Rethink Afghanistan, Parts 1 & 2
Brave New Films is creating a series of short films in its Rethink Afghanistan project. Here is
Part 1: Afghanistan + More Troops = Catastrophe
Part 2: Pakistan: “The Most Dangerous Country”
March 27th, 2009
Archive for March 27th, 2009
Danish Prime Minister accused of war crimes by whistleblower
In response to the posting on the UN Human Rights Council resolution sponsored by Denmark, I have been sent this letter by former Danish intelligence officer and whistleblower Frank Grevil, who served four months in prison for revealing pre-Iraq war lies to Parliament by the Danish Prime Minister, who is now scheduled to become NATO Secretary-General:
One of the candidates for NATO’s next secretary general is an infamous Danish war criminal
Letter Written by: Frank Grevil
Date of Letter: 2009-03-11
Subject: WAR!!!Dear Americans,
From a U.S. perspective, the slumbering North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, may not deserve a lot of attention. Nevertheless, the is good reason to pay attention to current events in the NATO alliance, where the next secretary general will expectedly be appointed in a few weeks from now.
One of the candidates to the posting is an infamous Danish war criminal, who was an accomplice to your former president George W. Bush’s aggression on Iraq. His name is Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and he currently holds the position of prime minister of Denmark.
Not that the office of NATO secretary general is in any way influential, but appointing Fogh Rasmussen for the office would imply the honouring a man of ill reputation.
If the U.S. should at one point impeach George W. Bush for misconducting his office during his eight-year reign, it would seem awkward to have one of his European sycophants as head of the NATO alliance.
Five years ago, when I was employed by the Danish defence intelligence service (the equivalent of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency), I disclosed secret reports, mostly copied from documents received from the U.S. and the U.K., revealing that Fogh Rasmussen lied intentionally to the Danish parliament, when he claimed to have firm intelligence documenting that Iraq under its former dictator Saddam Hussein was defying U.N. resolutions demanding it to cease its WMD programs and allow for inspections.
For this my contribution to shed light on the events leading to a motley U.S.-headed group of states invading Iraq in March 2003 without a U.N. mandate, I served four months in prison where, on top of the incarceration proper, my under-age daughter was harrassed by the Danish authorities.
Under normal circumstances, I would be proud to see a Dane as head of an international organization, but not this one, who should be tried according to the Nuremberg charter as an international major war criminal.
Matters aren’t settled yet, so I strongly urge all of you Americans to put pressure on the U.S. government to refuse Fogh Rasmussen’s candidacy.
Yours sincerely Frank Grevil Copenhagen, Denmark frank@grevil.dk http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8a96aa0c-0cd2-11de-a555-0000779fd2ac.html
March 27th, 2009
UN Human Rights Council passes resolution on health professionals and torture
This morning the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution, introduced by Denmark, on the role of health professionals in torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Here is the Danish press release [I don't have any links at this point]:
The UN Human Rights Council adopts Danish resolution against torture
On 27 March 2009 the United Nation’s Human Rights Council adopted a resolution against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or Punishment, which was submitted by Denmark. The resolution has 52 cosponsors.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller declares:
“The international human rights strategy recently adopted by the Government states that the fight against torture is a highly prioritized key issue for Denmark. Therefore I am very pleased that the Human Rights Council of the United Nations has adopted the resolution about the role and responsibility of medical and other health personnel, tabled by Denmark. We know that medical skills developed for healing may be perverted for use in torture. But fortunately a large number of medical and other health personnel demonstrate the greatest courage, skill and dedication in the struggle against torture – individually and in organizations such as RCT, IRCT and Amnesty International. The resolution supports their work.”
- o0o -
The resolution contains two new elements:
- The approach is very much “hands on” and addresses both health personnel and states.
- It is to a large extent based on ethical principles adopted by health personnel themselves.
Among other issues the resolution contains provisions on the duty of health personnel to practice for the good of the patients and never do harm or injustice, and thus never to engage – actively or passively – in torture, to report and denounce acts of torture of which they are aware and on the importance of involving forensic science in the investigation of torture and other violations of human rights. It also underlines that states need to respect the independence of health personnel and their duty to report on torture States also need to provide persons deprived of their liberty with medical examinations and treatment.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs 27 March 2009
Here is the entire resolution:
GE.09-12443 (E) 230309
UNITEDNATIONS
A General Assembly Distr.
LIMITED
A/HRC/10/L.32
20 March 2009
Original: ENGLISH
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Tenth session
Agenda item 3
PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF ALL HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS,INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT
Argentina, Australia*, Austria*, Belgium*, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria*,Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica*, Croatia*, Cyprus*, Czech Republic*,Denmark*, Estonia*, Finland*, France, Germany, Greece*, Guatemala*, Hungary*,Iceland*, Ireland*, Italy, Latvia*, Liechtenstein*, Lithuania*, Luxembourg*,Malta*, Mexico, Monaco*, Netherlands, New Zealand*, Norway*, Panama*,Peru*, Poland*, Portugal*, Republic of Moldova*, Romania*, Slovakia,Slovenia, Spain*, Sweden*, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMacedonia*, Turkey*, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain andNorthern Ireland, Uruguay:
draft resolution
10/… Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: the role and responsibility of medical and other health personnel
The Human Rights Council,
Recalling all resolutions on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment and on forensic science adopted by the General Assembly, the Commission on
Human Rights and the Human Rights Council,
* Non-member State of the Human Rights Council.
