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New Book Reveals Existence of Secret Red Cross Torture Report :: www.uruknet.info :: informazione dall'Iraq occupato :: news from occupied Iraq :: - it In a secret report last year, the International Committee of the Red Cross found that the CIA's interrogation techniques were "categorically" torture, a new book reveals. From the New York Times: The book, "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals," by Jane Mayer, who writes about counterterrorism for The New Yorker, offers new details of the agency's secret detention program, as well as the bitter debates in the administration over interrogation methods and other tactics in the campaign against Al Qaeda. . . .Citing unnamed "sources familiar with the report," Ms. Mayer wrote that the Red Cross document "warned that the abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecut...

BBC NEWS | Europe | France rejects veiled Muslim wife : "A French court has denied citizenship to a Muslim woman from Morocco, ruling that her practice of 'radical' Islam is not compatible with French values. The 32-year-old woman, known as Faiza M, has lived in France since 2000 with her husband - a French national - and their three French-born children. Social services reports said the burqa-wearing Faiza M lived in 'total submission to her male relatives'. Faiza M said she has never challenged the fundamental values of France. Her initial application for French citizenship was rejected in 2005 on the grounds of 'insufficient assimilation' into France. She appealed, and late last month the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative body which also acts as a high court, upheld the decision to deny her citizenship."

Garowe Online - Home : "NAIROBI, Kenya July 11 (Garowe Online) - Kenya has effected a nationwide smoking ban Tuesday, which among others outlaws any form of advertising of tobacco products and prohibits smoking in public places. The Tobacco Control Act made it illegal to smoke in public places ranging from disco halls, cinemas, offices, hospitals, factories, bars and eateries to shopping malls, public transport and residential houses. Owners of such places should designate a smoking zone that must be well ventilated and separated from the public area, the new law stipulates."

Chomsky: Bush & Cheney Always Saw Iraq as a Sweetheart Oil Deal | War on Iraq | AlterNet : "The deal just taking shape between Iraq's Oil Ministry and four Western oil companies raises critical questions about the nature of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq -- questions that should certainly be addressed by presidential candidates and seriously discussed in the United States, and of course in occupied Iraq, where it appears that the population has little if any role in determining the future of its country. Negotiations are under way for Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP -- the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and other smaller oil companies -- to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalization during the years when the oil producers took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than 40 other compan...

10 McCain Gaffes from This Week That Should Have Damaged His Chances | Election 2008 | AlterNet : "This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers. During this past week: McCain called the most important entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made --- TWICE. Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him. But let's unpack McCain's week in a little more detail."

allAfrica.com: Somalia: Somali Soldiers Shoot Dead Seven Civilians in Mogadishu-Witnesses (Page 1 of 1) : "Armed Somali soldiers on Friday have shot dead seven civilians in Deynile neighborhood north of Mogadishu according to eyewitnesses. Witness Mohamud Ahmed Toshow said the soldiers shot dead the civilians they suspected as islamist fighters. The soldiers, he said, then opened fire in the direction of bystanders, killing at least 7 civilian passers-by outright. Hassan Nur a resident in Deynile, said six people died at the spot while the other one died on his way to the hospital. 'It was a horrific scene, blood scattered everywhere,' said witness Yusuf Haji. 'I saw the dead bodies of at least 6 people lying in the middle of the road.' Yasin Abdulle said 12-year-old was among those shot. 'He was a peace-lover. ... why was he killed?' he wept. 'If the international community does not push the soldiers to stop such wicked acts, the remaining Somalis will...

US air strike wiped out Afghan wedding party, inquiry finds | World news | guardian.co.uk : "A US air strike killed 47 civilians, including 39 women and children, as they were travelling to a wedding in Afghanistan, an official inquiry found today. The bride was among the dead. Another nine people were wounded in Sunday's attack, the head of the Afghan government investigation, Burhanullah Shinwari, said."

Broken Laws, Broken Lives

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 06/19/2008 | General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account. The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices. "After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account....

Al Jazeera English - Africa - Sudan condemns Bashir arrest plans Khartoum has condemned as "criminal" plans by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek the arrest of Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, for alleged crimes in the Darfur region. The US state department confirmed on Friday that a prosecutor at the court in The Hague would apply for a warrant on genocide and crimes against humanity charges. "If you indict the head of state, the symbol of authority, the symbol of the dignity of the country, then it is is a serious issue for us," Abdelhaleem Abdelmahmoud, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations, told Al Jazeera. "We condemn this criminal move by the prosector-general. It is very disastrous to the peace process, and to the efforts between the United Nations and Sudan to deal peacefully with the problem in Darfur. "It is a very destabilising move," he said.