Authorities in the US state of Mississippi have executed a prisoner with a new drug used to euthanize animals, following similar practices in other states.
Benny Joe Stevens, 52, became the first man to be executed with pentobarbital in Mississippi. The new drug replaced sodium thiopental, which is facing a nationwide shortage.
Stevens, who was convicted in 1999 of killing four people, including his ex-wife and her husband, was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. local time on Tuesday (0022 GMT on Wednesday) at the State Penitentiary at Parchman, the Associated Press reported.
“Forgive me … what I did was a terrible thing. There's no forgiveness for what I did,” said Stevens.
The new drug has been used in several states over the past week, including Texas, Ohio and South Carolina.
The animal drug is expected to be used in the execution of Rodney Gray on May 17 and Robert Simon Jr. on May 24.
In 2010, 46 people were executed in the United States, six fewer than the previous year, according to the center data.
AO/AKM
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179335.html
Friday, May 13, 2011
Amnesty slams flawed US penal system
Amnesty International has called attention to the US and its failing human rights record due to its use of flawed detention and execution systems.On Friday, Amnesty International slammed the US for its indefinite detentions in Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, as well as its flawed capital punishment system, AFP reported.
"Scores of men remained in indefinite military detention in Guantanamo as [US] President [Barack] Obama's one-year deadline for closure of the facility there came and went," the report recently released by the body said.
The organization's annual global human rights report points to the execution of 46 people over the past year, in which the guilt of several of the defendants remained questionable. Some cases also included unclear proof of legal representation and mental impairment.
According to Amnesty International, of the 173 men currently detained at Guantanamo Bay, only three had been convicted under a military commission system, "which failed to meet international fair trial standards."
"Military commission proceedings were conducted in a handful of cases, and the only Guantanamo detainee so far transferred to the US mainland for prosecution in a federal court was tried and convicted,” the report added.
Upon taking office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to stop military commissions in order to close down the facility by 2010; however, this has not happened yet.
The organization accuses US authorities of also blocking efforts to “secure accountability and remedy for crimes under international law committed against detainees previously subjected to the USA's secret detention and rendition program.”
As for Afghanistan, the reports criticizes the US for holding “hundreds” at the US airbase in Bagram without due process and for subjecting some to “torture and ill-treatment, including prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, and exposure to extreme temperatures.”
The report further voiced concern over the “excessive force” used by US law enforcement. The use of Taser guns by police officers led to the death of some 45 people last year.
The country's health care system was also among the matters mentioned in the report. “Hundreds of women continue to die from preventable pregnancy-related complications,” as a result of a lack of proper health care coverage, the report added.
SZH/HGH/MMN
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179692.html
Tehran hosts anti-terror conference
More than 150 foreign experts and elite are attending the International Conference on Global Alliance against Terrorism for a Just Peace (GAATJP) in Tehran.
The conference, which opens on Saturday, will focus on efforts aimed at uprooting terrorism in the region. Hundreds of Iranian experts will also attend the two-day conference which will wrap up in Tehran on Sunday.
Tehran hosted four exhibitions of posters and caricatures on just peace, as well as exhibitions of photos of the families of the victims of terror attacks in Iran and the Middle East ahead of the on GAATJP on Friday.
The conference comes nearly ten years after the United States initiated the so-called 'war on terror,' which has failed to bring peace and stability to the region.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179755.html
The conference, which opens on Saturday, will focus on efforts aimed at uprooting terrorism in the region. Hundreds of Iranian experts will also attend the two-day conference which will wrap up in Tehran on Sunday.
Tehran hosted four exhibitions of posters and caricatures on just peace, as well as exhibitions of photos of the families of the victims of terror attacks in Iran and the Middle East ahead of the on GAATJP on Friday.
The conference comes nearly ten years after the United States initiated the so-called 'war on terror,' which has failed to bring peace and stability to the region.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179755.html
Sharia Law Threat: Right-Wing Boogeyman
Frank Gaffney and his friends can relax: Sneaky Muslims aren't going to impose Sharia Law on the US and take away their bacon cheeseburgers. It's impossible.
But you'd never know that from what's pouring out of outfits like Gaffney's Center for Security Policy, from Fox News or from right-wing bloggers across the land, all of whom say the threat is real -- real enough to spawn 15 proposed state and federal laws against it.
