THE G-20 IN PITTSBURGH
by Tom Over 9-23-09
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On Tuesday, Sept 22, activists from Philadelphia, New York City, Pittsburgh and other cities held a mock funeral procession to demand better policies for addressing the AIDS pandemic, a day ahead of the arrival of delegates for the G-20.
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The approximately 50 participants in the New Orleans-style funeral march drew a mix of interest, irritation, and amusement from onlookers in the business district of downtown Pittsburgh.
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At the head of the funeral march where pallbearers carried a cardboard coffin, a man shouted into a microphone while someone else carried a portable amplifier, “when people with AIDS are under attack, what do we do ?” and marchers shouted in unison, “fight back!”
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Amidst the early afternoon bustle of an weekday, the demonstrators repeated this call-and-answer and similar chants as the funeral march made its way around the perimeter of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the site of the G-20 Summit later this week.
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Erica Goldberg works with ACT UP Philadelphia. She said global health is not on the agenda of the G-20 Summit.
“One of the things that some of the G-20 nations have promised us is funding for the global fund to fight, TB, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. This is all really important, especially if we want to meet the United Nations’ Millennium goal of eradicating these diseases by 2015. As of right now, this won’t be met. We have to hold our leaders accountable. They are the ones making decisions for the poorer countries,” Goldberg said.
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She commented on the timing of the demonstration. “We wanted this to be the first thing they (the G-20 delegates) see. They’re coming here tomorrow. We’re holding them accountable. This needs to be on the agenda.”
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She said AIDS activists chose Sept 22, two days before the official start of the G-20 Summit, and one day before the arrival of the delegates, so as to not have to compete with other protests. Also, she said the AIDS activists figured there would be less of a chance of conflict with police if they staged their protest earlier in the week.
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“We hope that this will hit the papers tomorrow, that it’s the first thing they see when they walk in, that they have this on their conscience and know we’re not going away,” Goldberg said. She urges people to contact legislators about supporting the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
“President Obama, as much as I love him, went back on his promise to fulfill the funding,” Goldberg said.
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She commented on how drug companies factor into all of this. “ Medication does not need to be this expensive. They can definitely lower their prices. We have big drug interests lobbying to prevent AIDS medication from getting” to developing nations.
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Goldberg said debt cancellation for developing nations is a factor that comes into play.
“When you don’t cancel debts of nations and they have to pay back loans to the IMF and the World Bank, they won’t have the funds necessary for getting AIDS medication, or they might get the medication but can’t pay the health professional because of their debt.
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She said vested interested motivated by huge profits stand in the way of doing a better job of addressing tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. “We have the power, the ability, and the medication.”
World News
Iran is not engaged in nuclear weapons research,
and not an "imminent threat" requiring military action, according to
Mohamed El Baradei, former director of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to
prevent nuclear proliferation.
"Anybody who is calling for a military solution for the Iranian issue
is crazy, because you will get a much worse situation than what you
have," Mr. El Baradei said.
"Nobody today is vouching that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. I
think even the U.S. intelligence [agencies], as you probably know, say
that Iran stopped any nuclear weapons research -- assuming that they
had done that -- in 2003," he said.
"That still continues to be the assessment of the U.S. intelligence
agencies, all the intelligence agencies. No, there is no imminent
threat that requires" military action.
Mr. El Baradei made the remarks during a presentation here in Bangkok
on Monday (February 11) at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of
Thailand.
OK, president Obama professes his Christian beliefs and admits to
reading Joshua Dubois' daily devotional meditations for inspiration.
Yet he is deliberate in conceding Islam is a "great religion" in his
latest official responses to the Charlie Hedbo murders and immolation
of a Jordanian pilot. The White House refuses to link any of these
acts to the "great religion" of Islam. Though this sentiment, or
narrative if I may, is not shared by members on both sides of the
political aisle, there is one bi-partisan agreement that I have heard
reiterated by various politicians via the fourth estate-that Islam is
a "great" religion being corrupted by radicals. This is where the
inescapable duplicitous nature of belief in the supernatural rears its
irreconcilable head.
President Obama has broken all records with respect to prosecuting whistleblowers, despite his promise to be more open that the previous administration. He has used the Espionage Act seven times, and use other punitive measures against leakers, many of whom are seen as whistleblowers. For all his good qualities, Obama behaves as if he works for the CIA, as he does their bidding at every opportunity. Evidently, enough people watch the TV show “The Biggest Loser” to keep it on the air. But which of the prosecuted whistleblowers is the biggest loser?
