USA Today calls for military cuts on scale of sequester; JFP @ Avaaz
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I) Actions and Featured Articles
*Action: UK: Don't Allow US Extradition of Assange
Under extradition law, Sweden couldn't extradite Julian Assange to
the United States without the permission of the UK government. Urge UK
Home Secretary Theresa May to publicly state that she would not permit
the extradition of Julian Assange from Sweden to the United States.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/uk-dont-allow-us-extradition-assange
*Action: JFP at Avaaz: Boot Rep. Bachmann from House Intelligence Committee!
With her recent witch hunt against American Muslims, this time GOP
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has gone too far. So far that a group of
respected foreign policy experts are now demanding Bachmann gets the
boot from a key Congressional committee. If tens of thousands of us back
the plan, Congressional leadership won't be able to ignore this common
sense call.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/No_Intelligence_for_fools_Boot_Rep_Bachmann_from_House_Intelligence_Committee/
Former U.S. officials call for Bachmann to be replaced on Intelligence Committee
By promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, Rep. Michele Bachmann
is undermining U.S. policy in the Middle East. That's why former U.S.
officials are calling for her removal from the House Intelligence
Committee.
http://truth-out.org/news/item/10653-former-us-officials-call-for-bachmann-to-be-replaced-on-intelligence-committee
7,508 dead from cholera in Haiti
657 days, 7,508 dead, 588,962 ill since the UN brought cholera to
Haiti. Still there is no apology, no compensation, no implementation of
an effective plan to eradicate the disease. Now the UN is considering
renewing the mandate for UN troops in Haiti. Shouldn't addressing the
cholera crisis caused by the UN be a condition for renewing the mandate
for UN troops?
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/haiti-cholera-counter
Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The right way to make reductions to military spending of the size
of the automatic cuts of the sequester is to phase them in, giving the
Pentagon time to plan and more flexibility to choose what goes and what
stays, argues USA Today in an editorial. Military spending has more than
doubled since 9/11, and with the US out of Iraq and planning to leave
Afghanistan in 2014, there's room for reductions, USA Today says.
Military spending should be cut as part of the negotiations on replacing
the sequester, the editorial argues.
2) Ynet's Atilla Shomfalvi quotes unnamed government insiders who say
Netanyahu can't order a military strike against Iran, because the
security establishment is unanimously opposed and the cabinet won't
approve an action over the defense chiefs' opposition, the Jewish Daily
Forward reports.
3) Julian Assange's fears of extradition to and persecution in the US,
and therefore his plea for political asylum, are eminently reasonable,
argues Michael Ratner in the Guardian. There are several unambiguous
signs that the US is on track to prosecute Assange for his work as a
journalist. If Ecuador grants Assange asylum, and should the UK or the
US retaliate against Ecuador, that would be a violation of the law,
Ratner says. Granting asylum is a peaceful and humanitarian act and
cannot be regarded with hostility.
4) Long before he was going after top State Department official Huma
Abedin, anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney was targeting two
men connected with the Conservative Political Action Conference: Grover
Norquist and former Bush Administration official Suhail Khan, the
Huffington Post reports. "Grover Norquist is credentialing the
perpetrators of this Muslim Brotherhood influence operation. ... We are
in a war, and he has been working with the enemy for over a decade,"
wrote Gaffney in January 2011.
Cleta Mitchell, a prominent conservative attorney who also serves on the
American Conservative Union board, thoroughly investigated Gaffney's
claims against Norquist and Khan and found them to be completely
baseless. Regarding Norquist, for example, Mitchell wrote, "With respect
to Mr. Gaffney's allegations against Grover, those are purely and
simply character assassination. ... And I'm certain that Mr. Gaffney's
hatred is further fueled by the fact that Grover is married to a
Muslim-American woman (who also has worked for the United States
government in very responsible positions, I might add!)."
5) President Obama has signed a secret order authorizing U.S.
support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Assad and his
government, Reuters reports. Precisely when Obama signed the secret
intelligence authorization, an action not previously reported, could not
be determined, Reuters says. A U.S. government source acknowledged that
under provisions of the presidential finding, the US was collaborating
with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies which is
based in the same city as a US military base in Turkey.
6) 26 organizations sent a letter to Congress urging support for Rep.
Grijalva's Arms Sale Responsibility Act, Rebecca Griffin writes for
Peace Action West. The bill that would prohibit arms sales if there is
significant risk that the weapons would be used to commit or facilitate
human rights abuses. The letter cited the Administration's recent
decision to continue to supply arms to Bahrain in arguing the need for
Congressional action.
