Wikileaks

WASHINGTON — A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats. 

Some of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. 

WikiLeaks posted 220 cables, some redacted to protect diplomatic sources, in the first installment of the archive on its Web site on Sunday. 

The disclosure of the cables is sending shudders through the diplomatic establishment, and could strain relations with some countries, influencing international affairs in ways that are impossible to predict.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and American ambassadors around the world have been contacting foreign officials in recent days to alert them to the expected disclosures. A statement from the White House on Sunday said: “We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information.” 

Review at least one of the Wikileaks stories and respond below.  Do you think it is irresponsible to leak this information, or do people have a right to know?  Should the head of Wikileaks be punished?

Does this violate our 4th amendment right?

4th Amendment Right: <The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized>

Thanksgiving travelers learn to cope with 'scope and grope'

By Jonathan Mann, CNN

November 26, 2010 7:00 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• U.S. security authorities have begun the use of pat downs as well as body scanners
• Some passengers liken the procedure to a sexual assault, others refuse to participate
• Such searches are familiar to many international air travelers
• Obama: Authorities have indicated such procedures are the only ones right now they consider to be effective."

"Our Mann in America" is a weekly column discussing the big talking points in the U.S. for an international audience. Jonathan Mann is an anchor for CNN International and the host of Political Mann.

(CNN) -- -- America is feeling invaded by a uniformed force moving into some very private places, with a mission that's being decried as "scope and grope."

"They want to take pictures of us and put their hands in our pants," said Republican Congressman Ron Paul. "If we tolerate this, there's something wrong with us.

"They" are the officials of the Transportation Security Administration, which tightened its airport screening procedures after a suspected terrorist tried to blow-up an airliner with a bomb in his underwear. So, in addition to the airport security routine that passengers are accustomed to, many now have to submit to revealing high-tech imaging that sees through their clothes. If they refuse, they're subjected to a fully-clothed but startlingly invasive physical search. (Hence the catchy rhyme about "scope and grope").

The TSA has withheld precise details of the hands-on search techniques but its screeners, deployed by gender to match the passengers they scrutinize, do pass their hands around or over the breasts, buttocks and genitals.

Cancer survivor accepts TSA apology

Avoiding the scanners

Do airport body scanners even work?

Pat downs: Security vs. privacy

Needless to say, it's the kind of interaction that gets your attention. Similar techniques may be familiar to experienced international travelers, but in the U.S. they were introduced to the flying public only a month ago without extensive explanation or publicity.

There may be some easy irony in the observation that a country which launched a global war on terror with countless casualties now objects to a few awkward moments at the airport.

But it's no laughing matter to travelers who complain that TSA employees have interpreted their new instructions in uneven and sometimes unfortunate ways.

Passenger Erin Chase likened her ordeal to sexual assault by a TSA screener who, "went all the way up my legs, up my inner thighs, all along my inner thighs until she reached my genital area, touched both sides."

Cancer survivor Tom Sawyer says that a TSA officer burst a special bag that captures his urine, with no time to change clothes before his flight.

"By the time he was done, I had a round spot of urine maybe the size of a small pancake, something like that and I had urine dribbling down into my underwear, down my leg on my shorts."

The horror stories are legion, leavened only by tales of defiance that are quickly spreading as well.

One passenger's warning to a screener -- "Don't touch my junk" -- has become a national protest slogan, immortalized in music, T-shirts and countless comedy routines.

Another passenger travelling through Los Angeles wore a coat with nothing but a bikini underneath, because she said she didn't want a hand-search and thought she could save time.

Even President Barack Obama was drawn into the drama, fittingly perhaps, while he was on a trip of his own, to Portugal.

"One of the most frustrating aspects of this fight against terrorism is that it has created a whole security apparatus around us that causes huge inconvenience for all of us," he said.

"But at this point, TSA, in consultation with our counter-terrorism experts, have indicated to me that the procedures that they've been putting in place are the only ones right now that they consider to be effective."

One passenger's warning to a screener -- "Don't touch my junk" -- has become a national protest slogan, immortalized in music, T-shirts and countless comedy routines

RELATED TOPICS

• Air Travel
• Transportation Security

Twenty-four million passengers are expected to pass through American airports this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, one of the business travel seasons of the year.

Some had threatened a disruptive protest, but the threat never materialized.

In fact, a USA Today/Gallup poll found most travelers are prepared to give-up some of their personal privacy to prevent terrorism. The trouble hinges on the technique.

A clear 57 percent majority say they are not bothered by a full-body scan. But the same percentage say they are bothered or angry about the prospect of a hands-on search.

To quote that now timeless phrase: don't touch my junk.

Republican lawmakers are threatening legislation to outlaw the searches. The rights activists at the American Civil Liberties Union are collecting travelers complaints and funneling them to the government.

But airports across the country are still crowded. The travelers passing through them seem as eager as ever, and as annoyed as ever, for any one of a number of reasons related to the ordeals of air travel in the 21st century.

No one seems to enjoy the obligatory airport intimacy but mindful of the threat of terrorism, most people seem willing to endure it.

