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A Death in Tehran-PBS FrontLine-November 17, 2009

Category: Documentary
Description:
A Death in Tehran-PBS FrontLine-November 17, 2009 sdtv xvid 16x9 700kbps At the height of the protests following Iran's controversial presidential election this summer, a young woman named Neda Agha Soltan was shot and killed on the streets of Tehran. Her death -- filmed on a camera phone, then uploaded to the Web -- quickly became an international outrage, and Soltan became the face of a powerful movement that threatened the hard-line government's hold on power. In A Death in Tehran, FRONTLINE revisits the events of last summer, shedding new light on Neda's life and death and the movement she helped inspire. In response to the international outcry over Neda's death -- including President Obama's confirmation that he'd seen the "heartbreaking" video on YouTube -- the regime set about attempting to rewrite the story, pointing a finger at the CIA and outside agitators, the same forces they blamed for the mass street protests and allegations of vote rigging that led to the greatest upheaval in Iran since the revolution of 1979. FRONTLINE uncovers some video of Neda's killer -- a member of the Basij militia who'd been brought into Tehran by the regime's Revolutionary Guards to stamp out the "Green Revolution." A medical doctor in the crowd who had watched Neda die now watched as the crowd considered its own violence against the Basij militia member: "They started to discuss what to do with him," the doctor recalled. "They grabbed his wallet, took out his ID card and started shouting, 'He is a Basiji member; he is one of them,' and started swearing and cursing him, and he was begging for people not to harm him or kill him. ... They believed the police wouldn't do anything to him as the Basiji are really powerful and he would have easily have got away, so in all of the chaos they decided to release him." The Iranian government admits 11 protesters were killed on June 20, but doctors from three Tehran hospitals confirmed at least 34 deaths. Other bodies were buried by security forces without first being identified. In October, the regime tried to script the end of the story for Neda. But instead, Neda's mother made a very public stand. The government offered her financial help if she would blame Neda's death on opponents of the regime. All she had to do was to agree to call Neda a "martyr" for the Islamic Republic. But she refused, telling FRONTLINE: "Neda died for her country not so I could get a monthly income from the Martyr Foundation. If these officials say Neda was a martyr, why do they keep wiping off the word 'martyr' which people write in red on her gravestone?"
Seeders: 18
Leeches: 6

In Guantanamo

Category: Documentary
Description:
Guantanamo naval base, 'Gitmo', covers forty five square miles of Cuba inside an area under a controversial 'permanent lease' to the United States. Since 2002, the base has become synonymous with its detainment facilities for suspected terrorists. Although Barack Obama has given orders for the detention camp to be closed, the facilities remain open to this day. David Miller's quiet, powerful film is the result of three days the filmmaker spent touring the camps in May 2008 as part of a small group of media representatives allowed there. Although the event was presented as a chance to 'see inside' the working of Guantanamo, it was in fact a carefully staged PR exercise designed to yield predictable, stale, controlled media images. The film was produced in 2008/2009 in conjunction with Yvonne Ridley, PRSNL Pictures and the VODO team. Special thanks to Editor Luca Lucarini. IN GUANTANAMO is released via VODO under a Creative Commons Non-Commerical No-Derivs Attribution License. The filmmaker does not permit remixes but would like the work to be shared freely for non-commercial purposes. ABOUT VODO VODO is founded by Jamie King, one of the figures behind STEAL THIS FILM (www.stealthisfilm.com). VODO brings filmmakers together with the distribution power of the filesharing community. It aims to offer fresh, quality films on a free-to-share basis, promoted and distributed through a 'coalition' of filesharing partners that includes big names like The Pirate Bay, Mininova, Miro, TorrentFreak, Isohunt, Plube, OneDDL Vuze and and Frostwire, amongst many others. 'Together, the filesharing community has a distribution capacity that rivals and even exceeds that of the mainstream media,' says Jamie King. 'VODO aims to leverage that power for the benefit of filmmakers and other creators. By sharing films freely through the most popular and fastest growing filesharing sites, we're building audiences in the hundreds of thousands for artists. That has material value for these filmmakers, through raised profile, donations and marketing. It's a win-win situation and it's the future of distributing media after copyright.' Followers of release groups like aXXo will be familiar with the model. But VODO is a release group with a twist. Not only are artists voluntarily sharing: downloaders can choose to make voluntary donations to creators. VODO lets creators manage their own donation links, with all donations going directly to the filmmaker. Regular supporters of the VODO project will receive access to all the films being considered for release. VODO aims to release at least one film per month during the rest of 2009 and 2010. Forthcoming titles include the premiere of 'In Guantanamo', a documentary by first-time director David Miller that provides unprecedented access to the Guantanmo prison camps - but King says that fiction titles, animation and shorts will also be on the distribution list. 'During 2010 VODO will build out a series of revenue opportunities for its creators, with the free-to-share model at their core,' he explains. ABOUT THE TEAM VODO collaborators include Nils Hellberg of Piratbyran (Sweden, Design) and Rama Cosentino of BurnStation (Argentina, programming), with programming support by Dan O' Huiginn (UK). Members of the advisory board include Ashwin Navin, ex-CEO of Bittorrent Inc., and Peter Sunde of The Pirate Bay. VODO, which has been in development since 2008, has been produced with the support of the Arts Council UK, Emerald Fund and the Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation. VODO's not hiring right now, but it is looking for voluntary collaborators to help out as it grows and takes shape. Just send an email to info@vodo.net to find out more.
Seeders: 1622
Leeches: 110

