000) was twenty percent in excess of consumption needs. Yet 2.8 million people in Amhara (representing 17% of the region's population) became locked into famine zones and are "at risk" according to the FAO. 2 Whereas Amhara's grain surpluses were in excess of 500,000 tons (1999-2000), its "relief food needs" had been tagged by the international community at close to 300,000 tons.3 A similar pattern prevailed in Oromiya, the country's most populated state where 1.6 million people were classified "at risk", despite the availability of more than 600,000 metric tons of surplus grain.4 In both these regions, which include more than 25% of the country's population, scarcity of food was clearly not the cause of hunger, poverty and social destitution. Yet no explanations are given by the panoply of international relief agencies and agricultural research institutes.
The Promise of the "Free Market"
In Ethiopia, a transitional government came into power in 1991 in the wake of a protracted and destructive civil war. After the pro-Soviet Dergue regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam was unseated, a multi-donor financed Emergency Recovery and Reconstruction Project (ERRP) was hastily put in place to deal with an external debt of close to 9 billion dollars that had accumulated during the Mengistu government. Ethiopia's outstanding debts with the Paris Club of official creditors were rescheduled in exchange for far-reaching macro-economic reforms. Upheld by US foreign policy, the usual doses of bitter IMF economic medicine were prescribed. Caught in the straightjacket of debt and structural adjustment, the new Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE), led by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) – largely formed from the Tigrean People's Liberation Front (PLF) – had committed itself to far-reaching "free market reforms", despite its leaders' Marxist leanings. Washington soon tagged Ethiopia alongside Uganda as Africa's post Cold War free market showpiece.
While social budgets were slashed under the structural adjustment programme (SAP), military expenditure – in part financed by the gush of fresh development loans – quadrupled since 1989.5 With Washington supporting both sides in the Eritrea-Ethiopia border war, US arms sales spiralled. The bounty was being shared between the arms manufacturers and the agribusiness conglomerates. In the post-Cold War era, the latter positioned themselves in the lucrative procurement of emergency aid to war-torn countries. With mounting military spending financed on borrowed money, almost half of Ethiopia's export revenues was earmarked to meet debt-servicing obligations.
A Policy Framework Paper (PFP) stipulating the precise changes to be carried out in Ethiopia had been carefully drafted in Washington by IMF and World Bank officials on behalf of the transitional government, and was forwarded to Addis Ababa for the signature of the Minister of Finance. The enforcement of severe austerity measures virtually foreclosed the possibility of a meaningful post-war reconstruction and the rebuilding of the country's shattered infrastructure. The creditors demanded trade liberalization and the full-scale privatization of public utilities, financial institutions, State farms and factories. Civil servants including teachers and health workers were fired, wages were frozen and the labor laws were rescinded to enable State enterprises "to shed their surplus workers". Meanwhile, corruption became rampant. State assets were auctioned off to foreign capital at bargain prices and Price Waterhouse Cooper was entrusted with the task of coordinating the sale of State property.
In turn, the reforms had led to the fracture of the federal fiscal system. Budget transfers to the State governments were slashed leaving the regions to their own devices. Supported by several donors, "regionalization" was heralded as a "devolution of powers from the federal to the regional governments". The Bretton Woods institutions knew exactly what they were doing. In the words of the IMF, "[the regions] capacity to deliver effective and efficient development interventions varies widely, as does their capacity for revenue collection". 6
Wrecking the Peasant Economy
Patterned on the reforms adopted in Kenya in 1991 (see Box 9.1 ), agricultural markets were wilfully manipulated on behalf of the agribusiness conglomerates. The World Bank demanded the rapid removal of price controls and all subsidies to farmers. Transportation and freight prices were deregulated serving to boost food prices in remote areas affected by drought. In turn, the markets for farm inputs including fertiliser and seeds were handed over to private traders including Pioneer Hi-Bred International which entered into a lucrative partnership with Ethiopia Seed Enterprise (ESE), the government's seed monopoly.7
At the outset of the reforms in 1992, USAID under its Title III program "donated" large quantities of US fertilizer "in exchange for free market reforms":
[V]arious agricultural commodities [will be provided] in exchange for reforms of grain marketing… and [the] elimination of food subsidies…The reform agenda focuses on liberalization and privatization in the fertilizer and transport sectors in return for financing fertilizer and truck imports…. These program initiatives have given us [an] "entrée" …in defining major [policy] issues… 8
While the stocks of donated US fertiliser were rapidly exhausted; the imported chemicals contributed to displacing local fertiliser producers. The same companies involved in the fertiliser import business were also in control of the domestic wholesale distribution of fertiliser using local level merchants as intermediaries.
Increased output was recorded in commercial farms and in irrigated areas (where fertilizer and high yielding seeds had been applied). The overall tendency, however, was towards greater economic and social polarisation in the countryside, marked by significantly lower yields in less productive marginal lands occupied by the poor peasantry. Even in areas where output had increased, farmers were caught in the clutch of the seed and fertilizer merchants.
In 1997, the Atlanta based Carter Center – which was actively promoting the use of biotechnology tools in maize breeding – proudly announced that "Ethiopia [had] become a food exporter for the first time".9 Yet in a cruel irony, the donors ordered the dismantling of the emergency grain reserves (set up in the wake of the 1984-85 famine) and the authorities acquiesced.
