Zombie climate sceptic theories survive on TV...
According to a leaked email, Fox News journalists were ordered to cast doubt on #climate change: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/planet-oz/2013/may/17/zombie-climate-sceptic-theories-newspapers-tv #press #corruption
via oAnth at D* : https://joindiaspora.com/posts/2611396
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
– ►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy
– Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy
New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent
[...]
[S]ix American universities are sites where campus police funneled information about students involved with OWS to the FBI, with the administrations’ knowledge (p51); banks sat down with FBI officials to pool information about OWS protesters harvested by private security; plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target; and even threats of the assassination of OWS leaders by sniper fire – by whom? Where? – now remain redacted and undisclosed to those American citizens in danger, contrary to standard FBI practice to inform the person concerned when there is a threat against a political leader (p61).
As Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, put it, the documents show that from the start, the FBI – though it acknowledges Occupy movement as being, in fact, a peaceful organization – nonetheless designated OWS repeatedly as a “terrorist threat”:
[...]
#ows #occupy #surveillance #FBI #classification #USA
As reports of chemical weapons abound, Obama urges caution on Syria | McClatchy
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/26/189773/as-reports-of-chemical-weapons.html
Le degré de confiance avec lequel on peut affirmer que le régime syrien a utilisé des armes chimiques serait « faible ou modéré » selon le renseignement étasunien,
In U.S. intelligence analytical parlance, “moderate confidence” generally means that information lacks sufficient corroboration, while low confidence usually means that it’s too fragmented, it isn’t authenticated and there are major concerns about the credibility of the sources.
Mais, fait remarquer le site FAIR, il n’en faut pas plus pour que les « médias de référence » en parlent comme d’une certitude, http://fair.org/take-action/media-advisories/syria-skepticism
La Corée du Nord vu à travers la presse arabe
What the Arab papers say : On North Korea | The Economist
ESCALATING uncertainty on the Korean peninsula has set off a stream of sarcastic commentary in the Arabic-speaking quarters of Twitter. Other media outlets however, have taken a more sober tone, drawing parallels with the Arab world’s experience of both militaristic, dictatorial regimes and the nuclear tensions between Iran, its neighbouring states, and the international community.
L’information de capteur - O’Reilly Radar
http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/03/sensor-journalism-data-journalism.html
Alex Howard pour O’Reilly Radar revient, avec de nombreux exemples, sur le #journalisme de capteur. Ou comment les données provenant de capteurs deviennent une nouvelle matière première pour le journalisme et l’info. Tags : internetactu internetactu2net fing #media journalisme #iot (...)
PressTV - CNN spreads lies against Iran, Syria: Ex-correspondent
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/01/296014/cnn-lies-about-iran-syria-exreporter
An outspoken investigative journalist and former CNN correspondent has once again stressed that the US-based network is engaged in spreading Western propaganda against Iran and Syria.
More about Amber Lyon on :
Un pseudo-féminisme raciste et morbide
Donc, l’inénarrable Martine Gozlan de « Marianne » a « retrouvé Amina, la Femen tunisienne » :
►http://www.marianne.net/J-ai-retrouve-Amina-la-Femen-tunisienne_a227722.html
Il est frappant de constater à quel point on adore ce genre de scénarios : le héros solitaire musulman, ou, encore mieux, l’héroïne solitaire musulmane, seul-e touché-e par la grâce des Lumières occidentales, uniformément entouré-e de barbares obscurantistes, névrosés et violents qui l’étouffent et/ou lui veulent du mal, et qu’on se donne pour mission de protéger, car il/elle est des nôtres : c’est nous qui sommes sa vraie famille – comme cela apparaît très clairement dans le papier ci-dessus, où Martine Gozlan, qui la rencontre pour la première fois, postule d’emblée une affinité entre Amina et elle-même qui éclipse celle existant entre la jeune fille et sa famille.
Il ne s’agit pas de prétendre qu’un milieu familial ne peut pas être étouffant ou néfaste, mais il est très problématique d’en retrancher un individu pour rejeter l’ensemble de son entourage dans l’inhumanité en en faisant une peinture à la "Jamais sans ma fille". Cette démarche ne laisse à cet individu le choix qu’entre deux attitudes extrêmes : soit la rupture nette et franche, présumée facile par les « amis » occidentaux (elle ne peut quand même pas être attachée à ces bouseux… ?), soit une adhésion inconditionnelle, affirmée en réaction, dans un mouvement de révolte et de solidarité avec les siens face aux propos racistes tenus à leur sujet (une attitude que l’on trouve notamment dans le discours des Indigènes de la République, les mêmes mécanismes étant à l’œuvre au sujet des descendants d’immigrés en France).
Ce storytelling est sûrement très valorisant d’un point de vue narcissique, mais il est, au mieux, complètement stérile, et au pire, dans la plupart des cas, ravageur pour la cause qu’il prétend défendre : des individus isolés, vite récupérés par des instances flirtant avec le racisme, sont impuissants à faire évoluer leur société. Seuls des mouvements qui y sont enracinés ont ce pouvoir, comme le souligne très bien la féministe égyptienne Sara Salem :
►http://muftah.org/femen-strikes-in-tunisia-the-case-of-amina
Mais se pourrait-il que faire avancer la cause des femmes dans les pays musulmans ne soit pas réellement le but ? Je n’ose pas l’imaginer…
On en arrive pourtant à la situation éminemment malsaine où il est de l’intérêt objectif des Femen qu’il arrive les pires horreurs à Amina. Dans le cas contraire, on ne parlera plus d’elles – ou du moins, plus à ce sujet, puisqu’on fait confiance à leur créativité pour relancer la machine. Difficile de ne pas en retirer l’impression qu’il s’agit moins de se montrer solidaire des femmes musulmanes que de prouver la barbarie atavique et irrécupérable des hommes musulmans. Ce pseudo-féminisme morbide ne profite à rien ni à personne, sauf aux Femen elles-mêmes et à leur besoin obsessionnel de publicité. Et au "choc des civilisations"...
