Photographers arrested under UK “anti-terror” laws
Photographers criminalised as police ‘abuse’ anti-terror laws
Fury as stop-and-search powers are used to block and confiscate legal pictures
By Jonathan Brown
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Reuben Powell is an unlikely terrorist. A white, middle-aged, middle-class artist, he has been photographing and drawing life around the capital’s Elephant & Castle for 25 years.
With a studio near the 1960s shopping centre at the heart of this area in south London, he is a familiar figure and is regularly seen snapping and sketching the people and buildings around his home - currently the site of Europe’s largest regeneration project. But to the police officers who arrested him last week his photographing of the old HMSO print works close to the local police station posed an unacceptable security risk.
“The car skidded to a halt like something out of Starsky & Hutch and this officer jumped out very dramatically and said ‘what are you doing?’ I told him I was photographing the building and he said he was going to search me under the Anti-Terrorism Act,” he recalled.
Israel is using white phosphorus shells in Gaza
December 5, 2008
Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells
Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem and Michael Evans, Defence Editor
Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.
As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.
The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.
The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination.
Obama does the right thing
Obama’s Justice nominees signal end of Bush terror tactics
By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - In filling four senior Justice Department positions Monday, President-elect Barack Obama signaled that he intends to roll back Bush administration counter-terrorism policies authorizing harsh interrogation techniques, warrantless spying and indefinite detentions of terrorism suspects.
The most startling shift was Obama’s pick of Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen to take charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, the unit that’s churned out the legal opinions that provided a foundation for expanding President George W. Bush’s national security powers.
Johnsen, who spent five years at the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration and served as its acting chief, has publicly assailed “Bush’s corruption of our American ideals.” Upon the release last spring of a secret Office of Legal Counsel memo that permitted the aggressive interrogations of terrorism suspects, she excoriated the unit’s lawyers for advising Bush “that in fighting the war on terror, he is not bound by the laws Congress has enacted.”
AP: MN officials declare Franken the winner
January 5, 2009
Minnesota Officials Declare Franken the Winner
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:44 p.m. ET
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota board has certified results showing Democrat Al Franken winning the state’s U.S. Senate recount over Republican Norm Coleman, but a legal challenge probably will keep the race in limbo.
The Canvassing Board’s declaration Monday starts a seven-day clock for Coleman to file a lawsuit protesting the result. If he doesn’t, Franken will get the election certificate he needs to take the seat in Washington.
Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” personality, ended the recount up by 225 votes.
MCM twitters
Those who have a taste for haiku-length communications can keep in touch with me at http://twitter.com/mcrispinmiller.
Damn, I’m cutting edge (thanks to my webmaster, Danielle)! Maybe I should run for president….
MCM
MCM hosts Win McCormack and Dagmar Herzog, Tues. night in NYC!
First Tuesdays at McNally Robinson Booksellers: Win McCormack and Dagmar Herzog, hosted by Mark Crispin Miller
Win McCormack, author of You Don’t Know Me: A Citizen’s Guide to Republican Family Values (Tin House) Dagmar Herzog, author of Sex in Crisis: The New Sexual Revolution and the Future of American Politics Basic Books)
This monthly series hosted by author nad activist Mark Crispin Miller features authors whose books tackle political and public issues from a stance outside the mainstream.
Two new books approach the Republican party’s effect on American sexuality.
McCormack’s book details over 100 cases of sexual misconduct by Republican officials, office holders, and ideological supporters.
Herzog examines how the Religious Right has controlled the national conversation about sex for nearly two decades by co-opting the secular languages of medicine, statistics, and psychology.
McNally Jackson Booksellers
Tuesday, January 06 2009,
7:00pm - 8:00pm
52 Prince St.
(Just east of Lafayette on Prince)
212-274-1160
http://mcnallyjackson.com
US has a “vested interest in perpetual mayhem” in the US
The following comes from Barry Sussman. (To it I replied that, aside from the “big
money” to be made from endless war, there’s also the Christianist/Zionist zeal to see
Israel expanded to its Biblical proportions, and the neocons’ desire for a strong proxy
in the region, to enforce the Pax Americana there.
(Barry agreed: “You are most correct. As [always] in America, it is a cross-pollination
of religious zeal and a quest for $$. As usual, it is the People who suffer.”)
I’d also add that, as Stephen Zunes demonstrates so lucidly in his recent post on
AlterNet, “The US role in Hamas’s rise to power” (sent out to this list last night),
the “poor leadership” in Gaza was actually cultivated by Israel and the US themselves.
MCM
Mark:
Having spent considerable time living in the Middle East and traveling extensively through both Israel and its Arab neighbors, I can agree that the Gaza situation is most definitely a tragedy.
The Palestinians have been victimized more by poor leadership than Israel’s aggression. This is not to say that Israel is blameless as there is an abundance of blame to spread around.
