Slashdot Mirror

Since the formation of the state of Israel, Palestinians have been kicked out of their home, herded into internment or executed en masse. https://www.amnesty.org/en/cou... [amnesty.org] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Israel continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity and Slashdot is guilty of repeatedly normalizing an oppressor, as if everything is okay. When you steal land from a people, murder and execute en masse, deny them freedom and autonomy--especially when the oppressors went through went through the Shoah, you think there would be learning. I am disgusted with the Slashdot editors who collude with Israeli foreign policy and as such, they too are part of the problem and ongoing subjugation of a people. Free Occupied Palestine and hold the powerful to account. Israel is a nuclear armed state who takes billions in aid from the US and has a sophisticated military and continues to run of the largest concentration camps in the world. Slashdot readers, learn from Marek Edelman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Never forget what happened and do not let oppressors run amok and then get 'normalized' by our media.

Since the formation of the state of Israel, Palestinians have been kicked out of their home, herded into internment or executed en masse. https://www.amnesty.org/en/cou... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Israel continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity and Slashdot is guilty of repeatedly normalizing an oppressor, as if everything is okay. When you steal land from a people, murder and execute en masse, deny them freedom and autonomy--especially when the oppressors went through went through the Shoah, you think there would be learning. I am disgusted with the Slashdot editors who collude with Israeli foreign policy and as such, they too are part of the problem and ongoing subjugation of a people. Free Occupied Palestine and hold the powerful to account. Israel is a nuclear armed state who takes billions in aid from the US and has a sophisticated military and continues to run of the largest concentration camps in the world. Slashdot readers, learn from Marek Edelman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Never forget what happened and do not let oppressors run amok and then get 'normalized' by our media.

It's difficult when such a high level of human rights violations persist year after year

Well, to be fair, the addition of 'women' does imply that gender is somehow significant in that. Titles such as 'Every 30 seconds a Jew is abused on Twitter' would definitely lead to thoughts and questions about antisemitism.

Looking at some of their examples, the gender part is really quite insignificant:
- "hope you need the emergency services and they fucking refuse to help you. Sour faced twat."
- "B list politician. Grade A cunt."
- "Another thin skinned whiny little bitch."
( 3/8 of the examples they give in the slider viewer here: https://decoders.amnesty.org/p... )
Especially in Britain these are very generic and genderless insults.

I'd like to add that as far as internet comments go, these are also pretty mild. I'd wager that there isn't a Slashdotter around that would actually be offended by these and wouldn't just brush them off.

I can't post this under my regular account because I'm a man.

https://decoders.amnesty.org/projects/troll-patrol/findings#inf_12/problematic_sidebar

"abusive" is lumped togehter here with "problematic". "problematic" is more subjective and lowers the bar to be included in this abused class. They give a good example in their sidebar. "Be a good girl, go wash the dishes", but it's not detailed, so yeah, maybe "you're wrong = abuse". It would be up to the volunteers.

More than 6,500 digital volunteers from around the world then took part in Troll Patrol, analysing 288,000 unique tweets to create a labelled dataset of abusive or problematic content. The volunteers were shown an anonymized tweet mentioning one of the women in our study, then were asked simple questions about whether the tweets were abusive or problematic, and if so, whether they revealed misogynistic, homophobic or racist abuse, or other types of violence. Each tweet was analysed by multiple people. The volunteers were given a tutorial and definitions and examples of abusive and problematic content, as well as an online forum where they could discuss the tweets with each other and with Amnesty International’s researchers.

The #metoo movement did the same thing. It applied "if you have been sexually harassed or assaulted", meaning that to be part of the movement, you needed to either be raped at gunpoint, or somebody made a pass at you which you didn't like. Being raped at gunpoint is more powerful and memorable, so women could step forward and say #METOO and be vague about what happened to them. The horrible part is that it minimized victims of violent sexual assault with a rush of women talking about how courageous they were to come forward about that time a man said something they didn't like.

The issue of gendered violence was implied. The lesson of "fear men" was spread far and wide. But more insidiously, the message of "rape is normal" was shared loud and clear. Both to young women and to young men. Good job teaching the world that rape is normal.

Well, maybe things got off to a bad start with the Iranian Islamists taking the US embassy staff hostages, Iran declaring the US to be an enemy they are at war with, continuing to hold rallies to this day where "Death to America!" is chanted, referring to the US as "the Great Satan," spreading terrorism throughout the world, continually uttering barely veiled threats of genocide, and working to arm themselves with nuclear weapons. Well, live and learn.

