fredag 31. desember 2010

”Utrolig rask slange!”


”Utrolig rask slange!”


Hunden vår varslet at det var noe i buskene like ved huset. Jeg fisket ned slangen med en lang bambusstokk. Skal si det ble liv og leven da jeg slapp stokken… Trolig var det en grønn treslange ( Dendrelaphis punctulata).

Med ønsker om et godt nytt år til slangen og deg som leser dette.

torsdag 30. desember 2010

”Florida Hotel i Bangkok – et rottereir”


ble besøkt av Atle som kommer fra ”der hvor pepper’n gror.

Beliggenheten var fin, rett ved Skytrain (Phaya Thai) og toget til flyplassen. Det var det positive.

Hotellet huset amerikanske soldater under Vietnamkrigen på R&R (Rest and Recreation). Det så ut til å være nærmest til nedfalls sammenlignet med andre hoteller i tilsvarende prisklasse.

Selvsagt var det ”American Breakfast” eller noe som skulle ligne på det. Atle kan ikke for sitt bare liv forstå hvordan feite amerikanere makter å legge på seg av dette måltidet som knapt kan kalles mat. For ikke å gå fra bordet like sulten som jeg kom, fikk jeg en følelse av å være en fransk gasse som tvangsfores.

Siste morgen, som trolig eneste utlending på hotellet (rottene forstår å forlate et synkende skip), ble jeg utsatt for et tyveriforsøk. Før jeg tok heisen fra 5. etasje og ned til frokosten, låste jeg døren grundig og tok med meg alle verdisaker, pass, kredittkort etc. Etter frokost heis opp. Jeg stakk nøkkelen i låsen – og døren gikk opp uten at jeg trengte å vri om nøkkelen. Tyven hadde ikke en gang rukket å lukke døren skikkelig etter seg. Trolig har han/hun blitt ringt opp av en nedenunder da jeg gikk inn i heisen.

Egentlig burde jeg tatt en titt under senga – synderen kunne jo ligge der. Men det tenkte jeg ikke på i befippelsen. Heldigvis var ingen ting stjålet.

ALDRI MER FLORIDA HOTEL I BANGKOK!

tirsdag 28. desember 2010

”Hvem har den reelle makten?”


”Khodorkovskij-saken kan avsløre hvem som har den reelle makten i dagens Russland - de konservative eller liberale kreftene.” Dette står å lese i Aftenpostens nettutgave 27. desember http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article3964132.ece

Rettssystemet er statens spydspiss – det er noe vi ser i mange land. At rettsapparatet skal beskytte den alminnelig borger mot overgrep og forbrytelser har allmenn aksept i en tid hvor vi er blitt fratatt retten til selvtekt og blodhevn. Når domstolene brukes av staten mot borgerne på måter som strider mot hva som oppfattes som rett og riktig, da er det en helt annen sak.

Mange mener at Khodorkovskijsaken ”lukter”, at det er Putin (se også Putin, the Kremlin power struggle and the $40bn fortune, Luke Harding in Moscow, The Guardian, Friday December 21 2007) som trekker i trådene der ute i kulissene et sted. Det er høyst sannsynlig at dette er statlig maktmisbruk.

Tidligere i denne bloggen har jeg nevnt skredderen som parkerte synålen i Stalins øye (en avis med bilde av Josef Stalin) – dette ble observert av en angiver med resultat 10 år i fangeleir.

Carl von Ossietzky (Nobelprisvinner) døde i Hitler-Tysklands fengsler.

Nå vansmekter en kinesisk Nobelprisvinner (Liu Xiabo) i kinesisk fengsel.

USA forsøker visstnok å få utlevert Julian Assange (Wikileaks) for å ha formidlet videre informasjon som man kan lese på nettstedene til amerikanske nettaviser, The Guardian og Aftenposten. Hvorfor går ikke USA løs på disse også?   

I Norge surrer og går Treholtsaken i rettsapparatet. Ikke ulikt en gryte fårikål som koker på overtid med resultat at man finner verken kål eller får i gryta, bare en ubestemmelig suppe som lukter ramt av sau. Dette er norsk maktarroganse på sitt verste. Resultatet bør bli at mange får svidd fingrene sine. Lydmuren blir først brutt når Gjenopptakelseskommisjonen kommer med kjennelsen en gang til neste år, muligens… Da ”arbeidsjernet” Janne Kristiansen (nå leder for det famøse PST) sjefet der, tok det visstnok to år før kjennelsen kom. Ting tar tid, sies det. Her fra ”hvor pepper’n gror” kan det se ut som de virkelig kriminelle, ordsjonglørene i regjering, rettsvesenet og politiet, som lyver og skjuler fakta når det passer dem, lever i beste velgående. Fattigmannstrøst er at ”Gud ser alt”. Om de ikke får straffen sin i denne verden, kommer nok straffen i det hinsidige.

Uansett ser vi og får vi se hvor den reelle makten ligger.

mandag 27. desember 2010

”Fikk ikke mobiltelefon – hengte seg!”


Forleden syklet jeg forbi et hus hvor det ble spilt begravelsesmusikk. En kiste stod der inne. Sikkert en motorsykkelulykke, tenkte jeg. Dem er det mange av her. Men det var det ikke.

En ungdom maste på moren om å få mobiltelefon. Hun ble lei av maset og sa han kunne gå og henge seg – kan hende fikk han mobiltelefon der…

Faren kom hjem og spurte etter sønnen. Moren sa som sant var hva som hadde skjedd og hva hun hadde sagt. Faren tok en runde ved huset og fant sønnen som hadde gjort som moren sa. Han hadde hengt seg.

I en annen landsby like ved hengte en ung jente seg for noen måneder siden. Foreldrene mente det var fordi hun ikke fikk penger til å ringe for.

