Iran: We’ve arrested Israel spy ring:

 

Iranian authorities have arrested a group of people linked to Israel who are suspected of planning bombings ahead of the Islamic republic’s presidential election on June 12, Reuters cited the country’s intelligence minister as saying on Sunday.
http://snipurl.com/gv02j

Abbas: I won’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state:

 

“I do not accept it,” the Western-backed Abbas said. “It is not my job to give a description of the state. Name yourself the Hebrew Socialist Republic – it is none of my business.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081534.html

 

===

Israels Population stands at 7.4 million:

 

According to figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday, the Jewish population of Israel stands at 5,593,000 and the Arab population is listed at 1,498,000, or 20.2% of the general population.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081532.html

 

===

Israel’s secret plan for West Bank expansion:

 

Palestinians condemn ‘extremely dangerous’ scheme to grow illegal settlement.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israels-secret-plan-for-west-bank-expansion-1674759.html

 

===

Rafael Correa: historic victory in Ecuador

 

” We are going to emphasize this fight for social justice; for regional justice….we are going to continue the fight to eliminate all forms of workplace exploitation within our socialist conviction: the supremacy of human work over capital,”
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/april/lun27/Rafael-Correa.html

 

===

Yes, We Did Execute Japanese for Waterboarding:

 

It’s kind of awkward to argue that waterboarding is not a crime when you hanged someone for doing it to our troops.
http://snipurl.com/gv0pr

 

===

 

Reagan’s DOJ Prosecuted Texas Sheriff for Waterboarding Prisoners:

 

Federal prosecutors secured a 10-year sentence against the sheriff and four years in prison for the deputies. But that 1983 case – which would seem to be directly on point for a legal analysis on waterboarding two decades later – was never mentioned in the four Bush administration opinions released last week.
http://www.truthout.org/042709J

 

===

Plan to monitor all internet use:

 

Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts between people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8020039.stm

 

===

Spanish Court Opens Investigation of Guantánamo Torture Allegations

 

Allegations include sexual abuse and beating

 

By Giles Tremlett in Madrid and agencies

 

Judge Baltasar Garzón, an investigating magistrate at the National Court in Madrid, said he would investigate allegations made by four detainees who were held at the centre and later released without charges, according to a court document quoted by the Spanish press. 
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22519.htm

 

===

 

Torture Memos Expose Dark, Imperial Presidency

 

By Robert S. Becker

 

This was not a happy week for the torture lobby, nor its defenders, derailing months of charm offensive by Bush-Cheney legacy boosters. A wary President Obama backed off attempts to defuse the torture parade – fretting over divisive investigations and hard-to-win court convictions. 
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22520.htm

 

===

 

Condi Rice Pulls A Nixon:

 

When the President Does It, That Means It is Not Illegal

 

By Cenk Uygur

 

Condoleezza Rice was recently speaking at Stanford when students asked her an excellent question on waterboarding and torture. They have her answer on tape and it isn’t pretty. Condi Rice absolutely pulls a Nixon. 
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22523.htm

 

===

 

Somalis Say Illegal Fishing By Foreign Trawlers Drove Them To Piracy

 

By SHASHANK BENGALI

 

The international community is shouting about piracy. But long before this, we were shouting to the world about our problems,” said Eid, a bony-cheeked former lobsterman with a bushy goatee. “No one listened.” 
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22522.htm

 

===

Ahmadinejad: West’s claims of democracy “sheer lies”:

 

“The recent anti-racism conference in Geneva … proved that the West’s claims of freedom of expression and democracy were sheer lies,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/30/content_11291115.htm

 

===

Court rebuffs feds, reinstates torture suit:

 

A federal appeals court rebuffed the Obama administration’s assertion of secrecy Tuesday and reinstated a lawsuit by five men who say a Bay Area subsidiary of Boeing Co. helped the CIA fly them to foreign countries to be tortured.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/29/MNC417AH7A.DTL

 

===

 

Obama: ‘I believe waterboarding was torture, and it was a mistake’:

 

Barack Obama has rejected the former US vice-president Dick Cheney’s defence of waterboarding, citing the refusal of the then British prime minister, Winston Churchill, to resort to torture even at the height of the Blitz in the second world war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/30/obama-waterboarding-mistake