I'm curious, have you, on a personal note, spoken to any Iranian homosexuals? Oh, that's right, you can't. They don't exist.

Iran vs. Its People: Abuses Against Religious Minorities

Iran 2016/2017

The authorities heavily suppressed the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and religious belief, arresting and imprisoning peaceful critics and others after grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees remained common and widespread, and were committed with impunity. Floggings, amputations and other cruel punishments continued to be applied. Members of religious and ethnic minorities faced discrimination and persecution. Women and girls faced pervasive violence and discrimination. The authorities made extensive use of the death penalty, carrying out hundreds of executions, some in public. At least two juvenile offenders were executed.

Name one American the Russians drone murdered.

I hope, you don't insist on it being done by drones, which Russia does not really have — and what it does have, it uses for intelligence-gathering and artillery-coordination only. But, here, I'll list a few:

• Joseph Stone, an American paramedic who was killed in eastern Ukraine on April 23
• Mark Gregory Paslawsky, the sole American fighting on the Ukrainian side of the war in the east of the country, died from injuries sustained in battle in the town of Ilovaysk on Tuesday.

You can also safely chalk up a sizeable fraction of American deaths in the Middle East to Russians — but we may not know the exact details of their coordinating ISIS and other terrorists against the US for decades...

Now, why is it indicative of anything? Why don't you list the Americans killed by American government — and we'll compare that to the Russians killed by Russia... Ah, you are an American — protected by these people you despise — and not worrying about what Russians do to others? Ok, do you suppose, all an enemy can do is kill? How about spying — on your country? How about lying online with millions of "voices" through hijacked accounts?

GTMO like prisons

Darling, GITMO is a tropical paradise compared to the installations run by the enterprise formerly known as GULAG.

Tell me about the Russian detention without charges + torture program.

What exactly would you like to know?

Now explain why would you rather have the CIA on your stuff?

Because whatever abuse you may accuse CIA of was aimed at the sworn enemies of the US and our allies, not US citizens, however politically active and oppositiony...

You attempt to deflect

Indeed I do, but not the way you think. My point is not to defend Cuba's political regime, but to question your information and assumptions about what human right violations happen there.

You seem to assume that Cuba performs as many evil stuff as one could imagine, and this opinion is based on sources that are 40 years old testimonies.

I do not have any information about internet censorship in Cuba, but for human right violations, we have Amnesty International reports. Compare reports for Cuba and the USA. While Cuba's record is far from been fine, at least you do not find the keywords "torture" or "death sentence" in it. My understanding is that the worst human right violation on this island happen in Guantanamo Bay's US base.

You attempt to deflect

Indeed I do, but not the way you think. My point is not to defend Cuba's political regime, but to question your information and assumptions about what human right violations happen there.

You seem to assume that Cuba performs as many evil stuff as one could imagine, and this opinion is based on sources that are 40 years old testimonies.

I do not have any information about internet censorship in Cuba, but for human right violations, we have Amnesty International reports. Compare reports for Cuba and the USA. While Cuba's record is far from been fine, at least you do not find the keywords "torture" or "death sentence" in it. My understanding is that the worst human right violation on this island happen in Guantanamo Bay's US base.

This story presents facts about Russia's troll factory in St. Petersburg, just as I have done in numerous previous postings and got hammered by the Russian trolls. Go ahead, check my most recent postings to see how the trolls mindlessly mod me down for reporting facts about this troll factory, about the continuing shipments of cargo 200 from Ukraine (i.e. dead Russian soldiers), the terrorists in Ukraine who openly admit Russian soldiers are fighting there and supplying them with arms and munitions, or the Russian soldiers who state they have been sent to Ukraine and have fought there, and finally, the law which Putin signed which bars Russian mothers from talking about their sons who have died while fighting in Ukraine or even talking with other mothers about these deaths. Or course the graves of these dead Russian soldiers say otherwise, as do reports from eyewitnesses and families.

This story need to be modded down in like fashion. Wouldn't want the Russian trolls to have to see the facts of their dear leader's propaganda industry.

What part of " to lead government-wide efforts to identify propaganda and counter its effects." don't you understand?

They are not restricting anyone's right, even foreigners such as the Russian troll factory to lie their asses off.

What they are doing is the same thing anyone else would do if repeated lies and falsehoods were put forth: countering the lies.

