US nazi BNP guest banned

Posted on August 14, 2009 by petrel41

This video from Britain is called Griffin tells KKK plan to “sell” nazi BNP as “democratic” – then smash democracy.

BNP speaker barred as a US neonazi

Friday 14 August 2009

by Paddy McGuffin

A US white supremacist who was due to be guest of honour at the BNP fascist gathering in Derbyshire this weekend has been refused entrance to Britain on the grounds he would “foster racial hatred.”

Preston Wiginton, a rabid nazi and anti-semite, was refused entry by immigration officers at Heathrow airport under laws to keep out “undesirables.”

He was to have been the star overseas guest at the tenth BNP Red White and Blue festival, which began yesterday at Codnor.

It was Wiginton who organised Griffin’s anti-Islam tour of three US universities at the end of October 2007.

As well as financing the trip, Wiginton appealed to users of the Stormfront nazi internet forum to donate money to Griffin while he was in the US.

A spokesman for the Home Office confirmed to the Morning Star that Wiginton had been refused entrance to the country yesterday.

…

Anti-fascist campaign group Hope not Hate welcomed the government’s decision. A spokesman said that the mere fact that Wiginton had been invited to attend the rally exposed the true nature of the event.

“That Griffin should invite this hardline nazi to help celebrate his election to the European Parliament at the BNP annual festival shows yet again that the BNP claim to legitimacy is just a pretence and that Griffin has not moved far from his fascist roots,” he said.

“Griffin and Wiginton have collaborated for many years. Wiginton spearheaded US support for Griffin during his trial for inciting racial hatred, setting up an online petition calling on the British government to drop the prosecution.”

Today will see a mass protest outside the festival by anti-fascists, organised by Unite Against Fascism.

UAF plans to “kettle” the rally, with supporters coming from across the country to take part in an organised march.

A spokesman described the RWB festval as a “rallying point for neonazis and racists from across Europe.”

An open letter signed by those condemning the event has been published today.

The signatories include former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and trade union leaders.

Argentina kicks out Honduran dictators’ ambassador

Posted on August 14, 2009 by petrel41

From British daily The Morning Star:

Friday 14 August 2009

Argentina has ordered the expulsion of the Honduran ambassador because of her support for the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

The foreign ministry released a statement on Thursday which said: “At the request of the constitutional President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, the Argentine foreign ministry ordered the cessation of functions of the Honduran Ambassador to Buenos Aires, Carmen Eleonora Ortez Williams.”

It added that Ms Ortez had voiced support for coup chief Roberto Micheletti, who is not recognised by the international community.

The ministry said that Argentina’s relations with Honduras will now be conducted through Honduras‘s embassy in the US.

Argentina, which has lived through the horrors of bloody coup d’états and dictatorships, knows what it is talking about.

The coup regime appeared to reverse course yesterday, rejecting any official visit by the head of the Organisation of American States, days after it had said that OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza could come as an observer with a diplomatic delegation.

Mr Micheletti declared that Mr Insulza was not welcome except as a tourist, saying: “For us, he is not welcome in this country unless he comes as a tourist, to spend dollars.”

The de facto dictatorial regime is racist:

The day after the military coup, Enrique Ortez Colindres was appointed foreign minister by the de facto authorities, replacing exiled minister Patricia Rodas. Since then, Ortez Colindres has made a series of degrading statements about U.S. President Barack Obama and Afro-descendants in general, including repeatedly using the term “negrito” and “negrito del batey” which translate into “little Black boy” and “little Black sugar plantation worker,” respectively.

The term “negrito” is a universally degrading and racist term used to refer to people of African descent in Latin America and synonymous with the English equivalent “nigger.”

This is a video of a solidarity picket with Honduras in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Solidarity in New York City: here.

Censorship in ‘new’ Iraq

Posted on August 14, 2009 by petrel41

This video says about itself:

The War on Iraq, filmmaker Robert Greenwald chronicles the Bush Administration’s determined quest to invade Iraq following the events of September 11, 2001.

Just like George W. Bush’s cronies made Afghan war propaganda hypocritically claiming that the war would benefit women’s rights (err… not really), the Bush clique claimed that the Iraq war would bring about a ‘new Iraq’ of human rights and free speech.

Err … again, not really. From British daily The Morning Star:

New Iraqi law ‘will silence journalists’

Friday 14 August 2009

Iraqi journalists have rallied in Baghdad to protest against what they say is mounting political pressure to silence critical reporting.

Ministers are currently drafting a set of laws which they claim will protect local journalists but the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate (IJS) has condemned the legislation as thinly veiled censorship.

Protesters marched in front of the capital’s famed Mutanabi Street book market, demanding protection from political parties and legislators who, they say, are seeking to muzzle the media.

IJS leader Muaid Al-Lami explained why the union is opposed to the new legislation.

Mr Al-Lami said that it included vague language barring reporters from using the media to “compromise the security and stability of the country.”

And he expressed concern over a caveat surrounding anonymous source protection.

According to a draft text, sources must be revealed if “the law requires the source is revealed.”

And ministers could shut down publications if they “threaten citizens or make provocative or aggressive statements.”

New anti-women law in ‘new’ Afghanistan

Posted on August 14, 2009 by petrel41

This video from the USA says about itself:

An address by Pacifica radio host Sonali Kolhatkar, one of this country’s leading voices against the occupation of Afghanistan and co-author of the book Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords and the Propaganda of Silence.

