Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (254798)	10/12/2005 3:59:34 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570913

Re: Poland does not have anywhere near the human rts. violations that Turkey has. Turkey has been practicing genocide against the Kurds; has killed more Kurds than Saddam has... ...yet less than Nazi Germany as regards Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Communists,... However, it took only a couple of years after 1945 for Germany and Italy to hit it off with their former foes and bind their destinies into the EEC.... Re: Plus, it treats regular prisoners as if it were a police state. Huh?! Frankly, I don't see the problem.... Italian journalist posing as migrant reports abuse at detention camp · Reporter says he was forced to sit in sewage · Other inmates stripped naked and slapped John Hooper in Rome Saturday October 8, 2005 The Guardian Prosecutors in Sicily opened a criminal investigation yesterday following the publication of a horrific account by a journalist who disguised himself as an illegal immigrant and spent a week in detention. Fabrizio Gatti, of the centre-left news magazine L'Espresso, said he had seen immigrant detainees being humiliated and physically and verbally abused by paramilitary carabinieri officers. His account, published yesterday, has disturbing echoes of the scandal involving the mistreatment of prisoners by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. It will anger those urging a clampdown on immigration as much as human-rights lobbyists. After enduring seven days of dire conditions in a detention centre, he was simply let go. Despite the conservative government's tough policy on immigration, the reporter's alter ego, Bilal Ibrahim el Habib, was set free, "to go and work in any city in Europe as an illegal alien". His journey began when he jumped into the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Lampedusa and floated back ashore on a raft. Lampedusa, midway between Malta and Tunisia, is a favourite destination for would-be immigrants from north Africa. Mr Gatti was picked up by a passing motorist and handed over to the carabinieri. One officer, he said, amused himself by showing a pornographic video on his mobile telephone to the mainly Muslim detainees in the reception centre on the island. "A 30-year-old man covers his eyes with his hands," Mr Gatti recorded in his diary. "He is one of those who led the prayers yesterday in the open-air 'mosque'. The carabiniere tears his hands from his eyes and pushes the screen in front of his nose saying, 'Look - that way you'll learn'." The reporter said officers had forced him to sit in liquid sewage and kept him for hours in the burning sun. He also records fascist-style straight-arm salutes being exchanged between carabinieri. The most violent incident is said to have taken place on September 28 after the arrival of about 180 migrants at the centre. Mr Gatti said several were made to strip naked and, later, the carabinieri forced them and others to run a gauntlet into a protected area he describes as "the cage". The carabinieri formed into two lines. "A line of six foreigners to be moved into the cage passes between them and each one gets his ration of slaps. Four carabinieri each deal out four slaps apiece. Finally, [a] sergeant who at noon was imitating Mussolini turns up. But he does not reprove anyone." One of the immigrants had earlier failed to understand an order to strip. Mr Gatti said the sergeant turned to a colleague, saying: "This the one giving you problems?" He then punched the immigrant just below the chest. The reporter said: "The slapping filled the air for half an hour." Then a woman police officer intervened, telling a carabinieri NCO to "see what your lads are up to because I'm hearing too much hand movement". Alberto di Luca, head of the Italian parliament's immigration committee, and a member of Silvio Berlusconi's governing Forza Italia party, said the claims in the magazine were "as unfounded as they are defamatory, in respect of the police, the carabinieri and all those who manage the detention centre". He said his committee's investigations at the centre had not revealed any evidence of violence there. L'Espresso's report describes sanitary conditions in the centre as being of almost unimaginable squalor: blocked sinks and lavatories, no doors on the cubicles and floors ankle deep in excrement. "There is not even any toilet paper," Mr Gatti reported. "You have to use your hands." He said that although the government claimed that all detainees were brought before a magistrate, his own detention was entirely arbitrary. In the end, he was transferred to Agrigento, Sicily, where police gave him some documents, two bread rolls and a bottle of water, before driving him to a railway station. There, he and the other migrants with him were told: "You've got five days to get out of Italy. You're free." guardian.co.uk