Oh, and speaking of the Ministry of Truth, Putin has that covered. He has made it illegal for Russian mothers to speak out about their son's deaths in Ukraine, including contacting other mothers to form groups and compare notes on how many soldiers Russia has lost during its invasion of Ukraine.

Seriously? When was the last time anyone held the Palestinians to any kind of behavioral standards? They can bomb, knife, stone, shoot, or otherwise harass anyone they want anytime they want and "international peace organizations" say nothing about it.

How about last Saturday.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/lat...

The deadly attack on civilians at a Tel Aviv shopping and restaurant complex last night displayed a stark contempt for human life, Amnesty International said.

Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at the Sarona market in Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening, killing four civilians and injuring others. Several of those wounded were still hospitalized on Thursday morning. Israeli forces apprehended the attackers, wounding one of them.

"This heinous attack flouted fundamental principles of humanity," said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

"There can be never be any justification for deliberately attacking civilians."

"So then I went to the source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/lat..."

Did you? The link you posted is dated December 2015, the hospital bombings happened only a week or two ago. Whether you're purposefully trying to conflate two reports I've no idea. Here's the actual MSF report:

http://www.msf.org.uk/country-...

The other hospitals hit weren't MSF hospitals but were independent (see just about every news source on the planet).

"So they don't even have evidence it was Russia, since they didn't see or hear the plane. Does Russia even have stealth bombers?"

Stealth isn't invisibility, it doesn't hide aircraft from visual view, so what has stealth got to do with anything? Sophisticated in this context simply means they were bombing from high altitude such as not to be visually identifiable. This is why we know it was Russian aircraft because Syria doesn't have anything anymore to hit from that height, and because air flight records show now US/coalition aircraft in the area at that time (in fact, the US/coalition folk don't even operate over that city anyway because they're not bombing friendly rebels, nor are they bombing Assad's forces - the US et. al. operate to the East against ISIS - they have no business there and if they were there the Russians would have radar record of it, which they don't).

Still, I doubt for a second you're the type of person judging by your comments that would absolve the US in the same way - "Well they didn't actually see that it was predator drones that blew up the wedding party because they fired from too high altitude so the US must be innocent!".

So I'd say nice try at deflection, but it really wasn't, you basically failed on all counts from using the wrong article to conflating things like stealth with invisibility. F for fail, must try harder next time, I hope Putin doesn't take your family's food away for this.

Ok, I decided to go against the /. tradition and read the linked article. "Most egregious war crimes" my ass! The Sky News link is a total propaganda piece. With images of crying children and "war crimes" claims liberally thrown every couple of paragraphs. So then I went to the source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/lat...

Here are the quotes in the Amnesty source regarding bombing hospitals:
"The briefing includes evidence suggesting that Russian authorities may have lied to cover up civilian damage to a mosque from one air strike and a field hospital in another."

So, it wasn't "hospitals", it was one single *field* hospital. Basically, a bunch of tents in a field. Just like a military or training camp would look like from the air. Did it have any identifiable signs of being a hospital? And would ISIS try to use the same to hope to protect its own camps perhaps?

"A witness to an attack just a few metres from Sermin field hospital in Idleb said the attack appeared to have been carried out by a more sophisticated plane as they did not see or hear the plane before the missiles were dropped."

  So they don't even have evidence it was Russia, since they didn't see or hear the plane. Does Russia even have stealth bombers?

  So from bombing a bunch of tents in the desert by possibly Russian planes we end up with definitive "most egregious war crimes". Wow.

In this case, Amnesty's report indicates that the complete chain is a bit longer than the summary suggests. In fact, the full chain is more like:
Miners in the DRC using child labor ->
Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM) ->
Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd (CDM's parent company) ->
three battery component manufacturers in China and South Korea ->
battery makers ->
Sony/Apple/Samsung/Volkswagen/Microsoft/Daimler

Moreover, while child labor is horrible and needs to be stopped, Amnesty's headline of "Exposed: Child labour behind smart phone and electric car batteries" is overly sensationalist, since they haven't actually shown what they claim. They've shown a business connection, but haven't shown that any of the Congo cobalt is actually being sourced for use in smartphones or electric cars.

By their logic, I'm supporting Mexican drug cartels if I eat at a restaurant with a decorative antique that came from a store that bought it from a dealer who is actually part of a drug smuggling operation in which some of their antiques are hollowed out and loaded with drugs from Mexico. Mind you, the antique that I saw was a normal one that was never part of the smuggling, but because that dealer's client list includes the store who sold the antique to the restaurant where I ate, I'm participating in the international drug trade. Never mind that we had nothing to do with it at all.