Instead of replenishing the country's emergency food stocks, grain was exported to meet Ethiopia's debt servicing obligations. Close to one million tons of the 1996 harvest was exported, an amount which would have been amply sufficient (according to FAO figures) to meet the 1999-2000 emergency. In fact the same food staple which had been exported (namely maize) was re-imported barely a few months later. The world market had confiscated Ethiopia's grain reserves.
In return, US surpluses of genetically engineered maize (banned by the European Union) were being dumped on the horn of Africa in the form of emergency aid. The US had found a convenient mechanism for "laundering its stocks of dirty grain". The agribusiness conglomerates not only cornered Ethiopia's commodity exports, they were also involved in the procurement of emergency shipments of grain back into Ethiopia. During the 1998-2000 famine, lucrative maize contracts were awarded to giant grain merchants such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Cargill Inc. 10
Laundering America's GM Grain Surpluses
US grain surpluses peddled in war-torn countries also served to weaken the agricultural system. Some 500,000 tons of maize and maize products were "donated" in 1999-2000 by USAID to relief agencies including the World Food Programme (WFP) which in turn collaborates closely with the US Department of Agriculture. At least 30% of these shipments (procured under contract with US agribusiness firms) were surplus genetically modified grain stocks. 11
Boosted by the border war with Eritrea and the plight of thousands of refugees, the influx of contaminated food aid had contributed to the pollution of Ethiopia's genetic pool of indigenous seeds and landraces. In a cruel irony, the food giants were at the same time gaining control – through the procurement of contaminated food aid – over Ethiopia's seed banks. According to South Africa's Biowatch: "Africa is treated as the dustbin of the world…To donate untested food and seed to Africa is not an act of kindness but an attempt to lure Africa into further dependence on foreign aid." 12
Moreover, part of the "food aid" had been channelled under the "food for work" program which served to further discourage domestic production in favour of grain imports. Under this scheme, impoverished and landless farmers were contracted to work on rural infrastructural programmes in exchange for "donated" US corn.
Meanwhile, the cash earnings of coffee smallholders plummeted. Whereas Pioneer Hi-Bred positioned itself in seed distribution and marketing, Cargill Inc established itself in the markets for grain and coffee through its subsidiary Ethiopian Commodities.12 For the more than 700,000 smallholders with less than 2 hectares that produce between 90 and 95% of the country's coffee output, the deregulation of agricultural credit combined with low farmgate prices of coffee had triggered increased indebtedness and landlessness, particularly in East Gojam (Ethiopia's breadbasket).
Biodiversity up for Sale
The country's extensive reserves of traditional seed varieties (barley, teff, chick peas, sorghum, etc) were being appropriated, genetically manipulated and patented by the agribusiness conglomerates: "Instead of compensation and respect, Ethiopians today are …getting bills from foreign companies that have "patented" native species and now demand payment for their use."13 The foundations of a "competitive seed industry" were laid under IMF and World Bank auspices.14 The Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE), the government's seed monopoly joined hands with Pioneer Hi-Bred in the distribution of hi-bred and genetically modified (GM) seeds (together with hybrid resistant herbicide) to smallholders. In turn, the marketing of seeds had been transferred to a network of private contractors and "seed enterprises" with financial support and technical assistance from the World Bank. The "informal" farmer-to-farmer seed exchange was slated to be converted under the World Bank programme into a "formal" market oriented system of "private seed producer-sellers." 15
In turn, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EARI) was collaborating with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in the development of new hybrids between Mexican and Ethiopian maize varieties.16 Initially established in the 1940s by Pioneer Hi-Bred International with support from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, CIMMYT developed a cosy relationship with US agribusiness. Together with the UK based Norman Borlaug Institute, CIMMYT constitutes a research arm as well as a mouthpiece of the seed conglomerates. According to the Rural Advancement Foundation (RAFI) "US farmers already earn $150 million annually by growing varieties of barley developed from Ethiopian strains. Yet nobody in Ethiopia is sending them a bill." 17
Impacts of Famine
The 1984-85 famine had seriously threatened Ethiopia's reserves of landraces of traditional seeds. In response to the famine, the Dergue government through its Plant Genetic Resource Centre –in collaboration with Seeds of Survival (SoS)– had implemented a programme to preserve Ethiopia's biodiversity.18 This programme – which was continued under the transitional government – skilfully "linked on-farm conservation and crop improvement by rural communities with government support services". 19 An extensive network of in-farm sites and conservation plots was established involving some 30,000 farmers. In 1998, coinciding chronologically with the onslaught of the 1998-2000 famine, the government clamped down on seeds of Survival (SoS) and ordered the programme to be closed down. 20
The hidden agenda was to eventually displace the traditional varieties and landraces reproduced in village-level nurseries. The latter were supplying more than 90 percent of the peasantry through a system of farmer-to-farmer exchange. Without fail, the 1998-2000 famine led to a further depletion of local level seed banks: "The reserves of grains [the farmer] normally stores to see him through difficult times are empty. Like 30,000 other households in the [Galga] area, his family have also eaten their stocks of seeds for the next harvest."21 And a similar process was unfolding in the production of coffee where the genetic base of the arabica beans was threatened as a result of the collapse of farmgate prices and the impoverishment of small-holders.
In other words, the famine – itself in large part a product of the economic reforms imposed to the advantage of large corporations by the IMF, World Bank and the US Government – served to undermine Ethiopia's genetic diversity to the benefit of the biotech companies. With the weakening of the system of traditional exchange, village level seed banks were being replenished with commercial hi-bred and genetically modified seeds. In turn, the distribution of seeds to impoverished farmers had been integrated with the "food aid" programmes. WPF and USAID relief packages often include "donations" of seeds and fertiliser, thereby favouring the inroad of the agribusiness-biotech companies into Ethiopia's agricultural heartland. The emergency programs are not the "solution" but the "cause" of famine. By deliberately creating a dependency on GM seeds, they had set the stage for the outbreak of future famines.
This destructive pattern – invariably resulting in famine – is replicated throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. From the onslaught of the debt crisis of the early 1980s, the IMF-World Bank had set the stage for the demise of the peasant economy across the region with devastating results. Now, in Ethiopia, fifteen years after the last famine left nearly one million dead, hunger is once again stalking the land. This time, as eight million people face the risk of starvation, we know that it isn't just the weather that is to blame.
Filed under: Uncategorized
By: Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, July 23, 2013.
Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye, who United States President Barack Obama had been keeping in prison, has been released.
Shaye was apparently given a presidential pardonthat requires him to remain in Sanaa for two years. This means he would be prohibited from traveling to many of the areas where US drone strikes have taken place while he was in prison or where they will take place over the next two years.
Journalist Iona Craig, a Times of Londoncorrespondent in Yemen who had covered Shaye's case for two years, reacted, "Delighted to say, after two years of covering his case, jailed journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye is free. I can't quite believe it."
Craig acknowledged that Yemen President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi deserved credit for keeping his word and releasing Shaye. She also praised the organization, Index on Censorship, in the United Kingdom for calling attention to "Shaye's long-running story" and the threat his imprisonment posed to freedom of expression.
Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni youth activist and writer who testified before Congress this year on the impact of US drone operations in his country,reacted, "After FOUR years of jailing him by order from Barack Obama, Yemeni government releases journalist Abdulelah Shaea." He also said, "Only Barack Obama can compete with Yemen's dictators (throughout history) in jailing journalists and killing civilians in Yemen," and, "What a great Iftar Shaea's kids might be having today; having their father back with them after 4 years in prison."
The story of Shaye is told in detail by Jeremy Scahill in his book, Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield. Shaye went to the site of a US cruise missile attack in al Majalah where at least 21 children and 14 women were killed. He also tracked down US-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to interview him on how he could support the US Army medical officer Nidal Hasan, who went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood and why he believed Umar Farouk Abdulumutallab, the Christmas Day underwear bomber, was justified to have targeted a "civilian airliner."
His reporting made him a target the United States wanted to neutralize. According to his lawyer, Abdulrahman Barman, whom I interviewed in May 2012:
[Shaye] is one of those who got all of the information quickly and put it out there for the public. His work actually impacted the Yemeni government and US government in ways where they didn't want to see it. The Yemeni intelligence were trying to actually recruit Shaye and have him work in the intelligence but he refused. So, after the attack on al-Majalah where so many civilians including women and children were murdered, Abdulelah was beaten up and kidnapped [in June 2010] by the national security agency and he was asked to shut up and be silent and not to talk about these kind of issues.
This did not stop Shaye from practicing journalism.
After he was abducted in July 2010 by Yemeni intelligence agents and went on television to share what had happened to him, US government officials, according to Scahill, began "privately telling major US media outlets that were working with Shaye that they should discontinue their relationships with him. The government alleged he was "using his paychecks to support al Qaeda."
In August 2010, Barman told Firedoglake Shaye was kidnapped by national security agency people. He was beaten and dragged to "national security cars." He was held for thirty-five days incommunicado while activists protested his detention in front of intelligence services and judicial system buildings. These agencies claimed they had not detained him, but he discovered his location through a released prisoner, who had seen him one of the cells. This led to the national security agencies transferring him to another location.
Barman eventually was able to be with him during interrogation and he said there was no evidence against him for the terrorism-related charges he faced.
Shaye was held in solitary confinement for a period, denied access to his lawyer, and subjected to psychological torture and abuse and appeared in a cage before a special tribunal on September 22, 2010. The judge read the charges he faced, which included "being the 'media man' for al Qaeda, recruiting new operatives for the group and providing al Qaeda with photos of Yemeni bases and foreign embassies for potential targeting.
According to Scahill, when Shaye heard the charges, he reacted, "When they hid murderers of children and women in Abyan, when I revealed the locations and camps of nomads and civilians in Abyan, Shabwah and Arhab when they were going to be hit by cruise missiles, it was on that day they decided to arrest me…You notice in the court how they have turned all of my journalistic contributions into accusations. All of my journalist constributions and quotations to international reporters and news channels have been turned into accusations." And, as he was dragged off by security, he shouted, "Yemen, this is a place where, when a young journalist becomes successful, he is viewed with suspicion."
In January 2011, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison and two years of house arrest in his hometown.
Shaye went on hunger strike in November 2011 and support for his release increased. Yemeni activists protested in front of the US embassy and, finally, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president of Yemen at the time, was willing to release him. But he received a phone call from President Obama who opposed his release.
In May of this year, Craig reported that Hadi had confirmed there was "an order from the president to release" Shaye "soon." However, no details were given on when he would be released.