The coverage of violence against women
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/03/27/the-coverage-of-violence-against-women
Egyptian women experience various forms of discrimination in public and private life. One of the biggest results of discrimination is violence. Although the media condemns violence and raises awareness about its enormity in some outlets, it has been accused of accidently perpetuating violence as well. Daily News Egypt investigates how violence against Egyptian women is covered in both printed and televised media.
Femen Strikes in Tunisia – the Case of Amina
►http://muftah.org/femen-strikes-in-tunisia-the-case-of-amina
When it comes to women, nudity is a great tactic if your priority is to get media attention, but can be problematic because, often, that is the only way the media will pay attention to women — i.e. if we are performing for the male gaze. Source: Muftah
HEAR EXPLOSIVE AUDIO: Bill Lockyer, Thomas Girardi and Walter Lack Secretly Own Indian Gaming Outfits in California - Clients of Howard Dickstein
BELOW MODIFIED VERSION OF COMMUNICATION FROM YR TO THIRD PARTY. AUDIO MODIFIED TO PROTECT IDENTITY OF SOURCE
AUDIO @:
PART I:
1. ETHICS COMPLAINT / IN RE GIRARDI — In 2010, the United States Federal Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit issued its final ruling in the disciplinary matter of In Re Girardi by imposing close to $500,000 in sanctions on Walter Lack of Engstrom Lispcomb & Lack and Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese stemming from an attempt to defraud the court and cause injury to Dole Food Company in the underlying litigation. You may have heard of Walter Lack and Thomas Girardi as they are the lawyers who were featured in the movie “Erin Brokovich” involving utility company PG&E.
The court ruled that Walter Lack (who stipulated to Special Prosecutor Rory Little that his prolonged acts of misconduct were intentional) and Thomas Girardi intentionally and recklessly resorted to the use of known falsehoods for years. The Ninth Circuit ordered Girardi and Lack to report their misconduct to the State Bar of California.
The State Bar of California disqualified itself from handling the matter since Howard Miller (of Girardi & Keese) served at that time as its president, and had also made the decision to hire then-chief prosecutor, James Towery.
Mr. Towery, in turn, appointed Jerome Falk of Howard Rice (now Arnold & Porter) as outside “special prosecutor” to determine whether or not to bring charges against Girardi and Lack. (Mr. Falk is a colleague of Douglas Winthrop, and both represented PG&E in its massive bankruptcy proceedings.)
Mr. Falk, in turn, exercised prosecutorial discretion and concluded that he did not believe Lack acted intentionally and that no charges will be brought against the two attorneys.
Within days of Mr. Falk’s decision, I filed an ethics complaint with the State Bar of California against Jerome Falk, James Towery, Howard Miller, and Douglas Winthrop (managing partner of Howard Rice and then-elected president of the Foundation), alleging that it was improper for Mr. Towery to appoint Mr. Falk given the close personal relationship between Howard Miller and Douglas Winthrop. Specifically, Howard Miller — in his capacity as president of the State Bar — had appointed Douglas Winthrop as president of the California Bar Foundation, a foundation maintained and controlled by the State Bar. (Much later I also discovered that Jerome Falk is actually the personal attorney of Thomas Girardi, and that Howard Rice and Jerome Falk represented Walter Lack, Thomas Girardi, Engstrom Lispcomb & Lack, and Girardi & Keese in approximately 2007, and for a period of 2 years, in a malpractice action.)
2. FOGEL V. FARMERS — In the matter of In Re Girardi, Mr. Girardi and his law firm were represented by the firm of Skadden Arps. In reviewing the file of In Re Girardi, I discovered that, beginning in 2003, Girardi & Keese and Engstrom Lispcomb & Lack were prosecuting a class action case against Farmers Insurance Company, which was represented by Skadden Arps. This was a nationwide class action with estimated damages of close to $15 billion that had originally been filed by Texas Governor Rick Perry.
I thereafter informed the Los Angeles County Superior Court (Judge William Highberger) of this information, and filed a State Bar ethics complaint against attorneys Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese and Thomas Nolan and Raoul Kennedy of Skadden Arps because neither the class of plaintiffs (consisting of 14 million Americans), nor the courts (the Ninth Circuit in the matter of In Re Girardi and the Los Angeles County Superior Court in the matter of Fogel vs. Farmers) had been informed of the concurrent representation by which Skadden Arps represented Girardi & Keese (in the Ninth Circuit matter), while at the same time defending Farmers.
Shortly after I filed this ethics complaint, Skadden Arps and Dewey Lebeuf (representing Farmers’ parent company, Zurich Financial) moved ex parte (which was unopposed) to amend the settlement agreement in the Fogel matter and the notice to the class of 14 million Americans throughout the country to include a proviso by which members of the class would be prohibited from suing anyone due to the concurrent representation described above. Nevertheless, the State Bar of California decided not to take any action on this ethics complaint.