Here's how Gaffney described what he calls the threat to the New York Senate's Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee on April 8th: ."The threat...is best described, I believe, as a politico-legal-military threat whose express purpose is to have it imposed world-wide, subject to a theocratic ruler called a Caliph. That is of course a program that is completely at odds with our Constitution, our form of government, our way of life, our freedoms."
I'll admit that sounds pretty grim. Even if it does seem a lot like the threat of Global Communism I used to hear about as a kid.
The truth? Sharia is religious law, and no religious law can be imposed on the US without amending the Constitution -- twice -- to repeal both the opening clause of the First Amendment, and the Supremacy Clause in Article 6.
So how can Sharia Law be imposed on the US? No one seems to know. Or at least, nobody who's pushing the claim would talk to me about it, though they seemed eager to tell me how bad it would be.
These non-talkers included Gaffney's COO, Christina Brim, who even came to the phone to tell me she wouldn't talk to me; Rex Duncan, who sponsored an Oklahoma law last year forbidding Sharia Law from being used in the state; Newt Gingrich (famously afraid of "Islamic atheists"); the Thomas More Center; and NewsMax, Town Hall, and The National Review magazines, all of which have been vocal about the so-called danger but wouldn't explain why there's anything to it..
Meanwhile, the so-called examples of how Sharia Law is already being used in American courts are frauds. Take a look at them and you find out what they're talking about are arbitrations -- not trials under civil or criminal law. And two parties in an arbitration can agree to be bound by Star Fleet regulations without crossing the Constitution.
This includes the most recent so-called example of Sharia law being imposed on America, in Tampa, where in late March a judge ruled that Sharia could be applied in an arbitration over money between two parties--from the same mosque--only to be overruled the next day by a higher court. That event triggered a frenzy in the right wing blogosphere -- all, oddly, written almost exactly the same way.
The same goes for the so-called 85 Sharia Courts in England that are often raised as an example of how bad things already are: These are arbitration panels, conducted under the authority of the British courts -- not Sharia law courts.
And in fact, similar arrangements are a long-standing commonplace in America jurisprudence -- all of them operating under the authority of state and federal laws.
Until the 1920s, for instance, the legal system of the entire state of Utah was largely conducted in Bishop's Courts, operating under the authority of the Church of Latter Day Saints -- courts that are still in use in more limited ways. Native American reservations -- actually, sovereign nations -- govern themselves. So do religious communities like Kiryas Joel in Orange County, N.Y., a home to the Satmar sect of Hasidic Jews.
So what are Gaffney and friends talking about? No one knows, really. But that hasn't stopped 15 laws forbidding international laws, including Sharia Law, from being put before state legislatures and the US House of Representatives.
That count includes Duncan's Oklahoma law, which he called "...a first strike" to prevent something he admitted had never happened. That law was approved by 72 percent of Oklahoma voters in a referendum last November, but was then ruled unconstitutional under the First Amendment. It's now on appeal.
In response to that objection the anti-Sharia folks merely edited their language to forbid international law from being considered in US courts and dropping the Sharia reference. This includes one before the US House of Representatives, H.R. 973, proposed by Florida's Sandy Adams, whose office didn't return calls requesting comment.
There's only one problem here: Modern business is international, the parties to a contract can choose which laws govern their contract, and typically in any international deal, the laws that govern a contract include foreign laws.
So if, say, an Oklahoma company wanted to sell something to a company in Kuwait, Kuwati law could apply--and be honored in American courts, All these laws would do, says Avery Katz, who teaches contract law at Columbia Law School, is force the parties to conduct their business elsewhere--probably London, where the problem wouldn't exist. But, he adds, this could add extra costs to the deal, which could kill it altogether.
So, what's up here? You have to assume these lawmakers are smart guys. Certainly, Frank Gaffney and his ilk are smart guys. They have to know that as far as this issue goes, there's no there there. So why are they bothering?
Well, ginning up an empty issue like this does several things for them.
One is the reality of the news business. Even in the 24-hour news cycle, there's only 24 hours in a day, and every minute or column inch spent covering this is a minute or column inch not spent covering, say, how lobbyists are gutting the Dodds-Frank Bill and leaving the American financial system vulnerable to another disaster like 2007-2008.