Seven Charged in Kosovo Organ Traficking Ring

PRAGUE — At least seven people have been charged with participating in an international organ-trafficking network based in Kosovo that sold kidneys and other organs from impoverished victims for up to $200,000 to patients from as far away as Israel and Canada, police and senior European Union officials said Monday.
According to the indictment, the traffickers lured people from slums in Istanbul, Moscow, Moldova and Kazakhstan with promises of up to $20,000 for their organs. Law enforcement officials say many never received a cent. The operations were performed at a private clinic in a run-down neighborhood on the outskirts of Pristina, the Kosovar capital.

While the ring was first discovered two years ago, the global scale of the network and its victims is only now becoming clear.

Officials said the ringleader was a highly regarded surgeon and professor at Pristina University Hospital, Dr. Lutfi Dervishi. The clinic was run by his son, Arban. Also charged was Ilir Rrecaj, a senior official in Kosovo’s Health Ministry when the ring was broken. They and two others are accused of crimes including trafficking in humans and body parts, unlawful medical activity, participating in organized crime, and abuse of office. All were released on bail.

The charges have shaken Kosovo, which has been struggling to integrate with the West since it declared independence from Serbia in February 2008. The case is also a test of the nascent legal institutions and rule of law as Kosovo seeks to overcome a culture of endemic lawlessness and corruption that has reached the highest levels of government.

The trafficking network’s tentacles reached far. Warrants were issued for a Turkish doctor and an Israeli financier, and two other doctors, an Israeli and a Turk, were named as co-conspirators.
The police said the ring had its roots at a medical conference in 2006 in Istanbul, where Dr. Dervishi met the Turkish doctor being sought, Yusuf Sonmez. Law enforcement officials describe Dr. Sonmez as a notorious international organ trafficker.

The Medicus clinic had been founded by a European philanthropist who aided ethnic Albanian doctors during the war in Kosovo in 1999. Dr. Dervishi, police officials said, secretly transformed it into a hub for illegal organ transplants, which were performed by Dr. Sonmez.

The indictment was first reported by The Associated Press. In it, a European Union prosecutor, Jonathan Ratel, said that in 2008, 20 foreign nationals living in “extreme poverty or acute financial distress” were “recruited with the false promises of payments.”

The police said they broke the ring in November of that year, when a young Turkish man, Yilman Altun, was found at the Pristina airport, weak and frail. Mr. Altun told the police that his kidney had been stolen. When the police raided the Medicus clinic, they discovered an elderly Israeli man who had received Mr. Altun’s kidney.

European Union officials said that the indictment in the case had been filed in district court in Kosovo and that a preliminary hearing was expected by the end of the year. If a judge confirms the charges, a trial will follow.
The European Union has a large law enforcement mission in Kosovo to combat crime and corruption. But that fight has proved difficult, with suspicions of bribes, money laundering, organized crime, fraud and now organ trafficking, ensnaring high-level government officials.

Several countries are examining the Kosovo ring, with police investigators combing through the phone records, computer hard drives and bank transfers of those charged. European Union officials said the recipients paid for the kidneys by bank transfers, helping lead the police to the main suspects.
Western law enforcement officials said they suspected the ring might be part of a larger criminal network whose nexus was in Israel. In September, five doctors from South Africa were charged with participating in an international kidney-trading syndicate in which dozens of poor Brazilians and Romanians were paid for kidneys for wealthy Israelis. Analysts said the organ-trafficking case was part of a disturbing global trend in which unscrupulous traffickers take advantage of the growing waiting lists of desperate patients and the vulnerability of poor people further buffeted by the international financial crisis.

In the United States, more than 109,000 people are on the waiting list for organ transplants, mostly kidneys, and 18 die each day, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the American transplant system.

Should we keep the death penalty?

Abu-Jamal death sentence to be argued in court

By the CNN Wire Staff

November 9, 2010 3:11 a.m. EST

 

(CNN) -- The death penalty imposed on Mumia Abu-Jamal will be argued again in a federal appeals court Tuesday.

Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, was convicted of gunning down a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police officer more than 28 years ago.
He has been an outspoken activist from behind bars, claiming there were procedural errors during his capital sentencing, and that too few blacks were on the jury.
In 2008, a federal appeals court ruled in Abu-Jamal's favor saying that the jury instructions given at his trial were flawed. The decision nullified Abu-Jamal's death sentence and granted him a new sentencing hearing.
But in January, the Supreme Court tossed out the appeals court ruling. The Supreme Court also ordered the federal appeals court to revisit its ruling and that will occur Tuesday.
The appeals court now has the option of reimposing the death sentence or ordering a new federal trial to hear other claims of injustice raised by Abu-Jamal.
The case has attracted international attention, amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct and the inmate's outspoken personality.
The onetime radio reporter and cab driver has been a divisive figure, with many prominent supporters arguing that racism pervaded his trial.
Others countered Abu-Jamal is using his skin color to escape responsibility for his actions. They say he has provoked community unrest for years with his writings and advocacy.
He was convicted for the December 9, 1981, murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner, 25, in Philadelphia. Faulkner had pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in a late-night traffic stop. Witnesses said Abu-Jamal, who was nearby, ran over and shot the policeman in the back and in the head.
Abu-Jamal, once known as Wesley Cook, was wounded in the encounter and later confessed to the killing, according to other witness testimony.

Incarcerated for nearly three decades, Abu-Jamal has been an active critic of the criminal justice system.