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Interview with Kevin Annett

Kevin Annett is a former United Church minister in Vancouver, Canada, who was fired without cause in 1995, and then expelled from the same church without due process, after he had unearthed evidence of the theft of native land by church officers, and of the murder of native children at the United Church residential school in Port Alberni, British Columbia, where Kevin ministered.

Since his firing and blacklisting by the United Church, Reverend Annett has worked as an advocate and counsellor in aboriginal healing circles on the west coast. He organized the first international Tribunal into Canadian residential schools in Vancouver in June, 1998, at which a United Nations affiliate, IHRAAM, presided.

Reverend Annett is working with aboriginal and human rights groups around the world in an effort to bring charges of complicity in Genocide against the government of Canada, the Anglican, United and Roman Catholic churches, and the RCMP. He is serving as the secretary of the recently-established Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, has authored a book about his experiences, “Love and Death in the Valley”, and co-produced the documentary “Unrepentent” about the church’s coverup in the genocide of 50,000 Native Americans.

“John LeKay: When you first arrived at your new parish and were invited to conduct a wedding ceremony at the native reserve; you asked a native man by the name of Danny Gus – why there were no natives showing up for mass on Sunday. He turned around and said “because they killed my friend, he is buried up in the hills behind the church”. What was your initial reaction when you heard this?

Kevin Annett: Disbelief. I wanted proof but didn’t know where to look for it.”

(via Heyoka Magazine)

Aishah Ali’s Interview with Geoscientist Leuren Moret

March 23, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“Ever since she knew about the devastating effects of radiation and depleted uranium pollution on the world as a result of nuclear weapons, geoscientist Leuren Moret has been on a crusade to stop wars and weapons testing. The War Crimes Conference and Exhibition held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur recently was eye-opening and conscience-raising in its condemnation of the atrocities of war. During the three-day event, attendees gained insight into the horrors of past conflicts and the impending threat to our future if wars continue. Among the many impassioned pledges was a move to establish a War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia this year and try U.S. President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard for their roles in initiating the illegal Iraq war.

The Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalize War is a global movement introduced several years ago by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia. The February War Crimes Conference is the most recent of the annual events organized by the Perdana Global Peace Forum. The event fielded distinguished speakers who shared their expertise and showcased a number of war victims from Iraq and Palestine who gave a human face to the grim discourse with their heartrending testimonies.

Among the eloquent speakers was geoscientist and international radiation specialist Leuren Moret, who gave a startling revelation about the effects of radiation and how our global environment has been contaminated from atomic bomb testing since 1945 to the present, and how this pollution has sharply increased since the U.S. introduced depleted uranium (DU) weapons to the battlefields for the first time with the 1991 Persian Gulf War. This, she says, has caused a world epidemic of cancer, diabetes, neuro-muscular diseases, chronic fatigue syndrome, diseases of the heart and brain and infertility.

A U.S. nuclear weapons lab whistle blower, Moret has spoken in 46 countries as she feels it is her obligation to share the devastating results of her research, which she began after working at two nuclear weapons laboratories in California from the 1970s to 1991. What she has to say will not only shock, but also answer the question we have always asked: why are so many people suffering from cancer and unexplained diseases of the heart, brain and nervous system these days?”

Heyoka Magazine: Aishah Ali’s interview with geoscientist Leuren Moret

Exposed to Military Chemical and Biological Warfare Tests, They Walk Among Us

March 3, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“Thousands of people who may have been exposed to chemical or biological agents during military tests remain unaccounted for, and the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs have given up on tracking them down, according to a new report.

Some of the tests were conducted as part of a weapons testing program known as “Project 112,” in others, individuals were intentionally exposed to hazardous substances such as blister, nerve, and biological agents as well as LSD and PCP, according to a Government Accounting Office report (PDF).

Any veteran who believes they sustained a disabilities from exposure during testing may file a claim for compensation with VA. The DOD stopped actively searching for test subjects in 2003 “but did not provide a sound and documented basis for that decision,” the GAO reported. At the time, it had identified 5,842 service members and about 350 civilians as having been potentially exposed during Project 112 alone (PDF). It is estimated that tens of thousands of military and personnel and civilians may have been exposed over the last 60 years.”

(via CNET)

(see also Project SHAD)

Washington State House Gives Nod to Privacy Bill

February 21, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“A revised version of legislation intended to protect the privacy of individuals using RFID tags with “unique personal identifier numbers” passed the Washington State House of Representatives on Wednesday. House Bill (HB) 1031-intended to limit collection of personal information from an RFID tag without the tag holder’s knowledge or consent-passed with 69 to 27 votes. The bill is now headed for the State Senate and, if approved, to the office of Governor Christine Gregoire.

[…] The revised bill would make it a Class C felony to intentionally read the data encoded to an RFID tag in possession of a person without that individual’s knowledge and consent, for the purpose of fraud, identity theft or some other illegal or unapproved purpose-a process known as “skimming.” With this bill, skimming refers to capturing personal data about a tag’s holder, such as the details on a loyalty card, driver’s license or other identity card. It does not refer to capturing data from EPC RFID tags attached to products that do not hold the consumer’s data. Class C felony in Washington State has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. If the bill is signed into law, it would be the first legislation on the state level to make skimming a felony, says Morris.”

(via RFID Journal)

Google Censors Media Outlet Supportive of UN Whistleblowers

February 21, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“Internet goliath Google has discontinued listing stories from Inner City Press, a United Nations-focused media organization, through its Google News program. The move comes after an Inner City Press staffer reportedly questioned Google regarding its failure to sign a human rights and anti-censorship agreement. Inner City Press is the most effective and important media organization for UN whistleblowers, according to Bea Edwards, International Program director of the Government Accountability Project.

Inner City Press has been an accredited news organization at the United Nations since December 2005 and has been listed on Google News search results for over two years. It is also accredited, according to its web site, at the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and Federal Communications Commission, among other government agencies. Inner City Press has covered disclosures of whistleblowers in the UNDP office in North Korea, in the UN ?House’ in Ankara, Turkey, in the group monitoring progress toward the Millennium Development Goals at Headquarters, and in a UNDP climate change project in West Africa, among others. Over the course of the past year, as management at the United Nations has stepped back from providing whistleblowers with protection from retaliation, Inner City Press has reported the arcane tactics of silencing the free speech of employees of conscience in the UN system.”

(via GAP)

The road to e-democracy

February 20, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“Governments have more or less caught up with what in geek-speak is called ‘web 1.0’, with the online world largely mimicking the offline world. E-mails replace letters; websites make publishing speedier and more effective; data are stored on the user’s computer. A collection of programs, paid-for or pirated, are the essential tools for getting going.

But all this has been overtaken by ‘web 2.0’, shorthand for the interactivity brought by wikis (pages that anyone can edit) and blogs (on which anyone can comment). Data are accessed through the internet; programs are opened in browser windows rather than loaded from the hard disc; instant messages, often attached to social-networking sites such as Facebook, replace e-mail. Web 2.0 also means free video-sharing on sites such as YouTube and free phone calls between computers. These developments allow information to be shared far more effectively, at almost no cost. That gives great hope to the proponents of e-democracy.”

(via The Economist)

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