Skjer slikt i Norge også, eller er det bare i ”Amazing Thailand”?

lørdag 25. desember 2010

"PPG-trike – planer"


Når triken min er ferdig en gang i desember-januar, blir det første jeg gjør å kjøre litt rundt omkring for å vende meg til doningen. Hvordan den reagerer på gasspådrag og hvor lett den er å manøvrere. Deretter velger jeg meg noen dager (morgen-ettermiddag) med lite eller ingen ving og trener på å kjøre rundt med skjermen over hodet. Dette er det trolig best å gjøre på Khorat PPG hvor det er en stor og åpen plass og hvor jeg kan ta flere runder om det er vindstille. Jeg satser på å bli dyktig på å kjøre rundt med skjerm. Når jeg mestrer skjermkontroll i fart, er det tid for å lette. Så blir det mye landingstrening.

Flygingen er det letteste.  Ingen snittflyging på meg. Det blir å komme seg opp i god høyde. Når jeg drar på langtur, satser jeg på stort sett å holde meg mellom 1.000 og 2.000 meter over bakken med tanke på at jeg bestandig kan rekke frem til en brukbar landingsplass. Jeg legger inn sikkerhetsmarginer i tilfelle motorkutt slik at jeg kan nå landing uansett hva som skjer. Trange landingsplasser med bebyggelse og skog rundt er en utfordring her.

fredag 24. desember 2010

”Merry Christmas – for organized crime and its offspring!"


I have to wonder about Santa Claus. What is he doing this Christmas? (not very different from the last one, the ones before that, and the ones to come).

The crucial question – who is this Santa Claus? After having completed a thorough and painstaking investigation from ”where the pepper grows” I have eventually found the answer to this enigma.

In fact it is evident. Santa is the governments, the organizations which work to fight organized crime. To fight crime should not be very different from weeding in your garden; you take away the plants that you define as ”weeds”. So far, so good. But when THEY take away the weeds (read drugs of all kinds/drug criminals) the prices are soaring, making drug related crime one of the most profitable activities in our society. The fighting of drug related crime is fueling organized crime. There he is, Santa Claus!

The offspring of organized crime, its illegitimate child, exists and lives well in the shadow of figthing terrorism. All ”responsible” nations today fight terrorism. At least that is what they say they do. Do I believe them or not? No, I don’t. As goes for the war against drugs, the war against terrorism is a lost cause, a quagmire. We, the people of the world, are the losers. The winner is the armament industry. The Santa Clauses are Barack Obama and the leaders in the USA, the leaders in North and South Korea, leaders in China, Russia, France, Great Britain, Germany. I do not forget the government of Norway and the leaders of Norwegian political parties.

Mind my words, and observe what will be going on in years to come.

Organized crime and its offspring is, once again, going to have many merry Christmases and happy new years.

Still WE can have a merry Christmas and a happy new year, and that is what I am wishing you.

tirsdag 21. desember 2010

”Spøk og alvor – sakset fra Aftenpostens humorside”


hvor overskriften lyder slik ”Ny NAV-reform: Skal behandle alle brukere med respekt innen 2020”.  http://www.aftenposten.no/statsmakt/article3941761.ece  Der stod det blant annet dette:

”NAV iverksetter derfor en hastereform som etter planen skal være ferdigstilt ved utgangen av 2020.
- Dette skal bli vår månelanding! Vi har en lang vei å gå, men det gjør oss bare mer motiverte. Folk vil komme langveis fra – fra alle mulige statlige etater – for å bivåne hva vi har fått til, fortsetter Lystad.
Han understreker imidlertid at reformen på ingen måte vil være gratis.
- For at vi skal kunne opptre med normal folkeskikk må vi kutte trygdeutbetalingene med 20%.
Den eneste bekymringen til Lystad er at gjennomføringen av reformen kan gå for raskt.
- Folk må vite hva de har å forholde seg til. Når vi plutselig begynner å behandle folk med respekt kan mange bli satt ut av spill. I en overgangsperiode på 10 år vil vi derfor beholde noen kundebehandlere av den gamle ”


Omtrent halvparten av de som kommenterte innlegget, tok det dødsens alvorlig. Morsomt!

mandag 20. desember 2010

”Memento mori – husk du skal dø”


Men kanskje ikke ennå? Disse ordene er myntet på deg som flyr HG, PG og PPG.

Hvorfor ikke ha som nyttårsforsett å fly sikrere og bedre i tillegg til lengre og høyere i 2011?

Bakgrunnen for disse ordene er flere alvorlige ulykker i Khorat med paramotor det siste året. Alle ulykkene skyldtes pilotfeil. Den siste fatale ulykken skjedde i slutten av november.

Piloten midt på det lille bildet styrtet under snittflyging. Han fikk flybeviset sitt post mortem.

lørdag 18. desember 2010

”Et lite naturens under”



syntes jeg den var, denne lille gule nattsvermeren. Bare 10 millimeter stor. Den hadde trolig slått seg ned på den gule sykkeltrøyen min for å gjemme seg. Insektlivet her ”hvor pepper’n gror” er i det hele tatt sjeldent mangfoldig.

fredag 17. desember 2010

”Geminidene og Alfa Kentauri”


To kvelder forleden la jeg meg til utenfor her og så opp på stjernehimmelen. Noen meteorer (omtrent ti hver kveld) lagde lysende streker der oppe, ikke så langt fra Orion og Pleiadene.

Mens myggen surret og forstyrret tankens frie flukt rett som det var, lå jeg der og undret på Alfa Kentauri A, B og C – hvor befant de seg egentlig? Bare noe over 4 lysår unna og dermed de solene som er nærmest vårt eget solsystem.

Er det en som ligger på rygg på en jordlignende planet der oppe og tenker omtrent det samme som meg: Er det noen der ute et sted?

torsdag 16. desember 2010

”Legalise drugs, says former defence secretary”

”Bob Ainsworth describes war on drugs as 'nothing short of a disaster' and calls on government to look at other options” http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/16/legalise-drugs-former-defence-minister

The Guardian has quite a lot of ”in depth” articles. Quite different from Norwegian newspapers which sometimes seem to chew the same inedible morsel of meat over and over again. In the Guardian you are served entrecôte every day.

