Thursday 11 December 2014

The European Union Times

CIA paid Poland to host its secret prisons and detainees

Posted: 10 Dec 2014 11:00 AM PST

The CIA paid at least a million dollars to Poland for it to host secret prisons, where it incarcerated alleged 9/11 terror suspects, according to the recent US torture report.
Warsaw had initially tried to halt the transfer of suspects, but after a generous offer, it suddenly became more “flexible.”
Although redacted, the US torture report doesn’t name Poland, calling it just the “Country”. Details such as the names of the detainees transferred to the country and the time they arrived at the CIA “black site” match the European Court of Human Rights ruling on the existence of a CIA “black site” in Poland.
“In December 2002, the two individuals then being detained by the CIA in [the] Country (Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) were transferred to [the] Country,” says the report.
According to the report, the agreement to host a CIA detention facility in the Country “created multiple, ongoing difficulties between [the] Country and the CIA.”
Poland then proposed a “Memorandum of Understanding” covering the relative roles and responsibilities of the CIA, but the agency refused to sign the document.
“Four months after the site began hosting CIA detainees, [the] Country rejected the transfer,” says the document.
Warsaw rejected the transfer of Khalid Shaykh [Sheikh] Muhammad, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
However Poland’s decision was “reversed” only after the US ambassador “intervened” with Warsaw.
“The following month the CIA provided $ X million to [the]Country’s [officials]” and the “political leadership, indicated that [the] Country was now flexible with regard to the number of CIA detainees at the facility,” says the report. The sum was redacted in the report.
The document states the detention facility was closed, as had been previously agreed, in 2003.
Years later, Polish officials were “extremely upset” at the CIA’s “inability to keep secrets.” Polish authorities were also “deeply disappointed” that they hadn’t been warned before President George W. Bush publicly acknowledged the program’s existence in 2006, says the document.
The US acknowledged the presence of facilities outside US jurisdiction, but didn’t identify the exact locations of them.
On Wednesday, the country’s ex-President Aleksander Kwasniewski (in power 1995 –2005), confirmed that Poland agreed to CIA “black sites”, but didn’t authorize the torture of prisoners. This is the first time a Polish leader has admitted that the country had secret CIA detention centers.
Reuters tried to reach a Polish government spokeswoman by phone and email, but she didn’t respond.
The document doesn’t name the “US ambassador” to Poland who was mentioned in the report. But at the time Christopher Hill (2000–2004) was in the post. Mr Hill hasn’t yet commented on the report.
A spokesman for Leszek Miller, who was the Polish PM from 2001 to 2004, declined to comment.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Poland violated an international treaty to protect human rights by hosting secret CIA prisons on its territory.
The case was filed by Zubaydah and al-Nashiri who claimed they were brought to Poland in December 2002 and taken to a secret CIA prison in a Polish forest, code named ‘Quartz’, where they were tortured.
Al-Nashiri says he underwent what the Americans euphemistically termed “enhanced interrogation techniques” – in other words torture. He was also subjected to other harsh treatment, “such as a ‘mock execution’ with a gun and threats of sexual assault against his family members,” Amnesty reported.
Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in one month while in CIA detention.
Both are now detainees at the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. The American government accused Zubaydah of running a terror camp in Afghanistan, where some of the September 11 hijackers trained. Al-Nashiri was accused of directing an attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000 that killed 17 sailors.
The court found the claims were sufficiently convincing. It concluded Poland cooperated in the CIA’s rendition program.
“For all practical purposes, Poland had facilitated the whole process, had created the conditions for it to happen and had made no attempt to prevent it from occurring,” the European Court of Human Rights said.
Poland was ordered to pay €100,000 in damages to al-Nashiri and €130,000 to Zubaydah.
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Italy commandeers ship carrying 500 migrants

Posted: 10 Dec 2014 10:43 AM PST

A group of migrant minors rescued by Italy’s operation Mare Nostrum.