Craig recounted how the US Ambassador to Sanaa, Gerald Feierstein, had told her, "Haidar Shaye is in jail because he was facilitating al-Qaeda and its planning for attacks on Americans and therefore we have a very direct interest in his case and his imprisonment," despite the fact that no evidence confirming this allegation had ever been presented.
She highlighted the effect of his imprisonment on Yemeni journalists:
Yemeni journalists have repeatedly expressed their lingering fear over America's meddling in Shaye's case. Many became afraid to report on air strikes. One Yemeni journalist, like Shaye a specialist on al-Qaeda, renamed himself an "analyst of Islamic groups" and refused to do TV interviews especially with Al Jazeera after what happened to Shaye.
It had been said by Scahill that Shaye was "rotting away losing his mind in a Yemeni prison."
What effect his imprisonment will have on him as he resumes life obviously remains to be seen, but one hopes he has not lost his spirit and commitment to journalism and, despite restrictions on traveling outside of Sanaa, will eventually return to doing what he was doing before he was unjustly imprisoned at the behest of the Obama administration.
It takes courage to do what Shaye was doing before he was imprisoned in Yemen. Sadly, when he wound up in prison, US media outlets virtually abandoned him. He had contributed to outlets such as theWashington Post and ABC News but they apparently did not ever find it appropriate to raise their voices to get answers from the administration on why a journalist was being kept in prison.
In solidarity, it is good to see Shaye be freed. Obama owes Shaye an apology and reparations of some kind for depriving him of the years of his life that he spent in prison and could not be with his family or out in the field doing journalism. Unfortunately, as much as the administration may claim to support press freedom, it is pretty much a certainty that there will not be a peep from the Obama administration where they acknowledge it was wrong to keep Shaye jailed.


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subset: commoncrawl


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HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV)-- Those who attended services at the Mabel Memorial Chapel are disappointed that history could be lost.
"My husband's buried here and I was married in this chapel, almost 60 years ago," said Helen Foley.
Foley looks at her son's grave and then the grave where her husband is buried, and one day, where she will be buried.
The chapel was closed down by the parent church, First Presbyterian, in 2007.
Reverend John Heeringa says it was a matter of safety.
"Well, my understanding is that the building was accessed by a bunch of property type people who came through and said it's unsafe and so the congregation was asked to move out because it was not a safe place for them to meet," said Rev. Heeringa, the First Presbyterian Church's pastor.
Some dispute why this chapel was closed. Members of the chapel fundraised. Foley says donated funds for the chapel were never returned.
Land was donated by a naval officer for the chapel in 1898.
Former members are disappointed at the possibility of losing the chapel forever.
"I don't like to see the sale of it, I would like to see it you know, maybe refurbished as a historical place," said Foley.
Now, it's run down, with the door handle falling off and paint chipping. Foley worries what a new owner near the cemetery would mean.
"Tombstones getting destroyed or knocked down," said Foley.
But Pastor Heeringa says that any funds from a sale would prevent that.
"To maintain the cemetery and a fund for local missions and a fund for global missions," said Rev. Heeringa.
But as time goes on, Foley still worries the legacy of those who met here, and are buried here, could disappear.
The land has been on the market before. Harrisonburg has also part of the chapel land for the Reservoir Street project. Money from that sale went to missions work.
Reverend Heeringa also welcomed another church to buy the land.
© Copyright 2014 WHSV / Gray Television Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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Milk Magazine doesn't name the stylists or fashion houses in the piece this comes from, except as a list separate from the individual images. Here's a description of the event: 183 more words
Tags » Milk Magazine
Random Post - Maud de Longevialle for Leoca Paris (via Milk Magazine)
Milk Magazine's (probably Google-ised) English is wonderful, and I'm not being snidey, I couldn't order a coffee in French.
Here's their description of the Leoca S/S 2014 collection: 74 more words
Random Post - Miep Jukkema for Milk Magazine
You can tell a clever fashion photographer from images like this: the pose of the model is interesting enough to make you look twice, it's interesting without being unattractive, and – the most important point – the outfit is still perfectly well displayed for the prospective client. 47 more words
Random Post (Bonpoint, via Milk Magazine - milkmagazine.net)
This is a Pinterest favourite, and I must say that while I have my misgivings about Pinterest (shallow, uncreative, vapid, unadventurous etc.), they have some lovely boards featuring young girls' fashions. 46 more words


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"The Block Aircraft Registration Request [Barr] program doesn't really provide privacy; it's just a barrier," Dustin Hoffman, president of Los Angeles-based IT engineering firm Exigent Systems, told AIN. Hoffman, who has a private pilot certificate and flies a piston single for his business, set out to prove his point at the Defcon 20 computer security conference last month in Las Vegas.
Speech recognition
The FAA issued an amended supplemental type certificate for the VoiceFlight Systems VFS101, adding new units to the company's approvals for voice command of Garmin GNS navigators. The amendment adds the GNS430W and 530W, allowing pilots to use speech command instead of knobs to control a wider variety of Garmin navigators.
Carnegie Speech Company and the UK's Mayflower College have launched "Climb Level 4," an online English training product for pilots and air traffic controllers. The program helps aviation professionals improve their English speaking and listening skills to reach ICAO Level 4 or Level 5.