”Dra skjerm i mer enn 30 grader”



Ja, det er full vinter her. Grei termikk ute på idrettsplassen. Ble bare så vidt lettet noen få ganger. Og det gikk stort sett greit å løpe over plassen med skjermen over hodet. Fine cumuluser dukket opp over hele himmelen for så delvis å tørke bort. Det er faktisk moro å dra skjerm av og til. Vinden kom fra sydøst i dag. Kan hende er det muligheter fra Khao Sadao med PG til helgen?

onsdag 15. desember 2010

”Juleribben er nå blitt hundemat!”


Det var endelig på tide! Her fra ”hvor pepper’n gror” er jeg helt uenig med informasjonssjefen nedenfor:

”Informasjonssjef Bjørn V. Kløvstad i Coop Norge liker imidlertid ikke det han hører, og fraråder forbrukerne å gi juleribbe til sin de firbente.
– Folk må generelt tenke godt over hva de forer dyrene sine med. Dyrene skal ikke spise menneskemat, da dette er dårlig for fordøyelsen.” http://www.handelsbladetfk.no/id/21316

Etter min oppfatning stiller juleribben i klasse med annet slakteavfall. Ribbe, feite medisterkaker og gråbleike pølser som nå serveres under dekke av navnet juletallerken var i gamle dager en måte å kvitte seg med de dårligste delene av slaktet etter slaktingen før jul.

I rå tilstand er alt dette utmerket hundemat. I behandlet tilstand er det mindreverdig menneskemat (sett her fra ”hvor pepper’n gror”). 

free counters

tirsdag 14. desember 2010

”Svenskene får det til (Assange) – Sweden has made it once again (Assange)!”


I sporene av saken med Julius Assange har svenske myndigheter igjen sett seg nødt til å informere om det såkalte ”frivillighetsskjemaet”. Det har eksistert lenge, nettopp for å hindre beskyldninger om overgrep. Dersom du tar med deg en mann eller en kvinne hjem, inneholder skjemaet en rekke formuleringer som må underskrives for å sikre at man unngår å bli anmeldt til politiet. Skjemaet inneholder punkter som ”Jeg ble med NN hjem frivillig”, ”Jeg gikk frivillig inn i NN’s soverom”, ”Jeg gikk frivillig med på å gjøre …….. med NN” (her listes det opp en rekke ting som menn og kvinner kan gjøre når de er sammen – jeg ser ikke nødvendigheten av å gå i detalj her, men listen er lang – svenskene er et grundig folkeferd – på sett og vis er de Nordens tyskere på dette området). Med et slikt skjema er man sikret å unngå overgrepsanmeldelser og overgrepssiktelser. Kontakt Socialstyrelsen i Sverige, og du får skjemaet via Internett. Se Socialstyrelsen http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/blanketter

In the wake of the case against Julius Assange the Swedish authorities once again inform about the socalled ”Volunteering Form”. The form has existed for a long time; the intention by having such a form ist to stop false accusations of sexual assault. If you bring a man or a lady home the form contains a series of formulations which have to be signed of both parties to avoid accusations of assaults of a sexual character. Here are a few of the things you should urge your partner to sign: ”I volunteered to go home with NN”, ”I volunteered to go inside NN’s bedroom”, ”I volunteered to do ……………. together with NN” (here lots of things men and ladies can do together are listed – I see no reason to go in detail on this point, but the list is extensive – in many ways the Swedes are the Germans of the Nordic countries). Using a form like this you will be safeguarded against charges of sexual assault.  Contact Socialstyrelsen in Sweden  and get the form on the Internet. Look up Socialstyrelsen (The National Board of Health and Welfare)

mandag 13. desember 2010

”Svensk unnfallenhet og norsk ….? Angående Assange og Wikileaks med mere”

Dersom Assange mot formodning skulle bli utlevert fra Storbritannia til Sverige (eller USA), la oss ikke glemme følgende fakta fra andre verdenskrig: Sverige drev et utstrakt samarbeid med Nazi-Tyskland. Norge hadde det største antall landsforrædere i forhold til folketallet av noe land som ble okkupert av Nazi-Tyskland. Etter annen verdenskrig mottok USA et stort antall tyskere som hadde gjort seg skyldige i krigsforbrytelser fordi de hadde kunnskaper som var nyttige.

Nå forsøker Storberget å fortelle oss hvilket viktig arbeid PST driver og hvordan regjeringen reagerer med avsky på bombemannen som sprengte seg selv i luften i Stockholm her forleden. Se http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3945722.ece  

Hva er det egentlig justisministeren forsøker å si? I betraktning av den klemmen PST, tidligere POT og rettsapparatet som nå arbeider på lavgir i Treholtsaken, befinner seg i, TROR JEG NOK DU SKJØNNER DET SJØL?

Samtidig fører Norge og norske leiesoldater, sammen med Sverige og en rekke andre land, en krig i Afghanistan som av mange afghanistanere oppleves som en terrorkrig. Krigen er sannsynligvis tapt og vil utvikle seg til en verre hengemyr enn Vietnamkrigen.

På begge sider kan det se ut som om hensikten nå helliger midlene som er terror, tortur og press mot ytringsfriheten. Er Pax Americana i ferd med å føre oss inn i en ny middelalder hvor opparbeidete rettigheter og respekt for menneskeverdet undergraves av dem vi trodde sto for det motsatte syn?

”Narkotikamafiaen holder til i USA og ledes av (u)ansvarlige politikere og tjenestemenn?”


At USA er hykleriets høyborg er allment kjent. Dersom denne passusen i Aftenposten medfører riktighet, er det ikke å undres over at kampen mot narkotika har slått feil: ”USA var hele tiden godt orientert om Khans virksomhet, men valgte å lukke øynene for flommen av heroin og i stedet konsentrere seg om å jakte på Taliban og al-Qaida.” For hele artikkelen se http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article3945596.ece

Under Vietnamkrigen drev CIA også stort i narkotikahandel.

Dersom USA driver kampen mot terror på samme måten, er det neimen ikke rart at det også går fullstendig til helvete.

