mediavigil: LieMeters

Saturday, September 20, 2008

LieMeters

FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com—these are the two websites which vet campaign statements and advertising in the US elections for the veracity of what is put out. The Los Angeles Times reports that both organizations are finding that the McCain campaign is doing more energetic misleading about Obama than vice versa.

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Heads of world's two biggest greenhouse-gas polluting nations

$Heads of world\$
China and the US each account for about 20 percent of all the world's greenhouse gas pollution, created when coal, natural gas or oil are burned. The European Union is next, generating 14 percent, followed by Russia and India, which each account for 5 percent. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says, "The climate negotiations are proceeding at glacial speed. The world's glaciers are now melting faster than human progress to protect them – and us." Failure to reach a new international pact on climate change "would be morally inexcusable, economically shortsighted and politically unwise," Ban warned. "The science demands it. The world economy needs it." EU has urged other rich countries to match its pledge to cut emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, and has said it would cut up to 30 percent if other rich countries follow suit.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian President & Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the last Prime Minister of Iran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader has ordered an inquiry into the allegations of rigging in the elections. Results of the inquiry is expected in 10 days time. Iranian President is elected by direct vote. Candidates need to win majority (50% plus one of the votes cast in the election) to become President. Iran has a two-round system: if none of the candidates win the majority in the first round, two top candidates from the first round will go to a second round, and whichever wins the majority of votes in the second round is elected President. The first round was held on 12 June 2009. The second round, if necessary is held one week later. All Iranian citizens of age 18 are eligible to vote. There are around 46 million eligible voters. On 20 May, Guardian Council officially announced the list of approved candidates. The main contesttant Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the last Prime Minister of Iran has challanged the veracity of the election results.Notably, European leaders from France and Germany & others did not express a similar outrage when elections were rigged in the US during the Bush regime. Iran's electoral watchdog is due to take a decision on the complaints of vote-rigging filed by defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the Guardians Council head said on state television that "I hope it will not take long that the noble people will see that the question has been examined in the best way and we will give the result to the people". Jannati said the council, a 12-member body, has been instructed by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to examine the issue. "We said yes to his call... we are doing what he asked us to do," he said. Earlier, state television quoted Khamenei as saying he had advised the council to "precisely examine" the complaint filed by Mousavi, while a council spokesman had said a decision would take 10 days.

Sonia Gandhi & Manmohan Singh

Indian National Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) emerged victorious again in the 2009 parliamentary elections. The process of government formation is underway. It is currently heading the government of India. UPA was formed soon after the 2004 general elections. Sonia Gandhi was made the Chairperson of UPA. On 18 May 2004, after her Congress party won the parliamentary election, she was slated to become Prime Minister, but declined after fierce opposition and the promise of future turmoil from the Bhartiya Janta Party led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the current opposition party. She was elected leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party and was expected to become the Prime Minister. She nominated Dr Manmohan Singh and secured his the nomination for prime minister on 19 May 2004 from the then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. She renounced Italian citizenship on 27 April 1983 and became a citizen of India on 30 April 1983. India will hold general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha by May 2009. Dr Singh would resign and approach the President in the coming few days to form his government.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, former Prime Minister, Nepal

Prachanda resigned from the post of Prime Minister on 4 May 2009 after his move to sack General Rookmangud Katawal, the army chief, was opposed by President Ram Baran Yadav. In the April 2008 Constituent Assembly election, he was elected from Kathmandu constituency-10, winning by a large margin and receiving nearly twice as many votes as his nearest rival, the candidate of the Nepali Congress. With the CPN (M) appearing to have won the election, He also said that the party had expressed its commitment to multi-party democracy through the election. The Constituent Assembly of Nepal elected Prachanda as Prime Minister on 15 August 2008. He was sworn in as Prime Minister on 18 August 2008. Besides fulfilling the promises he and his party has made to Nepali citizens, Prachanda is busy doing the balancing act between India, US and China.

Hu Jintao & Wen Jiabao, People's Republic of China (PRC)

China's President Hu Jintao (right) and Premier Wen Jiabao. Communist Party of China (CPC) led by President Hu Jintao, who won a second five-year term on 15 March, 2008 as the party boss till 2012. Hu was also reappointed Chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) of the CPC, the top military organ of the party. Hu succeeded Jiang Zemin as party leader at the 16th CPC National Congress in November, 2002. He was elected a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee in 1992. He could not his protégé Li Keqiang as his potential successor because Jiang Zemin although 80 years old still wields considerable clout. In the pecking order of the CPC, Xi Jinping, 54, the Communist Party boss in Shanghai, was ranked ahead of Li, who is considered Hu’s choice. Xi, 52, is seen as a candidate of Jiang, also based in China’s commercial capital, Shanghai. Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin and Li Changchun, who are members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the 16th CPC Central Committee. Wen Jiabao became the Prime Minister on 16 March 2003.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister

Netanyahu was sworn in as Prime Minister on March 31, 2009. Netanyahu chaired his first cabinet meeting on April 5, 2009 in the backdrop of what his Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at the foreign ministry handover ceremony on April 1. Lieberman said that the new right-leaning government was not bound by a US-backed 2007 agreement to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland. "We will never agree to skip any of the stages -- and there are 48 of them -- and go straight to the last stage on negotiations on a permanent agreement." The roadmap is a step-by-step international peace plan launched in 2003 under which Israel bound itself to the principle of a Palestinian state -- a concept that Netanyahu opposes. It calls for Israel and the Palestinians to take a series of steps -- among them a freeze on Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and an end to violence -- eventually leading to talks on a final peace deal. In Annapolis, the two sides agreed to jump to its final phase and relaunch peace talks on core issues while at the same time implementing the other phases of the plan, although the talks have produced little visible progress since. He is opposed to the two-state solution. Netanyahu's stance on the peace process has to dove tail his policy with that of US President Barack Obama who has vowed to vigorously pursue a settlement to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a two-state solution. Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear that his top priority was arch-foe Iran's nuclear programme, which perturbs Israel because it feels that it is aimed at manufacturing atomic weapons, a charged Tehran has repeatedly denied. Israel is widely believed to be the Middle East's sole nuclear-armed nation, something it has never confirmed or denied. Netanyahu was previously the country's Prime Minister from June 1996 to July 1999. He is also Chairman of the Likud Party. He is the first (and, to date, only) Israeli prime minister born after the State of Israel's foundation. Prior to him it was Ehud Olmert who was the Prime Minister who had boasted that his intervention ensured that US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice abstained from a key UN vote on the Gaza war. Tzipi Livni tried unsuccessfully to form a new coalition government. After Livni announced she could not form the new government, new parliamentary elections were set for 10 February 2009, and Olmert will remain in power, as the law dictates, until after the elections

Nicolas Sarkozy with Carla Bruni, "the socialist"

Bewildered supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right French president, are wondering what to do. Should they blame the global financial crisis or the influence of his glamorous wife, for what sounds like a lurch to the political left? “Sarko” displaying signs of an ideological rethink. He has attacked “fat cats” and the “dictatorship of the market”. He declared that “laissez-faire capitalism is over” and has called for a cap on executive pay and an end to “golden parachutes”. Sarkozy, the President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party contender Ségolène Royal ten days earlier. He met singer and former model Carla Bruni at a dinner party in November 2007 and soon entered a relationship with her. They married on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) centre-right party. Sarkozy was mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France from 1983 to 2002.

Barack H.Obama, President, USA

On January 20th, 2009, Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the USA- the first African-American ever to hold the office of U.S. Commander-in-Chief. He sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. Rev. Joseph Lowery gave the benediction during the inauguration of Barack Obama as the President. Obama has set up an executive office for healthcare reform at the White House on April 8, 2009 sayng the overhaul was one of the biggest priorities for the first year of his presidency. He issued an executive order that says the U.S. healthcare system "suffers from serious and pervasive problems." Studies suggest Americans get poorer care than people in other industrialized countries that have national healthcare plans, and 46 million Americans have no health insurance at all. The crushing cost of health care causes a bankruptcy every 30 seconds, and by the end of the year it could cause 1.5m Americans to lose their homes.Obama brought up the issue of lobbying and which presidential candidate would truly stand up to the special interests during his elction campaign. He mocked opponents suggesting that lobbyists “wont even get past the front gate”. He asked, “My question is – who is going to stop them?

Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire Italian Prime Minister with his Equal Opportunities Minister

Indeed behind a "great man" there's a great..... Mara Carfagna, former Miss Italy is the spokesperson for the government. Italian MP, Paolo Guzzanti`s daughter Sabina, otherwise a famous satirist and film director, compared Carfagna with Monica Lewinsky, mistress of former US president Bill Clinton. - You cannot name a woman Minister of Equal Opportunities because she pleasured you – Sabina reportedly told Berlusconi. Carfagna decided to sue Sabina and wants a million euros of compensation. Berlusconi expressed his admiration for her at a gala dinner last year, saying: “If I wasn’t already married, I’d have married her immediately.”The quip earned him a stinging rebuke from his wife, Veronica, who wrote an open letter to a newspaper demanding an apology. Berlusconi complied, then upon his return to power in April he appointed Carfagna as minister.

Ismail Haniya, Prime Minister, Palestinian National Authority

In a televised speech Haniya said, "The blood of [Palestinians] has not been shed in vain and Insha'Allah (God willing) it will bring us victory." Haniya also said that the "blood of children" who have been killed in the conflict would serve as a "curse which will come back to haunt (US President) Bush." Haniya is the 5th Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. He is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist paramilitary organization and political party which holds a majority of seats in the elected legislative council of the Palestinian National Authority. Hamas was created in 1987. On February 16, 2006, Hamas nominated Haniyeh for Palestinian Prime Minister, and was formally presented as such to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on February 20, 2006. In December 2005, Haniyeh was elected to head the Hamas list, which won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections the following month. Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, and the United States, and is banned in Jordan. Australia and the United Kingdom list only the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization. The United States and the European Union have both implemented restrictive measures against Hamas on an international level. Haniya became Prime Minister in a 2006 election, which was described as free and fair by independent monitors. Months later, however, the Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas sacked Haniya and appointed a premier from his Fatah party. Following the incident Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June 2007.

