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Zebra 3 Report by Joe Anybody
Thursday, 5 February 2009
suicides in the Army on the rise January 2009
Mood:
incredulous
Now Playing: The cries in the night are like screams - Can you hear them?
Topic: WAR
Z3 Friends & Family, this is an ugly report but it needs to be read and understood. The horror of war is relentless. We as sane reasonable individuals need to demand that all wars end ... and to quit using humans to kill each other for insidious reasons. These military solider who are struggling to survive and cope need each and all of us to lean on. Our country sent them into hell, they are gonna need some help coming back. Veterans for Peace and IVAW are two great groups, but there are more n more and there needs to be even more. This insane war<s> that we (USA) are involved with need to cease NOW! The support and engagement we have drug so many good people through needs to stop NOW! The need to ease the pain, stop the madness, and "train for peace" is imminent. With much sadness I pass along this fact full article, and my friendly peace loving Z3 Readers, its not good news. Read it and then think ...."What are we gonna do to help?" For if its not we ... "us" ...you and me? ...then who will it be, who is gonna stop the screams from in the night, who can hear them, and dare try to make change? The numbers are rising... and with that I say, the fact of the matter is, there should be "no numbers". I can hear the cry and I say "no more!" ~Joe Anybody Army reports alarming spike in suicides last month By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer Suicides among active duty soldiers hit a record high last year ... WASHINGTON - The Army is investigating an unexplained and stunning spike in suicides in January. The count is likely to surpass the number of combat deaths reported last month by all branches of the armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the fight against terrorism. "In January, we lost more soldiers to suicide than to al-Qaida," said Paul Rieckhoff, director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He urged "bold and immediate action" by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. According to figures obtained by The Associated Press, there were seven confirmed suicides last month, compared with five a year earlier. An additional 17 cases from January are under investigation. There was no detailed breakdown available for January, such as the percentage of suicides that occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan or information about the dead. But just one base -- Fort Campbell in Kentucky -- reported that four soldiers killed themselves near the installation, where 14,000 soldiers from the two war have returned from duty since October. Some Fort Campbell soldiers have done three or four tours of duty in the wars. "They come back and they really need to be in a supportive environment," said Dr. Bret Logan, a commander at the base's Blanchfield Army Community Hospital. "They really need to be nourished back to normalcy because they have been in a very extreme experience that makes them vulnerable to all kinds of problems." Officials said they did not know what caused the rise in suicides last month and that it often takes time to fully investigate a number of the deaths. "There is no way to know -- we have not identified any particular problem," said Lt. Col. Mike Moose, a spokesman for Army personnel issues. Yearly suicides have risen steadily since 2004 amid increasing stress on the force from long and repeated tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The service has rarely, if ever, released a month-by-month update on suicides. But officials said Thursday they wanted to re-emphasize "the urgency and seriousness necessary for preventive action at all levels" of the force. The seven confirmed suicides and 17 other suspected suicides in January were far above the toll for most months. Self-inflicted deaths were at 12 or fewer for each of nine months in 2008, Army data showed. The highest monthly number last year was 14 in August. Usually the vast majority of suspected suicides are eventually confirmed. If that holds true, it would mean that self-inflicted deaths in January surpassed the 16 combat deaths reported last month in all branches of the armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and other nations considered part of the global fight against terrorism. Army leaders took the unusual step of briefing congressional leaders on the information Thursday. An annual report last week showed that soldiers killed themselves at the highest rate on record in 2008. The toll for all of last year -- 128 confirmed and 15 pending investigation -- was an increase for the fourth straight year. It even surpassed the civilian rate adjusted to reflect the age and gender differences in the military. "The trend and trajectory seen in January further heightens the seriousness and urgency that all of us must have in preventing suicides," Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, said Thursday. The other services did not immediately provide information on their suicide figures for January. But the Army in the past few years has posted a consistently higher rate of suicides than the Navy, Air Force and Marines as it has carried the largest burden of the two largely ground wars. In announcing the 2008 figures last week, the Army said it would hold special training from Feb. 15 to March 15 to help troops recognize suicidal behaviors and to intervene if they see such behavior in a buddy. After that, the Army also plans a suicide prevention program for all soldiers from the top of the chain of command down. Yearly increases in suicides have been recorded since 2004, when there were 64 all year. Officials have said over the years that they found that the most common factors were soldiers suffering problems with their personal relationships, legal or financial issues and problems on the job. But Army Secretary Pete Geren acknowledged last week that officials have been stumped by the spiraling number of cases. The relentless rise in suicides has frustrated the service, which has tried to address the issue through additional suicide prevention training, the hiring of more psychiatrists and other mental health staff, and other programs both at home and at the battlefront for troops and their families. In October, the Army and the National Institute of Mental Health signed an agreement to do a five-year study to identify factors affecting the mental and behavioral health of soldiers and come up with intervention strategies at intervals along the way. ___ Associated Press writer Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report. _____________________________________________ Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 8:45 PM PST