3. CaliforniaALL — When researching the relationship of Girardi & Keese and Howard Rice and the appointment of Douglas Winthrop as president of the California Bar Foundation by Howard Miller of Girardi & Keese, I reviewed the California Bar Foundation’s annual reports to familiarize myself with the names of the Foundation’s board of directors. I stumbled upon the fact that the Foundation ended 2008 close to $500,000 in the negative. Specifically, the Foundation reported to the IRS that REVENUE LESS EXPENSES in 2007 equaled plus +$373.842.00. However, in 2008, the Foundation reported to the IRS that REVENUE LESS EXPENSES equaled minus -$537,712.
I discovered that the money had been transferred to a newly-created Section 501(c)(3) non-profit entity (headed by Ruthe Catolico Ashley — a friend of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakayue) known as CaliforniaALL, which obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars from utility companies PG&E, SCE, AT&T, and Verizon. In turn, CaliforniaALL funneled a large portion of the money to the UCI Foundation, where a friend and former partner of Mark Robinson (of the Judicial Council), State Bar of California Executive Director Joe Dunn, served as trustee in 2008-9 to launch a new entity known as Saturday Law Academy.
Various factors and evidence caused me to suspect that a significant portion of the funds transferred from the California Bar Foundation ended up financing a newly-created online publication which Joe Dunn had launched with the help of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster; this online publication is known as “Voice of OC.”
Those factors include, but are not limited to, the fact that some individuals and entities involved in the creation of CaliforniaALL and the subsequent transfer of $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL were also involved in assisting Joe Dunn with the creation of “Voice of OC” to wit – Morrison & Foerster’s Susan Mac Cormac as legal counsel for CaliforniaALL; Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation; and BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California. Also relevant was that Morrison & Foerster’s James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi also assisted Joe Dunn in establishing Voice of OC, the fact that Saturday Law Academy was established many years earlier, and the fact that Ruthe Ashley exited CaliforniaALL in the same month and year Joe Dunn established Voice of OC (September 2009).
Based on my concerns, I requested that Voice of OC provide me with copies of its IRS 990 forms. Voice of OC did not comply with applicable IRS regulations in that it failed to reply to my request for copies of its 990 forms submitted to the IRS, whereupon I filed a complaint against Voice of OC and Joe Dunn with the IRS.
Later, after thorough research, I discovered that events surrounding CaliforniaALL, OBAMA FOR AMERICA, and those responsible for the financing of OBAMA FOR AMERICA are highly related, to wit, Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich, Ron Olson, Brad Phillips (of Munger Tolles & Olson) Ambassador John Roos and Mark Parnes (of Wilson Sonsini) James Brosnahan, DOJ’s Tony West, Chris Young, Annette Carnegie (of Morrison & Foerster) Steven Churchwell (of DLA Piper in Sacramento — where CaliforniaALL resided free of charge) Kamala Harris, as well as Freada Kapor - a California Democratic Party operative who served as a director of CaliforniaALL, and that The Kapor Center generally used to fund-raise on behalf of the many foundations located there, were additionally used to contact potential voters and encourage them to vote for then candidate Barack Obama. Her husband, Mitchell Kapor, was part of a tech team working for the campaigns of Barack Obama and Kamala Harris of CaliforniaALL.
I invite you to visit the below link for more details:
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2012/09/255420.php
4. UC DAVIS QUADRAPLEGIC LAW STUDENT SARA GRANDA / JUDGE MORRISON ENGALND /RACHEL GRUNBERG / LARRY YEE — Also in connection with CaliforniaALL, I advanced a judicial misconduct complaint against Judge Morrison England since State Bar of California Executive Director Judy Johnson, Judge England, his wife (Torie Flournoy-England), and State Bar of California employee Patricia Lee were all members of CaliforniaALL’s board of directors and/or advisory council. The basis for that complaint was these individuals’ failure to inform plaintiff Sara Granda — who had filed an action in federal court naming the State Bar of California as a sole defendant that was heard by Judge Morrison England — of these facts.
Specifically, without informing plaintiff Granda of his relationship with Judy Johnson (the State Bar’s Executive Director) vis-a-vis CaliforniaALL and either obtaining a waiver from this plaintiff or independently recusing himself, Judge England summarily dismissed Ms. Granda’s complaint against the California State Bar. Fortunately for Ms. Granda, several days later then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger championed her cause and pressured the California Bar to accommodate her needs.
I invite you to visit the below link to CaliforniaALL’s own publication which shows the relationship I described.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/100876445/CalALL-Mar2009Newsletter
In connection with the failure to disclose the relationship to plaintiff Sarah Granda, I also filed an ethics complaint with the State Bar of California against its own employees/attorneys which represented the State Bar in the litigation — Rachel Grunberg, Mark Torres Gil, and Larry Yee.
5. JUSTICE MING CHIN / DEPARTURE FROM CAUSE — While researching CaliforniaALL, I stumbled upon a separate non-profit entity in Southern California which was also absorbing money from utility companies known as CAUSE.
Since Justice Ming Chin was part of the entity’s board/council, I filed a complaint with the Office of Judicial Performance, and very shortly thereafter I was informed by CAUSE’s legal counsel that Justice Chin quit the entity.
