Whistleblower on Military Spying on US Peace Activ
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Whistleblower on Military Spying on US Peace Activists
Investigating Reports
By MWC NEWS
Thursday, 30 July 2009
The news of peace activists in Olympia, Washington exposing Army spying, infiltration and intelligence gathering on their groups may strengthen congressional demands for a full-scale investigation of US intelligence activities like those of the 1970s. We speak with law professor and former Army whistleblower Christopher Pyle, whose 1970 disclosure of the military’s widespread surveillance of civilian groups triggered scores of congressional probes, including the Church Committee hearings, where he served as an investigator.
Sometimes you just have to shake your head and wonder how the human race has avoided self-extinction and prospered on the planet. That is to say some groups of people, normally spurred on by governments, but not always, ignore obvious ways to resolve a dilemma peacefully, undertake irrational wars that devastate all sides and innocents to boot, and then ultimately find the previously ignored solution for peace. Ugh!
In 1935, a French politician asked Joseph Stalin to appease the Pope by tolerating Catholicism in the Soviet Union, where atheism was the state “religion.” Stalin roared “The Pope! How many divisions has he got?”
A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times carried a fascinating article that detailed the pride that a particular torturer took in doing his job well. The man expressed “pride in the efficiency” with which he did his job. As he put it, “In my entire life, if I do something, I’ll do it properly.” As a boy, he said that was “well-disciplined” and “respected the teachers and did good deeds.”
Iranian riot police have used sticks and batons in an attempt to disperse hundreds of opposition supporters gathering to mourn protesters killed in unrest after a disputed presidential election, witnesses said.
The authorities in China appear to have mounted a sweeping crackdown on human rights lawyers, revoking the licences of more than 50 lawyers in the past week.
At least 15 people have been killed and 16 others injured in two separate explosions in Baquba, the provincial city of Diyala, and in the twon of al-Qaeim in Anbar province, near the Syrian border.
The South Korean government has called on North Korea to quickly release a South Korean fishing boat and its four crew members, hours after the vessel crossed the countries' eastern sea border and was seized.
An outbreak of drug-resistant malaria in western Cambodia poses a major threat to global efforts to eradicate the mosquito-born disease, the World Health Organisation has warned.
The US government has said it is willing to release into foreign custody one of the youngest prisoners being held at its military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
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