The Impudent Observer - Global Liberal Issues Analyzes issues of liberal concern and gives readers a digest of what is reported in over forty newspapers throughout the world to engage them in critical thinking issues. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 32 11436

Articles from The Impudent Observer - Global Liberal Issues

Sarkozy Says NUclear Weapon Iran Is Unacceptable! 2007-11-07 19:13:09 President Nicholas Sarkozy addressing the American Jewish Congress reiterated his stand against allowing Iran to possess an atomic bomb, but he also indicated “I believe that Arab countries including Iran have a right to civilian nuclear power.” The French president denounced anti-Semitism in France and emphasized that the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is “non-negotiable.” Sarkozy said Muslims in France enjoy complete religious freedom and hoped that Muslim nations would reciprocate by providing such protection to those who are not of the Muslim faith. Meanwhile, Premier Prodi visiting in Saudi Arabia warned against taking military action against Iran arguing, “in addition to not solving the problem, it would open new destablizing scenarios in the whole region.” IN his desire to ingratiate himself with the American Jewish community, President Sarkozy made a blunder when he said Israel was a Jewish state. About 15% of the Israeli population is ...

Turkey To Amend Law Forbidding Insulting Turkey 2007-11-07 18:55:33 Turkey is preparing to amend the notorious Article 301 law which makes it illegal to insult or denigrate the Turkish nation and can land those who do so in jail for up to three years. Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said his government would shortly be submitting an amendment to Article 301 to end the current ban on making insulting remarks about Turkey. His comment came shortly after the European Union issued its annual report which raised questions about Article 301. “It is not acceptable that writers, journalists, academics, and others… are prosecuted for simply expressing a critical, but completely non violent opinion.” Article 3012 has been used to prosecute writers and journalists who have made statements about the genocide against Armenians. Ending this type of restriction on free speech will assist Turkey in moving forward regarding dealing with its past history. ...

Terrorism And Poverty Reign In Zimbabwe 2007-11-07 14:08:38 A delegation of lawyers just returned from an inspection of human rights conditions in Zimbabwe were shocked at the contemptuous attitude of police and government officials toward humans rights in their nation. Andrea Gabriel commented: “We were shocked at the levels of evidence of torture and police brutality and the impunity shown to members of the legal profession.” Gabriel, a member of the Durban Bar noted that even orders from the Zimbabwe High Court were ignored. In a typical case they encountered, a lawyer representing a member of opposition party leader, Morgban Tavangiral was denied access to his client. Another lawyer, Andrew Makoni, was warned he would be charged with an attempt to defeat the ends of justice because of statements he made to defend his client. When he tried serving a court order on a police inspector, the man tore it up, scrunched it into a ball and thew it in his face. Earlier this year, hundreds of people were arrested on charge of being &ldqu ...

Musharraf Packs Supreme Court To Enforce Will 2007-11-07 13:16:10 President Musharraf is going to great lengths to present his recent action as legal. He got rid of most of the 17 members of the Supreme Court and replaced them with a nine member court that will do his bidding. The new Supreme Court Chief Justice, Abdul Hameed Dagar, joined with his colleagues in striking down lower court decisions which stated Musharraf had acted illegally in the imposition of martial law. I.A. Rhamin of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission said, “it is not good to curtail the powers of the judiciary and thrash the lawyers for raising their voices in favor of the supremacy off the judiciary and the rule of law.” In he meantime in northwest Pakistan, militants captures several towns without a fight. Maydan and Matta surrendered as their police and troops held up their arms in surrender and turned over their weapons to the Islamic militants. The real question is whether or not Musharraf has sufficient power in the nation to bring to an end the insurgenc ...

No Reason For Debates In Russian Election -Results Are A Given! 2007-11-07 12:53:44 Vyacheslav Volodin, a prominent member of President Putin’s United Russia party commented that election debates were nothing but “squabbles.” He refused to allow any member of the dominant United Russia political party to take part in election discussions or debates since it was a waste of time. As Gregory Bovi commented in the Moscow Times, “These people are completely isolated from the daily lives of their electorate. With rare exceptions, most politicians are unable to engage in public debate. They cannot answer uncomfortable questions without having prior preparation, nor are they fit to participate in the tough, competitive environment of politics. Moreover, as a rule, they are incapable of speaking in a language that ordinary people can understand.” Puin’s decision to had United Russia, in effect, ended the debate because assumes his victory and that of his party is a given. Democracies in the world have evolved politically to the point where p ...