Then there's the politics. "It's clearly an effort to stir the pot and keep the noise level up," says Matt Duss, a policy analyst with the Center for American Progress. "They just have to keep people freaked out about this even though they know it can never happen, and the Democrats have to respond."
And then, there's the money. Right wing politics is a business with a simple business plan: Sell people the idea they're under imminent threat, tell them you're fighting to stop it, and ask them for money. It's worked like a charm for the National Rifle Association.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-reinbach/sharia-law-threat-just-th_b_848975.html
But you'd never know that from what's pouring out of outfits like Gaffney's Center for Security Policy, from Fox News or from right-wing bloggers across the land, all of whom say the threat is real -- real enough to spawn 15 proposed state and federal laws against it.
Here's how Gaffney described what he calls the threat to the New York Senate's Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee on April 8th: ."The threat...is best described, I believe, as a politico-legal-military threat whose express purpose is to have it imposed world-wide, subject to a theocratic ruler called a Caliph. That is of course a program that is completely at odds with our Constitution, our form of government, our way of life, our freedoms."
I'll admit that sounds pretty grim. Even if it does seem a lot like the threat of Global Communism I used to hear about as a kid.
The truth? Sharia is religious law, and no religious law can be imposed on the US without amending the Constitution -- twice -- to repeal both the opening clause of the First Amendment, and the Supremacy Clause in Article 6.
So how can Sharia Law be imposed on the US? No one seems to know. Or at least, nobody who's pushing the claim would talk to me about it, though they seemed eager to tell me how bad it would be.
These non-talkers included Gaffney's COO, Christina Brim, who even came to the phone to tell me she wouldn't talk to me; Rex Duncan, who sponsored an Oklahoma law last year forbidding Sharia Law from being used in the state; Newt Gingrich (famously afraid of "Islamic atheists"); the Thomas More Center; and NewsMax, Town Hall, and The National Review magazines, all of which have been vocal about the so-called danger but wouldn't explain why there's anything to it..
Meanwhile, the so-called examples of how Sharia Law is already being used in American courts are frauds. Take a look at them and you find out what they're talking about are arbitrations -- not trials under civil or criminal law. And two parties in an arbitration can agree to be bound by Star Fleet regulations without crossing the Constitution.
This includes the most recent so-called example of Sharia law being imposed on America, in Tampa, where in late March a judge ruled that Sharia could be applied in an arbitration over money between two parties--from the same mosque--only to be overruled the next day by a higher court. That event triggered a frenzy in the right wing blogosphere -- all, oddly, written almost exactly the same way.
The same goes for the so-called 85 Sharia Courts in England that are often raised as an example of how bad things already are: These are arbitration panels, conducted under the authority of the British courts -- not Sharia law courts.
And in fact, similar arrangements are a long-standing commonplace in America jurisprudence -- all of them operating under the authority of state and federal laws.
Until the 1920s, for instance, the legal system of the entire state of Utah was largely conducted in Bishop's Courts, operating under the authority of the Church of Latter Day Saints -- courts that are still in use in more limited ways. Native American reservations -- actually, sovereign nations -- govern themselves. So do religious communities like Kiryas Joel in Orange County, N.Y., a home to the Satmar sect of Hasidic Jews.
So what are Gaffney and friends talking about? No one knows, really. But that hasn't stopped 15 laws forbidding international laws, including Sharia Law, from being put before state legislatures and the US House of Representatives.
That count includes Duncan's Oklahoma law, which he called "...a first strike" to prevent something he admitted had never happened. That law was approved by 72 percent of Oklahoma voters in a referendum last November, but was then ruled unconstitutional under the First Amendment. It's now on appeal.
In response to that objection the anti-Sharia folks merely edited their language to forbid international law from being considered in US courts and dropping the Sharia reference. This includes one before the US House of Representatives, H.R. 973, proposed by Florida's Sandy Adams, whose office didn't return calls requesting comment.
There's only one problem here: Modern business is international, the parties to a contract can choose which laws govern their contract, and typically in any international deal, the laws that govern a contract include foreign laws.
So if, say, an Oklahoma company wanted to sell something to a company in Kuwait, Kuwati law could apply--and be honored in American courts, All these laws would do, says Avery Katz, who teaches contract law at Columbia Law School, is force the parties to conduct their business elsewhere--probably London, where the problem wouldn't exist. But, he adds, this could add extra costs to the deal, which could kill it altogether.