Again, child labor needs to end, but this is ridiculous. Amnesty needs to substantiate their claims with something more than client lists that don't specify what's being sold.

And I am supposed to accept your verdict based on what evidence? Your say-so?

Based on the facts that
- Russia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists

- Russia has one of the lowest press freedom indices in the world

- There is a clampdown taking place in Russia on all independent media
- there are confirmed "Troll Factories" in Russia spreading lies and propaganda on social media across the world

Really, I could provide 500 other sources on all that's wrong with Russian media, but frankly I'm getting tired of fiddling with the A HREF's.

But let me guess, you're Russian (or from a Russian-friendly nation, such as Serbia) and you consume your news mainly from Russian sources?

That's right. Iran is the place of enlightenment and peace. Amnesty international, NOT a right wing group by any possible stretch of the imagination had this to say about Iran.

"The authorities restricted freedoms of expression, association and assembly, arresting, detaining and prosecuting in unfair trials minority and women’s rights activists, journalists, human rights defenders and others who voiced dissent. Torture and other ill-treatment remained prevalent and were committed with impunity. Women and ethnic and religious minorities faced pervasive discrimination in law and practice. Flogging and amputation sentences were reportedly carried out, some in public. Executions continued at a high rate; juvenile offenders were among those executed. Judges continued to impose sentences of execution by stoning, although none were reported to have been carried out."

https://www.amnesty.org/en/cou...

The way you are talking reveals that you have no fucking idea about what Amnesty International is actually doing, and this kind of ignorance is infuriating me, because a simple web search could have given you at least some clue.

I've been a member of AI for a decade now, and there is absolutely no doubt to anyone who actually reads their reports that they are one of the most impartial organizations on earth. Please stop this bullshit about "tearing down the west" and get a life!

Even better, go to the AI page to inform yourself and eventually become a member. You can even do some good without becoming a member, e.g. check out the Urgent Actions programme. You can literally safe lives and prevent people from 'disappearing' by writing simple letters.

Yeah ... I don't think Minecraft is the worst of their problems:
Amnesty International record of Turkey

And while they're at it, Turkey should stop buying oil from ISIS. There's a reason ISIS is the best-funded terror group on the planet ... a handful of countries continue to buy oil from them, which ISIS extracts from fields they took over.

- DETEKT

What is Detekt and how does it work?

"Detekt is a free tool that scans your computer for traces of known surveillance spyware used by governments to target and monitor human rights defenders and journalists around the world. By alerting them to the fact that they are being spied on, they will have the opportunity to take precautions.

It was developed by security researchers and has been used to assist in Citizen Lab's investigations into government use of spyware against human rights defenders, journalists and activists as well as by security trainers to educate on the nature of targeted surveillance.

Amnesty International is partnering with Privacy International, Digitale Gesellschaft and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to release Detekt to the public for the first time."

###

Official Sites:

https://resistsurveillance.org...
https://github.com/botherder/d...
https://github.com/botherder/d...
https://github.com/botherder/d...

- version 1.1 download (Nov 20, 2014) .exe & sig
https://github.com/botherder/d...

###

- Detekt Author's GPG key:

The distributed binary is signed with my personal PGP key, the public key is available at

https://nex.sx/nex.asc

###

- More info/News stories:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/...
http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news...
http://www.amnestyusa.org/news...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://threatpost.com/detekt-...
https://firstlook.org/theinter...
http://www.bbc.com/news/techno...
http://www.zdnet.com/amnestys-...

###

- Author's Twitter Page:

https://twitter.com/botherder

Amnesty International has a terrible track record of attacking Western Democracies disproportionately more so than Dictatorships. I guess they like picking on easy targets, instead of actually trying to make a difference. When is the last time we heard them lobby government action in Africa or the Middle-East?

You mean like this, for Syria, or this, for Iraq, and archived campaigns such as this, for South Sudan, and this, for the Central African Republic?

Amnesty International has a terrible track record of attacking Western Democracies disproportionately more so than Dictatorships. I guess they like picking on easy targets, instead of actually trying to make a difference. When is the last time we heard them lobby government action in Africa or the Middle-East?

You mean like this, for Syria, or this, for Iraq, and archived campaigns such as this, for South Sudan, and this, for the Central African Republic?

Amnesty International has a terrible track record of attacking Western Democracies disproportionately more so than Dictatorships. I guess they like picking on easy targets, instead of actually trying to make a difference. When is the last time we heard them lobby government action in Africa or the Middle-East?

