Rice to Confront Authoritarian Afghan about Man Sentenced to Death for Printing Women’s Rights Docs

Imprisoned and sentenced to death for reading and downloading women's rights documents, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh life hangs on international pressure brought to bear on this hell hole of a country where life and liberty are held cheaply.

The Independent has made a cause of the 23-year-old Sayed's wrongful jailing and death sentance, gathering over 61,000 signatures on a petition, causing the British government to register official protests, and pushing Condi Rice into promising to talk to the Afghan strongman, Hamid Karzai.

From the Independent:

Ms Rice, who was in London for talks with Gordon Brown and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, on the West's Afghanistan strategy said: "I do think that the Afghans understand that there are some international norms that need to be respected. Of course, one has national laws and they're national laws that are in accordance with traditions and religious practice. But there are international norms, and I'll certainly talk to President Karzai about this case." ...

He shares a cell meant for four people with 30 others at the prison in Balkh province where he has been held for more than three months. In that time he has been attacked by Taliban prisoners who have been told by officials that Mr Kambaksh is guilty of blasphemy. His food has been contaminated by guards, he has lost weight, and is traumatised. ...

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A common market for health in Europe

From The Independent:

British patients may soon have the right to be treated anywhere in EU.

Europe stands on the brink of a historic decision to open its borders to medical tourism, casting a dramatic spotlight on the performance of the UK's health system against that of neighbouring countries.

Cancer treatment, heart surgery and hip replacements could be available, in certain circumstances, to UK citizens in any of the EU's 27 countries. Under the plans, they would have the right to seek treatment anywhere which offered quicker access to care than was available on the NHS, with the NHS picking up the bill.

Citizens of other EU countries would have a corresponding right to come to the UK for treatment. Patients would have to be referred by a doctor and demonstrate they faced an "undue" delay for treatment in their own country.

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Britain and America Leading the World in Jailing Their Populations

One can read Glenn C. Loury in The Boston Review analysing the increasingly putative nature of the American criminal justice system.

Britain has the same problem.

Nigel Morris has a piece in The Independent: As the Government plans to build more jails, the shocking state of crime and punishment in Britain is revealed.

America and Britain leading the world in putting its' populations behind bars; something is wrong with this picture.

Writes Morris:

The Government was accused yesterday of trying to build its way out of the prisons overcrowding crisis as it outlined its vision for the construction of three supersize jails which would bring the number of offenders behind bars to almost 100,000.

Despite stark reminders from penal reform experts that more people are already locked up in England and Wales than anywhere else in western Europe, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said he was pressing ahead.

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American dollar's decline: From symbol of hegemony to shunned currency

Update: Critics Assail Weak Dollar at OPEC Event

Like everything else, the administration has touched, corrupted and razed, Bush’s stewardship of the dollar has been less than competent and honest.

Readers of the foreign and left press are aware that should the neocons continue to dictate foreign policy, not just political and humanitarian disasters will ensue; some speak of suggestions and precursors of economic disasters.

One sign: The Dollar's weakness.

Sure, economists will tell you that this is a necessity to offset trade deficits, among other considerations.

But the foundation of the neocon project of an American empire led by an economically stable America will no longer be seen by the world as plausible - moral, fiscal and political considerations aside.

From The Independent in the UK.

The dollar's decline: from symbol of hegemony to shunned currency

The decline of the dollar, symbol of US global hegemony for the best part of a century, may have become so entrenched that some experts now fear it is irreversible.

After months of huge and sustained turmoil on the money markets, lack of confidence in the world's totemic currency has become so widespread that an increasing number of international traders are transferring their wealth to stronger currencies such as the euro, which recently hit its highest level against the dollar.

"An American businessman over here who is given the choice would take anything but the dollar," David Buik of Cantor Index said yesterday. "I would want to be paid in yen, and if not yen then the euro or sterling."

Matthew Osborne, of Armstrong International, added: "The majority would say sterling. There are a few dealers in the City who may take the view that they'll take dollars now, while they're cheap, and hold on to them for 12 months.

More at The Independent in the UK.

For an insightful interview on American economic and military idiocy, see Gabriel Kolko in the German SPIEGEL ONLINE.
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The MAeLstrom

[A scan of news articles and commentary on the internet.]

Bush's America: Roach Motel: Emblematic of the right-wing’s disgust with Bush over his putative immigration proposal, Ann Coulter in Human Events compares the immigrating Hispanics to roaches and America to a “roach motel" in her column title. Coulter writes: Republicans' defense of President Bush's immigration bill is more enraging than their defense of Harriet Miers. Back then, Bush's conservative base was accused of being sexist for opposing an unqualified woman's nomination to the highest court in the land. Now we're racists for not wanting to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

The New American Cold War: Stephen F. Cohen writes in The Nation: The increasingly belligerent charges and counter-charges by officials and in the media on both sides, "Cold-War-style rhetoric and threats," as the Associated Press recently reported, read like a replay of the American-Soviet discourse of the 1970s and early 1980s. And the unfolding conflict over US plans to build missile defense components near post-Soviet Russia, in Poland and the Czech Republic, threatens to reintroduce a dangerous military feature of that cold-war era in Europe.

Was General Pace Fired Because He Balked at Iran: Levey MG at opednews.com writes: This isn't good news. THIS IS EXTREMELY OMINOUS. I’ve been writing for over a year now that the Joint Chiefs have been blocking the White House’s efforts to expand the war to Iran. No matter what you might think of Gen. Pete Pace, this really is TERRIFYING news, unless you crave a wider war in the Persian Gulf and South Asia.Pace has been the most visible symbol of the push-back within the military against the Long War.

McCain (still) reaching out to Christian conservative base: Matt Stearns of McClatchy Newspapers writes: In his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Arizona Sen. John McCain is reaching out to conservative Christians, and many of them want to know how much McCain reaches out to God. McCain has written movingly of how his faith helped him survive 5 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, but he says little about the current role of religion in his life. "I think it's something between me and my creator," McCain said in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers. "It's primarily a private issue rather than a public one. ... When I'm asked about it, I'll be glad to discuss it. I just don't bring it up."

UN Warns Of 5 Million Iraqi Refugees: Patrick Cockburn in The Independent: Across Iraq, millions of people are looking for safer places to live, and not finding them. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reported last week that 4.2 million Iraqis have been forced out of their homes.There are also ominous signs that the four-month-old US security plan for Baghdad is failing to reduce the level of violence despite an extra 17,000 US troops in the capital."The situation in Iraq continues to worsen," the UNHCR announced, "with more than two million Iraqis now believed to be displaced inside the country and another 2.2 million sheltering in neighbouring states." The Iraqi refugee crisis is now surpassing in numbers anything ever seen in the Middle East, including the expulsion or flight of the Palestinians in 1948.

Frank Rich is off today at the New York Times. :( Frank Rich should not be allowed a vacation, a day off, professional time, personal time, or a bathroom break until Bush and Cheney are gone and forgotten. His column and talent are a public necessity.

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