“Can you hear me now?” Apparently he United Nations' top official on torture, Juan Mendez, has been having as hard time getting through to the Obama administration. Memdez has repeated requested through all the usual channels to be able to meet and talk candidly with PFC Bradley Manning.
The information that PFC Manning is accused of leaking includes the videotaped massacre of Reuters journalists and Iraqi civilians, as well as diplomatic cables that experts believe helped to catalyze democratic revolts across the Middle East this spring. PFC Manning's supporters assert that the information he is accused of revealing should have been in the public domain. And in any case, if the information Manning is accused of leaking is considered “dangerous”, Well, think about it: Details of what the accused endured at Quantico will blow the roof off…www.bradleymanning.org/
In Washington state In a 2-1 vote, Clark County yesterday a private partner to continue its controversial plans for a biomass plant in downtown Vancouver. But Commissioner Steve Stuart, who was an early champion of the project, unfurled a list of concerns about the project — including its carbon neutrality and whether the county’s new private partner will be able to sell the power it produces — and said he was uneasy about putting the county’s money on the line.
Stuart also pointed out that biomass-generated power is expensive, and the only reason is would sell is because it’s attractive to those trying to meet green power initiatives. Washington has hydropower aplenty, but it just hasn’t been officially declared ‘green’ (‘Blue’ maybe?) then, Stuart says, “then all bets are off.” In the end, biomass whatever its assigned color, is deadly, dirty and dangerous.
An Israeli peace group has petitioned the country's Supreme Court to overturn a controversial new law banning boycotts of West Bank settlements, as international human rights groups and Israel's own attorney general joined a growing chorus of the legislation's critics.
The Gush Shalom peace group, which says it began calling for a boycott of settlement products back in the 1990s, alleged that the new law violates basic democratic principles.
"The parliamentary majority seeks, through the Boycott Law as by other pieces of legislation, to silence any criticism of government policy in general and of government policy in the occupied territories in particular," the statement said.
The state has 60 days to respond to the suit, at which time the court will decide how to proceed.
- KBOO