I found this link which apparently allows you to install a plugin for Firefox which will demonstrate what the great firewall of China is really like.
I have not installed this yet so if it does not work, I apologise.
Anyway, I just thought I would pass it on. To download it, please click on the below link to go to the website explaining the plugin.
The Great Firewall of China Plugin
- Beju -
Once again, the US government has dismissed charges from Guantanamo Bay detainees, but has refused to release them.
The five men are still being detained in Guantanamo Bay with the US military stating that they may file charges against them at a later date and will not release them at this stage.
What is interesting about this case is that only a month ago, a former prosecutor in the case against the five detainees, lieutenant colonel Darrel Vandeveld, resigned due to his own office refusing to release information that would have been helpful to the defense of the five detainees.
Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said:
The implosion of these five prosecutions painfully underscores how the Bush administration's torture and detention policies have failed to render justice in any sense of the word.
A classified memo sent from the Bush Administration to the then director of the CIA, George Tenet, outlines how it was the White House's decision and not the CIA's to endorse the harsh interrogation techniques including water boarding, extended sleep deprivation, sensory overload, force feeding and stress positions.
This memo was in addition to the Justice Departments signing off of the interrogation techniques in 2002 but the CIA was concerned that there was nothing in writing and believed that the White House would later blame the CIA for using unauthorised techniques.
This comes as no surprise really. George Bush and the last two administrations will go down as one of the most evil and inept administrations in US history. Who else could turn support after a terrorist attack into world wide condemnation eight years later?
If the memo was never sent to the CIA and the White House tried to blame the CIA... who would honestly believe George W. Bush?
- Beju -
A United States Judge has ordered the release of 17 Chinese Uighers from Guantanamo Bay because there was no evidence that the men were a security risk and should not be incarcerated.
The 17 Chinese Uighers were deemed in 2004 not to be a security risk, but the US government claimed that they could not return the men back to China for fear that they would be abused upon their arrival, and that no other countries were willing to take the civilians in.
The Judge has ordered that the men be released and settled in the United States until it is safe for them to return back to China.
The decision by the United States Judge is a wonderful decision which will allow these innocent people to get their lives back in order. The 17 Chinese Uighers were incarcerated for 7 years. 7 Long years without any freedom for doing absolutely nothing wrong. The United States should have trialled the people immediately and if they were found innocent, should have been released into the United States were they can claim political asylum.
Human Rights First Senior Associate Deborah Colson said
Today's ruling takes yet another step toward dismantling the flawed legal framework underlying the detentions at Guantanamo and toward repairing our reputation as a nation committed to human rights and the rule of law.
Judge Urbina correctly found that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the indefinite detention of innocent men and women without legal cause.
Arthur Chaskalson, who is a former Chief Justice of South Africa, and who also was a member of a legal team that helped defend Nelson Mandela, has given an interview with Newsweek where he has expressed his views on the current state of human rights globally.
In the article, Chaskalson talks about the post 9/11 world, torture and indefinite detention, and about the rise of Mandela.
It is a quick and concise interview, but definitely worth a read.
- Beju -
With the recent talks between the Afghanistan government officials and the Taliban, the one question that I could not get out of my mind was, if the Taliban is allowed to have even a partial role in any new administration, then what will happen to woman's rights in the country.
Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia hosted talks between the two, in order to try and stabilise the region and bring peace. While I am usually a peace activist, I cannot help but think of what might happen to Afghanistan if the Taliban is allowed back.
All three parties in the negotiations have horrendous human rights records so will the Taliban really make that much of a difference?
I think the major difference in Afghanistan now is how women in Afghanistan have now started to have a voice. There are no female members of parliament, women are allowed to go to work and attend school, and women no longer are forced to wear the burqa to cover their entire body.
But woman's rights in a country which has deprived women of any rights for so long, takes a long time to filter through until it is mainstream. My concern is if the Taliban is allowed to return back, what will happen to that forward momentum for woman's rights.
It is a very tough question. The possibility of peace which may end the bloodshed, or the rights of women.
- Beju -