Bernard L. Madoff, a US Businessman

US Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Bernard L. Madoff and his investment firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, with securities fraud for a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme that he perpetrated on advisory clients of his firm. The SEC is seeking emergency relief for investors, including an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for the firm. SEC's complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that Madoff yesterday informed two senior employees that his investment advisory business was a fraud. Madoff told these employees that he was "finished," that he had "absolutely nothing," that "it's all just one big lie," and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme." The senior employees understood him to be saying that he had for years been paying returns to certain investors out of the principal received from other, different investors. Madoff admitted in this conversation that the firm was insolvent and had been for years, and that he estimated the losses from this fraud were at least $50 billion.

Ramalinga Raju, the founder & Chairman, Satyam Computers

Until January 7, 2009 when he resigned from the Satyam board after admitting to corporate fraud. Raju has allegedly admitted overstating its cash reserves by one billion US dollars. Allegations have been made that the company's assets were not inflated, but instead siphoned off by Ramalinga Raju. Ramalinga Raju is currently lodged in Hyderabad's Chanchalguda jail as Prisoner No. 213 on various criminal charges including fraud, forgery, cheating, embezzelment and insider trading to name just a few. It has been estimated that more than One Billion US Dollars worth of investor's wealth was illegally siphoned out of Satyam Computers into numerous private accounts by prime accused Raju and possibly a few others in what has become known as the single biggest corporate fraud in India'a history. Satyam was created by Ramalinga Raju and others and was until recently perceived to be amongst the top Indian IT vendors.

Velupillai Prabhakaran, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

While meaningful autonomy to Tamils is the only way out, Prabhakaran, chief of the LTTE operating from his base in the north-east of Sri Lanka for an independent Tamil homeland. said, "No sane voice is being raised either to abandon war or to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict" on 2 January, 2009. Prabhakaran has accused Sri Lankan forces under instruction from Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa of 'carrying out genocidal attacks on Tamils'. The fall of Kilinochchi to the Sri Lankan army is of great symbolic value because the town was the “capital” of LTTE. Earlier, in a response to the question "Do you still demand Tamil Eelam as a solution? Or do you accept an administrative framework with minimum powers?", he stated "The Tamil people have at every election since 1977, indicated what their political aspirations are. That would be the permanent solution for the ethnic crisis." The Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan establishment. The decades of bitter feelings generated by discriminatory laws (such as the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, the standardization policy of 1973 that restricted Tamil intake into universities, the biased language policies) require more than mere tokenism of the kind witnessed during provincial elections last year. In fact, the demerger of northern and eastern provincial councils is viewed by Tamils as part of the “divide and rule” tactics perfected in Colombo. Meanwhile, Interpol has issued a notice dated 5 Jan 2009 for arrest warrant by COLOMBO / Sri Lanka, MADRAS / India for categories of offences such as crimes against life and health, organized crime /transnational crime, terrorism and terrorism conspiracy. The Tamil Tigers are now surrounded in their last bastion of Mullaittivu with the Sri Lankan military saying that the troops have overrun the rebels' main military command centre deep in the jungles of the coastal district, according to a PTI report dated 22 January, 2009 and NDTV reports, “Prabhakaran may have escaped from his base’. LTTE chief also termed reports that India was providing military equipment and training to the Sri Lankan forces as 'saddening'. 'The media also reported to the world that Indian experts were involved in providing training to operate the radar instrument in Vavuniya, which is very saddening.' Besides India, LTTE even sent its cadres for training with Mossad in Israel, the details of which are available in the book By Way of Deception by Victory Ostrovsky and Claire Hoy, with the description of a hilarious situation when Ostrovsky faced the problem of preventing the LTTE cadres and Sri Lankan security personnel from coming face to face in an Israeli training camp where the opposing parties were being trained simultaneously. By the end of 1986, Prabhakaran was disillusioned with his Indian connection. He shifted to Jaffna by January 1987 notes J N Dixit, former India's high commissioner to Sri Lanka in his book Assignment Colombo. LTTE is believed to be behind the bomb blast of May 21, 1991 that killed Rajiv Gandhi.

Mahinda Rajapakse, President, Sri Lanka with the Indian PM

Rajapakse argues that following the closure by the LTTE of a reservoir supplying water to 15,000 people named "Mavil Aru" in government controlled areas on July 21, 2006, the Sri Lankan military launched an offensive against the LTTE, bringing the entire reservoir under government control. Further military engagements have led to the LTTE been driven out of the entire Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and lost 95% of the territory they controlled. Rajapakse is a lawyer by profession has previously served as the country's Prime Minister from April 6, 2004 until his swearing in as President for a six-year term on November 19, 2005. He is the current Chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Following the 17 November, 2005 presidential elections, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected President of Sri Lanka - winning 50.3% of the votes cast, although having only part support from his split party. The party is generally considered as having a centre-left or pro-socialist economic agenda and is often associated with hard-line Sinhala parties. The Visva Bharati University of Calcutta in India conferred on him the title Professor Emeritus for his record on human rights.During the Rajapaksa administration, press freedom in Sri Lanka became the "worst in any democratic country",according to the Reporters without borders index, ranking 165th among 173 countries in the index.

Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India

In March 2007, Bhagvatsinh Haubha Gohil, Sarpanch of Sosiya, Tehsil Talaja filed an application on behalf of 12 Sarpanchs and 30, 000 people who live within the distance of 1 to 25 Kms. from the ship breaking yard at Alang before Justice Balakrishnan bench who listed the matter for hearing before the Justice Pasayat and Justice Kapadia bench in the Blue Lady case but the same was not heard till date. These people largely depend on sea food that is under threat from ship-breaking. The ship in question contains large amount of asbestos that poses huge risk of exposure to the villagers. Their application is yet to be heard although final orders were passed on 11th September, 2007. Justice Balakrishnan took over as the Chief Justice in December, 2006.

Pascal Lamy, Fifth Director-General, WTO

Lamy is the Director-General, WTO since September 2005. Previously, he was the Trade Commissioner of the European Union in Brussels from 1999 to 2004. He is a member of the French Socialist Party. Lamy is also politically active in the Mouvement Europeen. Lamy states "the speed of globalisation impacts on social and economic fabrics in unprecedented ways" and describes free trade as "welfare efficiency creating". About the current crisis in the world financial markets, he opined that international finance is less regulated than the international goods trade, "a little more prudent regulation could have helped".

Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General, UN

"World’s poorest can bank on UN support," says. Ban Ki-moon. On 13 October 2006, he was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations General Assembly. On 1 January 2007, he succeeded Kofi Annan. was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated from college, accepting his first post in New Delhi. On 25 October 2008, UN and the World Bank signed an agreement to strengthen their commitment to work more closely together in countries struck by conflicts or natural disasters. Emphasising that the financial crisis has triggered the need for an international cooperation to tackle global issues, United Nations has asked the nuclear weapon States, including India, to take the advantage of the atmosphere to revitalise the world disarmament agenda. He has called on called on the N-weapon States to move towards total elimination of nuclear weapons. Advocating a five point proposal to achieve the aim, Ban urged the nuclear weapon States, including the five permanent members of the Security Council to keep their promise to launch negotiations to achieve total disarmament. Besides P5 the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and Israel is widely believed to have them.

Svetlana Bakhmina, former lawyer, Russia

Bakhmina is a middle-ranking legal executive for Yukos, the Russian oil company. She was arrested and tried on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement. She is currently imprisoned. On 26 September 2008 a Bakhmina's classmate sent an open letter to President Medvedev appealing for clemency and calling for an immediate release of Bakhmina who is currently in her seventh month of pregnancy. Bakhmina, now 39, has twice been denied early release. Russians have been especially moved by the plight of Bakhmina’s two children, now seven and 11, who do not know their mother is in jail and believe their father when he tells them she is away working. On October 8, 2008 a site was launched featuring an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev titled "Help Svetlana Bakhmina". As of November 1, 2008, the letter has been signed by 76,950 supporters. “Svetlana Bakhmina has already completed the greater part of her term,” said Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president, who backs the campaign. “She has two little boys, is pregnant and is due to give birth in December. Why hold her behind bars?” Last March Bakhmina saw her children for the first time in more than three years when she was allowed home for 10 days for good behaviour. That was when she became pregnant. A rival letter launched on October 19 calls for Bakhmina serving out her full sentence, and as of November 1, 2008 has 2,249 signatures. Yukos was a petroleum company in Russia which, until recently, was controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of prominent Russian businessmen. Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison. Yukos headquarters was located in Moscow. In August, 2006, a Russian court declared Yukos bankrupt. Yukos was one of the world's largest non-state oil companies, producing 20% of Russian oil—about 2% of world production. Its assets were acquired in controversial circumstances from the Russian Government during the privatization process of the early 1990s. The initial period of "oligarchic privatization" was characterized by bloodshed, and Yukos was certainly no exception. In April 2003, Yukos agreed to a merger with Sibneft, but the merger was soon undone in the aftermath of the arrest of Yukos CEO Khodorkovsky in October, 2003.

Susanne Klatten, an heiress to carmaker BMW's fortune

$Susanne Klatten, an heiress to carmaker BMW\$
Germany's Richest Woman Blackmailed by Gigolo. She was blackmailed for millions of euro by a Swiss lover, who threatening to release sex videos with her. Klatten had begun an affair with the Swiss man, identified as Helg Sgarbis, in 2006. The two met in luxury hotels in Monte Carlo and Munich, where Sgarbi's accomplice, Italian resident Ernano Barretta, apparently made the secret films of their intimate encounters. Klatten, who owns a 50 percent stake of chemical firm Altana and 12.5 per cent stake in BMW eventually paid Sgarbi EUR 7.5 million after he started to blackmail her a year after they first met. Sgarbis allegedly threatened to send the sex tapes to newspapers unless Klatten paid him 40 million more. She complained to the Munich authorities that she was a victim of fraud and blackmail.

