Family of Holocaust Survivor Ordered to Return Artifact

Family of Holocaust Survivor Ordered to Return Artifact active Edit

02.06.2012 08:20    Comments: 1    Categories: government      Tags: holocaust survivor  artifact  

ABCNews/A Brooklyn court has ordered the family of a Holocaust survivor to return a 3,200-year-old artifact to a German museum.

The Assyrian artifact is a golden tablet about the size of a passport photo that was looted from the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin during World War II, according to court papers.
The tablet was discovered in 1913 by a group of German archeologists in Iraq, court papers read. It was placed in the Berlin museum in 1926, but when an inventory was conducted in 1939, the tablet was missing.
The looter has been pegged as Auschwitz survivor Riven Flamenbaum.
"He was at Auschwitz for a period of almost five years," Flamenbaum's daughter, Hannah Segal, told ABC News. "The Germans put him into forced labor and he walked out of there by some miracle.
"The tablet represented his ability to survive," she said. "It represented a dark period in my parents' lives and lives of Jewish people."
Flamenbaum left Auschwitz in 1945, when he was sent to a camp in Germany.
It was not clear how he obtained the tablet, but when he and his wife immigrated to the United States four years later, the tablet was one of his most prized possessions.
"This was never something that was going to make him rich or he was going to sell," said Segal, 60. "It was a memento, a legacy. I never knew a grandfather, aunt, uncle or cousin. No family. The tablet is our legacy."
When Flamenbaum died in 2003, his children found the golden square in his estate.
The museum sued for its return in 2010, but a Nassau County Surrogate Court judge ruled in favor of the Flamenbaum family, saying the museum never reported the tablet as stolen.
"The museum sat on their rights for 60 years and now they say they're entitled to it," Segal said.
A recent appellate court ruling reversed the Nassau County decision, ordering the tablet to be returned.
The family's attorney, Seth Presser, said most similar cases involve a Holocaust victim trying to reclaim stolen property taken by the Nazis, not a museum going after a survivor.

"The time frame is a huge factor, as is the emotion of the case," Presser said. "This tablet was one of the first things he had in his hands when he came to this country. He raised three children. He started a new life here, and now they're being chased down by his past."

But attorney Raymond Dowd said otherwise.

Dowd, who represented the museum and has served family members of Holocaust survivors in the past, said having the tablet returned to Germany is a "victory for the museums of the world."

"This a public treasure for scholars of the world," Dowd said. "It's a rare artifact, and the world scholars deserve to study it. It doesn't belong in private hands."

 

Ohio man's littering ticket tossed after uproar

Ohio man's littering ticket tossed after uproar active Edit

02.06.2012 08:18    Comments: 0    Categories: government      Tags: ohio  littering citation

(AP)Prosecutors tossed out a $344 littering citation against a driver whose money fell to the ground after he reached through his open car window to hand it to a panhandler.
The city dropped the ticket because it decided the cash didn't qualify as trash, assistant city prosecutor Jonathan Cudnik said during a court hearing Thursday.
John Davis, of Elyria, had pleaded not guilty to the minor misdemeanor earlier in the week and said he was determined to fight the ticket.
He said he was trying to help someone in need when he handed the money to the panhandler, who was in a wheelchair at a busy intersection during rush hour on May 17. A police officer who was behind Davis saw the money hit the ground and cited him for littering.
Davis told reporters Thursday that he was glad the matter was now over, but he said he'd no longer give money to people along the road and instead would give to charities.
Cleveland police said it's illegal to solicit or give money at the side of a roadway, and that it's dangerous for those doing it and other drivers.
The police officer didn't ticket Davis for donating to a panhandler, which carries a smaller fine of about $160, but instead cited him for littering from a vehicle.

