By Eurasia Review

In this week’s address, President Obama said he will do everything he can to make a difference for the middle class and those working to get into the middle class, so that we can expand opportunity for all and build an economy that works for the American people.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
As Prepared for Delivery
The White House
February 8, 2014

Hi, everybody. In my State of the Union Address, I talked about the idea of opportunity for all.

Opportunity is the idea at the heart of this country – that no matter who you are or how you started out, with hard work and responsibility, you can get ahead.

I ran for President to restore that idea, and I’m even more passionate about it today. Because while our economy has been growing for four years, and those at the top are doing better than ever, average wages have barely budged. Too many Americans are working harder than ever just to get by, let alone get ahead – and that’s been true since long before the recession hit.

We’ve got to reverse those trends. We’ve got to build an economy that works for everyone, not just a fortunate few. And the opportunity agenda I laid out last week will help us do that.

It’s an agenda with four parts. Number one: more new jobs. Number two: training folks with the skills to fill those jobs. Number three: guaranteeing every child access to a world-class education. And number four: making sure that hard work pays off, with wages you can live on, savings you can retire on, and health insurance that’s there when you need it.

I want to work with Congress on this agenda where I can. But in this year of action, whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, I will. I’ve got a pen and a phone – a pen to take executive action, and a phone to rally citizens and business leaders who are eager to create new jobs and new opportunities. And we’ve already begun.

In Wisconsin, I ordered an across-the-board reform of our training programs to train folks with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now.

In Pittsburgh, I directed the Treasury to create “my-RA,” a new way for working Americans, even if you’re not wealthy, to start your own retirement savings.

In Maryland, I rallied the leaders of some of America’s biggest tech companies to help us make sure all our kids have access to high-speed internet and up-to-date technology to help them learn the skills they need for the new economy.

And at the White House, I brought together business leaders who’ve committed to helping more unemployed Americans find work, no matter how long they’ve been looking. And I directed the federal government to make hiring decisions the same way – based on whether applicants can do the job, not when they last had a job.

So when you hear me talk about using my pen and my phone to make a difference for middle class Americans and those working to get into the middle class, that’s what I mean. And I’m going to keep asking students and parents and business leaders to help – because there are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments, ready to move this country forward, and determined to restore the founding vision of opportunity for all.

And so am I. Thanks, have a great weekend, and to our Olympians in Sochi, go Team USA!

The article Obama: Expanding Opportunity For The American People – Transcript appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By RT

Ships from the Iranian army’s naval fleet are headed towards the United States maritime borders as part of a longstanding protest against US vessels in the Persian Gulf, Fars News Agency reports.

“The Iranian Army’s naval fleets have already started their voyage towards the Atlantic Ocean via the waters near South Africa,” Commander of Iran’s Northern Navy Fleet, Admiral Afshin Rezayee Haddad, announced on Saturday.

The admiral, who also heads up the Iranian Army’s 4th Naval Zone, added that the ships are approaching the United States’ maritime borders, “and this move has a message.”

The agency gave no details on the number or types of vessels deployed.

Sayyari first announced Iran would begin a naval buildup “near maritime borders of the United States” in September 2011. The move is part of Iran’s response to Washington’s sizeable naval presence in the Persian Gulf.

The US Navy’s 5th fleet, which is responsible for naval forces in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean, is based in Bahrain.

“Like the arrogant powers that are present near our maritime borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to the American marine borders,” Sayyari said at the time.

Sayyari reiterated Iran’s plans to dispatch its naval forces to deploy along US marine borders in the Atlantic in September 2012, saying this would happen “in the next few years”.

In September 2012 the admiral reiterated Iran’s plans for sailing off the US coasts to counter the US presence in its waters in the Persian Gulf.

The Iranian Navy has been boosting its presence in international waters since November 2008, when it deployed warships to the Gulf of Aden in response to the Somalia pirates’ threat.

The article Iran Dispatches Warships To US Maritime Border appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Ria Novosti

Canadian sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe took the gold and silver medals respectively in women’s moguls skiing at the Winter Olympics in Sochi on Saturday.

Justine Dufour-Lapointe’s score of 22.44 points was enough for her to beat her older sister to the gold medal by a margin of 0.78.

Defending champion Hannah Kearney of the United States was third.

For the first time at the Olympics, moguls skiing uses three rounds of finals in Sochi, gradually weeding out competitors until only six are left for a medal shootout.

In moguls skiing, athletes are assessed by judges on their skill in turning around small snow hillocks, or moguls, which makes up half the score. The rest comes from their tricks on the course’s two jumps, and the time of the run.

The men’s event is Monday.

The article Canadian Sisters Take Gold, Silver In Olympic Moguls Skiing appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Al Bawaba News

A commander and military mastermind for the hardline Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) rebel group was killed on Saturday after clashes with the al-Qaeda affliated al-Nusra Front in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, Al Arabiya News Channel reported activists as saying.

The Libyan commander known as Abu Dajana is ISIS’s chief in Deir al-Zour.

Abu Dajana’s killing comes after Al-Nusra Front and rebel brigades, including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham, launched a new offensive against their former ally ISIS in the eastern province.

Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist rebel allies have reclaimed control of factories and grain mills in Dier al-Zour, activists said.

The activists also reported other clashes between ISIS and other rebel groups in the northwestern province of Aleppo.

While ISIS was once welcomed by rebels battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, excessive abuses by the group turned much of the opposition against them.

Saturday’s offensive comes just over a month after three massive rebel alliances declared war against ISIS in much of the north.

Both Al-Nusra and ISIS grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq, but have split in Syria.

More than 1,800 people, mostly fighters, died in January fighting between rebels and ISIS in northern Syria.

The clashes also come a day after ISIS took over several rival rebel bases in Hasakeh province north of Deir al-Zour.

Both Deir al-Zour and Hasakeh are strategic because they lie on Syria’s border with Iraq.

Deir al-Zour is a key conduit for ISIS to send weapons and fighters from Iraq into Syria.

Aerial bombardment kills 20

Meanwhile, new aerial bombardment from explosives-packed barrel bombs killed at least 20 people on Saturday in Aleppo, Agence France-Presse reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying.

The Observatory said 20 people including two children were killed in separate barrel bomb attacks on Aleppo’s eastern rebel-held neighborhoods.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the several waves of barrel bomb assaults, each lasting several days, since Dec. 15, the Britain-based group says.

Thousands of people have fled the areas being targeted.

The raids come as government forces press an advance into the east and north of Aleppo city, large swathes of which fell to the opposition after a massive rebel offensive in July 2012.

Rights groups have condemned the regime’s use of barrel bombs as indiscriminate.

On Saturday, helicopters also dropped barrel bombs on Daraya, a rebel bastion southwest of Damascus, which has been under siege for more than a year.

Original article

The article ISIS Top Commander Killed In Syria appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Syria Comment - Joshua Landis

By Daniel Abdallah for Syria Comment

Has the newly brokered truce between rebel militias in Syria ended the fighting that began in earnest on 3 January 2014? The reasons that Syria’s militias attacked the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria were many. ISIS had arrested members of many militias; it had torture many of those and killed quite a few. The immediate result of the initial onslaught against ISIS was the expulsion of ISIS from most of Idlib province as well as from the city of Aleppo and its rural areas. ISIS positions in ar-Raqqa were also seriously weakened. To the untrained eye, ISIS appeared to be on the verge of total collapse in Syria. Some militias demanded that it leave the country altogether[1].  ISIS promised retaliation.[2]

Although the Islamic Front (IF) – the largest armed rebel coalition in Syria – had numerous grievances with ISIS, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) led the attack on ISIS.  To be more correct, the remnants of the FSA led the attack. The FSA proper had ceased to exist when two of its largest constituents joined the IF in November and its putative leadership, the Supreme Military Command, was driven from Syria only weeks later. Those FSA militias that did not find a new home in the Islamic Front formed the Syrian Revolutionaries Front[3] (SRF) and a few other groups, which spearheaded the attack on ISIS. The fight appears to have been well planned, as both Saudi Arabia and Qatar sent money and weapons ahead of the January 3 conflagration. Some claim it was earmarked for the battle against ISIS. The US limited itself to financial support – amounting to $2 million a month.[4]

The Islamic Front, Jabhat an-Nusra, and ISIS disagree on details about the future state in Syria, but all agree basic principles: that ia theocratic state in should take the place of the Assad regime; and Sharia law should be its guiding if not sole source of legislation. The ideological kinship that binds together the Islamist militias along with their professed horror at fitna, or civil discord among Muslims, caused the Islamic Front to hessitate in its response to the fight against ISIS. A local contact informed me that in Tal Abiadh (a town on the border with Turkey), soldiers of Ahrar ash-Sham, a constituent of the IF, handed their weapons over to Turkish authorities and fled into Turkey rather than fight ISIS. The same was taking place in ar-Raqqa; Ahrar soldiers declared their neutrality refusing to fight ISIS. They professed their desire to leave for the East in what amounted to surrender.  ISIS soldiers initially agreed to give them safe passage, but ended up executing them to the man.[5]

The IF’s reticence and not only ISIS’ military superiority helped ISIS win the struggle in Raqqa.  ISIS was able to reconquer all of Raqqa, Jarablus, al-Bab and Manbij (i.e. most of Eastern rural Aleppo). It also solidified its positions in Deir az-Zour by establishing new alliances with local tribes.[6] Whereas before the ISIS had to share power in all of these locales, it now emerged as sole ‘governor’ ruling by Sharia law and on its own.

Many Jihadi theorists were deeply troubled by this fitna, and they tried their best to bring an end to it. Most famous of such initiatives was one by Saudi theologian, rebel fighter in Syria and Phd Abdullah al-Muhaysini that came to be known as al-Umma Initiative.[7] It called for the cessation of violence and the establishment of a common, neutral Islamic court to arbitrate all disputes according to Sharia law. It was unconditionally embraced by Jabhat an-Nusra, the SRF, the IF, the Mujahideen Army and many Jihadi ideologues.[8] The ISIS, however, predicated its acceptance on two conditions: that all parties involved publicly declare their position regarding democracy and secularism (refused en bloc by the ISIS, the IF and Jabhat an-Nusra) – intended for the SRF and the other remnants of the FSA who accept them half-heartedly – and, second, that all parties clarify their positions regarding current Arab regimes and Turkey – creating a hurdle for factions who are supported by these very countries.[9] The various IF constituents’ position vis-à-vis the ISIS remained a mixture of verbal denouncements and an acceptance of Muhaysini’s initiative, all the while trying to avoid the fight where possible. Hassan Abboud – leader of Ahrar ash-Sham – publicly stated that they were going to ‘avoid any battle [with the ISIS] that can be avoided’.[10] As previously mentioned Suqour ash-Sham’s Abu Issa ash-Shaikh had a much stronger stance against the ISIS – promising to cleanse them from the Levant. A milder version, at least verbally, was put forward by Zahran Alloush – leader of the Islam Army (also an IF constituent and largely based in the South away from the centre of the infighting) – saying the fight with the ISIS was no fitna and that there was no more room for middle-of-the-road positions.[11] Abdul Azeez Salama – head of Liwa at-Tawheed (IF) – reiterated the ‘majority’ position by saying ‘I would be honoured to be judged by Allah’s Sharia’.[12] The nature of the overall conflict in Syria, it is worth mentioning, is resistant to the implementation of centralised strategies. More often, decisions are taken based on local conditions even if they go against orders the particular group had received from its leaders. While the characterisation offered here of the IF publicly distancing itself from the fight with ISIS is perfectly true, it is also true that a number of their sub-factions entered the fray against ISIS with full force.

Until the truce under discussion took place, all calls for arbitration had appeared dead for all intents and purposes. Significantly, ISIS went back on their two conditions when the truce was brokered. No public denunciation of democracy, secularism or regional states by Suqour ash-Sham (or the faction within it that accepted the deal) have taken place so far, while the truce is in full effect. The ISIS, then, have accepted, in principal, the establishment of an Islamic court with 50% of its judges coming from their side and 50% from the side of their opponents. Importantly, the court the ISIS agreed to has no retroactive effect. It only applies to potential disputes that might arise in the future, and SS had no qualms about agreeing to this. The ISIS have also accepted to dealing with a group that was once part of the Western-aligned FSA, not an insignificant step for it. One can read this as the ISIS’ content with the status quo – now that they have become the sole power in a large swathe of territory – and as their readiness to dilute their refusals of arbitration for this purpose, with the not insignificant caveat of nullified retroactivity.

For the IF, the truce can have one of two possible effects. It can either help formalise their so far hesitant approach to the ISIS and offer them a way out of internecine struggle with a face-saving mechanism, such as a Sharia court that may turn out to be largely toothless. Or, less likely, the truce may presage a split within the Islamic Front, a group that never functioned as a single unit, but as an alliance of convenience. If the Islamic Front splits up, Suqour ash-Sham would go its own way. The reason this is unlikely is that larger groups are better channels for funding. Small units cannot survive well on their own or bring in big money and thus will not want to break from the larger coalition for purely ideological reasons. Should leaders of the IF denounce the truce, it could mean that the Front will come apart, but this seems to be a small possibility.

Assad may have had mixed feelings toward the fighting between ISIS and the other rebel militias. Had the enemies of ISIS turned out to be victorious, they would have proven their effectiveness as fighters of “terrorism,” thereby stealing Assad’s fire – or at least the fire he is trying to market to Western powers and the Syrian people. ISIS’ counterattack and success in reconquering Syrian territory is doubtlessly satisfying to Assad for it ensures inter-rebel conflict and chaos in the days to come. It also ensures that western powers will continue to fret about Syria becoming a training ground for future Western Jihadists. Those opposition leaders who claim that mainstream Syrian groups can easily defeat al-Qaida and eject jihadists from Syria once Assad is defeated will have a harder time making this argument. If the ISIS-SS truce becomes a starting point for further deals with other groups in the IF, and so universalizes the uneasy truce begun with the SS, Assad will be reassured. He will claim the rebel groups have re-allied themselves with the ISIS and that it cannot be a regime creation as so many opposition members insist. ‘Assad must be waiting for the call from the CIA’, as one of my friends put it.

Although conspiracy theories claiming to expose ISIS as an Assad back flag operation, designed to mar the purity of the revolution and destroy it from within, are ubiquitous, there is evidence to suggest that Assad looks on ISIS as a strategic ally. The Syrian Army has not bombed their well-known headquarters and has spared their men.

To conclude, it is important to stress that all stated potential ramifications of this truce remain speculative. All the evidence we so far have for analysis is the text of the agreement as released by ISIS-sympathetic sources, the video showing a convoy moving through the desert and Rashed Tuggo (SS’ Head of General Staff) claiming that he was authorised to speak on behalf of SS’ Shura Council. More time and evidence is needed to determine whether the truce will be of any significance to the Syrian Civil War.

Daniel Abdallah for Syria Comment – twitter: @Daniel_Abdullah

[1] http://all4syria.info/Archive/122779

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwPTVj5lyzQ

[3] http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/arab-and-world/syria/2013/12/10/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1-%D9%8A%D8%B4%D9%83%D9%84-%D8%A3%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81-%D8%B9%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85-%D8%AC%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%A9-%D8%AB%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-.html

[4] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10588308/US-secretly-backs-rebels-to-fight-al-Qaeda-in-Syria.html

[5] https://twitter.com/HassanAbboud_Ah/statuses/422770031412654080

[6] See: http://t.co/6N635C1r6x, for example.

[7] https://twitter.com/mobadratalomah and http://mobadrah.mhesne.com/. For analysis see: http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=54320

[8] https://twitter.com/mobadratalomah

[9] https://twitter.com/Daniel_Abdullah/statuses/427854070842281985

[10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYa7MnqeqsI&feature=youtu.be. For a summary in English and commentary see http://danielabdullah.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/on-hassan-abbouds-latest-speech/

[11] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upaj2Krtg6g

[12] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wspbiB8sY50&sns=tw

The article Does Truce Between ISIS And Suqour Al-Sham Mean An End To Syria’s Inter-Rebel War? – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By SAAG

By Dr Subhash Kapila

In marked contrast to India’s regrettable declining defence budget expenditures in face of rising threats from China and Pakistan, one is witnessing a surging increase in China’s defence budget notably when China faces no credible military threats from any quarter.

China ‘s defence budget is assessed to touch US $ 148 billion in 2014, second only to the United States defence budget and outstripping the combined defence budgets of Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

China’s defence budget also far outstrips the combined defence spending of its peer Asian  rivals, namely, Japan and India. Japan’s spending on defence in 2013 amounted to $56.842 billion and that of India was $46.183 billion. In case of India, every year as the Annual Budget nears presentation, thousands of crores are hived from the Defence Budget to balance the books by the Finance Ministry.

Strategic analysts all over the world are questioning as to why China requires such outsized budgets when it faces no credible threats from major powers like the United States and Russia?