Recalling also the Principles of Medical Ethics relevant to the Role of Health Personnel, particularly Physicians, in the Protection of Prisoners and Detainees against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Reaffirming that no one shall be subjected to torture or to other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,
Recalling that freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is a non-derogable right that must be protected under all circumstances, including in times of international or internal conflict or disturbance and state of emergency, and that the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is affirmed in relevant international instruments,
Noting the duty of medical and other health personnel to practice for the good of the patients and never do harm or injustice pursuant to the Hippocratic Oath and their respective professional codes of ethics,
Recalling that it is a gross contravention of medical ethics, for medical and other health personnel to engage, actively or passively, in acts which constitute participation in, complicity in, incitement to or attempts to commit torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment pursuant to the Principles of Medical Ethics,
Stressing that medical and other health personnel have a duty to provide competent medical service in full professional and moral independence, with compassion and respect for human dignity, and to always bear in mind human life and to act in the patient’s best interest under their respective professional codes of ethics,
Noting the duty of all medical and other health personnel to report or denounce acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of which they are aware to relevant medical, judicial, national or international authorities as appropriate under and consistent with their respective professional codes of ethics,
Noting also that, under the Geneva Conventions of 1949, torture and inhuman treatment are a grave breach and that under the statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, the statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January and 31 December 1994 and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, acts of torture can constitute crimes against humanity and, when committed in a situation of armed conflict, constitute war crimes,
1. Condemns all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including through intimidation, which are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever and can thus never be justified, and calls upon all States to implement fully the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
2. Emphasizes that States must take persistent, determined and effective measures to prevent and combat torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and stresses that all acts of torture must be made offences under domestic criminal law;
3. Stresses that an order or instruction from a superior officer or a public authority should not be invoked as a justification of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and that States must never request or require anyone, including any medical or other health personnel, to commit any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
4. Urges States to respect the professional and moral independence, duties and responsibilities of medical and other health personnel;
5. Also urges States to ensure that all medical and other health personnel may fulfil their duty to report or denounce acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of which they are aware to relevant medical, judicial, national or international authorities as appropriate under and consistent with their respective codes of ethics without fear of retribution or harassment;
6. Stresses that all allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment must be examined promptly and impartially by the competent domestic authority, including where relevant through examination by forensic experts and other relevant medical personnel, in order for those who encourage, order, tolerate or perpetrate such acts to be held responsible, brought to justice and punished commensurate with the severity of the offence;
7. Urges States to establish effective investigation and documentation procedures, and takes note of the Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as a useful tool in this respect;
8. Stresses that States must not punish or otherwise intimidate medical and other health personnel for not obeying orders or instructions to commit, facilitate or conceal acts amounting to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment or for speaking out against it;
9. Urges all States to provide all persons deprived of their liberty, in prisons or any other detention facility, with a professional medical examination at their admission to and transfer between such facilities and thereafter on a regular basis as a means to help prevent torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
10. Also urges all States to provide all persons deprived of their liberty with protection of their physical and mental health, treatment of any disease or care specifically needed by persons with disabilities of the same quality and standard as is afforded to persons not deprived of their liberty as a means to help prevent torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
11. Recognizes that forensic investigation can play an important role in combating impunity by providing the evidentiary basis on which prosecutions can successfully be brought against persons responsible for violations of human rights and, where applicable, international humanitarian law and encourages further coordination concerning, inter alia, the planning and realization of such investigations, as well as the protection of forensic and related experts, between Governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations;
12. Calls upon all States to ensure that education and information regarding the absolute prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are fully included in the training of medical and other health personnel who may be involved in the custody, interrogation and treatment of any individual subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment;
13. Urges all States that have not yet done so to become parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as a matter of priority and calls upon States parties to give early consideration to signing and ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention;
14. Welcomes the designation or establishment of independent national preventive mechanisms to prevent torture, with the participation of relevant medical and other health personnel, encourages all States that have not yet done so to establish such mechanisms and calls upon States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to fulfil their obligation to designate or establish truly independent and effective national preventive mechanisms;
15. Requests the Special Rapporteur on torture and other relevant special procedures and invites relevant treaty bodies, within their respective mandates:
(a) To remain vigilant with regard to medical and other health personnel’s active or passive participation in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to their functional independence of the institution in which they serve;
(b) To discuss possible areas of cooperation with the relevant United Nations bodies, specialized agencies and programmes, in particular the World Health Organization, to address the role and responsibility of medical and other health personnel in the documentation and prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
(c) To respond effectively to credible and reliable information submitted to their attention regarding alleged cases of the active or passive participation of medical and other health personnel in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
(d) To consider including in their reports submitted to the Council information on the problem of medical and other health personnel’s participation in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
16. Also requests States to cooperate fully and in good faith with the relevant special procedures;
17. Calls upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide advisory services to States for the prevention of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including concerning tools for the investigation of alleged cases of torture;
