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ISIS Becomes IS – OpEd

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ISIS is an acronym that has become all too familiar in the past year. It stands for the “Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham” (al-Sham meaning the historical Levant, including both Syria and Lebanon), and refers to the Islamist military organization, founded in 2013, and operating in Iraq and northern Syria. But events move fast in the Middle East, and it seems that ISIS has outlived its usefulness.

ISIS started life as an offshoot of al-Qaida in Iraq. In the early days, it called itself simply the “Islamic State of Iraq.” When its founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a targeted strike by the US Air Force in June 2006, into his shoes stepped Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Zarqawi had been the most brutal of al-Qaida’s leaders, responsible for a succession of mass suicide bombings and highly publicised beheadings, videoed and posted online. Baghdadi adopted the same approach in his fanatical opposition to any attempt to impose law, order and a democratic framework upon the disrupted state of Iraq.

But Baghdadi had a wider vision for the militant organization he led – and, indeed, for his own future. In 2013 he announced that he intended to merge his “Islamic State of Iraq” with the main al-Qaida force in Syria under Jabhat Al-Nusra, which was fighting the Assad regime alongside other rebel groups. He proclaimed that his organization would henceforth be called the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). The overweening ambition that lay behind that title sent shivers down the spines of the al-Qaida leadership, and Baghdadi’s move – interpreted as a bid for supreme power within the jihadist cause – was rejected. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s head since the death of Osama bin Laden, renounced Baghdadi and dissociated al-Qaida from ISIS and its activities.

Since then, in addition to the civil conflict between Syria’s President Assad and the Sunni forces opposed to his regime, there has been a second Sunni civil war fought across northern Syria between ISIS on the one hand and Jabhat Al-Nusra and other rebel groups on the other. This conflict is undoubtedly being won by Baghdadi who, in the space of a year, has become the most powerful jihadi leader in the world. Living up to the intention inherent in its name, ISIS simply ignored the border between Iraq and northern Syria, and swept across to capture territory extending from the city of Aleppo in northwestern Syria, to Diyala province in northeastern Iraq. At the end of June 2014 his forces captured Mosul, the northern capital of Iraq, and were threatening Baghdad.

It is a measure of Baghdadi’s success and personal charisma that ISIS has become the jihadi organization of choice for thousands of foreign would-be fighters who have flocked to his banner. In the areas of Syria that it controls, it has set up courts, schools and other services, flying its black jihadi flag everywhere. At the same time Baghdadi has maintained his policy of extreme brutality. Crucifixions, beheadings and amputations mark the ruthless progress of ISIS across Syria and Iraq.

Then, on June 29 – the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – Baghdadi felt emboldened enough to take a giant step towards achieving a degree of power and status for himself and his organization beyond the wildest dreams of most jihadi leaders. In an audio recording the group, formerly known as ISIS, announced that it was henceforth to be known as the “Islamic State”, and that its head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was now “the caliph and leader for Muslims everywhere”. Moreover, declared the group’s spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, “the legality of all emirates, groups, states and organisations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph’s authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas. Support your state, which grows every day.”

An official document, released in English and several other languages, urges Muslims to “gather around your caliph, so that you may return as you once were for ages, kings of the earth and knights of war.”

What is a caliphate? Effectively an Islamic republic led by one leader, regardless of national boundaries. Ataturk’s abolition of the caliphate on March 3, 1924, has long been seen as the end of the last line of caliphs, but Muslim extremists have long dreamed of recreating the Islamic state, or caliphate, that ruled over the Middle East, much of North Africa and beyond in various forms over the course of Islam’s 1,400-year history. So the announcement of June 29, 2014 is couched in terms of ending a century-long calamity – namely the break-up of the Islamic Middle East into artificial sovereign states following the first World War – and as marking the return of dignity and honor to the Islamic umma.

The caliph is historically supposed to be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad’s Quraysh tribe in Arabia. Since becoming leader of ISIS, Baghdadi has been claiming precisely that lineage – a claim widely disputed. In his announcement the new IS spokesman, Adnani, reiterated Baghdadi’s claim and his intention henceforth to use his real name, Ibrahim, as caliph.

The reaction of other Muslim groups, bodies and leaders, both moderate and extreme, to this unprecedented exercise in arrogance and self-aggrandisement can well be imagined. Abdel-Rahman al-Shami, a spokesman for the Army of Islam in Syria, poured scorn on the announcement.

“The gangs of al-Baghdadi are living in a fantasy world. They’re delusional. They want to establish a state but they don’t have the elements for it. You cannot establish a state through looting, sabotage and bombing.”

The spokesman of the Grand Mufti of Egypt dismissed the new caliphate as an “illusion”. “What they called the Islamic caliphate is merely a response to the chaos which has happened in Iraq as a direct result of the inflammation of sectarian conflict in the entire region.”

This is no doubt true, but it scarcely serves to counter facts on the ground. On July 3, Baghdadi’s forces captured Syria’s largest oil field from rival Islamist fighters, the Al-Nusra Front. Facing no resistance, it took control of the al-Omar oil field, giving the Islamic State access to crude reserves, and the considerable financial assets they represent.

Meanwhile Baghdadi’s “delusions” – which are comparable to those of Napoleon or Adolf Hitler – seem to know no bounds. On July 2 the new, self-anointed caliph and supreme leader of Islam, declared that Muslims should flock to the new caliphate. “Syria is not for Syrians,” he proclaimed, “and Iraq is not for Iraqis. The land is for the Muslims, all Muslims.” Follow his advice, he said, and “you will conquer Rome and own the world.”

Not the happiest of prospects either for Rome or, indeed, the world.

The post ISIS Becomes IS – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.


Pyongyang Calls For Koreas’ Federalization And Reunification

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North and South should no more be victims of outside efforts to exploit Korea’s division, Pyongyang has stated, calling on Seoul to make steps toward reunification through federalization in which differing ideologies and social systems would co-exist.

“The north and the south should specify the reunification proposals by way of federation and confederation and make efforts to realize them and thus actively promote co-existence, co-prosperity and common interests,” Pyongyang said in a statement.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) says that both nations should seek “reasonable reunification proposals” supported by all “to achieve reunification through a federal formula in Korea where differing ideologies and social systems exist.”

Presently a concrete wall runs 240 kilometres along the front line south of the Military Demarcation Line as a barrier across the Korean peninsula. Now the North is calling on the South to “join hands” to settle disagreements and pursue “the reunification issue of the country in line with the desire and wish of the nation.”

DPRK urged to focus on the joint declaration of 15 June, a document that was signed in 2000 in Pyongyang between South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

“In the June 15 joint declaration the north and the south recognized that there are common points in the north-proposed low-level federation and the south-proposed confederation, and agreed to work for reunification in this direction in the future.”

To start with the communist state is proposing to “create the atmosphere favorable for reconciliation and unity” and to end “calumnies and vituperations” that create misunderstanding and distrust among Koreans.

Legal and institutional measures that block family reunification should be lifted and a “broad avenue for contacts, visits, cooperation and dialogue should be opened.”

Meanwhile, the North says that both states should “end reckless hostility and confrontation” for the reconciliation and unity process.

“The grave situation in which even a single remark and act and tiny friction may lead to a dangerous conflict and destruction of the nation is prevailing on the Korean peninsula as hostility and confrontation have reached the extremes.”

Pyongyang urged its neighbor to stop all kinds of “north-targeted war exercises” and reject dependence on “outsiders” to resolve Korean problems.

“[North and South] should solve all issues by their own efforts in the common interests of the nation from the stand of putting the nation above all, attaching importance to the nation and achieving national unity,” the statement reads. “The north and the south should never fall a victim to outsiders keen on catching fish in troubled waters through the division of Korea.”

The post Pyongyang Calls For Koreas’ Federalization And Reunification appeared first on Eurasia Review.

ISIL’s ‘Empty Caliphate’ Is Nothing But Rhetoric: Iraqis

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By Hassan al-Obaidi and Sultan al-Barei

In a Tuesday (July 1st) audio message, “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on skilled professionals to immigrate to his newly-declared “caliphate”, sparking outrage in Iraq and other countries whose sovereignty his would-be state violates.

ISIL’s “Islamic caliphate”, declared on Sunday, claims to cover territory from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala province in eastern Iraq and unilaterally names al-Baghdadi “Caliph of the Muslims”.

The attempt to create a new state and appoint a “caliph” without due process makes a mockery of Islam and has no chance at success or support, officials, clerics and civilians told Al-Shorfa.

Al-Baghdadi’s call is a sham as the territory in question does not belong to him, Iraqi joint operations command spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassem Atta told Mawtani.

“He must know that whoever tries to cross into Iraq illegally, with the intention of committing murders and terrorist crimes will not find mercy in our dealing with him,” Atta said, adding that Iraqi ground and air forces will deal firmly with any case of illegal infiltration.

Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said he believes the number of ISIL fighters has dwindled as a result of the ramped up Iraqi army operations against the group, so it is not surprising that al-Baghdadi would try to recruit more fighters.

“He is trying to ask for help from other extremists to save his faltering army,” he told Mawtani, warning prospective ISIL recruits that “Iraq will be the graveyard for all terrorists who try to come in to harm its people”.

‘An empty caliphate’

Al-Baghdadi “created an empty caliphate then began to invite people to come to it to become its people, which runs counter to both nature and logic”, said Baghdad mosque preacher Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Obaidi.

“[Al-Baghdadi] appointed himself [first], then started to invite those he would be governing to gather around him,” he said.

Baghdad resident Silan Fahmi said al-Baghdadi’s call made him laugh.

“Those who are following him are more insane than him,” he told Mawtani. “[Al-Baghdadi] must know that Iraq is for its own people only.”

The Iraqi Iftaa Authority is one of a number of groups that have condemned ISIL’s declaration of an “Islamic caliphate” in Syria and Iraq, saying the group and its bloodshed must be resisted.

“ISIL’s declaration of a ‘caliphate’ is null and void both legally and under sharia, and is therefore not recognised by clerics or citizens,” said authority spokesman Sheikh Abdul Karim al-Adhami.

“We believe that the declaration has revealed the truth of that group that seeks authority and hegemony on citizens,” he told Al-Shorfa, adding that it is merely “one of the terrorists’ feverish attempts to disrupt Iraq’s unity and sow sectarian strife”.

Iraqis in the areas under ISIL’s control have rejected its declaration of authority, he said.

“The areas declared by ISIL to be under its control are witnessing military operations and an uprising by the tribes to get rid of ISIL fighters,” he said.

Renewed conflict with al-Qaeda

In addition to drawing the ire of Iraqis, ISIL’s declaration also has sparked renewed conflict with its rival, al-Qaeda.

