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POPSU.S. and Allies Torture Kids in Iraq Prisons Former President Carter wrote that the Red Cross, Amnesty International and the Pentagon “have gathered substantial testimony of torture of children, confirmed by soldiers who witnessed or participated in the abuse.” UNICEF was “profoundly disturbed” by reports of abuse of children in Iraq prisons. “Any mistreatment, sexual abuse, exploitation or torture of children in detention is a violation of international law,” UNICEF spokesman Damien Peronnaz said. Not surprisingly, “One of the biggest complaints (by Iraqis) is that the vast majority of (U.S.) detainees have not been charged with any crime,”
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POPSOmar Khadr: The Guantánamo Files Harper and his Conservatives refused to do anything about this shameful situation in their first term in office, and now that they have been voted back into office in Ottawa I doubt if they'll budge from their obstinate position. Our only hope now rests with Obama; he might be able to twist some arms behind the scene.
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POPSIs Sarah Palin a Feminist? Women, including teenagers, need the knowledge and the tools to make responsible and moral decisions about such events that will certainly have such an impact on their lives. Third, anyone who believes that abstinence education can avoid these adverse effects is living in la-la land. A significant percentage of our society will continue to have sex outside of marriage. Young women still report a stigma for using contraception, and so then sometimes have unprotected sex. Contraception itself is not foolproof. Epidemic proportions of women and girls continue to suffer from rape. If 11 year old Erin Maxwell, who was recently raped and murdered in our community, had survived her rape and become pregnant, Sarah Palin would favor forcing her to carry the child to term. Forcible childbirth and coerced parenthood is bad for children, for families, for communities, and for schools.
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POPSGeorge Medal winner killed in Afghanistan Normally the bomb disposal soldiers use a remote- controlled razor blade to cut the wires, while they take cover in case the device is booby trapped with a secondary circuit. But WO2 O'Donnell was trapped with his fingers inside the trigger, and he couldn't get away without detonating the explosives. To make matters worse, he wasn't wearing a protective bomb suit, like soldiers in Britain often use to give them extra protection from a blast. The massive, unwieldy suits weigh 45kg and they make it difficult for the soldiers to defend themselves if they get attacked en route to a bomb site. In a single day, WO2 O'Donnell had to defuse eight Taliban bombs on a hill overlooking Helmand's deadly green zone, near Gereshk. The insurgents have started targeting high ground with record numbers of massive improvised explosive devices, because they know it is where the tanks and armoured cars go to provide back-up for soldiers in the valley below.
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POPSWar in the Comix Themes covered include; first-hand & factual accounts from civilians and soldiers, the global arms trade & illegal arms deals, the effects of PTSD and life after conflict, media representation, child soldiers in Sierra Leone & Uganda, Torture Victims in Guantanamo Bay, The Occupation, Genocide and Human Rights abuses in Tibet, propaganda, satire, companies who profit from bloodshed, global and covert wars, asylum seekers/ refugees, community conflict, anti-war, peace and alternatives to conflict and much more
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POPS"Onward Christian Soldiers..." Once again, the Christian Nationalist will collectively get their panties in a wad upon hearing about this. And in light of McCain's recent endorsement of Petraeus as one of three influential people in his life, this adds controversy for McCain that he certainly doesn't need. After all, he's perfectly capable of coming up with enough controversy all by himself.
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POPS Newly Released Federal Documents Reveals Julia Child Among Spies
They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops. Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series. Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police. The release of the OSS personnel files uncloaks one of the last secrets from the short-lived wartime intelligence agency.
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POPSThe Story of Lacare, and Okello This is part music video, part cry for help. Thousands of children go missing in Uganda every year never to return. Recruited as guerillas in factional Ugandan armies. Child Soldiers. Guns and Swords in the hands of young children.
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POPSFreedom Award Winner: Friends of Orphans Friends of Orphans, founded by Ricky Richards, received the Harriet Tubman Community and Reintegration Award. The Freedom Awards are underwritten by the John Templeton Foundation.