If you believed the pro-Afghan war propaganda of George W. Bush and his clique, the war seemed to be all about liberating Afghan women.

Well … err … not really.

Then, months ago, the pro United States Kabul government made a new law about women which was said to be even worse than the Taliban.

Many people protested; including Bush’s successor Obama, eventually; and the anti women law seemed to be off.

Now, it is *not* off; according to British daily The Guardian:

Afghanistan passes ‘barbaric’ law diminishing women’s rights

Rehashed legislation allows husbands to deny wives food if they fail to obey sexual demands

* Jon Boone in Kandahar

* Friday 14 August 2009

Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands’ sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.

The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work.

“It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who was injured when he raped her,” the US charity Human Rights Watch said.

In early April, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown joined an international chorus of condemnation when the Guardian revealed that the earlier version of the law legalised rape within marriage, according to the UN.

Although Karzai appeared to back down, activists say the revised version of the law still contains repressive measures and contradicts the Afghan constitution and international treaties signed by the country.

Islamic law experts and human rights activists say that although the language of the original law has been changed, many of the provisions that alarmed women’s rights groups remain, including this one: “Tamkeen is the readiness of the wife to submit to her husband’s reasonable sexual enjoyment, and her prohibition from going out of the house, except in extreme circumstances, without her husband’s permission. If any of the above provisions are not followed by the wife she is considered disobedient.” …

Human Rights Watch, which has obtained a copy of the final law, called on all candidates to pledge to repeal the law, which it says contradicts Afghanistan‘s own constitution.

The group said that Karzai had “made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election”.

Brad Adams, the organisation’s Asia director, said: “The rights of Afghan women are being ripped up by powerful men who are using women as pawns in manoeuvres to gain power.

“These kinds of barbaric laws were supposed to have been relegated to the past with the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, yet Karzai has revived them and given them his official stamp of approval.”

Women MPs have alleged that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had used a constitutional loophole to enact a law that allows husbands to refuse money to their wives if denied sex: here.

AFGHANISTAN-US: Govt Withholds Information About Bagram Detainees: here. Britain and Bagram prisoners: here.

USA: A Fort Hood soldier faced a military trial today for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan, one week after another member of his unit was sentenced to 30 days in jail for refusing to go to war. Sergeant Travis Bishop was convicted on all charges and sentenced to one year in prison, loss of pay, and reduction in rank: here.

BOOKS-US: Soldiers Who Just Say No: here.

USA: Comparisons of military wives with their “look-alikes” — a group of similar civilian wives — show that military wives have a much greater tendency to be underemployed. They are much more likely not to be in the labor force, more likely to involuntarily work part-time, and more likely to have relatively high levels of education for their jobs than their civilian counterparts: here.

Fossil whale discovered in Santa Cruz, USA

Posted on August 14, 2009 by petrel41

This video is called Ancient Whale Graveyard Discovered in Chilean Disert.

National Geographic says:

May 5, 2009—After a factory had found a 40-million-year-old whale fossil in a limestone kitchen counter, researchers investigated the stone’s fossil-packed Egyptian quarry, which could shed light on the origins of African wildlife.

From Associated Press in the USA:

The partial remains of an ancient toothed whale species that roamed the ocean 5 million years ago have been discovered on a California beach. Crews removing a 1,000-pound slab of sandstone off the Santa Cruz County beach Wednesday discovered the remains and called in paleontologists.

Frank Perry, a paleontologist with the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, says the remains are an important piece of a puzzle that will help understand what life was like when meat-eating toothed whales roamed the shallow seas that once covered the region. Their descendants include the orca and dolphin.

Crews have not yet identified the exact species of the whale. Experts say the partial skull and several vertebrae found should make that possible.

Anti Lisbon treaty Irish referendum campaign

Posted on August 14, 2009 by petrel41

This video from Ireland says about itself:

Vote No To Lisbon launch, Dublin 18th August 2009

28 Aug 2009

Voters in Ireland are being asked to vote again on the exact same Lisbon treaty that was rejected June 12th 2008.

A public meeting was held in Liberty Hall on Tuesday 18th August at 8pm to launch the second No to Lisbon campaign.

Speakers included: * Mary Lou McDonald, Vice-President Sinn Féin * Joe Higgins, Socialist Party MEP * Bob Crow, General Secretary, Rail Maritime & Transport Union * Jimmy Kelly, Regional Secretary, UNITE Trade Union.

A video from Ireland, which used to be on the Internet, used to say about itself:

Raquel Garrido, member of the National Council of the French Socialist Party (PS), speaking in Dublin at the launch of ‘No To Lisbon’ campaign – February 7th 2008. Raquel outlines why the French Left, including most rank-and-file Socialist Party members, opposed the 2005 EU Constitution, and explains how the values currently driving EU integration are undermining the possibility of building a ‘Social Europe’, a process that the Lisbon Treaty will reinforce not reverse. She urges Irish people to vote NO in the coming referendum, not least as an act of solidarity with the millions of fellow Europeans who have been denied the right to vote on this Treaty.

Sinn Féin Vice President Mary Lou McDonald today launched her party’s No to Lisbon Campaign in Dublin.

Lisbon Treaty bad for Irish and EU Economy – Ó Caoláin: here.