Fidel Castro Ruz

A short while ago I dealt with the United States’ plans to impose the absolute superiority of its air force as an instrument of domination on the rest of the world. I mentioned the project that by 2020 they would have more than a thousand latest generation bombers and F-22 and F-35 fighter planes in their fleet of 2500 military aircraft. In twenty more years, every single one of their war planes will be robot-operated.

Military budgets always count on the support of the immense majority of American legislators. There is hardly any state in the Union where employment does not depend in part on the defence industries.

On a global level and with constant value, military expenses have doubled in the last 10 years as if there were no danger at all of any crisis. At this moment, it is the most prosperous industry on the planet.

By 2008, approximately $1.5 trillion were invested in defence budgets. The U.S. spends 42 per cent of world expenses in this area — $607 billion — not including war expenses, while the number of people who go hungry in the world has reached the figure of 1 billion.

Two days ago a western news dispatch informed that in mid-August the U.S. army exhibited a tele-guided helicopter along with robots capable of working as sappers, 2500 of which have been sent into combat zones.

A company marketing robots maintained that the new technologies would revolutionise the manner of directing the war. It has been published that in 2003 the U.S. barely had enough robots in its arsenal and, according to AFP, “today it has 10,000 land vehicles as well as 7,000 air devices, from the small Raven that can be hand-launched right up to the gigantic Global Hawk, a spy plane 13 meters long and with a 35 meter wingspan capable of flying at great altitudes for 35 hours.” This dispatch lists other weapons as well.

While the United States is spending such huge figures in killing technology, the president of that country is sweating buckets trying to bring health services to 50 million Americans who don’t have them. There is such confusion that the new president said that he felt he was closer than ever to achieving reform of the health care system but that the battle is becoming fierce.

He added that the story is clear, that every time health care reforms seem closer on the horizon, special interests fight with everything they’ve got applying their leverage, launching publicity campaigns and using their political allies to scare the American people.

The fact is that in Los Angeles 8,000 people — most of them unemployed, according to the press — turned up in a stadium to receive medical care from a travelling free clinic that provides services to the Third World. The crowds had spent the night there. Some of them had travelled from as far away as hundreds of miles.

“‘What do I care whether it’s socialist or not? We’re the only country in the world where the most vulnerable people have nothing,’ said a college-educated woman from a black neighbourhood.”

According to the report “a blood test can cost $500 and a routine dental treatment more than $1,000.”

What kind of hope can that society offer the world?

The lobbyists in Congress make their profits working against a simple law intended to provide medical care to tens of millions of poor people, mostly blacks and Latinos who lack it. Even a blockaded country like Cuba has been able to do it and is even cooperating with dozens of countries in the Third World.

If robots in the hands of the transnationals can replace imperial soldiers in the wars of conquest, who will stop the transnationals in their quest for a market for their artefacts? Just as they have flooded the world with automobiles that today compete with mankind for the consumption of non-renewable energy and even foods converted into fuel, so too they can flood the world with robots that would displace millions of workers from their workplaces.

Better yet, scientists could also design robots capable of governing; that way they could spare the U.S. government and Congress that terrible, contradictory and confusing work. No doubt they would do it better and cheaper.

[The writer needs no introduction as a long time revolutionary and former head of the state of Cuba]

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Bankruptcy rate shoots up in Canada

Khushwant Toor writes from Toronto

LATEST reports by the Industry Canada for the month of June 2009 reveal that the Canadian Insolvencies increased by 51.1% in Month of June, compared with the same Month in 2008.
In the month of June where real estate market showed some promising figures indicating that we might have touched the bottom of the recession; consumer bankruptcies were up 54.3% compared with the same month the previous year.

Business Bankruptcies were up by 10.5% compared with the same month the previous year. Proposals were up by 49.5% compared with the same month the previous year. For the 12 months ended June 30, 2009 Insolvencies are up by 28.6% compared with the previous year; (2009:143,883 - 2008:111,910)

Statistics released by Industry Canada reveal that Saskatchewan leads the other provinces in percentage double digit increase in Insolvency rates across Canada when compared with last year.
Bankruptcycanada.com notes that one of the most significant changes in bankruptcies over the last few years is the remarkable decline in business bankruptcies and the even more remarkable increase in the consumer bankruptcy rate. In the years 1990 to 2008 business bankruptcies declined 47%, while consumer bankruptcies, in the same period increased an alarming 112%, the fastest rate growth being in the last few months.

The trend indicates that whereas the businesses are showing signs of recovery due to the different stimulus packages inflected by the governments in the economy, the common consumer has peaked up to their upper limit and are being left with no choice but to declare bankruptcy in order to cope up with the pressure of the creditors.