Updated: Thursday, 5 February 2009 8:52 PM PST
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
911 Truth - A Must Read Update
Mood:
on fire
Now Playing: Rescue Me 911
Topic: 911 TRUTH
Old School Z3 Readers will know that 911 Truth was where it all began for me and getting active in Politics. I smelled a rat when i started to look into how and why 911 happened. So here is a big long "copy/paste" of as great article from the 911blogger website: So read all of this and watch the Google video Peace n Truth & Justice: ________________________ ________________________ Rescue Me Works 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Into Its Plot - Gothamist.com 2-2-09 Submitted by Joe on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 7:30pm. Daniel Sunjata http://gothamist.com/2009/02/02/rescue_me_works_actors_911_conspira.php Rescue Me Works 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Into Its Plot Word has leaked that in an episode for the upcoming season of the FX firefighter drama Rescue Me, the womanizing fireman Franco—one of the show's main characters—espouses theories that 9/11 was an inside job, carried out as part of a neoconservative plot to change the definition of "preemptive attack" and control the world's oil. The Times says that it marks "the first fictional presentation of 9/11 conspiracy theories by a mainstream media company." Star of the show Denis Leary says that the scene is not far off from scenes in actual fire houses "where some of the younger members don’t even have to completely buy into the theory of 9/11 being an inside job, but want to discuss it." What is more striking than the fictional plot line is that the show is using the real-life conspiracy beliefs of the actor who plays Franco, Daniel Sunjata, to promote the storyline. In a press tour, Sunjata said that he “absolutely, 100 percent” supports the assertion that “9/11 was an inside job.” The Kansas City Star dug further and discovered that Sunjata's beliefs don't stop there. Last year at a rally for Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, the actor stated the following in a speech: "A government that will tell you that air is safe to breathe after a national emergency when they know that there is asbestos floating around in the air...is a government that has no regard for human life...If they do that to open Wall Street just three days after the 9/11 attacks...it's not a far leap to think that they would have pulled off the attack themselves. Obviously they're psychopathic sadists with absolutely no regard for human life...(During 9/11 memorial telecasts), you know that there's somebody sitting back—some media executive, some military intelligence expert...knowing that they themselves had a hand in carrying it off, in planning it, in murdering the very people."
Executive Producer Peter Tolan says that the show thought it would be interesting to use subject matter that Sunjata (a Tony nominee who also played Reggie Jackson in The Bronx is Burning) was so well-read and passionate about. Below is the clip of Sunjata's entire speech from the campaign rally. Former NJ Governor Christie Todd Whitman was found not to be liable for asserting that air was safe following the attacks. A report last year addressed one of Sunjata's main criticisms, the alleged destruction of Tower 7. And last summer celebrities such as Ed Asner and musical group Arrested Development allied themselves with the group 911 Truth in calling for a new 9/11 investigation.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 11:21 PM PST
Updated: Wednesday, 4 February 2009 11:27 PM PST
Shameful - Wall Street Bailout
Mood:
d'oh
Now Playing: Say "no" to letting the Wall Street Crooks do whatever they want
Topic: FAILURE by the GOVERNMENT
Z3 Readers I received this email on Wednesday (today)Let us stand in solidarity for accountability … afterall it is “our money”!Please send a comment to congress – just click the link in belowLast week, when President Obama heard that some Wall Street banks that have been propped up with taxpayer funds might be using the bailout money to pay executive bonuses, he called it "shameful."Shameful is right, but most of these executives have no shame. So while being called out by the president might make them uncomfortable, it's not going to stop them.That's why, next week, our staff and members from across the country will be meeting with dozens of members of Congress to ask them to hold banks and their regulators accountable and to pass measures to prevent the need for future bailouts.So Where did the money go?Last year Congress and President Bush gave Wall Street an unprecedented $700 billion taxpayer bailout to stabilize the economy. The first $350 billion has been spent with nothing to show for it. Not only is the economy getting worse, but the government has no idea what the banks did with the money.
Please sign our petition urging your Representative to help us Secure America’s Financial Future.
PETITION TEXT http://www.ospirg.org/action/financial-security/petition?id4=ES Dear Member of Congress,
I’m urging you to fix the Wall Street bailout and take steps to guarantee that it never happens again. Financial reform legislation must include:
• Accountability: Hold both banks and their regulators accountable. Require greater disclosure and oversight for all the taxpayer money they’re spending.
