CNN Monday 10:00pm -- "Northern border and terrorists"

Bud's List of Articles:

* Am I the only one who is tired of the ribbons?

* Are the corporate rats leaving the Good Ship Toronto?

* The Throne Speech--a modest critique

* Let's talk about the overrated--I'm bored and they are part of my problem.

* US seizes webservers from independent media sites

* FBI took the hard drives of IMC servers in the UK

* Italy and Switzerland Requested Indymedia's Server Seizure

"I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is to arrange the meeting."

American authorities have shut down 20 independent media centres by seizing their British-based webservers.

On Thursday a court order was issued to Rackspace, an American-owned web hosting company in Uxbridge, Middlesex, forcing it to hand over two servers used by Indymedia, an international media network which covers of social justice issues and provides a "news-wire", to which its users contribute.

The websites affected by the seizure span 17 countries.

It is unclear why, or to where, the servers have been taken. The FBI, speaking to the French AFP, acknowledged that a subpoena had been issued but said this was at the request of Italian and Swiss authorities.

"It is not an FBI operation," said its spokesman, Joe Parris.

Rackspace told Indymedia that it had been served with a court order under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, under which countries assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering. [. . . . ]

The FBI issued an order to Rackspace in the US (Indymedia's provider with offices in the US and London) to physically remove one of our servers. The order was so short term that Rackspace had to give away our hard drives in the UK. [. . . . ]

Who took Ahimsa?
Why were more then 20 Indymedia sites taken down?
Directly affected Indymedia sites
Rackspace's statement
Legal Information (MLAT, etc.)
Indymedia & the FBI: earlier incidents

Today, October 8, 2004, Indymedia has learned that the request to seize Indymedia servers hosted by a US company in the UK originated from government agencies in Italy and Switzerland.

[. . . . ] Earlier today Rackspace published a statement that they turned over the servers in response to an order under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). The MLAT establishes procedures for countries to assist each other in investigations regarding international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering. The court prohibits Rackspace from commenting further on this matter. (2)

The death of a Canadian naval lieutenant last week when fire broke out aboard a second-hand, long-mothballed, bought from the British at a bargain price (we were assured) by the Liberal government, gives me an ominous foreboding.

I believe that if we keep the same gang in office at Ottawa we are going to read one day of a terrible disaster befalling some unit in our armed forces.

A military group will be sent unprepared and ill-equipped into a war theatre and be wiped out in a single action, with 20 or 30 men killed, because they should not have been sent there.

Or some loaded transport aircraft will go down because it was not fit for operation, or a squadron of out-dated fighter aircraft or helicopters will be destroyed with frightful loss of life.

If this seems improbable, look at the facts behind last week's submarine incident.

[. . . . ] If you were to ask -- why exactly is Canada running second-hand submarines across the Atlantic Ocean? -- it's doubtful that any single person in the upper echelons of Ottawa Liberaldom could give you a rational answer.

They don't know.

Nor do they have a coherent foreign policy, nor an international trade policy, nor an economic development policy, nor a tax policy, nor any discernible interest in any of these things. They are interested in medicare, in placating the gay and feminist lobbies, and in staying in office. Nothing else. And because the electors of Greater Toronto voted so overwhelmingly to return them to power, back they went.

In every other area of government, their sole concern is to avoid trouble.

[. . . . ] Meanwhile, no one can explain why we have armed forces at all, how we see them fitting into the defence structure of the western world, or of the western hemisphere, or of North America, or of anything.

We have them because we have them, and we will pay as little attention to them, and spend as little money on them as we possibly can. That's the policy, and a young man, the father of two little children, just paid for it with his life.

Graham may not have been able to prevent the blaze on the Chicoutimi but he could have done far more to protect Canadian interests after the fact. He could have urged Britain to pay for all repairs required on the Chicoutimi and the other lemons it sold the Liberals back in 1998. Graham could have also used the incident to highlight the need for increased military funding. He did neither. Instead he opted to defend Liberal interests by spinning the blaze as no big deal.

For that, he must resign.

Defence Minister Bill Graham has done the military a grave disservice with his initial attempts to paint an evolving tragedy on the high seas as a minor incident.

Instead of admitting there are serious mechanical problems with four second-hand submarines obtained from Britain, Graham pointed out there were "risks" in serving with the Canadian Navy.

Indeed there are risks, but those risks should be associated with combat. They shouldn't be associated with questionable Liberal purchases or a government that stands by mutely as Canada's soldiers and mariners risk their lives daily in ancient and decrepit military equipment.

[. . . . ] Graham may not have been able to prevent the blaze on the Chicoutimi but he could have done far more to protect Canadian interests after the fact. He could have urged Britain to pay for all repairs required on the Chicoutimi and the other lemons it sold the Liberals back in 1998. Graham could have also used the incident to highlight the need for increased military funding. He did neither. Instead he opted to defend Liberal interests by spinning the blaze as no big deal.

For that, he must resign.

"When rights of free speech and peaceable assembly become optional rather than mandatory -- when they become contingent on liking those who wish to speak freely or assemble peaceably -- we're sliding down that slippery slope to intellectual totalitarianism."

