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Speculation and the Crazies

A book claims that Ahmed Zaoui was a terrorist who plotted to kill soccer star David Beckham and others at the 1998 World Cup has drawn a sceptical response from a British expert, Professor Emile George Joffe who is a specialist on North African affairs.

However Joffe, who teaches at Cambridge University's Centre for International Studies, says there was "no evidence" to say Zaoui was in the GIA, let alone its leadership.

Zaoui was under house arrest in Switzerland leading up to the World Cup – and he was not among those arrested before the tournament.

Joffe believes Zaoui's alleged involvement was probably fabricated and fed to the book's author.

New Zealand News - Dialogue - Audrey Young: PM had to act to regain credibility

Immigration Minister Resigns

The Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel resigned because she lost her credibility. She presided over an Immigration dept that drugged and deported a clearly victimised 16 year old girl and the heavy hand was seen as that of the Government's own. The polls are showing poor support for Helen Clark's handling of this, until now her efforts to deal to the flailing Minister for Immigration with her panic button values at the constant ready should a news of a terrorist leak onto our foreshores.

There is a credibility gap because it is not relevant. Ahmed Zaoui has been in prison for over a year and we wonder at the quality of the Government's decision making process in regards to protection of our national security. That is the leak in the boat, Helen Clark. It is good that Lianne Dalziel has gone, as she has been seen to go for the expedient course that does not fit with the human rights aspects of her job.

It would have been more character forming for this Government that is fast losing its grip on the meaning of power.

See New Zealand News - Dialogue - Audrey Young: PM had to act to regain credibility

Scoop: Lawyers Release Allegations Agaist Zaoui

Secret Government Information Contains Little

The revelation of the secret Government evidence against Ahmed Zaoui are the same allegations they have already stated. We believe the case is based on heresay evidence given in cases in Belguim and France as Lawyers Release Allegations Against Zaoui, it seems more and more that the interests being protected are political rather than security related. Not "pragmatic" but "expedient".

The Government has a responsibility of truth with the voter. It is a responsibility of sacred trust. Will the Minister honour her responsibility or be silenced by "overriding considerations in the National Interest".

Ahmed Zaoui is still behind bars.

letter to the editor

Letter to the Editor

My wife and I arrived in New Zealand in the early 1970s.We love this country and are proud to be Citizens, impressed by the warmth and generosity of New Zealanders, their laid-back approach to life, plus the freedom to be anyone, do anything here.

But two recent incidents have disturbed us and made us unsure of our faith in this Government. One, the intolerant treatment of Ahmed Zaoui. The other, the brutal deportation of the Sri Lankan girl handcuffed and apparently drugged. Of course we cannot be informed with all the facts that presumably the government is.

Both these unfortunate people decided to come to New Zealand to begin a new life, because they believed that this was one country that shows compassion and concern for humanity.

How wrong could they be. Instead, they have been treated disgracefully and in a manner that we can only describe as close to facism. In the Zaoui case it appears that the Government has been misinformed and has behaved with absolute arrogance from the start.

Come on New Zealand. Lobby this Government and show that we are a country that has true compassion.

Zaoui Latest

Former Algerian Counter Intelligence Officer Speaks in Support of Ahmed Zaoui The NZ Listener reports this week that Mohammed Samraoui, a former colonel in the Algerian DRS has said: "I am sure of [Zaoui's innocence] because I was personally involved in the campaign launched against the Islamist leaders in Europe, of which Zaoui was one, in order to discredit them, and to obtain their extradition to Algeria".

Courtesy Free Zaoui

IOL : UK sounds the alarm over effects of smoking

Early Signs

Submission

Way back when before anything started to go badly, I used to join the older kids behind the tennis courts for a smoke. Not drugs or anything, just good old cigs. And a huge crowd of 5th formers and so on gathered during lunch and the ground was covered with butts. The joke was the gay teacher who took delight in catching boys breaking the rules. The penalty for being caught was left off the end of the sentence.

The bell went and we all scampered back to class trying to hide the smell of smoke hot on our breath. I hated the taste of it, but something about it was enticing, it was breaking the rules and making authority seem impotent.