7) In a remarkable performance, even by the standards of the Washington
Post, Juan Forero managed to write a whole piece about "threats to
democracy in Latin America" without talking about Honduras or Paraguay,
notes Peter Hart for FAIR. Forero's piece appears to suggest that we
should only be concerned about "threats to democracy" if the governments
concerned oppose policies of the U.S.
Israel/Palestine
8) According to the UN, the Gaza power plant has been operating at
best at a third of its capacity, or has been completely shut down by
severe fuel shortages since February 2012, Inter Press Service reports.
This has led to scheduled blackouts in homes of 6-18 hours a day,
besides the random unscheduled cuts. The UN says the generating capacity
of this plant has been significantly impaired after the destruction of
six transformers in an Israeli airstrike in 2006, restrictions on the
import of parts and equipment to repair the transformers, lack of fuel
as a result of Israel's blockade, and a dispute between the PA and
authorities in Gaza over funding of the plant's operations. The
Palestinian Energy Authority says Qatar has donated fuel to alleviate
the electricity crisis in Gaza but 90% of that fuel has been sitting in
tankers in the Suez canal for two months, blocked by Egypt's military.
9) In a letter to JTA, Kate Gould defends the focus of CMEP and FCNL on
supporting Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent resistance against the
Israeli occupation. She notes that more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners
joined the recent hunger strike, or more than a third of Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli jails, making it one of the largest hunger strikes
in history, and that as a result of the hunger strike Israeli
authorities agreed to some of the prisoners' demands.
Bahrain
10) The U.S. government has implored the Bahraini opposition to keep
protests against the Bahraini government nonviolent, writes Cole
Bockenfeld of the Project on Middle East Democracy in Foreign Policy.
But the U.S. has remained silent as the Bahrain government has blocked
peaceful protests.
Colombia
11) A group of employees and ex-employees of the Colombian branch of
General Motors began a hunger strike in front of the U.S. embassy in
Bogota to protest the firing of colleagues on sick leave, according to
Colombia Reports. The (ex-) workers said that while the U.S. government
is demanding Colombia to respect labor rights, the U.S.' largest car
producer itself is violating the rights of its Colombian workers.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Cut defense spending, but not mindlessly
Editorial, USA Today, August 2, 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/story/2012-08-02/defense-spending-budget-Pentagon/56721082/1
There's a growing outcry, bordering on hysteria, about the cuts in
military spending slated to take effect in January. "Doomsday," says
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. "Crippling," says Rep. Buck McKeon,
R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "Devastating,"
says former vice president Dick Cheney. About 10,000 workers might have
to be laid off, warns Lockheed Martin, a major contractor.
OK, let's take a calm look at this, starting with why the cuts are
looming. The sky-is-falling crowd has a point, but a limited one, and
getting this right is important.
The reason these cuts could kick in five months from now is because
Congress and the Obama administration agreed to them last year. Yes, the
cuts provoking such angst today were willingly approved by both parties
as the alternative if a congressional "supercommittee" couldn't find
some way to reduce the deficit. The supercommittee then predictably did
nothing, triggering the cuts.
The defense reductions would be harmful not so much for their size —
about $55 billion each year for nine years — but for the way the
Pentagon would be required to make them: mindlessly across the board,
slashing crucial programs as well as ones that ought to be cut. The
right way to make reductions this size is to phase them in, giving the
Pentagon time to plan and more flexibility to choose what goes and what
stays.
Here's the important thing, though: Defense spending has more than
doubled since 9/11, and with the United States out of Iraq and planning
to leave Afghanistan in 2014, there's room for reductions. This year's
military outlays are expected to reach $716 billion, up from $294
billion in 2000. As troops come home and the fighting ends, it's time to
cancel the post-9/11 blank check and think seriously about how big a
military the nation can afford.
Defense contractors and their allies in Congress argue that the Pentagon
is already absorbing significant cuts under the same agreement that
spawned the supercommittee.
True, but in the context of out-of-control deficits and a dangerous rise in the national debt, defense can do more.
[In fact, the "significant cuts" absorbed so far were cuts from
previously projected increases; the status quo path, not counting the
sequester, is roughly for the military budget to increase in line with
inflation over the next ten years - JFP.]
An analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies shows
that the post-9/11 spending surge was bigger in inflation-adjusted
dollars than the buildups for the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the
Cold War. All three of those conflicts were followed by spending
drawdowns that averaged about 37%. Today, plans call for a defense
drawdown of about 8% over 10 years; adding a cutback the size of the one
scheduled to start next year would bring that to 17%.
[Again, the 8% drawdown is from a previously projected increase -JFP.]