To: tejek who wrote (254798)	10/12/2005 4:02:20 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 1570913

Re: Police brutalities --follow-up.... Brutality trials start for top Italian police · G8 protesters claim they were gassed and beaten · New laws could render convictions meaningless John Hooper in Rome Wednesday October 12, 2005 The Guardian Seventy-five people, including some of Italy's most senior police officers, go on trial in the next two days, accused of taking part in an orgy of brutality against protesters during and after the demonstrations at the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa. Court papers seen by the Guardian show that one police witness gave a written statement describing his colleagues "beating young people like wild beasts". Several of the victims were British. The defendants all deny the charges. Even if found guilty, it looks increasingly unlikely that any will go to prison, or even pay a fine, because of a bill currently making its way through the Italian parliament. The proposed legislation, which critics of Silvio Berlusconi's government say was devised to keep the prime minister's former lawyer out of jail, would render any sentences null and void. Twenty-five protesters are on trial accused of looting and damage to property. The first of the two new trials begins today with 47 police and medical staff accused of mistreating arrested demonstrators at a camp at Bolzaneto, near Genoa. Prosecutors allege detainees were beaten and sprayed with asphyxiating gas. They say some were forced to shout out chants in praise of Italy's late fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, and that at least one of the songs was anti-semitic. Charges brought against the defendants range from actual bodily harm to failure to respect international human rights conventions. Among those indicted is the commander of Italy's penitentiary guards, who was promoted to his position despite being placed under investigation for failing to prevent abuses. The head of the camp's medical staff, Giacomo Toccafondi, is charged with, among other things, failing to report the gassing of detainees. The second trial, which starts on Friday, concerns the night of July 22 2001, when police in riot gear burst into a school being used as a dormitory by demonstrators. They thought the school was a headquarters for the so-called "black block" protesters who were responsible for much of the violence and vandalism during the anti-G8 demonstrations. Almost a hundred people were injured in the operation which was overseen by some of Italy's most senior police officers. Three of the victims were left in a coma. No one arrested in the raid was later charged. After breaking down the door, officers belonging to the 7th anti-riot squad, based in Rome, began kicking and beating those inside with such ferocity that "in the space of a few minutes, all the occupants of the ground floor had been reduced to complete helplessness", the prosecutors said. On the top floor, some demonstrators were hiding in cupboards. "They were discovered, viciously beaten and dragged to lower floors," they allege. After the raid, police claimed they had found Molotov cocktails on the premises. The prosecutors allege, however, that the homemade bombs were confiscated by police during the demonstrations and planted at the school as part of a "clear manipulation constructed to deceive". None of the officers on trial has been suspended from duty. In June, the officer commanding the 7th Rome anti-riot squad was promoted. guardian.co.uk

To: tejek who wrote (254798)	10/12/2005 4:09:11 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 1570913

Re: ...I don't think Turkey is ready for admission into the EU. I think those who are pushing for it including Bush need to back off. At least we agree on something: the less the American marplot interferes into Turkey's EU bid the better her odds of pulling it off.... After all, it's been quite detrimental to Turkey that her opponents cunningly brand her EU candidacy as an "American ploy". Gus

To: tejek who wrote (254798)	10/12/2005 4:36:59 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570913

