Am 11. Juni wird in den heiligen Hallen des Kreuzberger Labors gefeiert bis die Reagenzgläser wackeln. Machen sie sich frei!

We're gonna have a party at the lab in Kreuzberg on June 11th. Stay tuned for more info and a whacky flyer!

"Almost 10,000 prisoners from President George W. Bush's so-called war on terror are being held around the world in secretive American-run jails and interrogation centres similar to the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison.

Some of these detention centres are so sensitive that even the most senior members of the United States Congress have no idea where they are. (...) Prisoners are being held from, among other countries, Algeria, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Yemen."

quoted from a story in the "Independent" online at American Gulag - news and Resources on Prisoners, Prisons and Prison Abolition.

"How did it come to this"- special in Time Magazine.

More pictures by the internet's latest unknown hero! If you "LIEK MILK" you should also meet this guy who must be a friend of Mahir, "king of blogging". Well, Mahir's friends are my friends too of course and that's why you should support Mahir - The Movie.

Eurovision Song Contest endlich vorbei

Es ist doch eine Schande... da sitzt man nach 6 teuren Kneipenbrandys doch noch vor der Glotze, hört sich ölige Komplimente von öligen Moderatoren an ölige Moderatoren an und versucht mit ungeahnter Willenskraft wach zu bleiben. Und dann stimmt der Pöbel doch für so ein Dschingiskhan-Remake aus Belorussia, wo die sich da doch nicht mal ordentliche Unterwäsche leisten können, geschweige denn Haarfrisuren. Um die Singerei gehts ja eh nicht. Der einzig vorzeigbare "Potenzgrieche" (O-Ton: Kaluha-Insasse) muss sich aus der Halle jagen lassen, ebenso unser Kuschel-Mäxchen. Na dann ab mit euch nach Kiev nächstes Jahr, ihr habts nicht besser verdient! Und wir schwören wieder einmal, es uns einfach nie mehr anzusehen. Nicht hinhören! Nur saufen in leeren Kneipen! Skol!

"President Bush doesn't spend much time poring over news coverage because it would just muddle his thinking and bring him down, he told the author of a new, admiring book about his presidency. (...) "Mr. Bush thinks that immersing himself in voluminous, mostly liberal-leaning news coverage might cloud his thinking and even hinder his efforts to remain an optimistic leader," Sammon writes.

'I like to have a clear outlook,' Bush told Sammon, who is also a political analyst for Fox News. 'It can be a frustrating experience to pay attention to somebody's false opinion or somebody's characterization, which simply isn't true. . . . (...) I don't watch the nightly newscasts on TV, nor do I watch the endless hours of people giving their opinion about things. . . . I don't read the editorial pages; I don't read the columnists."

Full story in the Washington Post

The video of the beheading of Nick Berg came just in time to go for this revenge-sheme which will make people in the US forget what their country has become by now. The CIA has already identified arch-villain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the man with the knife. But, according to an article in the 'National Review', Zarqawi has lost a leg.

"WHO IS ZARQAWI? A Palestinian-Jordanian and veteran of the Afghan war against the Soviets, Zarqawi first appeared as a terror suspect when Jordan indicted him in absentia for his role in the al Qaeda millennial bombing plot targeting the Radison SAS hotel in Amman as well as other American, Israeli, and Christian religious sites in Jordan. In 2000 he returned to Afghanistan, where he oversaw a terrorist training camp and specialized in chemical and biological weapons. (...)

Zarqawi's own movements are themselves telling. After being wounded in the leg in Afghanistan, Zarqawi escaped to Iran. While there, he dispatched two Palestinians and a Jordanian who entered Turkey illegally from Iran on their way to conduct bombing attacks in Israel. (...)

From Iran Zarqawi traveled to Iraq in May 2002, where his wounded leg was amputated and the limb fitted with a prosthetic device. He spent two months recovering in Baghdad, at which time "nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there." Powell informed that "these Al Qaida affiliates, based in Baghdad, now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they've now been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months."

While Iraq maintained it was unaware of the whereabouts of Zarqawi or other terrorists, Powell informed the Security Council that the United States passed information to Iraqi authorities on Zarqawi's location in the Iraqi capitol via a third party."

