[This article is part of a cover story package on the plight of the stateless in the July 5 issue of The Christian Science Monitor weekly magazine.] The victims of shifting borders, politics, or the happenstance of birthplace, the world's 12 million stateless people and their need to become a citizen are rising on the international human rights agenda. Until she graduated from high school, Sonia Camilise never had reason to question her nationality. She was born here in the Dominican Republic and grew up speaking Spanish, dancing merengue, and watching the boys play baseball in the grassy lot outside her family's small house. "I am Dominican," she says. "Of course." But two years ago, when she went to get a certified copy of her birth certificate – a necessary part of the college application process here – she discovered that her government had a different perspective. The civil registry officers told her that she was not Dominican, but Haitian.

The purpose of this archive is to permanently document public statements made pertaining to the 1953 coup in Iran. These testimonies have significant historical value, revealing international attitudes and perspectives, past and present, on a key event in Iranian, British and American history. When an American or British leader or representative acknowledges the coup in any way, they are admitting to their nation's conspiracy in a supreme international crime for which no restitution has ever been paid. If the atrocity of 1953 were ever tried by an international tribunal court (a la the Nuremberg Trials), these testimonies would be admissable as confessions.

"In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government." - President Barack Obama - June 4, 2009

Funny thing is, we can't seem to find "America" mentioned in the original versions...

2 Chronicles 7:14: 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

CNN's Anderson Cooper discusses how the Obama administration is limiting access by the media to areas affected by the BP Macondo well spill.

CLG: Felony charges, big fines for reporting within Gulf oil spill zone. Can you *imagine* the outrage -- and protests -- if Bush threatened reporters and photographers with felony charges and fines, as Barack Obama is doing in the Gulf of Mexico? It makes my head *spin* to think of how fast the left would be up in arms. But when Obama lays down and dies for his corporaterrorist paymasters day after day and suspends the First Amendment, the so-called 'left' remains silent. Oh. Not to mention, his thriving assassination squads, busy little CIA bees hunting down US citizens who allegedly support 'terrorism.'

Brazilian authorities rescued more than 4,500 slaves from captivity last year, carrying out a record number of raids on remote ranches and plantations, according to figures released this week by the country's work ministry. The government said its anti-slavery taskforce, a roaming unit designed to crack down on modern-day slavery, had freed 4,634 workers from slave-like conditions in 2008. The taskforce, which often works with armed members of the federal police, said it had undertaken 133 missions and visited 255 different farms in 2008. The ministry said former slaves had been paid £2.4m in compensation. Brazil officially abolished slavery in 1888 but activists believe thousands of impoverished Brazilians are still being lured into debt slavery.

AWIP/Denis Rancourt: They’re not just pigs. BackOfTheBook: How I Got Arrested and Abused at the G20 in Toronto, Canada.

The recordings that expose the murky world of France's super-rich Jewish L'Oréal heiress could have come from the pen of Molière. The following story could have been written by the 17th-century French playwright Molière. It is the tragi-comic tale of a deaf and confused 87-year-old heiress, surrounded by quarrelling and mutually detesting advisers and favourites who may or may not also be predators. The play could be entitled The Bewildered Billionairess. It's set not in the 17th century, however, but in the very recent past – between 25 May 2009 and 11 May 2010, to be precise. The extracts are, in fact, taken from the transcripts of real conversations secretly recorded by the old woman's former butler. The 100 hours of tapes have created a political scandal in France. They threaten to bring down a senior cabinet minister, Eric Woerth, and could deal a fatal blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy's already limping presidency. The tapes may become the principal exhibit in an explosive trial – which opened last week and then adjourned – and could also decide the future of the world's largest cosmetics company, L'Oréal.

19 November 2009

Mr de Maistre explains to Ms Bettencourt that he should ensure that her favourite grandson takes over the family stake in L'Oréal.

PdeM: The Angelli family did that. It's the grandson, John Elkann, who took over.

LB: Is that a Jewish name?

PdeM: Yes. Isn't that odd? They are always where the money is. [He laughs.]

LB: I am not anti-Semitic at all. [Her daughter, Françoise, is married to a rabbi's son, Jean-Pierre Meyers.]

