Bishops in New Zealand have urged the country’s 500,000 Roman Catholics to boycott a network which plans to air an episode of South Park featuring a bleeding statue of the Virgin Mary.

The episode, Bloody Mary – to be screened on May 10 by TV Works – shows a statue of Mary bleeding, taken to be a miracle until the pope says it is menstruation. A letter from New Zealand’s seven Catholic bishops, read at masses, called the episode “ugly and tasteless”.
guardian.co.uk

…As it is with all such intrusions on our privacy, it won’t be easy to put your finger on exactly what’s wrong with this technology. It won’t really amount to a new form of control, as all the people who accept the implants will already be subject to monitoring or tracking of one kind or another. It will always be voluntary, at least to the extent that anything the state or our employers want us to do is voluntary. But there is something utterly revolting about it. It is another means by which the barriers between ourselves and the state, ourselves and the corporation, ourselves and the machine are broken down. In that tiny capsule we find the paradox of 21st-century capitalism: a political system that celebrates choice, autonomy and individualism above all other virtues demands that choice, autonomy and individualism are perpetually suppressed.

While implanted chips will not lead to the mass scanning of the population, another use of the same technology quite possibly will. At the end of last month, a leaked letter from Andy Burnham, the Home Office minister, revealed that the identity cards for which we will involuntarily volunteer will contain radio frequency identification chips. This will allow the authorities to read the cards with a scanner. I propose that as the technology improves, the police will be able to scan a crowd and (assuming everyone is carrying his voluntary-compulsory ID card) produce a list of whom it contains. I further propose that it will take only a year or two for this to seem reasonable.
guardian.co.uk

…The new delays come after an agreement that the case should be concluded within a further ten weeks.

The Bushman case is already the longest and most costly in Botswana’s history, despite being brought by the country’s poorest inhabitants.

Stephen Corry, Survival’s director, said: “The government lawyers are aware of the serious funding problems facing the Bushmen and seem to be using that against them. Rather than attempting to facilitate a smooth court process, they are trying to draw this case out as much as possible. To say that things are not looking good for the Bushmen is an understatement.”
int.iol.co.za

02/19/06 “Sunday Times” — — RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report.

Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain.

Government officials, however, say the sharp rise in uranium detected by radiation monitors in Berkshire was a coincidence and probably came from local sources.

The results from testing stations at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston and four other stations within a 10-mile radius were obtained by Chris Busby, of Liverpool University’s department of human anatomy and cell biology.

Each detector recorded a significant rise in uranium levels during the Gulf war bombing campaign in March 2003. The reading from a park in Reading was high enough for the Environment Agency to be alerted.

Busby, who has advised the government on radiation and is a founder of Green Audit, the environmental consultancy, believes “uranium aerosols” from Iraq were widely dispersed in the atmosphere and blown across Europe.

“This research shows that rather than remaining near the target as claimed by the military, depleted uranium weapons contaminate both locals and whole populations hundreds to thousands of miles away,” he said.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) countered that it was “unfeasible” depleted uranium could have travelled so far. Radiation experts also said that other environmental sources were more likely to blame.

The “shock and awe” campaign was one of the most devastating assaults in modern warfare. In the first 24-hour period more than 1,500 bombs and missiles were dropped on Baghdad.

During the conflict A10 “tankbuster” planes — which use munitions containing depleted uranium — fired 300,000 rounds. The substance — dubbed a “silver bullet” because of its ability to pierce heavy tank armour — is controversial because of its potential effect on human health. Critics say it is chemically toxic and can cause cancer, and Iraqi doctors reported a marked rise in cancer cases after it was used in the first Gulf conflict.

The American and British governments say depleted uranium is relatively harmless, however. The Royal Society, the UK’s academy of science, has also said the risk from depleted uranium is “very low” for soldiers and people in a conflict zone.

Busby’s report shows that within nine days of the start of the Iraq war on March 19, 2003, higher levels of uranium were picked up on five sites in Berkshire. On two occasions, levels exceeded the threshold at which the Environment Agency must be informed, though within safety limits. The report says weather conditions over the war period showed a consistent flow of air from Iraq northwards.

Brian Spratt, who chaired the Royal Society’s report, cast doubt on depleted uranium as a source but said it could have come from natural uranium in the massive amounts of soil kicked up by shock and awe.