You mean like this, for Syria, or this, for Iraq, and archived campaigns such as this, for South Sudan, and this, for the Central African Republic?

Amnesty International has a terrible track record of attacking Western Democracies disproportionately more so than Dictatorships. I guess they like picking on easy targets, instead of actually trying to make a difference. When is the last time we heard them lobby government action in Africa or the Middle-East?

You mean like this, for Syria, or this, for Iraq, and archived campaigns such as this, for South Sudan, and this, for the Central African Republic?

https://www.amnesty.org/fr/lib...

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

AI Index: MDE 15/021/2009 Embargoed for 00:01 GMT Thursday 02 July 2009

Israel/Gaza: Operation ‘Cast Lead’ - 22 Days of Death and Destruction

Amnesty International found no evidence that rockets were launched from residential houses or buildings while civilians were in these buildings, but Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups at times launched rockets and located military equipment and positions near civilian homes.

Why would you post the photos and no the whole article which includes quotes by several muslim heads condemning those placards or asking for that demonstration to be banned?

Because the Israelis (and their propagandists) lie.

I found that out when I was regularly calling the Israeli embassy to check out stories of human rights abuses.

"What about this case that Amnesty International and B'Tselem described in which an IDF soldier machine-gunned down a Palestinian child?"

"It never happened."

The New York Times, the BBC, Human Rights Watch -- they're all lying.

This goes on even when the evidence becomes overwhelming. In one case, an IDF soldier in a watch tower shot and killed a Palestinian boy playing soccer 400 meters away. B'Tselem did a full investigation, complained to the IDF, and an IDF lawyer wrote to B'Tselem saying that they had reviewed the case and there were no grounds for an investigation.

By mistake, the lawyer included with the letter a memo to her own supervisor in which she said that there were grounds for an investigation. (Just so you know that I'm not making it up, this was in an Amnesty International report http://www.amnesty.org/en/libr...)

It's people like you who enable that mayhem.

The idea that small government is a substitute for good governance is a koch dream. Small government means less oversight. So your dollars go to companies like Shell who destroy ecologies and societies.

Things like regulatory capture happen because people don't pay enough attention to their government, not because it is too big. Money chases power wherever it is. At least with government the money has to put in some work to get what it wants instead of getting it served up on a platter.

Amnesty International has taken over 100 first-hand testimonies of large-scale anti-balaka attacks on Muslim civilians in CAR's northwest towns of Bouali, Boyali, Bossembele, Bossemptele, and Baoro. International troops had failed to deploy to these towns leaving civilian communities without protection. The most lethal attack documented by Amnesty International took place on 18 January in Bossemptele, where at least 100 Muslims were killed. Among the dead were women and old men, including an imam in his mid-70s.

Source: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news...

I dispute that these vigilantes should decide what should be "declassified" or what isn't.... I just strongly object to the methods being used by the anti-secrecy crowd, and I don't trust their motivations at all.

That is a fair enough opinion and nobody can argue with it, it is good to have a healthy dose of skepticism about any information that is presented to us via any channel. However what is more difficult to dispute is when a leaked document reveals heinous war crimes - should focusing on the messenger still be more important than a message of that significance? Also remember that Washington leaks information all the time (for example the Bin Laden operation) - why are leaks that expose crimes be worse than leaks that make the president look good? To most people that just reeks of hypocrisy.

The usual reply to this logic is "what war crimes, there were no war crimes exposed - but look over there - Assange is a narcicist and Manning is a traitor!!". However even a basic search and read of the documents they destroyed their lives to bring to us show that this claim is absolutely false:

Revelations from the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs detailed the use of paramilitary death squads, complicity in the torture of Iraqi citizens, the indiscriminate killing of civilians by private military contractors and many other abuses. Meanwhile, the leaked State Department cables brought to light scores of secret drone strikes in countries we are not even at war with, and uncovered the collusion between the U.S. and Yemini governments to lie about American responsibility for the massacre of 41 people in the Al-Majalah region. They also revealed U.S. interference with judicial efforts in Spain to investigate the Bush administration's torture practices. In Tunisia, leaks exposing the opulence and corruption of Ben Ali's government were a catalyst for the revolution that brought down the repressive regime and ignited other pro-democracy movements throughout the Arab world. The list could go on but the point is simple: it would have been a disservice to democracy to withhold this important information.

According to this release, David Miranda is a Guardian employee. Anyone know if that's right, or a reporting glitch?