18. Takes note of the report of the Special Rapporteur (A/HRC/10/44).
—–
March 27th, 2009
Major development in web-based information retrieval due in May
The computer news site Det brings news of a fascinating and apparently important development in computerized information provision. Stephen Wolfram, the physicist and developer of the Mathematica symbolic mathemtics software is announcing the release in May of Mathematica Alpha, a web site/program that will be able to actually answer real-world questions posed to it. What is Alfred Hitchok’s birthday? What was the coldest day in Syracuse in 1927? Or what is the ten thousandth digit of pi? This program should be able to parse and answer the question, and many more as well
According to several articles I’ve read, this is really cool. Here is a brief article. For more detailed accounts, go here, here, or here.
Another week another Google killer. Last week, it was Twitter as Google killer. This week it’s Wolfam Alpha. The difference with Wolfram Alpha is that it has the pedigree, engineering heft and perhaps a better mousetrap to actually live up to the billing.
Techmeme is a flutter with talk of Wolfram Alpha. Dan Farber notes that Stephen Wolfram is a scientist who has recorded a few breakthroughs and a little controversy. In a nutshell, Wolfram Alpha blends natural language, a new search model and an algorithm that takes all the data on the Web and makes it “computable.” Wolfram just recently outlined his latest creation and added:
I think it’s going to be pretty exciting. A new paradigm for using computers and the web.
Dan writes about Wolfram:
He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Caltech in 1979 when he was 20 and has focused most of his career on probing complex systems. In 1988 he launched Mathematica, powerful computational software that has become the gold standard in its field. In 2002, Wolfram produced a 1,280-page tome, A New Kind of Science, based on a decade of exploration in cellular automata and complex systems.
In May, Wolfram will launch Wolfram Alpha, which is dubbed a computational knowledge engine. It’s pretty clear, what Web giant Wolfram Alpha is targeting. [Google-like picture]
Look familiar?
For the brainiacs in the house, Nova Spivak has a long post outlining Wolfram Alpha (it’s a must read). Simply put, if Spivak’s outline is only half on target Wolfram Alpha could be big.
Spivak writes:
In a nutshell, Wolfram and his team have built what he calls a “computational knowledge engine” for the Web. OK, so what does that really mean? Basically it means that you can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.
It doesn’t simply return documents that (might) contain the answers, like Google does, and it isn’t just a giant database of knowledge, like the Wikipedia. It doesn’t simply parse natural language and then use that to retrieve documents, like Powerset, for example.
Instead, Wolfram Alpha actually computes the answers to a wide range of questions — like questions that have factual answers such as “What country is Timbuktu in?” or “How many protons are in a hydrogen atom?” or “What is the average rainfall in Seattle this month?,” “What is the 300th digit of Pi?,” “where is the ISS?” or “When was GOOG worth more than $300?”
Think about that for a minute. It computes the answers. Wolfram Alpha doesn’t simply contain huge amounts of manually entered pairs of questions and answers, nor does it search for answers in a database of facts. Instead, it understands and then computes answers to certain kinds of questions.
Spivak later mentions that Wolfram Alpha isn’t designed to be HAL 9000. That’s refreshing. Wolfram Alpha sounds impressive, but it would be premature to call it a Google killer though. In fact, if Wolfram Alpha lives up to its billing it will be acquired at some ridiculous price either by Google or some company—Microsoft—looking to kill Google.
March 27th, 2009
Jonathan Turley on Obama’s avoidance of investigation of Bush torture
Turley, interviewed on Rachel Maddow [about 4 minutes into the segment], points out that Obama will be complicit in the Bush administration war crimes of torture if he doesn’t investigate those crimes. Under international law, investigation of war crimes is mandatory, not optional:
Consistent with Turley’s premise, the ACLU has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calling for the appointment of an Independent Prosecutor to investigate Bush administration detainee abuse:
The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder reiterating its call for the Department of Justice to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the authorization to use torture at CIA secret prisons. This follows recent revelations that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) concluded in 2007 that the treatment of detainees being held by American personnel constituted torture, as well as cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The ICRC report is based on harrowing accounts from detainees about the treatment to which they were subjected.
The ACLU’s letter, signed by Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, states in part:
“The fact that such crimes have been committed can no longer be doubted or debated, nor can the need for an independent prosecutor be ignored by a new Justice Department committed to restoring the rule of law … Given the increasing evidence of deliberate and widespread use of torture and abuse, and that such conduct was the predictable result of policy changes made at the highest levels of government, an independent prosecutor is clearly in the public interest. The country deserves to have these outstanding matters addressed, and have the assurance that torture will stop and never happen again. An independent prosecutor is the only sure way to achieve these goals.”
Read the complete letter here.
March 27th, 2009