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Last Updated: Jul 30th, 2008 - 10:41:00 |
New FBI Rules Would Allow Racial and Ethnic Profiling
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| Proposed FBI rules would allow racial profiling. Photo credit: www.aclu.org |
The Associated Press reports the Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on racial or ethnic profiling. Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons, such as evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated, to investigate US citizens and legal residents. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has decried the plan as “unconstitutional and un-American.” Other critics have compared the proposed guidelines to the FBI’s now-defunct COINTELPRO operation under J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s and 1960s.
Landmark Case Returns to NY Seeking Millions From Corporations That Profited From South African Apartheid
A landmark case is returning to a New York district court that seeks millions of dollars in reparations from corporations that supported and profited from South African apartheid. The suit is filed on behalf of thousands of apartheid victims under the Alien Tort Claims Act. It seeks damages from the companies for doing business with the apartheid government despite international sanctions and boycotts. The companies include the oil giants BP and Exxon Mobil, banks such as Citigroup and UBS, and the car giants General Motors and Ford Motor.
The case was initially dismissed in November 2004, but reinstated last October. The Supreme Court was set to rule on the case in May, but sent it back to district court after four justices disclosed they owned shares in some of the companies named in the suit.
District Court Judge John Sprizzo will preside over the hearings. He made the initially ruling to dismiss the case nearly four years ago.
UK Mercenary Sentenced in Equatorial Guinea Coup Plot
In news from Africa, former British military officer Simon Mann has been sentenced to thirty-four years in prison for plotting to topple the oil-rich government of Equatorial Guinea. During the trial, Mann said that Spain, South Africa and the United States all knew about the coup plot and approved it. Mann also implicated Mark Thatcher, the son of Britain’s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in the plot.
Racist Former GOP Senator, Jesse Helms, 86, Dies
Former North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms has died at the age of eighty-six. During the 1960s, he was a vocal critic of the civil rights movement. He once wrote, “Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced.” In 1983, he opposed the Martin Luther King Day bill. Helms was also a longtime opponent of AIDS research and treatment. In 1988, Helms said, “There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy.” On foreign affairs, Helms was a supporter of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and was linked to backing right-wing death squads in El Salvador. In 1996, he co-sponsored the Helms-Burton Act, which strengthened the US embargo against Cuba. Ed Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, praised Jesse Helms. He said, “Along with Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, [Helms] helped establish the conservative movement and became a powerful voice for free markets and free people.”
Study: Cheap Materials, Lax Oversight Caused Toxicity in Katrina Trailers
A new federal study says cheap materials and poor oversight exposed thousands of evacuees to toxic levels of formaldehyde in government-issued trailers following Hurricane Katrina. Researchers found toxic levels at between four to eleven times higher than those in average US homes. At least one death has been linked to toxic exposure in the Katrina evacuee trailers. More than 11,000 health complaints were filed over the trailers, leading government officials to move more than 4,000 families.
Pentagon Vows to Build “Safer” Cluster Bombs by 2018
The Pentagon has ruled out eliminating cluster bombs from its stockpile of weapons but has vowed to eventually reduce the danger of unexploded munitions in the deadly explosives. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed a memo requiring that the US build so-called safer cluster bombs—but the rule won’t go into effect until 2018. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said the Pentagon’s move is a step back. In 2001 a defense policy issued by then-Defense Secretary William Cohen called for a similar reduction in sub munitions from cluster bombs by 2005. Leahy said, “Now the Bush administration’s ‘new’ policy is to wait another ten years.” In May, more than 100 countries agreed to ban cluster bombs. But the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan have refused to agree to the ban.
US Security Company Tied to Mexican Torture Training Videos
The website Narco News has revealed a US private security company is connected to a controversial Mexican police training video that showed officers practicing techniques critics say amount to torture. Two employees of the Florida-based company Risks Incorporated are seen in the video. One of the employees of Risks Incorporated, Jerry Wilson, is seen dragging a Mexican agent through his own vomit. Another employee of Risks Incorporated in the video is identified as Gerardo Arrechea, a Cuban Mexican who has ties to the anti-Castro militant group Commandos F4.
Climate Change Threatening Coral Reefs
In other environmental news, a new US government report has revealed that half of US coral reefs are in poor or fair condition and are threatened by climate change and human activities like sports fishing, shipping and the release of untreated sewage. Reefs in the Caribbean, in particular, are under severe assault.
Campaign News
Obama to Give Acceptance Speech in 75,000-Seat Stadium
And finally, the Democratic Party is expected to soon announce that the site of Sen. Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech will be moved to Invesco Field in Denver, which holds more than 75,000 people. The speech is scheduled for August 28th, the forty-fifth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Obama’s Comments on Iraq Scrutinized
Senator Barack Obama has suggested he is willing to refine his campaign promise to remove all combat troops within sixteen months of becoming president. On Thursday morning, Senator Obama discussed his views on Iraq in Fargo, North Dakota.
Sen. Barack Obama: “When I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.”
Hours later, Obama held an impromptu press conference to insist that his statement did not reflect a change in policy.
Sen. Barack Obama: “That position has not changed. I have not equivocated on that position. I am not searching for maneuvering room with respect to that position.”
Obama: No “Mental Distress” Exception for Late-Term Abortions
Meanwhile, Obama has told a Christian magazine he supports a ban on late-term abortions as long as there is an exception for the physical health of the mother. But Obama said mental distress should not qualify as a justification for late-term abortions. Obama said, “I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.”
Canadian Court Sides with US War Resister
A Canadian court has sided for the first time with a US war resister who fled to Canada seeking refugee status. Federal Court Justice Richard Barnes ordered the Immigration and Refugee Board to reconsider the failed refugee claim of Joshua Key, who fled to Canada in 2005. Barnes said Key had witnessed enough human rights abuses during a stint in Iraq that he could qualify for asylum. The judge also concluded that military action against civilians in Iraq violates the 1949 Geneva Convention.
World Bank: Befouls Caused Food Prices to Soar 75 %
The Guardian newspaper has obtained an unpublished World Bank report that found biofuels have caused world food prices to increase by 75 percent. The World Bank report was finished in April but reportedly not published in order to avoid embarrassing the US government, which has claimed plant-derived fuels have pushed up prices by only three percent. The report found that biofuels has distorted food markets by diverting grain away from food for fuel, encouraging farmers to set aside land for its production, and sparked financial speculation on grains.
Google Ordered to Hand Over YouTube User Info
A federal judge has ordered Google to turn over information about every user who has ever watched a video on YouTube. The ruling came as part of a lawsuit brought by Viacom over the posting of copyrighted material on YouTube. Google is resisting the request, saying it would allow Viacom to “likely be able to determine the viewing and video uploading habits of YouTube’s users.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the judgment “a set-back to privacy rights.”
LA Times Announces 250 Job Cuts
And in more media news, the Los Angeles Times has announced plans to lay off 250 employees, most of them in the newsroom. Nationwide, more than 1,000 jobs have been cut from seven major newspapers in the past week.
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