A list of this week’s guest on This is Hell follows the articles.

Israeli MP blames gays for earthquakes in the Holy Land “Recent earthquakes in Israel are the fault of gays and the Israeli parliament’s acceptance of them, an Israeli MP declared yesterday. Shlomo Benizri of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the way to stop the tremors was for parliament to reverse its trend of liberalizing laws concerning homosexuals.” Daily Mail (2/21/08)

The BAE files David Leigh, one of the authors, with Rob Evans, of this comprehensive article, is a guest on this week’s This is Hell. “BAE, Europe’s biggest arms company, claims there is ‘no evidence’ to support allegations it has engaged in large-scale corruption to sell arms overseas. David Leigh and Rob Evans have published documents and other evidence gathered round the world that counter BAE’s assertion.” Judge for yourself, in 10 parts including videos. The Guardian

One Bush Left Behind Past This is Hell guest Greg Palast writes “Here’s your question, class: In his State of the Union, the President asked Congress for $300 million for poor kids in the inner city. As there are, officially, 15 million children in America living in poverty, how much is that per child? Correct! $20. Here’s your second question. The President also demanded that Congress extend his tax cuts. The cost: $4.3 trillion over ten years. The big recipients are millionaires. And the number of millionaires happens, not coincidentally, to equal the number of poor kids, roughly 15 million of them. OK class: what is the cost of the tax cut per millionaire? That’s right, Richie, $287,000.” OpEdNews.com (1/29/08)

Immigrant facts rebut alarmists “To hear some folks describe it – including some folks who have daily access to a radio microphone – California is under attack by crazed, rapacious and thieving hordes that are pouring across the southern border, bent on occupying the state. … There’s no question that illegal immigration is a serious political question. But crossing the border illegally isn’t a serious felony that places life or property in danger. Indeed, weather, terrain and real criminals make illicit border-crossing very dangerous, and except in egregious cases, the federal government doesn’t prosecute most illegal immigrants it catches; it merely sends them back. The hysteria over illegal immigration is having one beneficial impact. It has generated some reputable studies that paint a far more benign picture of societal impact than the talking heads would have us believe.” Sacramento Bee (2/26/08)

UltraLove: The Medical Right Falls Hard for Ultrasounds “You’ve already met the Religious Right. Now meet its offspring, the Medical Right – ideologically motivated pseudo-medical organizations that are shaping reproductive health care policy and practice to conform to their unscientific beliefs about ‘the beginning of life.’ The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has been tracking these organizations on our online Medical Right Watch. Our latest report – ‘UltraLove: The Medical Right Falls Hard for Ultrasound, Despite Lack of Evidence’ – describes the anti-abortion movement’s multimillion-dollar immersion into the non-medical use of ultrasound equipment and questions the ethics of using medical diagnostic technology to persuade women to continue a pregnancy. Lost in the craze for non-medical ultrasound imagery is the potential risk to the developing fetus and the impact on vulnerable pregnant women, who are largely left to fend for themselves in sorting out potential health threats, the sufficiency of the exams, and their own personal needs.” RH Reality Check (2/19/08)

Department of Pre-Crime This week’s guest on This is Hell Eric Umansky writes “Think of the [criminal-material support] laws as “aiding and abetting“—only on steroids. It has always been illegal to support criminal activity. If a man drives a getaway car for bank robbers, then he can be charged for the robbery, too. Prosecutors have simply had to show that there was an intent to further the crime and some meaningful connection between the help and the crime itself. What the material-support laws did was roll back those requirements. A taxi driver hired for a short drive by a Hezbollah politician—a driver who had no intention of engaging in terrorist activity—would, so long as he knew the politician was with Hezbollah, be guilty of providing material support. That’s because the laws that define ‘material support’ contain a long list of often nebulous activities, such as providing ‘property, tangible or intangible’ or ‘service,’ and are applied whether or not those activities truly helped advance the cause of a terrorist group, and regardless of the suspect’s intentions. The laws make little distinction between the taxi driver and, say, an arms merchant who sells detonators to Hezbollah. The Patriot Act extended the concept further, making it illegal to attempt or conspire to provide material support. Before, prosecutors had to prove you gave support. Now they just have to show you wanted to.”
Mother Jones (2/29/08)

Anti-War Movement Wrestles with 1968 ”A coalition of anti-war groups is vowing to protest this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Denver under the rubric “Re-create ‘68,” prompting criticism from some on the left who are loath to revisit what they see as a disastrous time for both the anti-war movement and the Democratic Party. Re-create ‘68? “What’s the political calculation that speaks to them of the wisdom of civil disobedience – which means a massive media spectacle – on the brink of a Democratic campaign that could plausibly put a Democrat in the White House who’s committed to withdrawal from Iraq?” asked Todd Gitlin, an anti-Vietnam War activist who was at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. “If the objective is to put a belligerent Republican in the White House, they should keep up the good work.” Politico.com (2/27/08)

Berlin Exhibition Closes after Muslim Threats “A Berlin gallery has closed an exhibition of satirical art by the controversial Danish group Surrend after receiving threats from a group of Muslims. The men were objecting to a picture of the Kaaba at Mecca under the title ‘Dumb Stone.’ … “It was a very explosive situation,” Jan Egesborg, whose satirical art group Surrend created the Galerie Nord exhibition, told Spiegel Online. “We don’t want to be part of the current Islamophobic tendency in Europe. We weren’t trying to provoke Muslims.” The exhibition, called ‘ZOG — Surrend,’ opened last Friday and was scheduled to run until the end of March. Conceived by the controversial Danish satirical art group, it included a picture of the black, cube-shaped Kaaba in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. Above the image, a headline read ‘Dumb Stone.’ Gallery manager Ralf Hartmann decided on Tuesday to shut down the show after six men believed to have been Muslims turned up demanding that the image be removed. The men reportedly threatened the staff with violence should they not comply.” Spiegel Online (2/29/08)

Death jolts Argentine baby trial “A key witness in a trial in Argentina about the fate of babies stolen from political prisoners during the ‘Dirty War’ has been found dead. Police are investigating whether the former army officer, Lt Col Paul Navone, killed himself. Human rights investigators believe he may have been murdered to prevent him revealing details of a traumatic case that has shocked the country.” BBC News (2/26/08)

Can’t Knock the Hassle: Chávez Challenges Baseball Past This is Hell guest Dave Zirin writes “Owners love Latin America for the same reason Disney can’t get enough of Haiti: they, can sign children for pennies, treat them like trash when they’re finished, and face contact lens-thin regulations for their troubles. ... And yet despite this bounty of talent, the idiots are starting to scamper from Venezuela because Hugo Chávez is demanding that owners pay for the privilege of their pillage. Lou Meléndez, MLB’s vice president for international operations, was more than miffed to receive documents that called for instituting employee and player protections and requiring teams to pay out 10 percent of players’ signing bonuses to the government. Chávez wants to tax MLB for what they take from the country. ‘We don’t pay federations money for signing players anywhere in the world, and we don’t expect to do so. It’s certainly not a way to conduct business,’ huffed Meléndez. ‘When you see certain industries that are being nationalized, you begin to wonder if they are going to nationalize the baseball industry in Venezuela.’ ... This tension exposes the rot at the heart of this relationship. Chávez dares demand regulation and the first instinct of the owners is to flee toward more exploitable ground. Not only is Chávez right to pressure baseball to actually give something back, other countries-the Dominican Republic, in particular-should follow his lead. Every year, millions of Latin American children are shredded as they reach to escape poverty with a bat and a ball. It’s long past time MLB gave something back to the nations they so blithely upend.” Common Dreams (2/27/08)

Latin America: Justice Disserved for Indigenous Prisoners “While Mapuche Indians in Chile complain that the government has “criminalised” their land-rights protests, many indigenous people are in prison in Mexico and Peru because there were no translators to explain why they were on trial.” Inter Press Service (2/25/08) Some choose to fight back. The Trajectory of Indigenous Politics in Latin America “On Monday January 28, Bishop Alejandro Goic announced that the Mapuche rights activist Patricia Troncoso was calling off a 111 day hunger strike in Chile. Troncoso, along with several other strikers, was demanding the release of Mapuche political prisoners, an end to military repression of indigenous groups, and retraction of charges of arson leveled by the Forestal Minoco company. The strike was accompanied with protests in the Chilean capital of Santiago and petitions. In 2002, Troncoso and several Mapuche activists were accused of setting fire to 100 acres of pine plantations – charges they deny – and were sentenced to ten years in prison. They were tried in an unjust trial, where the administration of Ricardo Lagos drew on anti-terrorism legislation devised during the time of military ruler Augusto Pinochet. Further, Mapuche people claim the plantations as part of their ancestral lands, unrightfully occupied by the company. Forestry companies expanded their expropriation of indigenous lands during the Pinochet era, when many indigenous people were forced to relinquish their rights.” Znet (2/26/08)

The diamond heist that’s mass murder “Almost unnoticed in the rich world, a trial for Crimes Against Humanity is taking place in the Hague. From a shiny modern courthouse, a medieval story is emerging – one where the poorest people in the world were invaded, raped and mutilated, just to seize some shiny stones for the richest people in the world to wear. The evidence and testimony at the trial of the former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor over the past few months has stretched beyond the court’s tight remit to determine his own personal cruelty. Instead, the witnesses are finally revealing the inside story of the biggest diamond heist in history – one that killed 75,000 innocent people, crippled an entire country, and left a trail of blood that runs right to your local jewelry store.” The Independent (2/25/08) Which leads to a question they didn’t ask on the red carpet at the Oscars, “Are those ‘Blood Diamonds’ you’re wearing?” Press release. Israeli ‘Blood Diamond’ Magnate Lending Sparkle to Oscars “Lev Leviev, the Israeli settlement builder and diamond mogul who has been accused of supporting human rights abuses in Angola, Burma, New York City and Palestine, is lending his jewelry to some attendees of the 80th annual Academy Awards this Sunday. The jewelry loan was reported by Warner Brothers ExtraTV. Leviev has made a concerted effort to associate himself and his businesses with global elites, but a barrage of negative publicity related to these rights abuses has tarnished Leviev’s image, suggesting that, as NY Jewish Week wrote recently, “For Leviev, All that Glitters Isn’t Gold.” Human rights campaigners from Adalah-NY have pledged to contact Academy Award organizers and attendees to voice their concerns over Leviev’s involvement.” Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (2/23/08)

Need Abortion, Will Travel “Recent coverage of the abortion providers’ strike in Spain and the attacks on women’s clinics there made use of the term ‘abortion tourism.’ LifeSiteNews, an anti-choice web site, refers to Barcelona, Spain as ‘Europe’s abortion mecca, where people from all over the continent can travel to evade restrictions on late-term abortions.’ There was also sensationalist media coverage in Spain with disparaging references to ‘abortion tourists from other countries.’ … In October 2007, the Global Safe Abortion Conference in London discussed this issue in the context of ‘abortion journeys’ — the long, distressing, often expensive journeys that women are forced to undertake in order to access safe abortion due to restrictive legislation in their home countries. Writing about the discussion at the conference, Grace Davies noted, ‘These journeys – abortion tourism – are a tragic reality for women around the world, from Kenya to Poland. In fact, the term ‘abortion tourism’ highlights one of the central characteristic of the phenomenon. In highly restrictive situations, class and socio-economic status play a huge role in whether or not a woman can access safe abortion.’” RH Reality Check (2/25/08)

This week’s guests on This is Hell include:

• David Leigh, wrote The BAE Files. with Rob Evans at The Guardian. David and Rob have published evidence that disputes BAE, Europe’s largest arms company, denial of allegations they have engaged in large-scale corruption to sell arms overseas. David is the Guardian’s investigations editor and a professor at City University in London. He was also a producer on the acclaimed TV investigative program, “World in Action”
• James Livingston, teaches history at Rutgers. This week, he wrote the article, Clintonites Need to Realize the Left Won the Debates of the 1960s at the History News Network web site

He is finishing a book, “The World Turned Inside Out: American Thought and Culture at the End of the 20th Century”. He blogs at politicsandletters.com

• Diana Johnstone, the author of “Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusion” (Monthly Review Press). Last week, she wrote, NATO’s Kosovo Colony. and is the European correspondent for In These Times

This week’s irregular correspondents include:

• Jeff Dorchen will deliver a Moment of Truth
• John Wilson, founder of collegefreedom.org, and writes his blog at m. He is also author of “Patriotic Correctness: Academic Freedom and Its Enemies” and “Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest,” (Paradigm Publishers)
• Mike Dvorak gives his first ‘The Wind Blows’ report since last October

Check out these excellent roundups; for the recent news from all points east, check out Isaac Oommen’s East is East, Nathan Coe’s brand new Labor News Roundup and for the latest in rebel uprisings, read Alfonzo Torrez’s The Rebel Communiqué.

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