NYMHM: Iran's cell phone police, CIA greenlight on Hizbollah

Wed Jan 10 17:07:05 PST 2007

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  NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED * January 10, 2007 * Vol. 6, No. 2

  Important but overlooked news from around the world.
  NYMHM is a free service of Newsdesk.org.

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THIS WEEK:

    Iran's cell phone police are on patrol, Russia and the U.S. get
    some realpolitik in their arms-industry earnings, war-crime rapes
    remain largely unprosecuted, there's a spot of good news amidst
    the gloom for migrant workers, San Francisco art students are
    censored ... and Bush's document declassification is too.

QUOTED:

    "Not renewing our license is like President Bush one day announcing
    that NBC is going off the air because it was involved in a
    conspiracy against the United States."

    -- Venezuelan RCTV General Manager Marcel Granier says his network
    was shut after President Hugo Chavez accused it of supporting a
    failed 2002 coup (see "Censorship," below).

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TOP STORIES
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  > Sunnis, CIA Target Hizbollah

    Fearing the growing strength of Shia Islam and the influence of
    Iran and Syria, President Bush as "authorized the CIA to take
    covert action" against Hizbollah, The Telegraph reports. The move
    will support the government in Lebanon, and is backed by
    "mainstream" Sunni Arab nations, which in return have agreed to
    spur new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

  > Iran's Cell Phone Spies

    A member of Iran's parliament has criticized a new group
    of plainclothes officials who seize and erase citizens' cell
    phone if they contain independent news, political jokes, and
    other "illegal" messages, according to ADNKronos. This
    follows other bans on satellite TV and 10,000 Web sites.

  > Afghans Unarmed and Dangerous

    NATO-led forces will shoot small children pointing replica guns
    at them if they look real enough, warned officials. The force
    already mistook about 1,000 civilians for insurgents and killed
    them in the past year.

"CIA gets the go-ahead to take on Hizbollah"
The Telegraph, January 10, 2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/10/wleb10.xml

"Iran: Special police corps charged with controlling cell phones"
ADNKronos International (Italy), January 4, 2007
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.373441661&par=0

"Kids with toy guns worry NATO troops in Afghanistan"
PakTribune.com (Pakistan), January 06, 2007
http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?165059

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WEAPONS TRADE
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  > U.S., Russia, Israel Follow the Money

    In Washington, emergency supplemental budgets have sparked a
    "feeding frenzy" for weapons contractors, a military official told
    the Wall Street Journal. Case in point: The Pentagon's request for
    an additional $99.7 billion to buy weapons that won't be ready
    for years, and aren't intended for Iraq or Afghanistan.

    Overseas, the United States ended sanctions against a Russian
    military firm that's working with Boeing, but imposed new ones
    against other weapons companies that sell to Iran and Syria. Russia
    condemned the move as "illegal," and said the U.S. is denying
    itself economic opportunity.

    Israel has taken its place among the world's top five weapons
    exporters with $4.4 billion in sales last year, primarily to
    India and the United States. Officials report sales to the U.S.
    jumped from $300 million in 1999 to $1 billion in 2006.

"Pentagon redefines 'emergency'"
Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2007
http://www.blogowogo.com/blog_article.php?aid=485456

"Moscow slams U.S. sanctions on its military firms"
Reuters, January 6, 2007
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2007-01-06T135215Z_01_L06742392_RTRUKOC_0_US-RUSSIA-US-SANCTIONS.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-politicsNews-2

"2006: Israel defense sales hit record"
Jerusalem Post, January 1, 2007
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1167467639780&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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WORLD
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  > Kalahari Homeland Denied ... Again

    A group of Basarwa Bushmen returning to their ancestral homeland
    were turned away at the border of the Central Kalahari Game
    Reserve, despite winning a court case against the government.
    Officials claimed only the plaintiffs and their children would
    be allowed back in.

  > Rape Victims' Voices Unheard

    Although up to 500,000 women in Rwanda alone were estimated to
    have been raped, U.N. tribunals prosecuting genocide there and in
    the former Yugoslavia have had only 34 successful convictions for
    rape as a weapon of war.

"Khoisan denied entry to Kalahari reserve"
Independent Online (South Africa), January 5, 2007
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=vn20070105033715146C452480

"International justice failing rape victims"
Institute for War & Peace Reporting, January 5, 2007
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=tri&s=f&o=328311&apc_state=henh

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CENSORSHIP
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  > Student Magazine, Venezuelan TV Shut Down

    The Art Institute of California-San Francisco has fired a part-
    time professor who claimed the school's confiscation of a student
    magazine was a First Amendment violation.

    The former professor and his students claim that the Institute has
    censored other works in the past. Administrators say the magazine,
    which included criticism of the school's corporate funders, has
    since been approved for publication.

    In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has come under fire from the
    Organization of American States and Reporters Without Borders for
    closing Venezuela's oldest and largest TV network. He accuses
    network operators of supporting a failed 2002 coup against him,
    an event they claim to have covered as a news event only.

"Teacher fired; accused school of censorship"
San Francisco Chronicle, January 4, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/04/BAG31NCF5E1.DTL

"Chavez blasted for pulling plug on TV network"
Los Angeles Times, January 5, 2007
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4450963.html

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MIGRANT WORKERS
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  > Workers Abused, Praised in Different Countries

    Rebels in India's impoverished Northeast are targeting migrant
    workers to stir anger over high unemployment there. According to
    the Associated Press, 67 workers were killed or wounded in the
    space of a week, the latest violence in a region home to "dozens"
    of insurgent groups and long-simmering ethnic conflict.

    A human rights advocate says foreign maids in Bahrain have been
    "specifically excluded" from labor protections, leading to
    widespread abuse. The Gulf Daily News reports that maids from
    South and Southeast Asia are frequently overworked, beaten,
    sexually abused and driven to attempt suicide.

    Contrary to public fears, 500,000 workers from Poland, Hungary
    and other former Soviet countries have reduced unemployment and
    boosted production in the U.K., a study finds. They also take
    lower wages, however, which reduces labor-bargaining powers.

"More than 50 killed in Indian violence"
Associated Press, January 6, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6327021,00.html

"'Bring domestic workers under Gulf labour law' call"
Gulf Daily News (Bahrain), January 3, 2007
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=166209&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=29289

"'Little evidence' of migrants adversely affecting UK job market"
24dash.com (U.K.), January 4, 2007
http://www.24dash.com/centralgovernment/14921.htm

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NEWS & COMMENTARY
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  > "Declassified" Documents Withheld

    Numerous exemptions built into the Bush Administration's historic
    declassification of government files at least 25 years old means
    very little of it will ever reach the public.

    Writing in the Los Angeles Times, history professor Jon Weiner
    says the exemptions cover any information obtained from
    confidential sources and foreign governments, or through wiretaps.

"Government documents are declassified in name only"
Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-wiener4jan04,0,2227134.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

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Editors: Julia Scott, Josh Wilson
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