When Rockwell Collins introduced the Pro Line 21 integrated avionics system in 1996, the company proclaimed voice recognition would play a significant role in the avionics' so-called man-machine interface. More than 10 years later the use of voice recognition in civil aviation has yet to emerge as a viable technology, but that could be about to change with the introduction of Pro Line Fusion.
Traditionally, air traffic controller training has been a dry-as-dust classroom learning process, with piles of documents to study, rules to absorb and procedures to learn, interspersed with occasional breaks to watch the professionals at work in Centers, Tracons and towers.
After being dismissed as impractical for cockpit use, voice-recognition technology appears to be getting a closer look from business jet makers thanks to recent advances.


text:
Date: 27th October 2014
Time: 10:00 AM - 13:00 PM
Date: 28th October 2014
Time: 09:30 AM - 14:00 PM
Date: 29th October 2014
Time: 09:30 AM - 15:00 PM
Our annual Chesterfield Dance Platform takes place on Monday 1st December 2014 at The Winding Wheel, Chesterfield with a 7pm start. Local Secondary schools come together to showcase their dance.Read article
The 2014 Primary Cross Country Championship will take place on Wednesday 5th November 2014 1.00pm at Mount St Marys College, Spinkhill S21 3YL. The event is an open competition for Year 4, 5 & 6 girls and boys.Read article
Youth Dance England is looking for more budding young choreographers who want to enhance their skills and knowledge of choreography. Applications are now being sought from young people aged 15-19 (or upto 25 if disabled).Read article
Springwell Community College hosted our second qualifier for the Chesterfield Schools Mini Soccer finals on Tuesday 14 October. Teams from Poolsbrook.Read article
Outwood Academy Newbold kindly hosted our last qualifier for the Primary Mini Soccer Competition on Thursday 16 October. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, everyone had a great time and really enjoyed the competition.Read article
Light up the night with your bike - 'All Hallows' Eve' - cycling extravaganza in Queen's Park, Chesterfield Friday 31st October 2014 6-8pm. Come along with your bike decorated and participate in an illuminated ride around Queen's Park cycle track.Read article
The 2014-15 Primary Competition Calandar is now available. All competitions and festivals are online and bookings must be made via the website.Read article
By now all members of PE staff should have received a Copy. Information regarding the events can be found in the booklet and online. You can also download the most upto date version, please see below.Read article


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Shadow of the Moon: Chapter 15Shadow of the Moon: Chapter 15 by ZathrasRevenge
Chapter Eight
Pale in the Light
His eyes drooped and his feet stepped numbly over smooth stone. Bilbo was having no luck finding a place to rest for the night, or the Orcess – who had vanished. All the doors were sealed shut or guarded by stoic elves. The hobbit sighed, rubbing his eyes with an invisible hand. This ring was wearing down his energy faster than normal.
The suspended pathway he walked on merged into solid rock. Hallways were placed throughout the mountain walls, creating a hive like feel. There was a door cut into the first stretch of stone, a little sign with golden needle and thread hung on the doorframe. Bilbo pursed his lips, perhaps it was a seamstress's shop.
He tiptoed up to the open door. A warm smoky smell mixed with the scent of fresh linens and fabric filtered out. The hobbit breathed deep through his nose, it reminded him of his mother's sewing room.
Before he had the chance to enter, an elf came out of the room, her flowing eme
Shadow of the Moon: Chapter 14Shadow of the Moon: Chapter 14 by ZathrasRevenge
Chapter Seven
Blood Darkens
Ithildae's jaw was slackened for a moment. After the many years she had served with them, taught them to deal with the spiders and her efforts to rid the forest of darkness, they arrested her for guiding a group of dwarves. Tauriel was looking coldly at her, expecting the Orcess to surrender.
"Do not be difficult," Tauriel muttered to Ithildae.
"You are arresting me, why wouldn't I be?" She hissed back.
"Bind her," Legolas said, glaring at the captain and the Orcess.
Two nearby elves came forward, their bows drawn at her back. It was easy to see the fear in their eyes – the Orcess was trained by their king and captain of the guard. As one came forward with rope the other had an arrow pointed at her head. Ithildae's hand went to the dagger on her thigh, a snarl on her lips.
"No," Tauriel ordered. "Do not bind her. She will not act out."
