(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Julian Assange is the big media story, but the unsung hero, the person suffering the most is probably Brad Manning.  Unfortunately, while Manning suffers in solitary confinement, as he has for the past 7 months, and we scour the leaked material for which he might be responsible, the subject of Manning’s torturous, stringent, long term confinement are noted with horror and contempt, but is anything being done to challenge them?  Put another way, where is the Great Writ, the writ of habeas corpus, for Brad Manning?

Yesterday, Glenn Greenwald gave us the shameful details of Brad Manning’s 7-month long, pre-trial detention. He’s been held in Quantico in solitary confinement for five months, and he was held in solitary in Kuwait for two months before that.  Manning you’ll recall is the army private who has been accused of leaking documents to Wikileaks.  Greenwald writes:

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement.  For 23 out of 24 hours every day — for seven straight months and counting — he sits completely alone in his cell.  Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he’s barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions.  For reasons that appear completely punitive, he’s being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch).  For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs…  

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America’s Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado:  all without so much as having been convicted of anything.

But that’s not all.  You have to read about the drugs.  You have to think about the drugs.  As Greenwald explains,

And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig’s medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

This to my mind is obviously torture.  The man is in stringent solitary confinement which is enough to drive prisoners crazy and frequently does, and he’s being drugged so that his mental entropy and collapse will be briefly delayed.

What I don’t understand after searching the Internet, is why this horrendous pre-trial confinement is apparently not being challenged in the courts.  I don’t understand why a writ of habeas corpus challenging this clearly unconstitutional, pretrial detention is not reported anywhere.  The closest I can come to the legal test is this handwringing:

“We were aware of those situations and we were hoping that they would improve without applying public pressure through the media,” Jeff Paterson, who runs Manning’s legal defense fund, told The Huffington Post. “His attorney and supporters were hoping that this could be taken care of through the appropriate channels.”

Paterson says that Manning is “very annoyed” at the conditions of his confinement, adding that he is primarily upset at his inability to exercise. “He sits in this small box, for the most part only to take a shower – he just sits and eats and four months have gone by.”

I’m not writing this to criticize Manning’s defense team which appears to be well funded.  I don’t know them.  I’m writing this because all of the horror stories are being discussed and argued on the Internet and MSNBC and, unfortunately, not in the District Court.  Maybe that doesn’t strike readers as odd.  But it bothers me.  This kind of confinement needs to be fought, and it needs to be fought hard.

Brad Manning deserves a petition for writ of habeas corpus.

———–

a revision of a post on The Dream Antilles

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 14 days remaining until the end of the year

On this day on 1865, the first two movements of Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony”, Symphony No. 8 in B minor, is performed in Vienna, Austria.

(The symphony) was started in 1822 but left with only two movements known to be complete, even though Schubert would live for another six years. A scherzo, nearly completed in piano score but with only two pages orchestrated, also survives. It has long been theorized that Schubert may have sketched a finale which instead became the big B minor entr’acte from his incidental music to Rosamunde, but all the evidence for this is circumstantial.[1] One possible reason for Schubert’s leaving the symphony incomplete is the predominance of the same meter (three-in-a-bar). The first movement is in 3/4, the second in 3/8 and the third (an incomplete scherzo) also in 3/4. Three consecutive movements in exactly the same meter rarely occur in the symphonies, sonatas or chamber works of the great Viennese composers (one notable exception being Haydn’s Farewell Symphony).

 546 – Gothic War: The Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome by bribing the Byzantine garrison.

920 – Romanos I is crowned co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII.

942 – Assassination of William I of Normandy.

1398 – Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud’s armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.

1531 – Pope Clement VII establishes a parallel body to the Inquisition in Lisbon, Portugal.

1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.

1577 – Francis Drake sails from Plymouth, England, on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for English Queen Elizabeth I.

1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeats the troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg.

1586 – Emperor Go-Yozei becomes Emperor of Japan.

1600 – Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de’ Medici.

1637 – Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu.

1718 – Great Britain declares war on Spain.

1790 – Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone.

1807 – France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.

1812 – War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a friendly Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.

1819 – Simon Bolivar declares the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolivar in Venezuela).

1837 – Fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg occurred.

1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

1865 – First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.

1903 – The Wright Brothers make their first powered and heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1907 – Ugyen Wangchuck was crowned first King of Bhutan

1918 – Culmination of the Darwin Rebellion as some 1000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

1919 – Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1926 – Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the 1926 coup d’etat is successful.

1935 – First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.

1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate – The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.

1941 – World War II: Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo.

1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge – Malmedy massacre – American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.

1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.

1950 – The F-86 Sabre’s first mission over Korea.

1957 – The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1960 – Troops loyal to Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.

1961 – History of Goa: Operation Vijay – India seizes Goa from Portugal.

1967 – Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria and was presumed drowned.

1969 – The SALT I talks begin.

1969 – Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of “A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of various conventional objects.”

1970 – Polish 1970 protests: In Gdynia soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.

1973 – Terrorism: 30 passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport.

1981 – Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigade in Verona, Italy.

1981 – The Senegambia Confederation is founded.

1983 – The IRA bombs Harrods Department Store in London, killing six people.

1989 – The first episode of television series The Simpsons, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, airs in the United States.

1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests continue in Timisoara with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party’s District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.

1997 – The United Kingdom commences its Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, which extends the state’s gun ban to include all handguns — with the exception of antique and show weapons.

2002 – Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.

2003 – SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first supersonic flight.