But does the man wielding the knife in that video look like he has a prosthetic device and why do the hooded captors look like they're in parade rest? Things are getting really ugly now...

In March 2003, when several U.S. soldiers had been captured, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in an interview with the New England Cable News Channel: "We have reminded the Iraqis -- and I'll do it if they are watching this program -- that there are very clear obligations under the Geneva Convention to treat prisoners humanely. Wolfowitz added: We treat our own prisoners, and there are hundreds of Iraqi prisoners, extremely well. We feed them, we take care of them they're very safe with us."

But in the current hearings even evil Wolfowitz has to admit that torture is 'not humane'...

Who knew what and who gave the orders. We're still waiting for some answers while the press is awfully quite and the old America is about to fall.

He’s back and this time he’s serious. German entertainer Stefan Raab is in Istanbul where he currently broadcasts Istanbul Total, a special edition of his show "TV Total" which is on every day of the week. For the third time he made the German finals for the Eurovision Song Contest which is held in Turkeye this year. First, Raab appeared as producer Alf Igel, a mockery of the music-producer Ralph Siegel, who had dominated the contest in Germany for decades. Raab had produced Schlagerking Guildo Horn, who had a strong fan-following with his parody of cheesy pop from Germany. Horn‘s real name is Horst Köhler by the way, the same as the future president of Germany. Strange coincidence....) He didn’t do too well in the finals, but Guildo Horn represented a strange change within Germany. For some reason everyone was taking this stupid song contest really serious and now the Germans sent this old man with a cape making fun of the whole thing and promising everyone rasberry-icecream and cake if they voted for him. What happened to the famous of lack of humour in Germany?

The year after, Stefan Raab won the first round on his own with "Wadde Hadde Dudde Da", a nonsense-song with a bombastic disco-production. The dada-title was easy to dance to and became a hit. The rest of Europe was stunned again. Even though Raab was a clown, he had come up with a great title, proving what he is best at: spontaneously coming up with lyrics and improvizing on his little ukulele with folks like Lionel Richie. Stefan Raab did a song about legalizing pot with Shaggy, he fought the female german boxing-champion and got his nose broken, he invented the wok-championship (bobsleigh with a wok!) and on Saturday he is out to win the Eurovision Song Contest.

This time it’s not about making fun. Raab appears as the producer and song-writer for Max Mutzke with "Can't wait until tonight". According to all european experts, Mutzke has good chances to win.

Max Mutzke was the winner of SSDSGPS (Stefan sucht den Super Grand Prix Star), a casting contest put up by "TV Total" as a reaction to all the fake-ass casting shows on TV. Compared to shows like "Popstars" or "American Idol", Raab managed to get real talent for his little contest. Instead of presenting good-looking bimbos who can dance, he found great voices and interesting singers. Even though, Germany had been casted to death, quite a few surprises appeared on the show. After Mutzke had been announced as the winner and the song had been promoted on the show for weeks, it skyrocketed into the German charts and the rest of the world is supposed to follow soon.

Stefan Raab is producing "TV Total" in Istanbul this week and the basic concept hasn’t changed much. There is the host playing the curious idiot commenting embarassing clips from other TV shows while his intern Elton makes a fool out of himself belly-dancing. They have turkish guests, teach the basic turkish and even though the show has seen better times, Raab is doing more for German-Turkish friendship right now than a lot of officials who have a problems with having muslims in the EU. But who are they afraid of? The turks sent Gökhan Özoguz and his band Athena this year, a tatooed punk with read hair and a ska-song.