The answers forthcoming on analysis are that China is engaged in reducing the differentials in its military power relative to the United States with multiple aims of emerging as the predominant Asian military power, attempting to emerge as the “strategic co-equal” of the United States in Asia and all of these combined to ultimately prompt a US military exit of its forward military deployments in the Western Pacific.

Towards such multiple strategic aims, China’s increase in its defence budgets are focused on expansion of  the Chinese Navy and the combat power of the Chinese Air Force along with China’s force projection capabilities. Also in focus is China’s emphasis on the expansion and modernisation of its nuclear arsenal. The display of Chinese maritime and air power in China’s conflict escalation in the South China Sea against Vietnam and the Philippines and in the East China Sea against Japan are clearly visible.

Further increases in China’s defence budgets can be expected to be earmarked for significant increases in China’s maritime power in terms of upgradation of it submarine fleet, surface combatants and additional aircraft carriers. China’s missiles arsenal can also be expected to be increased and so also its nuclear arsenal.

China’s ground forces may not see increases in manpower but what can be expected certainly  will be in terms of increased firepower systems, helicopter and airborne forces capabilities and special forces operations. With the emphasis on integrated warfare marked increases in China’s C4I capabilities will receive focus.

China’s cyber-warfare capabilities need to be a special concern to all nations in China’s military crosshairs and this is equally applicable both in peacetime and in conflictual situations.

China’s increasing military profile does not lend itself to China’s self-proclaimed ‘China’s peaceful rise’.  China’s switch from use of ‘soft-power strategies’ to use of ‘hard power strategies’ since 2009, more noticeably against Vietnam, Philippines, Japan and even against India on the Himalayan borders with Tibet stand well-documented.

China’s emerging military profile is also a concern to the leading military powers like the United States and Russia and both in their own ways are engaged in coping with the implications of a militarily rising China with no benign aims or stake in global and regional stability.

What are the military implications for India of China’s sustained increases in military expenditures visible with the increasing defence budget increases?

China’s defence spending increases may not be India-specific as some would like to argue and that they are geared to its strategic aims outlined above, however, what cannot be wished away is the strategic reality that China’s increasing military profile has in terms of spill-over effects creates serious strategic and military implications for India’s security.

In strategic terms, China’s significant military rise without any corresponding, if not matching, increases in India’s military profile against the backdrop of the reality that China is “India’s Military Threat Number One”, strategically diminishes India’s Asian and global image of being a serious contender for emerging as an ‘Asian Power’ of some reckoning. Even Japan as an aspiring ‘Asian Power’ has responded to its ‘China Threat’ with significant fast-track military increases.

Strategically therefore, India rather than attempting to reduce the differentials in its military power relative to China is down-sliding and permitting the China-India military power differential to widen and this should be a matter of concern to all Indians.

Reverting to the military implications of China’s increasing military spending on Indian security, we have serious challenges to face in all three domains of land warfare, air warfare and sea power.

India’s Himalayan land borders with Tibet are a matter of special military concern. Both on the borders and in the Tibetan hinterland, China has amassed overwhelming military power, air power and strategic nuclear missiles. China has developed extensive defence infrastructure  by way of roads, railways and airfields to support this massed Chinese military power threatening India.

China’s focus in terms of military spending in Tibet is therefore now likely to focus on air-mobility and helicopter-borne military operations for swifter operations against Indian Army limited by under-developed defence infra-structure and limited mobility in any counter-offensive operations.

China is also likely to increase the integral firepower of its forces deployed in Tibet. India’s lack of matching firepower with the Indian Artillery being deprived of modernised inductions for the last thirty years due to political leadership and its inefficient Ministry of Defence civilian bureaucracy will seriously handicap Indian Army military operations on the Tibetan borders.

Indian Air Force combat operations in the Tibet Theatre are seriously blunted with the deficiency of more than 126 Fighter Aircraft in its inventory hanging fire for the last ten years or more again due to political indecision and processing paralysis by the Ministry of Defence bureaucracy. This glaring void would seriously impair India’s air defence on its Tibetan borders and deprive the Indian Army of critically needed air support and more so when the Indian Artillery is burdened with outdated weapon systems.

In terms of China’s significant focus on expansion of its maritime sea power, India should awaken to the implications that would ensue as China’s maritime power receives sustained inputs for its expansion with budgetary increases. The Indian Ocean is in danger of no longer continuing as the Indian Ocean. The Chinese Navy has already established an Indian Ocean presence as far as the Gulf of Aden on the pretext of joining the international effort to combat piracy.

India’s business as usual in terms of coping with China’s growing intrusive strategies in the Indian Ocean is also likely to effect India’s Look East Policy implementation. India’s Look East Policy effective implementation would require a strong naval posture besides a strong political will.

One wonders also whether substantial financial resources have been allocated by the Government for the effective land, sea and air defences of its garrison deployments on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Concluding, one would like to make the following assertions in relation to China’s sustained increases in its defence spending and its implications for India:

• China continues and will continue as India’s “Military Threat Number One”.
• China’s sustained increases in its defence spending reinforce India’s “Military Threat Number One”.
• Indian political leadership’s lack of political will to measure upto China’s threatening military profile is contributing to the widening of China-India military power differentials.
• Measuring up to facing The China Threat squarely dictates imperatives for India for complete re-structuring of India’s national security apparatus, its Ministry of Defence and a re-casting of India’s civil-military relations template.

The article China’s Increased Defence Budget And Its Implications For India – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Latinamerica Press

By Cecilia Remón

Smiles in Lima and long faces in Santiago were the first reactions to the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Jan. 27 regarding the new maritime boundary between Peru and Chile. ICJ justices granted Peru 50,284 square kilometers (19,410 square miles) of maritime domain, part of which was previously under Chilean control — known in Spanish as the “triángulo interno,” or inner triangle— ; also allotted to Peru was the so-called “triángulo externo,” or outer triangle, which Chile previously maintained was international waters.

The ICJ defined the new maritime boundary with a latitudinal line extending 80 nautical miles from a marker on the coast known as Hito 1 in Spanish. Then the new frontier takes a southwesterly turn and continues to Point B, before taking another sharp and brief turn to the south to Point C, which is 200 nautical miles equidistant from both countries. Ultimately, Chile retained only 16,352 square kilometers (6,313 square miles) of the originally disputed area.

In the end, the ICJ — as usual — didn’t side entirely with either party. However, overall Peru received 70 percent of what it had demanded from the court.

History of the conflict

The ruling, which is binding and enforceable, should end a dispute more than 130 years in the making, from the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) between Bolivia, Chile and Peru, during which Peru lost the province of Arica to Chile, and Bolivia that of Tarapacá, leaving the latter country landlocked. In 1929, Peru and Chile signed the Treaty of Lima, definitively agreeing on a land border.

The treaty determined that the area of Tacna belongs to Peru, while Arica is Chilean. It also asserted that the border extends into the Pacific Ocean “from a point on the shoreline 10 km northwest of the first bridge of the Arica-La Paz railway over the Lluta River.”

For Peru, the maritime boundary began at that spot, called Punto Concordia, on the low-tide line. For Chile it started at Hito 1, located 300 meters away off-shore to avoid being swept out to sea. This matter has not been resolved by the ICJ ruling as the judges have argued that their mandate in this case was not to determine the land boundaries.

In 1952, Chile, Ecuador and Peru signed the “Declaration on the Maritime Zone,” recognizing the “sovereignty and exclusive jurisdiction that corresponds to each of them over the sea that bathes the coasts of their respective countries, to a minimum distance of 200 nautical miles from these shores.”

Two years later, the three countries signed the “Agreement on the Special Maritime Zone”, which established a “special zone 12 nautical miles from the shoreline, of 10 nautical miles wide on each side of the line that establishes the maritime boundary between the two countries [that share a border].” The treaty added that “the accidental presence in the aforementioned areas of vessels of any neighboring countries will not be considered a violation of the maritime zone’s waters, however without implying the recognition of any right to practice intentional hunting or fishing operations in this Special Zone.”

Since 1986, Peru has tried to establish bilateral talks with Chile to determine maritime boundaries. In 2004, Peru formally brought up negotiations, which Chile declined noting that the agreements of 1952 and 1954 treaties established boundaries and there was nothing to discuss. Three years later, Peru submitted its application for maritime boundaries with Chile to the ICJ, proposing a line equidistant from the Punto Concordia and extending up to 200 miles. Chile, meanwhile, proposed a parallel line up to 200 nautical miles, which would cut the Peruvian maritime space and expand the Chilean, since at this point the slope of the coast changes. The orientation of the Chilean coast from the border is from north to south, while the Peruvian runs northeast-southeast.