The promise is a specific stipulation. Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights bars Britain and the other signatories from extraditing prisoners if they could face capital punishment. There is no death penalty in any of the 15 member nations of the European Union.

This is an attempt to eliminate willing participation of these 15 EU member states, and other states with similar laws and policies, as potential havens for Snowden on the basis of a possible U.S. death penalty or torture of the extradited person.

See: http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/extradition.cfm and: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/171/2001/en

The latter document is available in English, Spanish, and Arabic.

Sure...Panama is good except when they use excessive force to quell protesters and kill innocent civilians. Or when they take a page out of the textbook from the early years of the United States and force indigenous peoples to relocate in order to build a dam.

Costa Rica is neato unless you can't have children and want to use science. Also, make sure you're not gay.

This was a 5 minute search. Not saying that the US is better...just saying that these aren't better either necessarily.

tasers are only less than lethal when they don't kill. they kill fairly regularly. See here

Unfortunately, its got to the point now that people complain that capitol punishment using the same anesthesia used during surgeries is "cruel and unusual", because the condemned might suffer a tiny bit of discomfort somewhere.

Yeah, that's why people complain that capitol punishment is "cruel and unusual".

Maybe take a look at what people are actually saying.

No, the death of Ned Agha-Soltan is widely disputed.

Disputed? Yes. Widely? No. It's disputed by the mullahs and their supporters. Who, incidentally, have banned prayers for her, and are probably responsible for repeatedly descrating her grave.

I should also mention that dehumanization of Muslims is a nasty policy and that has nothing to do with criticism. It's used a part of harassment policy that Muslims face in the west and also a tool for covering up everyday killings of Muslim civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan and many other countries. When they are call animals (monkeys, etc) who cares about many of them who are killed by US attacks everyday by various weapons ranging from rifles to missiles and drones.

Funny, none of my relatives in the US (some Muslims, and some who aren't but would likely be assumed to be Muslims due to their ethnicity) have ever, to my knowledge, been harassed at all. If anything, when the subject has come up, they're rather less worried about it than most people. And the "Ahmadinejad is a monkey" meme originated in Iran.

While the taser is going to hurt like hell while it's on, there's only the most remote possibility of lasting physical injury.

Hundreds of people have been killed by taser attacks.

Using manual force, on the other hand, is high risk. You can dislocate things, break bones, cause soft tissue damage, and so on.

If your cops have a high risk of doing serious injury to people while restraining them, then you need to train your cops better.

I find it hilarious tat Amnesty and other similar non-sense organizations claim to be the voice of the obressed but at the same time turn their backs on the real issues like this. Instead, they concentrate on issues such as educated European women not getting the same compensation, domestic abuse of women in Europe (ignoring domestic abuse of men) or the rights of lesbians in the most tolerate countries in the world.

Is this really the Amnesty today?

http://www.amnesty.org/en/ai_search?keywords=saudi+arabia&op=Search

Gives me:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/womens-rights

Support women in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, women cannot travel, undertake paid work or higher education, or marry without a male guardian’s permission. From June 2011, scores of Saudi Arabian women supported a campaign against the ban on female drivers by getting behind the wheel. Some were arrested and made to sign pledges not to repeat the offence and at least one woman tried and sentenced to 10 lashes.

Why do you think Amnesty is ignoring this?

I find it hilarious tat Amnesty and other similar non-sense organizations claim to be the voice of the obressed but at the same time turn their backs on the real issues like this. Instead, they concentrate on issues such as educated European women not getting the same compensation, domestic abuse of women in Europe (ignoring domestic abuse of men) or the rights of lesbians in the most tolerate countries in the world.

Is this really the Amnesty today?

http://www.amnesty.org/en/ai_search?keywords=saudi+arabia&op=Search

Gives me:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/womens-rights

Support women in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, women cannot travel, undertake paid work or higher education, or marry without a male guardian’s permission. From June 2011, scores of Saudi Arabian women supported a campaign against the ban on female drivers by getting behind the wheel. Some were arrested and made to sign pledges not to repeat the offence and at least one woman tried and sentenced to 10 lashes.

Why do you think Amnesty is ignoring this?

Somneone should tell Amnesty International.