Mot denne bakgrunnen er det forståelig at lederne i landet går så sterkt imot alt det grumset som Wikileaks virvler opp.

Dette er trist for et USA som så mange ser opp til som symbol for den frie verden.

søndag 12. desember 2010

”Wise words about Wikileaks in The Guardian”


Time for Norwegians newspapers to wake up and understand that Wikileaks basically is good for democracy. One exception, as far as I know, is ”Adresseavisa” in this article, ”Wikileaks styrker deomokratiet” http://www.adressa.no/meninger/leder/article1562368.ece


WikiLeaks may make the powerful howl, but we are learning the truth
WikiLeaks has offered us glimpses of how the world works. And in most cases nothing but good can come of it-
·         
I have lost count of the politicians and opinion formers of an authoritarian bent warning of the dreadful damage done by the WikiLeaks dump of diplomatic cables, and in the very next breath dismissing the content as frivolous tittle-tattle. To seek simultaneous advantage from opposing arguments is not a new gambit, but to be wrong in both is quite an achievement.
Publication of the cables has caused no loss of life; troops are not being mobilised; and the only real diplomatic crisis is merely one of discomfort. The idea that the past two weeks have been a disaster is self-evidently preposterous. Yet the leaks are of unprecedented importance because, at a stroke, they have enlightened the masses about what is being done in their name and have shown the corruption, incompetence – and sometimes wisdom – of our politicians, corporations and diplomats. More significantly, we have been given a snapshot of the world as it is, rather than the edited account agreed upon by diverse elites, whose only common interest is the maintenance of their power and our ignorance.
The world has changed, not simply because governments find they are just as vulnerable to the acquisition, copying and distribution of huge amounts of data as the music, publishing and film businesses were, but because we are unlikely to return to the happy ignorance of the past. Knowing Saudi Arabia has urged the bombing of Iran, that Shell maintains an iron grip on the government of Nigeria, that Pfizer hired investigators to disrupt investigations into drugs trials on children, also in Nigeria, that the Pakistan intelligence service, the ISI, is swinging both ways on the Taliban, that China launched a cyber attack on Google, that North Korean has provided nuclear scientists to Burma, that Russia is a virtual mafia state in which security services and gangsters are joined at the hip – and knowing all this in some detail – means we are far more likely to treat the accounts of events we are given in the future with much greater scepticism.
Never mind the self-serving politicians who waffle on about the need for diplomatic confidentiality when they themselves order the bugging of diplomats and hacking of diplomatic communications. What is astonishing is the number of journalists out there who argue that it is better not to know these things, that the world is safer if the public is kept in ignorance. In their swooning infatuation with practically any power elite that comes to hand, some writers for the Murdoch press and Telegraph titles argue in essence for the Chinese or Russian models of deceit and obscurantism. They advocate the continued infantilising of the public.
Nothing is new. In 1771, that great lover of liberty, John Wilkes, and a number of printers challenged the law that prohibited the reporting of Parliamentary debates and speeches, kept secret because those in power argued that the information was too sensitive and would disrupt the life of the country if made public. Using the arcane laws of the City of London, Alderman Wilkes arranged for the interception of the Parliamentary messengers sent to arrest the printers who had published debates, and in doing so successfully blocked Parliament. By 1774, a contemporary was able to write: "The debates in both houses have been constantly printed in the London papers." From that moment, the freedom of the press was born.
It took a libertine to prove that information enriched the functioning of British society, a brave maverick who was constantly moving house – and sometimes country – to avoid arrest; whose epic sexual adventures had been used by the authorities as a means of entrapping and imprisoning him. The London mob came out in his favour and, supplemented by shopkeepers and members of the gentry on horseback, finally persuaded the establishment of the time to accept that publication was inevitable. And the kingdom did not fall.
Over the past few weeks, there have been similarly dire predictions from sanctimonious men and women of affairs about the likely impacts of publication, and of course Julian Assange finds himself banged up in Wandsworth nick, having neither been formally charged with, nor found guilty of, the sex crimes he is alleged to have committed in Sweden. Making no comment about his guilt or innocence, or the possibility of his entrapment, I limit myself to saying that we have been here before with John Wilkes; and the reason for this is that authorities the world over and through history react the same way when there is a challenge to a monopoly of information.
It is all about power and who has access to information. Nothing more. When those who want society to operate on the basis of the parent-child relationship because it is obviously easier to manage, shut the door and say "not in front of the children", they are usually looking after their interests, not ours.
I don't argue for a free-for-all, regardless of the consequences. In the WikiLeaks cables, knowledge and the editing and reporting skills found in the old media, combined with the new ability to locate and seize enormous amounts of information on the web, has actually resulted in responsible publication, with names, sources, locations and dates redacted to protect people's identities and their lives.
America is sore and naturally feels exposed, but the state department would have had much less cause for regret if it had listened to Ross Anderson, the Cambridge professor often quoted here in relation to Labour's obsession with huge databases of personal information. His rule states that it is a mathematical impossibility to maintain a large and functional database that is also secure. Hillary Clinton must rue the day that the Bush administration built a great silo of cables that could be accessed by three million staff. The Chinese and Russians would never have been so trusting.
There has been more than a hint that China and Russia have empathised with the Americans. The unseen affinities of the powerful may also be responsible for the unforgivable behaviour by Amazon, which pulled the plug on hosting WikiLeaks, and PayPal, Visa and MasterCard, which unilaterally stopped customers making donations to WikiLeaks. There was not the slightest consideration of principles about free information or the freedom of their customers to make up their own minds. What next? Will these corporate giants be blocking payment to the New York Times and the Guardian? It is hard to feel much regret over the cyber attacks on their websites because, in the end, they did not seem much better than Shell and Pfizer, the companies that appear to be running so much of Nigeria like the worst type of imperial powers.
Nothing but good can come from revelations about these companies, and in this brief moment when we have a glimpse of how things really are, we should relish the fact that publication of the cables, as well as the shameful reactions to it, have brought light, not fire.