Other experts said local environmental sources, such as a power station, were more likely at fault. The Environment Agency said detectors at other sites did not record a similar increase, which suggested a local source.

A MoD spokesman said the uranium was of a “natural origin” and there was no evidence that depleted uranium had reached Britain from Iraq.
informationclearinghouse.info

U.S. demands for reform at the United Nations have triggered an angry backlash among a bloc of mostly developing nations that comprise the majority of the membership. Many diplomats are complaining that the United States is trying to seize control of the world body.

Tensions flared this week when the two highest-ranking members of the U.S. House International Relations Committee charged that a 132-member group of U.N. member states, known as the G-77, had been “working feverishly” to block efforts to clean up the institution.

The two Congressmen,Committee Chairman Henry Hyde and ranking Democrat Tom Lantos wrote a letter to the leader of the G-77, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, warning that U.S. lawmakers would be following their actions, and would hold them accountable.

Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram said the Congressmen’s words had infuriated many members of the group.

“There is consternation and perhaps a sense of injury at the tone and the substance of the letter,” said Munir Akram.

G-77 Chairman Kumalo of South Africa angrily dismissed the letter, saying it was not worthy of a reply.

“We noted the contents of their letter which we think are very unfortunate, and as you read, the letter is threatening and full of misinformation, and we will set the record straight in a substantive way, but we will not be responding to the U.S. Congress,” said Dumisani Kumalo.

Other G-77 envoys expressed concern that the United States was using the issue of reform in an attempt to take power from the General Assembly where all 191 member states are represented, and give it to the Security Council, which is dominated by big and powerful countries.

They noted that Washington’s U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, in his position as Security Council president for February, has scheduled meetings on two key reform issues, sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers, and allegations of fraud in purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars of supplies for peacekeeping missions.

Ambassador Kumalo says both those issues should be the province of the General Assembly.

“We can’t have the General Assembly taken for granted, it’s been taken for granted for too long, and we’re going to stand up for the General Assembly,” he said. “We have an oversight role.”
voanews.com

Sunday Times (London)-THE American military have been operating flights across Europe using a call sign assigned to a civilian airline that they have no legal right to use.

Not only is the call sign bogus — according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) — so, it appears, are some of the aircraft details the Americans have filed with the air traffic control authorities.

In at least one case, a plane identified with the CIA practice of “extraordinary rendition” — transporting terrorist suspects — left a US air base just after the arrival of an aircraft using the bogus call sign.

The call sign Juliet Golf Oscar (JGO) followed by a flight number belongs, says the ICAO, to a now bankrupt Canadian low-cost airline called Jetsgo of Montreal.

But for several years and as recently as last December it has been used selectively by both the American air force and army to cover the flights of aircraft to and from the Balkans.

These range from Learjet 35 executive jets to C-130 transport planes and MC-130P Combat Shadows, which are specially adapted for clandestine missions in politically sensitive or hostile territory.

A Sunday Times analysis of flight plans and radio logs has placed these aircraft at locations including Tuzla in Bosnia, Pristina in Kosovo, Aviano, the site of a large joint US-Italian military air base in northern Italy, and Ramstein in Germany, the headquarters of the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE).

On December 11, 2004, USAFE in Ramstein filed a flight plan for a Learjet 35 to fly from Tuzla to Aviano. The flight plan was copied to 15 addressees including Tuzla airport, Aviano airport and a mysterious recipient labelled “xxxxxxxx”.

The aircraft’s identity was given as JGO 80, the flight was a Learjet 35 operated by the Department of Defence and the registration was 99999E.

The status of the flight was given as “humanitarian”. But it was also given as “state”, which means government, and as “protected”, which means diplomatic.

During the time the plane was in the air, USAFE changed some of the flight plan timings and at the same time the registration changed. The aircraft metamorphosed into 40112E but continued to be a Learjet 35 and was still JGO 80 and a humanitarian, government and diplomatic flight.

While the Learjet was on the ground at Tuzla, an Ilyushin 76 was loading a cargo of 45 tons of surplus weapons and ammunition sold off by the Bosnian military and destined for Rwanda in defiance of a UN embargo.