Rahul Gandhi, MP & Amita Singh MLA from Amethi, UP

Rahul listens to 'Rani' Amita Singh, Amethi MLA during the foundation stone laying ceremony in Raipur Phulwari village in his Amethi constituency, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, July 15, 2008. Rahul is a supporter of privatization of education. As a member, Parliamentary committee on Human Resource Development, he has argued against government control of education. This 32-member committee is headed by senior Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi and includes Rahul Gandhi and Brinda Karat (CPI-M) as one of its members. After studying in St. Stephens College, New Delhi, Gandhi went to do his BA from Rollins College, Florida. He comleted his BA in 1994. Later, he went on to receive an M Phil in Development Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge University. He worked in London with the strategy consultancy firm Monitor Group, before returning to India in late 2002 to run an engineering and technology outsourcing firm in Mumbai. Amita Singh is the second wife of Sanjay Singh, former Union Minister who faces opposition from Garima Singh, his estranged first wife. Amita Singh is the former wife of late Syed Modi who was killed in 1988). Modi was a famous Indian badminton player like Prakash Padukone.

M.K. Narayanan, National Security Adviser, India

Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) met on 27 November at 7 Race Course Road with the intelligence agencies sharing their assessment on the attack and the possible perpetrators. The meeting was attended by RAW Chief Ashok Chaturvedi and IB Chief P C Haldar. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already cancelled his elections meetings. Narayanan spent a full day meeting on counterterror strategies with U.S. intelligence and security officials, including Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, on a trip to New York in September, 2008. Narayanan was formally designated as the National Security Adviser, the Prime Minister's Office announced on January 2005. Narayanan had been holding charge of the job since the death of J.N. Dixit on January 3, 2005. CCS includes the Defence Minister , the Home Minister, the Finance Minister, and the External Affairs Minister. Besides, the National Security Adviser, J.N. Dixit, will be an ex-officio member. The Army Chief often aids the CCS as do the chiefs of various intelligence agencies, as per the nature of urgency.

Lyonchen Jigmi Y. Thinley, Prime Minister, Bhutan

Thinley, is the first democratically elected prime minister of the Bhutan. India and Bhutan signed an updated version of the friendship treaty last year. The updated treaty allows Thimphu, which was earlier guided by New Delhi in its defence and foreign policies since 1949, greater freedom in running its foreign policy and non-lethal military purchases. Bhutan has emerged as a vital source of hydropower. The two countries are proactively collaborating in the hydropower power sector as New Delhi plans to assist in the setting up of more power plants in Bhutan. On November 6, Bhutan crowned a 28-year-old Oxford graduate as the Himalayan kingdom's new monarch in a ceremony attended by dignitaries including the President of India, Pratibha Patil, attended the coronation along with India's Congress Party president, Sonia Gandhi, and her children Rahul and Priyanka.

Hamid Karzai, President, Afghanistan

Barack Obama, the would be Forty-fourth President of the US says, “The most important thing we’re going to have to do with respect to Afghanistan is actually deal with Pakistan." Karzai became the President of Afghanistan, since December 7, 2004. He became a prominent political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001. The Loya Jirga of June 13, 2002, appointed Karzai Interim holder of the new position as President of the Afghan Transitional Administration. From December 2001, Hamid Karzai had been the Chairman of the Transitional Administration followed by the Interim President from 2002 until he won the 2004 Presidential election of Afghanistan. He won 21 of the 34 provinces, defeating his 22 opponents and became the first democratically elected leader of Afghanistan. He comes from a family that were strong supporters of the former king, Zahir Shah. He has six brothers and one sister. Karzai is well-versed in several languages, including Dari, Pashto, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, English and French. Karzai took a postgraduate course in political science at Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. He then returned to work as a fund-raiser by supporting anti-Soviet Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the Soviet intervention for the rest of the 1980s. After the fall of Najibullah's Soviet-backed government in 1992, he served as Deputy Foreign Minister in the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani. When the Taliban emerged in the 1990s, Karzai was at first one of their supporters but later he broke with them and refused to serve as their U.N. ambassador. His father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was assassinated, presumably by Taliban agents, on July 14, 1999, and Karzai swore revenge against the Taliban by working to help overthrow them. In 2001, Hamid Karzai worked closely with the Ahmad Shah Massoud to help gather support for the anti-Taliban movement. Karzai has also been criticized for protecting Pashtun drug lords and poppy farmers in southern Afghanistan, where his political base lies as well as for blocking poppy crop aerial eradication efforts. Karzai worked for Unocal, infamous Union Oil Company of California according to Le Monde, a French newspaper. He was preceded by Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Ma Ying-jeou, Republic of China ("Taiwan")

The Republic of China (ROC) was founded in 1911 governing the whole of China. As a consequence of the Chinese Civil War, however, the ROC has since 1949 lost control of mainland China to the Chinese Communists while still maintaining control of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other islands. Communist Party founded People's Republic of China (PRC) on mainland China claiming to be the sole government of China. Is Taiwan really part of China? It depends whom you ask. Those who say "yes" have political reality and a billion Chinese on their side. Those who say "no" have economic reality, a different view of history, and millions of Taiwanese voters on theirs. The People's Republic of China (PRC) certainly thinks Taiwan is part of China. Beijing has threatened to invade the island if it ever declares independence. As far as the PRC is concerned, Taiwan is a renegade Chinese province controlled by an illegitimate government.

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO, News Corp

News Corp. is a global force across the board - film, television, print, and even online. He acquired Dow Jones too. Fortune noted, it was the crowning achievement of a career that started in 1953 when he inherited control of two Australian newspapers. Murdoch expanded to Britain in the 1960s, the U.S. in the '70s, and Asia in the 1990s. In Britain he owns the biggest tabloid, the Sun, and in the U.S. the New York Post and his Fox News Network. He purchased the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch is on his sixth visit to India to step up his push into one of Asia's fastest growing economies. Murdoch's last arrival was three years back, at a time when the DTH licence was awaiting government clearance. He wishes to promote Star India. His Wall Street Journal has an arrangement with financial daily Mint, a joint venture with Hindustan Times.

Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)

Rai joined as CAG on January 7, 2008. Formerly, he was a Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. A 1972 batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, he was the MD of Kerala State Co-operative Marketing Federation from 1977 to 1980. Since 1980, he has held various positions in different Ministries. A 1972 batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, he was the MD of Kerala State Co-operative Marketing Federation from 1977 to 1980. Since 1980, he has held various positions in different Ministries. He took over from V.N. Kaul, who has joined the Audit Advisory Committee of the U.N.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Member of Parliament, Jodhpur, Rajasthan & Supreme Court lawyer

Singhvi is former Additional Solicitor General and is representing Ship Recycling Industries Association (SRIA), India seeking to ensure indiscriminate dumping and entry of contaminated ships in India. SRIA has illegally beached 30 foreign ships without pre-cleaning. Winner of "Money Can Buy You Law" award, Singhvi is the spokesperson of the Indian National Congress. He straddles the two worlds of law and politics. He also represents Dow Chemicals company in the Bhopal Gas Leak disaster case for which he got Mir Zafar award. Documents show the legal advice given by Singhvi saying that Dow could not be held responsible for the disaster and also not be held liable for any alleged contamination and consequent cleaning up of the Bhopal site. This advice forms part of the file in Prime Minister's Office.

Gopal Subramaniam, Additional Solicitor General, an opponent of Citizen's Right to Information

$Gopal Subramaniam, Additional Solicitor General, an opponent of Citizen\$
Banned in 45 countries, asbestos is safe in India. Compensation for asbetsos victims is not possible. Hazardous Waste Dumping in India is fine because asbestos waste in structure is not hazardous. He alongwith Mukul Rohatagi, former Additional Solicitor General argued that asbestos waste is banned in India but that applies to 'virgin' asbestos waste!! This position of the Environment Ministry was supported by Dr.H.N.Saiyyed, a member of Technical Experts Committeee. Subramaniam was compelled to partially admit the presence of radioactive material on Blue Lady.

Justice S H Kapadia

Blue Lady (SS Norway) beached Illegally in Alang but beaching is Irreversible so accept the fait accompli!! The bench in its order in the Blue Lady/Hazardous Waste case dated September 11, 2007 had this to say citing the order in the forest case: The concept of "balance" under the principle of proportionality applicable in the case of sustainable development is lucidly explained by Pasayat, J. in the judgment of this Court in the case of T.N. Godavarman Thirumalpad v. Union of India and Ors. reported in (2002) 10 SCC 606 vide para 35 which reads as under: "35. It cannot be disputed that no development is possible without some adverse effect on the ecology and environment, and the projects of public utility cannot be abandoned and it is necessary to adjust the interest of the people as well as the necessity to maintain the environment. A balance has to be struck between the two interests. Where the commercial venture or enterprise would bring in results which are far more useful for the people, difficulty of a small number of people has to be bypassed. The comparative hardships have to be balanced and the convenience and benefit to a larger section of the people has to get primacy over comparatively lesser hardship." The above paragraphs indicate that while applying the concept of "sustainable development" one has to keep in mind the "principle of proportionality" based on the concept of balance. It is an exercise in which we have to balance the priorities of development on one hand and environmental protection on the other hand.

Victims of 'Development' Fundamentalism

$Victims of \$
Sen's book Development as Freedom is mentioned by Justice Pasayat and Justice Kapadia in the Blue Lady case to invoke, "The concept of "balance" under the principle of proportionality" and argue that "...A balance has to be struck between the two interests. Where the commercial venture or enterprise would bring in results which are far more useful for the people, difficulty of a small number of people has to be bypassed. The comparative hardships have to be balanced and the convenience and benefit to a larger section of the people has to get primacy over comparatively lesser hardship". Some of the chapters of this book were delivered as lectures to World Bank staff at the behest of James Wolfensohn. The court orders reads, "This concept of balancing is given importance by Dr. Amartya Sen" in this book. This interpretation and citation of Sen does not appear to be relevant and correct. Sen describes five requirements that should ideally work together in order to bring true development. This freedom is “seen in an "instrumental" perspective. These include political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security. The indisputable fact is that ship-breaking workers of Alang and 30, 000 villagers have no secuirty from chemical exposure.