[. . . . ] - Offering an off-campus site, as the university has done, is the problem, not the solution. It implicitly admits that something is broken at Concordia. If its administrators cannot control their own campus, then just who is in charge?

Where are my colleagues -- not just from Concordia, but from McGill, Universite de Montreal, the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, and everywhere else across the country -- to defend academic values of free and vigorous debate and to point out that appeasement is not peace? As educators, are we comfortable with a campus which only gives a one-sided perspective on any topic -- from the Middle East to the Middle West?

Where is Montreal's Mayor, quiet as we're told in his city that it is too risky to learn from the former leader of a sister democracy? And where is the Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, or the Prime Minister, Paul Martin? Do they sleep well at night knowing that fundamental Canadian values of decency, civility and dialogue are being threatened under their watch? Do they understand that there is no peace, no order, and no good government when we can't even sit and reason together on a university campus?

[. . . . ] When rights of free speech and peaceable assembly become optional rather than mandatory -- when they become contingent on liking those who wish to speak freely or assemble peaceably -- we're sliding down that slippery slope to intellectual totalitarianism.

On campuses throughout North America, people are struggling with the boundaries of speech. There is all too often a toxic environment that festers, that politicizes everything, that polarizes everyone, that divides colleagues, silences dissenters and conquers our spirit.

Too many people, in the name of diversity, ironically, think that a university's mission is to promote only one alternative, quite marginal school of thought -- and woe to any free thinkers who deviate from the line of the day, the methodological trend of the moment, the political perspective of the narrow-minded thought police who might be temporarily ascendant.

But the university's true mission is to unite us in civility to learn from a diversity of opinions. Let us reason together, let us stand together, let us fight this assault on the values we hold dear. If we don't take that stand right now, it will only get worse and worse.

8 October 2004 Toronto – The failure of the Canadian government to guarantee the safety and security of former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, at Concordia University demonstrates an abdication of responsibility by Prime Minister Paul Martin and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.

“Paul Martin and Irwin Cotler have a duty to uphold the rule of law in Canada and we await concrete actions to guarantee former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak an opportunity to speak at Concordia University,” said Alastair Gordon, Communications Director of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies.

Section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedom guarantees under part (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association. Our founding statute, the BNA Act of 1867, guarantees Canadians the right to ‘peace, order and good government.’

“Private security can only do so much to defend the right of free speech,” said Gordon. “When the university's security apparatus cannot do the job, the government has an obligation to make sure that violence is not rewarded.



"Had this been former South African leader, Nelson Mandela, and a mob of white supremacists threatened to disrupt his talk, I have to believe that the Justice Minister and the Prime Minister would allocate the necessary resources to guarantee his safety and right to speak."

"This is the second time -- in the same province at the same university -- that mob violence or the threat thereof has been rewarded," said Stephen Posen, CCD President. "The rights of students and of Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, both former Israeli prime ministers, have been denied in deference to a mob, and we do not even have a comment from our Prime Minister or Minister of Justice, let alone action."

The mission of the Department of Justice is, to use its own words, to "promote respect for rights and freedoms, the law and the Constitution".

“Irwin Cotler and Paul Martin must act to guarantee Prime Minister Barak’s safety at Concordia," said Gordon, "by arresting anyone threatening his safety, assuring that the university expels those interfering with Barak's right to speak, and canceling the visas of so-called students who are nothing but imported violent agitators. To do otherwise sends the message that, in Canada, violence pays."

OTTAWA (CP) - A public inquiry was told Thursday that former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano knew exactly which projects were getting money under the federal sponsorship program.

Pierre Tremblay, who died earlier this week, said in a written statement that the minister was also told the size of commissions being paid to ad agencies. Tremblay was a former aide to Gagliano. The statement also said the office of former prime minister Jean Chretien played a key role in the early years of the program. [. . . . ]

Saddam Hussein used a U.N. humanitarian program to pay $1.78 billion to French government officials, businessmen and journalists in a bid to have sanctions removed and U.S. policies opposed, according to a CIA report made public yesterday.

The cash was part of $10.9 billion secretly skimmed from the U.N. oil-for-food program, which was used by Iraq to buy military goods, according to a 1,000-page report by the CIA-led Iraqi Survey Group.

According to a section of the report on Iraqi weapons procurement, the survey group identified long-standing ties between Saddam and the French government. One 1992 Iraqi intelligence service report revealed that Iraq's ambassador to France paid $1 million to the French Socialist Party in 1988.

[. . . . ] Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told the Survey Group that he personally awarded several Frenchmen "substantial" oil allotments.

"According to Aziz, both parties understood that resale of the oil was to be reciprocated through efforts to lift U.N. sanctions or through opposition to American initiatives within the Security Council," the report said.

The report named former French Interior Minister Charles Pascua as getting a voucher for 11 million barrels of oil, and Patrick Maugein, who received a voucher for 13 million barrels of oil. The report said Mr. Maugein, the chief executive officer of the SOCO oil company, was a "conduit" to Mr. Chirac.

Michel Grimard, the founder of the French-Iraqi Export Club, received a voucher for 5.5 million barrels, and the Iraqi-French Friendship Society received vouchers for more than 10 million barrels.

French oil companies Total and SOCAP were granted vouchers for 105 million and 93 million barrels of oil, respectively.