Emi Koyama - Christian Fundamentalists and Private Military Contractors? The Strange Bedfellows of the Sex Slavery Anti-Trafficking Movement

By Emi Koyama, Bitch Magazine

Posted on December 15, 2011, Printed on December 20, 2011
http://bitchmagazine.org/

In the 2008 film Taken, Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a retired CIA operative whose undercover past is called into action when his daughter is kidnapped while traveling abroad and sold into sexual slavery. Using his counterterrorism skills to torture and murder those who stand between him and his daughter’s captors, he eventually rescues his daughter and comes home a hero, with no consequences exacted for the violence he’s inflicted in the name of his daughter’s safety.

The film was a commercial, if not critical, hit (a sequel is forthcoming in 2012), perhaps because, like many a made-for-TV movie or Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode, it served a voyeuristic interest in the world of forced prostitution and sex trafficking involving attractive young, white, middle-class female victims and ethnically Other (Eastern European in this particular case) male perpetrators. Its success also mirrored the real-world events of a presidential administration that justified the use of torture—euphemistically referred to as “enhanced interrogation techniques”—as a valid means of preventing catastrophic terror attacks, and which dismissed reported cases of extreme prisoner abuses like those at Abu Ghraib as exceptions: safety at any cost, by any means necessary.

The self-purported inspiration for Bryan Mills was retired colonel Bill Hillar of the U.S. Army Special Forces (a.k.a. the Green Berets), who was a popular keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant on the topic of human trafficking. Claiming to have multiple advanced degrees, he gave lectures, trainings, and consultations in which he described his daughter’s abduction into sex slavery to law enforcement officials, private groups, and college audiences. According to Hillar, his daughter was abducted and sold to a brothel while traveling through Southeast Asia with a friend. Using his professional connections as a counterterror specialist, Hillar supposedly, like Neeson’s character, traveled around the globe in search of his daughter. But, as he sadly told audiences, his story did not have the same ending: Despite his efforts, his daughter never came home.

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Gwynne Dyer - The False Equation of Religion Equals Morality

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/19-2 

Published on Monday, December 19, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

by Gwynne Dyer

In the United States, where it is almost impossible to get elected unless you profess a strong religious faith, it would have passed completely unnoticed. Not one of the hundred US senators ticks the "No Religion/Atheist/Agnostic" box, for example, although 16 percent of the American population do. But it was quite remarkable in Britain.

Last Friday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron urged the Church of England to lead a revival of traditional Christian values to counter the country’s “moral collapse”.Last Friday, in Oxford, Prime Minister David Cameron declared that the United Kingdom is a Christian country “and we should not be afraid to say so.” He was speaking on the 400th anniversary of the King James translation of the Bible, so he had to say something positive about religion – but he went far beyond that.

“The Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today,” he said. “Values and morals we should actively stand up and defend.”

Where to start? The King James Bible was published at the start of a century in which millions of Europeans were killed in religious wars over minor differences of doctrine. Thousands of “witches” were burned at the stake during the 16th century, as were thousands of “heretics”. They have stopped doing that sort of thing in Britain now – but they’ve also stopped reading the Bible. Might there be a connection here?

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Gary Younge - The US is Blind to the Price of War That is Still Being Borne by the Iraqi People

Published on Monday, December 19, 2011 by the Guardian/UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/18/us-blind-price-paid-iraqis

by Gary Younge

On 19 November 2005 a US marine squad was struck by a roadside bomb in Haditha, in Iraq's Anbar province, killing one soldier and seriously injuring two others. According to civilians they then went on the rampage, slaughtering 24 people. They included a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair and a three-year-old child. It was a massacre. "I think they were just blinded by hate … and they just lost control," said James Crossan, one of the injured marines.

When he heard the news, Major General Steve Johnson, the American commander in Anbar province at the time, saw no cause for further examination. "It happened all the time … throughout the whole country. So you know, maybe, if I was sitting here [in Virginia] and heard that 15 civilians were killed I would have been surprised and shocked and done more to look into it. But at that point in time I felt that it was just a cost of doing business on that particular engagement."

Eight soldiers were originally charged with the atrocity. Charges against six were dropped, one was acquitted and the other is awaiting trial. We know this because a New York Times reporter found documents from the US military's internal investigation in a rubbish dump near Baghdad. An attendant was using them to make a fire to cook smoked carp for dinner.

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Thomas Edsall - The Trouble With That Revolving Door

Published on Monday, December 19, 2011 by the New York Times

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/the-trouble-with-that-revolving-door/

by Thomas Edsall

Last week, an inside-the-Beltway newsletter, First Street, published a unique top-ten list. It reveals which former members of Congress are among the most important Washington lobbyists.

The first four on the list — Senator John Breaux, of Louisiana (who served in Congress from 1972 to 2005), Representative Tom Downey, of New York (1974 to 1993), Representative Victor Fazio, of California (1979 to 1999), and former Democratic House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (1977 to 2005) – are all members of the Democratic Party, which historically has represented the bottom half of the income distribution.

These former Democratic members of the House and Senate are on the cutting edge of a revolution in the political culture of the nation’s capitol. Without attracting the attention of the general public, the career path of retired legislators has transformed the thinking of those still in Congress, Democrat and Republican alike.

When Washington politicians leave office, many, if not most, no longer return home. Instead, they head straight to the lucrative world of K Street, the nation’s lobbying corridor, which runs through the heart of Washington. A former member of the House or Senate with even modest seniority can now expect to walk into a job paying up to $1 million or more a year – and much more when bonuses are paid for bringing in new clients.

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Robert Perry - Is Iraq War End a New Day?

December 19, 2011

http://consortiumnews.com/2011/12/19/is-iraq-war-end-a-new-day/

Exclusive: The departure of the last 500 U.S. combat troops from Iraq in the predawn hours on Sunday marked an anti-climatic end to a near-nine-year war that began with “shock and awe” and “embedded” journalists joining the invasion force. But Robert Parry wonders if any lessons were learned — and what lies ahead.

By Robert Parry

Under the cover of darkness early Sunday morning, the last 500 U.S. combat troops sped out of Iraq in a 110-vehicle convoy to Kuwait, a departure kept secret even from Iraqi allies to avoid possible leaks to militants who might have inflicted one more ambush.

It was an ignominious end to an imperial adventure that cost around $1 trillion and left nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers dead, along with uncounted hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, not to mention many thousands more injured and maimed.

Iraq’s infrastructure also remains devastated by the war, and there is the strong possibility that sectarian tensions will again erupt into violence. With a new round of political arrests just this weekend, many Iraqis fear they may have traded one dictator, secular Sunni Saddam Hussein, for another tyrant, Shiite Nouri al-Maliki, today’s strongman prime minister.

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ScienceDaily - Ability to Love Takes Root in Earliest Infancy

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111214125904.htm

ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011) — The ability to trust, love, and resolve conflict with loved ones starts in childhood -- way earlier than you may think. That is one message of a new review of the literature in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.

"Your interpersonal experiences with your mother during the first 12 to 18 months of life predict your behavior in romantic relationships 20 years later," says psychologist Jeffry A. Simpson, the author, with University of Minnesota colleagues W. Andrew Collins and Jessica E. Salvatore. "Before you can remember, before you have language to describe it, and in ways you aren't aware of, implicit attitudes get encoded into the mind," about how you'll be treated or how worthy you are of love and affection.

While those attitudes can change with new relationships, introspection, and therapy, in times of stress old patterns often reassert themselves. The mistreated infant becomes the defensive arguer; the baby whose mom was attentive and supportive works through problems, secure in the goodwill of the other person.

This is an "organizational" view of human social development. Explains Simpson: "People find a coherent, adaptive way, as best as they can, to respond to their current environments based on what's happened to them in the past." What happens to you as a baby affects the adult you become: It's not such a new idea for psychology -- but solid evidence for it has been lacking.

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DAILY MAIL REPORTER - Daily dose of Vitamin B 'can fight memory loss and help protect against Alzheimer's'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

17th December 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075425/Daily-dose-Vitamin-B-fight-memory-loss-help-protect-Alzheimers.html#ixzz1gvz0bK9U

A daily dose of vitamin B can dramatically combat memory loss in old age and even protect against Alzheimer's, a study has found.

People taking the pill had lower levels of a brain protein known to lead to a rise in the risk of dementia.

More than 800,000 people in Britain suffer from dementia and the number is forecast to double within a generation, but previous drug trials have been unsuccessful. 

Researchers found it also slowed mental decline in older people who have slight problems with their memory.

Around a sixth of people over 70 are thought to suffer from mild cognitive impairment and about half develop dementia, usually within five years of diagnosis.

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ScienceDaily - Why Do People Defend Unjust, Inept, and Corrupt Systems?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111212153157.htm

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2011) — Why do we stick up for a system or institution we live in -- a government, company, or marriage -- even when anyone else can see it is failing miserably? Why do we resist change even when the system is corrupt or unjust? A new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, illuminates the conditions under which we're motivated to defend the status quo -- a process called "system justification."

System justification isn't the same as acquiescence, explains Aaron C. Kay, a psychologist at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, who co-authored the paper with University of Waterloo graduate student Justin Friesen. "It's pro-active. When someone comes to justify the status quo, they also come to see it as what should be."

Reviewing laboratory and cross-national studies, the paper illuminates four situations that foster system justification: system threat, system dependence, system inescapability, and low personal control.

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ScienceDaily - Less Knowledge, More Power: Uninformed Can Be Vital to Democracy, Study Finds

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111215141621.htm

ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2011) — Contrary to the ideal of a completely engaged electorate, individuals who have the least interest in a specific outcome can actually be vital to achieving a democratic consensus. These individuals dilute the influence of powerful minority factions who would otherwise dominate everyone else, according to new research published in the journal Science.

A Princeton University-based research team reports Dec. 16 that this finding -- based on group decision-making experiments on fish, as well as mathematical models and computer simulations -- can ultimately provide insights into humans' political behavior.

The researchers report that in animal groups, uninformed individuals -- as in those with no prior knowledge or strong feelings on a situation's outcome -- tend to side with and embolden the numerical majority. Relating the results to human political activity, the study challenges the common notion that an outspoken minority can manipulate uncommitted voters.

"The classic view is that uninformed or uncommitted individuals may allow extreme views to proliferate. We found that might not be the case," said lead author Iain Couzin, a Princeton assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. He and his co-authors found that even a small population of indifferent individuals act as a counterbalance to the minority -- whose passion even can cause informed individuals in the majority to waver -- and restore majority rule.

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ScienceDaily - Global Forests Are Overlooked as Water Suppliers, Study Shows

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111215094923.htm

ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2011) — The forests of the world supply a significant amount of moisture that creates rain. A new study published in Global Change Biology reveals how this important contribution of forests to the hydrologic cycle is often overlooked in water resource policy, such as that of the EU.

The study, by David Ellison, Martyn Futter and Kevin Bishop at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), shows that reducing forest area reduces regional and continental rainfall. This needs to be recognized to obtain a fair picture of the forest role in the hydrologic cycle.

"Are forests good for water? An apparently simple question divides scientists in two camps -- those who see trees as demanding water and those who see trees as supplying water," said David Ellison who works in the Future Forests research program studying resource management. "This paper demonstrates that the difference between these two camps has to do with the spatial scale being considered."

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