The Italian coastguard has commandeered a merchant ship off the southern coast of Italy after receiving an emergency call that it was carrying 500 illegal migrants.
Italian coastguard personnel boarded the vessel when it was sailing some 90 miles off the coast of Reggio Calabria on Tuesday.
Authorities then sailed the ship to the port town of Crotone to avoid the risk of moving the migrants onto another vessel at sea.
Italy has long faced the challenge of illegal migrants coming from Africa in search of better job opportunities and destrying the European countries with their presence. Unfortunately the number of invaders has steadily soared since 2011.
Over 100,000 migrants, who tried to cross the Mediterranean, have been saved under Italy’s “Mare Nostrum” or “Our Sea” program which was launched in October last year in order to help the them colonize Europe faster than ever before.
Mare Nostrum, which included five war ships on permanent patrol, started after more than 360 migrants died when their boat capsized a mile off the coast of Lampedusa.
However, the costly operation has recently been discontinued over concerns that it puts extra strain on the Italian economy, which is suffering its third recession in six years, giving away tens of thousands of jobs to illegal migrants instead of Italians.
However, unfortunately the pan-European project called Triton has since replaced the Mare Nostrum program so no worries here, the destruction of Europe goes on.
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Texas Legalizes Christmas in Schools, says to hell with Political Correctness

Posted: 10 Dec 2014 10:23 AM PST

Lawmakers in Texas are reminding schools in the state that it’s okay to say “Merry Christmas” and to celebrate the yule tide and Hanukah holidays without fear of repercussion.
The reiteration was made at a press conference yesterday in Austin, where state representatives Dwayne Bohac and Richard Raymond reminded citizens about the “Merry Christmas Bill” passed last year.
“We can restore fun and magic to the Christmas and Hanukkah season, we can do this together, we can all get along, and have fun doing it,” said Representative Bohac, according to My Fox Austin.

The law “…allows students and district staff to offer traditional greetings regarding the celebrations, including: ‘Merry Christmas,’ ‘Happy Hanukah,’ and ‘Happy Holidays,” and allows for schools to set up nativity scenes, menorahs, Christmas trees and other “symbols associated with traditional winter celebrations.”
“In today’s world of political correctness run amok, Christmas Trees have been replaced with ‘Holiday Trees’ and simple on-campus greetings such as ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah’ can land a student or teacher in hot water,” a message on the Bohac Campaign-sponsored website MerryChristmasBill.com states.
Unlike the school days of yore, a wave of political correctness has saturated the minds of many who believe separation between church and state extends to the minds of children inside the classroom.

Leftist, PC ridiculousness was so out-of-control, TX lawmakers had to pass a bill legalizing the utterance of a phrase.

In some Texas schools, children sending letters to soldiers overseas have been instructed not to write the words, “Merry Christmas,” or include the message, “God Bless You,” in what the Veterans’ Administration says is an effort to be “respectful of our Veterans religious beliefs.” Instead, children were told to keep their holiday wishes generic and void of any specific religious/secular material.
In several states, residents have engaged in heated debates over nativity scenes, and others have fought to allow public school students to perform religious-oriented, time-honored Christmas carols, such as “Joy to the World,” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.”
Recently, we’ve also seen how members of the anti-religious left have gone after traditional holiday songs, such as “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas,” claiming the song not to be about snow, but about racism.
Some schools have even gone as far as to ban Christmas trees and the colors red and green, for fear that children who don’t celebrate the holiday may be offended.
The politically correct attack on Christmas has reached such ridiculous heights that the legal organization The Rutherford Institute was compelled to issue guidelines regarding the precedents and legalities of expressing Christmas beliefs in schools.
From The Rutherford Institute’s “The Twelve Rules of Christmas“:
Public school students’ written or spoken personal expressions concerning the religious significance of Christmas (e.g., T-shirts with the slogan, “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season”) may not be censored by school officials absent evidence that the speech would cause a substantial disruption.
So long as teachers are generally permitted to wear clothing or jewelry or have personal items expressing their views about the holidays, Christian teachers may not be prohibited from similarly expressing their views by wearing Christmas-related clothing or jewelry or carrying Christmas-related personal items.
Public schools may teach students about the Christmas holiday, including its religious significance, so long as it is taught objectively for secular purposes such as its historical or cultural importance, and not for the purpose of promoting Christianity.
Public school teachers may send Christmas cards to the families of their students so long as they do so on their own time, outside of school hours.
Public schools may include Christmas music, including those with religious themes, in their choral programs if the songs are included for a secular purpose such as their musical quality or cultural value or if the songs are part of an overall performance including other holiday songs relating to Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or other similar holidays.
Public schools may not require students to sing Christmas songs whose messages conflict with the students’ own religious or nonreligious beliefs.
Public school students may not be prohibited from distributing literature to fellow students concerning the Christmas holiday or invitations to church Christmas events on the same terms that they would be allowed to distribute other literature that is not related to schoolwork.
Private citizens or groups may display crèches or other Christmas symbols in public parks subject to the same reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions that would apply to other similar displays.
Government entities may erect and maintain celebrations of the Christmas holiday, such as Christmas trees and Christmas light displays, and may include crèches in their displays at least so long as the purpose for including the crèche is not to promote its religious content and it is placed in context with other symbols of the Holiday season as part of an effort to celebrate the public Christmas holiday through its traditional symbols.
Neither public nor private employers may prevent employees from decorating their offices for Christmas, playing Christmas music, or wearing clothing related to Christmas merely because of their religious content so long as these activities are not used to harass or intimidate others.
Public or private employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs require that they not work on Christmas must be reasonably accommodated by their employers unless granting the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer.
Government recognition of Christmas as a public holiday and granting government employees a paid holiday for Christmas does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Whatever the pagan origins of the holiday may be, the War on Christmas, in general, is seen by many as an effort to demonize Christianity and the religious authority the nation was founded upon.
Watch Jakari Jackson’s report on the insanity of Texas having to legalize the phrase ‘Merry Christmas.’