“One of those hit the hardest by the declaration of the ‘caliphate’ will be the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who could find himself forced to pledge support to his disciple (al-Baghdadi),” Syrian National Coalition member and jihadist groups expert Abdul Rahman al-Haj told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“This competition between jihadists could be very dangerous,” Shashank Joshi of the London-based Royal United Services Institute told AFP, warning that al-Qaeda may look to make a “spectacular” show of force.

“The competition has already started,” Magnus Ranstorp, an expert on radical Islamic movements at the Swedish National Defence College told AFP, noting that al-Qaeda can hardly ignore what is essentially a declaration of war.

In a series of Tuesday statements, al-Qaeda affiliated leaders in Jordan criticised ISIL’s declaration of a “caliphate”, describing the move as “illegitimate”, The Jordan Times reported.

Al-Qaeda ideologue Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi has called on his followers not to recognise it, the newspaper said.

On Monday, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, al-Nusra Front, declared that the creation of an “ISIL caliphate” was “null and void”, AFP reported.

Baghdadi’s efforts will not pay off

Youth from the Gulf will not respond to al-Baghdadi’s call, Fadel al-Hindi, supervisor at Saudi King Abdulaziz University’s Centre for Social and Humanities research, told Al-Shorfa.

“The issue has become well-known and obvious, and such tactics no longer pay off,” he said.

Al-Hindi described al-Baghdadi’s call as “an empty invitation under the present international crackdown on jihadist elements, and the sense of awareness which the young now have, in contrast to previous years”.

It “reveals the triviality of al-Baghdadi in picturing himself as if he was standing before an army of millions of soldiers who are ready to obey his orders, whereas the reality is quite the opposite”, al-Hindi said.

ISIL is now working merely “to preserve the gains it made [in Syria], whose price was the blood of the Syrian people and the thousands of youths who were killed in this war after being misled and manipulated”, he added.

The post ISIL’s ‘Empty Caliphate’ Is Nothing But Rhetoric: Iraqis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Belmokhtar Plots New Attacks From Libya Base

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By Jamel Arfaoui  and Jemal Oumar

Notorious terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, alias Laaouar, intends to unify fighters returning from the Syria front and use them to strike the Maghreb, retired Tunisian Brigadier General Mokhtar Ben Nasr recently revealed.

“Since declaring his allegiance to al-Qaeda, Mokhtar Belmokhtar has stayed in Libya where he has been recruiting Syria returnees,” Ben Nasr told Algeria’s Echourouk daily on June 27th.

“He is trying to impose his influence on other jihadist groups in the Arab Maghreb after Tunisia’s Abou Iyadh disappeared from the scene because he was banned from making media statements by a Libyan militia,” the Tunisian officer said.

Algeria’s El Khabar daily cited unnamed security sources as saying that Belmokhtar met with Uqba Ibn Nafi Brigade chief Khaled Chaieb (aka Abu Sakhr) and told him to free Ansar al-Sharia fighters from Mornaguia prison near Tunis.

The newspaper, which did not specify the date or place of the meeting, said the instructions also included targeting a number of oil, tourist and security facilities and some political and security officials.

“The terrorist elements are incapable of confronting the internal security and national army forces,” Tunisian Defence Minister Ghazi Jeribi said on Thursday (July 3rd) during the funeral of four national army soldiers killed on Wednesday when their vehicle hit a landmine planted by terrorists. “Their strategy is to plant landmines and not to confront the army forces.”

He added: “Jebel Chaambi is under control, and a decision was made to storm the mountains between Jendouba and El Kef provinces.”

Olfa Ayari, president of the Prisons and Correctional Institution Syndicate, dismissed Belmokhtar’s call to his followers to attack Mornaguia prison.

“Let him come with all of his al-Qaeda elements and let them try,” she told Magharebia. “They will be disappointed because this is Africa’s most secured prison with its strong fortifications and highly-trained guards.”

According to Ayari, Mornaguia prison is home to more than 500 terrorists.

“We’re all accustomed to Belmokhtar’s threats, which are basically propaganda after his status dropped among terrorist groups,” security expert Sami Riahi said.

Tunisia’s Al Maghreb daily also reported that Laaouar aimed to carry out terrorist operations in Tunisia, including bombings and assassinations of some officials.

Observers are not surprised by Belmokhtar’s plan to target prisons, like what happened in Niger last year.

“Terrorist organisations are stepping up their efforts to free their jailed elements because this is the best way to maintain their loyalty,” analyst Abdelhamid al-Ansari said.

The post Belmokhtar Plots New Attacks From Libya Base appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Israeli Investigation Into Murder Of Palestinian Focuses On Jerusalem Soccer Fan Group – Analysis

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An Israeli investigation into the brutal murder of 16-year old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in apparent revenge for the killing of three teenage residents of an Israeli settlement on the West Bank has focused attention on Israel’s most militant, racist soccer fan group.

The focus, irrespective of whether the fan group was involved in Mr. Abu Khdeir’s death, is likely to end a long-standing refusal by the Israeli government and football association to crack down on rabidly anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim soccer club Beitar Jerusalem FC and its notorious La Familia fan group. The club has long enjoyed the support of Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and other prominent right-wing personalities.

Media reports and Israeli blogger Elizabeth Tsurkov said six suspects arrested on Sunday on suspicion of involvement in Mr. Abu Khdeir’s murder were either members of La Familia, named in honour of the Italian mafia, or met at an anti-Arab La Familia protest. Police were also reported to be investigating a failed kidnapping earlier this week by La Familia associates of a nine-year old Palestinian boy.

La Familia members last week greeted the Beitar soccer squad before police had found the bodies of Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrah, the three teenagers Israel says were kidnapped and subsequently murdered by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, with chants saying “here they come, Israel’s most racist team.

Beitar is the only club to have refused to hire a Palestinian player despite the fact that Palestinians rank among the country’s foremost performers. Neither the government nor the Israel Football Association has ever taken the club to task on equal opportunity grounds.

Protesters wearing La Familia shirts also demonstrated at the Gush Etzion settlement near Hebron where the three Israeli teenagers were abducted at a popular hitchhiking point to demand that settlers randomly attack Palestinians in revenge for the kidnapping. The bodies of the three were later found buried near the West Bank city, a hot bed of Palestinian nationalism as well as Islamist groups. Hebron is home to a mosque soccer team that a decade ago produced several suicide bombers.

La Familia briefly sparked national outrage in Israel in January of last year when it unfurled a banner asserting that “Beitar will always remain pure” in protest against the club’s hiring of two Muslim players from Chechnya. It was the group’s use of language associated with Germany’s National Socialism that sparked the rare outrage against its consistent racism. The group’s opposition to the Chechens also countered a long-standing pillar of Israeli policy that seeks to forge close ties with its neighbours’ neighbours in the absence of relations with a majority of Arab and Muslim states.

The group also torched Beitar Jerusalem’s team offices in protest against the hiring of the Chechens. Two Beitar supporters were sentenced to prison as part of a plea bargain in which they pleaded guilty to the torching but did not identify themselves as members of La Familia.

The outcry was in stark contrast to the lack of a national response to past outbursts by La Familia, including an attack on Palestinian shoppers and workers in a Jerusalem mall as well as Jewish musician who denounced their attitudes in 2012 and Beitar’s refusal to hire Palestinian striker Mohammed Ghadir who in late 2011 volunteered to join the club in a challenge to its anti-Palestinian policy.

In another rare instance that sparked a public response, Beitar fans shocked Israelis several years ago when they refused to observe a moment of silence for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who initiated the first peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

All in all, Beitar has the worst disciplinary record in Israel’s Premier League. Since 2005 it has faced more than 20 hearings and has received various punishments, including point deductions, fines and matches behind closed doors because of its fans’ racist behaviour – slaps on the knuckles that have failed to change the attitude of the club and its supporters.

The IFA, despite being the only soccer body in the Middle East to have launched a campaign against racism, has allowed what Israeli soccer scholar Amir Ben-Porat describes as ‘permissive territory’ in which “some deviant behaviours are tolerated (such as using profanities) as long as definite rules are followed (that is, no racist chants)” to get out of hand.

Similarly, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, who cultivates an image as a tolerant public servant, has largely remained silent about the racism of home soccer team despite the fact that, according to Ha’aretz newspaper, approximately one third of Mr. Barkat’s constituents are Jerusalem’s 280,000 tax-paying Palestinians.

As a result, La Familia operates in an environment in which racism, racial superiority, bigotry, double standards and little sincere effort to address a key issue that undermines Israel’ s projection of itself as a democratic state founded on the ashes of discrimination , prejudice and genocide is one predominant story that emerges from the country’s soccer pitches.

Writing in Soccer & Society, Mr. Ben-Porat warned several years ago that “the football stadium has become an arena for protest: political, ethnic, nationalism, etc… ‘Death to the Arabs’ has thus become common chant in football stadiums… Many Israelis consider the Israeli Arabs (Palestinians) to be ‘Conditional Strangers,’ that is temporary citizens… Contrary to conventional expectations, these fans are not unsophisticated rowdies, but middle-class political-ideological right-wingers, whose rejection of Arab football players on their team is based on a definite conception of Israel as a Jewish (Zionist) state,” Mr. Ben-Porat wrote.

Beitar, a reference to the Jews’ last standing fortress in the second century Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans, was established in 1923 in Latvia as part of the revanchist Zionist. Its founder, former Ukrainian war reporter Ze’ev Jabotinsky, hoped to imbue its members with a military spirit.

The movement’s Jerusalem branch founded the sports club in 1936, the year of the first Palestinian uprising.

Beitar Jerusalem initially drew many of its players and fans from Irgun, an extreme nationalist, para-military Jewish underground that waged a violent campaign against the pre-state British mandate authorities. As a result, many of them were exiled to Eritrea in the 1940s. Many of La Familia’s members are supporters of Kach, the outlawed violent and racist party that was headed by assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane. La Familia frequently displays Kach’s symbols.

Beitar’s initial anthem reflected the club’s politics, glorifying a “guerrilla army racist and tough, an army that calls itself the supporters of Beitar.” That spirit still comes to life when fans of Beitar meets their team’s Palestinian rivals. Their support reaches a feverish pitch as they chant racist, anti-Arab songs and denounce the Prophet Mohammed.

Beitar’s hard core fans — Sephardi males of Middle Eastern and North African origin who defined their support as subversive and against the country’s Ashkenazi establishment — revelled in their status as the bad boys of Israeli soccer. Their dislike of Ashkenazi Jews of East European extraction, rooted in resentment against social and economic discrimination, rivals their disdain for Palestinians.

