Clara Gutteridge, an investigator of secret prisons and renditions from the human rights organisation, Reprieve, said Bagram is seen as "Guantanamo's lesser-known evil twin"..."All this talk about transparency, and the US government still won't release a simple list of names of prisoners who are in Bagram," she told Al Jazeera. "None of them have had access to a lawyer ... and that just seems very unfair. We at Reprieve see this as the next big fight after Guantanamo Bay. But one thing that the US government is saying is that Afghan prisoners in Afghanistan have less rights than any other prisoner which just seems absurd."

The United Nations' top human rights official has called for taking punitive measures against Israel over committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the Security Council on Wednesday that Israel was responsible for the killing of more than 1,000 civilians in Gaza and attacks on schools, mosques and UN facilities, Ynet reported. She has also criticized the regime's confiscation of Palestinian lands and the forceful evacuation of Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favor of a report, which accuses Israel of war crimes as well as crimes against humanity during the weeks-long onslaught on the Gaza Strip. 114 states endorsed a resolution supporting the report by a Human Rights Council panel led by the South African judge Richard Goldstone in Thursday's UN vote while only 18 states including the US objected to the report's adoption. Forty-four countries also abstained including France, Britain and Russia. The assembly's resolution demands that both the Israelis and the Palestinians carry out investigations within three months. It also pushes for Security Council attention.

War criminals are where you find them. What about acts of terrorism perped by the US? Will the US govt root itself out and bring itself to justice? Don't hold your breath. The US govt has been, of late, fucked up!

Los Angeles Gay ands Lesbian leaders talk about Obama and the hates crimes bill.

"The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday on a resolution calling on President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the ‘Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’ in multilateral fora.”" Plus a link to a petition to sign in support of the Goldstone report.

During an invited lecture at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London University, Noam Chomsky, one of the world’s well known intellectual and professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT, said on Sri Lanka, that although there’s “a lot of noble rhetoric about Responsibility to Protect (R2P), there is no particular Western advantage in protecting people who are being slaughtered, and are being thrown into concentration camps. Somehow these didn’t make it in the noble rhetoric,” and added Sri Lanka was a “horror story, especially towards the end.” Plus video of Chomsky answering a question about Sri Lanka.

Russia and China have voted in favor of the endorsement of the Goldstone report by the UN. The UK and France “did not take part in the vote”, but demanded that Israel conduct a real investigation. We have quarreled with Turkey, until now an important military ally. We have altercations with Sweden, Norway and a number of other friendly countries. The French Foreign Minister has been prevented from crossing into the Gaza Strip and is furious. The already cold peace with Egypt and Jordan has become several degrees colder. Israel is boycotted in many forums. Senior army officers are afraid to travel abroad for fear of arrest.

This movie is approx. 10mins. and speaks for itself. I had the video stop on me at a particular scene, but the audio I listened to from there out was powerful.

In a stark turn from the former Congress and Administration, the Senate followed suit with the House in extending new hate crimes protections to Homosexuals and members of the military. The bill had been offered up numerous times by the late Senator Ted Kennedy and stalled in the Senate. While George W. Bush was in office, he had vowed to veto it if it would have passed. However, a new day has dawned and the current Senate saw fit to pass the measure which President Obama has vowed to sign.

The nation's top law enforcement officer is trumpeting the "milestone" that Senate passage of hate crimes legislation represents, while the Senate's top Democrat lashes out at Republicans for their opposition.

"The point here is that while the Palestinians should be held accountable for their actions just like any other people in this world, they should not be held to the same standards as their occupier, simply for the very reason of their occupied status. When addressing Israel's relationship with the Palestinians, the first thing that should be mentioned is its 42-year old occupation of this people and its land."