Behind the ruling

While surprising that ICJ would establish a boundary for 80 nautical miles along the parallel, the court justified the decision because of the countries’ fishing practices.

According to Peruvian international relations expert Farid Kahatt, the ruling was so that neither side would feel totally vindicated. The message was “We give Peru the sea, but Chile all the fishing,” he told Latinamerica Press.

“Those first 80 miles are where the most fishing is possible. Small-scale fishing happens in only the first 5 or 6 miles off the coast, not more than that,” Kahatt said.

Peruvian analyst Alejandro Deustua agrees with Kahatt that the decision doesn’t help the artisanal fishermen of Tacna.

“Small-scale fishing in Tacna will remain the same as before,” he told Latinamerica Press.

One example is the Peruvian cove of Santa Rosa, about 2 km from the border. With a population of roughly 300, fishermen have fewer than 500 meters (1,640 feet) to fish — beyond that, the waters belong to Chile and will continue to do so. They take out their pared-down, basic boats every day to haul in 5 kg of fish that they then sell to nearby towns or that they exchange for produce.

Although Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has committed to investing in Santa Rosa, the government has totally forgotten about the area. There is no potable water, sewage or basic sanitation systems. The school is still a trailer put up in 2000 that was supposed to be temporary. The medical center was built by a non-governmental organization and has no electricity.

Humala and outgoing Chilean President Sebastián Piñera have committed to respecting the ruling and executing it gradually, but what is clear is that no decision has been made about the triangle on land between Hito 1, Punto Concordia, and the waterline.

Piñera said: “The ruling confirms that Chile will keep almost all of its fishing rights and all of [the rights of] our artisanal fishermen. This of course makes us happy.” He added, however, that turning over the exclusive economic zone between the 80 and 200 mile markers — which the country controlled before the ruling — was a “lamentable loss for Chile.”

Moreover, Piñera, other officials and former Chilean leaders believe the ruling from the ICJ confirms “the maritime boundary begins at the parallel from Hito 1, and ratifies our domain over the corresponding triangle of land.”

“Piñera’s interpretation is completely false,” Kahatt countered. “If the issue goes to arbitration, as is established in the Treaty of 1929, Chile will lose.”

Deustua believes one of the problems with having established the maritime boundary based on the location of Hito 1 is that “it encourages Chile’s vindication for the land triangle.”

The article Chile-Peru: A New Maritime Boundary appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By VOA

The head of the European Council says U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s use of vulgar language about the European Union is “totally unacceptable.”

Council president Herman Van Rompuy commented during a Saturday interview with Belgian broadcasters, a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed a similar sentiment.

Nuland’s comment was part of a private phone conversation that was leaked to social media.

In the call with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, Nuland used foul language to suggest that the United States should ignore the European Union’s position on resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

Nuland said Friday she would not talk about what she called a “private diplomatic conversation.”

But in a Friday briefing, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Nuland had apologized for the comment.

“She would convey to you that she apologized obviously because that’s not, doesn’t reflect how she feels about our relationship with the EU. It is also important to note that she has been in close touch with EU officials since then. Not about this, but about work we’re doing together on Ukraine.”

U.S. officials have implied Russia may be involved in the leak, which resulted in Nuland’s remarks being posted on the YouTube website.

U.S. officials on Thursday pointed to a tweet by an aide to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin as the first to promote the recording.

In comments to the Associated Press, Rogozin denied involvement, saying he merely repeated a posting he found on a social media website.

Nuland said the recording of her conversation was “impressive tradecraft” – a term referring to activity by intelligence agents.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Vladimir Putin met behind closed doors in the Olympic city of Sochi on Saturday, but a Ukrainian official would not give any details about the meeting.

Yanukovych triggered mass protests in November when he yielded to Russian pressure and backed out of a free trade pact with the EU. Protesters continue to camp out in Kyiv.

The article European Officials Denounce US Diplomat’s Remark appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By IRIN

By Dana MacLean

In the decades since a brutal military crackdown in Argentina in the late 1970s, when thousands of disappearances occurred, the country has been driven by activist pressure to become a global leader in forensic anthropology, a field that holds lessons for other post-conflict countries trying to identify missing people, say experts.

“The trauma of disappearance is universal – not to know if your loved one is alive or dead, not to have a grave – that grief is universal for families everywhere,” said Luis Fondebrinder, a forensic anthropologist with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), an NGO based in Buenos Aires, the capital, that investigates large-scale disappearances.

Forensic anthropology – combining the sciences of archaeology and human biology to identify human remains in criminal investigations – has been used in Argentina to locate mass burial sites in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Tucuman, and Cordoba.

At the urging of human rights groups, Argentina was the first country to employ the technique on a large scale to investigate human rights abuses under a military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, in what became known as the “Dirty War”. Scientists have so far exhumed and identified around 600 of thousands of skeletons, using DNA samples provided by the families of missing persons.

“Enforced disappearances are a denial of the person who disappeared… it is a human rights violation that affects not only the rights of the person who disappeared, but also the rights of their relatives,” Ariel Dulitzky, the chair of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) in the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told IRIN. The UN has stressed the importance of forensic anthropology in helping citizens fight such disappearances.

Worldwide, nearly 54,000 unsolved cases have been submitted to the WGEID since its inception in 1980, according to the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED), a global network of 50 NGOs that researches incidents and works to raise awareness of this crime.

Human rights groups say many cases go unreported because families feel that “if investigated… the information might be used against them, and that the same disappearance might happen to any [other] member of the family,” said Candy Diez, a research and documentation officer with the Asia Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), a network of more than 10 human rights groups based in the capital of the Philippines, Manila. The organization says there are at least 7,400 unsolved disappearances in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.

“Silence and fear shroud enforced disappearances. In several cases, individuals who reported a disappearance were themselves detained,” said a 2013 paper on Syria by the UN OHCHR, noting that the missing include doctors suspected of treating anti-government protesters.

A story only bones can tell

Exhuming and identifying the dead can take anywhere from weeks to years, depending on a government’s willingness to cooperate, the type of records kept by alleged perpetrators, the geographic location of bodies, and obtaining DNA samples – as well as the laboratory capacity to analyze them – according to WGEID and the Argentine EAAF.

The organizations use government files to identify the mass graves closest to where a person was last seen, and archaeological techniques to analyze the soil to detect past activity at suspected burial sites, before locating and digging up remains.

Information from surviving family members is key. “You need circumstantial information, how the person disappeared, and also physical and biological information, including any bone fractures, how were the teeth, etc.,” said Fondebrinder, who added that many diseases can alter bones. Scientists then construct a biological profile based on the remains, which are often skeletal, using bone size and shape to estimate a person’s age, sex, and stature.

The story of a person’s life helps to find them in death, say forensic anthropologists. “Science is not one hundred percent, usually we say it is the person ‘beyond reasonable doubt’,” Fondebrinder said. “Only with DNA [can we know the percentage of accuracy of our identification efforts]. Usually you say, ‘Yes, it is identified, or no [it is not]’.”

The bones can also tell how the person died, according to EAAF. The Simon Fraser University (SFU) Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology based in Vancouver, Canada, notes that if the person was hit with a blunt object, the skull could shatter or bones might fracture; sharp objects often make puncture marks, and a gunshot or knife wound can cause deep trauma in a small area.

The challenges of finding remains

Finding bones is not always straightforward, especially in cases where the alleged perpetrators have destroyed bodies or buried them in mass graves to cover up human rights violations, said EAAF, which searches for people on the official Argentine government list of some 10,000 registered as missing, but has only identified 600.

The UN WGEID reports resolving around 10,000 disappearances worldwide since it was founded in 1980, with 45,000 cases remaining open to date. “Sometimes you can only find small pieces of bones, or else there are hundreds or thousands of remains all mixed up,” said Dulitzky.

The Working Group’s progress in resolving disappearances often depends on government cooperation, as forensic anthropology is a legal investigation that requires official consent. Without state cooperation, it can be next to impossible to find a missing person.

“Even where courts are willing and make findings against the police, [the] army or others, there is no effective remedy when the authorities refuse to cooperate,” said Brad Adams, in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch.

While 93 of the 193 UN member countries have signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the UN lists only 42 that have passed national legislation to implement it.

Closing the circle of grief

Knowing what happened is fundamental if families are to have closure, said many forensic anthropologists IRIN interviewed in Argentina, who had often entered the profession because their parents had lost loved ones during the period of military rule.