The refusal by the IFA and government to stand up to the group’s blatant racism reflects the ambiguity of a society that long yearned for peace, increasingly grown frustrated at how beyond grasp it seemed to be, and finally concluded that peace no longer wa s essential to its survival.

As a result, the failure to confront La Familia has entrenched Palestinian perceptions of an Israeli society that is inherently racist. Israeli Palestinian Member of Parliament Ahmed Tibi has laid the blame for La Familia’s excess at the doorstep of Israeli political and sports leaders. “For years, no one really tried to stop them, not the police, not the club, not the attorney-general and not the Israeli Football Association,” he said.

The post Israeli Investigation Into Murder Of Palestinian Focuses On Jerusalem Soccer Fan Group – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Unstoppable Tide Of Child Migrants To The United States

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By Louisa Reynolds

The surge in unaccompanied Central American children and adolescents who are arriving at the US southern border has generated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with detention facilities now severely overcrowded and scores of children arriving sick and dehydrated.

According to US official figures, in the first five months of 2014 more than 47,000 unaccompanied minors were detained whilst trying to enter the US illegally by crossing the south-western border of the US, a year-on-year increase of 92 percent. Most of the children come from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, a growing number are under the age of 12, and during their hazardous journey to the US — in most cases in search of their parents — many of them are vulnerable to crime and sexual abuse.

On June 15, the decomposing corpse of a young boy was found 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of McAllen, Texas. Five days later, he was identified by the Texan police as 11-year-old Gilberto Francisco Ramos Juárez, from the Northern department of Huehuetenango, in Guatemala. He was travelling alone to the US to join his older brother who lives in Chicago. The harrowing discovery highlights the dangers faced by unaccompanied child migrants.

“We’ve heard testimonies of teenage girls who take contraceptives during the journey because they know they can get raped. There have also been cases of children who have been killed or kidnapped by Los Zetas [Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartel] along the way,” says Flora Reynosa, the Guatemalan Displaced People and Migrants’ Ombudsperson, to Latinamerica Press.

In an attempt to find a solution to the crisis, US vice-president Joe Biden extended his trip to Latin America which was scheduled to end on June 19 and scheduled a last minute visit to Guatemala the next day where he discussed the issue with Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, Mexico’s Interior Minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong and the coordinator of the Honduran cabinet, Jorge Ramón Hernández.

US migration policy under scrutiny

The influx of child migrants has posed a political as well as humanitarian problem for the US president Barack Obama administration. Eager to score political points, Republican opposition leaders have argued that the current crisis is the result of the Obama administration’s lax policy migration, and particularly the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, under which deportation can be deferred for some minors that enter the US illegally and have lived there for a number of years.

During the talks, Central American leaders insisted that the children’s welfare and their right to be reunited with their parents should prevail above all other concerns, whereas Biden, on the other hand, urged them to dispel the myths that have arisen regarding the US government’s migration policy with regards to unaccompanied minors.

“Make no mistake, once an individual’s case is fully heard, and if he or she does not qualify for asylum, he or she will be removed from the United States and returned home. Everyone should know that. We are prioritizing the need to resolve these cases as quickly as possible in light of the humanitarian crisis. We expect many of the recent migrants to fall into this category. My guess is a vast majority, and they will be going home,” said Biden during a press conference held at the residence of the US ambassador to Guatemala.

“All of us agreed to work to counter and correct the misinformation smugglers are propagating about US immigration policy, and discourage families from sending their children on this perilous journey. The President of Guatemala announced that beginning in July there will be a major initiative in the media and in the public space here in Guatemala to make it clear what the facts are. The same commitment was made by the President of El Salvador and the Honduran representatives. Mexico is already doing this. We expect them to do it. We will hold them to that commitment,” he added.

Seven days after Biden’s visit, Guatemala’s largest media conglomerate which includes Prensa Libre, a national newspaper, the Guatevisión TV channel and regional newspaper El Quetzalteco, launched a campaign warning the population of the dangers of allowing children to travel to the US illegally and unaccompanied, and urging the government to improve security, education and employment opportunities for young people, in the hope that better living conditions at home will discourage young people from emigrating.

However, the National Commission for Migrants (CONAMIGUA), a government bureau that lobbies in favor of migrant rights and assists migrants living abroad as well as deported migrants, has also urged the US government to provide the necessary resources to process the cases of undocumented migrants in a swift and efficient manner. According to CONAMIGUA, the US justice system currently only has 260 immigration judges spread across 59 tribunals where 300,000 immigration cases are awaiting trial.

Are young people fleeing from gang violence?

Eager to deflect attention from the controversy over migration reform in the US and immigrants’ right to be reunited with their families, Biden emphasized gang violence in Central America as the number one cause of child migration and pledged US$40 million to fund social programs that seek to prevent vulnerable youths from falling prey to street gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18.

The United Nations estimates that there are around 60,500 gang members in the three countries that comprise what is known as Central America’s Northern Triangle: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. However, although youth gangs and drug trafficking are often cited as the main causes of violence in the region, there is debate as to whether the problem has worsened so dramatically over the past five months so as to cause a 92 percent rise in child migration.

Guatemalan ambassador to Washington, Julio Ligorría, describes child migration as “a phenomenon that has multiple causes,” which includes poverty, high levels of youth unemployment, children’s natural desire to be reunited with their parents, and widespread violence.

On the other hand, José Guadalupe Ruelas, director of Casa Alianza Honduras, an NGO which defends the children’s welfare, says that in the case of Honduras, claiming that violence is causing young people to flee by the hundreds is by no means an exaggeration. And when he talks about violence Ruelas refers to both gang turf wars and so-called “social-cleansing” operations, that is to say the elimination of groups regarded as “undesirables,” such as gang members or simply young people who loiter in the streets, by vigilante groups.

“Hondurans are not looking for the American dream; they’re fleeing from the nightmare of violence in Honduras. So far this year 102 children have been executed and six massacres have been reported. There are financially powerful vigilante groups that have cars, arms and wear balaclavas, and they’re murdering poor children in Honduras,” says Ruelas to Latinamerica Press.

The post Unstoppable Tide Of Child Migrants To The United States appeared first on Eurasia Review.

India In Iraq: Need For Better Focus – Analysis

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By Ranjit Gupta

Though Iraq has been a particularly good and politically supportive friend and has episodically been the top oil supplier to India in the past, relations perforce started losing momentum in the wake of the US policies after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait; finally, India lost interest in Iraq after the US invaded it in 2003 – so much so that there was no Indian ambassador in Baghdad from 2005-2011.

Iraq has suddenly dominated Indian public attention for the past month with India’s 24×7 TV news channels orchestrating a shrill campaign highlighting the woes of the families of 40 Indian construction workers abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after they took control of Mosul and of 46 Indian nurses posted in a hospital in Tikrit; and pillorying the government’s alleged “failure” to protect and/or rescue its nationals.

The Indian public needs to be made aware of ground realities because of which these things happen.

The 39 construction workers are in a war zone and their exact whereabouts are not known. Since neither the territory, nor the captors, nor the evolution of developments are under Indian control or influence, the government is inevitably completely dependent on others – governments of friendly countries who may have local influence; central and regional governments in Iraq; national and international humanitarian and relief agencies; tribal leaders; militants themselves or other individuals or entities who have influence with the militants etc for their safety and return to India. Efforts have been continuing on a 24 hour basis with such entities – that is the best that any government can do. That is how the rescue of the nurses was secured. India and Indians have always enjoyed enormous goodwill in the Gulf region in particular and in the Arab world in general. This is one of the reasons why Indian nurses were not ill-treated and released. If, despite all efforts, the workers are harmed the government should not be blamed.

Not a single country, even those with extremely competent intelligence agencies and foreign ministries, and those that intensively interact with Iraq on a daily basis, had anticipated the blitzkrieg of the ISIL in taking over the Sunni provinces of Iraq. The consul general of Turkey in Mosul and 23 other consulate personnel were abducted and are yet to be rescued. 100 Kurdish school children have been missing for weeks. Numerous others of many nationalities are missing. Therefore, there was nothing that the Indian government or the embassy could have done to prevent the abduction of the Indian workers.

Suggestions that they could have been evacuated in anticipation of events made in hindsight completely ignore how the real world functions. They themselves would not have wanted to leave having made large payments to recruitment and travel agents in India. Suggestions that the commando operations can be mounted to rescue them are completely irresponsible.

Exactly 10 years ago something similar had happened. Three Indian truck drivers were kidnapped in Iraq in July 2004 while working for a Kuwaiti company that ferried supplies to the US military in Iraq. An Indian diplomatic team was sent to Baghdad and successfully negotiated their release – they had been captive for 41 days. While negotiations were underway, India witnessed similar frenetic TV coverage as now. However, within a few months of their release, the drivers were back in Kuwait. When interviewed on TV, the same family members who had earlier complained about and criticised the government aggressively said that the men had to earn a living for their family members!

This team had learnt to its great surprise that as many as 20,000 Indians were working in Iraq, many of them in various US military camps, the attraction obviously being the high salaries being paid for duty in war zones. In the context of the kidnapping of the drivers, the government banned the movement of Indians to Iraq for employment, which continued till May 2010. This was lifted after a public demand and hence the trouble now.

All this highlights the sad fact and national shame that 67 years after independence, millions of Indians have to go abroad to work in conditions that are conducive to their easy exploitation. In the short term, it is difficult to see how this can be prevented. However, one domestic issue needs to be addressed proactively with a sense of priority which unfortunately no government in the past has done: the nexus between the recruiting and travel agents in India and employment agents in the Gulf countries – the main reason for the exploitation of Indian workers. This unsavoury nexus must be broken and stricter regulations must be stringently enforced.

Last week the ISIL announced the establishment of an Islamic Emirate, which in due course, they hope, would include India. However, there is no reason for major concern because the ISIL is going to be extremely busy in Syria and Iraq to stave off defeat ultimately. However, the Caliphate could be an ideological beacon for misguided or unemployed Indian Muslim youth; however, ultimately causes and remedies thereof lie with the Indian government and civil society, not outside India.

Ranjit Gupta
Former Member, National Security Advisory Board (NSAB)

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US And The World Cup: Nationalism Without Football? – Analysis

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By Amit Gupta

Once every four years Americans discover football – or as they like to call it, soccer. Yet this temporary attraction to the game has little to do with a real understanding of the global sport but more with the ability to project sporting nationalism. So is soccer catching on in the US? The answer is no and yes and it reflects on the changing demographics and socioeconomic patterns of the US.