Elisabeth Warren: Prof profited by buying, selling homes

Elisabeth Warren: Prof profited by buying, selling homes active Edit

02.06.2012 08:44    Comments: 0    Categories: Politics      Tags: elisabeth warren  profit  foreclosures  

BostonHerald/Elizabeth Warren, who has railed against predatory banks and heartless foreclosures, took part in about a dozen Oklahoma real estate deals that netted her and her family hefty profits through maneuvers such as “flipping” properties, records show.
A Herald review has found that the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate rapidly bought and sold homes herself, loaned money at high interest rates to relatives and purchased foreclosed properties at bargain prices.
Land records from Warren’s native Oklahoma City show the Harvard professor was active in the often topsy-turvy real estate market in the 1990s, including:

• Purchasing a foreclosed home at 2725 West Wilshire Boulevard from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for $61,000 in June 1993, then selling it in December 1994 for $95,000 — a 56 percent mark-up in just 18 months.
• Buying a house at 200 NW 16th St. for $30,000 in August 1993, then flipping it for $145,000 — a 383 percent gain after just five months.
• Lending one of her brothers money at 9.5 percent interest to buy a home at 1425 Classen Drive for $35,000 in August 2000. He sold the place three months later for $38,500 — a 10 percent gain in 75 days.
• Providing her brother with financing to buy a $25,000 house at 4301 NW 16th St. in 1994. He sold the property four years later for $42,000, a 68 percent increase.
• Giving her sister-in-law a mortgage in 1996 to buy a $31,000 home at 2621 NW 13th St. Three years later, the sister-in-law sold the place for $45,000 — a 45 percent boost in three years.
• Providing her brother with a loan in 1997 to buy 901 NW 22nd St. for $90,000. He sold it some two years later for $106,000 — an 18 percent increase.
• Giving her brother a mortgage to buy 3836 NW 12th St. in 1997 for $26,000. Nine years later, he unloaded the home for $45,000 — a 73 percent jump.
Herald columnist Howie Carr reported yesterday that Warren and her relatives also profited from two additional Oklahoma City foreclosures — in both cases showing triple-digit percentage gains.
Warren’s campaign issued a statement last night: “Elizabeth and (her husband) Bruce are fortunate to be in a position where they can help their family. They have been able to help relatives buy their homes and her nephew — a contractor — fix up houses.”
However, Warren and her family’s private investments don’t seem to square with her public statements about the latest real estate boom and bust.
“We are in the midst of one of the greatest economic crises in our country’s history — a crisis that began one lousy mortgage at a time,” the Democrat wrote on her campaign website, which also decries “a deregulated credit industry (that) squeezed families harder, hawking dangerous mortgages.

Egypt's Mubarak sentenced to life in prison

Egypt's Mubarak sentenced to life in prison active Edit

02.06.2012 08:15    Comments: 0    Categories: World News      Tags: eygpt  mubarak  life in prison  

AP/Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power last year. The ousted president and his sons were acquitted, however, of corruption charges in a mixed verdict that swiftly provoked a new wave of anger on Egypt's streets.

Revolutionary groups and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood have called for a massive protest at Tahrir Square, the heart of the uprising, at 5 p.m. local time.

After the sentencing, the 84-year old Mubarak suffered a "health crisis" while on a helicopter flight to a Cairo prison hospital, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. One state media report said it was a heart attack, but that could not immediately be confirmed.

The officials said Mubarak cried in protest and resisted leaving the helicopter that took him to a prison hospital for the first time since he was detained in April 2011. Mubarak stayed at a regular hospital in his favorite Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from his arrest until his trial began in on Aug. 3. The officials said he insisted on the helicopter that he be flown to the military hospital on the eastern outskirts of Cairo where he has stayed during the trial.

Mubarak finally left the chopper and moved to the Torah prison hospital more than two hours after his helicopter landed there.

Earlier, Mubarak sat stone-faced and frowning in the courtroom's metal defendants' cage while judge Ahmed Rifaat read out the conviction and sentence against him, showing no emotion with his eyes concealed by dark sunglasses. His sons Gamal and Alaa looked nervous but also did not react to either the conviction of their father or their own acquittals.

Mubarak was convicted of complicity in the killing of some 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising that forced him to resign in February 2011. He and his two sons were acquitted of corruption charges, along with a family friend who is on the run.

Rifaat opened the session with a strongly worded statement before handing down the verdicts. He expressed deep sympathy for the uprising.
"The people released a collective sigh of relief after a nightmare that did not, as is customary, last for a night, but for almost 30 black, black, black years — darkness that resembled a winter night.

