…Many have been alarmed by the increase of the Muslim population in Europe, which seems inimical to western values. They are naturally defensive and apprehensive; the cartoons can be seen as an expression of this anxiety and as a blow for freedom. But they also revealed the darker side of the culture they purported to defend, and have a grim precedent. Historically, Europe has found it extremely difficult to tolerate minorities; one member of the AoC group recalled that before the Shoah, in preparation for what was to come, Nazi propagandists encouraged the publication of anti-semitic cartoons in the German press.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an indispensable member of our AoC group, spoke from personal experience of the abiding pain felt by people who see their traditions consistently scorned and ridiculed by an imperialist power. When people hurt in this way, he said, it only takes a little thing to push them over the edge. When Islam was a major world power and Muslims were confident, they could take insults about their religion in their stride. But today, fearful of the hostility in Europe and bombarded with images from Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, many experienced the gratuitous vilification of their prophet by the Danish cartoonists as the last straw.

Hatred of the west is a relatively recent prejudice in the Islamic world. A hundred years ago, every single leading Muslim intellectual, with the exception of the proto-fundamentalist Al-Afghani, saw western modernity as deeply congenial and, even though they hated European colonialism, many wanted their countries to look just like Britain and France. Relations soured not because of an inherent “clash of civilisations”, but because of western foreign policy, which continues to fuel the crisis.

How do we move forward? Washington’s threatening posture towards Iran can only lead to an increase in hostility between Islam and the west, and we must expect more conflicts like the cartoon crisis. Instead of allowing extremists on both sides to set the agenda, we should learn to see these disputes in historical perspective, recalling that in the past aggressive cultural chauvinism proved to be dangerously counterproductive. The emotions engendered by these crises are a gift to those, in both the western and the Islamic worlds, who, for their own nefarious reasons, want the tension to escalate; we should not allow ourselves to play into their hands.
guardian.co.uk

Two months after the New York Times revealed that the Bush Administration ordered the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless surveillance of American citizens, only three corporations–AT&T, Sprint and MCI–have been identified by the media as cooperating. If the reports in the Times and other newspapers are true, these companies have allowed the NSA to intercept thousands of telephone calls, fax messages and e-mails without warrants from a special oversight court established by Congress under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Some companies, according to the same reports, have given the NSA a direct hookup to their huge databases of communications records. The NSA, using the same supercomputers that analyze foreign communications, sifts through this data for key words and phrases that could indicate communication to or from suspected terrorists or terrorist sympathizers and then tracks those individuals and their ever-widening circle of associates. “This is the US version of Echelon,” says Albert Gidari, a prominent telecommunications attorney in Seattle, referring to a massive eavesdropping program run by the NSA and its English-speaking counterparts that created a huge controversy in Europe in the late 1990s.

So far, a handful of Democratic lawmakers–Representative John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Senators Edward Kennedy and Russell Feingold–have attempted to obtain information from companies involved in the domestic surveillance program. But they’ve largely been rebuffed. Further details about the highly classified program are likely to emerge as the Electronic Frontier Foundation pursues a lawsuit, filed January 31, against AT&T for violating privacy laws by giving the NSA direct access to its telephone records database and Internet transaction logs. On February 16 a federal judge gave the Bush Administration until March 8 to turn over a list of internal documents related to two other lawsuits, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, seeking an injunction to end the program.
alertnet.org

…In Texas, a group of veterans staged a protest march covering the distance to the nearest VA hospital: 250 miles.

“[It takes] four-and-a-half to five hours .. one way,” said Vietnam War vet Polo Uriesti.

Uriesti said his father, a veteran of World War II, suffers a greater hardship. But he said the headaches and flashbacks of post-traumatic stress still flare up without warning.

“I just … it chokes me up,” said Uriesti.

The VA acknowledged some veterans suffer those problems but said most do not.

“Last year, 97 percent of veterans who came to us for a primary care appointment got that appointment within 30 days, and 95 percent of those who came for an acute care appointment got it within 30 days,” said R. James Nicholson, secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Audit: VA Fudged Reports

But an inspector general’s audit found real problems with the way the VA has come up with those numbers. The audit found that some VA staff, feeling “pressured,” actually fudged the numbers, and error rates were as high as 61 percent.

In Atlanta, one veteran who the VA said got an appointment within a week actually waited nearly a year.
abcnews.go.com

The United States authorities are facing demands by doctors from around the world to abandon the barbaric method of force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay.

More than 250 medical experts are launching a protest today against the practice – which involves strapping inmates to “restraint chairs” and pushing tubes into the stomach through the nose. They say it breaches the right of prisoners to refuse treatment.

The United Nations has demanded the immediate closure of the US detention camp in Cuba after concluding that treatment such as force-feeding and prolonged solitary confinement could amount to torture.

Doctors from seven countries, including the best-selling author Oliver Sacks, call for disciplinary action against their US counterparts who force-feed detainees. About 80 prisoners are understood to be refusing food, including a UK resident, Shaker Aamer, a Saudi national who is married to a British woman and has four children.

Since August they have been routinely force-fed, an excruciatingly painful practice that causes bleeding and nausea. The doctors say: “Fundamental to doctors’ responsibilities in attending a hunger striker is the recognition that prisoners have a right to refuse treatment.
independent.co.uk

WASHINGTON (AP) – The FBI said Friday there is no specific, credible threat of a terror attack aimed at college basketball arenas or other sports stadiums, but acknowledged alerting law enforcement to a recent Internet posting discussing such attacks.

The FBI and Homeland Security Department distributed an intelligence bulletin Friday to state and local law enforcement nationwide describing the online threat against sporting venues, said Special Agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington.

