MeyerBros

I’ve been waiting to write my first post on the meyerbros blog about something new and inspiring and all around fabulous. But eventually I realised that my expectations were too high and I’d never get around to doing anything if I didn’t just crank something out. So here’s a tried and true feature that I do semi-regularly over at shoup: mennonot’s news digest. It take’s advantage of one of the things I’ll miss most about London, The Guardian with Breakfast.

From logistics to turning a blind eye: Europe’s role in terror abductions

The big front story today was a very disturbing report from the Council of Europe, laying bare the U.S. use of torture through CIA led extraordinary rendition scheme in Europe, which has apparently been carried out with “the intentional or grossly negligent collusion of the European partners”.

From the article:

“His report highlights the movement of 18 suspects, all of which used European facilities or airspace, which are part of a series of “rendition circuits” which he likens to a “spider’s web spun across the globe”. He warns that the US, believing that “neither conventional judicial instruments nor those established under the framework of the laws of war could effectively counter the new forms of international terrorism” has decided to “develop new legal concepts” that have left hundreds of terrorist suspects deprived of their liberty, outside US territory but under US control and denied any access to their fundamental legal rights.”

CIA Ties With Ex-Nazis Shown

In the “Past Shame” category, comes this lovely piece once again reminding Americans that morality and ethics have never been a factor in CIA policy. The basic story is that the CIA knew where Adolf Eichmann was two years before the Israelis found him. Suprisingly, a number of papers have taken the current story about ignoring Eichman to talk about the broader history of the CIA collaborating with ex-Nazis.

From the article:

“The CIA based its decisions about using former SS men or unreconstructed Nazis solely on operational considerations. . . . Hiring these tainted individuals brought little other than operational problems and moral confusion to our government’s intelligence community,” he added.

Protests paralyse Chile’s education system

In the “Inspring Nonviolent Resistance” category, more than a million students have participated in protests for “free use of public transport, lower fees for college entrance exams and a voice in government policy”. A voice in public policy - how radical is that? This one is especially interesting because of the recent election of Michelle Bachelet. Kudos to the students for not sitting around leaving it to politicians, even left-leaning ones. Their tactics also seem quite cutting edge.

From the Article:

“Using the internet and cell phones, the students have rewritten the rules of dissent with their ability instantly to organise marches and make collective decisions. The organisers are very young, with an average age of 16, and their support goes all the way down to 11-year-olds, who organise forums and debate the right to a free education, turning their break into a civics lesson.”

Sarkozy forced to review plans to deport children of illegal immigrants

This is actually an update on a story from June 4, French defy state child snatchers which described a massive resistance campaign against efforts to deport immigrant children as part of a plan by Nicolas Sarkozy to win support from the extreme right wing.

From the June 4 article:

“All over France this week similar scenes will be repeated as a national network of volunteers mobilises. According to Jean-Michel Delabre, an activist with Education sans Frontières (ESF), the battle is about more than just the future of several thousand youngsters. ‘This is a fight for the soul of France and for the sort of society we want to live in,’ he told The Observer. ‘Do we want our country to be tolerant and multicultural? Or xenophobic and closed?’

One of the toughest battles is being fought in the western port of Brest where, for months, a six-year-old Dagestani girl called Sakimat Amiralieva has been hidden from the authorities by a network of concerned local mothers. ‘In an emergency, hiding the child is the only way of stopping [the expulsion procedure],’ said David Rajjou, the immigration lawyer representing the girl, explaining the drastic tactics. ‘If a mother is separated from her child, neither can be expelled.’”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 10:09 am by tim and is filed under political, peace and justice, journalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.