Many of the same members of Congress who complain so loudly about the
impending defense cuts repeatedly block the Pentagon from making smart
reductions. The military suggested closing more unneeded military bases
and raising the super-low premiums and copays for the Tricare health
insurance program for military retirees. Congress wasn't interested, but
it continues to insist on building planes, tanks and other hardware the
Pentagon doesn't want.
[...]
Defense outlays, which represent about one-fifth of the federal budget,
should be dealt with as part of a bipartisan "grand bargain" on
long-term debt reduction that balances spending cuts and revenue
increases. Such a plan fell apart last summer but could rise from the
ashes after the election as members of Congress confront a "fiscal
cliff" of tax and spending changes.
[...]
2) 'Bibi Can't OK Iran Strike As Defense Chiefs Demur'
J.J. Goldberg, Jewish Daily Forward, July 31, 2012, 7:05pm
http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/160275/bibi-cant-ok-iran-strike-as-defense-chiefs-demur/
Ynet's Atilla Shomfalvi quotes unnamed government insiders who say Prime
Minister Netanyahu can't order a military strike against Iran, even
though it's his decision to make, because the security establishment is
unanimously opposed and the cabinet won't approve an action over the
defense chiefs' opposition.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared last night [Tuesday] that he
is responsible for deciding on military action in Iran, but senior
political figures involved in the discussions reckon that in light of
the determined opposition at this point of the heads of the security
establishment—the chief of staff, the director of the Mossad, the chief
of military intelligence, the IDF chief of operations and the heads of
Mossad directorates—it is unlikely that ministers asked to vote for an
attack will do so."
Shomfalvi writes that although Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak
strongly favor an attack, Netanyahu has permitted his ministers to
debate the issue freely behind closed doors. The eight-minister security
cabinet reportedly is evenly split between advocates and opponents of a
strike, as it has been for months.
3) Julian Assange Is Right to Fear US Prosecution
There are clear signs that the US is on track to prosecute the WikiLeaks
founder, which, as his US lawyer, I advise him to heed, despite the
denials of the Obama administration
Michael Ratner, Guardian, Thursday 2 August 2012 08.50 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/02/julian-assange-right-fear-prosecution
As the drama unfolds over Julian Assange's bid for political asylum in
Ecuador, a troubling irony has emerged: the besieged founder of
WikiLeaks is seeking refuge in this small Andean nation because he fears
persecution from the United States, a nation whose laws famously grant
asylum to people in precisely Assange's situation. Indeed, the US has
demonstrated its commitment to be a safe haven for those being
persecuted for their political beliefs by recognising that journalists
punished for expressing political opinions in places like China meet the
criteria for asylum under the US's own laws.
The journalistic function and legacy of WikiLeaks cannot be disputed.
The site has published 251,287 leaked US diplomatic cables and military
documents that revealed the inner workings – warts and all – of US
foreign policy. These publications illuminated state-sponsored human
rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan, exposed a secret war in Yemen,
and revealed the Obama administration's interference with independent
efforts to prosecute Bush officials for torture and other war crimes.
So why is Assange so concerned? Are his fears of persecution due to his political beliefs and expression reasonable?
There are several unambiguous signs that the US is on track to prosecute
Assange for his work as a journalist. A grand jury in Alexandria,
Virginia, empanelled to investigate violations of the Espionage Act – a
statute that by its very nature targets speech – has subpoenaed Twitter
feeds regarding Assange and WikiLeaks. An FBI agent, testifying at
whistleblower Bradley Manning's trial, said that "founders, owners and
managers" of WikiLeaks are being investigated. And then there is
Assange's 42,135-page FBI file – a compilation of curious heft if the
government is "not interested" in investigating its subject.
In this context, Assange's fears of extradition to and persecution in
the US, and therefore his plea for asylum, are eminently reasonable.
What's more, Assange is rightly concerned about how he will be treated
if he is extradited to the US. One need only consider how the US treated
Bradley Manning, the army private who allegedly leaked the cables to
WikiLeaks to see why. Manning spent close to a year in pre-trial
solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, and then eight months under
conditions designed to pressure him into providing evidence to
incriminate Assange. During this time, Manning was stripped of his
clothing and made to stand nude for inspection. Thousands of people,
including scores of legal scholars and the United Nations special
rapporteur on torture, have condemned Manning's treatment as inhumane,
and state that it may constitute torture. There is no reason for Assange
to expect he will be treated any better.
Most disturbingly, the US government is more concerned with
investigating a journalist and publisher than the high-level government
officials whose alleged war crimes and misdeeds Assange and his cohorts
brought to light. Why? To send a message to others who might dare to
expose government misconduct, who believe that transparency, exposing
abuses, and dissembling hypocrisy strengthen democracy – and who act on
those beliefs. In short, the US is intent on persecuting a crusading
journalist and publisher for his political expression.
