CJA ISSUES THREAT: Over Banning of Demonstrations

CJA on Demonstration

By Ekow Mensah

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) is obviously very angry over the illegal banning of demonstrations by the Ghana Police Service.

The CJA has asked the Police to lift the ban immediately or face it in court.

In statement issued in Accra and signed by its convener, Kwasi Adu, the CJA said “The Police Service has no right to declare a ban on demonstrations and we demand an immediate with withdrawal of the ban.

“In the event that the Police refuses or fails to withdraw their ban, they would leave us with no option but to proceed to court to restore our constitutional and civil rights”

The CJA said “Ghana must not return to the dark days of the culture of silence”

The full text of the statement is published below;

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) wishes to express serious concern about the announcement by the Ghana Police Service on 28^th April 2013 banning demonstrations until further notice.

The CJA strongly believes that neither the 1992 Constitution nor the Public Order Act (Act 491) gives the Ghana Police any such power.

This latest development points to a growing tendency in the police to trample on the freedoms enshrined in the 1992.

The CJA recalls other acts, in the past, by the Police Service to constrain citizens from enjoying civil and constitutional rights and freedoms. It may be recalled that in 2007, the NPP administration, under ex-President Kufuor, in connivance with the Police Service, went to the High Court for an order to prevent the CJA from organising a demonstration.

To our shock, the High Court declared that “all demonstrations are potentially violent” and therefore all organizers of demonstrations need to obtain police permits.  The court did this, knowing well that neither the 1992 Constitution nor the Public Order Act require citizens to apply for a police permit to hold demonstrations. We also recall various acts of brutality against peaceful demonstrators, even when the organizers had informed the police of the event within the stipulated five days’ requirement. 

It is unacceptable that the Ghana Police Service is using the on-going Supreme Court hearings as an excuse to make that illegal and unwarranted declaration. How can the Police Service use an event which is taking place in Accra to ban demonstrations throughout the country? We do not accept the claim by the Police Service that all police personnel throughout the country are currently on duty at the Supreme Court in Accra.

The Police Service has no right to declare a ban on demonstrations and we demand an immediate withdrawal of the ban. In the event that the Police Service refuses or fails to withdraw their ban, they would leave us with no other option but to proceed to court to restore our Constitutional and civil rights. 

Ghana must not return to the dark days of the culture of silence.

Kwesi Adu

Convener

Editorial

NO SIR! MASSA!

The committee for Joint Action (CJA) has said it all. The Ghana Police Service has no authority to ban demonstrations in the country.

Neither the 1992 constitution nor the public order Law confers any such authority on the Police Service.

In our view the orders issued by the Police Service are not just illegal but also indicate a systematic attempt to roll back freedoms which have been won in the arduous and painful struggle for democracy in Ghana.

The Police Service needs to be told in plain language that Ghana will never return to the dark days of the culture of silence.

The people of Ghana will continue to struggle to expand the democratic space and nothing can stop that.

In their own interest, The Insight calls on the Police Station to withdraw the ban immediately.

The Insight will support the committee for Joint Action (CJA) if it decides to do battle over this issue in the courts.

The rights of citizens to demonstrate ought to be restored immediately.

Marginalization: You Chop Alone You Die Alone

By Farouk Martins Aresa  

When poor people cry about marginalization by the rich and powerful, it takes too long to take them seriously. But when former head of state, an oppressor himself, Obasanjo warned against revolution, they look behind their shoulders. Prof. Nwabueze warned of the same while Danjuma warned that revolution does not discriminate between victims and oppressors. Gov. Aregbesola of Osun State is warning of Boko Haram in the South.

President Ebele and those surrounding him have decided that since the money being spent is oil money, the legitimate custodians must be those from Niger Delta. Reserve is running low in cash and products. So it will be a disaster if the well runs dry without much to show for it except environmental degradation in the South-south. The internal policy is to direct as much loot as they can towards that region. You blame them?

The other regions that have gotten used to free generous allocation, see through the internal policy and they are demanding their equal share. Otherwise those that chop alone will die alone. Boko Haram wants its share and some Yoruba leaders claimed marginalization because every administration including that of their son ObJ the “most detribalized Nigerian” took them for granted. 

Now, the Association of old retired politicians is crying marginalization. They are led by Joseph Wayas, General Gowon, Gen.(?) Diya, Umaru Dikko, Adamu Ciroma, Jim Nwobodo to name a few. They claim Nigerians are not grateful after risking their life serving the Country. In a country flowing with milk and honey, more than they realized when they were in office, those of you chopping alone must die alone.

Unless you can assure the Government that your militia can keep the oil pipelines safe from your vandals, no contracts waiting for MASSOB in the East, OPC in the West, Arewa Youths in the North and of course MEND in the South-south. If you want a contract, go and form your own militia association. Otherwise you are not getting anything from the Federal Government. Security is job number one at the expense of sanity.

Well, many university graduates are doing exactly that. They form armed robbery gangs, kidnapping groups, drug mules and 419 associations. The women cannot be left out unless you have not noticed the increasing amount of younger and desperate prostitutes recruited locally and internationally. Unfortunately, women the keeper of our community, culture, children and families cannot even take care of themselves.

When women, the creators of life and managers of families are left to fend for themselves, some of them become prostitutes as we point four fingers at ourselves for the loss of our society that went awry. Any society that cannot protect its women and children has lost its bearing. It is as good as dead. Indeed, it may perish when other culture, other countries and other continent absorbed and treat our women and children as their second class citizens.
The damage of all these is crowding out legitimate businesses like lawyers defending crooks, doctors as personal physicians of crooks treating gunshots wounds, accountants cooking books for politicians, banks, contractors and funny businessmen. Every foreign business men will tell you there are high returns on business in Nigeria. The only problem is that they have not benefited the average man or lifted up the masses.

It is getting hotter. Young men are invading the houses and offices of their local council representatives and beating the heck out of them. It started with Oba that sided with certain politicians and made it worse by offending sensibility or the culture. These boys have an ant bigger than what we see on the surface. When community starts falling apart, it starts from the youths disrespecting their elders, norms and culture of greed.

May be the revolution is already here, it is just silent until a member of our family is kidnapped. While warning one another to be careful, a friend made it clear those boys are university graduates that invest the little they have in kidnappings. They are not foolish enough to waste their investment on somebody that will not produce returns on meager savings. Those that kidnap contract out to those that house and feed victims.

Some months ago four senators including Babafemi Ojudu and Oluremi Tinubu ran into youth protesters in Ibadan that vandalized their cars. They were lucky, it could have been worse. During the Occupy Lekki protest, we thought that was it, the revolution we were hoping for has arrived. Some of the protesters went to occupy Bourdillon but it was subdued, not for ever. Next time it might be worse.
 
You Chop Alone You Die Alone starts from the greedy Oga At The Top commandeering all the contracts, allocation and infrastructure meant to better the dire situation of the masses. They get acclimatize to certain way of life because of easy money and spend it within their families lavishly. Even when they retire or are no longer on seat, they come back for more. Those on seat remind them that: you chop alone, you die alone. 

During the time of Tafawa Balewa, Okotie-Eboh was the richest man in the cabinet as the Minister of Finance negotiated by NCNC. By the time Obasanjo became the military President, the richest man was Babangida. So was it during the time of Shagari: Umaru Diko and Akinloye were amongst the richest men. Situation has changed since then, and we have the heads of state richer than god these days.

As long as he obeyed the golden rule that you chop alone, you die alone like Abacha.
  

Baby milk battles

 Notorious baby milk baddies Nestle are facing renewed calls for a boycott of their products thanks to the way they promote infant formula - and spy on their critics.

A new report by Save the Children, 'Super food for babies', documents how companies, including Nestle and Danone, continue to endanger health. The charity is calling on both companies to increase health warnings that formula is inferior to breast milk.

The use of gifts to health workers is another issue highlighted by the on-the-ground research. In Pakistan, 20 per cent of health professionals surveyed received gifts from baby food companies - over half were Nestle- branded.

In the Philippines, campaigners are trying to stop the weakening of regulations on marketing. The 'Nestle Monster Bill' could see the reintroduction of promotion of foods for children up to three years of age. According to campaign group Baby Milk Action, corporations have threatened to cancel $400 million of investment if the law does not pass.

Mike Brady, Baby Milk Action campaigns and networking co-coordinator, says: 'Nestle is leading an attempt to replace strong baby milk regulations in the Philippines.'