In the US, football comes in a distant fourth to the premier sports of American football, basketball, and baseball. These games have been around for over a 100 years and young Americans have been socialised to play and watch these sports. Thus when the US hosted the World Cup in 1994 it did not even have a domestic professional league. Further, there remains a belief that soccer is too foreign, too slow, too low-scoring, and if one is to go by the musings of the conservative commentator Ann Coulter, too socialist in its orientation. In her dismissal of soccer as being un-American, Ms. Coulter stated that in the game there, “are no heroes, no losers, no accountability, and no child’s fragile self-esteem is bruised. There’s a reason perpetually alarmed women are called “soccer moms,” not “football moms.” Not one to be pithy, Ms Coulter added that soccer was loved by The New York Times (a politically unsound newspaper to the lunatic faction of America’s right), it was not liked by African-Americans, and not a serious game since men and women played together on the same field – and no serious game from kindergarten onwards was ever co-ed. She ended by stating, “If more “Americans” are watching soccer today, it’s only because of the demographic switch effected by Teddy Kennedy’s 1965 immigration law. I promise you: No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer. One can only hope that, in addition to learning English, these new Americans will drop their soccer fetish with time.” Such feelings of xenophobia, however, do not explain why 18.2 million viewers saw the US-Portugal game on ESPN.

Ms Coulter is partially correct when she states that most Americans are not interested in soccer but like any other nation they love the nationalistic sentiments and tribal behavior that the game stirs up. American sports are dubbed “world championships” but they only involve one American city playing another. In contrast, the World Cup is America against the world. So Americans want their national team to win even though many have trouble understanding soccer and are particularly troubled by the fact that the game is not full of technological solutions, time-outs (convenient for going to the bathroom), and legalese – the rules of an American sport like football or basketball read like an extensive contract for a corporate merger. The fact is that for the older American who has not played the game, it is as confusing and boring as cricket. Further, sports commentators, team owners in major professional sports, and even some players have an economic interest in denigrating soccer since it could threaten the established sporting hierarchy in the US. But things are not as gloomy as they seem because socioeconomic and demographic changes are making soccer assume a more prominent role in the US.

First, America’s suburban white middle-class has embraced the game because it easy and inexpensive to play, it is injury-free, and consequently the game is mainly played by children from middle class and affluent families. It is this educated, globalised class that is the future of the game in the US particularly since the sport is so participation-friendly for young women. And women, secondly, are slowly bringing about a socioeconomic and educational shift in America. Since 1980 the ratio of women to men going to college has been 3:2, in major metropolitan areas women in their twenties make more than their male counterparts and, according to the Pew Research Center, in nearly 40 per cent of American households, women are either the sole or primary breadwinner – and a lot of these women have played soccer. This is a major difference from the big American sports where women’s participation has been reduced to being cheerleaders and earning minimum wage. In contrast, the US women’s team has won the World Cup and it is a very common sight in urban areas to see twenty and thirty-somethings play co-ed pickup games. Soccer fits into the narrative of the urban, educated, environmentally conscious, globalised, and well to do person. It is these people who man the information technology giants like Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. They are the people who have well-paying jobs in hedge funds, too big to fail banks, Hollywood, and advertising. So soccer may not appeal to the gun-toting, NASCAR watching, rural to semi-rural population of America but it resonates extremely well with those who run the innovative America that is a world power. Thus soccer reflects broader class differences in America where the less educated treat the game, like other changes to American society, with suspicion while the better educated see it part of their lifestyle.

Lastly, as we witness the browning of America we are seeing more and more Latin migrants in the country and their family passions run to soccer. In the World Cup Americans have been cheering two teams: Team USA and the Mexican team, which has a large fan base in the country.

Soccer, therefore, will grow in America since it is now patronised by the educated and dynamic young people of the country – and America will be sucked into the global frenzy of football.

Amit Gupta
Associate Professor, Department of International Security, USAF Air War College, Alabama and Visiting Fellow, IPCS

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Air Force or the Department of Defense.

 

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Call For Tunisia To Reinstate Judges Fired Arbitrarily

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The Tunisian government should reinstate judges summarily dismissed by the previous justice minister on May 28, 2012. An administrative court has ruled on 30 of the 75 cases since December 2013, ordering their reinstatement, but the government has not acted.

On March 30, 2014, the newly appointed justice minister, Hafedh Ben Salah, said in a TV interview that he will carry out the administrative court’s decisions and will not appeal them. He also said that after reinstating the judges, he will transfer their files to the newly created Temporary Authority for the Supervision of the Judiciary, which will decide if disciplinary measures are warranted against any of them. However, three months later, authorities have not reinstated a single one of the judges.

“All the official talk of reforming Tunisia’s judiciary rings hollow so long as the government doesn’t carry out the administrative court decision calling the judges’ summary dismissal improper and void,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

The justice minister who fired the judges, Noureddine Bhiri, cited a fight against corruption. Many of the judges individually appealed to Tunisia’s administrative court, which has ruled consistently in the cases that the executive branch acted improperly and exceeded its authority by dismissing the judges summarily. The judges have been without their posts, salaries, and medical coverage for over two years.

Fifteen judges told Human Rights Watch that they learned of their dismissal when their superiors phoned them on May 28, 2012. All said they were never informed of the grounds for their dismissal or the evidence against them. The ministry did not provide them with a hearing before the decision, access to their discipline files, or a means of appeal, they said.

In December 2012, Human Rights Watch, acting with the express written permission of 10 of the dismissed judges, wrote to the justice minister requesting access to their files. Human Right Watch wanted to check their allegations that the ministry denied them an opportunity to defend themselves, dismissed them on spurious grounds, and continued to deny them access to the allegedly incriminating evidence. The ministry refused the request.

The administrative court, in its ruling on those cases, had found that “the administration has made the contested decision without enabling the judge to enjoy the basic guarantees of fair trial set forth in the law.”

If Tunisian authorities take any disciplinary measures against these or other judges, they should ensure compliance with Tunisia’s 2014 constitution and international standards, Human Rights Watch said. Article 100 states that, “The judiciary is an independent authority that ensures the prevalence of justice, the supremacy of the Constitution, the sovereignty of law, and the protection of rights and freedoms.”

Article 104 states that “No judge may be transferred without his consent, no judge may be dismissed, and no judge may be suspended, revoked, or subjected to a disciplinary punishment except in such cases and in accordance with the guarantees provided for by the law and by virtue of a justified decision issued by the Supreme Judicial Council.”

On April 24, the National Constituent Assembly voted on the law creating the Temporary Authority for the Supervision of the Judiciary. This institution replaces the High Judicial Council, which played a pivotal role in ensuring executive branch hegemony over the judiciary under ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The law establishing the Temporary Authority puts it in charge of disciplinary measures against judges, consistent with the applicable legislation. Under the law, judges must be notified of any disciplinary procedures at least 15 days before the hearing on the matter, and have the right to examine all the documents in the disciplinary file, introduce exculpatory information and documents, and be assisted by a lawyer or any other person of their choice.

General Comment number 32 of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the experts who provide the definitive interpretation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, states that:

“Judges may be dismissed only on serious grounds of misconduct or incompetence, in accordance with fair procedures ensuring objectivity and impartiality set out in the constitution or the law. The dismissal of judges by the executive, e.g. before the expiry of the term for which they have been appointed, without any specific reasons given to them and without effective judicial protection being available to contest the dismissal is incompatible with the independence of the judiciary.”

According to the Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Fair trial and Legal Assistance in Africa, adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2005, “Judicial officials facing disciplinary, suspension or removal proceedings shall be entitled to guarantees of a fair hearing including the right to be represented by a legal representative of their choice and to an independent review of decisions of disciplinary, suspension or removal proceedings.”

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Pushing Ukraine To The Brink – OpEd

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“The unipolar world model has failed. People everywhere have shown their desire to choose their own destiny, preserve their own cultural identity, and oppose the West’s attempts at military, financial, political and ideological domination.”

- Vladimir Putin

“While the human politics of the crisis in Ukraine garner all the headlines, it is the gas politics that in many ways lies at the heart of the conflict.”

Eric Draitser, Waging war against Russia, one pipeline at a time, RT

What does a pipeline in Afghanistan have to do with the crisis in Ukraine?

Everything. It reveals the commercial interests that drive US policy. Just as the War in Afghanistan was largely fought to facilitate the transfer of natural gas from Turkmenistan to the Arabian Sea, so too, Washington engineered the bloody coup in Kiev to cut off energy supplies from Russia to Europe to facilitate the US pivot to Asia.

This is why policymakers in Washington are reasonably satisfied with the outcome of the war in Afghanistan despite the fact that none of the stated goals were achieved. Afghanistan is not a functioning democracy with a strong central government, drug trafficking has not been eradicated, women haven’t been liberated, and the infrastructure and school systems are worse than they were before the war. By every objective standard the war was a failure. But, of course, the stated goals were just public relations blather anyway. They don’t mean anything. What matters is gas, namely the vast untapped reserves in Turkmenistan that could be extracted by privately-owned US corporations who would use their authority to control the growth of US competitors or would-be rivals like China. That’s what the war was all about. The gas is going to be transported via a pipeline from Turkmenistan, across Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to the Arabian sea, eschewing Russian and Iranian territory. The completion of the so called TAPI pipeline will undermine the development of an Iranian pipeline, thus sabotaging the efforts of a US adversary.

The TAPI pipeline illustrates how Washington is aggressively securing the assets it needs to maintain its dominance for the foreseeable future. Now, check this out from The Express Tribune, July 5:

“Officials of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are set to meet in Ashgabat next week to push ahead with a planned transnational gas pipeline connecting the four countries and reach a settlement on the award of the multi-billion-dollar project to US companies.

“The US is pushing the four countries to grant the lucrative pipeline contract to its energy giants. Two US firms – Chevron and ExxonMobil – are in the race to become consortium leaders, win the project and finance the laying of the pipeline,” a senior government official said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Washington has been lobbying for the gas supply project, called Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (Tapi) pipeline, terming it an ideal scheme to tackle energy shortages in Pakistan. On the other side, it pressed Islamabad to shelve the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline because of a nuclear standoff with Tehran…

According to officials, Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will lead a delegation at the meeting of the TAPI pipeline steering committee on July 8 in Ashgabat.

…At present, bid documents are being prepared in consultation with the Asian Development Bank, which is playing the role of transaction adviser. The documents will be given to the two companies only for taking part in the tender.

Chevron is lobbying in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan to clinch a deal, backed by the US State Department. However, other companies could also become part of the consortium that will be led either by Chevron or ExxonMobil.” (TAPI pipeline: Officials to finalise contract award in Ashgabat next week, The Express Tribune)

So the pipeline plan is finally moving forward and, as the article notes, “The documents will be given to the two companies only for taking part in the tender.”