lørdag 11. desember 2010

”PPG med elektrisk motor”


skal komme på markedet i april neste år. Disse to videoene ser jo ut som en drøm. Kan hende er dette noe for meg: Starte på flatmark, fly opp mot skyer i vekst og ta termikken der. Se http://www.paramotormag.com/news/2010/11/2505/

”Is the USA a civilized nation? or waterboarding for dummies”


See http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/03/09/waterboarding_for_dummies

 

”Waterboarding for dummies

Internal CIA documents reveal a meticulous protocol that was far more brutal than Dick Cheney's "dunk in the water"

  •  
Self-proclaimed waterboarding fan Dick Cheney called it a no-brainer in a 2006 radio interview: Terror suspects should get a "a dunk in the water." But recently released internal documents reveal the controversial "enhanced interrogation" practice was far more brutal on detainees than Cheney's description sounds, and was administered with meticulous cruelty.
Interrogators pumped detainees full of so much water that the CIA turned to a special saline solution to minimize the risk of death, the documents show. The agency used a gurney "specially designed" to tilt backwards at a perfect angle to maximize the water entering the prisoner's nose and mouth, intensifying the sense of choking – and to be lifted upright quickly in the event that a prisoner stopped breathing.
The documents also lay out, in chilling detail, exactly what should occur in each two-hour waterboarding "session." Interrogators were instructed to start pouring water right after a detainee exhaled, to ensure he inhaled water, not air, in his next breath. They could use their hands to "dam the runoff" and prevent water from spilling out of a detainee's mouth. They were allowed six separate 40-second "applications" of liquid in each two-hour session – and could dump water over a detainee's nose and mouth for a total of 12 minutes a day. Finally, to keep detainees alive even if they inhaled their own vomit during a session – a not-uncommon side effect of waterboarding – the prisoners were kept on a liquid diet. The agency recommended Ensure Plus.
"This is revolting and it is deeply disturbing," said Dr. Scott Allen, co-director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at Brown University who has reviewed all of the documents for Physicians for Human Rights. "The so-called science here is a total departure from any ethics or any legitimate purpose. They are saying, ‘This is how risky and harmful the procedure is, but we are still going to do it.' It just sounds like lunacy," he said. "This fine-tuning of torture is unethical, incompetent and a disgrace to medicine."
These torture guidelines were contained in a ream of internal government documents made public over the past year, including a legal review of Bush-era CIA interrogations by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility released late last month.
Though public, the hundreds of pages of documents authorizing or later reviewing the agency's "enhanced interrogation program" haven't been mined for waterboarding details until now. While Bush-Cheney officials defended the legality and safety of waterboarding by noting the practice has been used to train U.S. service members to resist torture, the documents show that the agency's methods went far beyond anything ever done to a soldier during training. U.S. soldiers, for example, were generally waterboarded with a cloth over their face one time, never more than twice, for about 20 seconds, the CIA admits in its own documents.
(After this story was published, Salon learned that Marcy Wheeler, the author of the blog Emptywheel, and several other bloggers have written about many of the documents released over the past year.)
These memos show the CIA went much further than that with terror suspects, using huge and dangerous quantities of liquid over long periods of time. The CIA's waterboarding was "different" from training for elite soldiers, according to the Justice Department document released last month. "The difference was in the manner in which the detainee's breathing was obstructed," the document notes. In soldier training, "The interrogator applies a small amount of water to the cloth (on a soldier's face) in a controlled manner," DOJ wrote. "By contrast, the agency interrogator ... continuously applied large volumes of water to a cloth that covered the detainee's mouth and nose."
One of the more interesting revelations in the documents is the use of a saline solution in waterboarding. Why? Because the CIA forced such massive quantities of water into the mouths and noses of detainees, prisoners inevitably swallowed huge amounts of liquid – enough to conceivably kill them from hyponatremia, a rare but deadly condition in which ingesting enormous quantities of water results in a dangerously low concentration of sodium in the blood. Generally a concern only for marathon runners , who on extremely rare occasions drink that much water, hyponatremia could set in during a prolonged waterboarding session. A waterlogged, sodium-deprived prisoner might become confused and lethargic, slip into convulsions, enter a coma and die.
Therefore, "based on advice of medical personnel," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury wrote in a May 10, 2005, memo authorizing continued use of waterboarding, "the CIA requires that saline solution be used instead of plain water to reduce the possibility of hyponatremia."
The agency used so much water there was also another risk: pneumonia resulting from detainees inhaling the fluid forced into their mouths and noses. Saline, the CIA argued, might reduce the risk of pneumonia when this occurred.
"The detainee might aspirate some of the water, and the resulting water in the lungs might lead to pneumonia," Bradbury noted in the same memo. "To mitigate this risk, a potable saline solution is used in the procedure."
That particular Bradbury memo laid out a precise and disturbing protocol for what went on in each waterboarding session. The CIA used a "specially designed" gurney for waterboarding, Bradbury wrote. After immobilizing a prisoner by strapping him down, interrogators then tilted the gurney to a 10-15 degree downward angle, with the detainee's head at the lower end. They put a black cloth over his face and poured water, or saline, from a height of 6 to 18 inches, documents show. The slant of the gurney helped drive the water more directly into the prisoner's nose and mouth. But the gurney could also be tilted upright quickly, in the event the prisoner stopped breathing.