Israel may have won the military stage of Cast Lead, but the campaign continues - on the diplomatic and legal fronts, and there things aren't going so well. It's a new world under the Obama presidency, and Israel can no longer count on automatic U.S support for all its actions. The Gaza campaign continues being fought - in the diplomatic arena and in public opinion - and Israel must cope with its consequences in a less-friendly Obama era. Israel's leaders are busy defending the country against the United Nations' Goldstone report (that accuses Israel and Hamas of perpetrating war crimes), and some even have to worry now about being the object of arrest warrants in Europe. Even if the legal process that Goldstone initiated ends up being halted, and Israel is not put in the dock in The Hague, its hands have been tied. The world, led by Obama, will not let it initiate a Cast Lead II operation. Certainly not when a right-wing government is in power in Jerusalem led by Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the world loves to hate. Upon returning to power, Netanyahu hoped to leave the Palestinian issue on the side and focus on the Iranian threat and on economic reforms. Now his government will have to cope with the consequences of Cast Lead and do so under less than ideal conditions, heavy international pressure and fear of arrest warrants and charge sheets.

Concerns of facing arrests in Europe shroud Israel's hawkish government as the Goldstone report on Gaza wins more support across the world. The Israeli government is reportedly considering limitations on its officials' travel to Europe fearing that they could be arrested over charges of committing war crimes during the Gaza war in January. Israel's Western allies on Wednesday called on Tel Aviv for a credible investigation into UN allegations of possible war crimes by the Israel Defense Forces during the winter conflict in the Gaza Strip. [Note: DUH!! "POSSIBLE war crimes? All one has to do is to look at that poor ravaged area and its people to know that war crimes have been committed.]

In an email, Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said Boehner "supports existing federal protections (based on race, religion, gender, etc) based on immutable characteristics."It should be noted that the current law does not include gender, though the expanded legislation would cover gender as well as sexual orientation, gender identity and disability."He does not support adding sexual orientation to the list of protected classes," Smith continued.Boehner's position, then, appears to be grounded in the notion that immutable characteristics should be protected under hate crimes laws. And while religion is an immutable characteristic, his office suggests, sexual orientation is not. So ...this Rethuglican douchebag thinks religion is not a choice, but sexual orientation is, eh. And another thought....BOEhNer...we all know the 'H' is silent in his name. This guy is a complete ass.

The House of Representatives today voted to expand the definition of hate-crimes legislation to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability. This legislation was the culmination of years of attempts to curtail the type of crimes such as the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming who was murdered in 1998. It comes as Human Rights groups prepare to march upon Washington this weekend which will be culminated by a speech to the Human Rights Campaign by President Obama.

As those on the right attacks House approval of hate crimes legislation for infringing on their religious beliefs, even as a top Democrat points to protection built into the measure to protect free religious speech.

The renowned war criminal Oliver North (remember that little incident in the 1980's?) has come out strongly against the White House's treatment of the 'war' in Afghanistan. North claims that Obama's vacillation is responsible for American military casualties in the region. Shouldn't this guy be in jail? More profound words from a corrupt lackey masquerading as a patriot. FOX news must pay a premium for articles from unconvicted felons.

It's a pity Israel waited for Goldstone to probe Gaza war, a pity we take a hard look at ourselves only when personal harm looms.Israel should thank Judge Richard Goldstone and his commission's important report. After subjecting him to useless, automatic mudslinging, Israel suddenly realized that it should finally investigate the events of Operation Cast Lead. Why? What happened? The ground has started to tremble under the feet of a number of Israeli statesmen and officers. That, it turns out, is the only way to teach us a lesson. Goldstone held up a mirror to us; we tried to smash it, as is our wont, but this time, as opposed to earlier reports, smashing it did not work. Are Ehud Barak and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi sweating? That's the only way Israel will learn. Not only if it is proved that there were war crimes in Gaza, but if people also have to pay for their actions. That is good news for Israel: Thanks to Goldstone, people in Israel will think twice and perhaps even three times before they bring down another barrage of cast lead on a helpless civilian population.

A recent post by Eric Kleefeld at TalkingPointsMemo outlines numerous Obama administration policies that Republicans have taken to criticizing abroad. The most recent case was that of Republican Sen. Jim DeMint's visit to Honduras on Friday. DeMint (R-SC) was a supporter of the military-backed coup in that country since it took place in July. But after word spread that the interim Honduran government had suspended civil liberties, DeMint found himself backtracking, telling TPM that wasn't taking sides and extracting promises from the Honduran government that civil liberties would be restored.