Prison Planet
Saturday, April 28, 2007
An Independent News Blog collating and reporting World Events as they happen and without walls...
Mission Accomplished ??????
Dear activists, colleagues, and friends,
It's almost May 1st. Who can forget the so-called "Mission Accomplished" from four years ago? Who can forget the pomp and circumstance, the primping and posturing in a staged photo-op built on the backs of those destroyed by the war. The mission has not been accomplished.
In honor of all those who have been killed, whose lives have been destroyed in this terrible war of choice, we have been working hard on a short film that will not let that horrific day go unnoticed.
Watch the film and spread it far and wide: http://tellusthemission.org/
We've also got a contest looking for what SHOULD have been on the "mission accomplished" banner. Submit your banner and the winning one will be on car bumpers all over the country! (You'll get some cool stuff too) For more details, and to enter:
http://tellusthemission.org/home/win
The spoken word performance in the video was done by a wonderfully talented young man, Steven Connell, who's been in feature films on HBO, Showtime and MTV. He is a strong, creative, and articulate voice in reaching a young and diverse audience. We are grateful for his time and effort, and to Norman Lear who first found and called Steven to the attention of a wider audience.
Go on, watch it! http://tellusthemission.org/
Just days before this video and website was to go online, an American soldier serving in Afghanistan wrote an op-ed which has since stirred up a national debate. The soldier questioned why we do not lower the flag to half-staff when a soldier dies at war. We at Brave New Foundation were so inspired by his question that we decided to begin a petition to amend the US Flag Code.
Sign the petition to have flags lowered for a day each time an American service member dies at war:
Please forward this on far and wide -- to your friends, schools, churches, to any local television or radio. We must not let this day go unnoticed. We must make our voices and passions heard.
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team
P.S. We have been overwhelmed with your ideas, enthusiasm and support since we asked for your input on our future projects. We're carefully looking through everything, and will have more to share on my blog soon.
http://www.robertgreenwald.org/
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Brave New Foundation
10510 Culver Blvd / Culver City, CA 90232 / 800-525-8212 / info@bravenewfoundation.org
The loudest message sent by what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday is that government cannot and will not protect you.
Contrast the events at VA Tech with the 1966 UT Tower shooting, which was until yesterday the deadliest shooting massacre on a University campus in America.
Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon, 41, is accused of gaining access to 97 US military and Nasa computers.
Home Secretary John Reid granted the US request to extradite him for trial.
At the High Court in London, his lawyers argued he had been subjected to "improper threats" and the move would breach his human rights.
His lawyers had argued that, if extradited, he would face an unknown length of time in pre-trial detention, with no likelihood of bail.
He would also face a long prison sentence, "in the region of 45 years" and may not be allowed to serve part of the sentence at home in the UK, Edmund Lawson QC said.
Mr McKinnon has never denied that he accessed the computer networks of a wide number of US military institutions between February 2001 and March 2002.
Mr McKinnon, arrested in November 2002, has always maintained that he was motivated by curiosity and that he only managed to get into the networks because of lax security.
Source: http://news.
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The transcript and video clip of the BBC Click Online interview with Gary McKinnon is now online.
Note to the people interested in "UFOs" - Gary claims to have seen possible evidence of "supressed technology", which does not have to be "alien" in origin.
Gary McKinnon's Extradition hearing is this Wednesday 10th May 2006. starting at 10 am at Bow Street Court in London.
Continue reading "BBC Click Online interview with Gary McKinnon" »
Iran has lodged a formal protest over another incident involving British troops near its consulate in the Iraqi city of Basra.
The Foreign Minister reportedly wrote a letter saying soldiers surrounded the consulate on Thursday and fired into the air.
The letter - sent to the British embassy in Tehran - called on Britain to prevent a repeat of this and called for its forces to respect the laws protecting diplomatic places.
The Iranian Ambassador on Thursday said the troops actually entered the Consulate for ten minutes.
The British military denies the accusations. It is reported as saying its soldiers never left their vehicles but instead came under fire themselves from the consulate.