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Rupert Murdoch's News of the World phone-hacking whistle-blower, Sean Hoare, found dead
By Les Blough, Editor, Axis of Logic. News article (BBC)
Axis of Logic. BBC
Tuesday, Jul 19, 2011
In their report below, the BBC announces the sudden and "unexplained" death of Sean Hoare, a former News of the World reporter and before that a reporter at The Sun, who blew the British media and political establishment wide open. He left News of the world in 2005. In March, Mr. Hoare told theBBC that illegal phone hacking was "endemic" at News of the World, a British newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch that sold 2.7 million copies a week. In that report, the BBC led their program by depicting Mr. Hoare as a drug addict. Last week, the New York times reported that Mr. Hoare told them that News of the World paid police to use technology that could track people through their mobile phone signals.
Yesterday morning (Monday, July 18, 2011) Hertfordshire police discovered Mr. Hoare's body in the garden outside his home north of London. They said they went to his house because they had concerns for his welfare.
Sean Hoare's revelations have implicated everyone from low level members in media to names of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, British Parliamentarians and Britain's present and former prime ministers, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Tony Blair.
AP reported:
"The scandal has come uncomfortably close to Prime Minister David Cameron, who, like predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, courted the powerful Murdoch empire whose endorsement is considered capable of swinging elections."
The many who have been arrested include arrested have been: Rebekah Brooks, a Murdoch Aide and Chief Executive of his News International: Andy Coulson, Editor of News of the World; and former royal editor Clive Goodman. Rebekah Brooks is/was a close personal friend of Brown, Cameron and Blair. Coulson is central to these crimes in which he links the scandal to Prime Minister David Cameron for whom he worked as communications chief.In the week past, Britain's Top Cop, Sir Paul Stephenson and Assistant Police Commissioner, John Yates were forced to resign due to corruption and their links to Murdoch's media empire.
"Mushrooming allegations of immoral and criminal behavior at the paper — including bribing police officers for information, hacking into the voice mail of murdered schoolgirls' families and targeting the phones of the relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and the victims of the London transit attacks. Police say they are examining 4,000 names of people who may have been targeted by the tabloid, which sells about 2.7 million copies a week."
Think there is enough motivation in all this for people burned by the whistleblower to kill him - either for revenge or to eliminate him as a witness? Well, the BBC reassures us otherwise by stating not once - but twice that Sean Hoare's death was "unexpected" but "not thought to be suspicious."
"A police spokesman said the death was currently being treated as unexplained, but was not thought to be suspicious."
With Britain's top police officials resigning over this, why are we now expected to believe their 'spokesman?'
In another report, Associated Press is quick to nail Sean Hoare's coffin lid down with an assassination of his character accusing the dead man of being,
"the kind of reporter who could knock back several whiskeys and a few lines of cocaine before filing salacious stories of celebrity misbehavior ... ahard partier who got high and drunk with the celebrities ... of starting the day with a " 'rock star's breakfast' — a line of cocaine and a Jack Daniel's ... of heavy drinking and drug-taking [which] became problematic ... angry that he was being treated like a suspect rather than a witness [and of] struggling with addiction."
In the end of their salacious story, AP tried to cover their character assassination by throwing in a tidbit of redemption Sean Hoare by quoting David Yelland, former editor of The Sun in a mixed message:
"Sean Hoare was trying to be honest, struggling with addiction. But he was a good man. My God." On a BBC program broadcast Monday night, Hoare said phone hacking was "endemic" in his former newspaper.
Of course Sean is no longer here to defend himself.
The corporate media and their imperial bosses are scrambling to distance themselves of the same practices employed by News of the World. They are hard pressed to bury this story as quickly and simply as Sean Hoare has been buried. Some think they will be successful. Others think this story has gone far to deep and wide and that more revelations and arrests among heads of media and government will continue to blow up in their faces.
- Les Blough, Editor
NoW phone-hacking whistle-blower Sean Hoare found dead
BBC
July 19, 2011
A former News of the World journalist who made phone-hacking allegations against the paper has been found dead at his home in Watford.
Mr Hoare had told the New York Times hacking was far more extensive than the paper acknowledged when police first investigated hacking claims.
Sean Hoare also told the BBC's Panorama phone hacking was "endemic" at the NoW.
A police spokesman said the death was currently being treated as unexplained, but was not thought to be suspicious.
Meanwhile computer hackers have tampered with the website of The Sun, which is also owned by News International.
Readers were briefly directed to a hoax story which said Rupert Murdoch has been found dead in his garden.
A group of hackers called Lulz Security, which has previously targeted games companies and US government websites, claimed responsibility via Twitter.
Visitors to the Sun website were redirected to the group's Twitter page.
News International said it was "aware" of what was happening but made no further comment.
Earlier Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates resigned after growing pressure amid the phone-hacking scandal.
It has also emerged that a former senior News of the World (NoW) journalist carried out work for Scotland Yard dealing with witnesses and suspects while employed by the paper.
Alex Marunchak was employed by the Met as a Ukrainian language interpreter and was on Scotland Yard's list of interpreters between 1980 and 2000.
According to the BBC's Panorama, the former NoW Irish edition editor obtained e-mails hacked into by a private detective in 2006. Mr Marunchak denied receiving "any unlawfully obtained material".
In a statement, the Met said it would look into the matter, saying: "We recognise that this may cause concern and that some professions may be incompatible with the role of an interpreter."
Hertfordshire Police said Mr Hoare's body was discovered after police were called to his home in Langley Road, Watford at 1040 BST on Monday.
They said: "The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."
When he first spoke out, Mr Hoare told Panorama the then NoW editor Andy Coulson had asked him to hack phones - something Mr Coulson has denied.
Suspension move
Earlier, Met Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates resigned after he was informed he would be suspended pending an inquiry into his links with a former NoW journalist.
Mr Yates had checked the credentials of the paper's former deputy editor Neil Wallis before he too was employed by the Met.
Mr Wallis was arrested and released on bail on Thursday on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications.
Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, the most senior policeman in Britain, resigned on Sunday after also facing criticism for the force's recruitment of Mr Wallis as a PR consultant.
A former News of the World journalist who made phone-hacking allegations against the paper has been found dead at his home in Watford.
Mr Hoare had told the New York Times hacking was far more extensive than the paper acknowledged when police first investigated hacking claims.
Sean Hoare also told the BBC's Panorama phone hacking was "endemic" at the NoW.
A police spokesman said the death was currently being treated as unexplained, but was not thought to be suspicious.
Meanwhile computer hackers have tampered with the website of The Sun, which is also owned by News International.
Readers were briefly directed to a hoax story which said Rupert Murdoch has been found dead in his garden.
A group of hackers called Lulz Security, which has previously targeted games companies and US government websites, claimed responsibility via Twitter.
Visitors to the Sun website were redirected to the group's Twitter page.
News International said it was "aware" of what was happening but made no further comment.
Earlier Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates resigned after growing pressure amid the phone-hacking scandal.
It has also emerged that a former senior News of the World (NoW) journalist carried out work for Scotland Yard dealing with witnesses and suspects while employed by the paper.
Alex Marunchak was employed by the Met as a Ukrainian language interpreter and was on Scotland Yard's list of interpreters between 1980 and 2000.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said Deputy Commissioner Tim Godwin would be in charge at Scotland Yard until Sir Paul's replacement was appointed. Mr Yates will be replaced in the interim as the Met's head of counter-terrorism by Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick.
Mr Johnson said it was right for both Sir Paul and Mr Yates to stand down. Mr Yates said his conscience was clear and had "deep regret" over his resignation.
Job probe
The IPCC said four referrals relating to the police's phone-hacking investigation involved Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, who resigned on Sunday, and Mr Yates, as well as two other former senior officers.
The BBC understands the other two officers are former Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman and former Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke.
A fifth referral relates to the alleged involvement of Mr Yates in inappropriately securing a job at the Met for the daughter of a friend.
The BBC understands the woman to be Amy Wallis, daughter of Mr Wallis, and she works in a civilian non-operational role.
In the Commons, Home Secretary Theresa May announced Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary would look into corruption in the police, and an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation on the same issue would be part of the judge-led inquiry into the hacking scandal.
Latin America
Other World News
Murdoch Meltdown: News Corp Imploding; Raising Questions about Corporate Personhood
By Rob Kall
OpEd News
Saturday, Jul 16, 2011
The recent developments unfolding at News Corp challenge the idea of corporate personhood and whether justice can really be served when corporations are given the privileges of personhood. There are also the aspects of accountability that come with being considered a person.
The events at News Corp Are raising some very thorny questions. Two of the top people at News Corp have resigned. The NY Times reports,
Les Hinton, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal since 2007, who oversaw Mr. Murdoch's British newspaper subsidiary when voice mail hacking by journalists was rampant, and Rebekah Brooks, who has run the British papers since 2009 and become the target of unrelenting public outrage, both resigned in the latest blow to the News Corporation and its besieged chairman.
Many former staffers of News Corp have been arrested in England. The FBI has begun an investigation into whether News Corp staffers hacked or tapped the phones of 911 victims.
There are major questions in England about whether News Corp staffers bribed police and other officials. This is a federal crime-- if a US citizen or his representatives engages in bribery in another country.
That raises some interesting questions based on the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United decision.
If a corporation is rife with corruption. If numerous top officials in the company are suspected of participation in criminal activity, can the company be charged with crimes. If so, can it be tried and convicted. If so, and it is found guilty, can punishments set for individuals be applied to the company?
If the sentence for a human would be death or incarceration, would that mean shutting down or stopping the company from doing any of its usual business for the duration of the sentence? Of course, preventing a company from doing any business would be like a death penalty.
That raises the question of whether it is possible to treat a company like a person in terms of justice. We know that companies can pursue to positive rights of personhood, but if they can not be held accountable when it comes to crimes, perhaps the supreme court should be required to take a look at its past decisions on the rights of corporate personhood. Perhaps it is time that corporations lose those rights... or that the state of personhood for corporations also include the liabilities, particularly those of facing punishment.
If there was ever a criminal corporation, then News Corp appears to be one, and we might throw in Haliburton and KBR and Monsanto as well. It is time for America to re-assess corporate personhood.
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc. He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com
Finding Clarity
Latin America
Multi-Billion-Dollar Terrorists and the Disappearing Middle Class
AGM-114 Hellfire missile hung on the rail of an US Air Force (USAF) MQ-1L Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
Dec. 1, 2010 - An AGM-114 Hellfire missile hung on the rail of an US Air Force (USAF) MQ-1L Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is inscribed with, "In Memory of Honorable Ronald Reagan." Every single Hellfire missile fired in Afghanistan costs $58,000.00. U.S. and allied forces are dropping huge numbers of these bombs in Afghanistan this year: So far this year, coalition aircraft have used 4,615 bombs and Hellfire missiles, already exceeding the 4,184 dropped in all of last year.
By James Petras. Axis of Logic
Axis of Logic
Sunday, Jul 10, 2011
The US government (White House and Congress) spends $10 billion dollars a month, or $120 billion a year, to fight an estimated “50 -75 ‘Al Qaeda types’ in Afghanistan”, according to the CIA and quoted in the Financial Times of London (6/25 -26/11, p. 5). During the past 30 months of the Obama presidency, Washington has spent $300 billion dollars in Afghanistan, which adds up to $4 billion dollars for each alleged ‘Al Queda type’. If we multiply this by the two dozen or so sites and countries where the White House claims ‘Al Qaeda’ terrorists have been spotted, we begin to understand why the US budget deficit has grown astronomically to over $1.6 trillion for the current fiscal year.
During Obama’s Presidency, Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment has been frozen, resulting in a net decrease of over 8 percent, which is exactly the amount spent chasing just 5 dozen ‘Al Qaeda terrorists’ in the mountains bordering Pakistan.
It is absurd to believe that the Pentagon and White House would spend $10 billion a month just to hunt down a handful of terrorists ensconced in the mountains of Afghanistan. So what is the war in Afghanistan about? The answer one most frequently reads and hears is that the war is really against the Taliban, a mass-based Islamic nationalist guerrilla movement with tens of thousands of activists.
The Taliban, however, have never engaged in any terrorist act against the territorial United States or its overseas presence. The Taliban have always maintained their fight was for the expulsion of foreign forces occupying Afghanistan. Hence the Taliban is not part of any “international terrorist network”. If the US war in Afghanistan is not about defeating terrorism, then why the massive expenditure of funds and manpower for over a decade?
Several hypotheses come to mind
The first is the geopolitics of Afghanistan: The US is actively establishing forward military bases, surrounding and bordering on China.
Secondly, US bases in Afghanistan serve as launching pads to foment “dissident separatist” armed ethnic conflicts and apply the tactics of ‘divide and conquer’ against Iran, China, Russia and Central Asian republics.
Thirdly, Washington’s launch of the Afghan war (2001) and the easy initial conquest encouraged the Pentagon to believe that a low cost, easy military victory was at hand, one that could enhance the image of the US as an invincible power, capable of imposing its rule anywhere in the world, unlike the disastrous experience of the USSR.
Fourthly, the early success of the Afghan war was seen as a prelude to the launching of a sequence of successful wars, first against Iraq and to be followed by Iran, Syria and beyond. These would serve the triple purpose of enhancing Israeli regional power, controlling strategic oil resources and enlarging the arc of US military bases from South and Central Asia, through the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.
The strategic policies, formulated by the militarists and Zionists in the Bush and Obama Administrations, assumed that guns, money, force and bribes could build stable satellite states firmly within the orbit of the post-Soviet US empire. Afghanistan was seen as an easy first conquest the initial step to sequential wars. Each victory, it was assumed would undermine domestic and allied (European) opposition. The initial costs of imperial war, the Neo-Cons claimed, would be paid for by wealth extracted from the conquered countries, especially from the oil producing regions.
The rapid US defeat of the Taliban government confirmed the belief of the military strategists that “backward”, lightly armed Islamic peoples were no match up for the US powerhouse and its astute leaders.
Wrong Assumptions, Mistaken Strategies: The Trillion Dollar Disaster
Every assumption, formulated by these civilian strategists and their military counterparts, has been proven wrong. Al Qaeda was and is a marginal adversary; the real force capable of sustaining a prolonged peoples wars against an imperial occupier, inflicting heavy casualties, undermining any local puppet regime and accumulating mass support is the Taliban and related nationalist resistance movements. Israeli-influenced US think-tanks, experts and advisers who portrayed the Islamic adversaries as inept, ineffective and cowardly, totally misread the Afghan resistance. Blinded by ideological antipathy, these high-ranking advisers and White House/Pentagon civilian-office holders failed to recognize the tactical and strategic, political and military acumen of the top and middle-level Islamist nationalist leaders and their tremendous reserve of mass support in neighboring Pakistan and beyond.
The Obama White House, heavily dependent on Islamophobic pro-Israel experts, further isolated the US troops and alienated the Afghan population by tripling the number of troops, further establishing the credentials of the Taliban as the authentic alternative to a foreign occupation.
As for the neo-conservative pipe dreams of successful sequential wars, cooked up by the likes of Paul Wolfowitz, Feith, Abrams, Libby et al, to eliminate Israel’s adversaries and turn the Persian Gulf into a Hebrew lake, the prolonged wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan has, in fact, strengthened Iran’s regional influence, turned the entire Pakistani people against the US and strengthened mass movements against US clients throughout the Middle East.
Sequential imperial defeats have resulted in a massive hemorrhage of the US treasury, rather than the promised flood of oil wealth from tributary clients. According to a recent scholarly study, the military cost of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have exceeded $3.2 trillion dollars (“The Costs of War Since 2001”, Eisenhower Study Group, June 2011) and is growing at over ten billion a month. Meanwhile the Taliban “tightens (its) psychological grip” on Afghanistan (FT 6/30/2011, p. 8). According to the latest reports even the most guarded 5-star hotel in the center of Kabul, the Intercontinental, was vulnerable to a sustained assault and take over by militants, because “high security Afghan forces” are infiltrated and the Taliban operate everywhere, having established “shadow” governments in most cities, towns and villages (FT 6/30/11 p.8).
Imperial Decline, Empty Treasury and the Specter of a Smash-Up
The crumbling empire has depleted the US treasury. As the Congress and White House fight over raising the debt ceiling, the cost of war aggressively erodes any possibility of maintaining stable living standards for the American middle and working classes and heightens growing inequalities between the top 1% and the rest of the American people. Imperial wars are based on the pillage of the US treasury. The imperial state has, via extraordinary tax exemptions, concentrated wealth in the hands of the super-rich while the middle and working classes have been pushed downward, as only low paid jobs are available. In 1974, the top 1% of US individuals accounted for 8% of total national income but as of 2008 they earned 18% of national income. And most of this 18% is concentrated in the hands of a tiny super-rich 1% of that 1%, or 0.01% of the American population, (FT 6/28/11, p. 4 and 6/30/11, p. 6). While the super-rich plunder the treasury and intensify the exploitation of labor, the number of middle income jobs is plunging: From 1993 to 2006, over 7% of middle income jobs disappeared (FT 6/30/11, p. 4).
While inequalities may be rising throughout the world, the US now has the greatest inequalities among all the leading capitalist countries. The burden of sustaining a declining empire, with its the monstrous growth in military spending, has fallen disproportionately on middle and working class taxpayers and wage earners. The military and financial elites’ pillage of the economy and treasury has set in motion a steep decline in living standards, income and job opportunities. Between 1970 -2009, while gross domestic product more than doubled, US median pay stagnated in real terms (FT7/28/11, p. 4). If we factor in the added fixed costs of pensions, health and education, real income for wage and salaried workers, especially since the 1990’s, has been declining sharply.
Even greater blows are to come in the second half 2011: As the Obama White House expands its imperial interventions in Pakistan, Libya and Yemen, increasing military and police-state spending, Obama is set to reach budgetary agreements with the far right Republicans, which will savage government health care programs, like MEDICARE and MEDICAID, as well as Social Security, the national retirement program. Prolonged wars have pushed the budget to the breaking point, while the deficit undermines any capacity to revive the economy as it heads toward a ‘repeat recession’.
The entire political establishment is bizarrely oblivious to the fact that their multi-hundred- billion-dollar pursuit of an estimated 50-75 phantom Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan has hastened the disappearance of middle income jobs in the US.
The entire political spectrum has turned decisively to the Right and the Far-Right. The debate between Democrats and Republicans is over whether to slash four trillion or more from the last remnants of our country’s social programs.
The Democrats and the Far-Right are united as they pursue multiple wars while currying favor and funds from upper 0.01% super-rich, financial and real estate moguls whose wealth has grown so dramatically during the crisis!
Conclusion
But there is a deep and quiet discomfort within the leading circles of the Obama regime: The “best and brightest” among his top officials are scampering to jump ship before the coming deluge: the Economic Guru Larry Summers, Rahm Emmanuel, Stuart Levey, Peter Orzag, Bob Gates, Tim Geithner and others, responsible for the disastrous wars, economic catastrophes, the gross concentration of wealth and the savaging of our living standards, have walked out or have announced their ‘retirement’, leaving it to the smiling con-men - President Obama and Vice-President ‘Joe’ Biden - and their ‘last and clueless loyalists’ to take the blame when the economy tanks and our social programs are wiped out. How else can we explain their less-than-courageous departures (to ‘spend more time with the family’) in the face of such a deepening crisis? The hasty retreat of these top officials is motivated by their desire to avoid political responsibility and to escape history’s indictment for their role in the impending economic debacle. They are eager to hide from a future judgment over which policy makers and leaders and what policies led to the destruction of the American middle and working classes with their good jobs, stable pensions, Social Security, decent health care and respected place in the world.
James Petras' New Book:
FROM THE PREFACE: The popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have overthrown the public face of the imperial-backed dictatorships in the region, and inspired supporters of popular democracy worldwide.
Clarity Press 05.03.2011
As the Arab revolt spreads from North Africa to the Gulf and deepens its demands to include socio-economic as well as political demands, the Empire is striking back. The ruling military junta in Egypt has cracked down on the prodemocracy movement and looks to its autocratic “partners” in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula to drown the civil society movements in a blood bath.
While standing by the crumbling dictatorships elsewhere in the region, the United States, France and the United Kingdom raced to intervene when it seemed the revolt had spread to Libya. NATO was deployed, using the UN’s new “responsibility to protect” doctrine authorizing humanitarian intervention. Already NATO intervention has exceeded the UN mandate by bombing the Libyan capital and inflicting civilian casualties. Meanwhile, western governments openly pursue regime change in Libya while seeking to forestall it elsewhere.
These essays chronicle the growing militarization of US policy in North Africa and the Gulf and the historic confrontation between the Arab democratic revolution and the imperial backed satraps; between Libyans fighting for their independence and the Euro-American naval and air forces ravaging the country on behalf of their inept local clients.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO ORDER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Washington Faces the Arab Revolts:
Sacrificing Dictators to Save the State
Egypt’s Social Movements, The CIA and Mossad
Roots of the Arab Revolts and Premature Celebrations
The Euro-US War on Libya
Official Lies and Misconceptions of Critics
Libya and Obama’s Defense of the ‘Rebel Uprising’
Contextualizing the ‘Arab Spring’:
Networks of Empire and Realignments of World Power
APPENDIX:
Indicators of Social Well Being in Pre-invasion Libya
AUTHOR
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, Temps Moderne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet. His publishers have included Random House, John Wiley, Westview, Routledge, Macmillan, Verso, Zed Books and Pluto Books. He is winner of the Life Time Career Award, Marxist Section, of the American Sociology Association, the Robert Kenny Award for Best Book, 2002, and the Best Dissertation, Western Political Science Association in 1968.
Some recent titles include Unmasking Globalization: Imperialism of the Twenty-First Century (2001); co-author The Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America (2000), Unmasking Globalisation (2001), System in Crisis (2003), co-author Social Movements and State Power (2003), co-authorEmpire With Imperialism (2005), co-author) Multinationals on Trial (2006). His most recent titles are The Power of Israel in the United States and Rulers and Ruled in the United States, (acquired for Japanese, German, Italian, Indonesian, Czech and Arabic editions), Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power, Global Depression & Regional Wars, and War Crimes in Gaza and the Zionist Fifth Column in America. He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo. He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.
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By Scott Thill
AlterNet
Monday, Jul 4, 2011
Early last month, pharmaceutical titan Merck became the latest multinational to pledge allegiance to the CEO Water Mandate, the United Nations' public-private initiative "designed to assist companies in the development, implementation and disclosure of water sustainability policies and practices."
But there's darker data beneath that sunny marketing: The CEO Water Mandate has been heavily hammered by the Sierra Club, the Polaris Institute and more for exerting undemocratic corporate control over water resources (PDF) under the banner of the United Nations. It even won a Public Eye Award for flagrant greenwashing from the Swiss non-governmental organization Berne Declaration. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
"There is no admission of problems with the Water Mandate, or the United Nations Global Compact itself" -- the strategic policy initiative committed to human rights, labor and the environment -- Blue Gold and Blue Covenant author and activist Maude Barlow, who also chairs the National Council of Canadians and Food & Water Watch, explained to AlterNet. "These initiatives continue to flourish, not least because the most powerful member states of the United Nations are fully behind them. This also means that the United Nations is not funded fully. Programs and agencies often rely on private sponsorship to function, and are often barely getting their core administrative budgets funded."
Another major problem is that routinely compromised and controversial institutions like World Bank, International Monetary Fund and regional development banks in general are in control of the United Nations' biggest projects. In April, the World Bank assumed control of the United Nations Climate Conference's new $100 billion Green Fund, which is the opposite of a comforting proposition, considering the World Bank's repeatedly noxious financing of oil and coal projects.
"That gives control of billions of dollars to those who have been the most ardent promoters of water privatization," added Barlow, whose foreword for the Council of Canadians' recently damning report on private sector influence over the United Nations (PDF) argued that the planet is on the verge of a water crisis of terrifying proportions. "We're also seeing the IMF forcing indebted nations to sell off public assets, including water systems, as a condition of receiving financial support. The whole system is rigged for these corporations, and they still are losing contracts, not meeting their obligations and watching as remunicipalization moves forward in France and other core markets."
That kind of illogical corporate performance would logically lead to less control, not more. But the United Nations continues to hand over the reins to multinationals like its new cosigner Merck, which has repeatedly settled in court over everything from carcinogenic pollution to deceptive marketing. Despite the fact that the United Nations' own Joint Inspection Unit stated in a 2010 report (PDF) that the Global Compact's corporate partnerships were an unregulated mess.
"The lack of a clear and articulated mandate has resulted in blurred focus and impact," the report stated. "The absence of adequate entry criteria and an effective monitoring system to measure actual implementation of the principles by participants has drawn some criticism and reputational risk for the Organization, and the Office’s special set up has countered existing rules and procedures. Ten years after its creation, despite the intense activity carried out by the Office and the increasing resources received, results are mixed and risks unmitigated."
The report suggested that not only was a clearer mandate from Member States required to "rethink and refocus" the Compact's corporate partnerships, but that the United Nations' General Assembly must better direct the Secretary-General to delineate the Compact's overall functions "in order to prevent a situation whereby any external group or actor(s) may divert attention from the strategic goals agreed to promote interests which may damage the reputation of the United Nations." The short version? It's not working, and won't work in its current form for the foreseeable future.
But the United Nations' own advice to itself has evidently fallen mostly on deaf ears.
"Unfortunately, the United Nations appears to be embracing more and more partnerships with the corporate sector across the board," Corporate Accountability International campaign director Gigi Kellett told AlterNet. "Civil society has been raising concerns about this flawed approach for over 10 years. There are strong voices within the United Nations, including some Member states, who are questioning the partnership paradigm adopted by the UN and calling for more transparency and accountability."
