Taiwan’s crackdown on anti nuclear protestors
Anti-nuclear protesters confronted by Taipower ‘thug’ police: DPP lawmaker Taipei Times, 9 Sept 12, By Su Yung-yao and Jake Chung The National Police Agency special police second headquarters has taken the lead in countering anti-nuclear activities and become a thug for Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) said yesterday.
Cheng said the headquarters’ Web site included an articled titled “The anti-nuclear trend is no longer fashionable”, which claims that anti-nuclear activists are irrational, use false data and base their views on the slim chance that a nuclear disaster might happen……
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/09/10/2003542412
UK puts Assange’s lawyer on ‘inhibited person list’
Lawyer for Assange detained at Heathrow and told she was on a ‘secret watch list’ Daily Mail, By ABUL TAHER, 1 September 2012 A lawyer acting for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says she was stopped at Heathrow and told that she was on a secret watch-list and required special clearance before she could board her plane.
Australian Jennifer Robinson said she was left stunned after being told by an airline crew that she was on an ‘inhibited person list’ that means she must have ‘done something controversial’.
Ms Robinson said that she could not understand why she was on the list as she had never done anything controversial or criminal. She had only represented clients around the world, one of whom was Mr Assange….. Ms Robinson, 31, said: ‘This incident raises so many questions.
‘Why would I need clearance to travel to my own country? So far I have not had a proper explanation.’
The human rights lawyer is a member of Mr Assange’s legal team, which has been fighting his extradition to Sweden on alleged sexual assault offences.
She was also his legal adviser when WikiLeaks published US military documents as well as diplomatic cables from American embassies. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2197003/Lawyer-Assange-detained-Heathrow-told-secret-watch-list.html#ixzz25RNRNfJl
Julian Assange’s mother gets Nazi taunt on Australian radio
Assange’s mother subjected to Nazi taunts The Age August 19, 2012 – Julian Assange’s mother has hung up the phone on a Melbourne radio host after he taunted her with a Nazi slogan when she backed out of an interview.
Christine Assange was due to speak to 3AW’s Sunday morning show about her son, the founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, and his successful appeal for asylum in Ecuador.
But she changed her mind after hearing how co-host John-Michael Howson had treated a previous guest.
“I won’t be doing an interview with you because you’re acting like a pig,” Ms Assange said. Howson responded by screaming on air: “Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!”
Ms Assange then hung up the phone…… http://www.theage.com.au/national/assanges-mother-subjected-to-nazi-taunts-20120819-24g2f.html
Injustice USA: Bradley Manning needs our help
Save human rights whistleblower Bradley Manning! Why this is important
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Save_human_rights_whistleblower_Bradley_Manning/?wnQTQbb Accused WikiLeaks whistleblower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bradley
Manning will spend the rest of his life in prison for telling the public the truth, if US officials get their way. Government conduct, apparently aimed at discouraging whistleblowers, has ignored due process and made a fair trial impossible. But, in the past, outrageous government conduct has led judges to dismiss the charges against whistleblowers. Tell the judge in Bradley’s military Court Martial to do the same!
– Bradley was held in pre-trial solitary confinement for 11 months, in conditions condemned by the UN Rapporteur on Torture as “cruel, inhuman and degrading,” including being stripped and made to stand naked at roll call. This was a clear violation of the US military’s
Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ: Article 13). Yet, only worldwide outrage–including over 500,000 Avaaz members signing a petition–ended this illegal treatment. Continue reading
UK govt to take unprecedented action for its ally USA, against Julian Assange
Ecuador to announce Assange asylum, Britain threat to raid 
embassy http://wwwnews.com.au/technology/ecuador-to-announce-assange-asylum-britain-threat-to-raid-embassy/story-e6frfro0-1226451411725#ixzz23kTVyVq3 Charles Miranda, wires From: News Limited Network August 16, 2012 Reports suggest British police have been seen entering the Ecuadorian embassy.
The Press Association had earlier reported officers arriving outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, close to the Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London.
EARLIER BRITAIN is threatening to raid the Ecuadorian embassy to arrest Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange.
Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, told a news conference that the South American nation had received a written and verbal threat on Wednesday from Britain that “it could assault our embassy” if Assange was not handed over.\
Patino also said that Ecuador “has made a decision” on Mr Assange’s asylum bid and will announce it on Thursday at 7am local time (10pm AEST).
“Ecuador rejects in the most emphatic terms the explicit threat of the British official communication,” he told a press conference in Quito. He said such a threat was “improper of a democratic, civilised and rule abiding country”.
“If the measure announced in the British official communication is enacted, it will be interpreted by Ecuador as an unacceptable, unfriendly and hostile act and as an attempt against our sovereignty. It would force us to respond,” he said.
“We are not a British colony.” He said the threat was delivered to Ecuador’s foreign ministry and
ambassador in London.
The letter said: “You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the Embassy.
“We sincerely hope that we do not reach that point, but if you are not capable of resolving this matter of Mr Assange’s presence in your premises, this is an open option for us.”
Privacy concerns about Department of Homeland Security and drones
Drones tested as tools for police and firefighters, The Department of Homeland Security is trying to accelerate the use of unmanned aircraft for hostage standoffs, hazardous spills and other scenarios. Legal experts worry about civilian privacy. By Brian Bennett, Los Angeles Times August 5, 2012, “…. some legal experts are worried about the effect of surveillance drones in U.S. skies.
“This is putting the cart before the horse where DHS and other federal agencies are looking to put money toward drone use without looking at what it means for privacy and civil liberties,” said Jennifer Lynch, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
DHS has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to at least 13 police departments to buy small surveillance drones. But safety restrictions imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration — and the fact that some models have proved difficult to use — have kept most on the ground.
That could change soon. Congress this year passed a law requiring the FAA to ease restrictions on commercial drone use in U.S. airspace by 2015. Next year, the administration is expected to issue a rule allowing law enforcement and first responders to fly small unmanned aerial vehicles…. Some lawmakers have also criticized DHS, which has a fleet of 10 Predator B drones for border security, for not addressing safety and privacy concerns earlier.
“DHS seems either disinterested or unprepared to step up to the plate to address the proliferation of drones, the potential threats they pose to our national security, and the concerns of our citizens of how drones flying over our cities will be used, including protecting civil liberties of individuals under the Constitution,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) complained after the department declined to send an official to an oversight hearing he had called about domestic use of drones….. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drones-testing-20120805,0,6483617.story
Court rules that USA police can use drones to arrest USA citizens
Police can use drones to arrest Americans on US soil: New court ruling August 3, 2012 Deborah Dupre, Human Rights Examiner High tech human rights abuses escalate with court green-lighting drones to arrest Americans on US soil
A North Dakota court has approved using drones to help arrest American citizens on US soil as domestic drone human rights abuses escalate. “The whole thing is full of constitutional violations,” lawyer Bruce Quick told US News. Continue reading
Julian Assange and US government’s campaign to intimidate human rights activists
Assange’s mother stated, “The US government feels that it can seek to try my son for espionage, and possibly executing him simply for doing the job of a good investigative journalist, which is telling the truth about power.”
Assange’s mother justifiably fears U.S. would torture, maybe kill him http://www.examiner.com/article/assange-s-mother-justifiably-fears-u-s-would-torture-maybe-kill-him?CID=examiner_alerts_article, AUGUST 3, 2012 BY: DEBORAH DUPRE
The mother of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange is seeking refuge in the small safe haven nation, Ecuador, due the Assanges’ fear of United States persecution, a justified concern, according to The Guardian on Thursday. The American government, that claims world leadership in press freedom and democracy, is using Assange as an example of what will happen to other journalists and human rights defenders who expose high-level government corruption, The Guardian reports.
Assange’s and his mother’s concerns of U.S. persecution are justified on two counts, according to The Guardian:
“A grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, empanelled to investigate violations of the Espionage Act – a statute that by its very nature targets speech – has subpoenaed Twitter feeds regarding Assange and WikiLeaks. An FBI agent, testifying at whistleblower Bradley Manning’s trial, said that “founders, owners and managers” of WikiLeaks are being investigated.