6. JEANNINE ENGLISH / HOWARD DICKSTEIN — Upon further familiarizing myself with the members of the State Bar Board of Governors, I also filed a complaint with the Board of Governors against Public Member Jeannine English — the wife of Howard Dickstein, an Indian gambling attorney. Weeks later, US Senator John McCain (Arizona) filed a complaint against Howard Dickstein for various acts of misconduct and asked that he be investigated.
–-------------------------------------------------------------------------
6/12/2011
Dear President Hebert, Senator Dunn, Members of the Board of Governors, and to whom it may concern:
While examining circumstances concerning the California Consumer Protection Foundation (“CCPF”), which was secretly controlled by State Bar Executive Director Emeritus Judy Johnson (and which will be the subject of an upcoming request for investigation), I fortuitously stumbled upon troubling facts and events relating to Board of Governors (“BOG”) member Jeannine English.
As such, and despite its anticipated futility, this correspondence is intended to advise the BOG of these events and officially request an investigation into irregularities, conflicts of interest, self-dealing, breach of fiduciary duties, and lack of disclosures by BOG member Jeannine English. Those irregularities relate to circumstances surrounding the following:
1. Keker & Van Nest’s representation of Jeannine English’s spouse, Mr. Howard Dickstein, in an action for, among others, fraud, advanced by the Rumsey Tribe and related lack of disclosure on the part of Ms. English and Jon Streeter concerning the existence of a past business relationship.
2. Misconduct by Howard Dickstein against the tribes, and related involvement by Jeannine English, who was also concurrently representing the tribe in her role as “Lobbyist.” Subsequently, when the tribe advanced a suit against Dickstein claiming he had taken advantage of them by defrauding the tribe of millions of dollars over more than a decade, Dickstein referred to the suit as a “pack of lies,” whereupon Keker & Van Nest was summoned to defend the action.
3. An unusually large cy pres award of $900,000 to the AARP in a class action suit in which Girardi & Keese (specifically, Thomas Girardi and Graham Lippsmith) represented the plaintiff. Jeannine English has strong ties to the AARP and, in fact serves as the president of its California branch.
4. Lack of disclosures on the part of Girardi & Keese’s Howard Miller and Jeannine English of the existence of the transaction. Aggravating the lack of disclosures are circumstances surrounding misconduct by Girardi & Keese and Howard Miller in the Dole Litigation, the subsequent handing of the matter by the State Bar which assigned the matter to the firm of State Bar of California Foundation president Doug Winthrop, my own involvement, and the involvement Alec Chang.
THE RUMSEY MATTER
The Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians (“Rumsey”) consists of 40 adult members who reside in Brooks, California, which is situated in Capay Valley — 50 miles northwest of Sacramento and 90 miles northeast of the Bay Area. From a fledgling bingo business to what is now a thriving establishment known as “Cache Creek Casino,” attorney Howard Dickstein, a pioneer in tribal gambling law and the spouse of Jeannine English, helped dig the tribe out of poverty.
In and about 2007, and in addition to the services offered by Mr. Dickstein, Ms. Jeannine English and her company — Jeannine English & Associates — were also conducting business with Rumsey, by which lobbying and consulting services were purveyed by Ms. English.
Toward the end of 2007, Rumsey — represented by Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy — filed a suit in Yolo County Superior Court against Howard Dickstein and Jane Zerbi of Dickstein & Zerbi and Arlen Opper, a financial consultant, accusing them of unjustly enriching themselves with tribal money by defrauding the tribe of millions of dollars over more than a decade.
In statements to the media, Howard Dickstein referred to the allegations in the suit as a “pack of lies,” while disparaging his client. Dickstein also stated that he plans to fight the suit and “fight hard.” Appearing on behalf of defendant Dickstein was Elliot Peters of Keker & Van Nest.
The undersigned submits that because of the attorney-client relationship between Rumsey and Dickstein, it was questionable for Ms. English to enter into a business relationship with Rumsey and reckless for Jon Streeter and Jeannine English to conceal the past relationship from the public. If in fact a disclosure was made by any of them in a conspicuous place available for public viewing, please forward it to the undersigned in order for this portion of the complaint to be withdrawn.
These events lead one to wonder whether, hypothetically speaking, in the upcoming election for State Bar president Jeannine English would vote for Jon Streeter and not Michael Tenanbaum or Linda Davis as consideration for the representation Keker & Van Nest provided to her spouse. At least in part, it also explains to the undersigned the zeal and desire of Ms. English to be a member of the BOG. Clearly it was not to protect and serve the public; rather, it was to protect the interests of her husband (and, by extension, herself) who was accused of defrauding the Rumsey tribe of millions of dollars. In addition, it leads one to question whether the State Bar of California was not as vigorous as it should have been in protecting Rumsey from Dickstein.
THE AARP MATTER
In addition to serving on the State Bar’s BOG, Jeannine English also serves as the President of the AARP’s California branch, and is also involved with the AARP on a national level. Assuming no shenanigans, financial improprieties, or self-dealing with the AARP (which by the way, also operates a for-profit insurance brokerage), Ms. English deserves great credit for her outstanding contribution to the community. However, due to the overall set of circumstances surrounding English as described above, and as it is obvious that she serves on the BOG to serve the interests of her husband (and, by extension, herself), the undersigned is far from impressed.