Campaigners are critical of the company's 'Creating Shared Value' report, published in April 2013, which they say is misleading about what Nestle actually does - compared to what it says it does.

'Nestle is criticized for its appropriation of community water supplies, poor treatment of dairy, coffee and cocoa farmers, and trade union busting,' says Brady.

While its own promotion methods are questioned, Nestle is keen to control bad press. In January 2013 the company was ordered to pay costs and damages to members of the ATTAC campaign group after they were infiltrated on behalf of the company.

How MI6, CIA spend tax money on propping up drug production

An Afghan farmer collects raw opium as he works in a poppy field in Khogyani District

By Annie Machon

With both the CIA and MI6 secretly providing 'ghost money' bribes to the Afghan political establishment, it’s likely that Afghans will increasingly support a resurgent Taliban and the drug trade will be further propped up.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has recently been criticized for taking 'ghost money' from the CIA and MI6. The sums are unknown – for the usual reasons of 'national security' – but are estimated to have been in the tens of millions of dollars. While this is nowhere near the eye-bleeding $12 billion shipped over to Iraq on pallets in the wake of the invasion a decade ago, it is still a significant amount.

And how has this money been spent?  Certainly not on social projects or rebuilding initiatives.  Rather, the reporting indicates, the money has been funneled to Karzai's cronies as bribes in a corrupt attempt to buy influence in the country.

None of this surprises me. MI6 has a long and ignoble history of trying to buy influence in countries of interest.  In 1995/96 it funded a 'ragtag group of Islamic extremists,' headed up by a Libyan military intelligence officer, in an illegal attempt to try to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi.  The attack went wrong and innocent people were killed. When this scandal was exposed, it caused an outcry.

Yet a mere 15 years later, MI6 and the CIA were back in Libya, providing support to the same 'rebels,' who this time succeeded in capturing, torturing and killing Gaddafi, while plunging Libya into apparently endless internecine war. This time around there was little international outcry, as the world's media portrayed this aggressive interference in a sovereign state as 'humanitarian relief.'

And we also see the same in Syria now, as the CIA and MI6 are already providing training and communication support to the rebels – many of whom, particularly the Al Nusra faction in control of the oil-rich north-east of Syria are in fact allied with Al-Qaeda in Iraq.  So in some countries the UK and USA use drones to target and murder "militants" (plus villagers, wedding parties and other assorted innocents), while in others they back ideologically similar groups.

Recently, we have also seen the Western media making unverified claims that the Syrian regime is using chemical weapons against its own people, and our politicians leaping on these assertions as justification for openly providing weapons to the insurgents.

Other reports are now emerging that indicate it was the rebels themselves who have been using sarin gas against the people. This may halt the rush to war, but not doubt other support will continue to be offered by the West to these war criminals.

So, how is MI6 secretly spending UK taxpayers' money in Afghanistan? According to Western media reporting, it is being used to prop up warlords and corrupt officials. This is deeply unpopular amongst the Afghan people, leading to the danger of increasing support for a resurgent Taliban.

There is also a significant overlap between the corrupt political establishment and the illegal drug trade, up to and including the president's late brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. So, another unintentional consequence may be that some of this unaccountable ghost money is propping up the drug trade.

Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of heroin, and the UN reports that poppy growth has increased dramatically. Indeed, the UN estimates that acreage under poppy growth in Afghanistan has tripled over the last 7 years.  The value of the drug trade to the Afghan warlords is now estimated to be in the region of $700 million per year.  You can buy a lot of Kalashnikovs with that.

On the one hand, we have Western governments bankrupting themselves to fight the 'war on terror,' breaking international laws and murdering millions of innocent people across North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, while at the same time shredding what remains of our hard-won civil liberties at home.

On the other hand, we apparently have MI6 and the CIA secretly bankrolling the very people in Afghanistan who produce 90 percent of the world's heroin. And then, of course, more scarce resources can be spent on fighting the failed 'war on drugs,' and yet another pretext is used to shred our civil liberties.

This is a lucrative economic model for the burgeoning military-security complex. However, it is a lose-lose scenario for the rest of us.