Detainees would be strapped to the gurney for a two-hour "session." During that session, the continuous flow of water onto a detainee's face was not supposed to exceed 40 seconds during each pour. Interrogators could perform six separate 40-second pours during each session, for a total of four minutes of pouring. Detainees could be subjected to two of those two-hour sessions during a 24-hour period, which adds up to eight minutes of pouring. But the CIA's guidelines say interrogators could pour water over the nose and mouth of a detainee for 12 minutes total during each 24-hour period. The documents do not explain the extra four minutes to get to 12.
Interrogators were instructed to pour the water when a detainee had just exhaled so that he would inhale during the pour. An interrogator was also allowed to force the water down a detainee's mouth and nose using his hands. "The interrogator may cup his hands around the detainee's nose and mouth to dam the runoff," the Bradbury memo notes. "In which case it would not be possible for the detainee to breathe during the application of the water."
"We understand that water may enter – and accumulate in – the detainee's mouth and nasal cavity, preventing him from breathing," the memo admits.
Should a prisoner stop breathing during the procedure, the documents instructed interrogators to rapidly tilt the gurney to an upright position to help expel the saline. "If the detainee is not breathing freely after the cloth is removed from his face, he is immediately moved to a vertical position in order to clear the water from his mouth, nose, and nasopharynx," Bradbury wrote. "The gurney used for administering this technique is specially designed so that this can be accomplished very quickly if necessary."
Documents drafted by CIA medical officials in 2003, about a year after the agency started using the waterboard, describe more aggressive procedures to get the water out and the subject breathing. "An unresponsive subject should be righted immediately," the CIA Office of Medical Services ordered in its Sept. 4, 2003, medical guidelines for interrogations. "The interrogator should then deliver a sub-xyphoid thrust to expel the water." (That's a blow below the sternum, similar to the thrust delivered to a chocking victim in the Heimlich maneuver.)
But even those steps might not force the prisoner to resume breathing. Waterboarding, according to the Bradbury memo, could produce "spasms of the larynx" that might keep a prisoner from breathing "even when the application of water is stopped and the detainee is returned to an upright position." In such cases, Bradbury wrote, "a qualified physician would immediately intervene to address the problem and, if necessary, the intervening physician would perform a tracheotomy." The agency required that "necessary emergency medical equipment" be kept readily available for that procedure. The documents do not say if doctors ever performed a tracheotomy on a prisoner.
The doctors were also present to monitor the detainee "to ensure that he does not develop respiratory distress." A leaked 2007 report from the International Committee of the Red Cross says that meant the detainee's finger was fixed with a pulse oxymeter, a device that measures the oxygen saturation level in the blood during the procedure. Doctors like Allen say this would allow interrogators to push a detainee close to death – but help them from crossing the line. "It is measuring in real time the oxygen content in the blood second by second," Allen explained about the pulse oxymeter. "It basically allows them to push these prisoners more to the edge. With that, you can keep going. This is calibration of harm by health professionals."
One of the weirdest details in the documents is the revelation that the agency placed detainees on liquid diets prior to the use of waterboarding. That's because during waterboarding, "a detainee might vomit and then aspirate the emesis," Bradbury wrote. In other words, breathe in his own vomit. The CIA recommended the use of Ensure Plus for the liquid diet.
Plowing through hundreds of pages of these documents is an unsettling experience. On one level, the detailed instructions can be seen as helping to carry out kinder, gentler waterboarding, with so much care and attention given to making sure detainees didn't stop breathing, get pneumonia, breathe in their own vomit or die. But of course dead detainees tell no tales, so the CIA needed to keep many of its prisoners alive. It should be noted, though, that six human rights groups in 2007 released a report showing that 39 people who appeared to have gone into the CIA's secret prison network haven't shown up since. The careful attention to detail in the documents was also used to provide legal cover for the harsh and probably illegal interrogation tactics.
As brutal as the waterboarding process was, the memos also reveal that the Bush-era Justice Department authorized the CIA to use it in combination with other forms of torture. Specifically, a detainee could be kept awake for more than seven days straight by shackling his hands in a standing position to a bolt in the ceiling so he could never sit down. The agency diapered and hand-fed its detainees during this period before putting them on the waterboard. Another memo from Bradbury, also from 2005, says that in between waterboarding sessions, a detainee could be physically slammed into a wall, crammed into a small box, placed in "stress positions" to increase discomfort and doused with cold water, among other things.
The CIA's waterboarding regimen was so excruciating, the memos show, that agency officials found themselves grappling with an unexpected development: detainees simply gave up and tried to let themselves drown. "In our limited experience, extensive sustained use of the waterboard can introduce new risks," the CIA's Office of Medical Services wrote in its 2003 memo. "Most seriously, for reasons of physical fatigue or psychological resignation, the subject may simply give up, allowing excessive filling of the airways and loss of consciousness."
The agency's medical guidelines say that after a case of "psychological resignation" by a detainee on the waterboard, an interrogator had to get approval from a CIA doctor before doing it again.
The memo also contains a last, little-noticed paragraph that may be the most disturbing of all. It seems to say that the detainees subjected to waterboarding were also guinea pigs. The language is eerily reminiscent of the very reasons the Nuremberg Code was written in the first place. That paragraph reads as follows:
"NOTE: In order to best inform future medical judgments and recommendations, it is important that every application of the waterboard be thoroughly documented: how long each application (and the entire procedure) lasted, how much water was used in the process (realizing that much splashes off), how exactly the water was applied, if a seal was achieved, if the naso- or oropharynx was filled, what sort of volume was expelled, how long was the break between applications, and how the subject looked between each treatment."”