Dissident Iranian Cleric Urges Peace And Negotiation 2007-11-07 12:29:24 The Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who played a prominent role in seizure of the US embassy in the 1970s, attacked Iran’s clerical leadership for their inept policy in dealing with the United States over the issue of atomic development. He urged negotiation with the United States. “the nuclear row should be resolved through direct talks with America to avoid war. Talk about a possible military actions should be taken seriously.” He warned clerics that war with the United States would elicit the same reaction from the Iranian population as did the 1980-1988 war with Iraq. People will not rally around such a war effort since their businesses and homes will be destroyed as a result of American bombing. Montazeri also denounced the clerical leadership for imprisoning dissidents and squelching free speech. Montazeri, is just one of many such Iranian clerics who seek peace with the United States. History will judge harshly the Bush/Cheney approach of threats to Iran ...

“Blow And Go” Or Intelligence Debate In Iraq 2007-11-07 11:54:38 USA TODAY revealed a previously classified document about differing strategies used in Iraq to deal with roadside bombers. The Pentagon is concerned with obtaining all vital evidence connected with a roadside bomb which means special teams detonate those explosives and gather up evidence. The theory is by gathering this data, experts will gain knowledge about how to prevent explosions as well as tracing back the origin of the explosive. But, local commanders are frequently adopting a “Blow and Go” strategy whereby their own engineers detonate the explosives and move on quickly without bothering to gather up the evidence. Rep. Solomon Ortiz of the Armed Services Committee noted: “The ‘blow and go’ strategy undermines and compromises those overal efforts by losing key biometrics and evidence needed to identify and capture the network of insurgents.” In effect, the American military is caught between the need for mobility and the need for evidence. This ...

Bush Sells Turkey On “Surgical Strike” Strategy 2007-11-07 09:04:17 Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey concluded his Washington visit with President Bush pleased with the cooperation he received from the United States. The two nations agreed to share “actionable intelligence ” ideas that would assist Turkey in any military operation it began against Kurdish rebels operating out of northern Iraq areas. Bush affirmed his opposition to the actions of the Kurdish Workers Party(PKK) and pledged cooperation with his NATO ally. The leaders agreed on “limited surgical operations” which means American military intelligence will assist their Turkish counterparts in identifying areas serving as bases for the PKK and allowing Turkish planes to bomb. Some critics in Turkey believe Bush is attempting to divert a land invasion by supporting air attacks on Kurdish bases. There are fundamental flaws in the Erdogan/Bush agreement. PKK rebels are hiding in mountains which makes it extremely difficult for air attacks to have much effect. Bush continu ...

Religius Figure Who Dislikes Gays Appointed To English Human Rights Group 2007-11-07 08:30:49 The appointment of an evangelical Christian who has controversial view son homosexuality to the human rights watchdog committee chaired by Trevor Philips had caused a furor. The Rev. Joel Edwards has campaigned against legislation which would ben discrimination against gays and has argued that Christians do not want themselves “coerced” by law into assisting in the promotion of homosexuality. As Terry Sanderson of the National secular Society put it: “How on earth is he going to look objectively at gay issues when he has made a career out of opposing equality for homosexuals?” Mr. Edwards responded by stating his “faith convictions” are “compatible with serving the interests of all citizens.” A spokesperson for the committee claimed the group was interested in securing the views of people from a wide range of ideology but laws against discrimination against gays would not be impacted by the appointment of Edwards. Since the human rights ...

Muslim Insurgency Escalates In Southern Thailand 2007-11-07 08:17:27 The world’s focus has been upon terrorism in the Middle East, but at the same time new areas of violence are emerging such as in southern Thailand. Over the past several years, the predominantly Muslim area of south Thailand has become the scene of rebellion due to feelings the Thai government has discriminated and oppressed its Muslim population. It is now common practice in south Thailand for teachers, not children, to be escorted to and from school since a favorite target of Muslim insurgents is killing teachers. Yesterday, two teachers lagged behind their escort and were murdered. Following is a partial list of the daily activities in south Thailand: Bomb blew up in a market place wounding 27 Three soldiers died trying to defuse an explosive 61 schools have been closed due to fear of terrorism A military vehicle blew up with at least one dead A police officer killed by insurgent At some point the Thai government has to shift its focus to economic development an ... Thailand