Certified General Accountants Association of Canada in a recent report found out that the total household debt in Canada rose from $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion in a year and half. Mortgage debt accounted for $900 billion of the nation's debt-load, while consumer debt was $400 billion of the total. This survey found out that Canadians are borrowing more to stay afloat during tough economic times.
People are left with no choice continue to borrow even in this time of recession in an effort to make the ends meet. Heavy looses in stock market, resulted in consumer borrowing money as 2nd mortgage or secured lines of credits against the houses.

According to the CGA Association report, 85 per cent of Canadians said they had outstanding debt on their credit cards. Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said living expenses were the main reason for the increasing debt -- up from 52 per cent in 2007.

Credit cards and lines of credit accounted for the largest proportion of consumer debt.
One quarter of Canadians said they would not be able to handle an unexpected expenditure of $5,000. One in 10 would struggle to cover an unexpected expense of $500. Forty-two per cent of Canadians acknowledged their debt is on the rise.

Weather has been exceptionally cooler this summer in most parts of Canada, which definitely has hit the summer dependent small business owners across Canada. Come winter the bankruptcy trends are bound to escalate a little more.

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Court reins in terror finance policy

William Fisher

A federal court this week ruled for the first time that the U.S. government cannot freeze an organisation's assets under a terror financing law without a warrant based upon probable cause and without telling the organisation the basis for its action and a meaningful opportunity to defend itself.

If the decision of U.S. District Judge James G. Carr is upheld, it will strip the government of a key weapon in the broad counter-terrorism authority claimed by the administration of former President George W. Bush following the attacks of Sep. 11, 2001.

The ruling came Tuesday in a lawsuit originally filed in November 2008 by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio and several civil rights attorneys on behalf of KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc., a charity based in Columbus, Ohio.

Lawyers from the Obama Justice Department defended the position of their predecessors.

Georgetown University law professor David Cole, who is co-counsel in the case, called the government's approach "a blunt sledgehammer".

He told IPS, "The government has an undoubtedly legitimate interest in stopping the funding of terrorist activity, but the authority used against KindHearts and so many other charities is a blunt sledgehammer that permits the government to shut down charities indefinitely without any finding of wrongdoing, without any notice of the basis for its actions, without any prior judicial approval, and without any meaningful opportunity for the charity to defend itself."

He added, "Judge Carr's decision recognises that such unchecked power cannot be squared with the Constitution's Fourth and Fifth Amendments, which were designed, in the wake of King George's legendary abuses, to restrain official power to seize property arbitrarily."

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) froze KindHearts' assets three-and-a-half years ago without a warrant, notice or a hearing, based simply on the assertion that OFAC was investigating whether the charity should be designated as a "specially designated global terrorist (SDGT)".

In Tuesday's ruling, Judge Carr found that the administration must obtain a warrant based on probable cause before seizing an organisation's assets, citing judicial precedent holding that the executive branch's "domestic actions – even when taken in the name of national security – must comport with the Fourth Amendment."

Judge Carr also ruled that OFAC violated the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process because it "violated KindHearts' fundamental right to be told on what basis and for what reasons the government deprived it of all access to all its assets and shut down its operations."

KindHearts had never been found to have engaged in any wrongdoing and had never been designated an SDGT, yet it was effectively shut down since OFAC first froze its assets on Feb. 19, 2006.

As a result of the freeze pending investigation, it would have been a crime for anyone to do any business with KindHearts and the charity would have no access to its own property.

KindHearts provided detailed information to the government about its operations and requested that the government specify its reasons for blocking its assets pending investigation. But the government ignored KindHearts' submissions and repeatedly delayed in responding to its requests.

The court found that the government's actions were fundamental violations of due process.

Judge Carr ordered a hearing for September to determine how to correct what he said were constitutional flaws in the government's case. Justice Department lawyers are reviewing the opinion, but it is unclear whether they will appeal the decision to a higher court.

The Treasury Department alleged that KindHearts provided financial support for Hamas and worked with this group in the West Bank of Israel and in Lebanon to support terrorist activities.

While KindHearts was never named a "specially designated global terrorist," Judge Carr said the government "has effectively shut KindHearts down" by freezing its assets and designating it as criminal.

The organisation was unable to use its own resources to pay for a legal defence. Judge Carr said OFAC was "arbitrary and capricious" in considering whether the group could pay its lawyers.

He rejected the position of the Justice Department that the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures – was trumped by the national security authority of the president. He called the Fourth Amendment "a bulwark against the abuses and excesses of unchecked government authority".