fredag 10. desember 2010

”Karaoke fra Khorat PPG sist helg”


Karaoke er utrolig populært blant thailendere. Her et lite klipp fra sist søndag kveld etter at pilotene hadde fløyet fra seg. Mange trivelige piloter i Khorat.

”Lettere enn 40 kg på ryggen!”


I slutten av desember eller begynnelsen av januar kan jeg bare sette meg opp i denne triken, starte opp og kjøre ut på idrettsplassen. Bare det å gå hundre meter med paramotor på ryggen gjør at jeg får tendenser til flaskeskuldre. Ikke vakkert, nei. Har sjekket speilbildet etter lange bæreøkter. Det var så stygt at jeg sluttet å se meg i speilet…

torsdag 9. desember 2010

”About WikiLeaks in The Independent”


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-this-case-must-not-obscure-what-wikileaks-has-told-us-2154109.html

”Johann Hari: This case must not obscure what WikiLeaks has told us

Wednesday, 8 December 2010
The IndependentClose
'We will never unlearn or unknow the great truths that Julian Assange has brought to the world'
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Every one of us owes a debt to Julian Assange. Thanks to him, we now know that our governments are pursuing policies that place you and your family in considerably greater danger. Wikileaks has informed us they have secretly launched war on yet another Muslim country, sanctioned torture, kidnapped innocent people from the streets of free countries and intimidated the police into hushing it up, and covered up the killing of 15,000 civilians – five times the number killed on 9/11. Each one of these acts has increased the number of jihadis. We can only change these policies if we know about them – and Assange has given us the black-and-white proof.
Each of the wikileaks revelations has been carefully weighed to ensure there is a public interest in disclosing it. Of the more than 250,000 documents they hold, they have released fewer than 1000 – and each of those has had the names of informants, or any information that could place anyone at risk, removed. The information they have released covers areas where our governments are defying the will of their own citizens, and hiding the proof from them.

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Here’s some examples. The Obama administration has been denying that it has expanded the current “war” to yet another country, Yemen. Now we know that is a lie. Ali Abdulah Saleh, the Yemeni dictator, brags in these cables to a US diplomat: “We’ll continue to say the bombs are ours, not yours.” The counter-insurgency expert David Kilcullen, who until recently was a senior advisor to General Petreaus in Iraq, estimates that for every one jihadi killed in these bombings, they kill fifty innocent people. How would we react if this was happening in Britain? How many of us would become deranged by grief and resolve to fight back, even against the other side’s women and children? Bombing to end jihadism is like smoking to end lung cancer – a cure that worsens the disease.
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The US and British governments told us they invaded Iraq, in part, because they were appalled that the Iraqi government tortured its own citizens. Tony Blair often mentioned “Saddam’s torture chambers” in making his case for the war. Yet these leaked documents show that as soon as our governments were in charge, the policy of burning, electrocuting and raping people started again – and they consciously chose a policy of not objecting and not investigating. Modern jihadism was born in the torture chambers of Egypt in the 1950s. A lot more will have been made in the torture chambers of Baghdad since 2003. Some of it has already exploded onto our streets – the attempted Glasgow airport bombing was by Iraqis who said they were “resisting” the use of torture in their country. There will be more.
The cables reveal how this grief and murderous rage is being spread across the Muslim world, while we lie about it. Here’s just one example. US troops blew up an Afghan village called Azizabad, and killed 95 people, 50 of them children. None were al Qaeda, or even Taliban. They knew what they’d done – yet in public they kept insisting they’d killed “militants”, and even accused the local Afghan villagers of “fabricat[ing] such evidence as grave sites.”
Wikileaks has exposed a terrifying casualness in our governments about ramping up the risk against us. Indeed, they show that the US government knows Saudi Arabia is “the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups world-wide”, but our leaders continue to (literally) hold hands with them, because their oil pipelines run our way. They show a startling contempt for democracy too: when the Honduran President, Manuel Zelaya, was kidnapped by a far right clique because he had increased the minimum wage and redistributed wealth to the poor, the US embassy confirmed privately that it was “clearly illegal”. Yet the US administration refused to say this publicly, instead urging “reconciliation” with the junta their own diplomats were calling “totally illegitimate.”
For Britain’s politicians, the documents offer a long-needed slap in the face. Successive governments, of all parties, support these destructive US policies because they believe we have influence with the Americans. But these cables show the Americans literally laugh at them and their sycophancy, describing their servility in mocking tones in cables back home, saying “it would be humorous if it were not so corrosive.”
Most people in the US and Britain oppose these policies. We are better than our politicians. But we can only stop them – and the risk they pose to innocent people across the world, including us – if we know about them. Assange has made that possible, at great risk to his liberty and his life. So this is a move that enhances our national security. Of course, there are people who claim he has “blood on his hands” – but where is there evidence? It is months now since the first cables were leaked, and they have found not a single person who has been even threatened as a result of the leaks – except Assange, whose death is being incited by many of America’s leading politicians.
There is a squalid little irony when you see people who are literally bombing innocent civilians every day feverishly accuse a man who has never touched a weapon in his life of being “covered in blood.” Wikileaks have hurt nobody. They redacted sensitive names. They held back any cables that could expose anyone to risk. They asked the Pentagon to help them by privately explaining where they believed there could be a danger – only to be rebuffed.
Of course, it is possible Julian Assange did this good, noble thing, and is also a rapist. I do not believe in reflexively dismissing rape claims by any woman, in any circumstances. Bill Clinton was the victim of a right-wing smear campaign and many of us dismissed the allegations of sexual assault against him – but now, years later, one of the women who came forward, Kathleen Willey, has earned nothing from her allegations, remains a left-wing Democrat, and seems to have a very plausible case.
Here’s what we know. There is a long history of the CIA viciously smearing people who dare to cross the US state machinery. There is a strong chance the claims against Assange is another case of it. But there is also a long history of otherwise admirable men turning out to be rapists, and there’s a chance this is another case of it. This should be tested in a court of law – and the trial should be watched very careful to make sure it’s not being rigged by bribes or threats.
Whatever that judgment turns out to be, we will never unlearn or unknow the great truths Julian Assange has brought us. The hysterical state-power hacks saying he is “a terrorist” should go tell it to all the tortured Iraqis, all the terrorized Honduran democrats, and all the bombed Yemenis whose story he has – at last – brought out from the sealed-away world of Top Secret cables.
* For updates on Assange and other issues, Follow Johann on Twitter at www.twitter.com/johannhari101  

”Pax Americana or Pax Terra?”

It is time that the United Nations rules out the decisions of nations to wage war against other countries and their own citizens. All conflicts of this kind should be solved in a peaceful way. All it needs is international power to stop the killing.

It has not always been so that it was illegal to take action if someone was killed in your family; feuds could go on for generations. In most countries this is a fact of the past.

Between nations and inside nations there is kind of anarchy concerning these matters. It should be a criminal offense to kill other people instead of solving the conflicts peacefully under international law.