• Consumer Protection: Establish a Consumer Credit Safety Commission to ensure that credit cards, bank loans and mortgages are safe for consumers and homeowners.
• Comprehensive Regulation: Close the loopholes that have allowed investment banks, hedge funds, insurance companies and others that sell risky, unregulated products to take advantage of the federal safety net and taxpayer bailouts without accountability. http://www.ospirg.org/action/financial-security/petition?id4=ES
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 1:02 PM PST
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Media Matters - But CNN piss's on them
Mood:
chatty
Now Playing: Contact CNN and demand truth in journalism (not 1/2 truths)
Topic: MEDIA
Z3 Readers I wanted to make sure you saw this and were able to take some action on it as I did - Just follow the links... ~joe Last week, CNN's Ed Henry joined a growing media chorus echoing conservative talking points about President Obama's economic stimulus package. Referring to a partial analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Henry claimed it "showed" that President Obama's stimulus package "may not really stimulate the economy." Henry failed to mention the fact that the CBO did not assess the president's overall package -- in fact, it looked at less than half of his plan. Last night on Lou Dobbs Tonight, responding to our critique of his initial report, Henry conceded that the CBO analysis assessed only a portion of the president's plan. Meanwhile, Dobbs resorted to name-calling, attacking Media Matters as "a partisan bunch of hacks trying to play games." Watch the video of Lou Dobbs' tirade and tell him that insisting on accurate reporting is not "trying to play games" During his rant, Dobbs falsely claimed that Media Matters tried to "conflate the Office of Management and Budget numbers as somehow superior with the Congressional Budget Office." Media Matters did no such thing, merely pointing out that according to OMB director Peter Orszag, the CBO conducted only a partial analysis of the bill. Watch the video of Lou Dobbs' tirade and tell him that insisting on accurate reporting is not "trying to play games" Thank you for your help in keeping the media honest. David Brock Founder & CEO Media Matters for America P.S. Please help spread the word about this call to action by contacting your friends and family - click here.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:13 PM PST
Updated: Tuesday, 27 January 2009 5:51 PM PST
Saturday, 24 January 2009
Mr President please call off your "terrorist pot police" 1/23/09
Mood:
loud
Now Playing: Obama needs to call in his medical marijuana thugs
Topic: FAILURE by the GOVERNMENT
Z3-ers here is an email I got Posted by: "TAHOEJIMBO420" Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:05 am (PST) Can you believe that DEA would act so quickly to undermine and disregard the statements made by President Obama?
Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration, currently staffed by officials from the Bush Administration, raided a medical cannabis dispensary in South Lake Tahoe, California. They did so knowing full well that President Obama has repeatedly pledged to end federal threats, arrests, and prosecutions of patients and their providers in medical cannabis states.
We are shocked and awed! For DEA to act with such brazen arrogance and in direct conflict with the new President’s pledge to end federal raids is deeply concerning. With only weeks left in office, it is clear that top DEA officials are using this transitional period to exploit the differences in policy between the old and new administration.
We need you to act… and we need you to act NOW!
Call President Obama and urge that he issue an immediate suspension to all federal funds used to investigate, intimidate, arrest, and prosecute individuals who use or provide medical cannabis in accordance with their state laws. Call the White House at (202) 456-1111 and say:
"Hi, my name is _____________. Today, the Drug Enforcement Agency raided a medical cannabis dispensary in Tahoe, California. The dispensary was raided by DEA despite numerous statements by President Obama saying he would end federal interference with state medical cannabis laws. I'm very concerned about outgoing DEA officials undermining these state laws and aggressively threatening innocent Americans. I'm also concerned about DEA taking action that is an affront to President Obama's position. I am pleading with President Obama to issue an immediate suspension of all federal funds used to investigate, intimidate, arrest, or prosecute individuals who use or provide medical cannabis in accordance with their state laws. We are being threatened by our own DEA. Please help us. "
President Obama's position on medical marijuana is no secret. This is the single most important action you have been asked to take this year. We need President Obama's support. Once you’ve made this phone call, please forward this message to friends and family. Then visit www. whitehouse. gov/contact to copy and paste the above message.
Sincerely,
Americans for Safe Access 1322 Webster Street, Ste. 402 Oakland, CA 94612 Phone: 510-251-1856
Love,Peace, and Happiness!
Jimbo http://tahoejimbo420.bravehost.com http://tahoejimbo420s.blogspot.com http://www.myspace.com/tahoejimbo420 "I've opted for fun in this lifetime..."~Jerry Garcia
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 10:35 AM PST
Updated: Tuesday, 27 January 2009 5:49 PM PST
Friday, 23 January 2009
GITMO and the so-called Bad Men Inside ... but are they?