“Many relatives, even if they know they will not be able to find the body, they want to know how the person was killed, when, and by whom,” said Dulitzky.

In Argentina, the trials of alleged perpetrators were broadcast. The government also made a public apology to the families of those who had disappeared, and paid reparations of US$200,000 per family. “[It] is one of the countries in the world that has achieved much in terms of finding the truth, seeking justice, and [recording the] memory [of the collective trauma],” said Fondebrinder.

But with only .06 percent of all officially recorded disappearances in Argentina solved, most of the families are still waiting for scientists to examine and identify the thousands of bone fragments stored in the EAAF laboratory.

The article Argentina’s Forensic Anthropology Is Finding ‘Disappeared Ones’ – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By EurasiaNet

By Marianna Grigoryan

The recent uptick in criticism of incumbent authorities by former Armenian president Robert Kocharian is prompting speculation in Yerevan that he is angling to make a political comeback.

The 59-year-old Kocharian, a Nagorno-Karabakh native, served as Armenia’s president from 1998-2008. He has the reputation of a tough political infighter with a taste for big business, big politics, and, on occasion, windsurfing. The focus of his recent attacks has been Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian, who Kocharian derided as “morally defective,” “mediocre” and “helpless” (an appraisal delivered after Sarkisian’s dismissal of economic growth under Kocharian as “a bubble”). The public nature of the criticism served as a signal to many political analysts that Kocharian wanted to return to the political center stage.

The controversial 2008 election and subsequent protests in which at least 10 people were killed marred Kocharian’s exit from politics, and still represents a major obstacle to a comeback. But conditions in recent years have nonetheless changed. Armenia’s long-time leading opposition force — the Armenian National Congress, led by another former president Levon Ter-Petrosian – has lost momentum, while, at the same time, public confidence in incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan’s administration has eroded, in large part because of continuing economic woes. Data from the National Statistical Service show that poverty rates over the past five years have increased by 17 percent, while the number of people living beneath the poverty line nearly doubled to 32.4 percent of the official 2012 population of 3.21 million people. At the same time, 246,000 people left Armenia for good from 2008-13, according to the government.

The present circumstances, then, provide an opening for Kocharian. “The interest toward him as a political figure first of all comes as a result of the lack of a serious political team on which people could place their hopes,” said Yervand Bozoian, an independent political expert. “People want to see an alternative to current authorities.”

There is a tendency throughout the South Caucasus, some analysts say, for people to yearn for a political messiah — someone who offers hope for quick solutions to an array of complex problems. For some Armenians, Kocharian represents just such a savior figure, given that his presidential term is remembered, at least in retrospect, as relatively successful.

“I would definitely vote for Kocharian because he has a political will,” said Arsen Babaian, a 35-year-old manager in Yerevan. “He is a strong politician and I don’t see any alternative to him.”

Leaders of the governing Republican Party of Armenia seem acutely aware of their own party’s dwindling popularity, and the potential threat to their grip on power posed by Kocharian. At a mid-January news conference, one, Education Minister Armen Ashotian, tried to undercut Kocharian’s credibility. He asserted that a Kocharian comeback would be viable only if the country was in a “critical situation” and there was a strong “demand by the people.” Neither prerequisite exists, Ashotian quickly added. In addition, Kocharian would need to plainly state that he wants to return to power, something that he has not done.

Kocharian appears to prefer to keep people guessing. Rabbit-out-of-the-hat moves have marked Kocharian’s career since 1997, when former President Ter-Petrosian summoned him from Karabakh, where he was serving as the de-facto leader of separatist forces, to become prime minister of Armenia. A year later, after Ter-Petrosian’s resignation, Kocharian himself won election as president.

Hmayak Hovhannisian, head of the Union of Political Experts, says Kocharian may still have a cunning move or two left up his sleeve. A so-called “Russian scenario” between President Sargsyan and Kocharian – one becoming prime minister, while the other opts for president – cannot be excluded in time for the 2017 parliamentary election and 2018 presidential election, he suggested.

Sargsyan, who served as prime minister, defense minister and interior minister under Kocharian, has given no sign of being amenable to such a bargain.

Political analyst Richard Giragosian, director of Yerevan’s Regional Studies Center, sees little possibility for any such change. The legacy of the 2008 political violence is probably too big an obstacle to overcome for Kocharian. “Most Armenians hold Kocharian personally and politically responsible” for the violence and bloodshed of March 2008, he underlined.

“As his public position has seriously faded, so, too, has his role in being a relevant political figure,” Giragosian held. “Rather, what is more likely is his continued attempt to influence politics.”

The article Armenia: Contemplating Kocharian’s Second Coming appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Eurasia Review

As the Endangered Species Act (ESA) celebrated its 40th anniversary at the end of 2013, its administrative agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), was mired in controversy. At issue was a proposal to remove the gray wolf (Canis lupus) from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and add the Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi).

As a result, the USFWS sought an independent peer review of the science behind the proposed rule to delist the gray wolf species. The agency commissioned UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) to conduct an unbiased assessment and clarify critical scientific issues.

NCEAS managed and hosted the peer review process, including vetting prospective reviewers, before selecting the final panelists. The USFWS was not involved in the selection of panelists nor was it actively involved in the peer review process.

The panelists unanimously decided that the USFWS’s earlier decisions were not well supported by the available science. They acknowledged that last year’s proposed rule represented a significant technical effort and recognized its logical consistency with the science used as the primary basis for the USFWS recommendations.

At the same time, the panel highlighted that the proposed rule was strongly dependent on a single publication, which was found to be preliminary and not widely accepted by the scientific community. The panelists identified additional scientific research that should be considered before proposing a change in the listing status of the gray wolf.

“An important part of NCEAS’s mission is supporting and advancing science relevant to decision-makers and on-the-ground conservation,” said Frank Davis, director of NCEAS. “We are glad that the USFWS sought our help, and we hope that the review process will help all parties moving forward.”

Steven Courtney, an NCEAS associate who has worked on ESA issues for many years, chaired the peer review panel. Four additional panelists were chosen for their expertise in such related areas as population dynamics, DNA profiling and knowledge of wolves and other at-risk species.

The final report from NCEAS draws upon the cumulative knowledge of these eminent scientists. The review panel focused solely on scientific issues, not on specific policy recommendations, and its findings were carefully crafted to be completely independent of the government following earlier perceptions of bias in reviewer selection. The full report is posted on the USFWS’s Gray Wolf Recovery website and the public comment period has been reopened.

“NCEAS helped us by conducting a transparent, science-based, fair, and well-documented peer review process,” said Gary Frazer, the service’s assistant director for ecological services. “We wish to thank NCEAS for its support.”

The article Panel Issues Report On Gray Wolf Science appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Profit Confidential

By Mitchell Clark

As evidence of the fervor that corporations have to try to keep shareholders happy, 3M Company (MMM) just announced that its board of directors authorized another major share repurchase program.

The company bought back $5.2 billion worth of its own shares in 2013 and can now repurchase up to $12.0 billion.

Stock buybacks are an old-school business strategy. Excess cash that management feels isn’t worth investing in new businesses, plant, equipment, and employees is simply allocated back to shareholders.

And whatever the endgame is for company management—to boost a falling share price, pay for dividends, meet earnings guidance or simply because it’s the easiest thing to do—share repurchases work for investors.

The stock market is a secondary market where share prices reflect relative values until a company becomes non-public (i.e. is taken private).

Some view share buyback programs as a tool a public company can use to prop up its earnings results, but in the large-cap space, this isn’t the case. The fact of the matter is that big business generates a lot of cash and cash management has been and will continue to be one of the main operations (usually part of the executive branch) of a company.

Earnings results might be managed on a quarterly basis, but corporations typically take a longer view regarding interest rates and debt requirements. When rates are extremely low, as they are right now, debt financing makes a lot of sense. Corporations can and do “bulk up” on capital when market conditions warrant. (See “Pullback in Stock Prices Makes These Dividend Payers Attractive Again.”)

Regardless of the motive, the marketplace likes share buyback programs, and it is one more tool that a company can use to keep its shares attractive to buyers.

I like a stock that offers a “package” of investor incentives; that includes growing revenues and earnings for sure, rising dividends, share repurchases, a strong balance sheet, and transparent financial reporting from management.

In a lot of cases, you aren’t going to see non-dividend-paying companies repurchasing shares. Presumably, a company that’s more growth-oriented doesn’t want to spend precious capital on dividends and share repurchases. That capital is required for business expansion.