Ithildae relaxed slightly, her hand pulling away from the dagger. Legolas came forwa


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GUWAHATI, Oct 23 With an aim to promote excellence in mathematics, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will organize Group Mathematical Olympiad (GMO) on December 7 in different parts of the country.The Olympiad will be held in one or two venues ...The Assam Tribune, 2 days ago Mathematicians, yet to make a mark The Statesman, 1 week ago CBSE to Conduct Group Mathematical Olympiad on December 7 Daily Bhaskar, 1 week ago CBSE to hold math Olympiad on Dec 7 Hindustan Times, 1 week ago
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The Central Board of Secondary Education has started putting a "peer assessor team" together for the School Quality Assessment and Accreditation (SQAA), made compulsory in 2012, but many Delhi schools are yet to take the first step and apply. The CBSE had ...Times of India, 5 days ago Centralising teachers' recruitment process Bangladesh Daily Star, 1 week ago CBSE declares CTET exam Hindustan Times, 2 weeks ago CBSE publishes CTET 2014 results, download now Samaylive, 2 weeks ago
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Town Square
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COMMENTS ON STORIESFallen BART sergeant killed by single shot to chest
An autopsy has determined that BART police Sgt. Tom "Tommy" Smith died from a single gunshot wound to his chest, an Alameda...Original post made on Jan. 26, 2014
Last comment by Lisa, on Jan 29, 2014 at 9:19 pm | 15 comments | 3038 Views
COMMENTS ON STORIESMoney-saving tips for seniors
We all love a good bargain, no matter what our age. But if you're a senior citizen on a fixed income, finding discounted...Original post made on Mar. 3, 2014
Last comment by Lisa , on Aug 28, 2014 at 10:38 pm | 15 comments | 2906 Views
COMMENTS ON STORIESTri-Valley University president convicted in visa fraud scheme
The founder and president of an online university based in Pleasanton was taken into custody Monday after a federal court...Original post made on Mar. 26, 2014
Last comment by Seymour Cagney, on May 21, 2014 at 10:23 pm | 15 comments | 2238 Views
COMMENTS ON STORIESState Sen. Leland Yee in court on fraud, drug running charges
State Sen. Leland Yee was arraigned in U.S. District Court Wednesday on charges of weapons trafficking and scheming to defraud...Original post made on Mar. 27, 2014
Last comment by YeeYee, on Mar 27, 2014 at 3:11 pm | 15 comments | 2063 Views
COMMENTS ON STORIESMerger likely to keep ValleyCare afloat
ValleyCare Health System will likely merge with a larger hospital group in the near future to provide long-term financial...Original post made on Apr. 26, 2014
Last comment by blind leading the blind, on Apr 29, 2014 at 11:56 pm | 15 comments | 3774 Views
STATE, NATIONAL, INTERNATIONALUnions Behaving Badly - Massing against Steve Glazer
Steve Glazer is running for the local State Assembly seat. One central plank in his platform is his effort to ban BART strikes,...Original post made by Registered Joe on Apr. 29, 2014
Last comment by Taxpayer, on May 3, 2014 at 1:26 am | 15 comments | 552 Views
STATE, NATIONAL, INTERNATIONALSF Muni union sick-out today; only 1/3 of vehicles running
Lots of problems in SF today because of the union sick-out. If you think this is isolated to SF, think again: It's only...Original post made by Registered Joe on Jun. 2, 2014
Last comment by Steven, on Jun 5, 2014 at 10:32 am | 15 comments | 1104 Views
AROUND TOWNThe Great Horror Campout In Pleasanton -- Do We Really Need This in Our Town?
Just saw that the Fairgrounds is hosting "The Great Horror Campout" on 7/11/2014 and 7/12/2014, see http://www.greathorrorcampout.com/...Original post made by Too Much for PTown on Jun. 30, 2014
Last comment by IWouldFilePoliceReport, on Jul 3, 2014 at 12:18 pm | 15 comments | 805 Views
SCHOOLS & KIDSSpecial school board meeting set for 7:30 a.m. tomorrow
The Pleasanton school board is set to hold a special board meeting at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow in the district's boardroom, 4665...Original post made on Jul. 10, 2014
Last comment by Jtjh, on Jul 11, 2014 at 12:18 pm | 15 comments | 2903 Views
CRIMES & INCIDENTSAre the police flying drones at night in Pleasanton?
I live in the Birch Creek Terrace townhomes, just south of Arroyo Del Valle, north of Vineyard between First and Bernal....Original post made by PtownPete on Jul. 23, 2014
Last comment by Euhhh?, on Jul 24, 2014 at 8:38 pm | 15 comments | 609 Views
AROUND TOWNavalanche of traffic tickets
i would like to preface my comment by expressing my respect for the pleasanton police dept, however the number of traffic...Original post made by daniel ormonde on Aug. 16, 2014
Last comment by Truth, on Aug 19, 2014 at 5:47 pm | 15 comments | 585 Views
COMMENTS ON STORIESSan Ramon residents organize protest against Creekside Memorial Cemetery
More than 450 people participated in a hike last Saturday to protest against the Creekside Memorial Cemetery proposed for...Original post made on Aug. 22, 2014
Last comment by Kim, on Aug 28, 2014 at 10:52 pm | 15 comments | 4217 Views
COMMENTS ON STORIESPleasanton exceeding water cutback goals, but are penalties fair?
Operations Director Daniel Smith, also known as Pleasanton's water czar, couldn't have been more jubilant Aug. 19 in talking...Original post made on Sep. 2, 2014
Last comment by Neighbor, on Sep 6, 2014 at 4:31 pm | 15 comments | 1846 Views
CRIMES & INCIDENTSDog Attacks on Strangers are Rare
This is more or less in response to letters I see on occasion by people who insist that all dogs should be on leash wherever...Original post made by Paulette Kenyon on Oct. 21, 2007
Last comment by DobeMom, on Feb 23, 2008 at 5:36 am | 14 comments | 4117 Views
CRIMES & INCIDENTSBrentwood man arrested as suspect in providing 19-year-old driver liquor
A 21-year-old Brentwood man was arrested Monday for allegedly providing the alcohol a 19-year-old woman drank before she...Original post made on Nov. 13, 2007
Last comment by aaronw, on Nov 16, 2007 at 3:44 pm | 14 comments | 2448 Views
COMMENTS ON STORIESHousing crisis or window of opportunity?
