The CIA and Shannon airport

My friend Ian has noted that it is disturbing how little media attention is on the current extraordinary rendition case being heard in Italy. Extraordinary rendition is the process whereby the CIA kidnaps people, and detains them extrajudicially. These people are often subject to torture. It really is that stark. The US is having people abducted from the streets of EU constitutional democracies without the knowledge of the domestic governments, and subsequently tortured.

I just want to note an Irish connection in this issue. Last summer, the Council of Europe rapporteur, Dick Marty, included Ireland's Shannon airport in a map of "secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers". The Irish government response is basically to say that they trust the Americans and everything will be grand. Irish Foreign Affairs minister Dermot Ahern accepted the assurances of Condoleeza Rice that Shannon was not used as a transit point for the CIA's abductees.

The US Air Force at Shannon

In February of this year, the European Parliament rejected Dermot Ahern's position and called for a Dáil inquiry into Ireland's role in instances of extraordinary rendition. In 2005, Amnesty International reported that 800 secret CIA flights had used European airspace, and noted evidence about specific flights in which Shannon airport was used as a stopover.

Independent news from African-American Los Angeles

After covering a story down the street, a Hood News reporter shoots footage of the LAPD shooting at a homeless man who was running away from them. The police tried to stop Hood News from filming and argued with the reporter.

I came across this after watching a message from the stars of the NBA to the youth of the urban ghettos of the US. A few black basketball stars who had grown up in the hood had some words for these African-American communities. In this other Hood News video, the crew also try to interview the young star LeBron James and are snubbed. The crew dismiss James as 'Hollywood' when he refuses an interview. The reporter said that James was refusing to address a "community in poverty, and up and coming youth" as LeBron James stood behind him, and then called to James to give a shout out on Hood News, but was totally ignored as James got into his car. The reporter reckoned he was on a "solo mission" and it was "a disappointment to the black culture, and minorities". See also details of LeBron's dance-off defeat, below.

More graffiti from indymedia

Indymedia is an independent news website, run on the basis of 'open publishing', whereby any reader of the site can comment on any news story, and even publish stories themselves (once they're within the editorial guidelines).

Periodically, a contributor called 'Noise Hacker' posts up a series of photos of graffiti on the site. The pictures are incredibly colourful, and shows that there is some very impressive artistic stuff out there. For my first posts in June, I decided to upload a few of these pictures. I'm not for a second suggesting that I've any links to any graf 'scene' - I just think they're some pretty cool photos.

There's plenty more where these came from: to find them, just search for Noise Hacker on indymedia.ie, like this:
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Graffiti from indymedia

Some graffiti images from www.indymedia.ie; hope you find them as groovy as I do:

I particularly like the last one as it's from Dolphin's Barn, where I got involved in a community gardening project.