Was the United States compelled to attack Afghanistan and Iraq by the events of September 11, 2001?
A key to answering that rather enormous question may lie in the secrets that the U.S. government is keeping about Saudi Arabia.
Some have long claimed that what looked like a crime on 9/11 was actually an act of war necessitating the response that has brought violence to an entire region and to this day has U.S. troops killing and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Could diplomacy and the rule of law have been used instead? Could suspects have been brought to trial? Could terrorism have been reduced rather than increased? The argument for those possibilities is strengthened by the fact that the United States has not chosen to attack Saudi Arabia, whose government is probably the region's leading beheader and leading funder of violence.
But what does Saudi Arabia have to do with 9/11? Well, every account of the hijackers has most of them as Saudi. And there are 28 pages of a 9/11 Commission report that President George W. Bush ordered classified 13 years ago.
The Sinai Peninsula has moved from the margins of Egyptian body politic to the uncontested center, as Egypt’s strong man - President Abdul Fatah al-Sisi - finds himself greatly undercut by the rise of an insurgency that seems to be growing stronger with time.
Another series of deadly and coordinated attacks, on January 29, shattered the Egyptian army’s confidence, pushing it further into a deadly course of a war that can only be won by political sagacity, not bigger guns.
Francois Hollande is not a popular president. No matter how hard the ‘socialist’ leader tries to impress, there never seems to be a no solid constituency that backs him. He attempted to mask his initial lack of experience in foreign affairs with a war in Mali, after his country enthusiastically took on Libya. While he succeeded at launching wars, he failed at managing their consequences as the latest attacks in Paris have demonstrated.
Following the attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, he is now attempting to ride a wave of popularity among his countrymen. On January 11, an estimated 3.5 million people took to the streets of France in support of free speech – as if that were truly the crux of the problem. Nearly forty world leaders and top officials, many of whom are themselves unrelenting violators of human rights and free speech, walked arm in arm throughout the streets of Paris. It was a photo-op to show that the world was ‘united against terrorism.’
Since Tuesday and continuing for the coming three weeks, an amazing trial is happening in U.S. District Court at 401 Courthouse Square in Alexandria, Va. The trial is open to the public, and among the upcoming witnesses is Condoleezza Rice, but -- unlike the Chelsea Manning trial -- most of the seats at this somewhat similar event are empty.
The media is mostly MIA, and during lunch break the two tables at the cafe across the street are occupied, one by the defendant and his lawyers, the other by a small group of activists, including former CIA officer Ray McGovern, blogger Marcy Wheeler (follow her report of every detail at ExposeFacts.org), and Norman Solomon who has organized a petition at DropTheCharges.org -- the name of which speaks for itself.
“Je suis Charlie. Tout est pardonné.”
Muhammad in tears adorns the new cover of Charlie Hebdo: “I am Charlie. All is forgiven.” This is bigger than satire.
I take a deep breath, uncertain how to write about last week’s insane shooting spree in Paris. My daughter and her husband live there. “Things are normal,” she told me a few days afterward, “but there’s a presence — this thing that has happened. It’s in the air.”
A few days later I came upon this headline at the McClatchy Washington bureau website: “U.S. airstrike in Syria may have killed 50 civilians.”
The story reports: “The civilians were being held in a makeshift jail in the town of Al Bab, close to the Turkish border, when the aircraft struck on the evening of Dec. 28, the witnesses said. The building, called the Al Saraya, a government center, was leveled in the airstrike. It was days before civil defense workers could dig out the victims’ bodies.”
Freedom Fighters Gun Strike in Europe Is Said to Have Killed 12 Militants
PARIS, France — At least 12 foreign militants were believed to have been killed in a freedom fighter gun strike in the North Paris tribal region on Wednesday morning, a Liberation security official said.
The Liberation official said guns fired 128 precision bullets into a compound in the Cafe Au Lait subdistrict at 6:40 a.m. The area is close to the headquarters of numerous French businesses.
“The guns targeted a base of a French commander known as Francoise, killing 12 French militants. Two militants are wounded,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media.
The CIA is out of control. The spy agency has admitted to conducting a covert hacking and file destruction operation against the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee that was investigating allegations of prior illegal CIA acts. The CIA’s conduct constitutes a blatant and unacceptable act of intimidation against the critical civilian oversight of its operations. As CIA Director Brennan has confessed to hacking the Senate Oversight Committee computers, probable cause exists to believe the CIA has engaged in criminal and unconstitutional attacks on the very core of our representative government. This is unacceptable.