Annie Machon is a former intel­li­gence officer for MI5, the UK Secur­ity Ser­vice, who resigned in the late 1990s to blow the whistle on the spies’ crimes with her ex-partner, David Shayler.

Brazil to hire 6000 doctors from Cuba

Brailian Foreign Minister, Antonio Patrota

Brazil says it is negotiating with Cuba to hire some 6,000 Cuban doctors to work in areas of the South American country in need of medical physicians. 

"Cuba is very proficient in the areas of medicine, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and Brazil is considering receiving Cubans doctors in talks that involve the [Pan-American Health Organization] PAHO," Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said following a meeting with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez. 

Patriota said that the talks involved the deployment of an estimated 6,000 Cuban health professionals to Brazilian areas currently facing a shortage of medical facilities. 

Meanwhile Brazilian medical associations have opposed the idea by criticizing the standards of Cuban medical schools. They argue that in some cases, the standards of Cuban medical schools are equivalent to those of Brazilian nursing programs. 

Patriota also said that Brazil would finance the modernization of five airports in Cuba.

Also on Tuesday, Brazil's Tarde Minister Fernando Pimentel signed an agreement for a development bank BNDES USD 176 million loan to expands airports in Havana, Santa Clara, Cayo Coco, and Cayo Largo. 

Over the past decade, Cuba has sent some 30,000 doctors to neighboring Venezuela.
Every year, Havana gets USD 6 billion from Caracas for Cuban medical services in Venezuela. 

Texas tragedy: accident or clandestine cover-up? 

On April 17, 2013, the small farming community of West in the state of Texas, United States, was rocked by an explosion measuring 2.1 on the Richter scale.

By Yuram Abdullah Weiler

 “The risks associated with anhydrous ammonia and ammonium nitrate are well documented. They have both been associated with crudely made bombs used in terrorist attacks…,” - Attorney Justin Hill. 

On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at approximately 8 p.m., the small farming community of West in the state of Texas, United States, was rocked by an explosion measuring 2.1 on the Richter scale, which left damage in its aftermath resembling a Cruise missile attack. As an immediate consequence of the blast, 14 people were killed, most of whom were volunteer fire fighters, more than 200 were injured, over 50 homes destroyed, a nearby apartment building was gutted and more than four city blocks of the town were leveled. Toxic fumes caused by the explosion and subsequent fire forced an evacuation of half of the town’s residents. 

Describing the apocalyptic scene, McLennan county sheriff Parnell McNamara said, “I’ve never seen anything like this. It looks like a war zone with all the debris.” West’s mayor, Tommy Muska, said that the blast area looked as if a nuclear bomb had detonated. Teacher Debby Marak, who was near the plant when it blew up, said, “It was like being in a tornado. Stuff was flying everywhere. It blew out my windshield. It was like the whole earth shook.” A resident of Bynum, some 20 km from the epicenter of the explosion in West, reported that she, her husband and daughter had heard not one but three distinct explosions, which “sounded like three bombs going off very close to us.” Trooper D.L. Wilson of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the blast zone looked “just like Iraq, just like the Murrah building in Oklahoma City.” 

While the immediate cause of the blast is evidently ammonium nitrate, no explanation has been offered to as to why such a large quantity of the explosive substance had been stored at the plant owned by the West Fertilizer Company. According to regulations governing the storage of ammonium nitrate, 400 pounds (183 kilograms) or more of this dangerous substance must be reported to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The mass of ammonium nitrate stored on West Fertilizer Company property was not twice, not 10 times, nor 100 times, but some 1,350 times the minimum reportable quantity: 270 tons (245 metric tons). The amount involved alone suggests an intention to conceal something. What were the good Texans at West Fertilizer planning to do with so much of this dangerous material? 

Ammonium nitrate is produced for use as a nitrogen-rich agricultural fertilizer. Developed originally by German scientists to replace more expensive Chilean nitrates, ammonium nitrate is preferred over other more expensive fertilizers and is thought to improve the quality of leafy green vegetables. 

A powerful oxidizing agent, the chemical compound is also sensitive to heat and is used as an explosive or as an additive to other explosives such as trinitrotoluene (TNT). One such explosive is ANFO, 94% ammonium nitrate and 6% fuel oil, which is used in the mining industry as a blasting agent and has been used in terrorist attacks. The most common commercial explosive, ANFO, when properly prepared, can yield more explosive power than TNT. 