Edition Moderne, 160 S., 22 EU

Kaum ein Comic wurde seit Joe Saccos "Palestine" so sehr beachtet und gefeiert wie dieser autobiographische Comic-Roman aus dem Hause L’Association. "Persepolis" macht es der Presse dabei einfach: Junge Frau zeichnet ihre Kindheit im Zeichen der iranischen Revolution nach und vermittelt dabei einen verspielten Einblick in die Problematik von Revolutionen, die selten von der Heiterkeit in "Persepolis" geprägt sind. Der autobiographische Anteil ist Stilmittel und hat nichts mit den post-pubertären Genre-Auswüchsen zu tun, die in den 90ern so populär waren. Die Autorin hat eine richtige Geschichte zu erzählen. Sie wollte schon mit sechs Jahren Prophetin und etwas später Revolutionärin werden Diese kindlichen Fantasiewelten führen zu einer bemerkenswerten Auseinandersetzung mit Religion und Politik, der das verstiegen Uferlose abgeht, was den meisten großen Werken dieser Art anhaftet. Satrapi führt die 9.Kunst mit "Persepolis" in eine Ernsthaftigkeit, die ohne verkopften Ballast auskommt und niemals gewollt erwachsen wirkt. Der Humor von "Marjane Satrapi eint sich mit den Zeichnungen der Kinderbuchillustratorin zu einer seltenen Kunst, die nur im Comic ihren Ausdruck finden konnte. "Persepolis" ist ein Buch und muß sich für die Form Comic nicht entschuldigen. Ganz im Gegenteil. Der tösend proklamierte "Kampf der Kulturen" selbsternannter Gotteskrieger aus aller Welt wird durch Werke wie dieses einen Hauch weniger martialisch. Die Annäherung an einen progressiven Iran und dessen Bewußtsein für die eigene Geschichte und die Gegenwart findet statt. Ein paar Generationen später wird man die internationale Stigmatisierung der arabischen Welt durch ein paar texanische Ölbarone Anfang des neuen Jahrtausends vergessen haben und "Persepolis" wird als Klassiker gelten.

The story of Michael Moore's new movie continues after opening in Cannes last night. This whole thing tells you a lot about freedom of the press and artistic rights in the corporate controlled USA. Go, Mike, kick their asses! Here is the latest scoop:

"Miramax chiefs to buy Michael Moore's documentary from Disney (AP)

"Los Angeles-AP -- The heads of Miramax Films are planning to buy back a controversial documentary the company was blocked from releasing. Bob and Harvey Weinstein plan to buy back filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit Nine-Eleven" and distribute it themselves.

Under the deal, the brothers, who have a thorny relationship with parent company Disney, would not be able to distribute the movie through Miramax. They would have to find a third-party company.

Moore's film criticizes President Bush's handling of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and connects the Bush family with Osama bin Laden's.

Disney chief executive Michael Eisner said last week that the company did not want a film in the middle of the political process'' because he believed that theme park and entertainment consumers do not look for us to take sides.''

Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein spent about $6 million on the film. He and his brother would have to repay Disney for the investment, and would likely insist on a deal that cuts Disney out of any future profits.

A similar deal was worked out in 1999 when Disney forced Miramax to give up filmmaker Kevin Smith's Dogma,'' which took an irreverent approach to Catholicism with modern prophets, angels and apostles in a bid to stop the end of the world. Lions Gate Films eventually picked up Dogma.''

We're very happy that Disney has agreed to sell `Fahrenheit 9-11' to Bob and Harvey,'' Miramax said in a statement. Bob and Harvey look forward to promptly completing this transaction.''

Eisner confirmed the planned deal Wednesday afternoon in a conference call with financial analysts. He also lamented the negative press he and Disney received by refusing the film. ``There's not much that we can do with Miramax that's not carried in the press,'' he said.

In France, ``Fahrenheit 9-11'' was making its world premiere Wednesday as one of 18 films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where many new movies find business partners for distribution.

Moore did not immediately return a call for comment.

The confrontational director won an Academy Award for his 2002 documentary ``Bowling for Columbine,'' about the Columbine High School shooting and U.S. gun control policy. The film earned $21.5 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing documentary ever."

(c) by Associated Press.

MORE AT MICHAELMOORE.COM

Check out N.O.R.A.D.-headquarters and learn all about the hacker-movie "Wargames"

Popcorn, anyone?

"UK troops have killed Iraqi civilians including an eight-year-old girl when they were under no apparent threat, Amnesty International has claimed. -Full story at BBC

And then there is the sad case of the beheading of U.S. civilian Nick Berg in Iraq whose father has just spoken to the Pennsylvania News:

"Michael Berg lashed out at the U.S. military and Bush administration, saying his son might still be alive had he not been detained by U.S. officials in Iraq without being charged and without access to a lawyer.