Suicide Bomber Kills 90 In Afghanistan Horror 2007-11-07 08:01:38 A delegation of members of the Afghanistan parliament were visiting some local areas when a suicide bomber approached the group, stood by children and blew himself up. In the ensuing chaos 90 died and dozens were wounded. A local resident, Mohammed Rahim described the scene: “I saw bodies lying in the streets and some of the people were stealing the weapons of soldiers. Children were screaming for help. It’s like a nightmare.” The Taliban denied responsibility for the attack, but apparently the Afghanistan Taliban may not be completely under the control of a central command and most probably a local contingent of the terrorist organization committed the act. The people of Afghanistan welcomed the end of Taliban rule in 2001, but George Bush decided to shift attention from the immediate need to establish law and order in the country and to completely wipe out the Taliban. Instead, he diverted troops and supplies to the mad adventure in Iraq. Afghanistan is suffering f ...

South African President Blasts AIDs As White Plot Against Blacks! 2007-11-06 18:07:19 President Thabo Mbeki considers himself an “Aids dissenter” who allowed the Cabinet to overcome his beliefs that Aids was part of a conspiracy by the white world to destroy black Africans. He urged his biographer, Mark Gevisser, to read a 100 page paper secretly authored by Mbeki several years ago which he distributed anonymously to members of the african National Congress. The paper compared Aids scientists to latter-day Nazi concentration-camp doctors and portrayed b lack people who accepted orthodox Aids science as “self-repressed” victims of a slave mentality. The paper described the HIV/Aids thesis as entrenched in “centuries-old-white racial beliefs and concepts about Africans.” According to Mbeki, whites are trying to convince Africans that HIV/Aids is a major problem in order to divert attention from issues like globalisation, unemployment, and racism. He accused those who opposed his views like Nelson Mandela as being in the pay of drug comp ... President

Soviet Communist Legacy–Alive And Well In Russia 2007-11-06 17:33:33 November 7th marks the 90th anniversary of the establishment of a Bolshevik government in Russia. In theory, the Soviet Union expired nearly twenty years ago, but its legacy is firmly established in Putin’s Russia. Vladmir Putin would readily fit into a Soviet Union Politburo where he undoubtedly would implement similar governing rules as he has today– disdain for a free press, opposition parties and the right of dissent. he abolished election of governors and replaced it with a system allowing the President to appoint those officials — a Communist era strategy of centralization of power. The judiciary has been intimidated, the mass media is directly under his iron fist control and one could count on the fingers of both hands the number of top level officials who played a role in the fight for democracy in the 1990s. Many nations that had been communist, upon ending that type of government passed laws forbidding former Soviet leaders from serving in the new democrati ...

Tough Love Or Smart Love In Gaza-Israel Dilemma 2007-11-06 12:47:01 The debate continues within Israel as to whether or not to impose a tough line approach in dealing with rocket attacks from Gaza. Vie Premier Haim Ramon said “it was a grave mistake for Israel to uphold the absurd situation whereas it continues to supply water, electricity and fuel to an entity that has a terrorists organization at its helm.” He argued it was legitimate to cut off supplies and since there was no “partner that can bring results, thee will be no choice but to take unilateral steps in Judea and Samaria as well.” In response, Meretz Chairman Yossi Belin said cutting off these essential items was not the best way to halt rocket attacks. He urged that Israel must arrive “at a cease fire agreement with Hamas. Meanwhile in Gaza, Mahmoud Khozuder, a spokesperson for Gaza’s fuel companies said without restoration in fuel supplies, “You will have no bakery, no water, no sewage treatment and no transportation.” The people of Israel a ...

Do You Want This Man As Your President? 2007-11-06 12:24:49 Following are two quotes from Rudy Giuliani during a debate in which he supported waterboarding and other forms of torturing prisoners: “They talk about sleep deprivation. I mean, on that theory, I’m getting tortured running for president of the United States. That’s just plain silly.” “If I didn’t use intensive questioning, there would be a lot of Mafia guys running around New York right now.” Mr. Giuliani often believes talking tough is equivalent to being tough. He will say anything in order to get a vote and his failure to demonstrate the slightest aspect of self reflection is a fundamental flaw in his character. Sleep deprivation is a method used in totalitarian nations to break the will of opponents. To even suggest lack of sleep during a campaign is equivalent to what prisoners endure day after day indicates the speaker lacks any grasp of what it means to be an American who supports constitutional rights for all– even opponents. R ... President