“We have absolutely no credible intelligence or threats pertaining to this issue,” Kolko said.

With conference tournaments taking place this weekend, and the NCAA tournament scheduled to begin Thursday, the bulletin was sent “out of an abundance of caution,” Kolko said.

“We have been in touch with Homeland Security and the FBI about this issue,” said NCAA spokesman Erik Christiansen.

“We do not believe there is an imminent threat,” he said. “We are in constant communication with the local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including Homeland Security and the FBI. This is not new; we are in regular contact with all these law enforcement agencies at every level.”

The online message described a potential attack in some detail, calling it an efficient way to kill thousands of people using suicide bombers armed with explosives hidden beneath their winter clothing, said a federal law enforcement official who read the bulletin.
guardian.co.uk

Gale A. Norton, who as secretary of the interior reopened Yellowstone National Park to snowmobiles and pushed for greater energy development on public land, announced yesterday that she will relinquish her post by the end of the month.

Norton won plaudits from business leaders but earned the enmity of many environmentalists during her often contentious five-year tenure. She said she has no immediate plans but expects to work in the private sector and spend more time in the West.

“I look forward to visiting a national park and not holding a press conference in there,” said Norton, who turns 52 today and has served at the Interior Department longer than all but six of her predecessors. “I look forward to being able to contemplate the wilderness without having reporters and their notebooks following me.”

Norton’s resignation comes as a federal criminal task force continues to investigate former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s dealings with her department. The task force is examining, among other issues, former deputy secretary J. Steven Griles’s discussions with Abramoff at a time when the lobbyist was seeking departmental actions on behalf of his tribal clients. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to federal charges of political corruption.

Norton said the probe did not play a role in her decision to step down and added later: “I want to return to having a private life again.”
washingtonpost.com

A little down time before jail…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group of lawmakers on Friday said an industrial bank owned by Wal-Mart (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world’s largest retailer, could threaten the stability of the U.S. financial system and drive community banks out of business.

In a highly critical letter to the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., obtained by Reuters, a group of more than 30 Congress members asked the bank regulator to reject Wal-Mart’s application to open a bank in Utah.

“Wal-Mart’s plan, to have its bank process hundreds of billions in transactions for its own stores, could threaten the stability of the nation’s payments system,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Given Wal-Mart’s massive scope and international dealings, it is not possible to rule out a financial crisis within the company that could damage the bank and severely disrupt the flow of payments throughout the financial system.”

The congressmen said the losses to the FDIC, which insures deposits at banks and thrift institutions, could be staggering if Wal-Mart begins to have financial troubles that bleed into its bank’s business.
today.reuters.com

President Bush said yesterday that the federal government gave more than $2.1 billion in grants to religious charities last year — a 7 percent increase from the prior year and proof, he said, that his administration has made it easier for faith-based groups to obtain taxpayer funds.

Speaking to a White House-organized conference of 1,200 charity leaders from across the country, Bush said the administration is creating “a level playing field” for religious organizations to compete with secular groups to run drug treatment programs, homeless shelters and other social services.

Government’s role is “to fund, not to micromanage how you run your programs,” he said. “I repeat to you, you can’t be a faith-based program if you don’t practice your faith.”

The speech, accompanied by a blizzard of statistics on federal grants, was partly an appeal to religious supporters and partly a response to rising criticism.

In recent months, a broad array of religious leaders, from Reform rabbis to evangelical ministers, have complained that the president’s proposed budget cuts would fall primarily on the backs of the poor by restricting food stamps, Medicaid and other social spending, while preserving long-term tax cuts.
washingtonpost.com

There is screaming, hugging, chanting, and many shhhs; the group takes a momentary pause in their celebration to hear the news. A delegation of 70 women from all over the world, including, India, Uganda, Guyana, the UK, and the US stand together in the community of La Padera, Venezuela, awaiting the details.

Juanita Romero, also known as Madre, explains that President Hugo Chávez has just given the news that we have all been waiting for: the implementation of Article 88 of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Constitution.

This diverse group, which makes up the Global Women’s Strike, has been visiting the grassroots projects that are the foundation of the Bolivarian Revolution. After three exhausting days of visiting medical clinics, land committees, food program houses, and educational missions, the Global Women’s Strike has been overwhelmingly reaffirmed, that it is the grassroots women who are building this process.

“Women are the ones that are leading the projects. They are always there and they are always the majority.” says Nicola Marcos from Guyana.

The Global Women’s Strike was formed to win economic and social recognition for unwaged caring work. Since the addition of Article 88 in the Bolivarian Constitution (1999), the Global Women’s Strike has built many relationships with grassroots communities in Venezuela.

Article 88 declares:The State guarantees equality and equity between men and women in the exercise of their right to work. The State recognizes work in the home as an economic activity that creates added values and produces social welfare and wealth. Housewives are entitled to Social Security.
upsidedown.org

Bolivia’s government plans to study how to buy back majority stakes in public service companies – including oil companies Chaco and Andina – that were partially privatized in the 1990s, development minister Carlos Villegas said in his ministry’s newsletter.

The government will search for a means to obtain 51% stakes in the privatized firms so it can name their board members, Villegas said.

The government of President Evo Morales is seeking to take control of 10 companies partially privatizedover the past decade, local press reported.

The companies include national carrier Lloyd Aereo Bolivia (LAB) and telecoms operator Entel.

Petrolero Chaco is currently controlled by Argentine firm Pan American Energy, in turn controlled by the UK’s BP (NYSE: BP) and Argentina’s Bridas, while Petrolero Andina is controlled by Spanish oil company Repsol YPF’s (NYSE: REP) local unit.
rigzone.com