The Ilyushin left Tuzla, flew over Italy and headed south in the direction of Africa. The American Learjet took off 55 minutes later.

In a report exposing arms trafficking to war-torn central Africa, Amnesty International has suggested that “US security authorities were engaged in a covert operation to ferry arms to Rwanda in the face of political opposition from the European Union”.

Another interesting convergence of flights occurred in February 2004. On February 24, an MC-130P Combat Shadow using the call sign JGO 50 took off from Aviano for an unknown destination.
commondreams.org

Lest we think the U.S. has nothing to do with the slaughter in DR Congo…

02/19/06 “ICH” — — I’m going to tell you what the real Bush administration policy is. I have no take-it-to-court proof. No one does, because the administration doesn’t tell the truth and is very secretive.

But from conversations I’ve had with people from the Middle East and from extensive reading, I infer that the Bush administration’s policy encompasses three goals:

One of the goals is to replace the present Syrian government with one the administration hopes will be more pliable in its policy toward Israel. Another is to construct four permanent bases in Iraq, and that means the administration has no intention of ever withdrawing all U.S. forces. The third goal is to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities from the air. The propaganda campaign to justify this attack is already under way.
informationclearinghouse.info

US to finance Syrian opposition
THE United States will allocate $US5 million to finance the Syrian opposition, the State Department said overnight, two days after announcing a similar initiative for the Iranian opposition.

The State Department said in a statement that it will give the money “to accelerate the work of reformers in Syria.”
The money would come from the department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, it said.

The grants “will build up Syrian civil society and support organizations promoting democratic practices such as the rule of law; government accountability; access to independent sources of information; freedom of association and speech; and free, fair and competitive elections,” the statement said.

The State Department announced on Wednesday that it would seek $US75 million dollars to step up efforts, through extra broadcasts and other activities, to influence democratic change in Iran.

Efforts to form a government of national unity in Iraq are floundering amid concerns from Kurds, Sunni Arabs and secularists at the “undue influence” within the ruling Shia alliance of the militant anti-western cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The 33-year old firebrand – whose support was crucial to last week’s controversial re-nomination of the prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari – threw the nascent talks into disarray at the weekend, saying he opposed Iraq’s new federal constitution and repeating calls for the swift withdrawal of US and other foreign forces.

“I reject this constitution which calls for sectarianism and there is nothing good in this constitution at all,” he told al-Jazeera television in a rare interview, conducted in Jordan. He added that the withdrawal of foreign forces “should be the priority of the future Iraqi government.”

The tortuous negotiations over policies and posts in the new government begin in earnest this week, but most say it will take weeks if not months until Iraqis see the first full-term administration since the fall of Saddam. Mr Sadr’s supporters also ruled out the inclusion of the former prime minister Ayad Allawi in any future government.
guardian.co.uk

TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian group that claims its members are dedicated to becoming suicide bombers warned the United States and Britain on Saturday that they will strike coalition military bases in Iraq if Tehran’s nuclear facilities are attacked.

Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesman for Esteshadion, or Martyrdom Seekers, boasted of having hundreds of potential bombers in his talk at a seminar on suicide-bombings tactics at Tehran’s Khajeh Nasir University.

“With more than 1,000 trained martyrdom-seekers, we are ready to attack the American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities,” Samadi said.
news.yahoo.com

Are these folks getting some of the U.S. infowar money? If not, they really should apply…

Stroking his long beard and flashing a smile, Mohammed Khwaja, a Taliban organiser in the lawless borderlands of Pakistan’s tribal areas, contemplated the imminent arrival of British troops in Helmand province.

“We thought that it would be between us and the US, but it looks like souls of the British buried in the Helmand after they were killed by the Afghan warriors in the 19th century may be feeling bored.

By the early summer, 3,300 troops will be based in Helmand
“Now they are calling their grandchildren to be reunited with them in hell,” he said.
telegraph.co.uk

Taliban raid Afghan police station, kill three
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Taliban gunmen killed three policemen in a raid on a security post in a southern province where thousands of British troops will soon be based, police said on Sunday.

Violence has intensified in Afghanistan in recent months, particularly in the south and east, with a wave of raids, roadside and suicide bombings killing dozens of people as NATO members prepare to send peacekeepers.