Forum Topics

Primary tabs

A new presumption of guilt

published by You on 12 April, 2009 - 21:43

An amusing letter in The Guardian:

We have heard from this government before that "we are dealing with a very big terrorist plot" (Student visa link to raids as PM points finger at Pakistan, 10 April). There was the very big "ricin plot" in 2002, with no ricin, plotted by a terrorist ringleader with no ring. (That was just before the "weapons of mass destruction" intervention in Iraq, the WMD being linked by Tony Blair and Colin Powell to the "ricin plot".) There was the plot to bomb Old Trafford in 2004, the evidence apparently being two ticket stubs for different parts of the ground, in the hands of fans of foreign origin...

CIA shuts down its secret prisons

published by You on 9 April, 2009 - 23:14

The US has stopped running its global network of secret prisons, CIA director Leon Panetta has announced.

"CIA no longer operates detention facilities or black sites," Mr Panetta said in a letter to staff. Remaining sites would be decommissioned, he said.

The "black sites" were used to detain terrorism suspects, some of whom were subjected to interrogation methods described by many as torture.

President Obama vowed to shut down the facilities shortly after taking office...

Read more @ BBC News

I wonder what they are gonna replace them with (or even if it is just propaganda) and what will happen to those currently being held.

The first Muslim secularist

published by You on 9 April, 2009 - 21:40

For most Muslims "secularism" remains a loaded term, equated to everything from mild eccentricity to an unnatural act of blasphemy. Part of the reason why secularism is eyed with such suspicion in the Muslim world is because it is seen as an interloper from the world of Judeo-Christian ideas, far removed from the framework of the Shari'a and therefore a threat to Islam itself. Muslim thinkers who put secularism above the dogma of a theocratic Islamic State have been few and far between.

Dubai's slave trade

published by You on 6 April, 2009 - 16:50

I guess there is a reason why Muslims and Muslim nations like to concentrate and focus their hate on Israel. its because our own backyard is extremely fugly and an absolute disgrace.

Panorama will finally lift the finger on some of what happens to migrant workers in Dubai who are more or less treated as slaves, maybe even worse as Islam gave slaves some basic rights.

Its shocking that people such as Jamie Oliver who are known to promote good practices in the UK also endorse developments in such places.

And everyone else either does not know or just turns a blind eye to it all. I guess greed and easy money count for more than human rights and compassion.

Paris liberation made 'whites only'

published by You on 6 April, 2009 - 15:35

Papers unearthed by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders ensured that the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was seen as a "whites only" victory.

Many who fought Nazi Germany during World War II did so to defeat the vicious racism that left millions of Jews dead.

Yet the BBC's Document programme has seen evidence that black colonial soldiers - who made up around two-thirds of Free French forces - were deliberately removed from the unit that led the Allied advance into the French capital.

By the time France fell in June 1940, 17,000 of its black, mainly West African colonial troops, known as the Tirailleurs Senegalais, lay dead.

Details of every email sent and website visited by people in Britain to be stored for atleast a year

published by You on 6 April, 2009 - 13:50

Internet records to be stored for a year

Details of every email sent and website visited by people in Britain are to be stored for use by the state from tomorrow as part of what campaigners claim is a massive assault on privacy.

A European Union directive, which Britain was instrumental in devising, comes into force which will require all internet service providers to retain information on email traffic, visits to web sites and telephone calls made over the internet, for 12 months.

Police and the security services will be able to access the information to combat crime and terrorism.

Mecca mosques 'wrongly aligned'

published by You on 5 April, 2009 - 17:18

Some 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way for prayers, reports from Saudi Arabia say.

All mosques have a niche showing the direction of the most sacred Islamic site, the Kaaba, an ancient cube-like building in Mecca's Grand Mosque.

But people looking down from recently built high-rises in Mecca found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Kaaba...

Read more @ BBC News

Anti-smoking ad 'scares children'

published by You on 1 April, 2009 - 12:16

A government advert aimed at convincing parents to give up smoking upset children and broke several rules, the Advertising Standards Authority says.

The independent regulator ruled that the "I'm not scared" TV advert, which attracted 51 complaints overall, should not be shown before 7.30pm.

In it, a girl says she is not afraid of spiders, clowns or bullies, but does fear her mother - a smoker - dying...

Read more and watch the ad @ BBC News

I am quite sure the ad was MEANT to frighten people and get them to think about quitting or not start smoking.

Pages