It seems like each morning when I open my paper I find more alarmist headlines that paint a bleak picture of the country's...Original post made on Nov. 16, 2007
Last comment by Drexl, on Aug 18, 2009 at 2:32 pm | 14 comments | 3191 Views
RESTAURANTSthe RedCoat
Everyone go and try out the new Restaurant Downtown, The RedCoat! The food is great. ...Original post made by Sandy on Dec. 17, 2007
Last comment by Myrna, on Dec 3, 2008 at 9:31 am | 14 comments | 5395 Views
AROUND TOWNOpinionPleasanton.com
Anyone here seen this site? Alternative views on Pleasanton politics: http://www.opinionpleasanton.com/...Original post made by Stacey on Jan. 31, 2008
Last comment by Jack, on Feb 7, 2008 at 10:40 am | 14 comments | 3751 Views
AROUND TOWNHome prices are down, now is the time to buy!!!
OK, just kidding. Prices have a LONG WAY TO GO DOWN - 40% by some estimates. Don't buy now and watch your value drop. See...Original post made by Homeowner on Feb. 27, 2008
Last comment by Homeowner, on Mar 5, 2008 at 8:23 am | 14 comments | 1954 Views
AROUND TOWNJudge Has Ruled the Oak Grove Petition Invalid
At the Superior Court web site Judge Roesch has posted his rulings in this lawsuit. Basically, he points out that while...Original post made by frank on Mar. 20, 2008
Last comment by frank, on Apr 2, 2008 at 7:11 pm | 14 comments | 2026 Views
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A second half of life exceptionally well lived
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Helicopter manufacturer goes public
|| Print |
|High Five
|Thursday, May 13, 2010
Erickson Air-Crane Inc hopes to launch into their future as a "real aero-space company" with an initial stock offering of $75 million.
The first IPO in Oregon in years is part of their 5-year plan to expand their heavy-lift helicopter manufacturing and operating business.
Read the whole story at the Mail Tribune.
{biztweet}Erickson helicopter{/biztweet}
|A Complex Portrait: Immigration, Jobs and the Economy
|Revenge Forestry
|The Bookseller
|Woman of Steel
|Shifting Ground
|Kill the Meeting
|What I'm Reading
|Microsoft lays off 3,000 more workers
|Xiaomi aims to be the world's most valuable private tech firm
|U.S. economy grew in Q3
|Apple CEO: 'I'm proud to be gay'
|Facebook vows aggressive spending
|Apple Pay faces challenges
|YouTube considering paid subscriptions
Is your business ready to join us in the call for action? This opening panel includes Oregon businesses who will discuss why they signed the Oregon Climate Declaration, the investments they are making to reduce carbon emissions, and how their actions are affecting their companies.
Get ready for two days of special events produced with the EPA, Portland Timbers and ISOS before and after the GoGreen Conference on October 16.
Rotary's Oregon Ethics in Business aims to raise consciousness about business ethics by honoring exceptional companies.
Barran Liebman's annual employment law seminar is an industry classic.
Business leaders descend on Portland in December for the region's largest environmental conference and trade show.
More than 400 "Change Makers" will gather to invest in a socially sustainable community.
Sussman Shank LLP is pleased to announce that Dallas G. Thomsen and Victor J. Roehm have become partners of the firm.


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The homemade rap anthem for Florida Gulf Coast University's upstart basketball team is, finally, just what it is: proof that someone can sound less impressive over Tyga's "Rack City" beat than Tyga, that young women are doing gremlin-y Nicki Minaj imitations into dorm-room mics, and a reminder the YouTube has a lot of stuff on it. But, in its giddy and glorious jankiness and just-in-time opportunism, it's also just about perfect for the NCAA Tournament's greatest upstart team, and kind of perfect in general.
It was announced yesterday that Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez will have surgery and miss 10 weeks after injuring his thumb diving for a ball. For most fans, this was a hilarious story about the most underachieving member of the most underachieving team in the league. For fantasy owners, it was time to grieve.
There's no real reason why the dolphin in the Miami Dolphins logo needed to be wearing a football helmet. But that doesn't mean there's a reason for the Dolphins' new logo to take that helmet off. Will no one think of the aquatic mammals?
Ben Tausig is back with Chicken Soup for the Cruciverbalist's Soul: Spring Training edition
Join us, won't you, in the annual college basketball-related bracket humiliation ritual? You just might learn something about the limits of your knowledge and the futility of information in the face of college basketball-related randomness. But, like, in a fun way.
Sometimes, victory drops right into your hands. And then, sometimes, defeat rebounds right in your face.
In tribute to the huffy but unassailable nihilism of Bleacher Report co-founder Bryan Goldberg's open letter to the haters, we offer a slideshow of that email's proudest moments, with appropriate images.
Getting to yes with the assaultive but oddly charming Energy Drink Tie-Dye uniforms that Adidas unveiled for the NCAA Tournament.
The "Official Hangout of March Madness" boasts more than 20 sauces and seasonings for fans to dip, dunk, and devour to ease the pain of watching their brackets disintegrate. But fans should be aware that the chicken they're eating may have also been dunked in feces.
Another year older, another year of trying to figure out the Basenji Dog Secret. The internet's hard-spamming robot chorus is here to help.