Nick Berg, a small telecommunications business owner, spoke to his parents on March 24 and told them he would return home on March 30. But Berg was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul on March 24. He was turned over to U.S. officials and detained for 13 days.

His father, Michael, said his son wasn't allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer.

FBI agents visited Berg's parents in West Chester on March 31 and told the family they were trying to confirm their son's identity. On April 5, the Bergs filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia, contending that their son was being held illegally by the U.S. military. The next day Berg was released...

Michael Berg said he blamed the U.S. government for creating circumstances that led to his son's death..."

-quoted from diepunyhumans.com referring to a story from the Pennsylvania News

"A hard-core 78 rpm fiend, Joe Bussard has spent a lifetime pursuing rare surviving examples of early 20th century American music. His private archive contains more than 25,000 obscure recordings from the golden age of old-time music. Now he shares it with the world through custom-made tapes and pre-recorded CD's of his vintage 78s." Check out Joe's website.

"The administration's cynical approach to damage control was on display at the second Senate hearing on the prison abuse scandal." Full story in the English edition of the infamous german news-magazine Spiegel which has just started a cooperation with the New York Times.

Werner Herzog is doing a documentary about the Loch Ness area and he already got a goofy website running. Look at these very reavealing videos! Whew, there is a real monster in dat lake!

Strange, Google-News has no entries for the R21+techniques+interrogation and I'm No.1 among 94 results in the regular search-engine. I'm also No.9 for iraq torture pictures, No.2 for torture + iraq + R21, and no.6 for r21 iraq Where did all the other stories go?

Der Meistertaumel des ruhmreichen SV Werder Bremen, der bekanntlich den schönsten Fußball spielt usw., hat vergessen lassen, daß es im Münchener Olympia-Stadion auch die Premiere des Bärentanzes von Bernie, dem neuen Maskottchen der bajuwaren, zu feiern galt. Darüber ist bisher noch nicht genug gespottet worden, aber Blutgrätsche hat sich zumindest schon geäußert:

"Es ist gar nicht so lange her, da haben einige von Euch, liebe Bayern-Fans, ihren Unmut geäußert über die Bevormundung durch den Verein, über die Kommerzialisierung im Stadion und die permanente Berieselung durch Musik und Werbung vor dem Spiel. Nur zum Schein hat der Verein ein wenig nachgegeben, Euer Erfolg war von kurzer Dauer. Gegen die neue Variante der Berieselung werdet Ihr nicht so einfach protestieren können, denn Eure halbe Kurve wird mitmachen. Euer Widerstand – so Ihr ihn leistet, wird sich nicht mehr nur gegen den Verein und ein paar nervige Werbebotschaften richten, sondern gegen 55.000 hopsende und kreisende Berni-Bären, gegen Eure Freunde in der Kurve und Eure Väter auf der Haupttribüne. Ja, sie spielen Eurer Fankultur das Lied vom Tod, und die einzige Wahl, die Euch bleibt, wird wohl sein, dieses traurige und zugleich lächerlich fröhliche Lied stumm zu erdulden oder mit einzustimmen."

Der ganze Artikel bei Blutgrätsche

"There was a before 9/11, and there was an after 9/11. After 9/11 the gloves came off." -Cofer Black, head of the CIA Counterterrorist Center, September 2003

The troops torture their own people to make them hard enough to torture prisoners. We're not talking about a handful of soldiers in one prison only. The story unfolds and Rumsfeld tries to get away with a cheesy courtroom-drama on TV and some "they killed some of our boys too"-revenge-plot . It's frightening how clueless and helpless George W.Bush and his buddies really are.

An officer of british special units dewcribed a system called R21 (Resistance to Interrogation), "a system of degradation developed for use by British and US troops called R2I - resistance to interrogation - which uses sexual jibes and stripping prisoners to prolong 'the shock of capture' when detainees are at their most vulnerable."