2005 – Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong

2005 – Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicate the throne as King of Bhutan.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Saint Barbara

         o Daniel the Prophet

         o Lazarus of Bethany

(local commemoration in Cuba)

         o December 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (United States)

   * National Day (Bhutan)

   * O Sapientia (Roman Catholic Church)

   * Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn (Roman festivals)

   * Wright Brothers Day, a United States federal observances by Presidential Proclamation

Japan defence review warns of China’s military might

Japan has unveiled sweeping changes to its national defence polices, boosting its southern forces in response to neighbouring China’s military rise.

The BBC 17 December 2010  

Japan, which shares a maritime border with China, said Beijing’s military build-up was of global concern.

Japan will also strengthen its missile defences against the threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.

The policy document has been approved by the cabinet and will shape Japan’s defence policy for the next 10 years.

Japan is changing its defence policy in response to the shifting balance of power in Asia, analysts say.

Is Twitter really worth $3.7bn?

The microblogging site may have soared since it started four years ago, but it still doesn’t make any money

By Nick Clark Friday, 17 December 2010

On paper – and despite its ubiquity – Twitter is a tiny bird in a corporate world of soaring giants. The microblogging site, which started four years ago, has a staff of just 350 at its hip San Francisco HQ (its only office). Crucially, for a brand that has sprung from nowhere to dominate new media as well as the public consciousness, it doesn’t make any money.

And yet this week we learned that Twitter now boasts 175 million accounts, helping it to attract a new round of funding worth $200m ($128m). The vast injection from a group of venture capitalists hoping they’re on to a good thing has boosted the value of Twitter to $3.7bn (£2.4bn)

USA

Congress passes extension of Bush-era tax cuts

 

By Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, December 17, 2010; 12:40 AM

Congress approved the most significant tax bill in nearly a decade late Thursday, overcoming liberal resistance to continue for two more years tax breaks enacted under president George W. Bush and to provide a fresh boost of federal support to the tepid economic recovery.

The package, brokered by President Obama and Republican leaders in the wake of the November elections, angered many Democrats, who have long argued that the Bush tax cuts were skewed to benefit the wealthy. But their last-minute campaign to scale back the bill’s benefits for taxpayers at the highest income levels failed, and the House passed the measure 277 to 148, with 112 Democrats and 36 Republicans voting “no.”

Wealth gap becomes chasm at Christmas

Luxury retailers see strong demand as lower-income shoppers hunker down  

By John W. Schoen

Senior Producer

With just a few days left in the holiday shopping season, reports from retailers suggesting  strong sales are prompting analysts and investors to declare that “the American consumer is back.”

Make that “some consumers.” With unemployment stuck near 10 percent, home prices falling and foreclosures still rising, holiday shopping this year has brought into sharper focus the divide between upper- and lower-income American households.

“It’s very much a tale of two worlds,” said Bernstein Research retail analyst Colin McGranahan. “There’s a big dichotomy between the well-educated, upper-income consumers – what the employment trends looks like, what the wage trends looks like – and the lower-income, less well-educated consumer. It’s a very different picture.”

Europe

Tuberculosis thriving in ‘Victorian’ London, says expert

TB, known as the ‘white plague’, is on the rise in London’s poorest areas

Sarah Boseley, health editor The Guardian, Friday 17 December 2010  

Tuberculosis, the “white plague”, is returning to London, which risks the sort of serious outbreaks that occurred in New York and California in the 1990s, an article in the Lancet medical journal warns today.

Nowhere else in Europe have TB rates continued to rise, says Dr Alimuddin Zumla of the department of infection of University College London medical school. “The incidence in the UK has gradually increased over the past 15 years,” he writes. Last year more than 9,000 cases were reported in the UK, with nearly 40% in London. “This pattern is striking when compared with the general decline in other European countries,” he says.

Ireland’s abortion law ‘violated woman’s rights’

European court upholds complaint and reopens divisive debate

By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent

Friday, 17 December 2010

A European court yesterday found that Ireland had violated the rights of a pregnant woman who complained that the country’s restrictions on abortion had risked damaging her health and possibly her life.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that in failing to implement the right to a lawful abortion, Ireland had breached the woman’s right to respect for her private life.

The ruling by the court in Strasbourg seems destined to reignite an issue that for decades has remained on the political agenda of the Irish Republic, but remains stubbornly unresolved.

Middle East

Tehran downplays Arab Wiki-dness

 



By Amin Mehrpour

TEHRAN – WikiLeaks documents indicating that Arab leaders urged the United States to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran have drawn a distinctly muted reaction from Tehran.

Mindful of the importance of relations with their Arab neighbors, officials including President Mahmud Ahmadinejad have avoided public recriminations. Instead, they have deflected attention away from the awkward subjects raised in the WikiLeaks documents by suggesting their release was a deliberate attempt to sow misinformation.

Asia

WikiLeaks cables: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir

Beatings and electric shocks inflicted on hundreds of civilians detained in Kashmir, US diplomats in Delhi told by ICRC

Jason Burke in Delhi guardian.co.uk  

US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables released tonight.

The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees.

Australian asylum debate intensifies as Gillard feels pressure  

The Irish Times – Friday, December 17, 2010

SYDNEY  

THE DEATH of at least 28 asylum seekers, who drowned when their boat was smashed on rocks on Christmas Island, has renewed pressure on Australian prime minister Julia Gillard to soften the country’s asylum policy and may strain her one-seat minority government.

Ms Gillard yesterday conceded that one of Australia’s most divisive political issues, which has determined past elections, was once again on the agenda.

But she sought to take the sting out of the renewed debate on asylum seekers, which in the past has been tinged with xenophobia, and appease her government’s key supporters.

Africa

Let there be justice, says Kenyan press



NAIROBI, KENYA  

The country’s main dailies chided those politicians who reacted angrily at the world court’s announcement and urged all parties to allow the judicial process to take its course and deliver justice.

