Dear Kitty. Some blog

This video from Britain is called Boris Johnson refuses to answer a question 12 times.

From The Guardian in England:

Johnson deputy faces inquiry over alleged financial wrongdoing

· Fresh blow to London mayor’s administration
· Aide had been banned from working as priest

* Matthew Taylor and Dave Hill

* Friday July 4, 2008

Boris Johnson, London mayor, launched an independent inquiry last night into allegations of financial irregularities and inappropriate behaviour against his deputy mayor, Ray Lewis.

The move followed a Guardian investigation and a series of questions tabled by the newspaper on Wednesday.

It became the second blow to Johnson’s administration in the past 10 days after one of his senior advisers, James McGrath, quit for telling an interviewer that African-Caribbean migrants should go home if they did not like London.

This video from the USA is called Worker Safety Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Alaska 1989.

By Ed Atkinson:

The Exxon Valdez ruling: the Supreme Court once again defends big business

2 July 2008

On June 25, the next-to-last day of the current term, the United States Supreme Court slashed the punitive damages judgment for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, which devastated Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The award was reduced from $2.5 billion to only $507.5 million—an amount equivalent to a few days’ profit for the giant oil company.

Exxon Mobil Corporation paid more than $1 billion to settle state and federal claims for environmental damages. The company went to trial in 1994, however, against a class action suit by over 32,000 individuals and small businesses devastated by the accident, predominantly commercial fishermen, native Alaskans and local landowners, who claimed that Exxon’s reckless conduct caused the accident.

Exxon conceded fault, and the compensatory damages for the class were set at $507.5 million. The trial then proceeded on the issue of punitive damages only.

The evidence showed that on March 23, 1989, the tanker left port carrying 53 million barrels of crude oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline. Its captain, Joseph Hazlewood, had recently completed an alcohol rehabilitation program. His superiors knew about Hazlewood’s problem, learned that he had relapsed recently, and even drank with him.

Witnesses testified that before leaving port Hazlewood consumed five double-vodka drinks, an amount that would have rendered any non-alcoholic unconscious. When tested by the Coast Guard 11 hours after the accident Hazlewood still had a blood-alcohol level of .061, meaning that during the wreck his level was about three times the legal limit for driving a car.

As the ship approached a well-known reef, Hazlewood set the autopilot, increased speed and turned the ship over to a subordinate unlicensed to perform the maneuver necessary to avoid running aground. The Exxon Valdez hit the reef, spilling crude oil into Prince William Sound. Hazlewood then tried to “rock” the ship free, a procedure that spewed more oil and risked killing the crew.

The result was the largest oil spill in US history: 11 million gallons covering 11,000 square miles, including 1,300 miles of pristine shoreline. The spill devastated the local economy as well as the environment. Estimated losses in the sport fishing industry alone were almost $600 million over the two years following the accident. Within days an estimated 250,000 seabirds perished, along with thousands of otters and seals. Despite billions of dollars in cleanup, the environmental effects of the spill still linger. Much of the oil seeped below the surface of affected beaches, decaying at a rate of about three to four percent per year. Animals that dig in the sand for their food continue to be contaminated.

After hearing this evidence, the jury awarded the 32,000 plaintiffs a total of $5 billion in punitive damages. In 2007 the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reduced the amount to $2.5 billion. The Supreme Court decision reduces the award to $507.5 million, effectively fashioning a rule under federal maritime law that limits punitive damages to the amount of compensatory damages awarded, a so-called one-to-one ratio.

The punitive award must be viewed in light of Exxon Mobil’s enormous profits. The jury’s original $5 billion award amounts to less than the company’s profits for 1990 alone.

This video from the USA says about itself:

Talk by Naomi Wolf author of “The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot” given October 11, 2007 at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus.

White House Sex Crimes

by Naomi Wolf

NEW YORK – Sex crime has a telltale signature, even when those directing the outrages are some of the most powerful men and women in the United States. How extraordinary, then, to learn that one of the perpetrators of these crimes, Condoleezza Rice, has just led the debate in a special session of the United Nations Security Council on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

I had a sense of déjà vu when I saw the photos that emerged in 2004 from Abu Ghraib prison. Even as the Bush administration was spinning the notion that the torture of prisoners was the work of “a few bad apples” low in the military hierarchy, I knew that we were seeing evidence of a systemic policy set at the top. It’s not that I am a genius. It’s simply that, having worked at a rape crisis center and been trained in the basics of sex crime, I have learned that all sex predators go about things in certain recognizable ways.

We now know that the torture of prisoners was the result of a policy set in the White House by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rice – who actually chaired the torture meetings.

This video from the USA is called Iraq Veterans Against the War DC & Ft Meade Outreach.

From the Washington Post in the USA:

Pentagon Fights EPA On Pollution Cleanup

Monday 30 June 2008

by: Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post

The Defense Department, the nation’s [and the world’s] biggest polluter, is resisting orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Fort Meade and two other military bases where the EPA says dumped chemicals pose “imminent and substantial” dangers to public health and the environment.

The Pentagon has also declined to sign agreements required by law that cover 12 other military sites on the Superfund list of the most polluted places in the country. The contracts would spell out a remediation plan, set schedules, and allow the EPA to oversee the work and assess penalties if milestones are missed.

This video is called Standard Operating Procedure Movie Clip: Abu Ghraib Torture.

From Reuters:

Former Iraqi detainees sue U.S. military contractors

Mon Jun 30, 2008

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL - Four Iraqi men are suing U.S. military contractors who they say tortured them while they were detained in Abu Ghraib prison, according to lawsuits being filed at U.S. federal courts on Monday.

The lawsuits allege the contractors committed violations of U.S. law, including torture, war crimes and civil conspiracy.

The scandal over the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib unleashed a wave of global condemnation against the United States when images of abused prisoners surfaced in 2004.

The four plaintiffs, all later released without charge, described their experiences to Reuters on Monday at an Istanbul hotel, where they periodically meet their U.S. legal team. They gave accounts of beatings, electric shocks and mock executions.

Farmer Suhail Naim Abdullah Al-Shimari, 49, said he was caged, beaten, threatened with dogs and given electric shocks during more than four years in detention. He was released in March without being charged and without any judicial process.

“I lost my house, my family were made homeless and left without a breadwinner. I lost four-and-a-half years of my life and all they did was say sorry,” he told Reuters. …

“This litigation will contribute to the true history of Abu Ghraib. These innocent men were senselessly tortured by U.S. companies that profited from their misery,” said Susan L. Burke, one of the attorneys representing the detainees.

The lawsuits were being filed where the contractors reside. They named CACI International Inc, CACI Premier Technology, L-3 Services Inc and three individual contractors.

The first suit was filed on Monday in Seattle, Washington, and the others were being filed in Maryland, Ohio and Michigan.

CACI provided interrogators at Abu Ghraib and L-3 provided translators at the prison.

Sa’adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, a 36-year-old shopkeeper and father of four, described being caged, abused and paraded naked as one of the unregistered “ghost” detainees, hidden for a time from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“In our Arab culture being stripped naked is one of the worst rights violations. It made me feel ashamed and it has left a deep scar in me,” he told Reuters.

“What I want is for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and punished for what they have done,” he said.

US advisers steered Iraqi oil contracts to Western firms: here.

This is a video about Blackwater killings of civilians in Iraq.

From the New York Times in the USA:

Iraq Criticizes Attacks by American Troops

By ALISSA J. RUBIN

Published: June 30, 2008

BAGHDAD — Iraqi government officials on Sunday criticized the American military for two recent attacks in which soldiers killed people who the government said were civilians.

One death occurred during a raid by American soldiers on Friday near Karbala; two days earlier, three people described by the Interior Ministry as bank employees on their way to work were shot and killed near the Baghdad airport when they tried to pass an American convoy.

An Iraqi government statement demanded that the soldiers be held accountable in Iraq. The issue is particularly delicate now because the two countries are negotiating a long-term security agreement and among the chief points of disagreement are whether the American military will be free to conduct operations and detain suspects and whether, if its soldiers kill civilians, they will have immunity from Iraqi law.

Currently soldiers can only be tried under American military law. However, there have been many shootings of Iraqi civilians by American soldiers and contractors, prompting Iraqi politicians to demand that they have a right to prosecute soldiers and contractors in their courts.

The reaction to the latest deaths signals that the Iraqi government is likely to push hard on the issue in the negotiations. These two shootings “are a violation of the law and an encroachment on Iraqi sovereignty,” said a statement from the General Command of the Iraqi armed forces. “We demand the coalition force to arrest their employees and refer them to the judiciary because their crimes were committed in cold blood.”