VENEZUELA WATCH OUT: Militaryless, democratic, non-conflict-having Costa Rica is the new front in the United States’ War on Inanimate Objects. The country’s national assembly has given the OK for a veritable US invasion force to enter Costa Rican territory: 7,000 marines on 46 warships, including the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship the USS Makin Island. La Nación quotes a document from the US Embassy that states that, “The US personnel in Costa Rica will be able to enjoy freedom of movement and the right to carry out the activities that they consider necessary to complete their mission.” Well isn’t that just permissively vague. [How can a country be so shockingly spineless, so...amoebic?

Finland has made access to broadband connections to the internet a legal right for every one of its citizens in the first legislation of its kind anywhere in the world. From today, all Finns will have the right to a 1 megabit per second (Mbps) broadband connection. Under the new law, telecommunications companies will be obliged to provide all citizens with broadband lines that can run at a minimum of 1Mbps. In addition, the government has promised that by 2015, the entire population will have a 100Mbps connection. Suvi Linden, the country's communications minister, said the internet was part of everyday life for Finnish people and that high speed internet access was a priority for the government. "Internet services are no longer just for entertainment," she told the BBC. "Finland has worked hard to develop an information society and a couple of years ago we realised not everyone had access." Up to 96 per cent of the population is already online and only about 4,000 homes will need to be connected to comply with the law. However, the plan means it will be difficult for the authorities to cut off people suspected of illegal file-sharing. Instead of restricting internet access, the Finnish government plans to send letters to anyone breaking piracy laws. AWIP/Maidhc Ó Cathail: Guess Who Wants to Kill the Internet?

Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has said the Islamic Republic will strike back if Iranian cargo ships come under inspection. "Iran will retaliate if some countries want to use violent ways to inspect Iranian ships which carry goods," Larijani said in an interview with Mehr news agency on Saturday. The UN Security Council passed a US-sponsored anti-Iran resolution on June 9 that imposes restrictions on the Iranian shipping industry in addition to other sectors. Under the new sanctions regime, "countries" have the authority illegitimate power to inspect cargo ships, heading to or from Iran, in their own territorial waters.

The allegations of torture by British soldiers in Iraq bear chilling comparison with America's worst excesses. The inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa is due to report by the end of the year. It will detail how Mousa died in Iraq in September 2003, allegedly brutalised by British soldiers in a "free for all"; and how it was that he and nine other men in the same incident were allegedly hooded, forced into painful stress positions, and deprived of sleep, food and water.

Under Barack Obama, the former professor of constitutional law, Americans’ civil liberties have shrunken drastically – to the point that his administration claims the right to execute its citizens without charge or due process of any recognizable kind. And citizens that leave the country cannot be sure they will be allowed back in. But where is the outrage among Democrats, when Obama out-Bushes Bush? “It seems that Democrats did not in fact feel any affront to Bush policies, only to his party affiliation.”

Corrie, a U.S. citizen, was struck and killed in 2003 by a bulldozer as she and other activists tried to prevent the razing of Gaza homes. "We write also to inform you," the Corrie family added, "of the longstanding, U. S. government position that Israel has failed to conduct a thorough, credible and transparent investigation into our daughter’s killing and that after repeated attempts at the highest levels, U.S. officials have been unable to secure such an investigation." Rachel Corrie's parents' then said they believed it was "important that Israel’s raid on the flotilla be investigated independently," adding that "while the Israeli Government has a responsibility to conduct its own internal investigation, our experience leads us to believe that Israel cannot be counted upon to reliably investigate itself." AWIP/Yousef Munayyer: Israel cannot conduct its own investigation. Al Jazeera: The myth of Israeli morality.

When the UN refused to agree to the severe sanctions that the U.S. wanted, Obama responded with typical Bush flair and went solo. The new U.S. sanctions against Iran — signed into law by Obama on July 1st — are an unmistakable act of war. If fully enforced, Iran’s economy will be potentially destroyed. The New York Times outlines the central parts of the sanctions:

“The law signed by Mr. Obama imposes penalties on foreign entities that sell refined petroleum to Iran or assist Iran with its domestic refining capacity. It also requires that American and foreign businesses that seek contracts with the United States government certify that they do not engage in prohibited business with Iran.” (July 1, 2010).

Iran must import the majority of its oil from foreign corporations and nations, since it does not have the technology needed to refine the fuel that it pumps from its soil. By cutting this refined oil off, the U.S. will be causing massive, irreparable damage to the Iranian economy — equaling an act of war. Antiwar: Outgoing UN Nuclear Inspector Pushed Dubious Iran Nuclear Weapons Intel. PrisonPlanet: Israel Suspected in Bogus Claim Iran Developing Nuclear Trigger.