“Ocampo has spoken, let the process begin,” said the Daily Nation, Kenya’s leading newspaper, referring to ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo who on Wednesday named six suspects who face charges of crimes against humanity over the post-electoral violence that left about 1 500 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Among the six are Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of the country’s founding president and a deputy prime minister and William Ruto, a political heavyweight and presidential hopeful as well as President Mwai Kibaki’s right-hand man.

Troops kill Ouattara loyalists  

March through city turns violent  

By Reuters  

Gunfire and bursts of heavy arms rang out across the city on the day allies of Ouattara, who is backed by the UN, said they would try to seize the state TV building from forces loyal to Gbagbo, who says he won the November 28 poll.

The US, African states and France recognise Ouattara as the winner of the election, but Gbagbo, backed by the nation’s top legal body, has held onto the presidency, alleging mass vote-rigging.

Sustained machine gun and rifle fire was heard in the city earlier yesterday, and tear gas filled districts where pro-Ouattara supporters were gathering for the march on the building of the state broadcaster RTI.

Latin America

Haiti cholera death toll starts to rise again  

December 17, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE:  

Haiti’s cholera death toll has jumped by about 210, with more than 2400 now dead, health officials in the capital say. The deaths shook hopes that the outbreak had begun to taper off.

However, there are signs of potential progress in the earthquake-ravaged country. A study by the International Office of Migration shows the number of homeless people living in tent cities has dropped to 1 million, from a peak of 1.5 million in July.

The study found that 130,000 families still live in tents in Port-au-Prince and Delmas – the congested urban centre – underscoring the challenge of finding suitable land to relocate people and their homes.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

A Charlie Brown Christmas (the classic).  Not so many premiers.  Larry King’s last show.

• ABC Family– Finding Nemo (again), The Incredibles (not as recently)
• AMC– White Christmas x 2 (again and again, in Technicolor!)
• Animal Planet– The Blue Planet: Seas of Life marathon
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon (with premier)
• Comedy– Wedding Crashers
• Disney– High School Musical 3: Senior Year
• Discovery– Brew Masters, Oddities (premiers), Sr. v. Jr.
• E!– Honey
• ESPN– High School Hoopies, Lew Wallace (Ind.) v. Simeon (Ill.), Findlay Prep (Nev.) vs. Yates (Texas)
• ESPN2– Women’s College Volleyball, Penn State v. Texas, California vs. USC
• FX– It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia x 3 (1 Hour Holiday Special premier and Instapeats)
• History– Aliens AND Nazis (with premiers)
• Lifetime– A Diva’s Christmas Carol
• National Geographic– Drain the Ocean (actually kind of interesting)
• Sci Fi– Ultraviolet
• TBS– Fred Claus (again)
• Turner Classic– Judge Hardy and Son, Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (Andy Hardy day)
• TNT– Hoopies, Hawks @ Celtics, Spurs @ Nuggets
• USA– Burn Notice x 2 x 2 (premiers and Instapeats)
• VH1– SNL marathon

Later-

• AMC– Ever After: A Cinderella Story
• Disney– Phineas and Ferb
• Turner Classic– The Hardys Ride High, Out West With the Hardys (more Hardys)
• VH1– Back to the Future Part 2

Dave hosts Matt Damon and Florence & the Machine.  Jon has Mike Huckabee, Stephen Amy Sedaris and Paul Simon (next week repeats, pre-empted between ek’s mas and New Year’s).  Stephen used to work with Amy on Strangers with Candy.  Conan hosts Marky Mark Wahlberg, Charles Phoenix, and Jenny and Johnny.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 60 Top Stories.

1 Armed clashes as Ivory Coast stand-off turns bloody

by Evelyne Aka, AFP

1 hr 44 mins ago

2 Protesters shot as I.Coast stand-off spreads to street

by David Youant, AFP

Thu Dec 16, 7:29 am ET

3 Europe paves way for lasting euro lifeline

by Roddy Thomson, AFP

55 mins ago

4 IMF approves 22.5 bln dollar loan for Ireland

AFP

21 mins ago

5 Europe acts to protect euro from debt shocks

by Laurent Thomet, AFP

Thu Dec 16, 12:26 pm ET

6 Divided Europe aims to shield the euro for good

by Laurent Thomet, AFP

Thu Dec 16, 8:07 am ET

7 WikiLeaks’ Assange vows to clear name as freed on bail

by Alice Ritchie and Danny Kemp, AFP

45 mins ago

8 US on track in ‘difficult’ Afghan war: Obama

by Stephen Collinson, AFP

2 hrs 1 min ago

9 US war review cites gains against Taliban, Qaeda

by Stephen Collinson, AFP

Thu Dec 16, 7:03 am ET

10 Science of man-made life can proceed: US panel

by Kerry Sheridan, AFP

1 hr 19 mins ago

11 Lochte wins second gold as swimming records tumble in Dubai

by Karien Jonckheere, AFP

2 hrs 44 mins ago

12 US sues BP, eight others over Gulf oil spill

AFP

Wed Dec 15, 7:20 pm ET

13 South African bowlers rip through Indians

by Colin Bryden, AFP

Thu Dec 16, 12:24 pm ET

14 ‘Fragile’ gains for US Afghan war strategy: report

by Stephen Collinson, AFP

Thu Dec 16, 12:09 pm ET

15 Human rights court condemns Ireland over abortion

by Marc-Antoine Badoux, AFP

Thu Dec 16, 11:39 am ET

16 Australia struggling in third Ashes Test

AFP

Thu Dec 16, 8:03 am ET

17 BP investors spooked by oil spill lawsuit

By Tom Bergin and Sarah Young, Reuters

2 hrs 12 mins ago

18 Obama administration sues BP, others over Gulf spill

By Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini, Reuters

Wed Dec 15, 5:58 pm ET

19 CFTC delays tough commodity speculation crack-down

By Christopher Doering and Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters

34 mins ago

20 U.S. arrests 4 in widening insider trading probe

By Grant McCool and Matthew Goldstein, Reuters

9 mins ago

21 Despite bloodshed, Obama touts Afghan war progress

By Missy Ryan and Ross Colvin, Reuters

1 hr 43 mins ago

22 House wrangles over Obama tax cut bill

By Richard Cowan and Donna Smith, Reuters

1 hr 53 mins ago

23 Special Report: Is America the sick man of the globe?

By Nick Carey, Reuters

Thu Dec 16, 8:42 am ET

24 WikiLeaks’ Assange walks free on bail in London

By Isabel Coles and Avril Ormsby, Reuters

1 hr 33 mins ago

25 ECB boosts capital; EU leaders set crisis fund

By Ilona Wissenbach and Jan Strupczewski, Reuters

29 mins ago

26 ECB to nearly double capital with 5 billion euro hike

By Gavin Jones, Reuters

Thu Dec 16, 11:19 am ET

27 EU hopes to seize debt crisis initiative at summit

By Luke Baker, Reuters

Wed Dec 15, 6:25 pm ET

28 Special Report: Seven Samurai of new Japan Inc

Reuters

Thu Dec 16, 6:31 am ET

29 BofA negotiating with mortgage investors

By Al Yoon, Reuters

Thu Dec 16, 5:53 am ET

30 Analyst view: CFTC limits speculative commodity positions

Reuters

1 hr 30 mins ago

31 CFTC issues position limits, SEF rules

Reuters

1 hr 41 mins ago

32 CFTC takes another shot at swap trading plan

By Christopher Doering and Rachelle Younglai, Reuters

2 hrs 46 mins ago

33 China PM on India charm offensive, offers trade boost

By Sui-Lee Wee and Abhijit Neogy, Reuters

Thu Dec 16, 7:58 am ET

34 Basel regulators give some countries extra leeway

By Huw Jones, Reuters

Thu Dec 16, 6:18 am ET

35 U.S. and China make progress on beef, software trade

By Doug Palmer and Paul Eckert, Reuters

Wed Dec 15, 8:55 pm ET

36 Twitter financing values company at $3.7 billion

By Alexei Oreskovic, Reuters

Wed Dec 15, 7:28 pm ET

37 House votes to end military’s policy on gays

By Thomas Ferraro, Reuters

Wed Dec 15, 7:24 pm ET

38 Lehman creditors file competing reorganization plan

By Dena Aubin, Reuters

Wed Dec 15, 7:13 pm ET

39 Final hurdle for tax bill: Is the end in sight?

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

29 mins ago

40 Obama: US on track in Afghanistan, issues remain

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer

18 mins ago

41 Assange free from prison, back to leaking secrets

By CASSANDRA VINOGRAD, Associated Press

29 mins ago

42 20 states ask judge to throw out Obama health law

By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press

35 mins ago

43 Military leaders dispute GOP on arms control pact

By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press

52 mins ago

44 At least 20 killed in Ivory Coast clashes

By MARCO CHOWN OVED, Associated Press

1 hr 24 mins ago

45 Spiders, snakes? Brain-damaged woman knows no fear

By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer

12 mins ago

46 Senators vote to ban earmarks – then grab them

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

6 mins ago

47 Military jury: Prison, dismissal for Army birther

By JESSICA GRESKO, Associated Press

7 mins ago

48 Almost no oil recovered from sand berms

By CAIN BURDEAU and HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press

8 mins ago

49 At least 20 killed in Ivory Coast clashes

By MARCO CHOWN OVED, Associated Press

1 hr 38 mins ago

50 Vick says he would like a pet dog, renewing debate

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press

1 hr 23 mins ago

51 New report calls for online privacy bill of rights

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer

2 hrs 43 mins ago

52 Court: Irish abortion ban violates women’s rights

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press

Thu Dec 16, 2:54 pm ET

53 Number of homes taken back by lenders tumbles

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer

Thu Dec 16, 6:18 am ET

54 After 25 years, King is giving up his CNN throne

By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer

Thu Dec 16, 7:38 am ET

55 House votes again to lift restrictions on gays

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press

Thu Dec 16, 1:48 pm ET

56 Feds sue BP, other companies for oil spill damages

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press

Thu Dec 16, 6:16 am ET

57 EU agrees on rescue plan for future euro crises

By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER, AP Business Writer

2 hrs 17 mins ago

58 Pa. girls fight ‘boobies’ bracelet ban in US court

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

33 mins ago

59 Fed. officials plan stepped-up fight against carp

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer

1 min ago

60 Courts may not get last word in health care fight http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201…

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

Thu Dec 16, 12:45 pm ET

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

I was on my way to class at my high school, shortly after 10 AM. It was a cold, nasty NYC day and was snowing lightly.

I was at Clawson St. and New Dorp Lane waiting to cross and looking up at the gray sky. I saw a bright flash and a few minutes later the sky was raining debris and bodies. There was a loud screeching noise and a thunderous explosion. A lady from one of the houses saw me frozen by the tree on her front lawn and pulled me into her house. She was frantically calling for help. There were sirens everywhere.

For a about an hour I sat in this lady’s kitchen, drinking hot cocoa she had made me, listening to the radio and the sirens that went on forever. The debris had stopped falling and we went outside and there was an icy light rain. There was stuff everywhere, plane parts, clothing. I didn’t look too close.