"The revolution by the people of Egypt was inspired by God. They did not seek a luxurious life or to sit atop the world, but asked their politicians, rulers and those in authority to give them a decent life and a bite to eat," he said. "They peacefully demanded democracy from rulers who held a tight grip on power."

One of the uprising's key pro-democracy groups, April 6, rejected the verdict, saying Rifaat at once paid homage to the protesters and ignored the grief of the families of those killed by acquitting the top police commanders.
"We will continue to cleanse Egypt from corruption," the group said.
"Justice was not served," said Ramadan Ahmed, whose son was killed on Jan. 28 last year. "This is a sham," he said outside the courthouse, a lecture hall in a police academy that once bore Mubarak's name.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch called the verdict a "landmark conviction" but criticized the prosecution for failing to fully investigate the case.
"It sends a powerful message to Egypt's future leaders that they are not above the law," HRW said. "These convictions set an important precedent since just over a year ago, seeing Mubarak as a defendant in a criminal court would have been unthinkable," said Joe Stork, the group's spokesman.
Angered by the acquittals of the Mubarak sons and six top police officers, lawyers for the victims' families broke out chanting inside the courtroom as soon as Rifaat finished reading the verdict.
"The people want to cleanse the judiciary," they chanted. Some raised banners that read: "God's verdict is execution."
The charges related to killing protesters carried a possible death sentence that the judge chose not to impose, opting instead to send Mubarak to prison for the rest of his life.

Rifaat criticized the prosecution's case, saying it lacked concrete and material evidence and that there was nothing in what has been presented to the court that proved that the protesters were killed by the police. Because those who pulled the trigger have not been arrested, he added, he could not convict any of the top police officers of complicity in the killing of the protesters.

The prosecution had complained during the trial that it did not receive any help from the Interior Ministry in its preparation for the case and, in some cases, prosecutors were met with obstruction.
Outside the courtroom on the outskirts of the capital, there was jubilation initially when the conviction was announced, with one man falling to his knees and prostrating himself in prayer on the pavement and others dancing, pumping fists in the air and shooting off fireworks.
But that scene soon descended into tensions and scuffles, as thousands of riot police in helmets and shields held the restive, mostly anti-Mubarak crowd back behind a cordon protecting the court.
Later, thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square, birthplace of the uprising, and in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria on Egypt's northern coast. They chanted slogans denouncing the trial as "theatrical" and against the ruling generals who took over for Mubarak, led by his former defense minister. "Execute them, execute them!" chanted the protesters in Alexandria.
Mubarak and his former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, who was in charge of the police and other security forces at the time of the uprising, were convicted of failing to act to stop the killings during the opening days of the revolt, when the bulk of protesters died. El-Adly also received a life sentence.

Most of the dead were either shot or run over by police vehicles in Cairo and a string of major cities across the country.

Mubarak and his sons — one-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa — were acquitted on corruption charges, with the judge citing a 10-year statute of limitations that had lapsed since the alleged crimes were committed.
Just days before the verdict was made public, the state prosecutor leveled new charges of insider trading against the two sons. It now appears that these charges may have been an attempt to head off new public outrage once the acquittals of the Mubarak sons were made public.
It has appeared all along that prosecutions since Mubarak's fall targeting relatively few high level officials and their cronies have been motivated largely by a desire to appease public anger expressed in massive street protests that continued long after Mubarak's ouster.
Scores of policemen charged with killing protesters have either been acquitted or received light sentences, angering relatives of the victims and the pro-democracy youth groups behind the uprising.

Rock-throwing and fist fights outside the courtroom left at least 20 people injured, and a police official said that four people were arrested.

Thousands of riot police and policemen riding horses had cordoned off the building to prevent protesters and relatives of those slain during the uprising from getting too close. Hundreds stood outside, waving Egyptian flags and chanting slogans demanding "retribution." Some spread Mubarak's picture on the asphalt and walked over it.
Mubarak's verdict came just days after presidential elections have been boiled down to a June 16-17 contest between Mubarak's last prime minister, one-time protege Ahmed Shafiq, and Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist Islamist group that Mubarak persecuted for most of his years in power.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Shafiq said he could not comment on court rulings, but added that the Mubarak trial has shown that no one was above the law in today's Egypt and that no one could recreate the old regime.

The acquittal of the six police officers, he added, did not mean that he approved of their "tactics."
In contrast, a spokesman for Morsi said the verdicts were "shocking" and vowed retribution.

"The blood of our martyrs will not go in vain. We will work as Egyptians for the sake of a just retribution and the retrial of those who committed crimes against this nation," said the spokesman, Ahmed Abdel-Atti.

Morsi and Shafiq will go on a head-to-head presidential runoff on June 16-17.

World Bank warns Europe is heading for 'danger

World Bank warns Europe is heading for 'danger active Edit

02.06.2012 08:06    Comments: 0    Categories: World News      Tags: economy  europe  

'Beware a rerun of the Great Panic of 2008': Head of World Bank warns Europe is heading for 'danger zone' as world markets suffer bleakest day of the year so far

• Robert Zoellick: 'Far from clear leaders ready for impending catastrophe'
• Raft of dismal news from around world wreaked havoc on market
• Manufacturing output crashed in Britain, jobless up in Europe and U.S.
• Fast-emerging economies such as Brazil and China running out of steam

Warning: Robert Zoellick said Europe is heading to the 'danger zone'

The head of the World Bank yesterday warned that financial markets face a rerun of the Great Panic of 2008.
DailyMail/On the bleakest day for the global economy this year,  Robert Zoellick said crisis-torn Europe was heading for the ‘danger zone’.
Mr Zoellick, who stands down at the end of the month after five years in charge of the watchdog, said it was ‘far from clear that eurozone leaders have steeled themselves’ for the looming  catastrophe amid fears of a Greek exit from the single currency and meltdown in Spain.
The flow of money into so-called ‘safe havens’ such as UK, German and US government debt turned into a stampede yesterday.
In Berlin the two-year government bond yield fell below zero for the first time, with the bizarre result that jittery international investors are now  paying – rather than being paid – for lending to Germany.
There was a raft of dismal economic news from around the world, with manufacturing output falling in Britain and Europe, unemployment jumping in the eurozone and America, and fast-emerging economies such as Brazil and China showing signs of running out of steam.
The FTSE 100 index fell 60.67 points to a new 2012 low of 5260.19 in London and the pound tumbled against the US dollar to $1.5234 – a level not seen since January.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 200 points in New York, wiping out all its gains this year.
Borrowing costs in Spain and Italy have soared back above 6 per cent towards the 7 per cent level that triggered bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Mr Zoellick warned that the coming months could be as bad as the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Plunging: The Dow Jones (left) opened down and the FTSE 100 (right) hit a year-long dip yesterday

Desperate: European leaders scrambled to stop the financial crisis in Spain spiralling out of control and infecting other countries such as Italy

He said: ‘Events in Greece could trigger financial fright in Spain, Italy and across the eurozone. The summer of 2012 offers an eerie echo of 2008.
‘If Greece leaves the eurozone, the contagion is impossible to predict, just as Lehman had unexpected consequences.’

BP TO RETREAT FROM RUSSIA

BP is on the verge of a humiliating exit from its lucrative Russian business, following repeated rows with its oligarch partners.
The oil giant said it was looking to sell its 50 per cent stake in joint venture TNK-BP.
This could raise £23billion for BP but would have a huge impact on its profitability because the venture has been highly lucrative.
TNK-BP’s oilfields account for 29 per cent of BP’s production and a quarter of its oil reserves.
Its latest spat with the other half of TNK-BP – Alfa Access Renova (AAR) – began with BP’s attempt to form a partnership with rival,  Kremlin-backed oil firm Rosneft to drill in the Arctic.
AAR – a group of four oligarchs: Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Leonid Blavatnik – angrily blocked the deal.

Fears are mounting that Spain will be crippled by its banking sector and will be the next domino to fall.
Mr Zoellick said: ‘Eurozone leaders need to be prepared to recapitalise banks. In the eurozone, the guarantees of some national sovereigns are unlikely to be sufficient and only that of the “euro-sovereign” will suffice.
‘It is far from clear that eurozone leaders have steeled themselves for this step. Eurozone leaders need to be ready.

'There will not be time for meetings of finance ministers to discuss the outlook and debate the politics.

'In panicked markets, investors flee to safe assets, sparking other flames.’

Yesterday investors scrambling for lifelines piled into German, US and UK government debt.
Not only did the German two-year bond yield fall below zero for the first time, but also the yield on ten-year UK gilts – the benchmark borrowing cost for the British Government – hit a record low of 1.44 per cent.

The yield on the equivalent US treasuries fell to 1.46 per cent – the lowest in over 200 years of records.

‘People’s objective is the return of their capital, not the return they get on their capital,’ said Sam Hill, a strategist at Royal Bank of Canada.
÷ Ireland has accepted tough new budget controls, as stipulated under the European fiscal treaty, in a referendum which saw 60 per cent of voters backing the deal.

Crisis: Spain's government nationalised major bank Bankia earlier this month, and now says it needs to inject $23.6billion in public money into the bank

'EUROZONE JOBLESS HITS RECORD HIGH AND WILL KEEP ON RISING'

Eurozone unemployment has hit a record high and job losses are likely to keep climbing as the debt crisis eats away at businesses' ability to hire workers while indebted governments continue to cut staff.
Around 17.4million people were out of work in the 17-nation eurozone in April (11 per cent of the working population) - the highest level since records began in 1995, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said today.
'This 11 percent level is going to continue edging up in the coming months and probably until the end of the year,' said Francois Cabau, an economist at Barclays Capital who sees the eurozone's economy contracting 0.1 per cent this year.
'The economic activity situation tells you the story of the labour market. There's been basically no economic growth since the fourth quarter of last year and indicators are pointing to very weak growth momentum for the second quarter,' he said.
ING economist Martin van Vliet said he sees the unemployment rate reaching slightly above 11.5 per cent if the economy starts to recover later this year. But if the downturn worsens, 'the risk is for an even higher peak in unemployment,' he said.
As the debt crisis intensifies, companies in the euro zone are trying to keep their labour costs low as they struggle with falling demand and profits, while a German-led drive to cut deficits and debt is pressuring governments to shrink spending.
But some economists say austerity policies in an economic downturn are self-defeating because governments receive less tax receipts as unemployment grows and must pay out more money in jobless benefits.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153324/Markets-facing-rerun-Great-Panic-2008-Head-World-Bank-warns-Europe-heading-danger-zone-bleakest-day-global-economy-year.html#ixzz1weHTRuoe

Last month's solar flare created a mysterious pulse on Earth

Last month's solar flare created a mysterious pulse on Earth active Edit

02.06.2012 08:00    Comments: 0    Categories: Earth Changes      Tags: solar flare  earth  sun  

• Neutron monitors around world 'lit up' despite relatively small size of flare
• First time in six years flare affected Earth like this
• Data being analysed by satellite which scans particles invisible to others

After an unusually long quiet period, the sun unleashed a solar flare on May 17 this year - but scientists are now puzzling over what happened on Earth.
Neutron monitors all round the world lit up in response to the blast for the first time in six years, despite the fact it was an M-Class, or moderate, flare.
The 'answering' pulse shouldn't have happened at all. Now scientists are trying to unravel what happened - and why our planet 'pulsed' in response.

May 17th's solar flare: Neutron monitors all round the world lit up in response to the blast for the first time in six years, despite the fact it was an M-Class, or moderate, flare

Scientists are now analysing the data using a satellite which scans an range of bizarre particles invisible to other spacecraft - PAMELA, a European spacecraft dedicated to watching rays from space

DailyMail/James Ryan, an astrophysicist at the UNH Space Science Center said, ‘This solar flare was most unimpressive and the associated CME was only slightly more energetic. And looking at it optically, it was remarkably dim, it was, all things considered, a ninety-eight pound weakling of solar events.'
Scientists are now analysing the data using a satellite which scans an range of bizarre particles invisible to other spacecraft - PAMELA, a European spacecraft dedicated to watching rays from space.

More...

Launched in 2006 and dedicated to studying cosmic rays, just two weeks before the most recent blast from the Sun PAMELA was retasked to focus on solar physics due to the Sun’s ever-increasing activity.
For decades, there has been strong debate as to what complex processes produce the extremely energetic particles that are registered on the ground; is it the shockwave in front of a CME or do the particles come from the solar flare itself?