Specifically, within the past few years, a plan has been devised by which a cy pres amount of $900,000 will be funneled to the AARP from a class action in which the law offices of Girardi & Keese serves as counsel. (Attridge v. Visa Case No. CGC-04-436920)
While the sums will not go directly to Ms. English, they will indirectly benefit her vis-a-vis the associated prestige resulting from successful fund raising efforts. The lack of disclosure regarding the proposed cy pres is alarming, especially considering events relating to the State Bar’s handling of attorney misconduct in the Dole matter, my ethics complaint and request for an inquiry of 5 months ago as to James Towery, Jerome Falk, Douglas Winthrop, and Howard Miller as well as the overall circumstances surrounding the State Bar/BOG disinclination to deal with the matter. To date, only myself and, later, David Cameron Carr (a former State Bar prosecutor) have spoken about this grave injustice. Of those who had a moral, legal, and ethical obligation to disclose conflicts, and to otherwise speak, now you know why at least one more such person — namely, Jeannine English — has failed to do so.
Thank you for time.
–-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7. On June 17, 2011, shortly after I filed the complaint against Jeannine English, a special meeting of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California took place to introduce amendments to proposed legislation. The proposed amendments , among others, called for a change to the conflict of interest policies. Specifically, public members should not be permitted to serve if they are involved in the legal profession or are the spouses of lawyers.
8. After I asked the BOG to investigate Ms. English, a confidential source from Southern California informed me that Howard Dickstein and Thomas Girardi are business partners. Out of an abundance of caution, this information was forwarded on June 22, 2011 by me to the Deputy Executive Director of the State Bar of California, Robert Hawley, as follows:
Mr. Hawley:
This is to inform the State Bar about information I recently received
concerning Jeannine English, Howard Dickstein, and Thomas Girardi.
Based on what was communicated to me, Howard Dickstein and Thomas
Girardi are involved in some sort of a joint venture; or otherwise are
business partners in areas relating to Indian gambling.
Please note that I do not personally vouch for the credibility of the
source nor the accuracy of the information.
However, based on the totality of the circumstances, it is a lead
worth following.
Thanks
Très intéressant article sur les tentatives de manipulation médiatique au Liban par l’Armée syrienne libre et ses soutiens locaux : Hyping Hezbollah’s Role in Syria
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hyping-hezbollah%E2%80%99s-role-syria
On Tuesday, 19 February 2013, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) issued a statement accusing Hezbollah of shelling Syrian territory and threatening to “shell and silence the sources of Hezbollah fire in Lebanese territory” if it did not stop within 48 hours.
No sooner had the ultimatum expired did various media outlets broadcast reports that Hezbollah bases in Syria and Lebanon had been targeted, including an artillery position in the border village of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali.The news spread like wildfire.
Yet in the town of Hermel and the adjoining villages of Qasr and Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali – scenes of the supposed attacks – life continued as normal. The only thing disturbing the peace of local residents was the inundation of phone calls from concerned or curious outsiders.
“There’s nothing happening here,” a local source told Al-Akhbar. “It’s just media propaganda to go with the statements made by the armed groups in Syria. It’s coming from the channels that support them.”
To him, the false reports had a clear political objective. “It’s about covering up what happened in Ersal, and the general impression it left that some of the people there are harboring al-Nusra Front members. In return, they want to give the impression that the Assi Valley villages, whose people have faced killings and displacement, are harboring Hezbollah fighters.”
Lire absolument l’oped de Glenn Greenwald sur les informations que les médias américains acceptent de cacher : US media yet again conceals newsworthy government secrets
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/07/saudi-arabia-drones-media-concealment
The US media, over the last decade (at least), has repeatedly acted to conceal newsworthy information it obtains about the actions of the US government. In each instance, the self-proclaimed adversarial press corps conceals these facts at the behest of the US government, based on patently absurd claims that reporting them will harm US national security. In each instance, what this media concealment actually accomplishes is enabling the dissemination of significant government falsehoods without challenge, and permitting the continuation of government deceit and even illegality.
SKeyes : International Justice, STL and Al-Akhbar
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/skeyes-international-justice-stl-and-al-akhbar
MP Marwan Hamadeh, a victim of an assassination attempt that was included in the STL’s jurisdiction, gave remarks at the event as well, and said, “The freedom of the press may sometimes amount to murder,” in reference to the potential harm caused by publishing witness’ identities.
Hamadeh failed to mention the other media outlets that had published information about witnesses and other individuals involved in the case, and singled out Al-Akhbar for criticism. Also recall that a Western media outlet had published an official and classified document issued by international investigators, which named a Lebanese officer who was subsequently assassinated.
Évidemment, Marwan Hamadeh dénonçant des fuites dans la presse, de la part du Akhbar, c’est une sorte de private joke.
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy
It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
#police #fbi #renseignement #occupy
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf (The Guardian)
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy
It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves. (...) Source: The Guardian
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy
The document shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.
As Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, put it, the documents show that from the start, the FBI – though it acknowledges Occupy movement as being, in fact, a peaceful organization – nonetheless designated OWS repeatedly as a “terrorist threat”.
Dans la série « Les élites s’amusent »...
BDSM Comes to Harvard
Where Ivy League kink comes from.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/12/09/bdsm-comes-to-harvard.html
Last week, national media outlets were titillated by the news that Harvard University had formally recognized a student-run BDSM group (short for bondage, domination, and sadomasochism). The idea of buttoned-up Crimson coeds discussing their fondness for fetish challenged the conventional image of the Ivy League university, home to the best, the brightest—and now, the kinkiest.
Joining the Composers Association, the Mathematica Club, and about 400 other student organizations, the Harvard Munch will now get money to host gatherings and guest speakers.