The lady asked if she could call my parents to come and get me but I knew no one was home. I was going to go to class but since my teachers were already used to my absences, I decided to walk towards all the sirens. I headed towards Miller Field, which was a tiny air field then part of the active Army base at Ft. Wadsworth and were all the crash activity was. It was amazingly easy to get near. I suppose the police were really stretched thin. The Intersection of New Dorp Lane and Hylan Bl. was blocked off but it wasn’t hard to cut through side streets and yards to get close.

What I saw will stick in my mind forever, as it did last night, on the 50th anniversary of the terrible plane collision over Staten Island that took the lives of 134 people. The second plane crashed in a densely populated section of Park Slope, Brooklyn at 7th Ave, and Sterling St that killed 6 people on the ground, destroyed a church and 10 other buildings, heavily damaging several others. The church was the Pillar of Fire. The fires burned for three days.

There was one survivor at the Brooklyn site, an 11 year old boy, Stephen Lambert Baltz. He was coming from Chicago to visit his mother and sister for the holidays. He died the next day. He would be 60 now.

There are no markers or memorials at either crash site. The Park Slope neighborhood has been rebuilt. There is an apartment building where the church was. At Miller Field, which is now part of the Gateway National Recreation Park, most of thee original buildings and hangers, where the bodies and some of the plane parts were taken, are gone. There is a new high school at the end of the field that replaced the school where I was headed that day but no markers or reminders of that horrendous scene.

As I walked away and back towards home, I started noticing the debris, something I hadn’t done in my curiosity to get to the site. There were packages and boxes mixed in with unidentifiable plane parts. I don’t remember seeing any bodies other than the ones I had seen at Miller Field. It was dark when I got home and I remember how warm the house felt and how cold and hungry I was. My grandmother had dinner started but I grabbed a cookie and some milk anyway because my stomach was in a knot. It was easy to do because my grand mother was very hard of hearing and most of the time didn’t care much for what I did. Usually, no one ever asked me about my day, except that night my Aunt, who  worked in downtown Brooklyn, mentioned the chaos and how it made her miss her usual ferry. I said that I knew about it and that was when my Dad asked if I was OK. Not if I had seen anything, but just if I was OK. I said I was but that I was tired because I walked home, there was no bus and it was faster. Dad looked at me and said, “three miles”. I’m not sure if it was a statement or just rhetorical question, that was Dad’s way. I went up to my room and did some reading, listening to the radio, WABC, for awhile. I can’t remember if I slept. I know I was warm but still felt the cold.

On my way to school the next day, I passed a Catholic Church, Our Lady Queen of Peace. I was raised Jewish and by 13 I was pretty much agnostic, but my grandmother was Catholic. There were lots of people inside praying. I lit a candle, dropped a dime in the collection box and said the Sh’ma.  

It’s 50 years and I have seen far worse since then in my line of work but that day, today, was yesterday, forever. Blessed Be.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Ari Berman: Senate Priority #1: Fix the Filibuster

Last night, Rachel Maddow ran a very interesting segment on the broken nature of the US Senate, which I’m posting below.

We’ve become accustomed to reading headlines like “DADT Repeal Fails in Senate, 57 to 40,” but that doesn’t make them any less surreal. Only in the Senate does winning by 17 votes constitute defeat. That’s because Republicans now require that every piece of legislation in the body receive 60 votes before it even comes up for a formal vote, let alone becomes law. The incessant misuse of the filibuster has turned the Senate into an increasingly dysfunctional body where, quite frankly, it’s miraculous that anything ever gets done.

John Nichols: After Overwhelming House Vote Against Bigotry, Will Senate Finish the Job of Ending DADT?

After the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and allow the openly gay and lesbian Americans serve in the military, it fell to Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank to bang the gavel that closed the vote.

Then Frank had a message for Senate Republicans: It is “delusional” to claim that there has not been enough debate about gays and lesbians serving in the military.

Responding to Republican demands that the Senate vote be delayed until further hearings, committee reviews and debates can be held, Frank noted that the repeal measure had already been approved by by the full House and the Senate Armed Services Committee and said the Congress has followed the proper order of business.

“We’ve gone through triple regular order,” said Frank, after the 250-175 vote.

E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Labels Aren’t the Problem

The “No Labels” group that held its inaugural meeting this week in the name of the political center fills me with passionate ambivalence. My attitude is moderately supportive and moderately critical-accented by a moderate touch of cynicism.

Who can disagree with a call to put aside “petty partisanship” and embrace “practical solutions”? Let’s cheer the group’s insistence on “fact-based discussions.” Too much political talk these days is utterly disconnected from what’s actually true. Fact-based always beats fantasy-based.

. . . . . so what’s my problem with these neo-restive-majority types?

The basic difficulty arises from a false equivalence they make between our current “left” and our current “right.” The truth is that the American right is much farther from anything that can fairly be described as “the center” than is the left.

Robert Sheer of the Great Triangulator

The sight of Bill Clinton back on the White House podium defending tax cuts for the super-rich was more a sick joke than a serious amplification of economic policy. How desperate is the current president that he would turn to the great triangulator, who opened the floodgates to banking greed, for validation of the sorry opportunistic hodgepodge that passes for this administration’s economic policy? A policy designed and implemented by the same Clinton-era holdovers whose radical deregulation of the financial industry created this mess in the first place.

Eric R. Havian: Don’t Let Wall Street Get Away With It! Protect and Reward SEC Whistleblowers

The American experiment with whistleblower laws is now almost 150 years old. The first attempt was the “False Claims Act” or “Lincoln Law,” passed in 1863 to address fraud against the Union Army by war profiteers who sold the Army sawdust rather than gun powder, and, in place of healthy horses, “spavined beasts and dying donkeys.” Based on the idea of “setting a rogue to catch a rogue,” the False Claims Act provided a reward to anyone who came forward with proof of fraud or “false claims” made against the United States government – a bounty hunter provision.

