Eminent lawyers to advise Greek PM on Parthenon Marbles

  

ekathimerini.com , Saturday October 11, 2014 (17:23) 

Eminent lawyers to advise Greek PM on Parthenon Marbles Rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney and her eminent colleague Geoffrey Robertson are due in Athens on Monday for talks with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras which are expected to focus on legal arguments Greece can use in its bid to retrieve the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum. The British-based, Lebanese-born lawyer, who recently made headlines by marrying American actor George Clooney, and her senior colleague Robertson are due to stay in Athens through Thursday, according to the London-based Doughty Street Chambers legal firm. The barristers, who are also to meet with Culture Minister Costas Tasoulas during their stay, were first asked to provide advice to Athens in 2011. It was then that David Hill, an archaeologist who chairs the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles asked Norman Palmer, a lawyer specializing in cultural heritage issues, to explore Greece’s legal options. Palmer, who is known for securing the return of Aborigine remains to Australia from London’s Natural History Museum, sought the help of Robertson, with whom he had worked on the Australian claim. Last March, George Clooney caused a stir by expressing support for the idea of the Parthenon Marbles being returned to Athens.

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Robert Parry: The Sordid Contra-Cocaine Saga
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/10/10/sordid-contra-cocaine-saga

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An Excerpt from a Democacy Now Broadcast on October 6, 2014

For the full story visit http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/10/6/inside_the_dark_alliance_gary_webb

Inside the Dark Alliance: Gary Webb on the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion

With the opening of the new Hollywood film "Kill the Messenger" this week, we look back at Democracy Now! interviews with Gary Webb, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter the film is based on.

In 1996, Webb published an explosive series in the San Jose Mercury News titled, "Dark Alliance." The articles began:

"For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. This drug network opened the first pipeline between Colombia’s cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a city now known as the 'crack' capital of the world."

The investigative series sparked protests in African-American and congressional probes. It also provoked a fierce reaction from the media establishment, which denounced the series. The Los Angeles Times alone assigned 17 reporters to probe Webb’s report and his personal life. Recentlydeclassified CIA files show the agency used a "a ground base of already productive relations with journalists [at other newspapers]" to counter what it called "a genuine public relations crisis."

Following the controversy, the San Jose Mercury News demoted Webb. He then resigned and pushed his investigation even further in his book, "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion."

The CIA’s inspector general later corroborated Webb’s key findings, but, by then, his career was wrecked. The newspapers that denounced Webb largely ignored the CIA’s own report — it was released in 1998 amid the scandal over President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Webb appeared on Democracy Now! several times to discuss his reporting and the media backlash....