Nice, eh? So the State Department applies a little muscle and “Voila”, Chevron and Exxon clinch the deal. How’s that for a free market?

And who do you think is going to protect that 1,000 mile stretch of pipeline through hostile Taliban-controlled Afghanistan?

Why US troops, of course, which is why US military bases are conveniently located up an down the pipeline route. Coincidence?

Not on your life. Operation “Enduring Freedom” is a bigger hoax than the threadbare war on terror.

So let’s not kid ourselves. The war had nothing to do with liberating women or bringing democracy to the unwashed masses. It was all about power politics and geostrategic maneuvering; stealing resources, trouncing potential rivals, and beefing up profits for the voracious oil giants. Who doesn’t know that already? Here’s more background from the Wall Street Journal:

“Earlier this month, President Obama sent a letter to (Turkmenistan) President Berdimuhamedow emphasizing a common interest in helping develop Afghanistan and expressing Mr. Obama’s support for TAPI and his desire for a major U.S. firm to construct it.

…Progress on TAPI will also jump-start many of the other trans-Afghan transport projects—including roads and railroads—that are at the heart of America’s “New Silk Road Strategy” for the Afghan economy.

The White House should understand that if TAPI isn’t built, neither U.S. nor U.N. sanctions will prevent Pakistan from building a pipeline from Iran.” (The Pipeline That Could Keep the Peace in Afghanistan, Wall Street Journal)

Can you see what’s going on? Afghanistan, which is central to Washington’s pivot strategy, is going to be used for military bases, resource extraction and transportation. That’s it. There’s not going to be any reconstruction or nation building. The US doesn’t do that anymore. This is the stripped-down, no-frills, 21st century imperialism. “No nation for you, buddy. Just give us your gas and off we’ll go.” That’s how the system works now. It’s alot like Iraq –the biggest hellhole on earth–where “oil production has surged to its highest level in over 30 years”. (according to the Wall Street Journal) And who’s raking in the profits on that oil windfall?

Why the oil giants, of course. (ExxonMobil, BP and Shell) Maybe that’s why you never read about what a terrible mistake the war was. Because for the people who count, it really wasn’t a mistake at all. In fact, it all worked out pretty well.

Of course, the US will support the appearance of democracy in Kabul, but the government won’t have any real power beyond the capital. It never did anyway. (Locals jokingly called Karzai the “mayor of Kabul”) As for the rest of the country; it will be ruled by warlords as it has been since the invasion in 2001. (Remember the Northern Alliance? Hate to break the news, but they’re all bloodthirsty, misogynist warlords who were reinstated by Rumsfeld and Co.)

This is the new anarchic “Mad Max” template Washington is applying wherever it intervenes. The intention is to dissolve the nation-state in order to remove any obstacle to resource extraction, which is why failed states are popping up wherever the US sticks its big nose. It’s all by design. Chaos is the objective. Simply put: It’s easier to steal whatever one wants when there’s no center of power to resist.

This is why political leaders in Europe are so worried, because they don’t like the idea of sharing a border with Somalia, which is exactly what Ukraine is going to look like when the US is done with it.

In Ukraine, the US is using a divide and conquer strategy to pit the EU against trading partner Moscow. The State Department and CIA helped to topple Ukraine’s elected President Viktor Yanukovych and install a US stooge in Kiev who was ordered to cut off the flow of Russian gas to the EU and lure Putin into a protracted guerilla war in Ukraine. The bigwigs in Washington figured that, with some provocation, Putin would react the same way he did when Georgia invaded South Ossetia in 2006. But, so far, Putin has resisted the temptation to get involved which is why new puppet president Petro Poroshenko has gone all “Jackie Chan” and stepped up the provocations by pummeling east Ukraine mercilessly. It’s just a way of goading Putin into sending in the tanks.

But here’s the odd part: Washington doesn’t have a back-up plan. It’s obvious by the way Poroshenko keeps doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. That demonstrates that there’s no Plan B. Either Poroshenko lures Putin across the border and into the conflict, or the neocon plan falls apart, which it will if they can’t demonize Putin as a “dangerous aggressor” who can’t be trusted as a business partner.

So all Putin has to do is sit-tight and he wins, mainly because the EU needs Moscow’s gas. If energy supplies are terminated or drastically reduced, prices will rise, the EU will slide back into recession, and Washington will take the blame. So Washington has a very small window to draw Putin into the fray, which is why we should expect another false flag incident on a much larger scale than the fire in Odessa. Washington is going to have to do something really big and make it look like it was Moscow’s doing. Otherwise, their pivot plan is going to hit a brick wall. Here’s a tidbit readers might have missed in the Sofia News Agency’s novinite site:

“Ukraine’s Parliament adopted .. a bill under which up to 49% of the country’s gas pipeline network could be sold to foreign investors. This could pave the way for US or EU companies, which have eyed Ukrainian gas transportation system over the last months.

…Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was earlier quoted as saying that the bill would allow Kiev to “attract European and American partners to the exploitation and modernization of Ukraine’s gas transportation,” in a situation on Ukraine’s energy market he described as “super-critical”. Critics of the bill have repeatedly pointed the West has long been interest in Ukraine’s pipelines, with some seeing in the Ukrainian revolution a means to get access to the system. (Ukraine allowed to sell up to 49% of gas pipeline system, novinite.com)

Boy, you got to hand it to the Obama throng. They really know how to pick their coup-leaders, don’t they? These puppets have only been in office for a couple months and they’re already giving away the farm.

And, such a deal! US corporations will be able to buy up nearly half of a pipeline that moves 60 percent of the gas that flows from Russia to Europe. That’s what you call a tollbooth, my friend; and US companies will be in just the right spot to gouge Moscow for every drop of natural gas that transits those pipelines. And gouge they will too, you can bet on it.

Is that why the State Department cooked up this loony putsch, so their fatcat, freeloading friends could rake in more dough?

This also explains why the Obama crowd is trying to torpedo Russia’s other big pipeline project called Southstream. Southstream is a good deal for Europe and Russia. On the one hand, it would greatly enhance the EU’s energy security, and on the other, it will provide needed revenues for Russia so they can continue to modernize, upgrade their dilapidated infrastructure, and improve standards of living. But “the proposed pipeline (which) would snake about 2,400 kilometers, or roughly 1,500 miles, from southern Russia via the Black Sea to Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and ultimately Austria. (and) could handle about 60 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, enough to allow Russian exports to Europe to largely bypass Ukraine” (New York Times) The proposed pipeline further undermines Washington’s pivot strategy, so Obama, the State Department and powerful US senators (Ron Johnson, John McCain, and Chris Murphy) are doing everything in their power to torpedo the project.

“What gives Vladimir Putin his power and control is his oil and gas reserves and West and Eastern Europe’s dependence on them,” Senator Johnson said in an interview. “We need to break up his stranglehold on energy supplies. We need to bust up that monopoly.” (New York Times)

What a bunch of baloney. Putin doesn’t have a monopoly on gas. Russia only provides 30 percent of the gas the EU uses every year. And Putin isn’t blackmailing anyone either. Countries in the EU can either buy Russian gas or not buy it. It’s up to them. No one has a gun to their heads. And Gazprom’s prices are competitive too, sometimes well-below market rates which has been the case for Ukraine for years, until crackpot politicians started sticking their thumb in Putin’s eye at every opportunity; until they decided that that they didn’t have to pay their bills anymore because, well, because Washington told them not to pay their bills. That’s why.

Ukraine is in the mess it’s in today for one reason, because they decided to follow Washington’s advice and shoot themselves in both feet. Their leaders thought that was a good idea. So now the country is broken, penniless and riven by social unrest. Regrettably, there’s no cure for stupidity.

The neocon geniuses apparently believe that if they sabotage Southstream and nail down 49 percent ownership of Ukraine’s pipeline infrastructure, then the vast majority of Russian gas will have to flow through Ukrainian pipelines. They think that this will give them greater control over Moscow. But there’s a glitch to this plan which analyst Jeffrey Mankoff pointed out in an article titled “Can Ukraine Use Its Gas Pipelines to Threaten Russia?”. Here’s what he said:

“The biggest problem with this approach is a cut in gas supplies creates real risks for the European economy… In fact, Kyiv’s efforts to siphon off Russian gas destined to Europe to offset the impact of a Russian cutoff in January 2009 provide a window onto why manipulating gas supplies is a risky strategy for Ukraine. Moscow responded to the siphoning by halting all gas sales through Ukraine for a couple of weeks, leaving much of eastern and southern Europe literally out in the cold. European leaders reacted angrily, blaming both Moscow and Kyiv for the disruption and demanding that they sort out their problems. While the EU response would likely be somewhat more sympathetic to Ukraine today, Kyiv’s very vulnerability and need for outside financial support makes incurring European anger by manipulating gas supplies very risky.” (Can Ukraine Use Its Gas Pipelines to Threaten Russia, two paragraphs)

The funny thing about gas is that, when you stop paying the bills, they turn the heat off. Is that hard to understand?

So, yes, the State Department crystal-gazers and their corporate-racketeer friends might think they have Putin by the shorthairs by buying up Ukraine’s pipelines, but the guy who owns the gas (Gazprom) is still in the drivers seat. And he’s going to do what’s in the best interests of himself and his shareholders. Someone should explain to John Kerry that that’s just how capitalism works.

Washington’s policy in Ukraine is such a mess, it really makes one wonder about the competence of the people who come up with these wacko ideas. Did the brainiacs who concocted this plan really think they’d be able to set up camp between two major trading partners, turn off the gas, reduce a vital transit country into an Iraq-type basketcase, and start calling the shots for everyone in the region?

It’s crazy.

Europe and Russia are a perfect fit. Europe needs gas to heat its homes and run its machinery. Russia has gas to sell and needs the money to strengthen its economy. It’s a win-win situation. What Europe and Russia don’t need is the United States. In fact, the US is the problem. As long as US meddling persists, there’s going to be social unrest, division, and war. It’s that simple. So the goal should be to undermine Washington’s ability to conduct these destabilizing operations and force US policymakers to mind their own freaking business. That means there should be a concerted effort to abandon the dollar, ditch US Treasuries, jettison the petrodollar system, and force the US to become a responsible citizen that complies with International law.

It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen, mainly because everyone is sick and tired of all the troublemaking.

 

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Cultures Of Hate: Israelis, Not Palestinians, Excel At Vengeance – OpEd

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By Jonathan Cook

Shock and anger have engulfed Israeli and Palestinian societies since they learnt last week of the barbarous murder of children from their communities. Hours after three Israeli teenagers’ bodies were located, long after their abduction, a Palestinian youth, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, was kidnapped, beaten and burnt to death, apparently as revenge.

These horrifying events should serve as a lesson in the obscene futility of vengeance. As a relative of one of the murdered children observed: “There is no difference between blood and blood.”

Sadly, that was not the message implicit in much of last week’s coverage. On social media, a juxtaposition of pictures from the same day’s New York Times showed how easy it is to forget not only that our blood is the same but that grief is too.

A headline about Israelis’ “heartbreak” was illustrated movingly by the families of the three Israeli teenagers huddled together, overwhelmed by their loss. A report on the killing of 16-year-old Abu Khdeir, on the other hand, was accompanied by an image of masked youths throwing stones.

These contrasting depictions of mourning were entirely misleading. True, Palestinian youngsters have been violently protesting in Jerusalem and communities in Israel since Abu Khdeir was buried. But so have groups of Israeli Jews. They have rampaged through Jerusalem and parts of Israel, calling out “Death to the Arabs” and attacking anyone who looks Palestinian.

Nonetheless, Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, a US Jewish organization that claims to fight bigotry, was peddling an equally divisive message. In the Huffington Post he wrote of a Palestinian “culture of hatred”.

According to Foxman, Palestinian and Israeli societies are fundamentally different. Palestinian discontent is “fanned and incited into hatred by a widespread, unfettered support for violence against Jews and Israel”.

He was echoing a sentiment common in Israel, and famously voiced in the late 1960s by the then prime minister, Golda Meir. She suggested that even harder than forgiving the Arab enemy for killing Israel’s sons would be “to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons”.

In a bout of similar self-righteousness, many Israelis berate Palestinian parents for putting their children in danger’s way by allowing them to throw stones at Israeli security forces. The implication is that Palestinians – as a result of either culture or religion – value life less than Israelis.

Strangely, Israelis rarely question the implication of the decision taken by one in 10 of their number to live in illegal colonies on stolen Palestinian land. The settlers choose to put themselves and their children on the front lines too, even though they have far more choices than Palestinians about where to live.

In fact, neither Israelis nor Palestinians can claim to be above a culture of hate. As long as Israel’s belligerent occupation continues, their lives together in one small patch of the Middle East will continue to be predicated on bouts of violent confrontation.

But that does not mean Israeli and Palestinian culpability is equal. The reality is that Israelis, unlike Palestinians, have a sovereign state that represents them and protects them with a strong army.

Last week, the Israeli army announced that it had arrested several soldiers who posted online photographs of themselves vowing revenge against “Arabs” – part of a flood of calls for vengeance on ¬Hebrew social media. The arrests played well with Israel’s image as a country that enforces the rule of law, but they concealed deeper truths.

The first is that the Israelis thirsting for reprisals are simply echoing their politicians and religious leaders whose statements for vengeance surpassed even the ugly grandstanding of Hamas, which had praised the Israeli teenagers’ abduction.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led the way, citing a famous line of Hebrew poetry: “The devil himself has not yet created vengeance for the blood of a small child.” His economics minister, Naftali Bennett, urged Israel to “go mad”, while a former legislator vowed that Israel would turn Ramadan into a “month of darkness”. An influential and supposedly moderate rabbi hoped for “an army of avengers”.

Last week, left wing Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv to castigate the Netanyahu government for “incitement to violence”. But even this underestimated the problem.

Israeli leaders’ threats are not simply stoking an ugly mood on the street. The huge muscle of the Israeli security apparatus is flexing at their behest too. That was given graphic illustration in video footage of armed police in Jerusalem relentlessly kicking and punching a child – a 15-year-old American relative of Abu Khdeir – as he lay cuffed and helpless on the ground.

The cabinet is plotting a more subtle revenge. It plans to build new settlements – violence against Palestinian life on the little slivers of territory left to them – specifically to honor the three teenagers. Guarded by the army, settlers have already set up a new encampment in the West Bank.

The army, meanwhile, launched a series of strikes on Gaza, culminating in a new large-scale attack dubbed Operation Protective Edge. It has also revived a policy of demolishing the homes of relatives of Palestinian terror suspects. Backed by the courts, soldiers blew up the family homes of two men it accused of being behind the teenagers’ abduction.

As Human Rights Watch warned, Israel’s recent actions – mass arrests; armed raids; the killing of Palestinians, including minors; lockdowns of cities, house demolitions; and air strikes – amounted to “collective punishment”, international law’s euphemism for revenge, against Palestinians.

In the face of the enduring violence of Israel’s occupation, and the licence it provides soldiers to humiliate and oppress, ordinary Palestinians have a stark choice: to submit or resist. Ordinary Israelis, on the other hand, do not need to seek revenge on their own account. The Israeli state, military and courts are there every day doing it for them.

- Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.jonathan-cook.net. (A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.)

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Iraq Conflict Requires Diplomatic Steps, New Counter-Terrorism Strategy – Analysis

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The Islamic of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the terrorist group that had taken over several cities and areas in Syria and Northern Iraq, announced the creation of the so-called “Islamic Caliphate” on the captured territories on June 29, the first day of the month of Ramadan, and demanded the Muslims all around the world to swear allegiance to the new state.

According to the message published on the Internet, the terrorist group changed its title to the Islamic State (IS), while its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was officially added to the USA terrorist watchlist in October 2011, was appointed “caliph” and “the leader of all Muslims.”

The announcement was made amid the ongoing military conflict in Iraq between the government forces and the extremists, which are supported by Sunni rebels who oppose the current administrative policies, as well as by former military from the Saddam Hussein army and lesser terrorist groups.

At the same time, Masoud Barzani, President of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, dissatisfied by the policies taken by the government and Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, announced the plans to hold a referendum on independence.

According to the foreign analysts, the current state of affairs puts Iraq on the brink of a breakup into several independent states, which not only would fail to calm the Middle East disturbances, but might make the region even more unstable and cause new conflicts.

The foreign journalists described the idea of the “caliphate” as anti-historical and controversial, while Muslim scholars went so far as to call it “a heresy.”

“The Islamic caliphate can’t be restored by force. Occupying a country and killing half of its population… this is not an Islamic state, this is terrorism,” said Sheikh Abbas Shuman, senior representative of the Al-Azhar University.

Nadje Al-Ali, professor and member of the London Middle East Institute at the SOAS University, stressed that the reasons behind the conflict are the US intrusion in 2003-2011, deprival of Sunni minority of their rights during the American military operation, and the worldwide increase of religious terrorism.

“Another reason is, of course, the conflict in Syria and increase of Islamic extremism in terms of resistance to the Assad regime,” the expert said in an interview to “PenzaNews” agency.

At the same time, she noted that the fighting sides do not respect the interests of many Iraqi citizens, such as mixed Sunni-Shia families.

“Many Iraqi people do not associate themselves with any of the groups,” Nadje Al-Ali added.

The expert called for the expeditious settlement of the conflict, and pointed out that military intervention by the worldwide community will worsen the situation for years to come.

“I think it is very important to find a political solution,” she stressed.

However, Günter Meyer, professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and President of the European Association of Middle Eastern Studies, found the diplomatic resolution of the Iraqi conflict improbable.

“There is no chance for a political solution of the conflict because the Islamic State is not prepared to accept any political compromise,” he emphasized.

In addition, the expert noted that military clashes with terrorists would lead to a long and bloody campaign, mainly due to the status of the terrorist group and its numerous supporters.

“Due to the very clever use of the internet and social networks the Islamic State has become the most attractive Jihadi organization on a global level,” the researcher explained.

However, as Günter Meyer emphasized, the group owes its military successes to the support of the former officers of the Saddam Hussein army and the members of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath party that was banned in Iraq.

“In spite of different ideological aims, ISIS and the Sunni resistance joined forces against the polarizing Shiite government,” the expert said.

However, he pointed out that the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Shia militia joined the fight against the terrorists after the declaration of the “Islamic Caliphate.” In addition to that, Iran, Syria, Russia and the USA offered military and technical aid to the Iraq government. According to Günter Meyer, these steps make it possible to argue that the terrorists will eventually be defeated, but not without severe consequences for the region.

“The forces of the Islamic State will be defeated in the long run because they are isolated in the Middle East. However, they are supported by Jihadi groups in the region, which could lead to the further destabilization of Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,” the expert explained.

At the same time, Noah Bonsey, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, noted that internal frictions might facilitate the fall of the terrorists.

“You are now starting to see the emergence of more tension between ISIS and non-Jihadi Sunni rebels who joined in the fight. I do think we will see those tensions rise. ISIS’ announcement of a caliphate recently is likely to only increase this tension because it highlights the fact that ISIS ultimately seeks to assume unilateral control of Sunni areas,” he said.

“These segments of the rebellion will be key if there comes a point when they turn against ISIS – either because of a resolution in Baghdad that provides Sunni leaders with a real stake in governance, or because of ISIS’ aggression against them, or some combination of the two. This can be key in slowing and eventually reversing ISIS gains,” the expert continued.

At the same time, Noah Bonsey stressed that there is no strictly military solution to the conflict, because ISIS managed to establish effective funding and resources streams – for Syrian oil and seized weapons in particular.

From the expert’s point of view, the Iraqi government should stop follow the tactics of religious polarization and let the Sunni participate in governing the country in order to change the current state of affairs.

“There has to be a resolution that empowers credible Sunni leadership to play a meaningful role within the Iraqi government itself,” Noah Bonsey explained.

In his turn, Kamal Sido, head of Middle East Department of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), suggested that it is important to pay attention to the role of the Kurdish community in terms of finding the solution.

“The Kurds in Syria have been fighting against this terrorist group for 2-3 years almost all by themselves. Nobody helps them in their fight against this evil, not even Russia,” he stressed.

According to the human rights activist, Christians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and other confessions are opposed to ISIS as well.

At the same time, Kamal Sido noted that the most important causes of the conflict were the loss of privileges by the Sunni community after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein regime, and incompetence of the al-Maliki ministry.

“The new Iraqi crisis occurred because of big problems between the Sunni, the Shia and the Kurds, and the Nouri al-Maliki government couldn’t solve these problems,” he explained.

Discussing the sudden successes of ISIS, Kamal Sido pointed out two reasons behind them, one of them being the support from rich people from several Middle Eastern countries, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

“Even if these states and governments do not support it officially, the people who aid this terrorist group live and work in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” the expert noted.

According to him, the second reason behind the successes of IS is skillful use of modern technologies, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Vibber, in order to boost the group’s popularity.

Kamal Sido suggested that the future developments will largely depend on whether the Sunni, the Shia and the Kurds come to a consensus. At the same time, the expert left open the possibility of the country breakup if the negotiations between these sides fail.

“If the Kurds, the Sunni and the Shia won’t be able to negotiate with each other, they should create three states or set up a confederation between them in the region,” he suggested.

However, the human rights activist stressed the fact that the worldwide community must prevent the growth of ISIS and its influence, because it may become a terrorism breeding-ground for the whole world. In addition to that, he urged the world leaders to use their influence against the group’s financial suppliers.

“We must influence Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, so that money and weapons wouldn’t reach the extremists,” Kamal Sido explained.

At the same time, Mario Abou Zeid, expert on Middle East politics at Carnegie Middle East Center, highlighted the fact that the region should unite against IS that represents a threat to the sovereignty of a large number of countries.

“ISIS does not acknowledge any of the borders of the current states in the Middle East. What is ISIS looking to do is to expand more and more,” the expert emphasized.

Speaking of the reasons of the ongoing conflict, the researcher highlighted the fact that the drawn-out political crisis facilitated the split-off among the population.

“After the withdrawal of the US troops from Iraq, the government that was formed under Maliki’s leadership was mainly supported by the Iranian regime, and it was fully committed to the Shia cause and to give more power to the Shia community rather than the formation of a national unity government where most of the Iraqi factions would be represented. There was a general, so to say, depression for the Sunni community in Iraq, which has led recently to this extraordinary expansion of the ISIS organization,” Mario Abou Zeid said.

The expert also added that the paramilitary groups formed to defend the country against the extremists are mostly formed out of the Shia Muslims, which drives the already-depraved and disenfranchised Sunni to join the terrorists for religious reasons. According to Mario Abou Zeid, this is why the first step out of the conflict should be a political one.

“We need to take the Sunni community and tribal leaders and make them join the political power in Baghdad. This will be the first step towards resolving the conflict from the perspective of Sunni alienation,” the analyst explained.

At the same time, Mario Abou Zeid notes that the Iraqi government and the worldwide community must realize what ISIS is and how it changed the very idea of terrorism.

“ISIS under the leadership of Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi is behaving as an upgraded terrorist group,” he said.

From the expert’s point of view, this upgraded model of a terrorist organization requires a new counter-strategy.

“Tradition terrorism activities had traditional ways of dealing with them and countering all their effects. When we have such a developed terrorist organization as ISIS and the ways, the tools, the strategy it has, there must be an upgraded counter-terrorism strategy. We cannot deal with ISIS as we were dealing with other terrorist organizations,” Mario Abou Zeid emphasized.

At the same time, according to the analyst, the West must avoid engaging in any kind of military intervention in the conflict.

“If any Western power would intervene, this will generate hatred towards the international community, especially within the Sunni community in Iraq. And this will help ISIS reshape its image as the resistance group against the foreign aggression,” he explained.

In conclusion, the expert called the worldwide leaders to assist in resolving the conflict by supporting the Iraqi army in their independent combat against ISIS without resorting to direct foreign involvement.

This article appeared at Penza News.

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Netanyahu Vows To Intensify Gaza Strike Campaign

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Israel’s premier told reporters Wednesday that Tel Aviv will intensify its airstrike campaign on the Gaza strip that has left at least 43 dead and over 300 wounded thus far, according to Agence France Presse.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “ramp up” the strikes on Gaza to so-called punish Hamas “and other terror organizations in Gaza.”

“We have decided to further intensify the attacks on Hamas and the terror organizations in Gaza,” Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying.

“Operation Protective Edge,” the name Tel Aviv has given to the airstrike campaign, has been called “barbaric” by Israel’s allies, with many countries calling on Israel to end the operation.

Original article

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NASA’s Children’s Climate Change Website, And The book 1984: Creating Spies One Child At A Time – OpEd

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From our friend Cal Beisner over at the Cornwall Alliance:

What would you say if your child accused you of a thought crime, and turned you in to the thought police?

Would you say it was ridiculous?

Perhaps you would say, “There is no ‘thought crime’ in the United States.”

Surely your children would never try to accuse you of a crime or try to change your behavior.

Well, think again, because that is exactly what websites like NASA’s Climate Kids intends to do, except they won’t accuse you of thought crime, they will accuse you of a climate crime.

This colorful, fun website has two serious flaws. First, it teaches “pseudo facts” about climate change in a childlike manner that is easy to understand. “Facts” such as

• Eleven of the last 12 years have been the warmest on record. Earth has warmed twice as fast in the last 50 years as in the 50 years before that. (Actually, there hasn’t been global warming in almost 18 years, and climate alarmist scientists know this.)

• Climate change is causing unusual, extreme weather, some places are suffering long droughts and others are getting far too much rain in a short period. (Actually, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there is no evidence that global warming has increased the frequency or severity of extreme weather events.)

• “We don’t know enough about Earth’s ice to know just how many meters sea level is likely to rise as ice melts in various locations.” (Actually, sea-ice melt makes no difference in sea level, and land-ice melt doesn’t appear to have accelerated during the period of recent, allegedly manmade global warming. As a result, there’s been no increase in the rate of sea level rise, which has been happening ever since the end of the Ice Age.)

• All that carbon stored in all those plants and animals over hundreds of millions of years is getting pumped back into the atmosphere over just one or two hundred years. (Actually, there is good evidence that putting it there is not causing dangerous global warming, but it most certainly is causing improved plant growth all over the world, including of agricultural crops, adding $3.2 trillion worth of crop yield 1960–2011 and a projected $9.8 trillion more by 2050.)

• …Since 1979, ice has been getting smaller and smaller and thinner and thinner. Check out the Climate Time Machine and watch the ice shrink. (Actually, both land and sea ice expand and shrink over time in cycles in response to largely natural influences.)
[Update, July, 2014: NASA's own National Snow And Ice Data Center show record ice levels at Antarctica currently.]

Yes, why don’t we check out the Climate Time Machine!

Climate-Time-Machine-230x297This is a really interesting slideshow of images across time on various climate topics. The blue image represents 1885 (when humans supposedly weren’t putting out so much CO2), and the red, frightening image represents 2007 when humans have burned the dinosaurs (The CO2 section tells how dead dinosaurs are part of what created the fossil fuels we burn.) in their cars and caused anthropogenic global warming.

There is of course no mention of the fact that the prosperity made possible in large part by converting those fossil fuels into electricity and liquid fuels for transport has raised human life expectancy since that time from under 48 in 1885 to near 80 today. That would reveal to these impressionable children that there are tradeoffs involved. No, the message must be clear, simple, and hideously unbalanced. Fossil fuels are evil. And those who use them are evil.

The entire site is full of “facts” of climate alarmism, scaring children with lies while they have fun “learning” and playing games with NASA.

Of course these children will feel indignation once they learn that their space ship (the metaphor for the Earth) isn’t being properly cared for. “Whatever shall we do!?” They will say. “We must stop evil eco-terrorist man and his dinosaur burning machines!”

Thus we proceed to the “What Can We Do to Help?” section. This contains the second serious flaw, for instead of just teaching bad science, NASA here encourages children to act on that bad science in a way that brings to mind the specter of poor Mrs. Parsons and her two indoctrinated children.

There are, of course, the typical suggestions: plant a tree or a garden; unplug appliances, etc. but there are other suggestions as well.

NASA wants children to grow up and drive energy-efficient cars, put solar panels on their houses, and go into a green career to help prevent climate change. (“Green” careers are the way to help people now, not traditional careers like becoming a doctor or a nurse, or a pastor or a teacher, or a farmer or an inventor, or just a helpful person). Some of these suggestions are good things to do, while some aren’t helpful to the environment at all. But what are really disturbing are the suggestions that children should attempt to control the behavior of the adults in their lives (which means their parents).

According to NASA, a child who cares about the environment is encouraged to:

“… ask your driver to park the car and let you walk inside (at a fast-food restaurant), rather than sitting in a line of cars with the engine running and polluting.”

“Walk or ride your bike instead of taking a car everywhere.”

“Ask your parents to buy reusable grocery bags. Help them to remember to get them out of the car and take them into the store.” (Never mind the risk of disease from the contamination of these bags.)

“BYOM.” Bring your own mug. That’s what you can tell your parents when they stop to buy their morning coffee.”

At face value these suggestions may seem innocuous, but at their deepest level they suggest to the child that their parents are guilty of wrongdoing, and that it is the child’s responsibility to correct them. In effect, the government is attempting to coerce parents through their children to further this pseudo-science agenda, and it doesn’t mind driving a wedge between parent and child to accomplish its goal.

The environmental lobby and your government (this is a government website after all) want to use your children against you. They want to indoctrinate your children into envirospies watching your every move and harassing you until you change your behavior.

“Mommy, don’t forget the reusable grocery bags.”

“Daddy, how dare you use a paper cup for your coffee!”

“You are hurting our Space Ship!”

Just further evidence that no federal agency, once created, cannot continue to justify its need for greater and greater power and money, no matter how far removed from its original purpose.

Your tax dollars at work!

——
*Links other than those to the NASA Climate Kids Website were added by me.-MLGT

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India: The Fallacy Of Governmen’s Tobacco Taxation – Analysis

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By Prashant Kumar

Before this article starts, it must be pointed out that it does not condone cigarette smoking or negate the ill effects of tobacco consumption on the human body. This said, the policies used by the previous government to control tobacco in India, which continue today, are at best ill conceived and at worst counter-productive. In a stated bid to curb tobacco consumption and to garner tax revenues, the government has consistently followed a policy of high taxation of cigarettes, ignoring not only the characteristics of the Indian tobacco sector, but basic economics as well.

Tobacco is not indigenous to India. Consumption of tobacco in India dates back to early sixteenth century when it was introduced by the Portuguese. Suited to the Indian climate, it soon became a preferred cash crop and has intertwined in India’s history. Since then, India has become the third largest tobacco producer in the world and in 2011-12 exported USD 797.9 million dollars worth of tobacco.

There are 8 types of tobacco produced in India, primarily in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. There are 18 varieties of tobacco products for consumption in the Indian market, ranging from cigarettes, beedis and other smoking products to gutka, khaini, pan masala and other chewing products.

India’s tobacco consumption pattern differs from the rest of the world. The predominant form of tobacco consumption is chewing tobacco, followed by beedis and then by cigarettes. Cigarettes only constitute 15% of total consumption in the country. According to the Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI), the industry employs 36 million people, 10 million of which work in beedi production, 98% of which is in the informal sector. Cigarette production on the other hand is more formal and mechanised and thus low on labour intensity.

While taxation is used primarily for revenue generation in other sectors, in tobacco, though this also holds true, taxation is more a tool to deter tobacco consumption. The government believes, and partially correctly so, that increasing prices of tobacco products will deter consumption. This theory was further supported by the World Health Organization in its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2005, which aims to create a universal policy to reduce consumption. Taxation on tobacco includes a specific duty and a value added tax, the latter differing from state to state. India’s tax policy on tobacco is the highest in the world, nine times higher than United States and five times higher than China.