Colin Veitch, Owner of SS Oceanic & Blue Lady, Norwegian Cruise Liner of Star Cruise Ltd

Veitch is now towing the Asbestos & PCBs laden SS Oceanic in the same way as Blue Lady (SS Norway). In the case of Blue Lady he took it to Bremerhaven, Germany that was headed for Singapore to be reused as a floating hotel but ended up in Port Klang, Malaysia on October 14, 2005. In Malaysia, Veitch left Malaysia by informing them that the ship is going to Dubai for repairs. Instead, it reached Alang, India on humanitarian grounds after it was refused entry in Bangladesh. The departure of this dubious ship, SS Norway (now SS Blue Lady, SS France) on May 23, 2005, triggered a continuing criminal offense that persists to this day. This company is indicted of Environmental Crime by US Justice Department. He has unlawfully breached Basel Convention and, through dishonest subterfuges managed to get the Blue Lady (SS Norway) to Alang for dismantling amid rumours of paid-offs to high officials in India to allow its dismantling. But so far the ship remains caught up in legal wrangles. Colin Veitch is attempting to escape huge decontamination cost by dumping it in India. It is estimated that over 17 million Euro would be needed to decontaminate a portion of the asbestos but in Alang workers and villagers are going to be exposed because the ship has not been pre-cleaned. Attempts to dispose of the vessel in Bangladesh early 2006 failed. In the case of Oceanic, a similar track is being followed.

Ruby Kaur Dhalla, Canadian MP

Dhalla is a Canadian politician. She has represented the riding of Brampton—Springdale in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004 as a member of the Liberal Party. Dhalla and British Columbia Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Nina Grewal are the first Sikh women to serve in the Canadian House of Commons. A former movie star Dhalla is involved in a raging controversy for trying to block DVD sales of Bollywood-style movie, she co-starred in before becoming a lawmaker in 2004. Dhalla, 35, ire against her role in a low budget film is that the movie's publicity material, including posters and photos show her dressed in flimsy and revealing clothes. The lawmaker who represents Brampton-Springdale claims these were morphed--- putting her face on someone else's body, Toronto Sun quoted her as saying. "We've never seen a copy of the film," she said adding that "They are misrepresenting me they put my face on someone else's body in clothes I never wore." The 2003 Hindi film called 'Kyon Kis Liye' which was shot in in Hamilton is based on the local Sukhinder Dhillon murder case, in which the wife was poisoned by her husband to collect insurance money. In the film, Dhalla had been shown in some steamy scenes with the film's producer and co-star Charanjit Sihra. The film has already been shown in Toronto and India.

JIm Puckett, Guru of global toxic waste trade & its adverse environmental health impact

Founder of Basel Action Network (BAN) that is working for environmental justice globally. He is the most authoritative voice of sanity on the issue of gross immorality of free movement of hazardous waste from rich nations to poor nations. He says, the developed countries are throwing salt into the wounds of the developing countries by their past and current externalisation of pollution cost. At COP 9 of Basel Convention in Bali, he appealed to the countries to avert the chemical crisis that inflict huge health cost on the poor. He sought immediate ban on the ongoing toxic waste trade to save the poor from adverse health effect. To that end, he has attended all the 10 meetings of COP since 1989 and remains optimistic even now.

Dr Virendra Misra, Head, Ecotoxicology, Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC), Lucknow

Dealing with Blue Lady, as a member of Technical Experts Commitee (TEC) on Ship-breaking, Misra wrote, "Presence of radioactive materials should be ascertained well in advance. Though it is mentioned in the report (of Priya Blue Industries Ltd, Gujarat Maritime Board and Gujarat Pollution Control Board) that radioactive material is not available, in my opinion there is possibility of the presence of radioactive materials due to existence of liquid level indicators and smoke detectors on the ship." This was ignored by TEC's chairman, Prodipto Ghosh & then Union Environment Secretary. Misra is with ITRC, a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. Blue Lady still has radioactive material at 1088 places. Misra is Chief Editor, Journal of Ecophysiology and Occupational Health. This case exemplies how IAS officers of Environment Ministry pay no heed to scientific opinion in their megalomania.

Prodipto Ghosh, formerly head of Technical Experts Committee on Hazardous Wastes in Ship-breaking

Asbestos kills Europeans, Australians, Japanese but it is safe for Indians! He concluded that Blue Lady does not have radioactive material without inspection. Although he was Environment Secretary he was appointed by RK Vaish, the Basel Focal Point to Chair the Committee. Blue Lady report was submitted to the Supreme Court by Ghosh. In a classic case of conflict of interest he chaired the committee although the acts of his ministry's acts of ommission and commission are the subject matter of this Hazardous Wastes case. He was saddened by the recall of Le Clemenceau and Blue Lady's fate is his response to the French court & the European laws.

Narendra Modi, Chief Minister, Gujarat at the 52nd meeting of National Development Council

The Import Duty on Ships, which are coming here for ship-breaking, is levied @ 5%, which has affected the ship-breaking industry negatively. As per September 2006 guidelines of the Ministry of Environment, Government of India, instead of State Governments' clearance, prior permission from Government of India has introduced for Ship breaking. This is retrograde step for the process of industrialization. Port led development should be integrated with ship breaking, ship repairing and shipbuilding. It could be a major area of trade during the 11th Plan, which however, has not been mentioned in the Approach Paper. He made this statement on 9th December 2006. The saddest part is that he supports use of asbestos, a known carcinogen. Gujarat is the only state which have proven cases of asbestos victims. Gujarat High Court is seized with incurable & fatal asbestos disease compensation case. The compensation is a meagre amount of Rs 1 lakh as per a Supreme Court order. Evidence received through Right to Information shows how National Institute of Occupational Health that certifies the victims have joined hands with the asbestos industry.

Rajendrasinh Ghanshyamsinh, BJP MP, Bhavnagar, Gujarat

Not once did he raise the issue of ban on asbestos and safe ship breaking that can only be done after decontamination of the hazardous substance and a mandatory rule must be framed to compel the owners of the ship to clean their ships and ensure that tanks are gas free for hot work. With the prices of steel, the prime extract from the ship, varying on a day-to-day basis, ship breakers often flout norms to sell the scrap when prices go up. All the norms are ignored to the peril of Alang villagers, migrant Bhojpuri and Oriya workers and environment.

Arrested in Spain, PCB & asbestos eladen, 32 years old ship anchored in Alang on October 27, 2007

Arrested in Spain, this PCBs & asbestos eladen, 32 years old ship anchored in Alang on October 27, 2007. Ms Katharina Kummer Piery, UNEP official wrote to R K Vaish , Joint Secretary, Hazardous Substances Management Division, Ministry of Environment & Forests concerning the vessel on October 2, 2007 warning him about its possible entry in Indian waters. Her letter suggests that the vessel left Spanish territorial waters by informing the Spanish authorities it is going to Romania for refurbishment and instead it came to Alang. As per Basel Convention, such misrepresentation is part of illegal traffic. The letter suggests that the vessel left Spanish territorial waters by informing the Spanish authorities it is going to Romania for refurbishment and instead it came to Alang. As per Basel Convention, such misrepresentation is part of illegal traffic. The ship has not complied with the Court's orders of Septmber 6, 2007 order and 14th October, 2003 that endorsed the Basel Convention and deemed it as part of right to life. Ship breaking activity must operate under the clear mandate for the decontamination (pre-cleaning) of ships of their hazardous substances including asbestos, radioactive material, waste oils, gases and both solid and liquid PCB contaminated material and any other substances covered by the Basel Convention prior to imports for breaking. The ship's port of registry is Moroni, capital of Comoros that is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa. In a letter to Indian Department of Shipping, the Spanish Ministry de Fomento (Ministry of Public Work & Economy) has corroborated that the ship MV Al Arabia (formerly Aqaba Express, Beni Ansar) is in illegal traffic. The letter informing the Indian authorities that the ship left the Spanish port of Almeria on 31st August 2007 to go to Constanza Romania for reparation work was sent on 15 November 2007. As per Basel Convention, such fraudulent misrepresentation is part of illegal traffic.

'Global Constitutionalism' of Europe allows asbestos exposure of Alang workers

Lord Goldsmith, former Attorney General, UK. He stepped down alongwith Tony Blair. He talks of principle of proportionality and balance and is quoted in Blue Lady (SS Norway) order. Although the matter relates to violation of several International and European environmental laws, when approached to comment on the violation, he said, "it is clear to me that this is a matter for the Indian Courts and I do not believe it would be appropriate for me to offer any comment." European laws seem to have changed after Le Clemenceu verdict by French court even then the Indian court was seized with the matter. Germany and Europe allowed violation of Basel Convention and its laws by permitting illegal traffic of Star Cruise's ship. Thus, shipowners escape decontamination cost in Europe. This is waste colonialism.

Time Bombs

Valmiki's Ramayana, Mahabharata by Ved Vyas, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Plato's The Republic, The Quran, The Communist Manifesto & Das Kapital by Karl Marx, Franz Kafka' The Trial, Khalil Zibran's The Prophet, Don Quixote by Cervantes, Quotations from Chairman Mao, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, Freidrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth, Sigmund Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Scott Sandage's Born Losers, Jesus Never Existed by Kenneth Humphreys, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, The Indian War of Independence by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Documents of "Two Historical Trials", P C Joshi's Rebellion 1857

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

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Heads of world's two biggest greenhouse-gas polluting nations

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Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India

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Pakistan PM & President

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Justice Arijit Pasayat

Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Member of Parliament, Jodhpur, Rajasthan & Supreme Court lawyer

Sanjay Parikh, Lawyer, Supreme Court and and a civil rights activist

Gopal Subramaniam, Additional Solicitor General, an opponent of Citizen's Right to Information

Justice S H Kapadia

Victims of 'Development' Fundamentalism

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Colin Veitch, Owner of SS Oceanic & Blue Lady, Norwegian Cruise Liner of Star Cruise Ltd

Ruby Kaur Dhalla, Canadian MP

JIm Puckett, Guru of global toxic waste trade & its adverse environmental health impact

Dawood Ibrahim

Prof. M G K Menon wants Asbestos laden Blue Lady sent back to Malyasia or Germany

Meena Gupta, Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests

Prof. Menon, a renowned scientist and former Union Science & Technology Minister

Dr Virendra Misra, Head, Ecotoxicology, Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC), Lucknow

Prodipto Ghosh, formerly head of Technical Experts Committee on Hazardous Wastes in Ship-breaking

Narendra Modi, Chief Minister, Gujarat at the 52nd meeting of National Development Council

Basudev Acharya, Senior Parliamentarian

Rajendrasinh Ghanshyamsinh, BJP MP, Bhavnagar, Gujarat

Kalraj Mishra, Member, Parliamentary Commitee on Industry

Arrested in Spain, PCB & asbestos eladen, 32 years old ship anchored in Alang on October 27, 2007

'Global Constitutionalism' of Europe allows asbestos exposure of Alang workers

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