These are the circumstances under which Ecuador is considering whether
it will grant Assange the asylum he is entitled to under law. If it
does, and should the UK or the US retaliate against Ecuador, that would
be a violation of the law. Granting asylum is a peaceful and
humanitarian act and cannot be regarded with hostility.
[...]
4) Frank Gaffney Plotting To Take Down Grover Norquist With Muslim Brotherhood Accusations
Amanda Terkel, Huffington Post, 08/02/2012 9:36 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/01/frank-gaffney-grover-norquist-muslim-brotherhood_n_1699604.html
Washington -- If Frank Gaffney gets his way, Grover Norquist won't
be at a high-profile conservative gathering known as the Conservative
Political Action Conference in October. Not only that, but the anti-tax
crusader and his allies will be totally discredited and branded as
supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Gaffney is head of the Center for Security Policy and committed to
raising the alarm about what he sees as the growing influence of Islam
in American politics. Most recently, his work inspired Rep. Michele
Bachmann (R-Minn.) and four other conservative lawmakers to write to
federal agencies and ask them to investigate whether the Muslim
Brotherhood is infiltrating the U.S. government. Those accusations were
harshly denounced by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, political
pundits and a long list of religious and secular groups.
But long before he was going after top State Department official Huma
Abedin, Gaffney was targeting two men connected with CPAC: Norquist,
head of Americans for Tax Reform, and Suhail Khan, a former official in
the administration of President George W. Bush. Both are board members
of the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC.
"Grover Norquist is credentialing the perpetrators of this Muslim
Brotherhood influence operation. ... We are in a war, and he has been
working with the enemy for over a decade," said Gaffney in a January
2011 WorldNetDaily op-ed.
Cleta Mitchell, a prominent conservative attorney who also serves on the
ACU board, thoroughly investigated Gaffney's claims against Norquist
and Khan and found them to be completely baseless. The rest of the
conservative board unanimously stood with Mitchell, and Gaffney was
essentially shut out of the conference. He was not allowed to speak at
the gathering, despite having done so for the past 15 years.
Gaffney is now out to redeem himself -- and to take down Mitchell, Norquist and Khan in the process.
The Huffington Post obtained an email sent by Gaffney on July 6 to
fellow conservatives, outlining his strategy for raising a ruckus about
the Muslim Brotherhood issue in advance of October's regional CPAC in
Denver:
"Dear Colleague:
As we will discuss on today's Victory Coalition call, an opportunity has
arisen to begin to push back on the insidious Muslim Brotherhood
influence operation mounted by Grover Norquist and his
Brotherhood-affiliated protégé, Suhail Khan. It comes in the form of the
upcoming October 4 Conservative Political Action Conference in Denver. I
believe that, by using this event as leverage, we have a shot at
raising enough hell in Colorado and elsewhere about Norquist and Khan
that we can force the ACU Board, at a minimum, to rescind the resolution
it adopted last September condemning me and a endorsing them. If we
create enough of a stir, it might even be possible to induce the Board
to force their resignations and that of the third Board member who
enabled that resolution, Cleta Mitchell, from the ACU leadership."
[...]
The letter drafted by Gaffney faults the ACU board for endorsing
Norquist and Khan "despite abundant evidence that they have engaged in
activities that American conservatives and others who love freedom would
find abhorrent."
That behavior, according to Gaffney, includes "the enabling and conduct
of influence operations by the Muslim Brotherhood as part of its
'civilization jihad' against this country and, in particular, targeted
at the conservative movement and the Republican Party."
[...]
Norquist told The Huffington Post he had not heard about Gaffney's
latest effort. "Frank's argument is, 'If you knew what I knew, you'd
understand.' But the problem is the people who read all of his stuff are
the ones who are the least sympathetic to his conspiracy theories,"
said Norquist.
[...]
Mitchell's September 2011 letter reviewing Gaffney's claims against
Norquist and Khan was definitive in finding no support whatsoever for
the allegations.
Regarding Norquist, for example, Mitchell wrote, "With respect to Mr.
Gaffney's allegations against Grover, those are purely and simply
character assassination. ... And I'm certain that Mr. Gaffney's hatred
is further fueled by the fact that Grover is married to a
Muslim-American woman (who also has worked for the United States
government in very responsible positions, I might add!)."