Nearly a century and a half later, the SEC is at a critical point in setting up an SEC whistleblower reward program that it successfully lobbied Congress to pass earlier this year. It is considering regulations that will determine whether the SEC whistleblower program will be either a revolutionary enforcement tool or another eviscerated government effort to protect investors. Many have predicted that this new law will generate an avalanche of reporting of financial fraud that otherwise would have remained hidden. As the SEC begins to implement that program, it is a fair question whether the agency will heed the lessons learned since 1863. History shows that properly implemented whistleblower programs can return billions of dollars of ill-gotten gains to the Treasury and deter the loss of billions more, but also that whistleblower programs can be stifled by restrictive practices and interpretations of the law by entrenched bureaucrats.

Laura Flanders: Harry Potter and the Bailed-Out Banks

There’s a new blockbuster out just in time for the holidays: Harry Potter and the Bailed-Out Banks. Here’s a synopsis:

While students in London spend hours in the cold protesting tuition fees that may soon triple, RBS, a bank that took a huge government bailout, throws a party commemorating one famous British student: Harry Potter. (Of course, Potter went to an exclusive private school.)

It’d be funny except it’s exactly what just happened in London. Perhaps the bank thinks the money that came from the government appeared by magic or goblins instead of by taxpayers, who still technically own 84 percent of the bank. The taxpayers-particularly those facing steep government cuts-know better.

Tom Hayden: Swedish State on Trial in Assange Case?

Sweden’s appeal of a British magistrate’s decision to grant bail to Julian Assange is likely to be decided tomorrow. The first hearing on Sweden’s demand for extradition is scheduled for January 11 in London.

The feeling is growing among WikiLeaks watchers that “someone is pushing Sweden,” as one attorney says.

John Nichols: Antonin Scalia, R-Supreme Court, Joins Michele Bachmann’s New Caucus

Ten years ago, in a display of judicial activism unprecedented in American history, Justice Antonin Scalia engineered the Bush-v-Gore ruling that handed the presidency to a Republican who had lost the nation’s popular vote and was threatened with defeat in a Florida recount. Scalia’s moves removed any serious doubt about his partisan preference.

Now, however, the justice has removed any doubt about his ideological preference within the Republican Party, with an announcement that he will be meeting with-and, undoubtedly, providing talking points for-Michele Bachmann’s Tea (Party)-stained “Constitutional Conservative Caucus.”

Naomi Wolf: Sweden’s Serial Negligence in Prosecuting Rape Further Highlights the Politics Behind Julian Assange’s Arrest

As I have been making the case on media outlets in the past few days that the British and Swedish sex crime charges related actions against Julian Assange are so extraordinarily and unprecedentedly severe — compared to how prosecutors always treat far more cut-and-dry allegations than those in question in this case worldwide, including in the Scandinavian countries, and that thus the pretext of using these charges against Assange is a pimping of feminism by the State and an insult to rape victims — I have found myself up against a bizarre fantasy in the minds of my (mostly male) debating opponents.

The fantasy is that somehow this treatment — a global manhunt, solitary confinement in the Victorian cell that drove Oscar Wilde to suicidal despair within a matter of days, and now a bracelet tracking his movements — is not atypical, because somehow Sweden must be a progressively hot-blooded but still progressively post-feminist paradise for sexual norms in which any woman in any context can bring the full force of the law against any man who oversteps any sexual boundary.>

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Following yesterdays report from the UK Guardian that “The decision to have Julian Assange sent to a London jail and kept there was taken by the British authorities and not by prosecutors in Sweden, as previously thought.” and that Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service would go to the high court today to seek the reversal of the City of Westminster magistrates court decision to free the WikiLeaks founder on bail…

The Guardian reports this morning that:

Britain’s high court today decided to grant bail to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who is wanted in Sweden for questioning over allegations of rape.

Justice Duncan Ouseley agreed with a decision by the City of Westminister earlier in the week to release Assange on strict conditions: £200,000 cash deposit, with a further £40,000 guaranteed in two sureties of £20,000 and strict conditions on his movement.

…

Bail conditions set by Riddle stipulate that Assange must stay at a country house in Suffolk owned by Vaughan Smith, the founder of the Frontline club in west London, report to police daily and wear an electronic tag.

There is no mention in the Guardian’s piece this morning as to whether Assange has actually been physically released yet.

Meanwhile, as Daniel Tencer notes this morning at RawStory, the US witch hunt continues as  “The Justice Department is looking at contact between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the alleged source of the leaked State Department cables, PFC Bradley Manning, in order to build a criminal conspiracy case against Assange, a news report says.”

Prosecutors are reportedly sifting through Internet chats between Manning, an Army intel analyst who has been in US military custody since his arrest in May, and Adrian Lamo, the hacker who reported Manning to the authorities. They hope to find evidence that Assange encouraged or aided Manning while the Army private worked to obtain and deliver to WikiLeaks 250,000 State Department cables.

“If [Assange] did so, [prosecutors] believe they could charge him as a conspirator in the leak, not just as a passive recipient of the documents who then published them,” the New York Times reports.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 15 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1773, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships moored in Boston Harbor and dump 342 chests of tea into the water.

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea coming into the colonies. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and other political protests often refer to it.

The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain. He apparently did not expect that the protestors would choose to destroy the tea rather than concede the authority of a legislature in which they were not directly represented.

The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston’s commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.

 755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.

1392 – Nanboku-cho: Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.

1431 – Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.