"In visits to Iraq's US-administered prison, The Red Cross has been documenting abuse that was not the 'exception' but was close to the norm - abuse that was 'tantamount' to a policy of torture, and tolerated by coalition forces. (...) And what has become increasingly clear in the past few days, in interviews with returning special forces soldiers from Iraq, was that the techniques employed at Abu Ghraib were not simply for the cruel entertainment of military policemen and private contractors running the prison, but an even crueller application of abusive interrogation techniques taught to both US and British special forces. " From a long exclusive story in The Observer

The paper also revealed that "The Red Cross president, Jakob Kellenberger, had personally warned three of George W. Bush's most senior officials - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz - of widespread abuse tantamount to torture." (...) The revelations threaten to drag the British government into the heart of the international scandal over coalition abuse at Abu Ghraib. It follows claims in yesterday's Guardian that the humiliating sexual abuse at the jail was consistent with procedures taught to British and American special forces. British military intelligence officers were interrogating prisoners in the notorious Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq even as the first reports of abuses at the prison came to light. (...) The disclosure will put fresh pressure on British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to clarify when he first heard of allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners amid claims from the Red Cross that British officials were alerted in November." Full story in The Observer

According to prominent New York attorney Scott Horton, partner at Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler chairing the Committee on International Law of the Association of the Bar of New York City, senior officers warned that Bush appointees in the Pentagon were undermining prisoner safeguards long before the abuse at Abu Ghraib became public. Horton and other members of the New York bar began to compile a report examining U.S. and international legal standards governing the treatment of military prisoners.

"The bar association's 110-page report, released last week, leaves no doubt that the practices revealed at Abu Ghraib violated both U.S. and international law. During the preparation of that report, Horton and his colleagues were more concerned with practices in Afghanistan and Guantánamo than in Iraq. What they have learned recently, however, suggests that questionable practices and attitudes toward prisoners stem from broad policy decisions made at the very highest levels of the Defense Department.´

Full story: "Lack of protection" by Joe Conason at salon.com

Meanwhile George Paine's warblogging.com "has been banned by U.S. Central Command", but it's still out there. Press freedom groups express concern over restrictions imposed on media outlets. NASA-experts are not allowed to talk to the Press about global warming after the movie "Day After Tomorrow" caused a new interest. Things don't exist if you don't talk about them.

T H E P R E S S :

Washington fields mercenary army in Iraq:

"According to recent estimates there are around 15,000 private bodyguards and security personnel operating inside Iraq, of which at least 6,000 are believed to be armed—making them the second biggest military presence after the US Army. The number is set to increase even further—in what is being described as an Iraqi Klondike—after the so-called handover of sovereignty to the Iraqi Governing Council on June 30."

Mercenaries and private security firms are increasingly assuming the task of regular troops world-wide :

"US forces, but even the United Nations and Iraqi insurgents are increasingly making use of the service of private companies or individuals guarantee their safety or conduct military operations.

The coalition forces in Iraq are coming under increasing pressure from insurgents. Security and military companies are profiting from the situation by assuming tasks which were formerly reserved to the military. Employees of private security firms meanwhile constitute the second largest military contingent in Iraq, numbering around 25 thousand people - more than the entire British force. Private companies guarantee the flow of supplies, train troops and service computers. Their employees are former soldiers, officers or secret service members. The trend towards privatisation is not confined to Iraq. Such companies operate everywhere in the world, from Columbia to Afghanistan. "

Outsource This!:

"Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld viewed the war in Iraq as an opportunity to validate his theory that the overwhelming technological advantages enjoyed by the United States would allow a small, mobile ground force supported by high-tech weaponry to achieve military victory. Rumsfeld and other civilians in the Pentagon overruled the military commanders on the size of the force that would invade Iraq, and bet that the lightning ground assault and precision air attacks would enable us take control of the country largely intact.  As a result, we were left woefully unprepared to provide basic security in the days and weeks immediately after the fall of Saddam's regime, an error that we are still paying for in blood and treasure more than a year later."