Mood:
irritated
Now Playing: The GITMO "bad men" scandle ... heck real the bad men just left office!
Topic: TORTURE
Z3 Readers more on the torture spin, but as you know the US Bush Government has screwed this (and the lives) of so many of this up beyond belief … it will be decades and heartaches for many years to come before this will be resolved. This Bush Cabal has fucked up the entire USA by their sick torture ways... now the serious concerns "how do we fix this"?Shit thanks to the sick and twisted US leadership by the Bush Cabal.Let me just say to my fellow z3 Readers ... the USA will pay the price for many years... we screwed the minds of many, many, many people up... and now its time for the reaper to be paid... Thanks george & dick ... for taking America to the "dark side" .... And now for the best appeasement I can think of is to: “throw the two X-leaders of the corrupt USA torture program in a dank dark hole for many years, turn up the lights, crank up the music, and let them rot in their feces”... These crooked sick ass fuckers really screwed over the whole world and Human Rights are now clinging to the toilet rim. Shame on America for allowing this …Shame on all you who did nothing!Thanks Dickey… Thanks Shrub... now read below z3 Readers what we need to do to start cleaning up this toilet they been using for 8 sick years. The link to this topic/article I found, is right below my text here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2209404/pagenum/all/ Bad Men How many terrorists are...really left at Guantanamo, anyway?By Dahlia LithwickPosted Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009, at 6:43 PM ET http://www.slate.com/id/2209404/pagenum/all/
Guantanamo This morning, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that will close down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within the year. He explained that he was "following through not just on a commitment I made during the campaign but an understanding that dates back to our Founding Fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct—not just when it's easy but also when it's hard." Everyone agrees that the order shuttering the camp is the easy part; figuring out what to do with the 245 detainees there is far tougher. Amid all the hooting and hollering you'll be hearing from around the world today, hard questions linger about how many of the detainees left at the camp are the "worst of the worst" (in the parlance of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld) and how many simply can't be returned to sender. Are most of the detainees terrorist masterminds or just luckless wanderers? If the former is true, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is right to be terrified that they will all be dropped off in his back yard at Leavenworth. If the latter is true, the Center for Constitutional Rights is correct in suggesting that closing the camp isn't nearly as hard as it's been made out to be. This is not a moral or political or existential question. It's an empirical one, and presumably this matter can be resolved by the "prompt and thorough" review mandated by the president's executive order. One thing that will not help anyone, going forward, is the kind of hyperbole we've seen from both sides, suggesting that the whole camp is teeming with assassins or choirboys. So how many truly bad guys remain at Guantanamo? Here's a start to sorting that out. For starters, let's put to rest once and for all the cockamamie numbers about former Guantanamo detainees who have ostensibly "returned to the battlefield" after being released from the camp. This is one of those numbers that's thrown around almost drunkenly by those in favor of keeping Guantanamo Bay in operation. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing in dissent in Boumedienne v. Bush, asserted, "At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the battlefield." He cited a year-old, widely debunked report for that statistic. Last week at Eric Holder's confirmation hearings, it was Sen. John Cornyn, R.-Texas, who upped the count to 61 soldiers who had rejoined the battlefield since being let out of Gitmo. Sixty-one is the most recent statistic from the Bush Defense Department, which coughed up this hairball at a Jan. 13, 2009, press conference. While the DoD spokeswoman would not at the time clarify how that statistic had jumped from the previous number of 37, elaborate on the identities of these 61 men, explain where they had been identified as battlefield returnees, or even indicate how many were still alive, she was confident that "there clearly are people who are being held at Guantanamo who are still bent on doing harm to America, Americans, and our allies. … So there will have to be some solution for the likes of them." According to a new study by Mark Denbeaux and his team at Seton Hall University School of Law, this was the Bush administration's 43rd attempt to quantify the number of detainees who have rejoined the battle. The previous 42 were no more impressive. The Seton Hall study shows that the administration's prior recidivist statistics do not even trend consistently upward—a 2007 DoD report downgraded the prior estimate of recidivists from 30 to five. The Defense Department has also been known to name as recidivists several individuals who have at no time been held at Guantanamo. Moreover, the Denbeaux study shows that the Defense Department defines speaking to reporters or publishing op-eds critical of Guantanamo as "returning to the fight." The point here is not that the data kept on the Gitmo detainees are all crap. The point is that we need to get past the tendency to cite statistical "facts" about the future dangerousness of these prisoners (and to use seemingly every available digit in the history of numbers in doing so) based on highly suspect Bush administration records. So how many truly hardened