“And then there is Assange’s 42,135-page FBI file – a compilation of curious heft if the government is “not interested” in investigating its subject.”
In considering whether Assangs’s concerns about being treated inhumanely if extradited to the US,The Guardian reports, “One need only consider how the US treated Bradley Manning, the army private who allegedly leaked the cables to WikiLeaks to see why.” Manning spent nearly a year in 23 hours a day solitary confinement and then eight months “under conditions designed to pressure him into providing evidence to incriminate Assange”: stripped of clothing and made to stand nude for inspection.
Thousands of people, including legal scholars and the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, have condemned the U.S. treatment of Manning as inhumane and torturous.
“There is no reason for Assange to expect he will be treated any better.” Continue reading
Fukushima casual workers got 4 times as much radiation as employees
Radiation doses 4 times larger for ‘outside workers’ at nuclear plants , Asahi Shimbun, July 26, 2012 By TOSHIHIRO OKUYAMA/ Staff Writer Nuclear plant workers not employed by the operating utilities were exposed to nearly four times the radiation doses received by utility employees, indicating that “outside workers” are often assigned the dangerous tasks, statistics showed....subscription only .
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201207260071
France used soldiers as guinea pigs for radiation effects
An excerpt published in the newspaper refers to the “Gerboise verte”, code name for the test firings of April 25, 1961. It states that the experiment “should allow for a study of the physiological and psychological effects of atomic weaponry on humans, with the goal obtaining the necessary elements to prepare physically and morally for modern combat.”
Soldiers deliberately exposed to nuclear tests, says report According to the Tuesday edition of the French daily Parisian, a confidential military report proves that soldiers were deliberately exposed to nuclear tests that France conducted in Algeria in the 1960s. By FRANCE 24 17 July 12 Continue reading
No protection for whistleblowers at San Onofre nuclear power station
Paul Diaz is not protected by California’s whistle-blower laws – among the strongest in the nation — because San Onofre sits on federal land ceded to Southern California Edison back in the 1960s. “What’s unusual here is that if Mr. Diaz was working off the actual four corners of the San Onofre property and reported the same acts, he would be protected,” Seversen said. “But because he happens to set foot on the federal enclave, those protections are not available.”
San Onofre Workers Lack State Whistleblower Protections Safety Complaints High At Crippled Plant June 28, 2012 KPBS, By Amita Sharma For the past four years, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has had the highest number of safety complaints of any nuclear plant in the country.
“That’s not the list you want to be on top of,” said nuclear power expert David Lockbaum of theUnion of Concerned Scientists.
“I don’t think there is any doubt whatsoever that right now the workforce at San Onofre doesn’t trust management and when they have safety concerns they’re either not raising them at all or they’re raising them to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the only option they have available,” he added. “That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. The workers are basically the canaries in the coal mine. They’re the first ones who see the problems. Their voices need to be heard, not ignored.” Continue reading
Golden farewell for Fukushima nuclear plant directors and auditors as they leave for other lucrative jobs
VIDEO : . http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2012-06-27/tepco-directors-quit-with-golden-parachute/968572 TEPCO directors quit with ‘golden parachute’, Radio Australia 28 June 2012, Directors and auditors at the Japanese operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant have used the company’s annual general meeting to resign. In theory, the TEPCO directors and auditors are doing so to take responsibility for last year’s disaster, but the ABC can confirm nearly half of those who have resigned will take up lucrative posts with other TEPCO group companies.
Some of the executives are also facing the biggest lawsuit in Japanese history – a $67 billion compensation claim from shareholders for what they describe as unforgivable negligence. Outside the company’s meeting on Wednesday, activists – most of them middle-aged women – handed out anti-nuclear leaflets to shareholders making their way in.
Among them was Yui Kimura, who bought TEPCO shares so she could attend and vote at meetings. She is one of 42 shareholders suing 27 company directors for failing to heed repeated warnings about the threat of a giant tsunami.
She is fighting for TEPCO to pay compensation for those affected by the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns.