It makes a lot of sense, however, for blue chips to do so. Mature businesses like 3M Company can really only grow at an above-average rate through acquisition.

But for investors, we’ve seen the combination of modest financial growth coupled with increased dividends and share repurchases as powerful for a catalyst for capital gains among large-cap companies that you don’t expect to be big movers.

Blue chips have a tendency to experience longer periods of non-performance (or relative outperformance if stocks are falling), then they explode with capital gains. This is exactly what happened in 2013, and 3M Company was the perfect example.

Which is why increasing dividends is such a powerful attribute for investors. Rising dividends combined with share repurchases make for great stocks for investors to consider.

This article The Six Things I Look for in a Company Before Buying Its Stock was originally posted at Profit Confidential

The article The Six Things I Look For In A Company Before Buying Its Stock – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Civil.Ge

(Civil.Ge) — Leaders of breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Alexander Ankvab and Leonid Tibilov, respectively, held a meeting in Sochi, according to their press offices.

“Alexander Ankvab and Leonid Tibilov were present at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games,” Abkhaz leader’s press office said in a brief written statement on February 8. “Presidents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia discussed issues of bilateral cooperation.”

Tibilov’s spokesperson said that in Sochi the South Ossetian leader also met chairman of Russia’s State Duma committee on CIS and Eurasian integration Leonid Slutsky.

Georgia’s Foreign Minister, Maia Panjikidze, said late on February 7 that she does not see “any necessity whatsoever at this stage” in making “official reaction” by Tbilisi to the presence of breakaway regions’ leaders in Sochi as they were there in their personal capacity and they were not “officially” invited there either by Russia or by the International Olympic Committee.

One of the issues that caused controversy in Georgia over the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics on February 7 was how Georgia’s map was projected on arena floor when a small Georgian team of athletes paraded in the Fisht Stadium. The satellite zoom in on Georgia showed parts of Abkhazia covered by what appeared to be clouds; some in Georgia complained it was done deliberately to portray Georgian map without its breakaway region.

The article Abkhaz, South Ossetian Leaders Meet In Sochi appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Trend News Agency

By Rahim Zamanov

The Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on Feb. 8 that the first day of talks between the country and a delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency over steps to resolve outstanding issues regarding Tehran’s nuclear energy program was constructive, Iran’s IRIB News Agency reported.

“The talks are focused on steps to implement the November deal between Iran and the IAEA,” Behrouz Kamalvandi explained.

He went on to note that the IAEA’s delegation expressed satisfaction over Iran’s cooperation in implementing the deal.

“Iran is working with the agency out of good faith,” he added.

He further said that Tehran is trying to remove “artificial ambiguities” that have been created by the West over Tehran’s nuclear energy activities.

The talks will end on Sunday.

Under the November deal between Iran and the IAEA, Tehran voluntarily agreed to allow the agency’s inspection of certain nuclear energy sites.

IAEA inspectors have already visited Iran’s Arak heavy-water plant and Gachin uranium mine.

The article First Day Of Iran, IAEA Talks Constructive appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Trend News Agency

By Huseyn Hasanov

As of January 2014, the revenues of Turkmenistan’s state budget were implemented at 110.7 percent, a message from the country’s Ministry of Finance published on Feb.7 said.

“The revenue part of the country’s main financial plan amounted to 110.7 percent and the expenditure part amounted to 96.7 percent during the reporting period,” the ministry said.
The production volume hit 113.4 percent during the reporting period compared to the same period of 2013, according to the Finance Ministry.

“As a result of complex measures taken in order to ensure commodity abundance and an increase in population’s income, the volume of retail turnover during the reporting period amounted to 2.4 billion manat or by 18.6 percent more compared to the same period of 2013,” the ministry said.

The revenue part of Turkmenistan’s state budget approved by the Majlis (parliament) for 2014 amounted to 94.129.1 billion manat, while the expenditure was equal to 97.829.1 billion manat. In recent years the official exchange rate of manat to the U.S. dollar remains at the level of 2.85 Turkmen manat.

Turkmenistan’s state budget revenue is formed by the oil and gas, chemical, electricity and construction sectors. The budget also envisages the progressive development of the agro-industrial complex, transport, communication, light and food industry.

It is expected that the revenue of Turkmenistan’s state budget will increase thanks to the further development and support of the activity of private enterprise.

Turkmenistan holds one of the key positions in the region for the supply of natural gas imported by Russia, China and Iran.

The article Turkmenistan’s State Budget Revenue Over By 10 Percent appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By The Heritage Foundation

By Cassandra Lucaccioni and Steven P. Bucci, Ph.D.

The world today is more dangerous than it was on September 10, 2001. Threats to the homeland have increased as the President’s leadership has caused the U.S. to lose respect and influence on every front. After at least 61 thwarted terrorist attacks in the U.S.,[1] those who are committed to destroying America’s way of life cannot be ignored. Protection of the homeland needs more than promises of change from the Administration.[2]

The U.S. homeland needs to be safe and secure, and Congress has a vital role in providing the means to make it so. Given the truism that making everything a priority means that nothing is, Congress should focus on the following areas.

Establish New Counterterrorism Strategies

This Administration seeks to deal with terrorism under a law enforcement paradigm that failed to protect Americans from terrorism when it was adopted by the Clinton Administration before 9/11. In addition, the White House intends to follow a “small footprint” strategy for overseas operations, relying primarily on Special Forces operations, covert action, and strikes with unmanned aerial vehicles. The President’s strategy cedes the initiative to America’s enemies and provides them the opportunity to reconstitute both their moral and physical assets.

The right way to achieve the goal of defeating terrorism is to divide and defeat—first, prevent any one group from garnering the coalition of resources, allies, and support to mount a global insurgency; then, craft specific strategies to deal with significant terrorist threats aimed at America. Congress must insist that the U.S. retain a robust, enduring, and sustainable enterprise to identify and combat transnational terror threats.[3]

The U.S. must pay attention to the transnational criminal cartels in Mexico, as well as established networks by Hamas, Hezbollah, Iranian intelligence, and other terrorist organizations throughout Latin America. In particular, it is time to recognize that the Mexican cartels have features of both terrorist networks and insurgencies.

Effective domestic counterterrorism programs and cooperative efforts to thwart terrorist travel and financing are the most effective tools to keep a global insurgency from flooding America’s shores.

Rather than talking about the need for state and local “information sharing,” which really just means sending information to the federal government, the U.S. should first properly apportion roles and responsibilities between the federal government and states and localities based on the respective resources that each possesses (money, people, and experience). What is needed is a national domestic counterterrorism and intelligence framework that clearly articulates how intelligence operations at all levels should function to combat terrorism, while keeping citizens safe, free, and prosperous.

Improve Effectiveness of DHS

Since its inception, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been plagued with a massive number of oversight committees and subcommittees, a legacy from the department’s having been cobbled together from 22 pre-existing agencies. DHS has multiple jurisdictions and multiple levels of authority that all play key roles in the security of the nation. With the majority of senior leadership positions still vacant, DHS oversight continues to be an issue.

Congress should streamline DHS oversight and address leadership vacancies. It should also address problems within DHS agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Congress should pursue risk-based screening procedures and broaden private-sector participation in aviation security through such mechanisms as the Security Partnership Program. The TSA should also work to further expand and use Secure Flight, TSA PreCheck, and the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program in order to enhance and prioritize passenger screening and provide low-cost, high-utility aviation security measures.[4]

Enforce Effective Cybersecurity Legislation

Rather than addressing cybersecurity through large, comprehensive bills, Congress should pursue targeted legislative fixes that address key areas of the problem. These solutions cannot be rooted in heavy-handed regulatory methodologies that will do little besides fostering a failed culture of mere compliance.

Legislative actions addressing information sharing, supply chain security, cyber insurance, limited active self-defense, general awareness, education and training, technical workforce development, and international engagement are all needed. Using market motivations and the power of the private sector would be far more powerful and effective than any new regulatory regime.[5]

Strengthen Immigration Enforcement

Currently, many U.S. immigration laws are simply not enforced due to various executive branch machinations, such as vast uses of prosecutorial discretion. The Obama Administration claims record deportations, but the reality is far more dangerous and costly.[6] Furthermore, the U.S. legal immigration system is dense, difficult to navigate, and not focused on making immigration work for the U.S. economy.

Instead of more promises of future security and enforcement in exchange for costly, unfair amnesty today, the U.S. government should try faithfully enforcing the laws already in existence, providing the right technology and infrastructure for border security efforts, and reforming a dysfunctional legal immigration system.