terrorists are currently cooling their heels at Guantanamo? We know for a fact that the 245 detainees at the camp include 17 Chinese Uighurs who, while cleared of any "enemy combatant" charges, cannot be returned safely to China and have no place else to go. Similarly, there are, as the Bush administration acknowledges, between 50 and 60 other men who have also been cleared for release with no place to go. (Some of these folks may now be accepted by Portugal, Australia, and Switzerland.) We also know that the single most important determinant of whether a prisoner was repatriated or kept at Guantanamo is their nationality. As the Center for Constitutional Rights reports, the men from European countries were released early while almost all of the Yemenis are still there. In fact, the "luckiest" of the Yemenis remains Osama Bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, who was convicted in a military commission, served out his brief sentence, and is now home with his family. Whether or not a prisoner is still at Gitmo often turns as much on international diplomacy as on future dangerousness. We also know that among the remaining prisoners at Guantanamo there are several who clearly come under the definition of child soldiers, including Canadian Omar Khadr, who allegedly threw a grenade at an American soldier and was first taken to Guantanamo when he was 15. Khadr, we learned this week, allegedly identified, under abusive interrogation, another Canadian, Maher Arar, as a visitor to an al-Qaida safe house in Afghanistan. The problem here is that there is no dispute that Arar was in Canada at the time. Mohammed Jawad is another prisoner at Gitmo, and like Khadr he was also a child soldier (between 15 and 17; his birth date is unknown) when he threw a grenade and injured U.S. soldiers. As Glenn Greenwald chronicles here, Jawad allegedly suffered such brutal abuse and torture, his chief prosecutor resigned and is now a witness for Jawad in his habeas corpus proceeding. As Greenwald writes, the centerpiece of the government case against Jawad is a confession he " 'signed' (with his fingerprint, since he can't write his name) … and yet, it was written in a language Jawad did not speak or read and was given to him after several days of beatings, druggings, and threats—all while he was likely 15 or 16 years old." This brings us to the nearly unthinkable question of what happens to anyone, innocent or guilty, when they have been beaten, humiliated, and held in solitary confinement for almost seven years. One could argue that even Mother Theresa might be inclined to "rejoin the battlefield" upon release from such treatment. Somehow in the repatriation of those who arrived at Gitmo relative innocents, we must now contend with the fact that some will be dangerous as a consequence of our actions, not theirs. But all of this is still the easy part. The tough part is what happens to those detainees who really do represent a threat to this country—people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with whom the Obama administration will now have to contend. The civil rights community has split over this issue in recent months, with proponents of terror courts and long-term preventative detention doing battle with supporters of regular criminal trials. That is the issue we need to contend with today, and our discussions should be informed by fact, not by fiction or fabrication. One of the most thorough studies of the Guantanamo population was undertaken by my colleague Ben Wittes for his book Law and the Long War. He cautions that there are some extremely dangerous men at the camp and also some unfortunate cannon fodder. Looking at all of them as a unified bloc is and has always been an error. So whether we are looking to answer questions about where to repatriate the last Guantanamo detainees, where to hold them until we try them, or how to try them, let's attempt to get past the undifferentiated orange jumpsuits, which tell us what they have always told us: virtually nothing at all.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 4:58 PM PST
Updated: Friday, 23 January 2009 6:15 PM PST
Come and Get me - Man tracks himself for the Feds
Mood:
chatty
Now Playing: he has a Muslim name... Well ... he must be a terorist
Topic: CIVIL RIGHTS
Z3 Readers I found this story here:http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11103605?source=most_viewed Its hard to imagine that the USA treats people in such a disrespectful way, read how this man is fed up with the Feds.. he now tracks himself ... his worry is that "his name" ...triggers Homeland Security concerns. To me this sound racist and unconstitutional, so read on about how this professor is "working with them(sic)" ~joe-anybody I'm not a terrorist, says San Jose State professor who puts his life onlineBy Bruce Newman Mercury News Posted: 11/29/2008 06:59:09 PM PST Click photo to enlarge Hasan Elahi of Oakland takes a photo from his cellphone while on the move... ( David M. Barreda ) Hasan Elahi has spent most of the past six years trying to prove that he isn't a terrorist. This is odd in a way, because during that time no one has ever said publicly that the San Jose State University assistant professor is a terrorist. Except Hasan Elahi. While re-entering the country following a trip to Africa in 2002, Elahi says he was accused of stockpiling explosives for al-Qaida in a Florida storage locker. And though he was released following nine hours of intense questioning, he has been attempting ever since to disprove that he is the most malign threat to civilization of the post-Sept. 11 world. Elahi says he is still fearful that he could be dragged off an airplane and taken to the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay. So Elahi reasoned that if he was fated to live under a perpetual cloud of suspicion anyway, he would turn his Kafkaesque existence — every waking, quaking moment of it — into "surveillance art." If government agencies wanted to track his movements, Elahi would do it for them, letting his life play out in surreal time for the whole world to see on the Internet. If Big Brother was watching, Elahi would bore him to death. Part paranoia, part performance art, his project — titled "Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project" — went broadband nearly five years ago at http://tracking transience.net. Since the 36-year-old Elahi began, he has documented the vast seams of incident and insignificance characteristic of the non-jihadist lifestyle. He has taken more than 22,000 pictures of virtually every meal he has eaten, of the rooms — including most of the public toilets — he has visited, and of the roads he has traveled down. He has turned his life into a data stream, and recently redirected that stream through Silicon Valley, where he has been teaching at San Jose State University's School of Art and Design since August, hoping to create something brand new: database art. "We don't know what the next generation of art is going to look like," he says. "We're kind of making it up as we go along. Not unlike the tech industry." An offline version of the project was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it played on 139 video screens in a single room — part of what the festival's organizers referred to as "expanded cinema." The installation attempted something akin to building a human genome by collating the pictures of every Chinese takeout meal Elahi has ever eaten. His move to San Jose in August seemed like the logical next step, a chance to see other artists working in the technology medium whom he had met at "nerdfests" in New York and Berlin. For the aspiring database artist, Silicon Valley evidently offers much of the same promise as Florence during the Renaissance. "The Medicis created this culture of curiosity, a culture of visionary thinking," Elahi says. "It creates an environment that lets a certain type of thought flourish. It's all about trying to find where that bright line is, then pushing and pushing it." It's unlikely any of this would have occurred to him if he hadn't been briefly taken captive at an Immigration and Naturalization Service facility, given a series of polygraph tests, then released without being charged. "They told me in order to formally clear me, they would have to formally charge me," Elahi explains. "And they couldn't do that." His name was placed on a terrorist watch list used by airport screeners throughout the United States, Elahi says. "There really is a serious danger underlying all this," he adds. "When that plane comes back into the U.S. now, I don't know what the interaction with Homeland Security is going to be. To this day, I get very nervous coming back into my own country." Born in Bangladesh and raised in Brooklyn, Elahi is convinced that having a Muslim name remains the source of his problems going through airport security. His predicament is so unusual, it even got an airing on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" in May. "Having this identity imposed upon me that completely misrepresented who I am," Elahi says, "I was given no choice but to take my identity into my own hands. I'm convinced that if we don't define ourselves, other people will do it for us, and inaccurately. In my case, not only was it wrong, it had potentially disastrous consequences for my life." The FBI will neither confirm nor deny Elahi's claim that he was detained because there is no official record that it ever happened. A field agent in the bureau's San Francisco office responded to a description of Elahi's story as "not likely," but no one at the FBI with direct knowledge of the case returned calls. Assuming there ever was a case. There's no proof that Elahi is making up his story, but then again, there's no proof that he isn't. It turns out that even the most tech-driven "database art" requires the underpinning of a compelling story. Without it, Elahi would be just another guy posting cell phone pictures online, like the compulsives on SnapMyLife.com. "He's grown up in a generation for whom everything is media-ized, and therefore is subject to question," says Joel Slayton, executive director of the digital art festival 01SJ and the man Elahi replaced on the San Jose State faculty. "Everything is suspect, and the only way you can survive is by being slightly schizophrenic — both in it and out of it at the same time." Elahi's Web site includes bank records and credit card receipts, proving that he has actually lived every scintillating second of the life he is posting. He has a software filter that scrubs out his name, address and credit card numbers, so he won't become easy prey for identity thieves. But, as he says, "Would you really want my identity the next time you're getting on an airplane?" He doesn't know exactly when the project will end, but Elahi has come up with a denouement to it that even Kafka would admire. He has been commissioned by the city's public art program to design an installation for Mineta San Jose International Airport's new terminal, scheduled to open in 2010. "He's a very interesting artist," says Barbara Goldstein, the program's director. And she's never even seen him go through a metal detector.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 12:22 PM PST
Friday, 16 January 2009
Gonzales whimpers that he is a victim
Mood:
d'oh
Now Playing: Alberto is not a victim he is the oppressor... he likes torture
Topic: TORTURE