For decades, there has been strong debate as to what complex processes produce the extremely energetic particles that are registered on the ground; is it the shockwave in front of a CME or do the particles come from the solar flare itself?

The most recent event will allow the study of the evolution of the flare from low to high energies without interruption.
‘The PAMELA satellite provides us with a bridge that has never existed before,’ says Ryan, ‘a bridge between solar energetic particles measured by other spacecraft and those made on the ground by neutron monitors, like the one we’ve operated here in Durham for decades. Spanning that gap has opened up new opportunities.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2153200/Last-months-solar-flare-created-mysterious-pulse-Earth-answer-suns-blast.html#ixzz1weG9ClbR

Catholic Church Faces Disruption and Banishment as Irish Cardinal set to resign

Catholic Church Faces Disruption and Banishment as Irish Cardinal set to resign

A Communiqué from ITCCS International
Brussels and Dublin:

ITCCS.ORG/The Roman Catholic Church faces permanent disruption and banishment in at least five countries if it does not comply with ten “non-negotiable measures” by September 15, 2012, according to a global coalition of survivors of church rape and torture.
The list of measures was issued today at a meeting in Dublin, Ireland between Archbishop Dermot Martin and representatives of Anti Catholic Church Activists Worldwide (ACCAW), Magdalene Laundry survivors, and the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State – Ireland (ITCCS).

ITCCS in Dublin, Ireland

The measures demanded of the Catholic Church include the defrocking of all child raping priests, the licensing of all other clergy as public servants, the return of the remains of all who died under Church care, the annulment of tax exemptions and other Church privileges, and the return of all of the Church’s wealth generated by the exploitation of children.
The full statement outlining these measures is reproduced below, including an audio recording of the statement.
Issued on the eve of the impending resignation of the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, for his protection of child raping priests, the statement was delivered by John Deegan of ACCAW and ITCCS Ireland members Gerry O’Donovan and Dave O’Brien, who confronted Archbishop Martin with the demands.
The Ten Point statement was issued by The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State, an umbrella organization of over fifty organizations in the United States, Canada, Ireland, England and Australia.
“Pope Benedict and his Bishops have until midnight on September 15 to start complying with these measures” said ITCCS Secretary Kevin Annett today.
“After that, we will begin actions to halt the normal operation of the Roman Catholic Church around the world, and we will seek indictments against Pope Benedict and other Vatican officials for crimes against humanity and criminal conspiracy.”
The ACCAW, ITCCS and other groups have staged high profile occupations of Catholic churches during their regular services, and plan to escalate these actions into “a permanent campaign of non-violent disruption and civil disobedience aimed at the Roman Catholic Church … until the Church’s reign of terror over children is ended.”
Issued May 4, 2012 by ITCCS International – Brussels
Information: genocidetribunal@yahoo.ca or 250-591-4573 (Canada) and cliogarvin@hotmail.com or godonothing@gmail.com (Ireland)

An Open Letter to Archbishop Dermot Martin and the Bishops and Clergy of Ireland, from The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State