G4S Loses Contract. Handing Prisons to Any Commercial Contractor is a Grave Mistake
By Andrew Neilson
Open Democracy
November 8, 2012
While media outlets generally focus on the international dimension of PMSCs involved in Iraq or Somalia, one should bear in mind that Western countries increasingly employ such private firms domestically. Yet, major risks emerge when states try to combine security functions that used to be exclusively public with a profit-oriented business strategy. In the UK, the privatization of the prison system has created intense controversy. After being directly involved in the London Olympics security fiasco, the Private Security Company G4S has lost its major contract to administer the prison of Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. Ultimately, the privatization of prisons represents a threat to democracy itself as “commercial confidentiality shields the process from public view and democratic accountability.”
Il fallait entendre la délectation de Bruno Duvic lisant l’intro de l’article de Mona Eltahawy dans la revue de presse de France Inter, vendredi :
http://www.franceinter.fr/emission-la-revue-de-presse-l-exercice-du-pouvoir
FEMMES ARABES • Pourquoi ils nous haïssent | Courrier international
http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2012/10/25/pourquoi-ils-nous-haissent
Au début de Distant View of a Minaret [éd. Heinemann, 1983, non traduit en français], Alifa Rifaat, auteure égyptienne largement ignorée et aujourd’hui disparue, nous raconte l’histoire d’une femme tellement indifférente au coït que son mari lui impose, concentré sur son seul plaisir, qu’elle remarque la présence d’une toile d’araignée à nettoyer au plafond. Elle médite sur l’attitude de son mari, qui refuse toujours de poursuivre leurs ébats pour la faire jouir elle aussi, “comme s’il tenait à la priver [de quelque chose]”. De même qu’il lui refuse un orgasme, l’appel à la prière interrompt soudain le sien. Le mari sort. Après s’être lavée, la femme s’absorbe dans la prière – un acte tellement plus satisfaisant qu’elle attend avec impatience la prochaine – et regarde la rue depuis son balcon. Elle interrompt sa rêverie pour aller consciencieusement préparer du café pour son mari après sa sieste. Alors qu’elle apporte la boisson dans la chambre pour la verser sous les yeux de son mari – il préfère –, elle remarque qu’il est mort. Elle ordonne à son fils d’aller chercher un médecin. “Elle retourna au salon et se versa une tasse de café. Elle était elle-même surprise par son calme”, écrit Alifa Rifaat.
« Courrier International » republie cet article en français sans évoquer la polémique qu’il a soulevée lors de sa parution dans « Foreign Policy » en avril. Quelques liens :
Mona El Tahawy or native neo-orientalism - Ibn Kafka’s obiter dicta
►http://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/mona-el-tahawy-or-native-neo-orientalism
https://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/232230946.jpg
It’s of course not the need to dramatically improve the condition of women in the Arab world in order to achieve a long overdue parity that is at fault – on the contrary, witness the recent statement by Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al Sheikh according to which girls are ripe for marriage at 12. It’s rather the tone and lexical and discursive resources which El Tahawy taps into: essentialism, reduction of social and political phenomena to simple psychological factors (fear, hate), and even more so the lumping together of all men into a vague and threatening « they » – the kind of manicheism she resented when it came to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, but I suppose one has to distinguish between good manicheism and bad manicheism. That piece could have been written by David Pryce-Jones, Fouad Ajami or the staggeringly inane Lee Smith, a US journalist who wrote a 2010 book called « The strong horse » aiming to show that Arabs only understood and bowed to force and violence – unfortunately for him, 2011 came after 2010.
An American journalist writing exclusively for European, US and Israeli media outlets, Mona El Tahawy is not interested in helping Middle Eastern activists to bring about the legislative and social changes required, or to identify the practical ways this might be achieved. No easy clues here: there’s only hate to confront. How does one confront hate – by drone attacks, invasion or forced conversion? She does not say. More importantly still, Arab men and women are not really her main target – her piece is written in the tone of a native informer bringing the White (Wo)Man her exclusive insights about the twisted minds of her fellow natives. That article is more a career move, à la Irshad Manji or Ayaan Hirsi Ali (but without the latter’s islamophobia), than a sincere contribution to a fight for equality that is both morally necessary and socially unavoidable, as Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd have shown.
Les Arabes haïssent-ils les femmes ? Mona Eltahawy face à la tempête - Global Voices
►http://fr.globalvoicesonline.org/2012/04/29/106756
Nous ne sommes pas faibles, Mona, et les révolutions arabes nous ont prouvé que nous étions plus fortes que nous le pensions, les héroïnes des révolutions arabes n’ont pas besoin d’être pointées du doigt.
Je ne pense pas que nous ayons besoin d’être sauvées par des tiers de la haine ou de la vengeance de nos hommes, spécialement depuis que ces révolutions ont prouvé que nous étions plus que capables de nous dresser épaules contre épaules avec les hommes pour obtenir le progrès de nos sociétés.
Votre article, en accord avec les photos l’illustrant, dépeint la société arabe noire, sombre, déprimante, un corps peint en noir. Vous avez réduit le problème de la femme arabe aux sentiments des hommes ; réduisant parallèlement cette dernière aux pathétiques images parfaitement conforme à la vision que l’Orient a d’elle.
(…) La société arabe n’est pas aussi barbare que vous la dépeignez dans votre article, ce dernier renforce dans l’esprit du lecteur une vision stéréotypée de nous, stéréotype effroyablement répandu qui contribue à élargir le clivage culturel entre notre société et les autres et accroît le racisme envers nous.
On « Why do they hate us ? » and its critics - The Arabist
http://www.arabist.net/blog/2012/4/29/on-why-do-they-hate-us-and-its-critics.html
http://www.arabist.net/storage/post-images/120418_Cover_193_web290.jpeg
It is impossible to look at the situation of women across the Middle East and other Muslim countries and not see how increasing militarization strengthens patriarchal and heteronormative ideologies that have mutually reinforcing effects on the increased subordination of women and the propagation of masculinities. One cannot ignore the impact of globalization on economic, social and cultural rights as well as restrictions on civil and political rights. The continued growth in the power and influence of the private sector, bolstered by states pursuing neoliberal economic policies has pushed many women (and men) into the margins of society, and into irregular migration networks where they are exploited. After all, the uprisings in the Arab world have been a cry for socio-economic justice. They have also been a cry against authoritarian regimes, which also reinforce gender and other social hierarchies. Religious fundamentalism, which across all religions, is premised on absolute monolithic approaches, is just one the factors which also strengthens patriarchy.
And let’s not forget that patriarchy, which I, like many feminists define as the privileging of male power in all forms of social relations, is a system in which men and women participate. Some of the responses to Mona El Tahawy have raised the issue that women participate in some of the practices which she criticizes, for example Female Genital Mutilation. Or, as one commentator noted, women, just as much as men, have voted Islamists into power. But women’s participation in these activities does not make them any less patriarchal.
Some of the other criticisms of El Tahawy’s piece illustrate the dilemma of the “double bind” that African-American and other feminists have also faced. For instance, when they write about their experiences, African-American feminists often find themselves caught between confronting the patriarchy within African-American communities, and defending their African-American brothers from the broader racism that exists in American society.
Similarly, women who identify as Islamic feminists often find themselves in this bind, as they try to reconcile their feminism and religious identity, and also defend their religion from Islamophobia.
Feminists like El Tahawy who write about women’s subordination in the Middle East, and the critics responding to her also fall into this double bind if they are not careful in how they phrase their message. On the one hand, El Tahawy is accused of playing into Western imperialist agendas. On the other hand, her critics are in danger of becoming apologists who are pawns of their native country’s patriarchy.
Muslimah Media Watch a proposé une revue de presse des réponses à l’article ici :
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2012/04/some-issues-with-foreign-policys-sex-issue-part-one
... et organisé une table ronde avec ses contributrices :
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2012/04/some-issues-with-foreign-policys-sex-issue-part-two-mmw-responds
http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/mmw/files/2012/04/fp-2-300x192.jpg
Sharrae: What I think is interesting is that all the writers of the “sex issue” agree that women’s bodies are the world’s battleground. And to be honest, I don’t disagree with that statement either. However, what I find remarkable is that the writers fail to realize the ways that they, themselves, end up waging war on the Muslim woman body. As they (particularly Sadjadpour) condemn Middle Eastern men for making women the symbol of purity in society, they are making Muslim women the symbols of oppression – and liberation. A woman who wears less equals liberation; a sign of a closed gap between men and women, and thus a higher GDP, as those supposedly cloaked under “suffocating cloth” are the symbols of the deep-seeded patriarchy of both Islam and those evil Muslim men. Authors such as Eltahawy or Sadjadpour seem to be caught between two sides. They want to speak to the various problems in their ancestral homeland, but they manage to feed and reproduce images of imperialist notions of those living in the Middle East. “Name me an Arab country, and I’ll recite a litany of abuses fueled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend,” Eltahawy commands, after requesting that readers put aside what the United States does or doesn’t do to women.
Krista: Like many others, I was really turned off by the framing of the piece. I’m not sure that “hatred” is really the issue; patriarchy and sexist violence in all societies are rooted in more than just men who hate women. Moreover, “Why do they hate us?” was a rallying cry post-September 11, used to point to “them” as irrational and hateful, and “us” as the good ones. While the “us” is different in Eltahawy’s piece, the “they” is largely the same: violent, irrational, hateful Muslim and/or Arab men. So it’s not just that the title is inaccurate or melodramatic; it’s also very clearly part of the same rhetoric that has drummed up support for wars in the not-so-distant past.
https://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/20fevrier-casablanca.jpg
Let’s Talk About Sex - Jadaliyya
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5233/lets-talk-about-sex
Then there is the visual. A naked and beautiful woman’s flawless body unfolds a niqab of black paint. She stares at us afraid and alluring. We are invited to sexualize and rescue her at once. The images reproduce what Gayatri Spivak critiqued as the masculine and imperial urge to save sexualized (and racialized) others. The photo spread is reminiscent of Theo van Gogh’s film Submission, based on Ayyan Hirsli Ali’s writings, in which a woman with verses of the Quran painted on her naked body and wearing a transparent chador writhes around a dimly lit room. Foreign Policy’s “Sex Issue” montage is inspired by the same logic that fuels Submission: we selectively highlight the plight of women in Islam using the naked female body as currency. The female body is to be consumed, not covered!
Personnellement, je ne pense pas qu’il soit possible d’être féministe et de droite (dans le sens pour l’égoïsme et les inégalités qui sont le substrat du capitalisme néolibéral). De la même manière, il me semble impossible d’être féministe et raciste, car toute idée de hiérarchie entre les humains ne peut qu’appuyer la première des hiérarchies qui place volontairement les femmes sous la domination des hommes.