Iraq Fails to Sign Contracts With Global Oil Majors: here.

London Racist Police Brutality - For more videos, click here

This video from London, England, says about itself:

Black Postman is assaulted by cops for refusing to move his van. Policeman at back punches him in groin, big crowd, possible injury.

Minister is dragged into police race row

· Forces accused over Muslim audit
· Home Secretary urged to intervene

* Mark Townsend, crime correspondent

* Sunday June 29, 2008

The home Secretary is at the centre of the worst race row to engulf the police service for almost a decade as chief constables stand accused of blocking an inquiry into discrimination against Muslim officers.

Jacqui Smith will be asked to intervene tomorrow after the damning revelation that at least 20 police forces refused to co-operate with the first audit into the treatment of Muslim and black officers. Information from those forces that did take part suggested there was routine racial discrimination against them.

Accusations that police forces refused to co-operate with the audit, which was conducted jointly by the National Association of Muslim Police and the think-tank Demos, is bound to cause consternation in government. Initially, only 11 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales replied to the questionnaire on the promotional prospects, rank and number of Muslim and black officers employed. As a result of this ‘poor rate of return’, the deadline was extended by another month. Even then barely half - only 23 - co-operated.

British police face discrimination lawsuit from top Muslim officer: here.

USA: how Rightist suspect Hatfill was treated vs. how Muslim suspects are treated: here.

This is a video from Italy, about Unilever workers on strike.

From French daily L’Humanité:

European Salads With Motor Oil Dressing

Translated 28 June 2008, by Gene Zbikowski

Large-scale retailing. Hundreds of foods on sale in the supermarkets contain crude oil derivatives, but the health authorities don’t think they need to be taken off the shelves.

Big-name brands like Amora, Knorr [part of Unilever], Miko and others are involved… Over 200 food products on sale in French supermarkets contain engine oil, but that hasn’t really upset anyone at the French or European regulatory agencies.

The satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné broke the story on May 14. In late February, 2,800 tons of Ukrainian sunflower seed oil arrived in the French port of Sète. The oil, purchased by the Saipol company (owner of the Lesieur group and the biggest French processor of oleaginous foodstuffs), was imported to supply the factories of the big French food companies. One huge company, Unilever, for example, received 1,500 tons. Business as usual, up to that point … except that, one month later, according to Le Canard enchaîné, a North European industrialist informed Saipol that : “analysis has shown that there’s something wrong with the Ukrainian sunflower seed oil.” It contained mineral oil derived from crude oil, intended, in principal, for automobile engines.

Mixed in with the 2,800 tons that arrived in the French Mediterranean port of Sète, there were 19 tons that were not comestible oil. France is not the only country hit by the scandal. In all, the Ukrainian shipment arrived in some fifteen European countries, and involves a total of 40,000 tons of adulterated oil.

Gardeners across Britain are reaping a bitter harvest of rotten potatoes, withered salads and deformed tomatoes after an industrial herbicide tainted their soil: here.

This video is called Wild snow leopard hunting - www.snowleopard.org.

From Reuters:

Foreigners threaten Afghan snow leopards

June 27, 2008

By Jonathon Burch

KABUL - Afghanistan’s snow leopards have barely survived three decades of war. But now the few remaining mountain leopards left in Afghanistan face another threat — foreigners involved in rebuilding the war-torn country.

Despite a complete hunting ban across Afghanistan since 2002, snow leopard furs regularly end up for sale on international military bases and at tourist bazaars in the capital. Foreigners have ready cash to buy the pelts as souvenirs and impoverished Afghans break poaching laws to supply them.

Tucked between souvenir stores on Chicken Street, Kabul’s main tourist trap, several shops sell fur coats and pelts taken from many of Afghanistan’s threatened and endangered animals.

This video from the USA is called Shawna Bader: “Iraqi Oil Workers are Living Under Tyranny!”

According to Luc Cortebeeck, chair of the ACV, the Christian trade union federation in Belgium, at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva; about lack of trade union rights in various countries:

Eg, there was the bombing of the offices of the Iraqi trade unions by the United States armed forces. That certainly did not happen by chance. …

Or, take the fact that during last year [2007], again forty trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia.