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One of the things I like to do is to look at everyday objects and try to make a photo out of it. I’m also particularly interested in minimalist/texture based photos. This was actually the back of a chair at Kew Gardens in the patio area near one of the main gates. As Bill Moyers said, “Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.”
“Nature makes the locust with an appetite for crops; man would have made him with an appetite for sand”
- Mark Twain
19 June 2006
Khalid Rashid Update: Wits Law Clinic Accuses SA Gov Of Arab Discrimination Under Code-Name Genesis
Filed under: War on Terror
Khalid Rashid’s apparent rendition just got weirder (see here, here, and here for my previous coverage). According to IOL, the Wits Law Clinic, a well-known human rights group in South Africa, has claimed it has evidence pointing to a “pattern and practice of state discrimination against Arab nationals”. It is believed that they have “details of a series of raids and allegations that information was extracted through torture”, which resulted in “the arrest and subsequent disappearance of a Jordanian alleged to be an al-Qaeda kingpin” after a six-month operation.
“Peace is not something you wish for; It’s something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away.”
“The few remaining truths are graffiti, suicide notes, shopping lists.”
- Francesca da Rimini
“The ability to surreptitiously collect a variety of data all related to the same person; track individuals as they walk in public places (airports, train stations, stores); enhance profiles through the monitoring of consumer behaviour in stores; read the details of clothes and accessories worn and medicines carried by customers are all examples of uses of RFID technology that give rise to privacy concerns.”
- EU working document on RFID, January 2005, as quoted from Spychips by Katherin Albrecht and Liz McIntyre.
14 June 2006
John Pilger Q&A @ The Brunei Gallery, London
On Tuesday, I attended a Q&A session hosted by Blackwell books at the School of Oriental and African Studies’ Brunei Gallery. The speaker for the evening was journalist, author, and documentary film-maker John Pilger (he has his own website at www.johnpilger.com and a blog at the Guardian’s Comment Is Free website). The topic for discussion was his new book Freedom Next Time, where historian and author Mark Curtis, when reviewing the book for the Guardian, said “the voiceless” are “given a voice”. Johann Hari of the Independent was less flattering but still complimentary, trying to “stand between … admiring [Pilger’s] great skills and exposés but weeping over his occassional follies”. “Freedom Next Time mostly showcases Pilger at his best,” he said, but “flaws can be spotted”, concluding that “when Pilger is good, he is great, but when Pilger is bad, he reeks.”
Not having read the book myself, I was interested to hear what Mr. Pilger had to say. I’ve read and seen some of his previous works (The New Rulers of The World being a particularly favourite of mine), and agreed with many of his observations from time to time, so I knew what to expect. I was also particularly interested in his thoughts on South Africa, where I come from, and his observations regarding Nelson Mandela. Twelve A5 pages of hand-scribbled notes later, here is a summary of his talk, and the Q&A session that followed, along with some of my own thoughts. I’ll split this into two parts, one for his outline, and the other for the Q&A session, to cut down on the overall length. [And, to clarify: all links used in the article are not meant to reflect sources that Pilger himself may or may not have used to substantiate his comments, I simply searched the Net to try find out more, and linked to relevant pieces.]
On Sunday, three prisoners at Guantanamo Bay committed suicide by hanging themselves using make-shift nooses from clothing and bedsheets. What follows are a collection of quotes in response to the revelations.
“He also stressed that it was important to treat the bodies humanely and with cultural sensitivity.”
- White House Spokesman Tony Snow describing US President George Bush’s reaction
“He wants to make sure that this thing is done right from all points of view.”
White House Spokesman Tony Snow describing US President George Bush’s reaction
“It does sound like this is part of a strategy - in that they don’t value their own lives, and they certainly don’t value ours; and they use suicide bombings as a tactic. Taking their own lives was not necessary, but it certainly is a good PR move.”
- Colleen Graffy, the deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy
IOL have reported some more details regarding the rendition Khalid Rashid. They state that the airline company AVE that is linked to the plane used in the rendition, is the latest incarnation of Phoenix Aviation i.e. they’re both one in the same, which clears that up. They also revealed more details about the deportation:
Meanwhile, a Lenasia-based radio station, Channel Islam, reported on Friday night that it had established, following a special investigation, that a Gulfstream II jet (with registration A6-PHY) left Mombasa, Kenya, at 11am on Saturday, November 5, last year. It landed at Lanseria at 2.52pm, where passengers and crew cleared customs. The jet departed for Waterkloof Airforce base at 6.42 the next morning, where Rashid was waiting with Joseph Swartland, a senior immigration official.
It has also been revealed that Execujet, an international handling company at Lanseria, checked at least six people from the Gulfstream into the Palazzo Hotel at Monte Casino.
In papers before the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, the Minister of Home Affairs said there were five crew members and four passengers on board when the plane left Waterkloof. However, the flight plan only mentions a pilot and one crew member.
They also revealed that Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service gave a report on Rashid to the South African Secret Service sometime last year which claimed that “Rashid was not involved in terror in the UK and had never been to the United States.” Finally, IOL also said claimed that Rashid’s family’s lawyer, Zehir Omar, is taking the case to the International Criminal Court.
??The grave is but a covered bridge Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!?
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American Poet 19th Century