Ca me rappelle le début de ni putes ni soumises, distinguer les sexes en tant que dichotomie morale permet de désigner l’ensemble des hommes en tant qu’agresseurs, pas sure que ça serve la cause de la liberté des femmes.
NYT Admits: We Have Not “Aggressively Challenged” Obama on Drones
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/185-general/52004-nyt-admits-we-have-not-qaggressively-challengedq-obama-on-drones
By Common Dreams Staff
Common Dreams
October 15, 2012
Media outlets are not informing US citizens well on the implications of Washington’s drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. In these fragile states, drone strikes are deepening resentment towards the US and undermining politics. Margaret Sullivan, public editor of the New York Times, has acknowledged that the paper has not challenged the use of drones. The Columbia Human Rights Clinic released a report that questions the quality of available of information and the sloppy approach to the question of who are the casualties.
Margaret Sullivan, the public editor at the New York Times, admitted over the weekend that the influential paper has not been strong enough in its reporting on the CIA’s lethal overseas drone program and that the general uncritical nature of national media coverage has fueled widespread acceptance among the public of a program that kills untold numbers of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere.
Though crediting Time’s reporters for bringing important information to light regarding Obama’s drone and targeted assassination programs, Sullivan acknowledged the paper has “not be without fault” in their efforts to push back against the administration’s obfuscations and unsubstantiated claims about who and how many are killed in reported drone strikes. Since May of 2012, she writes:
[The paper’s] reporting has not aggressively challenged the administration’s description of those killed as “militants” — itself an undefined term. And it has been criticized for giving administration officials the cover of anonymitywhen they suggest that critics of drones are terrorist sympathizers.
NYT Admits: We Have Not “Aggressively Challenged” Obama on Drones
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/185-general/52004-nyt-admits-we-have-not-qaggressively-challengedq-obama-on-drones
Margaret Sullivan, the public editor at the New York Times, admitted over the weekend that the influential paper has not been strong enough in its reporting on the CIA’s lethal overseas drone program and that the general uncritical nature of national media coverage has fueled widespread acceptance among the public of a program that kills untold numbers of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere.
Though crediting Time’s reporters for bringing important information to light regarding Obama’s drone and targeted assassination programs, Sullivan acknowledged the paper has “not be without fault” in their efforts to push back against the administration’s obfuscations and unsubstantiated claims about who and how many are killed in reported drone strikes. Since May of 2012, she writes:
[The paper’s] reporting has not aggressively challenged the administration’s description of those killed as “militants” — itself an undefined term. And it has been criticized for giving administration officials the cover of anonymitywhen they suggest that critics of drones are terrorist sympathizers.
...
In the final paragraphs, Sullivan notes the “the moral and ethical questions of this push-button combat conducted without public accountability,” but pairs that insight with this claim: “The Taliban and Al Qaeda are much worse problems for the Pakistani and Yemeni people than American drone strikes are.”
Is Iran Trying to Tell Us Something We Won’t Hear?
By Danny Schechter
Al Jazeera
October 3, 2012
Although Ahmadinejad’s address at the General Assembly was analytical rather than inflammatory, media outlets continue to anticipate rhetorical aggression from Iran. The media focuses on the country’s alleged nuclear weapons program, while they ignore Iran’s leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement, a nuclear compromise and its potential role in the Syrian crisis. If media continue to defy Iran, they might not be able to keep up with important policy shifts.
Iran Signals New Tone
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/10/01/iran-signals-new-tone
If President Obama wins a second term, Iran is signaling it would be ready for improved relations with the United States and the West. One sign of that shift in attitude was the toned-down speech by Iran’s President Ahmadinejad at the UN, notes Danny Schechter.
Correspondence and collusion between the New York Times and the CIA | Glenn Greenwald | guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/29/correspondence-collusion-new-york-times-cia
#journalisme #secret #cia #etats-unis #presse
The bizarre, unhealthy, blinding media contempt for Julian Assange – Glenn Greenwald
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/22/julian-assange-media-contempt
There are several obvious reasons why Assange provokes such unhinged media contempt. The most obvious among them is competition: the resentment generated by watching someone outside their profession generate more critical scoops in a year than all other media outlets combined (see this brilliant 2008 post, in the context of the Clintons, about how professional and ego-based competition produces personal hatred like nothing else can).
Other causes are more subtle though substantive. Many journalists (and liberals) like to wear the costume of outsider-insurgent, but are, at their core, devoted institutionalists, faithful believers in the goodness of their society’s power centers, and thus resent those (like Assange) who actually and deliberately place themselves outside of it. By putting his own liberty and security at risk to oppose the world’s most powerful factions, Assange has clearly demonstrated what happens to real adversarial dissidents and insurgents – they’re persecuted, demonized, and threatened, not befriended by and invited to parties within the halls of imperial power – and he thus causes many journalists to stand revealed as posers, servants to power, and courtiers.
Then there’s the ideological cause. As one long-time British journalist told me this week when discussing the vitriol of the British press toward Assange: “Nothing delights British former lefties more than an opportunity to defend power while pretending it is a brave stance in defence of a left liberal principle.” That’s the warped mindset that led to so many of these self-styled liberal journalists to support the attack on Iraq and other acts of Western aggression in the name of liberal values. And it’s why nothing triggers their rage like fundamental critiques of, and especially meaningful opposition to, the institutions of power to which they are unfailingly loyal.