1497 – Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

1598 – Seven Year War: Battle of Noryang Point – The final battle of the Seven Year War is fought between the China and the Korean Allied Forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive Allied Forces victory.

1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.

1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.

1761 – Seven Years’ War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kolobrzeg.

1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.

1811 – The first two in a series of severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri. These three so-called mega-quakes are believed to be an ongoing cataclysmic danger that could reprise the 1811-12 series of 2,000 quakes that affected the lands of what would be eight of today’s heartland states of the United States.

1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.

1838 – Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius combat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

1850 – History of New Zealand: The Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.

1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee.

1864 – American Civil War: Franklin-Nashville Campaign – Battle of Nashville – Major General George H. Thomas’s Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee.

1893 – Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, From The New World is given its world premiere performance at Carnegie Hall.

1907 – The Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world

1914 – World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.

1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.

1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honor of the German Mother

1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak

1942 – Holocaust: Porajmos – Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

1946 – Thailand joins the United Nations.

1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.

1949 – Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, later knows as SAAB, is founded in Sweden.

1950 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight with communist North Korea in the Korean War.

1957 – Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

1960 – 1960 New York air disaster: While approaching New York’s Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.

1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.

1971 – Bangladesh War of Independence and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan army brings an end to both conflicts.

1971 – Independence Day of the Kingdom of Bahrain from British Protectorate status

1972 – Vietnam War: Henry Kissinger announces that North Vietnam has left private peace negotiations, in Paris.

1978 – Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first post-Depression era city to default on its loans, owing $14,000,000 to local banks.

1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, having an immediate dramatic effect on the United States.

1982 – The Federal Reserve announces that the operating capacity of factories has gone down to 67.8%.

1985 – Mafia: In New York City, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family.

1986 – Revolt in Kazakhstan against Communist party, known as Zheltoksan, which becomes the first sign of ethnic strife during Gorbachev’s tenure

1991 – United Nations General Assembly: UN General Assembly Resolution 4686 revokes UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 after Israel makes revocation of resolution 3379 a condition of its participation in the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991.

1991 – Independence of The Republic of Kazakhstan.

1997 – An episode of Pokemon, “Denno Senshi Porygon”, aired in Japan induces seizures in hundreds of Japanese children.

1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert Fox – The United States and United Kingdom bomb targets in Iraq.

2003 – President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law establishes the United States’ first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its provisions.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Adelaide of Italy

         o December 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Day of Reconciliation, formerly celebrated as Day of the Vow by the Afrikaners (South Africa)

   * Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kazakhstan from the Soviet Union in 1991.

   * National Day, celebrates the withdrawal of United Kingdom from Bahrain, making Bahrain an independent emirate in 1971.

   * National Sports Day (Thailand)

   * The beginning of the nine-day celebration beginning December 16 and ending December 24, celebrating the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born (Christians of Spanish-origin):

         o The first day of Las Posadas (Mexico, other Latin Americans)

         o The first day of Simbang Gabi (Philippines)

   * Victory Day (Bangladesh)

   * Victory Day (India)

   * Day of Ashura 10th of Moharram will be observed all over the United States to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain ibn Ali A.S. and his companions.

U.S. rethinks strategy for an unthinkable attack

Administration’s problem: How to spread advice without causing alarm?

By WILLIAM J. BROAD  

Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe.

The advice is based on recent scientific analyses indicating that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.

Arctic’s vanishing sea ice presents polar bear with a new danger – grizzlies

Fears for future of gene pool as interbreeding between vulnerable species driven together by global warming gathers pace

By Steve Connor, Science Editor Thursday, 16 December 2010

The rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic is encouraging the formation of hybrids between related species which could accelerate the decline of some of the region’s most vulnerable animals, a study has found.

Scientists believe that the diminishing area of the Arctic Ocean that is covered by floating sea ice is forcing the polar bear to come into closer contact with the related grizzly bear, resulting in hybrids that could threaten the distinctive gene pool of both species.

Other examples of hybrids in the Arctic region include a narwhal-beluga whale cross found in west Greenland and an apparent hybrid of a bowhead and right whale photographed in the Bering Sea in 2009. Porpoises and seals are also known to be involved in cross-breeding, the researchers said.

USA

U.S. Tries to Build Case for Conspiracy by WikiLeaks

 

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: December 15, 2010

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange for his role in a huge dissemination of classified government documents, are looking for evidence of any collusion in his early contacts with an Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the information.

Justice Department officials are trying to find out whether Mr. Assange encouraged or even helped the analyst, Pfc. Bradley Manning, to extract classified military and State Department files from a government computer system. If he did so, they believe they could charge him as a conspirator in the leak, not just as a passive recipient of the documents who then published them.

Administration’s next big Afghan battle: How many troops to withdraw

 

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Scott Wilson

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, December 16, 2010; 12:06 AM

President Obama’s national security team this week revisited the same vexing issues it worked through a year ago in devising the administration’s troop escalation in Afghanistan. This time, one key element was missing: impassioned dissent.

While the group concluded that Obama’s counterinsurgency strategy is showing signs of progress, divisions persist beneath the appearance of harmony. But skeptics in the administration have decided to hold their fire until late next spring, when Obama must decide how many troops he intends to withdraw starting in July to fulfill a pledge he made when he announced a troop increase last December.

Europe

EU strategy in defence of euro risky for markets

The Irish Times – Thursday, December 16, 2010

ARTHUR BEESLEY, European Correspondent  

EU LEADERS have adopted the “high risk” strategy of holding in reserve any new measures to escalate their defence of the euro as they prepare to revise the Lisbon Treaty to create a permanent bailout scheme for distressed single currency countries.