So, what's up here? You have to assume these lawmakers are smart guys. Certainly, Frank Gaffney and his ilk are smart guys. They have to know that as far as this issue goes, there's no there there. So why are they bothering?
Well, ginning up an empty issue like this does several things for them.
One is the reality of the news business. Even in the 24-hour news cycle, there's only 24 hours in a day, and every minute or column inch spent covering this is a minute or column inch not spent covering, say, how lobbyists are gutting the Dodds-Frank Bill and leaving the American financial system vulnerable to another disaster like 2007-2008.
Then there's the politics. "It's clearly an effort to stir the pot and keep the noise level up," says Matt Duss, a policy analyst with the Center for American Progress. "They just have to keep people freaked out about this even though they know it can never happen, and the Democrats have to respond."
And then, there's the money. Right wing politics is a business with a simple business plan: Sell people the idea they're under imminent threat, tell them you're fighting to stop it, and ask them for money. It's worked like a charm for the National Rifle Association.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-reinbach/sharia-law-threat-just-th_b_848975.html
Friday, May 6, 2011
Mosque bombing suspect shot dead in confrontation with FBI in Oklahoma
It will be interesting to see how much attention this case receives on, say, Fox News. Considerably less than if it had been a Muslim suspected of carrying out a bombing who had been shot by the FBI, I’ll bet.
WJXT Jacksonville, 4 May 2011
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A St. Johns County man wanted in the bombing of a Jacksonville mosque was shot and killed Wednesday when he pulled a weapon as agents tried to serve an arrest warrant in northwest Oklahoma, FBI officials said.
Sandlin Matthew Smith, 46, was suspected of setting off a pipe bomb at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida nearly one year ago.
Investigators said Smith had been on the run for the last few days after acquaintances of Smith, both in northeast Florida and out of the area, tipped them off that he was involved in the mosque bombing and was in Oklahoma.
FBI Special Agent Jeff Wescott said agents learned late Tuesday that Smith was staying in a tent in a park in the rugged foothills of the Glass Mountains, near Fairview, in northwest Oklahoma.
“During the overnight hours, the Oklahoma City FBI SWAT team, along with the assistance of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, set up a perimeter around the area,” Wescott said.
Agents said that Smith refused to surrender and pulled out a firearm. Agents opened fire and killed Smith, FBI officials said. The agents involved weren’t injured.
Wescott said Smith was carrying an AK-47 when he was killed. Authorities found remnants of a crude pipe bomb at the scene, and shrapnel from the blast was found a hundred yards away.
Smith was facing several federal charges, including damage to religious property and possession of a destructive device, in connection with the May 10, 2010, bombing.
Source : islamophobiatoday
If video is not working then Watch Oklahoma coverage of event Here
WJXT Jacksonville, 4 May 2011
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A St. Johns County man wanted in the bombing of a Jacksonville mosque was shot and killed Wednesday when he pulled a weapon as agents tried to serve an arrest warrant in northwest Oklahoma, FBI officials said.
Sandlin Matthew Smith, 46, was suspected of setting off a pipe bomb at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida nearly one year ago.
Investigators said Smith had been on the run for the last few days after acquaintances of Smith, both in northeast Florida and out of the area, tipped them off that he was involved in the mosque bombing and was in Oklahoma.
FBI Special Agent Jeff Wescott said agents learned late Tuesday that Smith was staying in a tent in a park in the rugged foothills of the Glass Mountains, near Fairview, in northwest Oklahoma.
“During the overnight hours, the Oklahoma City FBI SWAT team, along with the assistance of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, set up a perimeter around the area,” Wescott said.
Agents said that Smith refused to surrender and pulled out a firearm. Agents opened fire and killed Smith, FBI officials said. The agents involved weren’t injured.
Wescott said Smith was carrying an AK-47 when he was killed. Authorities found remnants of a crude pipe bomb at the scene, and shrapnel from the blast was found a hundred yards away.
Smith was facing several federal charges, including damage to religious property and possession of a destructive device, in connection with the May 10, 2010, bombing.
Source : islamophobiatoday
If video is not working then Watch Oklahoma coverage of event Here
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