State and local law enforcement have an important role to play in federal immigration. Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides the legal authority for state and local law enforcement to investigate, detain, and arrest aliens on civil and criminal grounds. Any comprehensive border and immigration security legislation considered by Congress should include provisions for strengthening and expanding programs authorized under Section 287(g).

Rebuild the U.S. Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard is, dollar for dollar, one of the most effective providers of security to the American people. Its flexibility and creativity in execution is one of the keys to its success. The Coast Guard is performing its various missions despite increasingly scarce resources.

This is particularly true in the Arctic region, where the Coast Guard has the primary responsibility to protect American interests but lacks the capabilities to adequately do so. The decommissioning of U.S. ice breakers, for example, has left the U.S. at a disadvantage. As other nations invest in ice-breaker technology to explore Arctic regions, the U.S. continues to fall behind.

A greater commitment needs to be made to the Coast Guard. Congress should establish and allocate funds to revitalize and rebuild the Coast Guard.[7]

Securing the Homeland

There is no single overriding issue facing America in the homeland security realm in 2014. However, if adequate progress could be made in these areas, the American homeland would be measurably more secure.

—Cassandra Lucaccioni is Policy Analyst for the Western Hemisphere in and Steven P. Bucci, PhD, is Director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy, a department of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.

Notes:
[1]See Cassandra Lucaccioni, “61st Terrorist Plot Against the U.S.: Terry Lee Loewen Plot to Attack Wichita Airport,” December 18, 2013, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief No. 4110, December 18, 2013, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/12/terry-lee-loewen-terrorist-plot-in-wichita-kansas-airport.

[2]See Jessica Zuckerman, Steven P. Bucci, and James Jay Carafano, “60 Terrorist Plots Since 9/11: Continued Lessons in Domestic Counterterrorism,” Heritage Foundation Commentary, July 31, 2013, http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2013/7/60-terrorist-plots-since-911-continued-lessons-in-domestic-counterterrorism.

[3]The Heritage Foundation, “Counterterrorism: Heritage Foundation Recommendations,” Heritage Foundation Issue Brief No. 3915, April 17, 2013, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/04/counterterrorism-heritage-foundation-recommendations.

[4]See Steven P. Bucci and David Inserra, “Top 10 Issues the New DHS Nominee Must Face,” Heritage Foundation Issue Brief No. 4072, October 23, 2013, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/10/top-10-issues-the-new-secretary-of-homeland-security-nominee-must-face.

[5]See Steven P. Bucci, Paul Rosenzweig, and David Inserra, “A Congressional Guide: Seven Steps to U.S. Security, Prosperity, and Freedom in Cyberspace,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2785, April 1, 2013, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/04/a-congressional-guide-seven-steps-to-us-security-prosperity-and-freedom-in-cyberspace.

[6]Jessica Vaughn, “Deportation Numbers Unwrapped,” Center for Immigration Studies, October 2013, http://cis.org/ICE-Illegal-Immigrant-Deportations (accessed January 15, 2014).

[7]James Jay Carafano, “America Is Leaving Itself out in the Arctic Cold,” Heritage Foundation Commentary, October 28, 2013, http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2013/10/america-is-leaving-itself-out-in-the-arctic-cold.

The article Top US Homeland Security Priorities For Congress In 2014 – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By IPS

By Bryant Harri

The U.S. government is violating federal leasing policies when it sells land to certain coal-mining companies, according to a new audit from an official watchdog agency.

The practice could be costing taxpayers millions of dollars even as mining operations degrade the environmental integrity of the Powder River Basin in the western U.S. states of Wyoming and Montana and lead to the production of large-scale carbon emissions. Although federal regulations stipulate that the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency, must auction off coal tracts in a competitive bidding process, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Tuesday found that this process wasn’t being followed.

Instead, for about 90 percent of the 107 leased tracts of land looked at by the GAO, only one company had bid on the land – typically the same company that submitted the application.

“[The GAO] offers a convincing argument that the programme lacks integrity,” Tom Sanzillo, the director of finance for the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a think tank, told IPS. “Because of a lack of independent oversight of 30 years of federal leases, they haven’t reviewed any of them.”

Sanzillo identifies two companies, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy, as the principle recipients of BLM leases. Critics worry that the lack of competitive bidding for coal mining firms undervalues the leases for publicly owned land, ultimately decreasing government revenues by effectively selling the land at discounted prices.

While an inspector-general for the U.S. Department of the Interior (BLM’s parent agency) indicated in a report last June that the U.S. had lost 60 million dollars as a result of undervalued leases, Sanzillo believes that the total revenue loss is far greater. In an analysis responding to those findings, Sanzillo noted that the inspector-general did not take into account the BLM’s methodological flaws in establishing the value of public coal.

The inspector-general “identifies at least three weaknesses in the BLM program,” he wrote, “no independent verification of engineering and geological data, no revenue estimates for projected export sales and a failure to use comparable sales data when setting bid prices.”

Furthermore, both the GAO and inspector-general reports note that the BLM has not included Arch and Peabody’s revenues from coal exports when determining the value of the publicly leased coal, further undervaluing its true worth. (The BLM did not respond to IPS’s inquiry by deadline.)

“They’re giving away federal access at a price that is far below what they should be giving it away for,” said Sanzillo. “Therefore the federal government, and particularly the states of Wyoming and Montana, are being short changed.”

The GAO did a similar review of coal leases in the Powder River Basin in 1983. At that time, the agency found that the government was losing some 100 million dollars as a result of undervalued coal leases, but the GAO’s recommendations to rectify the problem were never implemented.

The GAO’s more recent report recommends that the BLM use more than one method to determine the true value of its coal while taking export profits into account. It also suggests that the agency develop a reporting mechanism and post information about its lease sales on its website.

While the Department of the Interior has agreed with these recommendations, Sanzillo’s analysis indicates that BLM has been highly resistant to transparency.

Environmental degradation

In addition to the loss of revenue, coal-mining operations in the Powder River Basin have profoundly impacted the region and raised some serious concerns among local and national environmental advocacy groups.

“The Powder River Basin is one of the most significant contributors to carbon emissions in the U.S.,” Kelly Mitchell, a climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace, an environmental advocacy group, told IPS. “Thirteen percent of U.S. carbon emissions are sourced from the Powder River Basin.”

The region’s total carbon emissions are expected to increase even further once the BLM grants leases for more coal mining.

“There are about five billion tonnes of federal coal somewhere in the leasing pipeline right now,” said Mitchell. “If all that coal is leased, it would unlock more than 8.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide, or the annual emissions of more than 1.7 billion cars.”

The Powder River Basin Resource Council has asked the BLM to suspend coal-mining operations until it rectifies the flaws in its leasing programme. In addition to the economic issues of the coal leases, the organisation is equally concerned about the environmental issues that arise from coal mining.

“We believe coal leasing should be suspended until some of the environmental impacts get addressed,” Shannon Anderson, an organiser with the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a Wyoming-based environmental protection group, told IPS.

“There are impacts from reduced air quality, loss of water and major draw-downs of our aquifers, which are primary drinking-water sources. We’ve seen a dramatic loss of acreage available to the public for recreational purposes, like hunting, hiking and [livestock] grazing.”

Wyoming produces 40 percent of all coal mined in the U.S. and the federal government owns 85 percent of the state’s coal. This makes Wyoming one of the most popular states for the energy industry to lease public land.

Opposition to the practice of leasing public lands to the energy industry has grown in recent years. The administration of George W. Bush auctioned off of 103,000 acres of land in Utah, another western state, for coal and gas leases, a move that was met with widespread public protest.

According to the GAO, 74 percent of public land leases issued to energy companies between 2007 and 2009 were protested by the public in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

In early 2009, the administration of President Barack Obama instructed the BLM that “there is no presumed preference for oil and gas development over other uses”. It also began telling the energy industry which pieces of land are most suitable for mining, drilling or “fracking” with minimal environmental impact.

However, the energy industry may still nominate parcels of public land to lease, and the reforms have not addressed the issue of undervalued leases or the public’s environmental concerns in the Powder River Basin and elsewhere.

The article US Selling Coal Mining Rights At Undervalued Prices appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By PanArmenian

Twitter users have been discussing the Winter Olympics in many different languages over the past week. Now there’s an account that will let tweeting in 75 of them for free, Mashable reports.

One Hour Translation, a professional translation company with headquarters in Israel, is offering its services for free to Twitter users during the games in Sochi.

Users need only tweet at One Hour Translation’s handle (@OHT) including an unfamiliar phrase and the language they want it translated into. They will receive a translated response “within moments,” according to a company press release. (Users don’t need to be in Sochi for the service to work.)