Israel is the occupying power in the Gaza Strip. In 2005, as part of what it termed âoedisengagementâ from Gaza, Israel removed its settlements and settlers. Yet despite the redeployment of its troops in 2005, the Israeli army has retained effective control over the Gaza Strip. Israel maintains sole control of Gazaâ(TM)s airspace and territorial waters and does not allow any movement of people or goods in or out of Gaza via air or sea. Israel also continues to exercise a degree of control over Gazaâ(TM)s border with Egypt and Israeli officials have repeatedly made it clear that this border can only be reopened within the framework of a joint agreement with the Palestinian Authority and Egypt.1Israel also continues to control electricity, water and telecommunications in Gaza. It has regularly conducted raids in Gaza, often arresting âoewantedâ men; and carrying out so-called âoetargeted killingsâ, in air strikes which have claimed a high toll on civilians.

1. "invaded neighboring countries" -- only after being attacked first.

Most often there are guerrilla or terrorist attacks by a small gang, and then Israel retaliates against a nation-State. Ties between the two are always claimed, but rarely substantiated.

And, of course, we're talking about this because Israeli government people keep talking about an unprovoked attack on Iran.

why should Israel stop construction on land it conquered in a defensive conflict if Palestinians never make any serious attempt at peace.

Because it will never win peace with the "but we're the conquerors" attitude. The people who live there have too little to lose and there's too much tribal hatred. The only two solutions that can work are zero or two states, and that's even doubtful. I realize that Britain and the UN royally screwed up the region but just because people draw lines on a map doesn't mean that it will work in the long term. Oh, I guess there is another option: extermination of the Palestinians, but that has to be 100% thorough to be considered successful.

Palestinians are not Israel's people.

Oh, so they're not under Israel's jurisdiction? Israel sure acts like they are. All that matters, in actuality, is who is the controlling military force over an area.

Those in the west bank are governed by Fatah and those in Gaza by Hamas. Becuase they do not hold Israeli citizenship, of course they do not have the same rights in israel. As an American, I do not have the same rights in the EU. That's not apartheid and comparing it to racial separation is offensive.

Wait, how many Israelis are living in the refugee camps? How many Israelis are subject to the blockade on Gaza? For those unfamiliar with the situation, here' some background.

Are you saying that it's not true that 99%+ of the people affected by Israel's blockade are Arabs?

While you are correct in citing the examples you did about Ecuador, many of those same organizations have slammed the UK and US for their abuses of power against journalists, protestors and dissidents. If you were an Ecuadoran citizen and read this about the United States or this about the UK you'd probably feel safer staying put.

While you are correct in citing the examples you did about Ecuador, many of those same organizations have slammed the UK and US for their abuses of power against journalists, protestors and dissidents. If you were an Ecuadoran citizen and read this about the United States or this about the UK you'd probably feel safer staying put.

I won't speak to capital punishment rates, since in many US states capital punishment is a de facto life sentence.

However, America was no higher than 5th in executions per capita in 2011.

The United States carried out 43 of the world's 676 or more officially-acknowledged executions last year.

Some countries with higher totals:

* Iraq - 68
* Iran - 360 or more
* Saudi Arabia - 82

Some smaller countries with higher rates than America:
* Yemen - 41 or more executions

Source:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/news/death-penalty-2011-alarming-levels-executions-few-countries-kill-2012-03-27

Tell me more about the status of the Roma in your racially equal utopia. Here let me help:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/world/europe/17roma.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/forced-evictions-of-Roma-in-Italy

http://m.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/18/dale-farm-travellers-lifestyle?cat=uk&type=article

Excellent impression of a Zionist troll. Most of the world has been sick and tired of Israel's bullshit for some time now, with only the U.S. government (and it's Security Council veto pen) keeping it's ass out of the fire.

Real nice. Your family must be SO proud.

I don't typically respond to such hate-filled bigoted trolls like yourself, but I see your kind of ignorance, intolerance, & hatred too much these days to allow it to pass without a well-deserved smack-down.

So tell me Mr. Anonymous Coward, why don't you put a username behind your post in favor of treating women like chattel, killing gays, and establishing an Islamic theocracy to rule the world?

Could it be that you ARE a bigoted, ignorant, intolerant, narrow-minded, hate-filled coward? Yes, you most certainly are, and you just proved it to the world.

I guess he touched a nerve, huh? Overreaction much? I notice you didn't even address the point he made either, just pounded on the table and screamed about racism.

If you honestly believe that Israel is a bastion of all that is good and right with the world then you have extremely low standards, or you're an actual resident and are blinded by standard nationalism.