Furthermore, Mitchell said she has personally tried to persuade Gaffney
to stop his baseless allegations. "I have tried to talk Mr. Gaffney into
ceasing these attacks -- but to no avail," she wrote. "I have done
everything I know to do to try and bring this to a halt, including
private conversations and public appearances saying essentially what I
have said in this letter. I have taken whatever official actions in my
capacity as a board member of various organizations to vote against any
motion that would support Mr. Gaffney's allegations and will continue to
do so."
[...]
Last year, Gaffney also went after Virginia Del. David Ramadan (R-South Riding), who was running for office at the time.
In a Washington Times op-ed about Ramadan in August 2011, Gaffney wrote,
"As we are seeing play out in the Middle East at the hands of Islamists
of various stripes, democracy is no guarantee against people who are
hostile to it -- some of whom are perfectly capable of concealing that
hostility to advance their purposes."
Gaffney's allegations, however, were rebutted by one of the conservative
movement's stalwarts: Edwin Meese, who served as President Ronald
Reagan's attorney general. Meese endorsed Ramadan in part, he later
explained, because of Gaffney's campaign. "I felt that this was an
unfair attack and persisted in my support of him because of that," said
Meese, adding, "I think it's always serious when any American is
disparaged ... solely because of their religion or their background when
there's no basis for it."
5) Obama authorizes secret support for Syrian rebels
Mark Hosenball, Reuters, Wed Aug 1, 2012 9:04pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE8701OK20120802
Washington - President Barack Obama has signed a secret order
authorizing U.S. support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad and his government, sources familiar with the matter
said.
Obama's order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence
"finding," broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide
support that could help the rebels oust Assad.
This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still
circumscribed, support for Assad's armed opponents - a shift that
intensified following last month's failure of the U.N. Security Council
to agree on tougher sanctions against the Damascus government.
The White House is for now apparently stopping short of giving the rebels lethal weapons, even as some U.S. allies do just that.
But U.S. and European officials have said that there have been
noticeable improvements in the coherence and effectiveness of Syrian
rebel groups in the past few weeks. That represents a significant change
in assessments of the rebels by Western officials, who previously
characterized Assad's opponents as a disorganized, almost chaotic,
rabble.
Precisely when Obama signed the secret intelligence authorization, an action not previously reported, could not be determined.
The full extent of clandestine support that agencies like the CIA might be providing also is unclear.
[...]
A U.S. government source acknowledged that under provisions of the
presidential finding, the United States was collaborating with a secret
command center operated by Turkey and its allies.
Last week, Reuters reported that, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar,
Turkey had established a secret base near the Syrian border to help
direct vital military and communications support to Assad's opponents.
This "nerve center" is in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 60
miles from the Syrian border, which is also home to Incirlik, a U.S. air
base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a
substantial presence.
Turkey's moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad's
departure with growing vehemence. Turkish authorities are said by
current and former U.S. government officials to be increasingly involved
in providing Syrian rebels with training and possibly equipment.
European government sources said wealthy families in Saudi Arabia and Qatar were providing significant financing to the rebels.
[...]
On Tuesday, NBC News reported that the Free Syrian Army had obtained
nearly two dozen surface-to-air missiles, weapons that could be used
against Assad's helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Syrian government
armed forces have employed such air power more extensively in recent
days.
NBC said the shoulder-fired missiles, also known as MANPADs, had been delivered to the rebels via Turkey.
On Wednesday, however, Bassam al-Dada, a political adviser to the Free
Syrian Army, denied the NBC report, telling the Arabic-language TV
network Al-Arabiya that the group had "not obtained any such weapons at
all." U.S. government sources said they could not confirm the MANPADs
deliveries, but could not rule them out either.
Current and former U.S. and European officials previously said that
weapons supplies, which were being organized and financed by Qatar and
Saudi Arabia, were largely limited to guns and a limited number of
anti-tank weapons, such as bazookas.
[...]
While U.S. and allied government experts believe that the Syrian rebels
have been making some progress against Assad's forces lately, most
believe the conflict is nowhere near resolution, and could go on for
years.
6) 26 organizations tell US to stop arming human rights abusers
Rebecca Griffin, Peace Action West, August 2, 2012
http://blog.peaceactionwest.org/2012/08/02/26-organizations-tell-us-to-stop-arming-human-rights-abusers/
The Arab Spring brought the United States' long history of selling
weapons to human rights abusers into stark relief. Protesters in Egypt
pointed out tear gas canisters bearing "made in the USA." The US
government harsly condemned leaders like Gaddafi and Assad, while the
Bahraini government receives tepid criticism and US arms sales.
Sadly, this is not new, and it's not over. Zach Toombs and R. Jeffrey
Smith from the Center for Public Integrity recently compared the State
Department's military assistance report with its human rights report,
and found that the US is still sending billions of dollars in weapons to
human rights abusers.