According to U.S. authorities, ANFO was the explosive used in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, however, this is disputed by other sources which suggest that the bombing was also a U.S. government false-flag operation connected to a classified project codenamed “Dipole Might.” The basic problem with the official version of the Murrah story is that for ANFO to be effective, it must be confined such as in a bore hole, which would not have been the case in the back of a Ryder rental truck. 

While technically classified as a blasting agent, ammonium nitrate detonates with a blast velocity of 2,700 to 4,500 meters per second placing its destructive power in the high explosive range, which is roughly 1,500 meters per second and up. By weight, ammonium nitrate yields more expansive gas than any other explosive material but has two major drawbacks which make it a dangerous and unpredictable substance: first, it is water soluble, so it can quickly lose its sensitivity, or ability to be easily detonated, when exposed to water; and, second it is subject to a phenomenon called cycling which is the changing of the crystalline structure with temperature. 

Cycling commonly occurs at -18° and 32°C, and at the higher temperature, the change in crystalline structure results in higher density which in turn results in higher detonation velocity. In short, if ammonium nitrate is stored under dry conditions and subjected to high temperatures, as would be the case in a metal storage silo in Texas, its explosive power can actually increase. Incidentally, there appears to be a safe alternative to ammonium nitrate for use as fertilizer: Sulf-N 26, a mixture of ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate, which has a much lower detonation risk when mixed with fuel oil. 

An aura of regulatory immunity appears to envelop West Fertilizer Company. U.S. Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson of Massachusetts, ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, exclaimed, “This facility was known to have chemicals well above the threshold amount to be regulated under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Act (CFATS), yet we understand that DHS did not even know the plant existed until it blew up.” In addition to lying to the EPA about the risk of an explosion, the company was cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2006 for failing to obtain or to qualify for a permit. 

West Fertilizer had been fined a paltry $2300.00 in 2006 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for deficiencies in the company’s risk management plan, operating procedures and employee training. A follow up inspection by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality took place in 2007 because of complaints by nearby residents of odors emanating from the plant. However, despite these safety violations, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had not inspected the company’s facilities since 1985. 

The chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has even theorized that the explosion might have been caused by a rail car loaded with ammonium nitrate at the plant and not a problem in the plant itself. Could there perhaps be a deeper reason that the company’s shoddy safety practices and reporting omissions were overlooked by U.S. governmental regulatory authorities? 

Certainly compared to the frenzied fervor of the official response to the recent Boston Marathon bomb attack, the apparent absence of urgency in the aftermath of the West Fertilizer blast has been astounding. While U.S. government officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Chemical Safety Board have begun their investigations, conclusive results may not be available for another six months. Despite the firm’s history of negligence in reporting and safeguarding hazardous materials, Texas state attorney Greg Abbott indicated that it is too early in the inquiry to speculate on filing charges of criminal negligence against West Fertilizer’s owner Don Adair or anyone else. In fact, U.S. Representative Bill Flores of Texas brushed aside any speculation that the blast might have been a terrorist operation and stated, “I would not expect sabotage by any stretch of the imagination.” 

For his part, Adair, who also owns Adair Grain, indicated in a statement that, as a member of the West Church of Christ, he and his family would “continue to assist in relief efforts through our church family,” and pledged “to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.” One can only imagine if West Fertilizer had been owned by Muslims, allegations that the blast was an act of sabotage by Islamist terrorists would have choked the air waves, but since we are dealing here with white Christian Americans, this catastrophe is being written off as an unfortunate agricultural accident. Why wasn’t this company taken to court long ago and why is this tragedy being downplayed by officials to such an extent now? 

While this is just speculation, perhaps West Fertilizer is a front company which supplies CIA-trained terrorists with explosives for their havoc-wreaking improvised explosive devices. Considering the occurrence of the West Texas blast just two days after the Boston Marathon bombings, one cannot help but wonder if perhaps the U.S. government carried out a clandestine cover-up there to get rid of evidence that would relate to the Boston bombing. 

In any event, considering the reckless irresponsibility displayed by the owner, the quantities of explosive material involved, and lack of accountability before regulatory authorities, I would not be surprised if this tragic accident turned out to be another U.S. government covert “OP.”