About 100,000 Fukushima residents still cannot return home……
India’s Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Bill aims to hide information
Aruna Roy to Sonia: Nuclear Safety bill is anti-transparency First Post India, by FP Staff Jun 1, 2012 Refusal by the Nuclear Corporation of India (NPCIL) to abide by the Central Information Commission’s order to make public the Kudankulam nuclear plant’s safety report has been strongly criticized by leading RTI activist and national advisory council (NAC) member Aruna Roy.
NPCIL is constructing the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu in collaboration with Russia.
In a strongly worded letter to NAC chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Roy has also brought up issue of the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Bill 2011, which seeks to amend the Right to Information Act.
“It (referring to the Bill) also permits the creation of special nuclear safety regulatory authorities which will be born vaccinated from the RTI Act. There is no rationale for safety and regulatory authorities to be outside the purview of the RTI,” says Roy in her letter. (Read full letter here ) The NSRA, 2011, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in September, proposes two amendments to the RTI Act.
The first seeks to remove from the scope of the RTI Act sensitive information relating to nuclear and radiation safety issues. And the second seeks to shield regulatory bodies that oversee nuclear facilities established for strategic and defence purposes.
It may be recalled that earlier this year, information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi had written to the Prime Minister expressing ‘serious concern’ on the government’s proposal to amend RTI act through the Nuclear Safety Bill. PMANE to move Supreme Court
The SP Udayakumar-led People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) , which has been leading the struggle against the Kudankulam nuclear plant from neighbouring Idinthakarrai village since September last year, has in a press statement today condemned the NPCIL’s refusal to follow the CIC order.
As per the CIC order NPCIL was directed to “provide an attested photocopy of the Safety Analysis Report and Site Evaluation Report after severing any proprietary details of designs provided by the suppliers to the appellant before 25 May, 2012.” The NPCIL was also directed to upload the two reports on its site by May 30.
PMANE has said that it will now “intensify our struggle to get all the relevant information about the KKNPP for our safety and well being and we will also take all possible legal steps to that effect.”
Pusparayan, one of the leading members of the PMANE, told Firspost they had begun the process to move Supreme Court….. Pusparayan, meanwhile, has appealed to the government to “be democratic and genuine in sharing information with the public.” http://www.firstpost.com/india/aruna-roy-to-sonia-nuclear-safety-bill-is-anti-transparency-329280.html
Release peaceful protestors of Koodankulam nuclear plant – Sandeep Pandey
Mr. Pandey said, “That there has been no violence so far is a unique feature of this movement and the credit goes to the fisherfolk of Tirunelveli. The government must withdraw all false cases and release two of the activists still in jail, Satish Kumar and Muhilan.”
Magsaysay awardee opposes KKNPP http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article3433480.ece 19 May 12 Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay award winner and a convener of the National Alliance of People’s Movements, said on Friday that Indian nuclear scientists were dealing with an unknown technology in the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) and that it should not be commissioned hastily as it was against the people’s interest. Continue reading
India’s nuclear bodies trample on civil liberties and natural justice
the DAE and NPCIL habitually behave as if they were a law unto themselves. … pre-emptive land acquisition, like imposition of unsafe projects on an unwilling people, violates natural justice. That’s nuclear power for you.
Nuclear power and natural justice, By Praful Bidwai Apr 04 2012MyDigitalFC.com “…. India’s department of atomic energy (DAE), and its subsidiary, Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), are blithely proceeding with a massive expansion of nuclear power generation even as they seek special exemptions under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
They have proposed two amendments to the Act, which exempt sensitive information on radiation safety and commercially-sensitive information on technology-holders, and to
insulate the RTI Act from bodies to be created under the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill to oversee nuclear facilities established for strategic and national defence purposes. Mercifully, central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has forcefully rejected these proposals.
Even more pernicious are the nuclear establishment’s moves to bypass or violate safety procedures, Continue reading
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
PLEASE OPPOSE HR 8255 AND S.3639 – bills would accelerate satellite deployment, with no environmental review or safeguards – https://ncstd5li.quorum.us/campaign/169331/
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