But they are voices in the wilderness without the concerted support of a motivated public, as well as the usual civil society champions who make stopping this strain of corporate abuse their life's work. Power truly respects only one thing, and that is equally exercised power. And the public is fully empowered to make all the change it wants, provided it can unplug itself from distracting sex scandals and mainstream media marketing primarily designed to nurture its collective complacency.
"Corporations rely on people's tacit support and willingness to look the other way when they engage in conduct that harms people or the environment and undermines democratic governance and decision-making," Kellett said. "When people come together in coordinated fashion and withhold their support from a corporation, that relationship is turned on its head. Boycotts are one powerful way that individuals can withhold their support, but there are range of other strategies. When activists come together and raise questions about a corporation's actions and tie them to its brand and image, the resulting media exposure can greatly impact how the corporation is perceived by consumers, investors or even government regulators."
But how do you boycott a multinational that controls your water supply? Can you shame a mammoth corporation into abdicating control over a lucrative commodity that should instead be regarded as a universal human right? Talk about your Sisyphean tasks.
"Boycotts are much more difficult with water than a product like Coke," said Barlow. "There are no substitutes for water, and when these corporations are given monopoly power over water systems, boycotts are very unrealistic. Suez, Veolia and others are very concerned about their corporate image, but there is no effective means to hurt them financially except to end or block the contracts before they are signed. Boycotts have been very effective as public awareness campaigns, but citizens need to apply pressure on their governments as the first step in stopping the proliferation of voluntary initiatives."
Demanding regulation of the private sector's products -- from water and natural resource commodification to inscrutable financial instruments and beyond -- as well as the public's political electives appears to be the paramount first principle. Because the problem is getting worse and going nowhere, especially now that our dystopian climate crisis has permanently disrupted business, and existence, as usual. From escalating warming and extreme weather to destabilized nations and environments, Earth is already precariously balanced on the tipping point. And giving profit-minded corporations voluntary control over their power and procedures is a 20th century anachronism best left behind.
"We have not proven to have what it takes to deal with the climate crisis," argued Barlow, "and this is because it is all seen as a giant political and financial game, rather than the best and only chance to head off a catastrophe like we have never before imagined. Climate change is upon us, but we will never admit it fully, nor invest in stopping it, if our governments continue to represent corporate interests above others. It is up to us to challenge our states, and make sure they know we are engaged and aware."
Scott Thill runs the online mag Morphizm.com. His writing has appeared on Salon, XLR8R, All Music Guide, Wired and others.
Someone's coming to get me': Terrified phone-hacking whistleblower
feared for his life before he was found dead
Sean Hoare found dead at his flat in Watford, Herts
Ex NotW reporter's claims last autumn reignited scandal
Mr Hoare claimed Coulson's denials of phone hacking were 'a lie'
Police probing former showbiz reporter's 'suicide'
Friends suggest he may have died of natural causes
Post mortem being carried out this morning
By Sam Greenhill, Tom Kelly and James Chapman
Last updated at 12:54 PM on 19th July 2011
Mr Hoare in the sitting room of his home. A friend and neighbour
claimed Mr Hoare had become increasingly reclusive and paranoid in
recent weeks
Evidence: The death of Mr Hoare is currently being treated as
unexplained, said authorities
Guarded: Two police officers stand outside Mr Hoare's flat
"Last year Mr Hoare (right) claimed that Andy Coulson was aware of
phone hacking while he was editor at the News of the World.
He gave an interview to the New York Times, and then to the BBC, about
the use of phone hacking at the newspaper.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's PM programme, he said phone hacking was
'endemic' in the newspaper industry.
Mr Hoare, who worked on the Sun before being recruited by Mr Coulson
to work on the NOTW, said: 'He was well aware that the practice
exists. To deny it is a lie, simply a lie.'
Mr Coulson denies the allegations.
Later, Mr Hoare was interviewed by police over the allegations he had
made but would offer no comment, Director of Public Prosecutions Keir
Starmer said in December."
Tragic: Police are investigating the death of Mr Hoare after his body
was found at his Hertfordshire home
Investigation: Forensic officers and a policeman at the flat of Mr Hoare
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2016132/Sean- Hoare-News-World-phone- hacking-whistleblower-dead. html#ixzz1SYTMFKfu
Allegations: Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was aware
phone hacking took place at the paper, Mr Hoare claimed last year
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2016132/Sean- Hoare-News-World-phone- hacking-whistleblower-dead. html#ixzz1SYSsSk5x
The man who launched the entire phone hacking scandal had become a
paranoid recluse who believed someone was out to get him, a friend has
revealed.
Sean Hoare, who was found dead at his flat in Watford, Hertfordshire,
yesterday, had spent much of the last weeks of his life 'hiding' in
his flat with the curtains drawn.
Last night a friend and neighbour claimed Mr Hoare, 47, had become
increasingly reclusive and paranoid in recent weeks.
‘He would talk about someone from the Government coming to get him,' he said.
'He’d say to me, “If anyone comes by, don’t say I’m in”.
'He was physically going downhill. He was yellow in colour and wasn’t
looking well for the last month.
‘He had a constant struggle with alcohol and talked to me about how
much he had put his wife through.
‘He did say something about phone hacking and I think that was his
main worry. He had definite concerns with the media. He did mention he
was paranoid and would mention conspiracy stuff.’
Former News of the World journalist Mr Hoare had accused former Tory
media chief Andy Coulson of lying about his role in the affair.
He said that when editor of the paper, Mr Coulson actively encouraged
his staff to intercept the calls of celebrities.
It was his explosive claims last autumn that reignited the scandal and
ultimately led to the tumultuous events of the past fortnight which
have shaken the political, police and media establishments.
Police were investigating the possibility that he had killed himself,
saying his death was ‘not thought to be suspicious’.
His death came on a day when:
The Metropolitan Police was left in turmoil as counter-terrorism
officer John Yates was forced to follow Commissioner Sir Paul
Stephenson and resign;
Mr Yates faced investigation over claims that he secured a
Scotland Yard job for the daughter of hacking suspect Neil Wallis;
David Cameron cut short a trip to Africa and said he will fly back
to Britain today after agreeing to delay Parliament’s summer break to
discuss the affair;
London Mayor Boris Johnson infuriated Number Ten by refusing to
say whether the PM should quit over his hiring of Mr Coulson;
Police recovered a bag containing a computer, phone and paperwork
found in a bin near Rebekah Brooks’s London home.
The body of Mr Hoare, 47, was discovered by police yesterday morning
at his modern first-floor flat in Watford.
The former reporter blew the whistle during an investigation by the
New York Times last September, pointing the finger directly at Mr
Coulson, by then the Prime Minister’s communications chief.
Until Mr Hoare spoke out in September, pressure had eased on Mr
Coulson, recruited by David Cameron as his media chief in 2007 after
resigning as editor of the News of the World when royal reporter Clive
Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed.
Last week, Mr Hoare was back in the spotlight with further claims,
telling the New York Times that reporters at the News of the World
were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile
phone signals in exchange for payments to police officers.
Mr Coulson, who quit Downing Street in January and was arrested over
hacking earlier this month, has strenuously denied Mr Hoare’s
allegations.
He issued a statement last year that he had ‘never condoned the use of
phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where
phone hacking took place’.
But Mr Hoare told Radio 4’s PM programme that phone hacking was
‘endemic’ at the newspaper and said of his former boss: ‘He was well
aware that the practice exists. To deny it is a lie, simply a lie.’
Mr Hoare’s death remained unexplained last night.
Police could not rule out suicide but friends suggested natural causes
was also a possibility as he had been suffering from ill health.
A post-mortem examination was taking place this morning as police
continued to investigate the death.
A Hertfordshire Police spokeswoman added: 'The man's next of kin have
been informed and the family are being supported by police at this sad
time.'
Officers have yet to confirm arrangements for an inquest to be opened.
His solicitor David Sonn said: ‘I last spoke to him a week ago and he
seemed fine. I am shocked and saddened. It is a terrible tragedy.’
He added: ‘In giving his statement to the New York Times, he was
arguably the catalyst for everything that has happened since.’ When
Mr Coulson was made editor of the News of the World in 2003, he
recruited Mr Hoare as a showbusiness reporter.
They had previously both worked on The Sun’s showbusiness column Bizarre.
One former colleague said: ‘At The Sun, they were absolutely the best
of buddies. They used to go out to Covent Garden and socialise all
night together. Andy would cover for Sean, or vice versa, if one of
them was too hung over for work.
‘I last saw Sean at a do not all that long after he left the News of
the World. He was looking very scrubbed and sober and I asked what he
planned to do, and he said he wanted to get back into journalism but
added, “Journalism has turned its back on me”.’
Mr Hoare was sacked from the News of the World over drink and drug
problems in 2005, and last year sources at the paper said that his
claims should be treated with ‘extreme scepticism’.
But a friend who saw him more recently described him as ‘sober’ and
wanting to rebuild his career.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2016132/Sean- Hoare-News-World-phone- hacking-whistleblower-dead. html#ixzz1SYTGoBXD
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2016132/Sean- Hoare-News-World-phone- hacking-whistleblower-dead. html#ixzz1SYSz4pdQ
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2016132/Sean- Hoare-News-World-phone- hacking-whistleblower-dead. html#ixzz1SYSnTHWy
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2016132/Sean- Hoare-News-World-phone- hacking-whistleblower-dead. html#ixzz1SYSQvLMz
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/article-2016132/Sean- Hoare-News-World-phone- hacking-whistleblower-dead. html#ixzz1SYRzPW6i
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Restoring Courage Israel Rally Moving Because Of Assassination Fears
Glenn Beck , Video , Restoring Courage , Glenn Beck Israel Rally ,
Glenn Beck Program , Glenn Beck Restoring Courage , Restoring Courage
Temple Mount , Temple Mount , Media News
Glenn Beck announced Monday that his "Restoring Courage" rally will
have to move locations because he fears than an assassination attempt
may take place if he hold the rally at the Temple Mount, as he
originally intended.
The Temple Mount is one of the holiest and most heavily contested
religious sites in the world. Beck said on his Monday show that his
security team informed him that holding a polarizing rally at the site
might not be the best idea. He said that, because of some of the
as-yet-to-be-announced guests who are planning to attend the rally,
"some of the security services were getting a little nervous."
Beck brought up the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin, and said that he did not want to risk having anyone
killed at his rally.
"Courage must be coupled with wisdom, and the last thing we want to
happen is for anyone to be injured in any way, or there to be any kind
of conflict," he said.
The rally is taking place August 24th in Jerusalem.
 |
GLENN-BECK-Restoring_Courage_Israel Rally_Moving_Because_Of_Assassination_Fears |
Mass psychosis in the US
How Big Pharma got Americans
hooked on anti-psychotic drugs.
James Ridgeway Last Modified: 12 Jul 2011 06:20
Drug companies like Pfizer are accused of pressuring doctors into
over-prescribing medications to patients in order to increase profits
"The use of psychoactive drugs - including both antidepressants and
antipsychotics - has exploded...[yet] 'the tally of those who are
disabled...increased nearly two and a half times."
Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine
Has America become a nation of psychotics? You would certainly think
so, based on the explosion in the use of antipsychotic medications. In
2008, with over $14 billion in sales, antipsychotics became the single
top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the United
States, surpassing drugs used to treat high cholesterol and acid
reflux.
Once upon a time, antipsychotics were reserved for a relatively small
number of patients with hard-core psychiatric diagnoses - primarily
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - to treat such symptoms as
delusions, hallucinations, or formal thought disorder. Today, it
seems, everyone is taking antipsychotics. Parents are told that their
unruly kids are in fact bipolar, and in need of anti-psychotics, while
old people with dementia are dosed, in large numbers, with drugs once
reserved largely for schizophrenics. Americans with symptoms ranging
from chronic depression to anxiety to insomnia are now being
prescribed anti-psychotics at rates that seem to indicate a national
mass psychosis.
It is anything but a coincidence that the explosion in antipsychotic
use coincides with the pharmaceutical industry's development of a new
class of medications known as "atypical antipsychotics." Beginning
with Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Seroquel in the 1990s, followed by
Abilify in the early 2000s, these drugs were touted as being more
effective than older antipsychotics like Haldol and Thorazine. More
importantly, they lacked the most noxious side effects of the older
drugs - in particular, the tremors and other motor control problems.
The atypical anti-psychotics were the bright new stars in the
pharmaceutical industry's roster of psychotropic drugs - costly,
patented medications that made people feel and behave better without
any shaking or drooling. Sales grew steadily, until by 2009 Seroquel
and Abilify numbered fifth and sixth in annual drug sales, and
prescriptions written for the top three atypical antipsychotics
totaled more than 20 million. Suddenly, antipsychotics weren't just
for psychotics any more.
Not just for psychotics anymore
By now,
NEWS OF THE WORLD www.NOTW.bz 
]
This reporter is on Twitter: 
.jpg)
NEWS OF THE WORLD www.NOTW.bz
..........................................
ERF The Worm, my upstart super hero son 
Al Wijat, may contraversial newspaper mate 
NEWS OF THE WORLD, Magic Rabbit who only I can see through my magic glasses made for me by 
Marvin the Marvelous who is my crazy ideas man.. Marvin the Marvelous is always cong up eith crazy wacko ideas but new and again Marvin comes up with a really good idea like saving NEWS OF THE WORLD from being 
murdered by 
Rupert, 
James and 
Rebeka Brooks, 
Andy Coulson -Ex-Editor for News of the World, private investigator 
Glenn Mulcaire and 
ex-News of the World Royal Editor, Clive Goodman and bribing a number of London Met Police including the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson
with £12,000 of free hospitality at a luxury health spar that employed 
Neil Wallis as a PR expert whp was an ex- News Corp employess and now working for the London Met Police as a PR Expert, spar police and geneally using our good friend 
News of the World to control polllies, rivals, enemies and competitors and get the private dirt for a new exclusive news story with a little bit of old fashioned commercial espionage people..."..it all sounds like a great script for a fiction movie...however it is real story being played out in real time and real life as it unfolds minute by minute...so in the movie you would keep the real names to expose the guilty rather than change the real names to protect the innocent.."
Mr Wijat, 
ERF the Worm,
Super Hero Al Wijat,
Marvellous Marvin, Magic Rabbit (Hi...I'm Magic Rabbit and only Mr Wijat can see me with his Special Glasses) 
News of the World... exclusive to the World's favourite and frealess newspapers 'News of the World'.However..don't forget the rules..my friends Rupert, James and Rebekah............................................... forgot the rules and got into serious trouble....
Mr Wijat and The WIJAT Team, 
ERF the Worm, 
Al Wijat,
Marvelous Marvin, Magic Rabbit and
News of the World
As the Arab revolt spreads from North Africa to the Gulf and deepens its demands to include socio-economic as well as political demands, the Empire is striking back. The ruling military junta in Egypt has cracked down on the prodemocracy movement and looks to its autocratic “partners” in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula to drown the civil society movements in a blood bath.
While standing by the crumbling dictatorships elsewhere in the region, the United States, France and the United Kingdom raced to intervene when it seemed the revolt had spread to Libya. NATO was deployed, using the UN’s new “responsibility to protect” doctrine
Obama apology for Afghan civilian deaths. 12 children killed in US-led airstrike.
BY JAMES PETRAS ON AXIS OF LOGIC