Daily Archives: June 13, 2009 »

Medical marijuana’s legal in his state, but feds sentence medical pot dispenser to jail

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

Charles Lynch, a medical marijuana provider in the state of California, which has voted consistently to allow what he does, faces a year in federal prison. This after Obama and the new “drug czar”

Read More »

Shell’s “Humanitarian” Gesture is Self-Serving

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

One of the advantages for a corporation in resolving a sensitive lawsuit out of court is that it can proclaim innocence and insist it is settling for other reasons. Royal Dutch Shell has done

Read More »

Israeli War Crimes Against Children

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

Following Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) documented the toll on Gaza’s children and published it in May. It did so “in response to the unprecedented number of children

Read More »

Iran polls prompt vote rigging allegations

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 1

Iran went to the polls today in presidential elections, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seeking a second four-year term. Four candidates were contesting the election, although much power rests with the unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah

Read More »

British Photographers Forced To Play Roulette With Anti- Terror Law

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

In Britain, cops have the power to search you if you take a picture of a “sensitive” area, but they won’t tell you which areas are “sensitive,” because they’re so “sensitive.” The British Journal

Read More »

Torture documents need to be released

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

Despite its repudiation of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” the Obama administration continues to stifle public scrutiny of how the Bush Justice Department’s strained legal rationale for torture was translated into the mistreatment of suspected terrorists.

Read More »

The great big DNA database fishing expedition

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 2

In London the Met police have been rounding up and arresting children as young as ten who have committed no crime, for the purpose of getting their DNA on record. A FOI request has

Read More »

Ex-Bush lawyer can be sued over torture according to Judge

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

A prisoner who says he was tortured while being held for nearly four years as a suspected terrorist can sue former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo for coming up with the legal theories that

Read More »

Iran election may decide war or peace for Middle East

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 1

More than 42 million Iranians are eligible to vote Friday in the presidential election, and long lines were reported around the country’s polling places. Voting has already been extended at least two hours because

Read More »

Pentagon Cyber Command threat to civil liberties

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

The Obama administration’s plan to create a Pentagon Cyber Command to conduct both defensive and offensive cyberwarfare is arousing concern about potential threats to privacy and civil liberties. A new report in the New

Read More »

Sri Lankan government interrogate doctors who witnessed war crimes

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

The Sri Lankan government is continuing to detain and interrogate three doctors—Dr Thurairajah Varatharajah, Dr Thangamuttu Sathyamurthi and Dr V. Shanmugarajah—who risked their lives to provide medical care to thousands of Tamil civilians caught

Read More »

Feds ask court to reconsider CIA renditions suit

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to allow a Boeing Co. subsidiary to be sued for allegedly flying terrorism suspects to secret prisons overseas to

Read More »

Thousands of postal workers to strike

Mick Meaney June 13, 2009 0

Thousands of postal workers in London are set to embark on a 24-hour strike next Friday over an “arbitrary” culling of the workforce by Royal Mail. The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has accused Royal

Read More »