A federal appeals court has refused to hear the case blogger and freelance journalist, Josh Wolf, who now could end up spending almost a year in prison for his refusal to turn over unedited video of a San Francisco protest he filmed over a year ago.

Wolf posted footage of the 2005 violent protest on his blog, which was picked up by local and national media. During the filmed incident , a police car was vandalized.

Though Wolf denies he filmed the actual attack on the police car, in September a federal judge ordered him to testify and turn over all of the footage, which he refused. According to the new ruling, if he doesn’t turn over the footage and his sources, he will remain in custody until July 2007, when the grand jury expires.

Lucie Morillon, of Reporters Without Borders calls the Federal appeals court decision “absurd.” (more…)

In the fall of 2005, the generals running the Iraq war told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a gradual withdrawal of American troops from Iraq was imperative.

The American troop presence, Gen. John P. Abizaid and Gen. George W. Casey Jr. said at the time, was stoking the insurgency, fostering dependency among the Iraqi security forces and proving counterproductive for what General Abizaid has called “The Long War” against Islamic radicalism.

This week, General Abizaid, chief of the United States Central Command, told the same committee that American forces may be all that is preventing full-scale civil war in Iraq, so a phased troop withdrawal would be a mistake. What has changed, military experts and intelligence officials say, is that the insurgency of Baathists and foreign jihadists is no longer the greatest enemy the United States faces in Iraq. The biggest danger now, they say, is that violence between Shiites and Sunnis could destroy Iraq’s government and spill across the Middle East. (more…)

GOLDEN, Colo. — A judge has upheld a homeowners association’s order barring a couple from smoking in the town house they own.

Colleen and Rodger Sauve, both smokers, filed a lawsuit in March after their condominium association amended its bylaws last December to prohibit smoking.

“We argued that the HOA was not being reasonable in restricting smoking in our own unit, nowhere on the premises, not in the parking lot or on our patio,” Colleen Sauve said. (more…)

Tony Blair admitted that British intervention in Iraq has been a disaster last night - sending shockwaves through Westminster.

In his frankest admission about the war to date, Mr Blair admitted that Western forces have been powerless to stop the descent into violence.

The Prime Minister stopped short of accepting the blame for plunging Iraq to the brink of civil war - blaming instead the insurgent uprising that has killed 125 British troops.

But his admission in an interview with the Arab new channel Al Jazeera will be seen as an historic climbdown for Mr Blair, who has always fought to put a positive gloss on often disastrous events. (more…)

Russia on Saturday warned the international community against pushing Iran and North Korea “into a corner” amid ongoing efforts to halt their nuclear ambitions.
“I think the world community must go very carefully — firmly but carefully — on resolving the problem of the Korean peninsula and resolving the Iranian nuclear problem,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“Because if we can now find a mutually acceptable accord, then this allows us to strengthen the non-proliferation regime,” he told reporters at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam.

“But if we push this or that situation into a corner, then the threat of proliferation significantly heightens.” (more…)

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that potential dangers from the rapidly growing biotechnology industry were increasing exponentially and urged creating global safeguards.

Annan, speaking on Saturday in the Swiss university town, warned of “catastrophic” results if recent advances in biotechnology, including gene manipulation and work with viruses, fell into the wrong hands.

“As biological research expands, and technologies become increasingly accessible, this potential for accidental or intentional harm grows exponentially,” he said in the text of a speech.

“Even novices working in small laboratories will be able to carry out gene manipulation.” (more…)

Melburnians are being subjected to unprecedented surveillance, with pedestrians in the CBD snapped by at least two security cameras every minute.

As new research names Australia among the most watched societies in the Western world, a Sunday Herald Sun tally found Melbourne’s eight most central city blocks contain no fewer than 95 cameras — with almost 350 more spread across the city centre.

Popular restaurant and shopping strips in Carlton, Prahran, South Melbourne and Richmond also have dozens of cameras watching public footpaths.