It was twenty five years later that I finally managed to stop doing it.

I thought it was free will that allowed me to smoke. It was not. It was a form of enslavement that only became apparent long after the nicotine hunger was satisfied in my body. The reasons to satisfy that hunger became convincing arguments that what my family was telling me was all wrong.

Discuss

In the press: IOL : UK sounds the alarm over effects of smoking

New Zealand Herald - Latest News

Child Crime

Children under the age of 14 can not be brought to justice for committing crimes. In this story the father of the boy has been charged with receiving stolen goods because he used vouchers that the boy allegedly stole. This boy of 13 has admitted 12 burglaries and stolen four vehicles in the past couple of months.

Parents who suffer a child that commits crimes should know that the child may be caught by police but may not be charged or held and must be returned to the parents. If the parents are party to the crime, the child's age is no protection. It would seem the right thing to do is to try and return stolen property to its rightful owner, but this should be done with the police.

One story we can relay in a similar case was where a parent took the underage thief to a police station and returned the stolen goods. In this way the child was given an example of responsible behaviour. The police said that returning goods in this way was "very unusual". The parent said that statement was discouraging. Do we as a society still believe that a criminal act is okay so long as you do not get caught? Or was returning it the right thing to do?

There is room for parents to be confused both by the application of the law, and the confusion that may result from not being able to accept that their children are breaking into houses or committing crimes.

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Atkins' Widow Accuses Opponents over Obesity Report

Dirty Tricks

The Widow of Dr Robert Aitkins is considering legal action over the release of medical records about her weight before he died.

Amid ongoing controversy about his low-carbohydrate, high protein diet a group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine obtained Dr Atkins' pathology report and passed it to the Wall Street Journal.

The discussion of a patient's medical history is a no-go area, and for a "Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine" to publish an individual's medical history to attack his radical diet theory is simply and diabolically wrong.

They are making fools of themselves.

Dr Aitkens, the writer and Dr Aitkens, the body are hardly the same thing. For them to attack the writer for his health is politics at its worst. The Physicians Committee's members can not have taken any Hippocratic Oath to consider publishing a medical history to attack a person.

People are very prone to misunderstand the rationale behind the propaganda. Healthy hearts across America would remove a lot of money and fear from the medical profession who are very aware that no quick fix is going to make everyone healthy.

Dr Aitken's diet can also be interpreted as a philosophy about the body.

Fast food plus sugar will cause heart disease. He was addressing the next generation of obese Americans who may live 10 - 20 years less on average due to the increased stress on the heart.

STUFF - STORY - HOME : New Zealand's leading news and information website

Forensic Bullet Evidence

In this case, forensic bullet evidence is called into question, and if bullet evidence is questionable, it could reduce criminal liability in cases of shooting effectively by calling into question cases of shooting proven by foresic bullet evidence.

New Zealand News - NZ - 'P' epidemic: Forensic labs can't keep up

A question of evidence

The growing case load of methamphetamine cases is backlogging in NZ courts as forensic labs can't keep up with the case load and the drug detection agency ESR wants to "streamline" the evidential reporting standards required.

Cases are cited where accused may have to go on a waiting list for a trial due to lab evidence not yet being processed.

The growth of methamphetamine laboratory charges is startling, from 9 in 2000 to 180 last year. This is dwarfed by an estimated 300 cases for the first six months this year. The police campaign to stamp out P labs is led by a media driven public perception that it must be stamped out. There is no question that it should.

Lawyers were warning of case backlogs in courts last year as the police responded to the huge growth industry. The trouble with the backlog is that prisons will fill with the guilty and the innocent. By the time the trials commence the innocent will not be as innocent as when they were caught up in the swoop.

Cases the police are prosecuting may become more liable to objections of injustice, and so the guilty may walk free. Urgent attention to the mismatch between Government Depts is necessary. It is a train wreak. Someone needs to pay attention to the train lines and signals rather than just emptying out the bodies from crushed carriages.

STUFF : POLITICS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

STUFF : POLITICS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

STUFF - STORY - HOME : New Zealand's leading news and information website

STUFF - STORY - HOME : New Zealand's leading news and information website