Letter to Archbishop Dermot Martin read by Reverend Kevin Annett
Issued to a meeting with Archbishop Martin on May 4, 2012
My name is Kevin Annett and I am the Secretary of the five-nation body known as The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS). I am speaking on behalf of the ITCCS and our affiliate organization in Ireland.
Our coalition represents over fifty organizations in Canada, the United States, Ireland, England and Australia, including many survivors of church terror.
We have also been recognized by seven aboriginal nations in North America, and been authorized by them to recover the remains of their relatives who died in Catholic Indian residential schools and orphanages; and to bring to justice those responsible for the death of over 50,000 children in these church-run institutions.
Let us state clearly that the time for polite talk is over.
The Roman Catholic Church has imposed and is perpetrating a reign of terror and crimes against humanity on generations of children, is actively concealing those crimes and protecting child rapists and murderers in its ranks, and has shown no desire or capacity to change the policies or practices that allow these unspeakable crimes to continue.
Nevertheless, on behalf of the nations and survivors we represent, and the Executive Council of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State, I have been authorized to give the Church a final opportunity to change, by presenting the following demands to the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, as we have already done to Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger, and Vatican officials.
The following concrete actions by the Church are required if justice is to be won for its victims and if the crimes it has committed and continue to cover up are to end.
If the Church fails to abide by these basic commandments of humanity and the law, we will take permanent action to end its criminal regime.
1.       The Church must issue full reparations to all of its victims, including by paying for all of their medical and counseling bills, the cost of their rehabilitation and retraining, and for any of their disabilities and losses.
2.       The Church must surrender for a proper burial, without conditions and at its own expense, the remains of all those who died in its institutions or while under its care.
3.       The Church must return all land and property taken from its victims, and restore all of the wealth generated by its exploitation of them as children, including the wealth created from their unpaid or low paid labor.
4.       The Church must surrender without conditions all of the evidence of its crimes against children, and all of those persons responsible for committing these crimes and concealing them, including its highest officials. The Church must fully disclose this evidence and participate without conditions in all public investigations into its crimes.
5.       The Church and its guilty parties cannot hide behind so-called diplomatic immunity or other privileges to evade justice and avoid prosecution. The Vatican must end its official cover up and annul its policy known as Crimen Sollicitationis, which compels Catholic clergy to conceal crimes committed against children in their parishes.
6.       The Church must immediately expel and defrock all known child raping priests, officials and employees in its ranks, and defrock any clergy who harms a child or conceals such harm.
7.       All clergy and Church officials must agree to be licensed and monitored as public servants, and take a legally binding, public oath to protect without conditions the rights and sanctity of children and disclose any harm done to them.
8.       The Church must forgo and withdraw from all of the tax exemptions, financial concordats and agreements, and other special privileges presently granted to it under the laws of nations.
9.       The Vatican must agree to the annulment of its status as a so-called state, and free its congregations and dioceses from its authority so that they may act according to the wishes and needs of their respective communities and their faith, and not the political and financial requirements of the Vatican.
10.   All of the wealth accumulated by the Church and the Vatican Bank through land theft and conquest, and from tax exemptions, concordats, and from its operations around the world that have harmed children through the exploitation of their labor, such as the Magdalene Laundries and Indian residential schools, must be returned to its victims and to the poor in general through a direct, public redistribution of that wealth, as Christ himself commands.

We have been instructed to inform the Bishops of Ireland, as we have notified the Vatican, that they have until September 15, 2012, to agree to these demands and implement these ten measures.
If they fail to commence to do so by midnight of that date, we will enact the following measures:
1.       The Roman Catholic Church will be formally and forever banished from our communities, and measures will be taken to legally and practically prevent it from operating;
2.       Roman Catholic churches, agencies and offices around the world will be permanently disrupted and occupied as part of an ongoing campaign of non-violent civil disobedience; and
3.       Our International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State will reconvene its court, and will seek the immediate detaining for questioning of the highest officials of the Roman Catholic Church, including Pope Benedict, on charges of obstruction of justice, criminal conspiracy, and crimes against humanity.
It is time for all people of conscience within the Church to choose who they will serve: a self-governing, criminal church system that sets itself above the law and God – or its suffering victims, and justice.
We urge Catholics to choose life, by making these ten steps a reality.  Otherwise, the Roman Catholic Church will have forfeited its right to operate in our communities and in our world.
By this declaration, we are lending our active support to the Irish survivors of rape and torture by the Roman Catholic Church who are meeting with Archbishop Martin today. These survivors include members of ACCAW, the ITCCS, and Magdalene laundry victims.
We stand as a united front with these brothers and sisters, and with all victims of Church terror anywhere in the world. We will never stop until justice is achieved, and the reign of terror against children everywhere is ended.
We will be sharing this letter with our affiliates around the world, as well as with the global media, judicial bodies, and governments.
We welcome a formal response from the office of Archbishop Martin, and we call upon the Church to accept the demands and wishes of the Irish survivors who are meeting today with Archbishop Martin.
Signed on behalf of The Executive Council of The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State

Reverend Kevin D. Annett, ITCCS Secretary

Gerry O’Donovan, ITCCS Ireland

Dave O’Brien, ITCCS Ireland