Rep. Raul Grijalva has responded by introducing the Arms Sale
Responsibility Act, a bill that would prohibit arms sales if there is
significant risk that the weapons would be used to commit or facilitate
human rights abuses. Today, 26 organizations sent the letter below to
representatives urging them to cosponsor the bill:
"Dear members of Congress
On behalf of our supporters nationwide, we the undersigned organizations
urge you to cosponsor the Arms Sale Responsibility Act, HR 5749."
[...]
"The impacts of these flawed policies can be seen in the US government's
recent decision to proceed with limited sales to the government of
Bahrain, the full details of which have not been publicly disclosed.
Serious concerns about human rights in Bahrain have not been resolved
since the decision to move forward with these secret sales. Amnesty
International has continued to receive reports of ill-treatment of
protesters following the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry's
report.
A Bahraini court recently upheld the convictions of nine doctors, giving
them sentences of up to five years in prison for tending to wounded
protesters. While five were released for time served, all should have
their convictions and sentences quashed, because they were imprisoned
solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression
and assembly. Another example is that of eleven-year-old Ali Hasan, who
was arrested in May and charged with "participating with others in an
illegal gathering of more than five people, in order to disturb public
security by way of violence." Police reportedly threatened to shoot the
young boy and later interrogated him. He was sentenced on July 5th to
one year of monitoring, after being released following 23 days without
seeing a lawyer and nearly a month in juvenile detention.
These examples illustrate the need for a consistent US policy for
weapons sales and human rights. The Arms Sale Responsibility Act would
prohibit arms sales if there is substantial risk that the weapons would
be used to commit or facilitate human rights abuses."
[...]
7) The Threat–Again–of Left-Wing Latin American Democracy
Peter Hart, FAIR, 08/01/2012
http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/08/01/the-threat-again-of-left-wing-latin-american-democracy/
You can count on U.S. corporate media to express alarm about the threat
posed by left-wing governments in Latin America. Sometimes it's military
hype (think Soviet MiGs in Nicaragua), but more typically it takes the
form of a generalized concern about certain governments' commitment to
democratic ideals.
But how do you sound the alarm about left-wing threats to democracy when
actual elected left-wing leaders are being removed in anti-democratic
coups? That's no easy feat, but some reporters are up to the challenge.
In the Washington Post on July 22 (under the headline "Latin America's
New Authoritarians"), reporter Juan Forero explains that today's
quasi-dictators are clever enough to rule in what are nominally
democracies:
"More than two decades after Latin America's last right-wing
dictatorships dissolved, a new kind of authoritarian leader is rising in
several countries: democratically elected presidents who are ruling in
increasingly undemocratic ways.
Unlike the iron-fisted juntas of a generation ago, these leaders do not assassinate opposition figures or declare martial law.
But in a handful of countries, charismatic populists are posing the most
serious challenge to democratic institutions in Latin America since the
1980s, when rebel wars and dictators were the norm."
[...]
Forero notes in passing that U.S.-allied leaders have been criticized,
but the real problem are the leftists, as Forero notes with some alarm:
"Today, the most prominent and powerful of a handful of democratically
elected leaders who enjoy near-total control of the political life of
their countries is Chavez. Even as he recovers from cancer, the former
lieutenant colonel is running for reelection in October's presidential
vote as he seeks to extend a presidency that began in 1999.
Other presidents who have consolidated their hold on power–controlling,
among other institutions, the courts, which then give them leverage over
opponents–include Ecuador's Correa, Bolivia's Evo Morales and
Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega.
All vocally oppose the Obama administration, favor state intervention in
the economy and have moved to strengthen alliances with Washington's
adversaries, among them Cuba, Iran and Russia."
[...]
As Keane Bhatt wrote for NACLA (7/30/12), a notable omission in a piece
about threats to democracy are the very recent removals of
democratically elected presidents in Paraguay and Honduras: 'in Forero's
account of "creeping authoritarianism" in the region, it's as if two
prominent examples of this phenomenon–the Honduran coup and last month's
illegitimate ouster of Lugo–never happened.'
[...]
Israel/Palestine
8) When the Lights Go Out, Talk
Mohammed Omer, Inter Press Service, Aug 2 2012
http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/when-the-lights-go-out-talk/
Gaza City - When the lights go out, Gazans look for generators to switch
on. And, they find people to talk to. With so many power cuts over so
long now, people are giving themselves the somewhat dubious comfort that
human relations may have improved as a result of these power cuts.
[...]
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) the Gaza power plant has been operating at
best at a third of its capacity, or has been completely shut down by
severe fuel shortages since February 2012. This has led to scheduled
blackouts in homes of 6-18 hours a day, besides the random unscheduled
cuts.