An average of two cameras per minute were spotted during a walk through the inner city this week. (more…)

“Hegemony is as old as Mankind…” -Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. National Security Advisor

The term “New Middle East” was introduced to the world in June 2006 in Tel Aviv by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (who was credited by the Western media for coining the term) in replacement of the older and more imposing term, the “Greater Middle East.” (more…)

BALTIMORE — Thirteen anti-war activists cited in July for protesting outside the National Security Agency headquarters at Fort Meade plan to use their trial to question the agency’s monitoring of nonviolent groups.

The activists are charged with entering a military installation for illegal purposes, which carries a maximum six-month sentence and a $5,000 fine.

Six were arraigned Friday at U.S. District Court in Baltimore. The other seven were granted waivers that excuse them from appearing in court until their trial, which is scheduled for Feb. 9, said Max Obuszewski, one of the activists who was arraigned.

“We’re going to try to turn this into a political trial,” Obuszewski said. (more…)

LOS ANGELES — An attorney who was part of a review of excessive force complaints following the Rodney King beating will investigate a UCLA police officer’s use of a Taser on an Iranian-American student, the school said Friday.

The move came in response to student demands voiced earlier Friday at a news conference and subsequent rally, where speakers said the shocking of Mostafa Tabatabainejad, 23, sent a chill across the campus.

“As students we feel our safety is endangered, and we do not feel safe on campus,” said Sabiha Ameen, president of the Muslim Students Association. (more…)

Democrats soft on illegal immigration

Remember the congressional vote to build a wall across part of the U.S.-Mexico border? Maybe it was all a con.

In September, the House of Representatives voted, 283-138, and the Senate, 80-19, to authorize about 700 miles of fencing. Mission accomplished for border security? Not quite.

For one thing, the wall covered only a third of the U.S.-Mexico frontier. For another, Congress only authorized the wall - it didn’t fund it. (The cost is estimated as between $4 billion and $8 billion.)

Those who spearheaded the September wall vote, including Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, were perfectly sincere. But come 2007, Tancredo & Co. will no longer be in charge. The chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, for example, will shift from Rep. Peter King of New York, an immigration hawk, to Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, an immigration dove. (more…)

From Al Kamen’s column in The Washington Post:Seemed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had barely left his Oval Office firing ceremony when the Pentagon Web site popped up with a new feature titled “Six Years of Accomplishments” with Rummy.

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Holland is to become the first country in Europe to ban the burqa after the government announced plans to introduce legislation outlawing the head-to-toe Islamic garment “within days”.

The cabinet decreed yesterday that it posed a “terrorist threat” because it prevented the wearers’ face being identified. The ban is likely to extend to all face-covering veils and prevent anyone “appearing in public with covered facial features”.

Rita Verdonk, the hard-line immigration minister known as “Iron Rita”, has made no secret of her dislike of the garment, which she believes “aids and abets the repression of women”. (more…)

US President George W. Bush warned Saturday that the United States and its allies will not tolerate transfers of nuclear technology by North Korea to hostile regimes and terrorist groups.
In his weekly radio address, Bush said he intended to continue to cooperate on the North Korean nuclear issue with his counterparts in China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.

“In my meetings with leaders in the region, we discussed the threat of proliferation from North Korea. After North Korea’s recent nuclear test, the United Nations Security Council passed a unanimous resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea’s regime, and America is working with our partners to enforce those sanctions. (more…)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The U.S. military on Friday said it plans to build a $125 million compound at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base where it hopes to hold war-crimes trials for terror suspects by the middle of next year.

The compound, designed to accommodate as many as 1,200 people, would include dining areas, work spaces and sleeping accommodations for administrative personnel, lawyers, journalists and others involved in trials at the isolated detention center in southeast Cuba.

It would create a total of three courtrooms on the base to allow for simultaneous trials, and a separate high-security area to house the detainees on trial.

“We need to build more courtrooms, and we want to do multiple trials,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler, a Pentagon spokesman. He said the government hopes to begin construction as soon as possible to be ready for trials no later than July 1. (more…)