AL “THE VICTIM” GONZALES Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Posted by Jim Hightower Listen to this Commentary As George W prepares to depart Washington, it’s appropriate to reflect for a moment on the millions of innocent victims who have paid – and are continuing to pay – such a terrible price for his wrongheaded war on terrorism. For example, Alberto Gonzales. Say what? Al Gonzales, the Bushites’ legal lackey who okayed everything from their use of torture to their secret and illegal program for spying on millions of Americans? That Al Gonzales?Yes, that one. Bush’s former attorney general has recently been on a whine tour to try to rewrite the history of his feckless and cowardly performance in office: “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror,” Al whimpered in a Wall Street Journal interview. Excuse me, Mr. Gonzales, but no. You cannot put yourself in the company of the U.S. soldiers who’ve been killed or brutally maimed because clueless and reckless ideologues like you sent them to war without the protective armor they needed. Nor can you compare yourself to the millions of innocent Iraqi civilians who’ve been killed, maimed, or forced from their homes and their country by the war of lies you helped start. And even to suggest that you’re on par with real “war on terror” victims who were waterboarded and otherwise tortured with your authorization is itself an atrocity on language, logic, and common decency. You’re not a victim – you’re a perpetrator. Yet, Gonzales, reeks of self-pity. “What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?” he asks. The very fact that he has to ask is a damning measure of his obtuseness. In another way, though, Al really was victimized. He’s one of many unqualified political hacks whom George W thrust into important positions, only to abandon them when they failed. Heck of a job, George.“Alberto Gonzales,” Austin American Statesman, January 4, 2009. “Gonzales Defends Role in Antiterror Policies,” www.wsj.com 12.31.09
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 3:20 PM PST
Updated: Friday, 16 January 2009 3:31 PM PST
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
news just in: Israeli soldiers shoot at fleeing civilians 1/15/09
Mood:
incredulous
Now Playing: Can You Imigane What I am Thinking ?
Topic: WAR
news just in: Israeli soldiers shoot at fleeing civilians author: dfv reports to B´tselem and BBC claim that in two incidents IDF-soldiers shoot at unarmed fleeing Gazans. In one incident a woman holding a white flag was shot straight in the head. |
Claims by survivors to human rights watch B´tselem claim that a group of 70 huddled in a house were told by IDF loudspeaker to come out "Men and women seperately"
As the group decided the women to go out first one by one they the woman was shot in the head.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7828536.stm |
author: dfv reports to B´tselem and BBC claim that in two incidents IDF-soldiers shoot at unarmed fleeing Gazans. In one incident a woman holding a white flag was shot straight in the head. |
Claims by survivors to human rights watch B´tselem claim that a group of 70 huddled in a house were told by IDF loudspeaker to come out "Men and women seperately"
As the group decided the women to go out first one by one they the woman was shot in the head.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7828536.stm (z3 readers I found this on Portland Indy Media here) |
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 7:32 PM PST
Updated: Wednesday, 14 January 2009 7:35 PM PST
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Can Police search Your Phone or Blackberry when you are arrested?
Mood:
quizzical
Now Playing: The Long Arm Of The Law ... wants your text messages and mobile files
Topic: CIVIL RIGHTS
Hey all you most friendly and kind Z3 Readers check out this hot topic. And just a FYI ..... when flying and then going through customs, the (sic)homeland security can take your laptop and pour over it for days to see what ever they can about you, or what 'you" have on your computer..... read on and stand tall http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10140373-38.html Police Blotter is a regular CNET News report on the intersection of technology and the law. What: Police claim they can legally copy data from the handheld devices of anyone who's arrested. When: Two judges wrestle with concepts including privacy, the Fourth Amendment, and searches, and reach two different conclusions. What happened, according to court records and other documents: Handheld gadgets and laptops seem to know us better than our spouses do. They know whom we talk to, which Web sites we visit, whose e-mail we ignore, and with a little extra smarts, they could probably offer an educated guess about what we want for dinner. To snatch these useful little devices from our homes, police need warrants. But if we happen to be arrested with gadgets in our pocket or purse, police say they have the right to peruse what could be gigabytes of data for potentially incriminating files or photographs. The frightening scale of electronic searches has made this an important--and unresolved--privacy question. Two recent federal cases illustrate how judges remain deeply divided about whether to support police powers or defend Americans' privacy rights. In May 2008, Chester Balmer, an officer with Georgia's Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department, responded to a complaint of sexual activity in a silver pickup truck parked near an apartment complex. Balmer found a Dodge pickup truck with two people inside, obtained the driver's permission to look inside the truck, and allegedly spotted crack cocaine in the ashtray. Balmer arrested the driver, Bernard McCray, and scrolled through the photos on McCray's mobile phone. He found images of what he believed to be a 14-year-old teenage girl in lewd poses, which led to McCray being charged with possession of child pornography. His lawyer objected to using the images as evidence, saying the warrantless search violated the Fourth Amendment. U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield disagreed. Because papers, diaries, and traditional photographs can be