Will the real Osama bin Laden please stand up?

Official FBI photo

It's been a long time since we were shown photos of Osama bin Laden. Now Reuters published a
photo said to have been taken of him in 2009.

If you ask me it doesn't look much like him. (Compare the nose in the 1998 and 2009 pictures.) But this falls into a well established pattern. I have seven different pictures officials claimed to be of the man. (And had several others I unfortunately can't find anymore.) The trouble is they often don't look as if they were of the same person.

Have a look.

Vancouver's Green Olympics

Cypress Mountain
24-01-2010
Official Venue for Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding
It needs some snow!

I opposed the bid for the Games because I think it's a bad investment. However, after having spent the enormous amount of money for this circus I hope they will be a success.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

The Games will be held Feb. 12 to Feb. 28 and organizers are thinking of using helicopters to transport some snow from the top of the mountain to the venues. That wouldn't be in line with the boast of the Games being the most environmentally friendly. (This is not to deny the laudable efforts which are made in that direction.)

BC fiscal cupboard is bare

The B.C. government said in its Throne Speech that it will review its health authorities, boards of education and Crown corporations in an effort to find cost savings.

"Shrinking revenues will by necessity curtail our discretionary spending," the government said. "The fiscal cupboard is bare and currently hangs on a wall of deficit spending."

Shrinking revenues: Only three weeks ago the government reduced its revenues by giving royalty breaks to the oil and gas industry, of all businesses.

Is the government of Gordon Campbell merely incompetent or is it determined at any cost to give money to very profitable industries?

Stephen Harper's Senate appointments

Integrity or expedience?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will name eight new Senators. These appointments will give the Conservatives 46 of the 105 seats in the Senate. The Liberals have 53 and the rest are independent.

Stephen Harper, January 15, 2004:

"... the Upper House remains a dumping ground for the favoured cronies of the Prime Minister."


Conservative Party website during 2006 election:

"A conservative government will not appoint to the senate anyone who does not have a mandate from the people."


Yet, the government has "now made 27 Senate appointments of his Conservative cronies in less then a year."

And what a lucrative "job" it is! It pays $ 132,000.- for working, on average, 70 days a year sitting in the Senate. However, this didn't stop some of the new appointees wanting to keep their current jobs as well.

It's not about Khadr. It's about us.

CTV News reported:

Omar Khadr's lawyer says his client is being unfairly punished by the Conservative government, which has steadfastly refused to request his repatriation from Guantanamo Bay despite court rulings ordering it to do so.

Earlier this month, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling in Khadr's favour and ruled the government must move to bring Khadr home.

On Tuesday, Ottawa confirmed it will fight the decision and take the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Khadr's Canadian lawyer Denis Edney said he is mystified by the government's continued refusal to bring Khadr home.

"Every Western country that has had a detainee in Guantanamo Bay has simply requested that their detainees come home, and that has happened," Edney told CTV News Channel [emphasis is mine].

Khadr is accused of lobbing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15. In seven years in Guantanamo Bay, he has not gone through a trial.

Edney said his client should be treated as a child soldier, noting that Canada donates millions to help rehabilitate child soldiers from countries like Sierra Leone, because it considers them to be victims.

"And yet Omar Khadr is not afforded any protection from Canada. It boggles my mind, I just see it as a mean-spirited government that selects what type of Canadian it wishes to assist," he said.
The Government of Canada is saying justice should take its course.

Justice Conservative style.

"Even some Conservatives privately admit they have been taken aback by Harper’s utter indifference to pleas about Khadr’s plight."

Besides it's a move which is likely to waste a lot of taxpayers' money. I'd be willing to give odds that the Supreme Court of Canada will uphold the judgments of the lower courts.

Most importantly, it's not primarily about Khadr.

Above all it's about us and the kind of country and society we wish to live in.

Canadian Pork

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced that the federal government's is offering $75 million to struggling pork producers as well as $17 million for marketing pork to consumers. "We need to reduce our current over-supply," he said. Ottawa's combination of loans, buyouts and marketing cash isn't enough for the industry. They had asked for $800 million.

This is another example of latter-day-capitalism: Profits are privatized, losses socialized.

Taser Lawsuit against Braidwood Inquiry

Taser International is filing a lawsuit against the Braidwood Inquiry, which ruled Tasers can be fatal and should be severely restricted.

"The Arizona-based company says the inquiry into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport, led by Justice Thomas Braidwood, was biased and neglected to enter evidence brought forward by Taser.

Taser claims "the commission breached basic principles of fairness and fundamental justice... both in its procedure and in the manner in which the report and its conclusions were reached ...

Taser International also alleges that the inquiry's findings were unsupported by medical science ...

Taser will be asking the court to quash large portions of the 19 recommendations made by the commission. It will also be asking for an injunction that would bar Braidwood from using the findings in any future rulings."

Others say the company is using the lawsuit to intimidate its critics and protect its profits.

The use of Tasers has been restricted by police forces across Canada in response to the inquiry.