Senators seek investigation into private security firms in Iraq (reported by AP on April 29, 2004 already)

"Earlier this month, 13 Democrats wrote Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to argue that it is a dangerous precedent to allow private armies to operate outside the control of a governmental authority. Dozens of companies are operating in Iraq under contract with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led governing body in Iraq, plus the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies. Thousands of others are on assignments for the United States and others worldwide, protecting buildings, guarding officials, and training police and soldiers. The senators asked the GAO to address the private contractors' liabilities, including whether they are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and who has jurisdiction to punish them if they commit crimes."

Book: Corporate Warriors: The Rise and Ramifications of the Privatized Military Industry by P.W. Singer

A Guide to Private Military Corporations by Disinfopedia, "a collaborative project to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests. The Disinfopedia is sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy.

Executive Outcomes have an interesting entry. Read!

Tom Cruise is in town and well-informed sources claim he has already seen 400 locations for the next sequel of M.I. The production had plans for a scene where Cruise breaks through the new glass-dome of the Reichstag, but the parliament refused to cooperate. Cruise wasn't the first one to ask. Wolfgang Thierse, president of the Bundestag, claimed that they couldn't allow one production to shoot in the parliament and ban everyone else. They're not shooting action-scenes in the real oval office either. Some members of the Green party and Guido Westerwelle, head of the liberal party, support Tom Cruise. They claim the movie will be good promotion for the city and all that....

Was muß man da aus der "Gala" erfahren? "Heike Makatsch ist frisch verliebt in einen 32-jährigen Hamburger Musiker namens Max Schröder. (...) Sie lernten sich bei Dreharbeiten kennen. Es war wohl Liebe auf den ersten Blick." Mad-Science.Net gratuliert zu dieser guten Partie. Übrigens hat sich eine gewisse Frau Hecke als neue Redakteurin für dieses Ressort vorgestellt und irgendwas über Männer in Hasenkostümen gebrabbelt....

Adam Gorightly's new biography of 60s counterculture icon Kerry Thornley, "The Prankster and the Conspiracy - (The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture)", is a well-researched, absolutely fascinating look at a life full of such bizarre twists and characters that it would be easier to swallow if it was fiction. But it's not. Thornley was friends with Lee Harvey Oswald, knew several key suspects in New Orleans DA Jim Garrison's investigation into the JFK assassination (and was himself accused of involvement with the plot by Garrison), was one of the first "pagans" to emerge from the hippie movement (and perhaps the first to start using that term at the time and popularize it in the culture) and along with Greg Hill and others (like Robert Anton Wilson) started the "joke" religion of Discordianism with the writing of the Principia Discordia (How I Found Goddess & What I Did To Her When I found Her) ." -quoted from disinfo.com

Adam Gorightly, who is also the author of "The Manson Mythos" has some excellent links on his site including exclusive Quicktime movies about Jack Ruby from Shamus McFarland.

It was obvious, there would be some trouble with Fahrenheit 911, but nobody expected this clumsy interference which will get Michael Moore lots of attention in Cannes and in the rest of the world. Read the official statement by Mr. Moore:

Wednesday, May 5th, 2004 Disney Has Blocked the Distribution of My New Film... by Michael Moore

Friends,

I would have hoped by now that I would be able to put my work out to the public without having to experience the profound censorship obstacles I often seem to encounter.

Yesterday I was told that Disney, the studio that owns Miramax, has officially decided to prohibit our producer, Miramax, from distributing my new film, "Fahrenheit 9/11." The reason? According to today's (May 5) New York Times, it might "endanger" millions of dollars of tax breaks Disney receives from the state of Florida because the film will "anger" the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. The story is on page one of the Times and you can read it here (Disney Forbidding Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush).

The whole story behind this (and other attempts) to kill our movie will be told in more detail as the days and weeks go on. For nearly a year, this struggle has been a lesson in just how difficult it is in this country to create a piece of art that might upset those in charge (well, OK, sorry -- it WILL upset them...big time. Did I mention it's a comedy?). All I can say is, thank God for Harvey Weinstein and Miramax who have stood by me during the entire production of this movie.