The service was scheduled to start during the U.S. airing of the opening ceremony Friday night.

One Hour Translation has received investor attention in Israel, one of the world’s up-and-coming tech hubs. The company raised a $10 million funding round in January, and uses a network of more than 15,000 certified translators.

The article Twitter Account Lets Translate Olympics Tweets In 75 Languages appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Arab News

By Rima AL-Mukhtar

A prominent legal consultant has warned that Twitter users who retweet abusive or offensive tweets will be liable to the same punishment as the original posters of such remarks.

Humoud Al-Khaldi said that penal action would be taken against offenders in compliance with Article 6 of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law, which stipulates that anyone involved in the production, transmission or storage of material infringing on public order, religious values or privacy would be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison or a maximum fine of SR3 million or face both forms of punishment.

“Computer crime that takes place on Twitter, a leading social networking site that is used widely, poses a threat to the cohesion of the social fabric of society. Many have exploited Twitter to propagate false ideas and aberrant practices that many have fallen victim to, disregarding the moral and ethical values of our society, religion and traditions,” Al-Khaldi said.

“Hundreds of users posting anonymously or under fictitious names speak on issues which they are ignorant of, making judgmental remarks and instigating unrest,” said Al-Khaldi.

“This reinforces the importance of implementing strict laws to prevent such forms of cyber crime from taking place on Saudi and Gulf soil,” said Al-Khaldi.

He explained that one such initiative is the adoption and approval of a uniform code for ensuring cyber security in GCC countries.

“Social media is supposed to be a place for sharing stories, ideas and opinions. This kind of cyber crime will make users think twice before re-posting,” said Ahmed Abdulmajeed, a Twitter user.

The article Saudi Arabia: Retweeters Of Offensive Tweets Face Same Punishment appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Andy Worthington

I wrote the following article for the “Close Guantánamo” website, which I established in January 2012 with US attorney Tom Wilner. Please join us – just an email address is required to be counted amongst those opposed to the ongoing existence of Guantánamo, and to receive updates of our activities by email.

This is a grim time of year for anniversaries relating to Guantánamo. Two days ago, February 6, was the first anniversary of the start of last year’s prison-wide hunger strike, which woke the world up to the ongoing plight of the prisoners — over half of whom were cleared for release by a Presidential task force over four years ago but are still held.

The hunger strike — which, it should be noted, resumed at the end of last year, and currently involves dozens of prisoners — forced President Obama to promise to resume releasing prisoners, after a three-year period in which the release of prisoners had almost ground to a halt, because of opposition in Congress, and President Obama’s unwillingness to overcome that opposition, even though he had the power to do so.

To mark the anniversary, a number of NGOs — the ACLU, Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch — launched a campaign on Thursday, “Take a Stand for Justice,” encouraging people to call the White House (on 202-456-1111) to declare their support for President Obama’s recent call for Guantánamo to be closed for good (in his State of the Union address, he said, “With the Afghan war ending, this needs to be the year Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantánamo Bay”). Please call the White House if you can, and share the page via social media.

Yesterday, February 8, was the 12th anniversary of the founding document of President Bush’s torture program, announced in a short Presidential memo entitled, “Humane Treatment of Taliban and al-Qaeda Detainees.”

This was the disturbing document in which President Bush declared that “none of the provisions of [the] Geneva [Conventions] apply to our conflict with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere through the world, because, among other reasons, al-Qaeda is not a High Contracting Party to Geneva.” He added, “I determine that the Taliban detainees are unlawful combatants and, therefore, do not qualify as prisoners of war under Article 4 of Geneva. I note that, because Geneva does not apply to our conflict with al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda detainees also do not qualify as prisoners of war.”

As I explained in an article marking the 10th anniversary of this memo in 2012:

This was the rationale for holding prisoners neither as criminal suspects or as prisoners of war, but as a third category of human being, without any rights. [This] paved the way for the use of torture, as people with no rights whatsoever had no protection against torture and abuse, and to this end the most alarming passage in the memorandum is the President’s claim that “common Article 3 of Geneva does not apply to either al-Qaeda or Taliban detainees because, among other reasons, the relevant conflicts are international in scope and common Article 3 applies only to ‘armed conflict not of an international character.’”

As I also explained two years ago:

President Bush claimed that the prisoners would be “treated humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva,” but it was a meaningless addition. By refusing to accept that everyone seized in wartime must be protected from torture and abuse, and by removing the protections of common Article 3 from the prisoners, which prohibit “cruel treatment and torture,” and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment,” President Bush opened the floodgates to the torture programs that were subsequently developed, both for use by the CIA, and at Guantánamo.

The CIA’s torture program — for use in the agency’s global network of secret torture prisons, or “black sites” — was subsequently authorized, on August 1, 2002, through a series of memos that will forever be known as the “torture memos,” written by John Yoo, a lawyer close to Dick Cheney, who worked in the Office of Legal Counsel, a branch of the Justice Department that is supposed to supply impartial legal advice to the executive branch. Instead, Yoo claimed that torture was not torture, and provided the “golden shield” that Bush administration officials used, and still use to try to prevent anyone holding them accountable for their actions.

Later, on December 2, 2002, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved his own torture program for use at Guantánamo. This was originally intended for use on just one prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi considered to be an intended 20th hijacker for the 9/11 attacks, who was tortured for several months at the end of 2002 and the start of 2003 (see the harrowing interrogation log here, which runs from November 23, 2002 to January 11, 2003).

The torture of Mohammed al-Qahtani is the only example of torture admitted to by a senior Pentagon official, when, just before President Bush left office, Susan Crawford, who oversaw the military commissions at Guantánamo, told Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, “We tortured Qahtani. His treatment met the legal definition of torture.”

Al-Qahtani, however, was not the only prisoner tortured at Guantánamo. As Neil A. Lewis reported for the New York Times in a powerful article in January 2005:

Interviews with former intelligence officers and interrogators provided new details and confirmed earlier accounts of inmates being shackled for hours and left to soil themselves while exposed to blaring music or the insistent meowing of a cat-food commercial. In addition, some may have been forcibly given enemas as punishment.

While all the detainees were threatened with harsh tactics if they did not cooperate, about one in six were eventually subjected to those procedures, one former interrogator estimated. The interrogator said that when new interrogators arrived they were told they had great flexibility in extracting information from detainees because the Geneva Conventions did not apply at the base.

Although these specific techniques eventually came to an end, the Bush administration’s official use of torture did not come to an end until June 2006, when, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court reminded the Bush administration that common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applied — and applies — to all prisoners held by US forces. Just over two months later, 14 “high-value detainees” were moved from secret CIA prisons to Guantánamo, and President Bush announced that the “black sites” — whose existence he had previously denied — had been closed down.

Torture, of course, did not come to an end. Many of the torture techniques migrated to Appendix M of the Army Field Manual, which was reissued on September 6, 2006, the very same day that the 14 “high-value detainees” arrived at Guantánamo, and the “black sites” were closed down.

More generally, it is worthwhile considering that the very function of Guantánamo is torture, as a place devoted to open-ended, and possibly unending imprisonment without charge or trial. In October 2003, this alarmed the International Committee of the Red Cross to such an extent that, although the organization is not supposed to make public statements, as part of its access arrangements, Christophe Girod, the senior Red Cross official in Washington D.C., told the New York Times, “The open-endedness of the situation and its impact on the mental health of the population has become a major problem.”

He added, as the Times put it, that “in meetings with members of his inspection teams, detainees regularly asked about what was going to happen to them.”

“It’s always the No. 1 question,” he said. “They don’t know about the future.”

Ten years and four months on from Mr. Girod’s comments, it is difficult to gauge quite how much more crushing the impact on the prisoners’ mental health has been in the intervening years, not just through their ongoing indefinite detention without charge or trial, but also as a result of the quashed hopes raised by President Obama’s election in 2009, and, most horribly, the process whereby, in January 2010, 76 of the remaining 155 prisoners were told that they had been cleared for release, and would be released as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made — but they have not been released.

To return to “Take a Stand for Justice,” the campaign launched on Thursday, the time is now to pick up the phone to the White House and to tell President Obama that the cleared prisoners — those 76 men plus a 77th recently cleared for release by a Periodic Review Board — must be released as soon as possible, that justice must be delivered as swiftly as possible to the other 79 men, who should be tried or released, and that no further delays are acceptable.

The article Torture Began At Guantánamo With Bush’s Presidential Memo 12 Years Ago – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.