UNOCHA says the generating capacity of this plant has been significantly
impaired after the destruction of six transformers in an Israeli
airstrike in 2006, restrictions on the import of parts and equipment to
repair the transformers, lack of fuel as a result of Israel's blockade,
and a dispute between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the authorities
in Gaza over funding of the plant's operations.
The power cuts are a price about 1.7 million Gazans pay for the Israeli
blockade, which was imposed when Hamas was democratically elected in
Gaza in 2006.
Ahmed Abuel Amareen from the Palestinian Energy Authority says the main
reason Gaza cannot get more fuel is "arbitrariness from Israel and
Egypt, and their failure to permit entry of fuel from Qatar."
Qatar has donated fuel to alleviate the electricity crisis in Gaza but,
according to Abuel Amareen, 90 percent of that fuel has been sitting in
tankers in the Suez canal for the past two months, awaiting approval
from Egypt's military.
The insufficient and irregular power supply impacts Gaza hospitals, with
outages having tripled since the beginning of 2012, according to the
World Health Organisation (WHO). UN statistics show that the average
waiting time for orthopaedic surgery at Shifa Hospital increased from
three to six months during the first half of 2012.
[...]
9) Recognize Palestinian nonviolence
Kate Gould, Letter to the Editor, JTA, August 2, 2012
http://blogs.jta.org/letters/article/2012/08/02/3102681/recognize-palestinian-nonviolence
To the Editor: In his JTA Op-Ed, Rabbi Kenneth Cohen dismissed the
Palestinian nonviolence movement as irrelevant as "a Flat Earth Society
in Gaza" and opposed an alleged overconcentration on that movement by
Churches for Middle East Peace and by Quakers. As a Quaker lobbyist
representing the Friends Committee on National Legislation on the CMEP
board, I am grateful that CMEP's advocacy conference featured
Palestinians and Israelis working for nonviolent solutions to the
conflict. Even the Israeli government has acknowledged that the growing
nonviolence camp is no Flat Earth Society and must be reckoned with.
What else could explain the deal struck between Israel and Palestinian
prisoners on hunger strike? The Israeli government implicitly affirmed
the power of this nonviolent action by agreeing to some of the
prisoners' demands in exchange for an end to the strike and a
denunciation of violence. More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners joined
the strike, or more than a third of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
jails, making it one of the largest hunger strikes in history. The
response from the U.S. government was as one might expect toward the
Flat Earth Society: radio silence.
Rabbi Cohen wrote that "to the extent that there is a [Palestinian]
nonviolent movement, it is just one small cog in an overall strategy
characterized by indiscriminate violence." There is no question that
some Palestinians have committed horrific acts of violence against
Israeli civilians. Palestinian nonviolence, however, is no "small cog
in an overall strategy," but rather it is in itself an "overall
strategy" with a rich legacy that harkens to civil resistance under
Ottoman rule. The Friends Committee on National Legislation has
compiled a list of Israeli and Palestinian peace-building organizations
for a glimpse into today's movement.
Rabbi Cohen's statement that I "made disparaging remarks about
end-of-days fundamentalist support of Israel" is inaccurate. I
criticized support from some Christian groups for settlements and other
policies that threaten rather than support Israel's security.
FCNL and CMEP advocate for the U.S. to empower peace builders and
undercut the false appeal of violent extremism. The nonviolence movement
in Israel and the Palestinian territories warrants recognition from the
U.S. public and U.S. government.
Kate Gould, Friends Committee on National Legislation
Bahrain
10) U.S. silence on continued Bahraini repression
Cole Bockenfeld, Foreign Policy, Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - 4:07 PM
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/31/us_silence_on_continued_bahraini_repression
[Bockenfeld is director of advocacy at the Project on Middle East Democracy.]
This month, the Bahraini monarchy stopped permitting political protests
as it continues to respond to unauthorized rallies with brutal force.
The act of rejecting permits to protest -- and thus closing off this
peaceful channel of dissent -- threatens to drive Bahrainis away from
the moderate camp. Closing political space to legally protest is
creating a volatile environment, where both police and demonstrators are
increasingly resorting to violent means. Without a reversal of this
policy, the Prime Minister and his hardline allies within the government
will get just what they want -- an excuse to crack down on a violent
opposition that has no peaceful outlet to express its political
grievances.