Judge Carr was also critical of the limited information provided to the charity by the Treasury Department. He said this information came only after "long, unexplained and inexplicable delay" and repeated requests from the group's lawyers.

KindHearts' founders established the charity in 2002 – after the government shut down a number of other charities – with the express purpose of providing humanitarian aid both abroad and in the United States in full compliance with the law.

Despite the efforts KindHearts took to implement OFAC policies and even seek its guidance, OFAC froze about one million dollars of KindHearts' assets in February 2006.

Since 9/11, the government has shut down eight charitable organisations in the U.S. and frozen the assets of hundreds others in other countries.

Last November, five members of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development were convicted in federal court in Dallas of funneling money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and sentenced to prison. The defendants said they only gave much-needed aid to a volatile region.

Two other high-profile terrorism-financing trials, in Chicago and Florida, ended without convictions on the major counts.

The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 enhanced OFAC's ability to implement sanctions and to coordinate with other agencies by clarifying OFAC's authorities to block assets of suspect entities prior to a formal designation in "aid of an investigation".

Later amendments to the PATRIOT Act authorised submission of classified information to a court, in camera and ex parte, upon a legal challenge to a designation.

The Treasury Department says, "This new PATRIOT Act authority has greatly enhanced our ability to make and defend designations by making it absolutely clear that OFAC may use classified information in making designations without turning the material over to an entity or individual that challenges its designation."

But civil libertarians contend that changes in the law have greatly enhanced the department's ability to target and disable organizations and individuals based primarily on suspicion and not on proven evidence of wrong-doing as would be required in a court of law for a conviction of terrorism.

Attorney David Cole, a widely respected Constitutional scholar, sees a correlation between the McCarthy witchhunts of the 1950s and the government's current policies.

He told IPS, "With our return to a 'preventive paradigm' of preemptively weeding out threats to national security, guilt by association has been resurrected from the McCarthy era. While it was illegal in the 1950s to be a member of the Communist Party, it is now a crime to support an individual or organisation on a terror watch list, although the government can designate and freeze assets without a showing of actual ties to terrorism or illegal acts."

"While the House Un-American Activities Committee once relied on the private sector to mete out punishment through the destruction of reputations and careers, today measures such as the Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines have turned funders into the new enforcers. In this light, he said the nonprofit sector has an obligation to resist such a partnership with government." [Courtesy IPS]

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Polluting the debate

JUST as "death panels" and "swastikas" poison the debate over President Obama's health care reform agenda in town hall meetings across America, oil and coal interests are polluting Obama's effort to pass clean energy reform. Through a variety of front groups, companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Peabody Coal, and Koch Industries are fueling misinformation about global warming and fear about clean energy solutions. Lobbyists and public relations firms have established websites and Twitter feeds while crisscrossing the nation on "clean coal" and "energy citizens" tours. The oil industry's "American Energy Express" bus tour has now joined the coal industry's "Factuality" bus tour, going to state fairs and political events.

A " Hot Air" balloon tour attacking "global warming alarmism" is being run by Koch's Americans for Prosperity, the polluter-funded group behind "tea party" protests and "hands off my health care" rallies. When the groups can't find enough radical right-wing activists to support their message, they resort to deception and intimidation. The coal industry forged letters to Congress opposing the American Clean Energy and Security Act, and oil company employees are being bused to rallies that attack the legislation as a job-killing menace. Conservative oil- and coal-powered millionaires are willing to go to any lengths to convince Americans that pollution standards are instead energy taxes, using methods as dirty as their fossil fuels.

DIRTY ENERGY FRAUD: The coal industry's prime lobbying group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), is spending on a campaign to defeat clean energy reform. Bonner & Associates, a conservative PR firm working for ACCCE, sent forged letters this June to several members of Congress purporting to be from black, Hispanic, womens' and senior citizens' groups telling them to vote against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, despite the act's $60 billion support for coal technology. ACCCE knew about the fraud days before the pivotal House vote on the energy legislation, but kept silent until Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) independently discovered the forgeries a month later. While announcing that ACCCE was firing Bonner & Associates, spokesman Joe Lucas claimed last week that his organization "did nothing wrong." Meanwhile, ACCCE continues to employ the notorious voter-fraud company Lincoln Strategy Group to run its "grassroots" campaign. Staffers have been hired across the nation to while a "Factuality" tour distributes "clean coal" propaganda. ACCCE's members include General Electric, Duke Energy, and Caterpillar, who as members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership have claimed to support aggressive climate action.