These are crimes against humanity. The criminals are distinguished persons like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jens Stoltenberg, Jonas Støre just to mention a few. Without international law it is not possible to stop all this killing in the name of every good cause they contrive. Effective international law  against warfare should be the ultimate goal of everybody who wants peace.

The political leaders who put this on the international agenda would indeed deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

onsdag 8. desember 2010

”Has President Obama the right to kill American citizens anywhere?”



”Judge throws out assassination lawsuit

By Terry Frieden, CNN Justice Producer
December 7, 2010 -- Updated 2030 GMT (0430 HKT)

Washington (CNN) -- A judge threw a "unique and extraordinary" lawsuit out of court Tuesday, leaving open the question of whether the U.S. government can legally target American citizens for death abroad without a trial.
The father of suspected terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta to prevent them from having his son killed in a drone strike.
U.S. District Court Judge John Bates dismissed the case on procedural grounds, saying that Nasser al-Awlaki did not have standing to sue and that the officials were immune from such lawsuits anyway.
In an 83-page opinion, Bates declared that it was up to the elected branches of government, not the courts, to determine whether the United States has the authority.
Anwar al-Awlaki is believed by U.S. authorities to have inspired acts of terrorism aimed at the United States, including a fatal shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, and the December 25 bombing attempt to bring down an airliner flying to Detroit, Michigan.
Bates said the case raised "stark and perplexing questions," such as why the government needed court permission to wiretap Americans abroad but not, apparently, to kill them.
He also asked why a citizen calling for "jihad against the West" and planning terror attacks could use the courts to defend his constitutional rights.
Unfortunately, Bates concluded, "no matter how interesting and no matter how important this case may be ... we cannot address it unless we have jurisdiction."
The American Civil Liberties Union, which backed the suit, called the outcome inconsistent with the Constitution and dangerous to American liberty.
"If the court's ruling is correct, the government has unreviewable authority to carry out the targeted killing of any American, anywhere, whom the president deems to be a threat to the nation," the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. Jaffer was one of the lawyers on the case.
The judge's argument that the question at the heart of the case was political, not legal, disturbed another of the attorneys, Pardiss Kebriaei of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
"The court's holding on the political question doctrine is indeed 'unsettling,' " Kebriaei said in a statement, borrowing the language of the ruling.”

”Begynnelsen på slutten for et åpent Internett og de vestlige demokratiene slik som vi har trodd de er?”



Dette dreier seg blant annet om den tilliten vi har/ikke har til myndighetene. Når USA og Frankrike innfører sensur på Internett stiller de i samme klasse som Kina, Thailand med flere som stenger den frie informasjonen for borgerne sine.

I bunn og grunn dreier dette seg om avvikling av demokratiet. Verden er ingen barnehage. Lekkasjene fra Wikileaks har fremkalt reaksjoner som viser at ”det er makta som rår”.

Kina er et råttent eple hvis styresett er modent for historiens søpledynge. Russland er styrt av mafialiknende ledere (man kan jo lure på hvordan Putin, ifølge the Guardian, er blitt Russlands rikeste mann?). USA snakker så vakkert om demokrati og frihet. Samtidig dreper landet kvinner, barn, menn og noen såkalte terrorister i tusentall i Afghanistan og Irak. Til fånyttes. Det er vel bare våpenindustrien som vinner på all krigingen. Og Norge henger med.

Kampen mot narkotika er tapt for regjeringene som i ord sier at de bekjemper narkotika, men i handling maksimerer profitten for narkotikamafiaen. Det er virkelig slik at jeg undrer meg på om ikke narkotikamafiaen EGENTLIG er blant annet den amerikanske og norske regjeringen?

Kampen mot internasjonal terrorisme ser også ut til å gi stikk motsatt resultat av det tilsiktede. Det er så jeg lurer på om nettopp det er hensikten. Akkurat som med kampen mot narkotika. Sitter de virkelige terroristene trygt i Washington, London, Oslo med flere hovedsteder og trekker i trådene?

Dersom nå også Vesten i ferd med å tape kampen for et demokratisk samfunn, hva er det da som er tilbake? Om lederne heter Hu, Obama, Hitler, Lenin, Stoltenberg, Storberget, Stalin, Clinton, Mussolini osv osv, blir da ett fett.

I Orwell’s ”Animal Farm” begynte etter hvert grisene å gå på to ben og var snart ikke mulig å skille fra de tidligere herrene, bøndene. Ikke så forskjellig fra nåværende diplomater, nasjonalforsamlinger, regjeringer og toppjurister.

Demokratiet i det antikke Hellas var aldri et demokrati lik det vi har trodd vi har hatt her i Vesten. Nå er spørsmålet om vårt demokrati egentlig aldri har vært reelt, men bare har vært en trossak?

Gjødslet av det vestlige demokratiets forfall vil ortodoks islam trolig vokse seg sterk. Etter min oppfatning vil det være en tragedie Akkurat som det er en tragedie at det sentrale i den kristne læren i praksis blir tråkket ned i søla av vestlige leder i alle land.

tirsdag 7. desember 2010

”Eksotisk”


På sykkeltur i dag (går greit ”her hvor pepper’n gror” og kuldegradene befinner seg nord i Kina eller i Norge for den sakens skyld) stakk vi innom en dam full av plah dok, cat fish eller maller. For noen beist. Flere av dem var meteren lange med et gap som gjorde at iallfall jeg mistet lysten til å bade i den dammen.

Mange og svære kvelerslanger og flere meter lange kobraer (king cobras/spitting cobras) holdt også til i buskene. Fikk høre en historie om boaen som ble sprettet opp og inni fant de en hel thailandsk dame!

Mens pasjonsfruktene klasker i bakken hver gang det blåser litt, ligger jeg i hengekøyen og passer på trønderjordbærene som rødmer mer for hver time som går. Av og til kommer det noen strøtanker drivende om kuldegrader, snø og silkeføre. Kunne vært fint med en rask skitur eller la slalåmskiene svinge meg nedover. At det ikke går an å være to steder på samme tid, er i grunnen greit det også.