There is much more to tell, but right now I am in the lab working on the print to take to the Cannes Film Festival next week (we have been chosen as one of the 18 films in competition). I will tell you this: Some people may be afraid of this movie because of what it will show. But there's nothing they can do about it now because it's done, it's awesome, and if I have anything to say about it, you'll see it this summer -- because, after all, it is a free country. Yours, Michael Moore

"US military policemen moved unregistered Iraqi prisoners, known as "ghost detainees", around an army-run jail at Abu Ghraib, in order to hide them from the Red Cross, according to a confidential military report.

The report on abuses at Abu Ghraib prison - a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian - described the practice of hiding prisoners as "deceptive, contrary to army doctrine, and in violation of international law".

The revelations surfaced at a time when the prison abuse scandal threatened to engulf the Pentagon and the military occupation of Iraq.

The US army yesterday admitted to the Senate there was evidence of widespread abuse of prisoners in military-run jails in both Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been a total of 25 recorded deaths in US military custody in both countries."

Full story in The Guardian: Jailed Iraqis hidden from Red Cross, says US army.

A 53-page Pentagon report obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, completed in late February. It listed some of the abuse:

"Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of 'sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses' at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community."

The story by Seymour M. Hersh came along with some nasty pictures . The US-military has hired corporate soldiers of fortune to help out their troops and they were just doing what they were trained to do. Torture seems to be quite normal for the US-military, but the president and his minister of defense blame it on bureaucracy. They just didn't know. They had other things to do. Can the US-gouvernment really get away with this that easy? Not accepting the world-court for war-criminals in Den Haag and treating other people like Untermenschen? Richard Nixon resigned for way less! It's about time for Mr.Rumsfeld to go home at least!

-A lot more links and references can be found in an article in zmag: Abuse at Abu Ghraib, the Psychodynamics of Occupation, and the Responsibility of Us All by Stephen Soldz, psychoanalyst and a faculty member at the Institute for the Study of Violence of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. He also hosts the Iraq Occupation and Resistance Report web page.

" If I, a single individual maintaining a web page in my spare time, was well aware of the abuses being reported in the US prisons in Iraq, the only way the top generals, Pentagon officials, senior Administration policy-makers such as the President and Vice-President, and U.S. reporters could be ignorant of them is if they willfully chose to be ignorant."

-The story that started it all: TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB - American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go? by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
-The infamous pictures
-The secret US Army Report on Torture of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib Prison -Al Jazeera English Edition -electroniciraq.net, " a news portal on the US-Iraq crisis published by respected Middle East alternative news publishers"

And remember Guantanamo Bay

Das prächtige Buch "Amerika" von Sibylle Berg hält mich weiterhin in Atem und darum hier erstmal der Eintrag in die Hall of Fame. Es spricht die Meisterin selbst in ihrer Presseverlautbarung:

"Frau Bergs Leben - bitte nie mehr fragen, einfach abschreiben! Frau Berg wurde vor wenigen Jahren in Weimar geboren. Ja, sie wollte schon immer Bücher schreiben. Das erste begann sie mit sieben. Ja, sie ist sehr gerne vor 5 Jahren in die Schweiz gezogen. Nein die Sprache findet sie nicht komisch, die Menschen nicht spiessig. Nein, Frau Berg hat keine Depressionen. Nein, es fand kein Selbstmordversuch statt. (und was sind das für lange Schnitte an ihrem Arm? Och, das war ein Fahrradunfall) Ja, sie hat schon einige Journalisten zusammengeschlagen. Nein, sie findet es nicht komisch, seit einiger Zeit auch Theaterstücke zu schreiben. Nein, Frau Berg hat keine Esstörungen (Moment, ich muss grad mal auf die Toilette). Ja, sie findet die Welt wirklich ein wenig traurig. Nein, Frau Berg versteht Optimisten nicht. Nein, Frau Berg inszeniert sich nicht (würden sie mir mal rasch die Boa Constrictor reichen) Ja, Ihnen auch, vielen Dank für das Gespräch."

Von der "ganz süßen" Homepage

Schöne "Wallpaper" aus dem Hause Titanic

Unterstützen sie den wahren Horst Köhler, Bundespräsident der Herzen!

"Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials" at yahoo.com