Israel is a client state of America, a wholly owned subsidiary. One must begin with this point to truly understand the situation on the ground in the region. America has a vested interest in perpetual mayhem and lacks the incentive to achieve a lasting peace. This unfortunate truth allows the most radical elements of each society to rise to positions of leadership. The result is never-ending war.
Israel’s incursion into Gaza will not remove Hamas, just like their incursion into Lebanon did not retrieve the captured Israeli soldiers. The Israelis are not stupid and therefore one must assume that they know this operation cannot achieve its stated goals. Nevertheless, the operation continues. Why? Who benefits?
I strongly believe America could resolve most of the disputed issues and allow the region to move forward in relative peace. The fact that this has not occurred is worthy of further inquiry. As we see in Iraq, there is big money in the business of mayhem.
Barry
US blocks UN Security Council action on Gaza
By EDITH M. LEDERER
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas.
U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week’s council call for an immediate end to the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement at this time “would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, would not do credit to the council.”
France’s U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the current council president, announced that there was no agreement among members on a statement. But he said there were “strong convergences” among the 15 members to express serious concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the need for “an immediate, permanent and fully respected cease-fire.”
Arab nations demanded that the council adopt a statement calling for an immediate cease-fire following Israel’s launch of a ground offensive in Gaza earlier Saturday, a view echoed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Take action to protest Israel’s attack on Gaza
If you’re Jewish, you can sign on to An Open Letter from American Jews to Our Government, http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules38416.php
Also, there’s this (which is now dated, but the links are good):
Take Action to Protest Israeli Attack on Gaza
Mid-morning Saturday, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) launched a series of deadly air strikes on the occupied Gaza Strip. As we write this, an estimated 275 people have been killed. Hundreds of innocent people have been wounded. According to news reports today, Israel plans to keep these attacks going and has brought scores of tanks to the border with Gaza.
These Israeli attacks come on top of a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip which has been going on for years and has created a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions for Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinian residents by restricting the provision of food, fuel, medicine, electricity, and other necessities of life. All of this is happening in the most densely populated and one of the poorest areas of the world.
Israel is carrying out these attacks with F-16 fighter jets and missiles provided by U.S. taxpayers. >From 2001-2006, the United States transferred to Israel more than $200 million worth of spare parts to fly its fleet of F-16’s. In July 2008, the United States gave Israel 186 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract with Raytheon to transfer to Israel thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and ‘bunker buster’ missiles.
Israel’s lethal attack on the Gaza Strip could not have happened without the active military and political support of the United States. We need to take action now to protest this attack and demand an immediate cease-fire.
The U.S. Campaign to End the Israel Occupation (a member group pf UFPJ) has issued an action alert with these suggestions — we urge you to take action today!
* Contact the White House to protest the attacks and demand an immediate cease-fire. Call 202-456-1111 or send an email to comments@whitehouse.gov.
* Contact the State Department at 202-647-6575 or send an email by clicking here.
* Contact your Representative and Senators in Congress at 202-224-3121 or find contact info for your Members of Congress by clicking here.
* Contact your local media by phoning into a talk show or writing a letter to the editor. To find contact info for your local media, click here.
* Organize a local protest or vigil and tell us about it by clicking here.
* Sign our open letter to President-Elect Obama calling for a new U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine and find out other steps you can take to influence the incoming Administration by clicking here.
In addition, the Middle East Children’s Alliance (another member group of UFPJ) is working with health organizations in Gaza to procure the most-needed medicines and send them directly to Gaza with the help of the Free Gaza Movement. You can make a secure online contribution now.
Photog threatened with arrest in NYC (3 years ago)
Mark,
Three years ago, I was almost arrested also–for taking photos from the deck of an Amtrak station on the way to Kennedy Airport. When he saw me shooting a photograph, a cop yelled for me not to move and rushed to my side of the platform.
He demanded to see the photos I had taken, told me it was against the law to take a photograph in New York City! I questioned his judgement, and he said he could find it in the code book. He couldn’t, and I didn’t give him a bad time because I was on my way home after a month in the city.
I wrote down his name and badge number and have it somewhere.
Sounds outrageous but it happened. Several times on the same trip, police at the US Treasury building and on Wall Street confronted me and said it was against the law to take photographs even of the outside of government buildings.
best,
Don Monkerud
Writer & Photographer
Amtrak cops bust photographer in Amtrak photo contest
Amtrak police arrest photographer participating in Amtrak photo contest
27 December 2008
Armed with his Canon 5D and his new Lensbaby lens, photographer Duane Kerzic was out to win Amtrak’s annual photo contest this week, hoping to win $1,000 in travel vouchers and have his photo published in Amtrak’s annual calendar.
He ended up getting arrested by Amtrak police; handcuffed to a wall in a holding cell inside New York City’s Penn Station, accused of criminal trespass.
Kerciz says he was hardly trespassing because he was taking photos from the train platform; the same one used by thousands of commuters everyday to step on and off the train.
