New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link In Welcoming Trump, Let Us Remember Henry VIII Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:00 | Joanna Gray
We're all feeling a little giddy after the inauguration, but let us remember to put not our trust in princes, says Joanna Gray. After all, Thomas More effused at the coronation of Henry VIII, and look what happened to him.
The post In Welcoming Trump, Let Us Remember Henry VIII appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Have Covid Travel Requirements Gone Away? Fri Jan 24, 2025 17:00 | Dr Roger Watson
Back in 2022 and 2023 when Covid travel restrictions and vaccine passports were all the rage Dr Roger Watson published his country-by-country guide. Now, in 2025, he takes a look to see if any are still at it.
The post Have Covid Travel Requirements Gone Away? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link A Golden Age for American Meritocracy Fri Jan 24, 2025 14:15 | Darren Gee
The second Trump Presidency has already dissolved hundreds of DEI programmes and looks set to herald a new golden age of American meritocracy. It's a movement America and the world are hungry for, says Darren Gobin.
The post A Golden Age for American Meritocracy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Think Tank?s Net Zero Survey Concludes the Public is the Problem Fri Jan 24, 2025 13:10 | Ben Pile
The Social Market Foundation has carried out a survey on public attitudes to Net Zero and concluded that the "uninformed" and reluctant public are the problem. Why else would they say no to heat pumps?
The post Think Tank’s Net Zero Survey Concludes the Public is the Problem appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Number of Children Who Think They are Wrong Sex Surges 50-Fold Fri Jan 24, 2025 11:10 | Will Jones
There has been a 50-fold rise in children who think they are the?wrong sex in just 10 years, with two thirds of them girls, analysis of GP records suggests.
The post Number of Children Who Think They are Wrong Sex Surges 50-Fold appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link The United States bets its hegemony on the Fourth Industrial Revolution Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:26 | en

offsite link For Thierry Meyssan, the Sarkozy trial for illegal financing of the 2007 preside... Fri Jan 24, 2025 19:23 | en

offsite link Should we condemn or not the glorification of Nazism?, by Thierry Meyssan Wed Jan 22, 2025 14:05 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?116 Sat Jan 18, 2025 06:46 | en

offsite link After the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, the Trump team prepares an operat... Sat Jan 18, 2025 06:37 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Blink and you'll have missed it

category international | anti-war / imperialism | news report author Friday August 15, 2003 17:44author by Aidan Report this post to the editors

Over the last few months cracks have begun to appear in the coaltions arguments for the war. Awkward scientists coming forward, murdered civilians, and minor pieces of legislation. George Bush's executive order 13303, which quietly came into effect today, is one of those reasons.

Once in a while, the 43rd president of the United States affirms a commitment to human rights to a degree staggering even by his own exacting standards. Wednesday's item concerning the market for mercenary security operatives in Iraq has led us on a paper trail to Executive Order 13303, made with such little fanfare by George Bush on May 22 that you'd almost think he was trying to keep it quiet.

The order - and we're still trying to take this in - grants complete civil and criminal immunity to all US companies operating in Iraq, making them legally exempt from the consequences of anything related to commerce in Iraqi oil.

Let's see that in more detail.

Corporate oil security workers who shoot Iraqis in the course of their working day would be immune from prosecution.

If a tanker sinks or a refinery explodes, the company will be immune from judgment, as indeed would a firm that decided to employ slave labour to build a pipeline, or catastrophically polluted the environment.

"13303 cancels the concept of corporate accountability and abandons the rule of [domestic and international] law," explains a paper by Tom Devine, director of US Democratic legal thinktank Government Accountability Project. "[It] is a blank cheque for corporate anarchy." It's certainly hard to imagine a surer way to inflame the ongoing conflict, or indeed a more hassle-free one for Dubya to enrich his Texas buddies. Has Operation Iraqi Freedom ever seemed more aptly named?

(taken from the Guardian diary 15/07/03)

Related Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030731-2.html
author by iosaf (yet again)publication date Fri Aug 15, 2003 20:06author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Tracing the ownership of the Prestige touched on all those issues Aidan. Sordid connections were made that spanned from the Liberian ship's registry to the Russian Mafia to believe it or not: key former members of the Franco regime.
Refinery explosions are a very regular global occurence. There was one with the loss of five workers yesterday in central Spain, the state Oil provider Repsol lost in the "hot weather" one if it's storage tanks. This explosion will probably be more accountable as most in Europe are than one which occurs in Africa or Asia. If one stops to think of the concentration of refinery and volatile chemical industries in Asia and the simple probability of accident, there are lots of "blank" pages in our record. Bhopal was seen and fought, countless others never go beyond the pages of the local newspaper.
One of the principle problems of the modern capitalist system which I term "hyper-capitalist" system is it's continued legal conceit based in anglo-saxon company law that an entity constructed for trade may be a "person" and as such afforded the same rights as a person. This conceit underlies most of the problems with the last ten years expansion of multi-national-corporation "rights", rights that were are very much explained in any of the current protest/anarchist/anti-capitalist literature on the MAI.
.............so google goo for the MAI.

author by Seáinínpublication date Fri Aug 15, 2003 20:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Executive order 13303 says nothing of the kind, as far as I can see. It's an order made by the President delegating responsibility to the Secretary of State for a list of reports which must be made to Congress.

author by Shawneenpublication date Fri Aug 15, 2003 20:45author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Stop lying to yourselves.
Bush is doing the right thing here (yet again) and all I hear is whining (yet again)

first we FREED up all the oil imprisoned by badman hussein, then we gave FREEDOM to the flag-waving patriotic American companies to bring that oil to needy American families.

We have liberated the Iraqi's from a lot of pesky things- property, civil rights, dignity. And what do we get in return?

crypto-fascist-anarcho-pinko-commie-bleedingheart-scum like you.

No appreciation for democracy and the greatness that is George W(anker) Bush.

author by dollarboypublication date Fri Aug 15, 2003 21:32author address author phone Report this post to the editors

So it's on the gravy train for the companies that funded his (non) election, and guess what?

y'know all them good old patriotic men and women who went to Afghanistan and Iraq 'cos Bush told 'em to?
We'll he's CUTTING THEIR PAY.
That's right $75 each from their paypackets.
Cos y'know ...the war cost more than they thought it would.
Man of the people, Commander in Chief, a good ol' boy. proud of the 'Merkan armed forces', not that it stops him shafting them.

..."oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light"...

Related Link: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/135080_paycuted.html
author by Shoneenpublication date Sun Aug 17, 2003 23:32author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The link is not to the executive order referred to in the article.

Here is a link to the PDF version from the Federal Register.

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-13412.pdf

Interestingly, the E.O. starts off by declaring a "national emergency" ....

"I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that the threat of attachment or other judicial process against the Development Fund for Iraq, Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein, and proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of any nature whatsoever arising from or related to the sale or marketing thereof, and interests therein, obstructs the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq. This situation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat."

Related Link: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-13412.pdf
 
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy