Miklos Fejes

Source: Source

Zone 1

Background

11/03/2010

-

Context

Why were people sent to the Gulag?

Under Stalin, people could be sent to the Gulag for any one of several specific reasons, as the experiences of Vera, Antanas, Klara, Silva, Iaroslav, Andrej, Elena and Iosas testify.

Source: Source

Burial in a Gulag camp, Kazakhstan.

CERCEC

Source: Source

Andrej Ozerovskij.

CERCEC

Source: Source

The Prime Minister and his wife were among those who attended the ceremony at the Basra Memorial Wall in the National Memorial Arboretum, in Staffordshire.

The wall was originally built in Basra in 2006 and was dismantled and moved to Britain after UK combat operations in Iraq ended last spring.

Following the ceremony, a minute’s silence was held and wreaths were laid at the memorial, including a wreath laid on behalf of the nation by the Prime Minister.

In an interview with the British Forces Broadcasting Service, the PM said:

“It is right that relatives, friends and families of those who died in Iraq are able to visit the National Arboretum in Staffordshire and be able to pay their respects. This is a wall that was built in Basra. I was privileged to lay a wreath at it before it was brought to this country and I think this now gives us a permanent memorial to the 179 who were killed and gave their lives.”

Gordon Brown attended the ceremony during a trip to the East Midlands where he also visited a Health and Wellbeing Centre in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. The PM toured the facilities and met staff, including dentists, physios and fitness instructors.

Earlier, Mr Brown visited the site of the new central Birmingham station as the Government announced plans for a high speed rail network.

Previous story: New high speed rail link announced

Read more

<!–

<!–

Photographer Rankin has hosted a private viewing in Number 10 of images from his recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The exhibition, called From Congo with Love, is a collaboration between Oxfam, Rankin and survivors of the ongoing conflict in DRC.

According to MONUC, the UN mission to Congo, more than five million people have been killed, and two million displaced in the eastern part of the country since 1999.

Rankin said the aim of the photographs was to bring the people of DRC to life and empower them rather than making them “objects of charity”.

The Prime Minister, who hosted the reception at Number 10, said the exhibition brought home the fact we are “all citizens of the same world”.

The PM said:

“By allowing the Congolese to bring their country to life in this very innovative way, Rankin has given us the chance to share their daily life and what makes them smile, what worries them, what gives them hope.

And like great art, I think these pictures enrich our understanding of the world.”

The private view of the exhibition comes in the same week that the Prime Minister announced that Baroness Kinnock will take on a new role leading the Government’s work to tackle violence against women overseas.

Baroness Kinnock’s priority is tackling sexual violence in the DRC.

Read more

In a speech from Canary Wharf in London, Gordon Brown said now was not the time to change course from the measures the Government was following.

He said there would be a tough approach on spending and public sector pay, and announced a freeze on pay for senior staff in the civil service, senior staff in the military, the judiciary and senior NHS managers.

It follows last week’s announcement of a freeze on parliamentary and ministerial salaries of all paid government ministers and controls on pay announced in December. The measures are expected to save more than £3 billion by 2013-14.

Mr Brown said the Budget – which he confirmed will be held on 24 March – will focus on protecting and advancing the recovery by ensuring Britain can succeed in new industries.

The PM said:

“The stakes are high. We dare not risk the recovery. For our task above all else is to preserve and expand the jobs – and lift the standards of life – of the British people. We are weathering the storm; now is no time to turn back. We will hold to our course. And we will complete this mission.

“We have got through this storm together but there are still substantial risks ahead. There will be bumps in the road. And I believe the only way to overcome them is by displaying the same strength and resolve as we did during the crisis.”

Mr Brown emphasised the importance of maintaining a globally consistent approach to economic recovery and urged G20 leaders to recommit themselves to the ambitions they have already agreed.

He also called on leaders to make the opening up of trade one of the key deliverables for the next summit in June.

Read the Written Ministerial Statement on the review of senior salaries

Speeches and transcripts: Speech on the economy

Read more

The second guilty plea in the Danziger Bridge case today revealed additional details about the conduct of New Orleans police after Hurricane Katrina and suggested more prosecutions of higher-ranking officers are yet to come.

Former police detective Jeffrey Lehrmann pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony in connection to a Sept. 4, 2005 incident in which officers shot six civilians on or near the bridge. Two people were killed. 

According to a document filed by federal prosecutors, Lehrmann helped cover up police misconduct by concocting evidence portraying the citizens who were shot as gun-wielding criminals.

Lehrmann also participated in a scheme to plant a gun at the scene, the document says, and even helped create a fictional witness whose “statements” were included in a 54-page police report on the shootings. (The New Orleans Times-Picayune first raised questions about the existence of bogus witnesses to the bridge incident in 2007.)

Prosecutors’ case against Lehrmann also points to a bigger fish: His supervisor—unnamed in the court documents—who allegedly provided the planted gun and committed other crimes during the investigation. 

Lehrmann’s supervisor at the time was Sgt. Arthur Kaufman. A call to Kaufman’s attorney, Stephen London, was not immediately returned, but London has acknowledged to the Times-Picayune that Kaufman is a target of the federal probe.

The Danziger investigation just is one of many examples of questionable post-Katrina police work. Late last year ProPublica, the Times-Picayune and PBS “Frontline” began scrutinizing other violent episodes that occurred the week after the hurricane made landfall, including the fatal shootings of Danny Brumfield and Matthew McDonald, and the non-fatal shooting of Keenon McCann. All of the men were shot by NOPD officers.

Our investigation identified a disturbing pattern: In case after case, NOPD officers conducted superficial investigations before concluding their fellow cops had acted appropriately. The U.S. Department of Justice is now looking into these shootings as well.

Go to Source

In recent years, the Pentagon has come to increasingly rely on private military contractors to do the work that members of the military used to do. But as the number of civilian contractors has grown, so too has the number of deaths and injuries of those contractors and with it, the cost of paying health care benefits for their injury claims.

T. Christian Miller recently won the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for his coverage of the numerous obstacles contractors face when they’ve been injured and try to collect benefits. We spoke to him about who is responsible for taking care of injured contractors, the ordeal they have to go through to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the role AIG plays in this, contractor suicide rates and how Congress is addressing the problem.

We also hear from one of the people facing the difficulties Miller has documented. Bill Carlisle Jr. was a contractor with defense firm KBR. He sustained both physical and psychological injuries, and is now fighting insurer AIG for the benefits he says they owe him.

Articles discussed in this podcast:

Injured War Zone Contractors Fight to Get Care From AIG and Other Insurers

The Other Victims of Battlefield Stress; Defense Contractors’ Mental Health
Neglected

Injured Abroad, Neglected at Home: Labor Dept. Slow to Help War Zone Contractors

Labor Dept., Congress Plan Improvements to System to Care for Injured War
Contractors

Pentagon Study Proposes Overhaul of Defense Base Act to Cover Care for injured
Contractors

Go to Source

March 11: This post has been updated.

Frank Minyard, the Orleans Parish coroner, has concluded that he cannot determine what caused the death of Jannie Burgess, a 79-year-old patient who perished at Memorial Medical Center after a doctor ordered that she be given multiple doses of morphine in a short period. The hospital was cut off for several days by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina and a number of patients were found dead with elevated levels of morphine and other drugs.

“We cannot tell what she died of except that she was extremely ill,” Minyard said in a phone interview several hours before a scheduled press conference. “She had a lot of physiologic reasons to die.” Minyard said his official finding was that the cause of Burgess’ death was “unclassified.” His ruling makes it highly unlikely that any charges will be brought in the case.

The details of Burgess’ death were first disclosed in a ProPublica report published in The New York Times Magazine last August. Her medical records showed that she was repeatedly dosed with morphine after the hospital had lost power, temperatures soared, and rescue helicopters failed to arrive in sufficient numbers.

The physician who ordered the medication, Dr. Ewing Cook, said that he intentionally “hastened her demise” because Burgess, who had advanced, metastatic uterine cancer, was close to death, was being cared for by nurses whose help was needed elsewhere, and would have suffered greatly if her pain medication wore off during any attempt to evacuate her.

“Dr. Cook thinks that he knocked her off,” Minyard said, “but we can’t prove that. He might have, he might not have. Because it’s not 100 percent proved, we have to call it unclassified.” He said some of the experts he consulted pointed to the fact that Burgess’ death was recorded as having occurred more than three hours after the last of the morphine injections.

Cook declined to comment for this article. Minyard said that he had not spoken with Cook during his investigation. He said that during his investigation he consulted with four pathologists who work in his office, three local experts and Dr. Michael Baden, a renowned forensic pathologist from New York.

Baden has said he has a different view of the case. In an interview several months ago, after he reviewed Burgess’ records, Baden said that Burgess’ death was “no question a homicide.” Homicide is defined by coroners as a death caused by the action of another person. Such findings do not address the issue of intent which is critical to deciding whether a crime has been committed.

Burgess’ daughter, Linette Burgess Guidi, said she had not seen the experts’ determinations. She said she hoped that some sort of review board could review Cook’s actions. “I understand he was under a lot of pressure,” she said. “I’m not out for vengeance. I just want to know the truth, I want to know what happened.” She added, “There’s too many questions.”

The district attorney in Orleans Parish, Leon Cannizzaro, will ultimately decide whether there will be further criminal investigation or prosecution related to Burgess’ death. Minyard conducted his assessment of the Burgess case at Cannizzaro’s request. In September 2009, shortly after the ProPublica report, Cannizzaro said he asked Minyard “to classify the deaths reported in” the article. Cannizzaro could not be reached immediately for comment on the coroner’s decision.

In 2006, authorities arrested Dr. Anna Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry for alleged mercy killings at the same hospital after Katrina. A local grand jury heard evidence in the case and declined to bring charges. The nurses and Dr. Pou emphatically denied that they had murdered patients and the case prompted outrage in New Orleans where medical professionals who worked in horrific conditions after the storm were widely viewed as heroes and victims. Some close to Minyard speculated that the coroner, who recently won re-election to his 10th term, decided to postpone his determination in the case until after the election — something Minyard denies.

Minyard, 80, said the reason he had not completed his investigation of Burgess’ death before now was because his office has a great deal of work on other cases and is understaffed. “I’ve just got too much going,” he said when contacted last December. “I just want to make sure when I do it that I have it right.”

Update: Minyard’s press conference has happened. For more on the conference, go to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Go to Source