Next Time, I'll Be There..

I have been back in Malaysia for couple of weeks now for a sojourn. One of the things (some) Malaysians or ex-Malaysians abroad have to do.

I was invited by Tok Mommy (Kak Maria) for a bloggers' bash. Actually, it was an invite through another invitation. I was thrilled, yet a little apprehensive.

Truth be told. It was not easy because I'd have to "blow my cover". No more anonymity.

Would people be expecting an "Eva"? Kak Maria told me that a joke was going around the Tuesday Mee Rebus sessions that some people are convinced that I'm a 6-footer Sikh male.

Kak Maria herself asked me about me.I told her I ain't telling. although I gave her BROAD hints.

I'll be honest -- I'm no 6-footer although I am tall. Nor am I male or a Sikh.

To cut a story short -- I missed the bloggers bash at the Curve on Saturday Nov 29 because I was at the other end of the Klang Valley, stuck in a horrendous traffic jam.

Was looking forward to meeting Kak Maria, Nuraina, Kerp, MadSalo, Rocky and the others.

I suppose Somebody else had good reason to not let me be there.

It would have to be "next time"....

So, until the next time in this lifetime....you guys rock!

State Of Emergency At Bangkok Airports As Rumours Of Coup Abound

People power in Thailand ain't gonna do the country any good. But something just has to be said and done for the long-term good of the country.

That people power is deceptive because the real power in Thailand lies in the military.

These protests are just being allowed because the military is allowing it to a point when it has the government on its knees.

Already there are rumours of a coup.

Just read The New York Times that a a state of emergency has been declared at Bangkok’s two commercial airports today.

Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat against whom the protest is made, instructed police to deal with protesters occupying the facilities, Thai media reported.

Of course the people are protesting, Somchai is ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra's brother-in-law.

Read the story here.

And on the coup, here

Judge Orders Guantanamo Releases

Well, I hope that this development spells better things to come as far as Guantanamo prisoners are concerned.

Many of them I am very sure are innocent.

Punish the guilty. Release the innocent!

Read this Al-Jazeera report:

A US judge has ruled that five Algerians held in the US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for almost seven years had been illegally detained and must be freed.

Richard Leon, a US district judge in Washington DC, said the US government had "failed to show by burden of proof" that the five men had allegedly planned to go to Afghanistan to fight US-led forces there.

However the judge did find that a sixth Algerian man, seized alongside the other men in Bosnia-Hercegovina in 2001, had been legally detained.

The ruling follows the first hearings under a landmark US supreme court ruling in June - based on a case brought by lawyers for Lakhdar Boumediene, one of the Algerian men - that gave Guantanamo prisoners the legal right to challenge their continued detention.

The June ruling said that inmates in Guantanamo Bay had the right to know under what charges they were being held and what the evidence was against them.

Thursday's decision marks a fresh embarrassment over the camp for the Bush administration and comes after Barack Obama, the US president-elect, pledged to close the prison camp after taking office in January.

The White House said later on Thursday it disagreed with the court's ruling and that the Justice Department was reviewing the decision on the five Algerians.

"This ruling does demonstrate the need for Congress to enact procedures that allow these petitions to be adjudicated in a way that is fair to the detainee but that allows the government to present its case without imperiling national security," said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman.

Controversial cases

The US government had accused all six of the men of planning to travel to
Afghanistan to join the al-Qaeda network and fight against US-led forces in the country.

But their lawyers say there is no evidence the men ever would have ended up ona battlefield or posed any threat to the US.

Michael Ratner from the Centre for Constitutional Rights, who acted as a legal advisor to the men, told Al Jazeera he was overjoyed by the verdict.

"This is a huge huge decision. Not only for those five men but for how it showed that the US government was off the chart in what it was doing to people."

Ratner said he hoped that the decision would lead to similar rulings in other cases involving Guantanamo detainees.

Judge Leon said the allegation against the men was based on a single source and that he did not have enough information to judge the source's reliability or credibility.

However the judge ruled the government did provide enough evidence that one of the detainees, Belkacem Bensayah, had planned to take up arms against the US in Afghanistan.

Boumediene and the other five men were initially detained by US authorities on suspicion of plotting to bomb the US embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in October 2001, and transferred them to Guantanamo in January 2002.

However the Justice Department has reportedly since dropped the embassy bombing accusations.

Last month, US district judge Ricardo Urbina also ordered the release of 17 Chinese Muslims, members of the Uighur ethnic group, after the government acknowledged they were not enemy combatants.

About 250 prisoners are still being held at the US naval camp in Cuba on suspicion of "terrorism" or links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Most were detained during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 after the September 11 attacks in the US.

Most have been held for years without being charged and many have complained of abuse, and the camp remains one of the most controversial aspects of the Bush administration's so-called war on terror.

HALLELUJAH! HISTORY AND OBAMA.

Let me apologize for not blogging for a mighty long time. I was in Europe. Spain to be exact. As usual -- work and play.

Not a moment passed by that I did NOT think about the US presidential elections.

My fingers were so itchy. I wanted to surf the net and blog about my days and nights.

I thought this could never happen -- I did not have time. NO TIME.

I never thought this could ever be possible. But that's the truth...so help me God!

HOWEVER -- came home. Caught up with stuff.
And YES! Barrack Hussein Obama is PRESIDENT!

That's H I S T O R Y and H I S T O R I C, people.

I rejoice. I know that he may not be as good a President as his hype want us to believe. But, I'm putting my money on him.

Never thought this day would come. Ever!

HALLELUJAH!