nolympics writes:

Haiti’s Biometric Elections:

A High-Tech Experiment in Exclusion
Andréa Schmidt

Port-au-Prince, Haiti — A lot of people agree that the upcoming elections in Haiti—the first since Aristide and his government were expelled in the February 29, 2004 coup d’état—are important.

Members of the international community who supported the coup agree: Canada’s special advisor to Haiti, Denis Coderre, has called them “a crossroads,” and “a historical turning point.” The Haitian business elite who orchestrated the coup—and who are referred to here without irony as “civil society”—also agree. They see the election as a process through which their people can consolidate power. And many Lavalas activists in both rural and urban parts of the country believe that now that the election is underway, it is a critical moment to demonstrate that they are still the party that represents the poor majority in this country.

Chavez Moves Venezuelan Money Out of U.S.
Associated Press

Venezuela has moved its central bank foreign
reserves out of U.S. banks, liquidated its investments in U.S. Treasury
securities and placed the funds in Europe, Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez said Friday.

"We've had to move the international reserves from U.S. banks because of
the threats," from the U.S., Chavez said during televised remarks from a
South American summit in Brazil.

"The reserves we had (invested) in U.S. Treasury bonds, we've sold them
and we moved them to Europe and other countries," he said.

Chavez, a sharp critic of what he calls "imperialist" U.S.-style
capitalism, has often criticized foreign banks for the power they wield in
international financial markets at the expense of poorer countries.

Chavez again proposed the creation of a South American central bank that
would hold the foreign exchange reserves of all the central banks in the
region.

"Armed and Dangerous:

Flipper the Firing Dolphin Let Loose by Katrina"

Mark Townsend Houston, The London Observer

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

"Goodbye Joe"

Jamal Mecklai

me gotta go, me oh my oh

me gotta go pole the pirogue

down the bayou…

The heartbreaking scenes out of New Orleans these past two weeks brought to mind the lyrics of "Jambalaya," one of thousands of great songs that sprung out of the bayou mud of Southern Louisiana over the past few hundred years.

I know – I guess, "knew" would be a better word today – New Orleans, the Cajun country stretching across South Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast extremely well, having been taken to New Orleans on my first fall break in college – a wide-eyed 21-year old graduate student (relatively) fresh off the boat from India.

It was – to use a contemporary phrase – awesome. Not only did we drink all night and whatever part of the day we were up – I particularly remember sitting on the sidewalk swigging Boone’s Farm Apple wine (99 cents a bottle, I kid you not) – but we danced on the streets, heard the finest music and I almost ended up married to a girl who was dancing naked on my table at a bar just off Bourbon Street one night.

5,400 Executions Worldwide in 2004

Agence France-Press

There were more than 5,400 executions were carried out in the world in 2004, slightly down on the previous year, with almost 90% of them in China, an organisation that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty said in a report which was released on Friday.

Of the 5,476 executions that took place in 2004, at least 5,000 were in China, the organisation Hands Off Cain said.

"U.S. Congressman Says Atta Papers Destroyed on Orders"

Donna De La Cruz, Associated Press

A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday.

The employee is prepared to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was expected to name the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume of documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

Weldon declined to name the employee, citing confidentiality matters. Weldon described the documents as "2.5 terabytes" — as much as one-fourth of all the printed materials in the Library of Congress, he added.

"St. Patrick Four:
The Feds Onfront the Anti-War Movement"
James Petras, Rebelión
On September 19 the first federal conspiracy trial of civilian war resisters to the US invasion of Iraq will take place in Binghamton, New York, a declining and decaying city in upstate New York, 3 hours northwest of New York City. This is the second trial of the "St Patrick Four" — they were acquitted a year earlier by a jury in Ithaca, New York by a 9 to 3 vote in which the presiding Judge David Peeble conceded that the four had represented themselves "probably better than some of the attorneys that practice in this court."

Chicago City Council Passes Resolution

Demanding Removal of US Troops from Iraq

Chicagoans Against War and Injustice

Earlier March, Rally & Presence at Hearing
Show Support for Resolution, Welfare of Troops

CHICAGO (September 15, 2005) —The Chicago City Council Wednesday passed a resolution demanding the removal of US troops from Iraq. Passing by a Council vote of 29 to 9, with 12 abstaining or not voting, the resolution urges 'the United States government to immediately commence an orderly and rapid withdrawal' from Iraq. In addition to the death and suffering of the war, the resolution stressed that 'Chicago residents' share of monies appropriated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now exceeds $2.1 billion.'

Chicago is now the largest U.S city to take this stand. The only other major US city to pass a similar resolution is San Francisco. The Evanston, IL City Council voted against the war yesterday, and Gary, IN did so last month.

New York Anarchist Pleads Guilty in Military Recruitment Fire

New York, New York, U.S. — Twenty- year-old anarchist David Segal pleaded
guilty to felony "malicious mischief" in federal court Wednesday
morning in relation to a January 31, 2005 attempt to burn down a Bronx
military recruiting station. In return for the plea the prosecutor
gave a sentencing recommendation of 10–16 months.

The judge is not
required to abide by the recommendation and could sentence David to 10
years in prison, but David's attorney Martin Stolar, president of the
New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, believes that the
sentence would adhere to the prosecutor's guidelines. Additionally,
the judge could break up the sentence between jail time and home
confinement.

"Katrina Only Latest Example of Feds Withholding Environmental Data"

Society of Environmental Journalists

JENKINTOWN, Pa., Sept. 12 — It's been more than a
week since The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans turned in desperation
to the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to answer a basic question:
Where are dangerous chemicals leaking as a result of Hurricane Katrina?

The paper's lead hurricane reporter, Mark Schleifstein, had been asking
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that question for days — without an
answer. So he filed a request under FOIA. Even though the federal statute
provides for "expedited review" when a situation "could reasonably be expected
to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety" of the public, he
still has not received a response.