In the first six months of this year, opposition parties in Bahrain
documented at least 20 requests for peaceful protests that were
rejected. According to the government, 88 peaceful protests were also
allowed during the same period. Throughout this time, formal political
opposition parties played by the government's rules, applying 72 hours
in advance to the Ministry of Interior for permits to protest and
accepting de facto bans on any demonstration inside the capital of
Manama. But in the last month, Bahrain's Ministry of Interior has
rejected all opposition applications for planned protests pending
further study, citing the need to end street violence and prevent the
disruption of traffic. Before the end of July, frustrated opposition
parties defied the ban, holding widespread demonstrations across the
country and declaring a march in Manama. These unauthorized rallies were
met with the same type of excessive force the island has witnessed for
the past 18 months: protests across the country were attacked with a
flood of tear gas, birdshot, beatings, and raids. According to the
largest opposition party, al-Wefaq, the number of rallies denied permits
has now reached 30 in July alone.
One lesson to be learned from the Arab Spring is that repressing
peaceful protests by force does not make people go home -- it angers and
emboldens them. Young activists, beaten down and humiliated, return
more determined and potentially more radicalized. When pressed on the
excessive use of force by riot police, Bahraini officials regularly
point to the increased use of Molotov cocktails and protesters attacking
police with iron rods, and warn of foiled terrorist attacks and bomb
plots.
For the past year, the U.S. government has implored al-Wefaq and other
opposition leaders to keep the streets calm to ensure space for
political dialogue with regime moderates. Opposition leaders have
repeatedly issued public calls to maintain a nonviolent approach. But,
as the government's progress toward reform has stalled, the moderate
opposition's ability to ensure that protesters remain patient appears to
be eroding. Former al-Wefaq member of parliament (MP) Matar Matar has
described the new policy as the government "encouraging the people to
disobedience." The February 14th Youth Movement, an anonymous youth
group that organizes unauthorized and often confrontational political
protests via Facebook, was able to gather 5,000 people in a recent rally
-- the movement's largest in months.
As the government of Bahrain moves to eliminate any space for peaceful
political protest, the opposition is tasked with an impossible order: in
the face of excessive force by police, maintain an environment of total
nonviolence while awaiting reforms from the government. For a
frustrated population accustomed to weekly protests and violent
crackdowns in the absence of meaningful political reform, this approach
has little appeal.
As dialogue has reached a year-long standstill, people on the streets
have grown increasingly frustrated with the Bahraini government's
political runaround. Meanwhile, the U.S. government seems to have lost
its voice extolling the universal principle of peaceful assembly in
Bahrain. Ever-present in public statements are condemnations of violence
by protesters and excessive force by police, but these have been too
rarely accompanied by support for the basic freedom to protest in the
first place.
In response to the recent moves by the Bahraini government to curtail
its citizens' right to assembly, the U.S. government has registered no
public objection, despite expressed U.S. support for the right of
assembly before this policy was implemented.
With frustrations in Bahrain mounting, the United States needs to
publicly convey to our Gulf ally that peaceful assembly is a universal
right and that policies that prohibit it represent a red line in the
bilateral relationship. U.S. silence in this regard will be perceived as
continued support for government actions which are marginalizing
moderates and undermining peaceful voices for reform. Sidelining such
moderates would fulfill the hard-liners' image of violent protesters
bent on the overthrow of the regime and justify a vicious crackdown. The
United States must clearly and unequivocally take a stand in support of
the universal right to peaceful assembly, or else be seen as complicit
in the bloodshed that would follow.
Colombia
11) Colombian General Motors employees on hunger strike over 'labor rights violations'
Adriaan Alsema, Colombia Reports, Thursday, 02 August 2012 07:01
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/25370-colombian-general-motors-employees-on-hunger-strike-over-labor-rights-violations.html
A group of employees and ex-employees of the Colombian branch of General
Motors began a hunger strike in front of the U.S. embassy in Bogota
Wednesday to protest the firing of colleagues on sick leave.
The hunger strike followed months after the factory workers set up a
provisional shelter in front of the embassy, demanding the company
respect labor laws, and talks with the American ambassador and Colombian
government.
General Motors "is firing us without just cause, harming us and our
families. We are taking this decision because our health has worsened
day by day, we have lost our homes, we're basically on the street and we
have been forgotten by the government," one of the protesters told
Caracol Radio.
"The association of workers and former workers of Geneal Motors
Colomotores takes the decision to begin a hunger strike, sewing our
lips, until our rightful requests are heard by the company, the
ambassador of the United States and the government," a second protester
added.
The (ex-) workers told the radio station that while the U.S. government
is demanding Colombia to respect labor rights, the U.S.' largest car
producer itself is violating the rights of its Colombian workers.
According to newspaper El Tiempo, the United States business attache met
with the protesters and promised to inform General Motors headquarters
in Detroit about the situation.
---
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