DIRTY ENERGY LOBBYISTS: The American oil industry, working with a coalition of business interests, is manufacturing rallies in opposition to clean energy reform. The American Petroleum Institute (API) is busing oil industry employees to "Energy Citizen" rallies targeting U.S. Senators in 21 states. API's membership, which includes ExxonMobil, GE, and Halliburton, has joined "allies from a broad range of interests: the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturing, the trucking industry, the agricultural sector, small business, and many others" to create company picnics disguised as grassroots rallies. Employees of Chevron, Anadarko Energy, ConocoPhillips, and others were bused to Houston's Verizon Wireless Center to hear billionaire Drayton McLane Jr. attack Obama's clean energy agenda as an economy-destroying energy tax. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey's Astroturf organization FreedomWorks is inviting tea-party activists to attend the events. In Greensboro, NC, were allowed in; Pricey Harrison, the local state representative, was locked out. Of the 21 planned rallies, 15 are being organized by registered oil industry lobbyists.

DIRTY ENERGY OPERATIVES: The American Energy Alliance (AEA), a new polluter initiative, is touring the nation with the "American Energy Express" bus in opposition to clean energy reform. Like other groups, AEA claims that the American Clean Energy and Security Act is a "national energy tax" that will "cripple our sluggish economy." AEA is the advocacy offshoot of the Institute for Energy Research, a right-wing oil-industry think tank run by Robert Bradley, former speechwriter for Kenneth Lay. Although AEA claims it has "no ties to any political party," all of its employees are former House Republican staffers. Its president, Thomas J. Pyle, is a who worked for former Republican congressman Tom DeLay and Richard Pombo. Other employees worked for the Bush White House, Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), and other oil-defending politicians. The AEA tour is visiting "Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia." These events are "designed to pressure Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)" and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), both of whom "recently indicated that they would vote for cloture on a climate bill."

[Courtesy progress@americanprogressaction.org]

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We can do what governments can’t

Gurpreet Singh writes from Vancouver

WHILE the politicians of Punjab have requested the central government to issue a commemorative stamp in the memory of Madan Lal Dhingra, the first Indian revolutionary to be hanged outside the country on the centennial of his martyrdom a private postal stamp has already been printed in Canada.

Dhingra a Punjabi was hanged on August 17, 1909 in London for assassinating Sir Curzon Wylie an English officer responsible for Indian Affairs. In view of his martyrdom’s centenary I had applied to the Canada Post for personal picture postage stamps carrying his portrait. All I had to do was pay a small price to get a customized stamp with the picture of a martyr who had changed the course of the Indian history. While applying for it I had mentioned that the man in the picture was an Indian revolutionary. The picture was emailed by Chaman Lal, a renowned historian from Delhi . Thanks to the capitalism what a government run Indian postal system could not do has been done at a private level in a far away country. The idea is to not to shame the Indian establishment but to let it know that Dhingra will always be remembered by the people and his legacy do not need a state help to reach the masses.

The most inspiring part of Dhingra’s story is that he was born in a pro British family. His father, Dr. Sahib Ditta Dhingra was a rich and affluent surgeon in Amritsar. He had sent his son to London to study Engineering. However, after coming in contact with the revolutionaries, he had decided for something else in his life. Unlike other prominent revolutionaries from Punjab, like Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, who were born in politically charged environment and families which were wedded to the cause of freedom, he never got an ideological indoctrination from home.

He had targeted Wylie because the latter was connected with the controversial Indian Association, a pro British group which was trying to win over the loyalties of the Indian students in London in the garb of helping them. In his court statement, Dhingra had maintained, ``if it is patriotic in an Englishman to fight against the Germans if they were to occupy this country (Britain) it is much more justifiable and patriotic in my case to fight against the English.’’

Dhingra was associated with the India House which had organized an event to glorify the martyrs of the Gadar of 1857, the first armed revolt against the British rule in India. Since this mutiny was suppressed by the British forces, the Londoners had marked it as a Victory Day. On the contrary, the India House had organized the golden jubilee of the first war of independence in 1907 where the martyrs of the uprising were glorified. Dhingra had attended this event. Significantly, the Gadar movement was launched in North America in 1913 six years later. Majority participants of that revolutionary movement were also from Punjab and Dhingra became a role model for many. Bhagat Singh had admitted his fascination for Dhingra in one of his writings.

After Dhingra’s arrest, his family had not only denounced him but expressed their faithfulness towards the British government. His legend proves that a revolutionary spirit is not necessarily a byproduct of a family environment. Dhingra’s sacrifice will always be a guiding light for those who continue to oppose colonialism and imperialism across the world.

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