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POPSSupremes Blow a Big One The existence of this federal statute by itself significantly undercuts the Court's reasoning in Kennedy. Moreover, as the Washington Post observed in an editorial earlier this month, it appears that the Court's decision invalidates an act of Congress based on the erroneous claim that the statute did not exist. Terry Eastland notes that the state of Louisiana has now petitioned the Supreme Court to rehear the case on account of its factual error:
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POPSGetmo Video Release How many 15 year old Canadians do you know who take vacations into war zones without their parents? Outraged Canadians are dangerous (scoff). This is why we need quick and decisive tribunals in regards to "detainees" We are wasting our money and destroying their lives. The detainees should be brought to justice or acquitted of their charges in a timely fashion.
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POPSIs Labour buying silence? After politicising the Civil Service, this corrupt government is now financially rewarding betrayal. Betrayal of an ethos that meant the British CS was the least corrupt in the World. Who can say that this is earned when there are over 3million pensioners still not receiving their rightful benefits, when English men are being suborned into third class citizens in their own country with threats of insidious new laws that prohibit love of ones own country, where these same civil servants act as judge and jury into claims for disability from injured war heroes, these same people who have denied access to personal records that prevent thousands of former soldiers getting a real pensions. Also these same people acquiesce with corrupt political regimes in the hiding of expenses abuses.
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POPSKenyan children abducted and terrorized- child soldiers and land conflicts ENDING OF ARTICLE: In the meantime, Kenya's land issues remain unresolved. And the powerful politicians that villagers and former fighters say lead the militia remain free. "The conflict in Mount Elgon is but the worst example of the poisonous relationship between Kenyan politics, land grievances and violence," said Ben Rawlence of New York-based Human Rights Watch. If the children are released, some can trace their families. Others have no parents left after murders by either the militia or the military. Peace and justice are far beyond the hopes of most families. Mothers say their ears still strain beyond the drumbeat of rain on a tin roof or wind rustling through cornstalks for the sounds of a vanished child's voice. Some scarred children will eventually limp home along the winding mountain trails. Others never will.
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POPSU.N. Workers Raping, Abusing Children The liberal's respected world body, the one they feel should run all world affairs, engages in child rape and abuse. This is the organization that seats countries like Libya on it's human rights committee, and is powerless to take any meaningful action on anything meaningful. Bill Clinton would have been a perfect match for a U.N. aid worker, except it would require some work.
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POPSConflicts using child soldiers drops - report The 2008 Child Soldiers Global Report documents military recruitment and use of child soldiers in 197 countries including their release and reintegration into society. It covers the period from April 2004 to October 2007 and considers anyone below the age of 18 in a government or non-government armed group a child soldier, whether or not an armed conflict exists.
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POPSTiny Bodies In A Morgue "We pleaded with the administrators to help us,” said one mother, Chen Li, 39, who came to the morgue on Wednesday to identify her son, a sixth grader. “We yelled, ‘Where are the soldiers? Send them to help us!’ ”
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POPSSchool Military Recruiting Could Violate International Protocol
THIS HORRIBLE PRACTICE BY THE MILITARY HAS GOT TO STOP--OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT CANNON FODDER FOR STUPID OLD MEN'S WARS!! the U.S. armed services “regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment, heavily recruiting on high school campuses, in school lunchrooms, and in classes.” “The United States military’s procedures for recruiting students plainly violate internationally accepted standards and fail to protect youth from abusive and aggressive recruitment tactics,” said Jennifer Turner of the ACLU Human Rights Project. The increased aggressiveness of military recruiters is due in major part, according to the report, to the increased pressure to meet enlistment quotas caused by ongoing U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to which nearly 200,000 soldiers and marines are currently deployed. The pressure created by current military commitments has not only translated into enhanced recruitment efforts among children under 18. The armed forces have also lower
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POPS24 hours in pictures - April ist 04 Dhaka, Bangladesh: A man checks his money as he waits in a queue to buy rice at a shop that offers fair prices. Rice prices in Asia have been steadily rising in the last month. 07 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: A boy with symptoms of dengue fever looks through netting at a Brazilian air force field hospital. A dengue epidemic has claimed at least 58 lives in the area since January 10 Prague, Czech Republic: Slavia Prague fans protect themselves against tear gas fired by riot police after clashes during their derby match against Sparta Prague 13 Poolesville, USA: A carpenter sands the pulpit that will be used by Pope Benedict XVI during his upcoming visit to Washington.
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POPSModern day slavery Check the source for ways to help end modern day slavery. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King Jr.,
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POPSViktor Schreckengost Vicktor Schreckengost (1906-2008) died on January 26, 2008 at age 101. Schreckengost taught industrial design at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) for more than 50 years, and was a professor emeritus at CIA until his death. He was also the youngest faculty member ever at CIA (then known as the Cleveland School of the Arts). He founded CIA's school of industrial design, the first of its kind in the country. He also enlisted in the Navy at age 37 to help the Allies in World War II. He was flown on secret missions to Europe where he used his modeling knowledge to help improve the radar used in the Battle of the Bulge. Later he helped design prosthetics for wounded soldiers. He retired from the Naval Reserves as a Captain. Schreckengost was also good friends with Cleveland's famed safety director Eliot Ness.
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POPS'Soldier Bear' When the troops were demobilised, Voytek spent his last days at Edinburgh Zoo. Mr Karolewski went back to see him on a couple of occasions and found he still responded to the Polish language. "I went to Edinburgh Zoo once or twice when Voytek was there," he said. "And as soon as I mentioned his name he would sit on his backside and shake his head wanting a cigarette. It wasn't easy to throw a cigarette to him - all the attempts I made until he eventually got one." Local campaigner Aileen Orr would like to see a memorial created at Holyrood to the bear she says was part of both the community and the area's history. She first heard about Voytek as a child from her grandfather, who served with the King's Own Scottish Borderers. "I thought he had made it up to be quite honest but it was only when I got married and came here that I knew in fact he was here, Voytek was here," she said. "It is just amazing, the story is totally amazing."
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POPS"Nothing to do With War" At one point, they had to shut down a house full of prostitutes, chucking out one john as he was half-dressed in the middle of an appointment. Other stories are more touching, like the family that wanted to personally thank one of Crider's platoons for making the neighborhood safe enough for their son to get married, preparing a feast of chicken, rice and cake for the men. There was also an older lady who proudly showed Captain Nicholas M. Cook, one of the better-known American soldiers in the neighborhood, a photograph of herself decorated by the minister of defense under the old regime. She had been one of the only female generals under Saddam but was too afraid to even display the photograph in the privacy of her living room. But she felt secure with Cook. Says Cook, "we've become so close to all the families. There are some families I'm genuinely going to miss." His unit will be going home in April.
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POPSinvisible children How It Started In the spring of 2003, three young filmmakers traveled to Africa in search of a story. What started out as a filmmaking adventure transformed into much more when these boys from Southern California discovered a tragedy that disgusted and inspired them, a tragedy where children are both the weapons and the victims. After returning to the States, they created the documentary "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," a film that exposes the tragic realities of northern Uganda.s night commuters and child soldiers. The film was originally shown to friends and family, but has now been seen by millions of people. The overwhelming response has been, "How can I help?"
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POPSA Holocaust Photo Essay This photo essay is part of a compilation of photos, documents and other information related to the Holocaust. Go to source for captions and photo credits that accompany these photos, and for the other documents and links provided. Last night I watched two parts of an excellent PBS series "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State", which is a chronological exploration of the largest mass murder site in history. Information about that series can be found here , with a link that allows you to check for local listings by zip code, state or territory if you live in the US. I watched it in Canada on our PBS station.
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