‘Libertarian’ youths face the wrath of Republicans

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Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN Jun 13, 2013, 05.59AM IST

WASHINGTON: Republican lawmakers, under whose dispensation the first pervasive intrusions into civil liberties began in the post-9 /11 era, were scathing against NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and his ilk of what they considered misguided youth.

According to one account, South Carolina's Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the biggest threat US intelligence these days isn't so much Russian spies, but disaffected young men like Snowden; Private Bradley Manning, who is accused of being behind Wikileaks; and Aaron Swartz, the activist founder of social news site Reddit who committed suicide earlier this year after the government brought charges of wire and computer fraud for illegally downloading millions of documents on him.

"I think that there's a group of people, younger people who are not fighting the war, who are libertarians mostly, who feel like the government is the problem," Time's national security blog quoted Graham as saying, while maintaining that, "those who are trained to defend us are a bigger threat than those who are trying to attack us." Graham not only wanted Snowden to be brought to justice and punished severely so that "the next 29-year-old who thinks that they're going to be some cult figure will think twice," but he also recommended a government unit of "watchers watching the watchers.''

There have been some rare exceptions to this establishment credo of national security above all else. Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican whose libertarian father Ron Paul was the recipient of a $250 political donation from Edward Snowden, said Snowden's act was mere one of ''conscientious objector.'' Another outlier was Vermont's self-professed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders, who argued the debate really ought to be about excessive government intrusion.

But they were in a minority in a political establishment that largely backed the government's argument of national security imperative over civil liberties.

Meanwhile, the "Pardon Edward Snowden" petition on the White House website racked up more than 61,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning, about a third of the way to the 100,000 threshold that will merit a response from the White House.

Across on the west coast, tech giants Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter among companies caught in the flap, urged the Obama administration to allow them to disclose governments request for information, which is prohibited under current law. The tech giants, whose clientele include the kind of disaffected youth agitating against the older establishment, have also been embarrassed by suggestions that they are in cahoots with the government. Some experts have gone so far as to advise people to ditch these companies if they are found to have knowingly collaborated with the government.

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‘Libertarian’ youths face the wrath of Republicans

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Africa: The Unfinished Business of Total Liberation – Africa’s Islands

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It is generally held that decolonisation of Africa ended with the fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994. But the truth is that Britain, France, Spain and Portugal continue to colonise a number African islands

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was categorical in his thinking about the 'liberation and unification' of Africa. He left no doubt that the total 'political and economic' liberation and unification of Africa included all the islands of Africa in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. To emphasise this and to ensure that posterity does not relinquish, by benign neglect, any territory of Africa, Nkrumah in his books used maps with annotated listings of Africa's islands to etch in the consciousness of the reader the fact that these islands are integral to the imperative of Africa's total liberation and unification. To Nkrumah, no African land mass must be under colonisation, trusteeship or be alienated from the cause of African unity.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and its Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa (Liberation Committee), we must wake up to the fact that the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal still hold a sizeable colony of islands in Africa's territorial waters. It is refreshing, however, to note that some African countries, on their own, are laying claim to some of these 'overseas possessions' of these European 'powers'.

As I write, it is 'Not Yet Uhuru' for the following islands: Ascension Island (United Kingdom); Saint Helena Island (United Kingdom); Tristan da Cunha Archipelago (United Kingdom); Bassas de India Atoll (France); Europa Island (France); Glorioso Islands (France); Iles Esparses (France); Juan de Nova Island (France); Mayotte Island (France); Reunion Island (France); Tromelin Island (France); Canary Islands (Spain); Ceuta (Spain) and Madeira (Portugal).

The disputed island territories are Bassas da India, Europa Island & Juan de Nova Island (Claimants: France and Madagascar. France claims sovereignty over these various uninhabited islands, and currently controls and protects them from its military base in nearby Runion. They are in use as nature reserves and meteorological stations.); Glorioso (Glorieuses) Islands (Claimants: Comoros, France, Madagascar and the Seychelles. A nature reserve which is manned by French military forces; Mayotte (Claimants: Comoros and France. Operating as a French overseas collectivity since the 1970s, these islands are geographically part of the Comoros Islands, and just like their neighbours - the Glorioso Islands - they are also claimed by Comoros; Plazas de Soberana (Claimants: Morocco and Spain. This is a collection of small Spanish-controlled city states and islands in North Africa, which all surround Morocco, and which have a combined total population of just over 140,000); Tromelin Island (Claimants: France, Mauritius and the Seychelles. France claims sovereignty over, and controls, this 1 mile long and mostly flat island, but Mauritius and the Seychelles both dispute the French ownership of this uninhabited isle) See disputed territories.

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Africa: The Unfinished Business of Total Liberation - Africa's Islands

California islands: The bird paradise of the Farallons

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SAN FRANCISCO The Salty Lady pitched and rolled, reared up to unsettling verticality and slammed down with a percussive thud. Again and again, literally ad nauseam, the boat was tossed by 30-knot winds and the rhythmic swelling of the waves, the Pacific anything but on this day.

Yet, this sturdy, workmanlike 56-foot fishing boat, employed by the nonprofit Oceanic Society to show eco-minded tourists the wild and untamed splendor of the Farallon Islands 27 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, kept plugging along with engine belching, enduring wave after white-capped wave, trough and crest repeating like a sadistic amusement park ride.

Two hours in, and barely 12 miles out to sea, Jared Davis, the boat's captain, came on the loud speaker.

"Sorry, folks. This just happens sometimes," he said. "I've contacted some of the other boats out there, and it's too rough. We've got to turn back."

Nature, of course, is not always accommodating to schedules, and that's especially true when it comes to visiting to the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge. No one, save a few biologists studying seabirds and marine mammals, may step foot on the jagged granite outcroppings, yet hard-core birders and curious adventurers still yearn to glimpse these wild islands from afar.

No one was initially more excited and, ultimately, more disappointed than John Elliott, who came from Illinois because the Farallons, a.k.a. Farallones, were "my bucket list kind of thing."

Alas, he didn't even get to unsheath his binoculars.

So just getting within a quarter-mile of the Farallones' shore the closest that tourist boats may get lest they disturb the delicate habitat can be a chore, as well as a nautical achievement. Sometimes, weekend excursions are aborted midtrip, sometimes canceled even before setting sail. It's entirely weather-dependent.

But a week after the Salty Lady's abbreviated trip, the winds had calmed enough for another attempt. This time, it took slightly more than three hours for tourists, as well as three scientists from San Jose State University lugging food and other provisions, to see the islands' jutting peaks peeking out on the widening horizon.

Located near the edge of the continental shelf, where depth changes from hundreds of feet to thousands, the Farallon Islands can be smelled before they're seen.

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California islands: The bird paradise of the Farallons