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China’s J-31 stealth jet can pose a threat to US’s F-35

Posted: 10 Dec 2014 09:48 AM PST

China’s top aircraft maker says its new stealth fighter has the ability to shoot down US-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from the sky.
When China’s J-31 stealth fighter “takes to the sky, it can definitely take it (F-35) down…. That’s a certainty,” Lin Zuoming, president of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), said on Tuesday.
Lin added that AVIC seeks to compete with the United States in new markets, particularly targeting countries to which the US will not sell military equipment as well as the countries that cannot afford the expensive F-35.
“The next-generation air forces that are unable to buy the F-35 have no way to build themselves up. We don’t believe the situation should be that way,” Lin noted.
“This world should be balanced,” the Chinese official said, adding, “Good things shouldn’t all be pushed to one party.”
The J-31 is the second domestically produced stealth fighter jet in China.
Meanwhile, a Pentagon report said stealth aircraft are important to China developing the ability to carry out both offensive and defensive operations.
The US-made Lockheed Martin F-35 has faced numerous problems since its introduction.
In May, an Aviation Week report said the F-35 is incapable of escaping Russian and Chinese radars.
Some experts say flaws in the F-35 fuel tank and fueldraulic systems have left it even more vulnerable to lightning strikes and other fire sources including enemy fire.
The production of the F-35 military aircraft has faced technical issues, cost overruns and delays.
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Globalization is barbarous, multinationals rule world – Marine Le Pen

Posted: 10 Dec 2014 09:38 AM PST

Globalization is a barbarity, believes Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front party, adding that now the world is now in hands of multinational corporations and large international finance.
“Globalization is a barbarity, it is the country which should limit its abuses and regulate it [globalization],” Le Pen wrote on her Twitter account.
The problems of multinational corporations and their worldwide influence were also highlighted by France’s far-right leader.
“Today the world is in the hands of multinational corporations and large international finance,” Le Pen said.
Immigration “weighs down on wages,” while the minimum wage is now becoming the maximum wage, said Le Pen, adding that now France is “dying of physical, legal and fiscal insecurity.”
Le Pen is a vocal critic of Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA), also known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States. France is now in the process of negotiations with the US on the controversial deal.
France’s far-right leader criticized the deal for a lack of transparency in the talks.
In February she promised to send “numerous representatives to the European Parliament will lead the battle against TTIP.”
In France there are many critics of the agreement who say that the deal would increase corporate power and make it more difficult for governments to regulate markets for public benefit. Also, with the majority of TTIP negotiations being held secretly, it’s unclear to what extent the EU’s preferences have been met.
TAFTA opponents also claim that the treaty will bring a big influx of genetically modified foods from the US, such as hormone-treated beef and genetically modified corn.
In November, reports emerged that France would not support the TTIP between the EU and US as long as a controversial stipulation is included.
It’s not only people in France who oppose the deal. Demonstrations against the deal have also taken place in Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia.
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