Come to think of it, as a self-righteous resident of the Disneyesque Gulag (aka the US of A), you've got a hell of a cheek to lecture Turkey on "human rights".... Wednesday, 12 October 2005 US accused over young offenders The US must stop giving young offenders life sentences without the chance of parole, human rights groups have said. A report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said such prisoners - numbering at least 2,225 in the US - must have access to parole processes. The report says no more than 12 young offenders are serving life without parole in the rest of the world, where the punishment is largely outlawed. The rights groups spoke to some 375 inmates and used data from many states. The 157-page report, entitled The Rest of their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States, was compiled over two years. It found that 42 US states have laws allowing for offenders under the age of 18 to be sentenced to jail for life with no possibility of parole. 'Robbed of redemption' Virginia, Louisiana and Michigan were found to be the most aggressive in imposing such sentences. The practice is outlawed in many countries and by international law, under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The US and Somalia are the only two countries that have not ratified the treaty, the rights groups said. Children too young to vote or buy cigarettes should also be considered too young to spend the rest of their lives behind bars, Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher Alison Parker said in a statement. The executive director of Amnesty International in the US, William F Schulz, said the judicial system must be changed. The courts, he warned, were in danger of becoming "assembly lines that mass produce mandatory life without parole sentences for children, that ignore their enormous potential for change and rob them of all hopes of redemption". Racial profile The report claims that an increasing number of children are receiving life without parole, even as the number of children convicted of serious crimes such as murder has fallen. It found that the vast majority - 93% - of young offenders serving the sentence had been guilty of murder. However, some 26% of youths sentenced to life without parole were guilty of "felony murder", where they were deemed accomplices to murder, even if they did not directly kill anyone. The report cited the example of a 15-year-old prisoner, Peter A, who received the sentence because he had stolen a van used by two older accomplices who committed a double murder during a robbery. Across the US, black youth were found to be 10 times more likely to receive life without parole than white youth. In Pennsylvania, Hispanic youth were found to be ten times more likely to receive the sentence than their white contemporaries. A spokesman for Mark Warner, the governor of Virginia, told the Associated Press news agency the punishment had widespread public support in the state. Kevin Hall told the agency the governor believes young offenders should be able to receive life without parole "for crimes so heinous that prosecutors present that as an option". news.bbc.co.uk

To: tejek who wrote (254798)	11/28/2005 4:12:00 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1570913

Re: In addition, Poland does not have anywhere near the human rts. violations that Turkey has. Turkey has been practicing genocide against the Kurds; has killed more Kurds than Saddam has. Plus, it treats regular prisoners as if it were a police state. ROFL! So much for "squeaky-clean" Europe lecturing Turkey on human rights, democratic principles and freedom: Last Updated: Tuesday, 15 November 2005, 14:23 GMT Spain probes 'secret CIA flights' Spain is launching an investigation into claims that CIA planes carrying terror suspects made secret stopovers on Spanish soil. Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso made the announcement on Spanish television on Tuesday. He said that if proven, such activities could damage relations between the Spanish and US governments. According to Spanish press reports, the CIA is suspected of having used Majorca for such prisoner transfers. "If it were confirmed as true, we would, of course, be looking at very serious cases," Mr Alonso told the private channel Telecinco. The suspect flights - 10 in total - came to light in a report submitted by Spain's Civil Guard to the prosecutor's office of the Balearics Supreme Court in June, Spain's El Pais newspaper reported. The first flight allegedly landed in Palma, on the island of Majorca, on 22 January 2004. The suspect flights - by two Boeing 747s and two Gulfstream jets - allegedly continued until 17 January 2005. MEPs concerned Meanwhile, members of the European Parliament have urged the European Commission to investigate claims that the CIA used prisons in eastern Europe for the interrogation of terror suspects. Spain's Defence Minister Jose Bono reacted cautiously to the Majorca allegations on Tuesday, saying "we do not have any evidence, we do not have any proof". He denied a report that the Spanish secret service had asked the CIA to stop using the airport at Palma. The flight destinations from Majorca allegedly included Libya, Algeria, Romania, Macedonia and Sweden, Spanish media reported. Spain's relations with the US cooled when Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero withdrew Spain's contingent of troops from Iraq shortly after taking office in March 2004. The Popular Party of Jose Maria Aznar, who had backed the US-led war in Iraq, was ousted in the election, just days after the 11 March train bombings in Madrid, which left 191 people dead. news.bbc.co.uk