Democracy Now! Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
Today's Headlines Blackwater Prepared Bribes After 2007 Nisoor Massacre Report: Top Officials Back 30,000 Additional Troops in Afghanistan US Citizen Sues FBI for Kidnapping, Mistreatment in Africa Obama Honors Ft. Hood Victims DC Sniper Executed by Lethal Injection 4 Arrested at Sen. Lieberman’s Offices Ex-Bear Sterns Execs Acquitted in Fraud Case India Criticized for Opening Bhopal Disaster Site Ahead of 25th Anniversary Justice Dept. Subpoenaed Indymedia Site for Web Visitors Study: Over 2,200 US Veterans Died in 2008 Due to Lack of Health Insurance On Veterans Day, a new study estimates four times as many US Army veterans died last year because they lacked health insurance than the total number of US soldiers who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the same period. A research team at Harvard Medical School says 2,266 veterans under the age of sixty-five died in 2008 because they were uninsured. We speak to the report’s co-author, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, professor of medicine at Harvard University and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. Sexual Assaults, Inadequate Healthcare Among Spate of Issues Facing Women Servicemembers The rate of sexual assaults within the US military also exceeds that of the general population. A Pentagon report earlier this year found one in three female servicemembers are sexually assaulted at least once during their enlistment. Sixty-three percent of nearly 3,000 cases reported last year were rapes or aggravated assaults. Despite what some have called an epidemic of military sexual trauma, the delivery of healthcare to women veterans remains grossly inadequate. Parents of Iraq Veteran Receive Mistaken Notice from US Gov't, Not Condolence Letter They Await from Obama The parents of US Army Reserve Specialist Chancellor Keesling, an Iraq war veteran, received a letter yesterday from the VA asking that their son complete his “Post Deployment Adjustment.” The only problem is, Chance Keesling had killed himself in Iraq nearly five months ago. We speak with Chance’s dad, Gregg Keesling, who’s still waiting for the letter he’s never received: condolences from President Obama. A longstanding US policy denies presidential condolence letters to the families of soldiers who have committed suicide.
Seeders: 55
Leeches: 48

Democracy Now! Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
Today's Headlines Iran Accuses Detained Americans of Espionage CBS: Obama to Send Up to 40,000 Troops to Afghanistan 40 Democrats Threaten to Reject Healthcare Bill over Abortion Restrictions Fort Hood Shooter to Be Tried in Military Court Survey Highlights Global Concerns over Free Market Capitalism Palestinians Knock Down Part of West Bank Wall Again EPA Attempts to Silence Agency Critics of Cap and Trade Maldives President Urges Developing Nations to Become Carbon Neutral Whistleblower: Peak Oil Closer than IEA Forecasts Show China Executes Nine over Xinjiang Riots Watchdog: New York State Regulation of Natural Gas Wells Has Been "Woefully Insufficient for Decades." The New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health. The state is considering allowing for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers. Filmmaker Philippe Diaz on "The End of Poverty?" Earlier this year, the IMF and the World Bank warned that the financial crisis posed a serious challenge to reducing poverty. The World Bank predicted that the economic crisis could push another 53 million people in the global South into poverty. Well, according to the latest numbers from the United Nations, we’re now up to 2.7 billion people around the world who survive on less than two dollars a day, one billion of whom live on less than a dollar a day. Given the dire statistics and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, how can we see the eradication of poverty? That’s the central question of a new documentary called The End of Poverty? Hoodwinked: Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded -- and How to Remake Them John Perkins calls himself a former economic hit man. He has seen the signs of today’s financial meltdown before. The subprime mortgage fiasco, the collapse of the banking industry, the rising unemployment rate—these are all familiar to him. Perkins was on the front lines of monitoring and helping create these very events that were once just confined to the Third World. From 1971 to 1981, he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main, where he was a self-described “economic hit man.” He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Confessions of An Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire.
Seeders: 28
Leeches: 48