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2006 Indy 500 winner Hornish hoping to rebound at the Brickyard
The last time we saw Sam Hornish Jr. smiling at the Brickyard he was kissing bricks following his 2006 Indy 500 win. This week at Indy, as he prepares for his first Cup race at the famed racetrack, Hornish is just hoping to save his season, writes Terry Blount.
Updated: July 25, 2008, 12:39 PM ETBy Terry Blount | ESPN.com
AP Photo/AJ MastSam Hornish Jr. couldn't peel himself off the bricks after winning the 2006 Indianapolis 500.Sam Hornish Jr. will not ride down the frontstretch on the old Brickyard in a chariot, pulled by a white horse and waving to the masses while crew members throw flowers on the pavement in front of him.Hornish is not the conquering hero returning home. He had no illusions of it being that way when he left his lofty status in the IndyCar Series to test his skills in NASCAR."I knew it was going to be very difficult," Hornish said. "Regardless of the on-track stuff, just the opportunity to be back in Indianapolis should be really fun." At least Hornish has a chance to return to the place of his glorious moment as the 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner. Dario Franchitti doesn't have that luxury.The 2007 Indy 500 winner, who made the jump to Sprint Cup with Hornish this season, is looking for work. No sponsor stepped up to foot the bill for Franchitti's Cup ride, so team owner Chip Ganassi was forced to shut down the operation on the No. 40 Dodge four weeks ago."I definitely feel bad for him," Hornish said of Franchitti. "He made a decision to come over here and to run and to make the most of it. And when you don't get to finish it's not a fun thing for yourself or anybody around you."Things haven't been a lot of fun for Hornish this season, either. The three-time IndyCar Series champion is just another newbie in Cup, trying to learn the intricacies of racing a stock car while competing against the best in the business.Hornish ranks 33rd in the standings and hasn't posted a top-10 in the No. 77 Dodge for Penske Racing. Hornish has finished 25th or worse in 13 of 19 races. But he insists he has no regrets about his decision to leave open-wheel racing.
The track holds so much prestige. For a rookie that's never been here, you could easily get overwhelmed by it. But having run the Indy 500 before, you already know what to expect and mentally you can handle the importance of racing across the bricks.
-- Juan Pablo Montoya
"Everyone keeps asking me if I'm upset about it," Hornish said. "I made the decisions on my own accord and it didn't have anything to do with anyone else. I felt I wasn't being challenged anymore in IndyCar. It was time for me to try something different."It is what it is. I'm not saying I'll never run an IndyCar race again. Who knows? I could get fired tomorrow and need a job. But I'm not through with trying to get what we want to get out of this, and that's to win."Ironically, his best finish this season came on the day he would have raced in the Indy 500 had he stayed in IndyCar. Hornish was 13th in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, one of only two finishes in the top 15."I feel like we've been on a roller coaster," Hornish said. "But we've had a lot of lows and we're kind of waiting for it to go back up."Maybe this is the week. Hornish has a good reason to be hopeful. Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2000 Indy 500 winner who also raced at Indy in Formula One, was in a similar position last year.Montoya, the only man to race in all three events at Indy, finished a surprising second in his first NASCAR event at the Brickyard."When I raced [at Indy] last year, I honestly didn't remember that much about the track itself," Montoya said. "So, I don't think I had a racing advantage over any other rookie. You have to remember that in Formula One we ran the course backwards, so that completely erases anything I may have learned from the Indy 500."Montoya entered the 2007 Allstate 400 in a much better position than Hornish is in now. Montoya ranked 20th in the standings with three top-10s, including a victory on the Sonoma road course.He also was driving a completely different car. Sunday's race is the first at Indy in the Car of Tomorrow model. Nevertheless, Hornish takes comfort in what Montoya did at Indy last year."I would feel better about if we had tested at Indy," Hornish said. "But anytime you can watch someone who has a similar background have that kind of success [that Montoya had], it keeps you very optimistic about what your opportunities might be."Hornish and Montoya are the only Indy 500 winners in the race, but the event could have four other drivers who have competed in the Indy 500. Two-time Allstate 400 winner Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon have guaranteed spots. Patrick Carpentier and J.J. Yeley will need to qualify on speed.Yeley finished a respectable ninth in the 1998 Indy 500, his only start in the event. He has competed in the past two Allstate 400s, but his best finish was 34th in 2006.Gordon is one of three men (along with Stewart and John Andretti) to do the double of racing in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. He has three top-5 finishes in 10 Indy 500 starts. He has two top-10s in eight Allstate 400 starts.Carpentier hopes to race in the Allstate 400 for the first time. He finished 21st in his only Indy 500 start in 2005. Montoya said nothing transfers as far as on-track racing between Indy cars and stock cars, but he does think rookies Hornish and Carpentier will benefit from knowing what's it's like to race in front of 250,000 people at the Brickyard."If they have any advantage over another rookie here, it's a mental advantage," Montoya said. "The track holds so much prestige. For a rookie that's never been here, you could easily get overwhelmed by it. But having run the Indy 500 before, you already know what to expect and mentally you can handle the importance of racing across the bricks."Terry Blount covers motorsports for ESPN.com. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Terry BlountESPN Seattle Seahawks reporter
- Covered the NFL at the Houston Post and Houston Chronicle, including eight Super Bowls
- Received Citation for Writing Excellence from Hearst Newspapers
- Also has covered NBA Finals, World Series, Finals Fours, Indy 500 and Daytona 500
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