Israel may be nice to live in, I wouldn't know, I do know that Israel has been slowly stealing land from Gaza and Palestine with it's "settlement program" and that objections to such are met with white-phosphor explosives dropped on civilians. That looks like a deliberate attempt to exterminate people they don't like and then claim an accident rather than massacre, I can only suppose they felt they wouldn't get away with Chlorine or Mustard Gas. You don't get to ride the high-horse whilst being face down in the mud.

Well, we do have an excellent track record when it comes to human rights.

There's a campaign to help this man: https://peoplewithoutnation.wordpress.com/

Most recently, there's an appeal to write to the Prime Minister of Canada, who hasn't yet spoken out in support of Saeed:
https://peoplewithoutnation.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/take-action-write-a-letter-to-stephen-harper-canadas-prime-minister/

The death sentence could be carried out imminently.

Saeed Malekpour was in Iran to visit his gravely ill father. He was waiting for Canadian citizenship and the Iranian regime are aiming to make an example of him, having tortured him and denied him due process. I think the Canadian government does have a particular moral duty to stand up for him under the circumstances, although really all democratic governments ought to oppose this sort of thing.

The Iranian regime seems to have an interest in intimidating the population (and making an example out of cases that are highly-publicised internally, such as this one) since there's an election coming up in March, as well as the general interest in keeping the population scared.

Amnesty also have some information on the case:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/iran-must-halt-execution-web-programmer-2012-01-19

I'm just piecing together some information I've found here, I'm not connected to the case.

Why, yes I can, Dora, as if it mattered.

Oh, good. I only mentioned it because it's often said that US-ians only learn of geography via invasion. Cool. You're improving.

... here's why Ethiopia sucks

Haaaa, ha, ha, ha, ha, funny. Okay, I'll see your "poisoning the well" and raise you "argument from authority", here and here.

Amnesty International is an advocacy organization. They advocate. It's what they do for a living. I see nothing wrong with that and applaud their efforts, but they're going to find something wrong with everywhere, including some of the most benign regions out there (Canucks and Danes are generally not known recently for Imperial ambitions).

Maybe I should have asked, "who hates Ethiopia enough to want to invade it and kill 200k civilians doing it?" Nobody! So, I think I'll stand by my condemnation of your, "Wow... that's like a Who's Who of suck." I've actually even been to Sudan, and loved the place so much I didn't want to leave. No, I'm not a fan of Bashir, but I found it fairly easy to ignore him, and soon he'll be dead. :-)

Love the country and its people, but hate the assholes that're ruining the place.

Why, yes I can, Dora, as if it mattered.

Oh, good. I only mentioned it because it's often said that US-ians only learn of geography via invasion. Cool. You're improving.

... here's why Ethiopia sucks

Haaaa, ha, ha, ha, ha, funny. Okay, I'll see your "poisoning the well" and raise you "argument from authority", here and here.

Amnesty International is an advocacy organization. They advocate. It's what they do for a living. I see nothing wrong with that and applaud their efforts, but they're going to find something wrong with everywhere, including some of the most benign regions out there (Canucks and Danes are generally not known recently for Imperial ambitions).

Maybe I should have asked, "who hates Ethiopia enough to want to invade it and kill 200k civilians doing it?" Nobody! So, I think I'll stand by my condemnation of your, "Wow... that's like a Who's Who of suck." I've actually even been to Sudan, and loved the place so much I didn't want to leave. No, I'm not a fan of Bashir, but I found it fairly easy to ignore him, and soon he'll be dead. :-)

Love the country and its people, but hate the assholes that're ruining the place.

Why, yes I can, Dora, as if it mattered.

Oh, good. I only mentioned it because it's often said that US-ians only learn of geography via invasion. Cool. You're improving.

... here's why Ethiopia sucks

Haaaa, ha, ha, ha, ha, funny. Okay, I'll see your "poisoning the well" and raise you "argument from authority", here and here.

Amnesty International is an advocacy organization. They advocate. It's what they do for a living. I see nothing wrong with that and applaud their efforts, but they're going to find something wrong with everywhere, including some of the most benign regions out there (Canucks and Danes are generally not known recently for Imperial ambitions).

Maybe I should have asked, "who hates Ethiopia enough to want to invade it and kill 200k civilians doing it?" Nobody! So, I think I'll stand by my condemnation of your, "Wow... that's like a Who's Who of suck." I've actually even been to Sudan, and loved the place so much I didn't want to leave. No, I'm not a fan of Bashir, but I found it fairly easy to ignore him, and soon he'll be dead. :-)

Love the country and its people, but hate the assholes that're ruining the place.