Interview: David Sirota-Now On PBS-11 6 09

Category: Talks, Debates, Interviews
Description:
What do Tuesday's election results say about America's future? Only one year after a historic election rerouted the course of America's political culture, do the 2009 election results show momentum swinging in the opposite direction? This week, NOW's David Brancaccio talks to political author and columnist David Sirota about populist anger, the Obama administration's successes and failures, and how this week's election results foreshadow the state of politics in 2010. sdtv xvid 16x9 700kbps
Seeders: 1
Leeches: 3

Noam Chomsky in London - 29th Oct 2009 - MP3

Category: Chomsky
Description:
================================================================ Noam Chomsky - 'Palestine and the region in the Obama era: the emerging framework.' Thursday 29th October 2009, Imperial College London Speakers - Noam Chomsky - Tariq Ali (Historian, author, political commentator) Includes a Q&A session in the last ~40 minutes ================================================================ (At the time of writing) A video of this is available at http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/scc/pps/?s=event&id=20 ================================================================ Length: 1 hr 57 mins 45 seconds BitRate: 32 kbps Size: 26.9 MB Format: MP3 ================================================================ Please seed to a reasonable ratio and feel free to index the torrent file on other sites.
Seeders: 7
Leeches: 2

Noam Chomsky in Belfast - 30th Oct 2009 - MP3

Category: Chomsky
Description:
================================================================ Amnesty International Lecture 2009 Noam Chomsky - 'Hope and Prospects' Friday 30th October 2009, Whitla Hall, Queens University Belfast ================================================================ Length: 1 hr 45 mins 40 secs BitRate: 64 kbps Size: 48.3 MB Format: MP3 ================================================================ Included: Speach by Chomsky (~45 mins) followed by a Q&A session hosted by William Crawley. I missed about the first 10 seconds of Chomsky's speech; he started off by commenting on Obama's recent Nobel Peace Prize. ================================================================ Sound Quality: They gave a copyright warning before the lecture, so I had to conceal my microphone. Sound quality has suffered slightly as a result. There's a few scratchy/inaudible bits during the recording, but it's mostly fine to listen to. ================================================================ Please seed to a reasonable ratio and feel free to index the torrent file on other sites.
Seeders: 17
Leeches: 1

Aljazeera - FAULT LINES - Ambassador - Christopher Hill - 30-10-09

Category: Documentary
Description:
The world's attention has shifted to Afghanistan. Barack Obama, the US president, calls it the "Good War", so what does that say about Iraq? A string of recent deadly bombings has reminded the world that Iraq is still very much a war zone. Elections are coming in January, after which the US says it is going to speed up its withdrawal. Yet without any hint of irony, the US accuses Iran of "foreign interference". On this week's Fault Lines Josh Rushing talks to Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Iraq, about these issues, and ask if America is finally ready to apologise for the devastating human costs of the war.
Seeders: 2
Leeches: 1

Democracy NOW! Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
Harry Reid: Senate Bill Will Include Public Option Plan Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced the Senate healthcare reform bill will include a public health insurance plan that states can choose to opt out of. Sen. Harry Reid: “As we’ve gone through this process, I’ve concluded—with the support of the White House, Senators Dodd and Baucus—that the best way to move forward is to include a public option with the opt-out provision for states. Under this concept, states will be able to determine whether the public option works well for them and will have the ability to opt out, if they so choose. I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system. It will protect consumers, keep insurers honest, and ensure competition. And that’s why we intend to include it in the bill that we submitted—that will be submitted to the Senate.” The Washington Post reports the opt-out provision was engineered by New York Senator Charles Schumer as a compromise between moderates who want a smaller government role and liberals who prefer a single-payer system. The Democratic leadership must now scramble to secure the sixty votes needed to pass the measure. While details of how states could opt out of the system are unclear, it likely means that millions of Americans may never have a chance to enroll in a government-run health insurance plan because of Republican opposition. A combined total of 154 million people, or 51 percent of the population, live in states where Republicans control the governor’s mansion or the state legislature. Massey Energy Begins Blasting Coal River Mountain In West Virginia, Massey Energy has begun blasting operations on Coal River Mountain despite deep opposition from environmental groups and critics of mountaintop removal mining. Coal River Mountain is the last intact mountain on the historic Coal River Mountain range. All of the other mountains have been blown up by coal companies. Jeff Biggers, author of the book The United States of Appalachia: “Residents in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia were shocked last Friday to hear the rattle of explosives and see plumes of smoke rise above Coal River Mountain. According to news reports on Monday, Massey Energy has clearcut the lush forest and blasted part of the historic ridge in the first leg of a 6,000-acre mountaintop removal mine. For advocates across Appalachia and citizens group across the nation, the impending mountaintop removal operation on Coal River Mountain amounts to a final showdown between out-of-state coal companies and the state of coalfield residents.” Activists had proposed to save the mountaintop and turn it into a wind farm, a proposal which was seen by many as a model for sustainable green economic development. Anti-mountaintop removal activists are now calling on President Obama to halt the mining operation and save Coal River Mountain. US Official Resigns over War in Afghanistan The former top American civilian working in the Zabul province of Afghanistan has resigned from the Foreign Service to protest the Afghan war. Matthew Hoh said he quit because he had come to believe the war was simply fueling the insurgency and that the United States is asking its troops to die for what is essentially a far-off civil war. In his resignation letter, Hoh wrote, “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.” Hoh is a thirty-six-year-old former Marine who fought in the Iraq war. He is the first US official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war. Monday Marked Deadliest Day for US in Afghanistan in Four Years Meanwhile, President Obama said Monday he will not rush his decision about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, where fourteen Americans died yesterday in the deadliest day for US forces in more than four years. Ex-AIG CEO Is Back with New Insurance Venture The New York Times reports that former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg is quietly building up a family of insurance companies that could compete with his former company. To fill the ranks of his venture, C.V. Starr & Company, Greenberg has been hiring some people he once employed. One insurance executive said, “Basically, he’s just starting ‘A.I.G. Two’ and raiding people out of ‘A.I.G. One.‘” People who work in the industry said Greenberg may soon be siphoning off AIG’s business and, therefore, its means to repay its debt to the government. AIG was the recipient of the biggest taxpayer bailout in history. Showdown in Chicago Continues Outside Bankers Meeting In other financial news, protests are continuing in Chicago outside the American Bankers Association convention. Sheila Bair, the chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, spoke to both the protesters and bankers on Monday. At a rally before thousands of activists, Bair voiced support for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Sheila Bair: “By regulating the non-bank shadow sector for the first time, this new agency can help prevent future abuses. I hope we see other measures taken that will create a more resilient, transparent and better regulated financial system, including an end to the ‘too big to fail’ doctrine. Yes, no more bailouts. No more bailouts." UN Urges US Engagement in Climate Change Deal During a stop in Seattle, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the US Senate to pass a bill limiting carbon emissions. Moon said such a bill will encourage other nations to act to fight climate change. Janos Pasztor, the director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team: “There are reports of a new poll in the United States that indicates that interest and support for action on climate change may actually be declining. The Secretary-General sees US engagement as vital for a climate change deal, a point he made in an op-ed today and in interviews since Seattle. He stated that we cannot afford another period where the US stands on the sidelines.” Canadian Climate Activists Disrupt House of Commons In Canada, about 200 young people staged a protest inside the House of Commons Monday forcing lawmakers to shut down the question period. The activists were calling on the Canadian Parliament to pass a bill setting out deep cuts in carbon emissions. Six people were reportedly detained, and the police beat at least one protester. Amnesty: Israel Denies Palestinians Access to Water Amnesty International has accused the Israeli government of preventing Palestinians from receiving enough water in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel controls much of the West Bank’s water supplies, pumping from an aquifer that bridges Israel and the territory. Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera called on Israel to distribute the region’s water resources in a fair manner. Donatella Rovera: “Palestinians are having access to four times less water than Israelis, and for some Palestinian communities it’s ten times less water for the Palestinians than the Israelis. To put an end to the situation where Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, which are unlawful under international law, have swimming pools and green lawns and irrigated fields, and the Palestinians do not have enough water even for drinking and for basic domestic needs.” US Officials to Travel to Honduras Senior US officials will travel to Honduras this week to press ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the country’s coup leaders to break a stalemate in a four-month-old political crisis. This marks the first time since the coup that the Obama administration has taken a leading role in pressuring the leaders of the de facto government to restore democratic order in Honduras. On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with both Zelaya and Honduras’s de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti. Officials said Clinton told the two leaders that there was “increasing frustration” over the deteriorating situation in Honduras. Clinton is said to have reserved her toughest comments for Micheletti, because the United States believes he has been “the most difficult.” Fidel Castro’s Sister Admits She Spied for CIA In other news from the region, Fidel and Raul Castro’s sister has admitted she spied on her brothers for the CIA in the 1960s. Juanita Castro disclosed her role as a spy in a new memoir. Juanita initially hailed the Cuban revolution but later became disillusioned by the actions of her brothers. Chamber of Commerce Sues Yes Men for Prank The US Chamber of Commerce has sued the Yes Men, after the political pranksters impersonated the organization. The Yes Men staged a fake press conference at the National Press Club last week to announce that the Chamber was changing its stance on climate change and supporting capping greenhouse gas emissions. Several news outlets, including Reuters, CNBC and Fox Business Channel, reported the policy change as fact before issuing corrections. The Chamber is suing the Yes Men for misappropriating its logo and violating a host of related copyrights. Activists Protest Mercenary Trade Association Meeting And the International Peace Operations Association is holding its annual conference in Washington this week. The trade association represents mercenary groups and private military contractors, including DynCorp and Triple Canopy. A coalition of activist groups, including CODEPINK, Africa Action and the Hip Hop Caucus, are planning to hold a protest and forum today to counter the mercenary conference. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill: “While these merchants of death are meeting in Washington, DC, human rights activists and other concerned people are going to be gathering to protest these mercenaries. And we’re not only going to be addressing the use of mercenaries in Afghanistan and Iraq, which we know well is continuing unabated, but also the use of mercenary forces on the African continent, which is a story that basically never makes it into the corporate media. There are mercenaries that, once again, are operating in the Congo, in Somalia, in the conflict in Ethiopia and Eritrea. And so, we’re gathering to try to shut down this whole privatized war apparatus and to raise awareness of this Bush administration policy that the Obama administration is continuing and escalating.”
Seeders: 84
Leeches: 16

PBS Frontline~The Warning 2009 10 20

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
PBS Frontline~The Warning 2009 10 20 599mb / 60 mns "We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market," says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] -- who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country's key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis. "They were totally opposed to it," Born says. "That puzzled me. What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?" In The Warning, veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk unearths the hidden history of the nation's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. At the center of it all he finds Brooksley Born, who speaks for the first time on television about her failed campaign to regulate the secretive, multitrillion -dollar derivatives market whose crash helped trigger the financial collapse in the fall of 2008. "I didn't know Brooksley Born," says former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, a member of President Clinton's powerful Working Group on Financial Markets. "I was told that she was irascible, difficult, stubborn, unreasonable." Levitt explains how the other principals of the Working Group -- former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin -- convinced him that Born's attempt to regulate the risky derivatives market could lead to financial turmoil, a conclusion he now believes was "clearly a mistake." Born's battle behind closed doors was epic, Kirk finds. The members of the President's Working Group vehemently opposed regulation -- especially when proposed by a Washington outsider like Born. "I walk into Brooksley's office one day; the blood has drained from her face," says Michael Greenberger, a former top official at the CFTC who worked closely with Born. "She's hanging up the telephone; she says to me: 'That was [former Assistant Treasury Secretary] Larry Summers. He says, "You're going to cause the worst financial crisis since the end of World War II."... [He says he has] 13 bankers in his office who informed him of this. Stop, right away. No more.'" Greenspan, Rubin and Summers ultimately prevailed on Congress to stop Born and limit future regulation of derivatives. "Born faced a formidable struggle pushing for regulation at a time when the stock market was booming," Kirk says. "Alan Greenspan was the maestro, and both parties in Washington were united in a belief that the markets would take care of themselves." Now, with many of the same men who shut down Born in key positions in the Obama administration, The Warning reveals the complicated politics that led to this crisis and what it may say about current attempts to prevent the next one. Flash video online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/
Seeders: 19
Leeches: 6