With Spain under renewed pressure on the eve of a key summit after Moody’s rating agency warned it might downgrade its debt, well-placed diplomats said European leaders were unlikely to bolster their temporary bailout fund or expand its remit until such time as that could be justified to national parliaments.

Bulgarian row over diplomats with Soviet past  

Bulgaria said on Wednesday it may recall many of its top diplomats in capitals across the world following embarrassing revelations that they were spies during the communist era.

Telegraph

Bulgaria started opening up the archives of its notorious Darzhavna Sigurnost secret police in 1997, already unearthing skeletons in the cupboards of thousands of people, including politicians such as the country’s current president Georgy Parvanov.

But the publication this week of the names of ambassadors and top diplomats in capitals ranging from Berlin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Moscow and Rome to Beijing and Tokyo who all worked as agents or collaborators for the secret services has dealt a humiliating blow to Bulgaria’s foreign service.

Middle East

Qatar Has High Hopes for 2022 World Cup  

Gulf Goals

By Alexander Smoltczyk in Doha

Shortly before the delegation from football’s international governing body FIFA left Doha on Sept. 16, it was invited to a presentation in a pavilion. The cool, windowless room, furnished with cube-shaped leather armchairs and with lounge music playing on the sound system, could just as easily have been in Madrid or New York.

Atkon, a Berlin-based event planning firm, had spent months working on the 39-minute show that was now unfolding in front of the FIFA experts, complete with 3D technology and surround sound. Laughing children and wise sheikhs swirled across the screens, stadiums grew and the camera zoomed in to show images from the past and the future.

Middle East peace process: Dead but not buried  

The US has given up trying to persuade Netanyahu to stop building on occupied land as a prerequisite to talks

Editorial

The Guardian, Thursday 16 December 2010  

The Middle East peace process died a quiet, undramatic death with the statement last week that the US had given up trying to persuade Binyamin Netanyahu to stop building on occupied land as a prerequisite to direct talks with the Palestinians. Few, however, are interested in burying the corpse.

The rightwing coalition under Mr Netanyahu is relaxed about the failure to restart the talks, because half the cabinet do not accept that they are occupying any land other than their own. And anyway, every day without a final status agreement is another day when the cement mixers can whirl and the cranes swivel. Palestinian leaders who recognise Israel are also reluctant to make good their pledges to resign, because they, too, would lose position, power and political meaning. Fatah has still legitimacy, but where would the Palestinian Authority be in Palestinian eyes other than as a surrogate for Israeli soldiers?

Asia

The tragedy that shames Australia

At least 28 asylum-seekers drowned in shipwreck off Christmas Island

By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent Thursday, 16 December 2010  

Australia’s hardline refugee policies were blamed yesterday for the deaths of at least 28 asylum-seekers whose wooden boat smashed into jagged rocks off Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

Residents of the rugged volcanic island, an offshore Australian territory, attempted to help, throwing life jackets and ropes into the boiling seas. But they were forced to watch, horrified, as the boat was dashed to pieces and its occupants were scooped up by massive waves and hurled against the limestone cliffs.

US double talk on Myanmar nukes  



By Bertil Lintner  

BANGKOK – Is Myanmarr truly trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability and produce ballistic missiles with North Korean assistance, as alleged in a controversial June documentary made by the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and aired by al-Jazeera, or is it all poppycock, as claimed in a November 12 report by United States-based ProPublica, an award-winning US investigative journalism outfit?

The DVB report was based on testimonies from Myanmar army defectors who had been scrutinized by Robert Kelley, a highly regarded former US weapons scientist and former United Nations weapons inspector. ProPublica, on the other hand, quoted an anonymous senior “American official” as saying that the US Central Intelligence Agency had reviewed Kelley’s report “line by line and had rejected its findings”.  

Africa

Call for calm as senior politicians accused of crimes against humanity

The Irish Times – Thursday, December 16, 2010

JODY CLARKE in Nairobi  

THREE GOVERNMENT ministers, including the deputy prime minister, are among six Kenyans accused by the International Criminal Court of crimes against humanity for their roles in orchestrating the violence that followed the country’s disputed 2007 elections.

Deputy prime minister and finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, the most powerful politician in the Rift Valley, where most of the violence occurred, were the highest profile suspects named by the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, yesterday.  Mr Kenyatta is the son of the country’s founding president, Jomo Kenyatta.

Human rights council: ‘Scars of apartheid remain’



JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

“Studies suggest that despite the support of a progressive constitution and various laudable attempts to heal the deep scars left by apartheid, low levels of trust amongst South Africans of all various races continue to be our reality,” said HRC spokesperson Vincent Moaga.

“This, to a large extent, is as a result of deepening levels of inequality and social injustices that continue to prevail.”

Moaga said in a statement that as the country commemorated Reconciliation Day on December 16 the nation should ask itself whether it had managed to create a country that reflected the wishes and aspirations of all people within it.

Latin America

Chavez foes, US condemn plan for decree powers  



By IAN JAMES, Associated Press  

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez i is using a friendly lame-duck congress to seek broad powers to rule by decree for the next year – a plan that drew strong criticism Wednesday from the U.S. government and opponents who called it a blow to democracy.

For almost five years, Chavez has enjoyed near total control of Venezuela’s National Assembly thanks to a strategic blunder by his foes, who boycotted 2005 elections. That untrammeled power comes to an end Jan. 5 when a new congress arrives, with enough opposition lawmakers to hinder some types of major legislation.

Critics accuse Chavez of trying to sidestep those limits and neutralize his opponents by getting the outgoing congress to give him decree powers for 12 months – allowing him to impose laws on his own. They see it as a power grab by a president they say is steering Venezuela toward Cuba-style socialism.

Ignoring Asia A Blog