examined during an arrest, Edenfield reasoned, a mobile phone can too. The second case yielded a different result. It began with a Florida drug bust involving a man named Aaron Wall. A Drug Enforcement Administration informant offered to sell several kilograms of cocaine to Wall, who was arrested when he allegedly showed up at an exchange point with a bag full of cash. Wall had two cell phones, which DEA agent Dave Mitchell examined during the booking process (but not during or immediately after the arrest). Mitchell found and took photographs of several text messages on the defendant's phones. Mitchell would later offer justifications for his warrantless search: 1) he regularly performs mobile-phone searches because it's common to find evidence of crimes in text messages; 2) it's a standard DEA practice authorized by the DEA Legal Department, as long as the search is performed during the booking process; 3) he was concerned that the text messages might expire after a certain amount of time; and 4) the cell phone battery may die. When the defense attorney objected to the search, U.S. District Judge William Zloch agreed. He said, essentially, that the DEA agent lied: "The court finds Agent Mitchell's statement that he searched the phone because of his concern that text messages might immanently expire is not credible...the true, and only, purpose of the search by Agent Mitchell was to find incriminating evidence." Zloch ordered that the incriminating text messages be suppressed, which means that prosecutors can't use them in court proceedings. These two cases capture the different ways to look at digital devices: are they like physical containers, which can be opened at will during arrests, or does their uniquely personal nature mean that a search warrant should be required? Few of us would have traveled with decades' worth of intimate personal diaries, but that's what modern gadgetry lets us do. One of the better-known cases is the 5th Circuit's opinion (PDF) in January 2007, which sided with police. Police Blotter has covered other cases that took the pro-police view and the pro-privacy view. It's worth pointing out that the second proceedings may have turned out differently, if the cops had searched Wall's mobile phone at the time of the arrest, rather than waiting until booking. Then again, this is no tremendous obstacle: if judges insist on that distinction, police can respond by doing a complete copy at the time of arrest. (Note that the state of Florida says "agents should continue to obtain search warrants for securing information from cell phones seized from arrested subject." That shows that a search warrant is no insurmountable hurdle.) Excerpt from opinion of U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield on January 5, 2009, allowing the mobile-device search: It is well settled that a search incident to a lawful arrest is a traditional exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. Such searches are reasonable not only because of the need to disarm the arrestee of any weapons that might be used to resist arrest or effect his escape, but also because of the need "to search for and seize any evidence on the arrestee's person in order to prevent its concealment or destruction." (Unquestionably, when a person is lawfully arrested, the police have the right, without a search warrant, to make a contemporaneous search of the person of the accused for weapons or for the fruits of or implements used to commit the crime.) As the Fifth Circuit held in Finley, "the permissible scope of a search incident to a lawful arrest extends to containers found on an arrestee's person." A cell phone, like a beeper, is an electronic "container," in that it stores information that may have great evidentiary value (and that might easily be destroyed or corrupted). While such electronic storage devices are of more recent vintage than papers, diaries, or traditional photographs, the basic principle still applies: incident to a person's arrest, a mobile phone or beeper may be briefly inspected to see if it contains evidence relevant to the charge for which the defendant has been arrested. Excerpt from opinion of U.S. District Judge William Zloch on December 22, not allowing the mobile-device search: The search of the cell phone cannot be justified as a search incident to lawful arrest. First, Agent Mitchell accessed the text messages when Wall was being booked at the station house. Thus, it was not contemporaneous with the arrest. Also, the justification for this exception to the warrant requirement is the need for officer safety and to preserve evidence...The content of a text message on a cell phone presents no danger of physical harm to the arresting officers or others. Further, searching through information stored on a cell phone is analogous to a search of a sealed letter, which requires a warrant. The Court further finds that the search of text messages does not constitute an inventory search. The purpose of an inventory search is to document all property in an arrested person's possession to protect property from theft and the police from lawsuits based on lost or stolen property. This, of course, includes cell phones. However, there is no need to document the phone numbers, photos, text messages, or other data stored in the memory of a cell phone to properly inventory the person's possessions because the threat of theft concerns the cell phone itself, not the electronic information stored on it. Surely the government cannot claim that a search of text messages on Wall's cell phones was necessary to inventory the property in his possession. Therefore, the search exceeded the scope of an inventory search and entered the territory of general rummaging.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:55 PM PST
Updated: Friday, 16 January 2009 3:26 PM PST
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