Tobacco taxation was shifted from taxes on tobacco production to tobacco products in 1979. All tobacco products are taxed at some level, but the brunt of the taxation policies in India falls on cigarettes. Varying by length of the cigarette, excise duty on cigarettes in 2012-13 ranged from Rs 669 per thousand cigarettes to Rs 2788 per thousand cigarettes. At the same time, the excise duty on beedis was Rs. 11 per thousand sticks for hand-rolled to Rs. 23 for machine made. To further illustrate the focus of taxation policies on cigarettes, excise duty on the shortest cigarettes has jumped from Rs 168 in 2007-08 to Rs 669 per thousand sticks in 2012-13.Compared to this, duties on beedis rose from Rs 9 per thousand sticks in 2008-09 to Rs 11 per thousand sticks in 2012-13. VAT on cigarettes ranges from 12.5% in some states to as high as 65% in others.

The fallacy of the central government tobacco taxation policy is not in the disparity between taxes in cigarettes and beedis but the impact of such increases on the overall consumption patterns. The problem with the WHO theory, which the government subscribes to, is that it fails to understand the Indian tobacco consumption scenario. Like many multilateral organizations, it wrongly believes the “one size fits all” strategy will be conducive to reducing tobacco consumption in India, where cigarette smoking only constitutes a minor share of total consumption.

While a sharp increase in the price of a product may actually deter large number of consumers to give up consumption of that product, what the government does not understand is that tobacco, unlike other products, is addictive. Giving up consumption of the product altogether is likely to be an option for only a small segment of the smoking population. For the majority, finding an alternative is usually the logical course of action. What price rise thus creates is a substitution effect, wherein consumers smoking cigarettes, especially those already smoking smaller length, cheaper cigarettes would be inclined to move to beedis instead. Substitution effect is a basic tenet of economics.

At current prices, a single cigarette stick costs between Rs 8 to Rs 12 in the market. A pack of beedis (20 sticks per pack) can cost between Rs 5 to Rs 10. A person, addicted to tobacco, consuming cheaper cigarettes and unable to afford a price rise, will (if he/she can’t quit) shift to the cheaper beedi. A similar trend was documented in Sweden, where steep increases in the price of cigarettes led to a booming snuff (chewing tobacco) market.

While high taxes may achieve the government’s objective of limiting cigarette consumption in the country, it does not help the overall public health target of reducing tobacco consumption. Furthermore, it has been widely accepted that a single beedi is chemically as harmful, if not more, than a cigarette. According to the report by the WHO itself on Global Tobacco Epidemic, a beedi contains three times the amount of carbon monoxide and five times the amount of tar than a cigarette. It also states that a beedi smoker is at three-time higher risk of developing respiratory and oral disease than a cigarette smoker.

The rise in prices does more than just cause substitution effect. The high VAT rates on cigarettes across borders as well as the 40-55% increase in prices in the last two years have given rise to substantial illicit trading. Smuggling of cigarettes has risen from 17% of the total market to 19% in the last two years alone, estimating a revenue loss of Rs. 6000 crores to national accounts.

The focus of the government on taxing tobacco has been for two reasons. One, to maximize revenue from tobacco products, especially higher end products and two, to reduce the public health costs related to tobacco consumption. But the skewed taxation policy, far removed from a reality based understanding of the tobacco consumption and economics, is helping the government achieve neither target. It is perhaps due to either a strong lobby, or the desire to protect 36 million beedi workers or just bad strategy or a bit of all, that this fallacy has not been recognized. If the government is serious about achieving its stated goals, the current taxation policy is not only irrelevant to the Indian tobacco industry, it is in fact making the situation worse.

(The writer is an Associate Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi)

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China, US Talk Amid Tensions Over Cyberspying, Maritime Disputes

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Chinese and U.S. officials began high-level talks in Beijing on Wednesday amid warnings that a downward spiral in bilateral ties could spell disaster for the world.

Officials met for a sixth round of strategic talks in a climate of disagreement on regional maritime disputes, climate change, economic issues and terrorism.

Beijing is currently unhappy at Washington’s apparently too-cool response to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s own “war on terror” in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to the country’s Muslim Uyghur population, official media reported.

“Terrorism is terrorism,” Yang Jiechi, a member of China’s cabinet, the State Council, told U.S. officials, calling for stronger collaboration between the two countries.

“Wherever it occurs, in whatever form out of whatever kind of reason, the international community should take a clear stance and work together to fight it,” Yang said.

China says it is reeling from a serious terrorism threat following a string of deadly attacks it blames on Xinjiang separatists, but has refused to provide evidence to back its claims.

Foreign governments and experts say it is hard to gauge the scale of China’s terrorism problem in the absence of detailed information on four high-profile attacks since last October that left nearly 80 people dead and wounded scores of others.

Confrontation ‘disastrous’

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that confrontation between China and the United States would be “disastrous.”

“Sino-U.S. cooperation will achieve things that are beneficial to both countries and the world, while confrontation will be disastrous,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying at the start of the dialogue.

“China and the United States…avoid confrontation, for their own sake and also for the world’s,” Xi said.

Conspicuously absent from official statements at this round of talks is the phrase “strategic partnership,” analysts said.

“Relations between China and the U.S. right now are chock full of strategic conflicts, competing national interests, which are coming more and more to the fore,” Yang Liyu, professor of East Asian Studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, told RFA’s Mandarin Service.

Balancing power

Rising regional tensions linked to Beijing’s maritime disputes with China’s immediate, but smaller, neighbors, have contributed to a cooling in ties as smaller East Asian countries like Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines look to Washington for support.

“That’s why Japan and the Philippines and the other countries are looking to the U.S. to balance China’s regional power. The two sides will never reach agreement on this question,” Yang added.

China’s economy is a powerhouse, while it is also growing in military power,” Yang said. “Its diplomatic influence is also growing, and the U.S. can’t do anything about that.”

“All it can do is…strengthen its relationship with Japan.”

And intellectual property has proved a long-running sticking point in trade relations, Yang said.

“There is no traditional concept of intellectual property in China,” he said.

Cyberespionage

Meanwhile, China’s official media singled out cyberespionage as an issue further souring ties with the U.S., which hopes to reinstate bilateral talks on the issue during this visit.

The source of the friction, according to a commentary carried by Xinhua, was the “fabricated” cyberespionage charges brought by a court in the U.S. against five Chinese military officers accused of online spying.

“The unexpected and baseless accusation from the United States, who itself, ironically, is knitting the world’s largest wiretapping web…has eroded strategic trust between China and the United States,” the commentary said.

It cited the case of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, denied market access over security concerns, while Beijing was scrutinizing the use of IBM servers by its state-owned banks.

“It is…imperative that Washington immediately withdraws the made-up charges against the Chinese officers and return to the course of dialogue and cooperation,” the article said.

According to Zheng Zhuyuan, a U.S.-based veteran of the Sino-Japanese War and honorary professor at Indiana’s Ball State University, said the current overall decline in the bilateral relationship is linked to the policies of newly assertive president Xi Jinping, who took power in November 2012.

“Since he came to power, Xi Jinping’s attitude to foreign relations has been very clear: he isn’t willing to make a lot of compromises,” Zheng said.

Guangdong-based independent commentator Ye Du said President Barack Obama’s pivot in Asia strategy came as Beijing was ending an era of muted and careful diplomacy.

“China has just ended its previous habitual strategy and now wants to rise to superpower status,” Ye said. “Any nation on the rise first has to establish its superpower status in its own region.”

But Yang and Zheng said it is in neither side’s interest to see relations cool any further.

“For them to be in opposition to each other won’t benefit either of them,” Zheng said. ”

‘Xi won’t waver’

And Sweden-based writer Zhang Yu, secretary of the Independent Chinese PEN group, said Xi is modeling his political image on late supreme leader Mao Zedong.

“He is full of confidence and won’t waver; he’s very aggressive,” Zhang said. “They’re not on the defensive now: they’re on the attack.”

Zhang said China is now demanding equal treatment with the U.S.

“Xi Jinping is pretty powerful right now, launching campaigns left, right and center at home…as well as on the world stage,” he said.

“Perhaps he’s being a bit too presumptuous.”

The U.S. team, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, named climate change and emissions controls as a key issue for negotiations, however.

Obama will travel to Beijing in November when it hosts a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.

Targets

Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters that Beijing was working on setting its targets.

“In terms of responding to climate change we share common but differentiated responsibilities,” Xie said, in a reference to Beijing’s insistence on lower emissions caps, as a developing nation.

Earlier, Kerry also sought to reassure Beijing once again that Washington doesn’t wish to contain China.

“We welcome the emergence of a peaceful, stable, prosperous China that contributes to the stability and development of the region and chooses to play a responsible role in world affairs”, he said.

Reported by Yang Jiadai and Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service and Ho Shan from the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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Argentina Beats Netherlands, Advances To World Cup Championship

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By Mike Richman

Argentina positioned itself to win its first World Cup in nearly 30 years, beating the Netherlands in a penalty shootout, 4-2, after a scoreless draw.

The Argentines converted all four of their penalty shots against Dutch goalie Jasper Cillessen. Maxi Rodriguez put away the winning kick. Argentine goalie Sergio Romero saved penalty shots by Ron Vlaar and Wesley Sneijder.

The result Wednesday at rainy Itaquerao Stadium in Sao Paulo means Argentina plays Germany in Sunday’s championship game at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Argentina is seeking its third World Cup title, having won in 1978 and 1986. Germany has won three titles: 1954, 1974 and 1990.

Argentine coach proud

“I’m very happy because we reached the final, and now we will see what we can do,” Argentine coach Alejandro Sabella said. “We will give everything as usual, with humility, work and 100 percent effort. It means so many things. A lot of people didn’t think that Argentina would be in the final, but we know what a good team we have.”

The Netherlands and Argentina engaged in a grind-it-out affair with limited scoring opportunities. Cillessen saved a free kick by Argentine superstar Lionel Messi in the 20th minute, and a shot by Argentina’s Gonzalo Higuain in the 75th narrowly missed the inside of the net. One of the Netherlands’ top scorers, Arjen Robben, fired a shot from the box in the 90th, but it was defended well.

For the Dutch, one of the highest-scoring teams in this year’s World Cup, this was their second straight game decided by penalty kicks. They beat Costa Rica in a quarterfinal penalty shootout, but Romero was there to stop them this time. He did not start for his Monaco club most of last season, but has yielded only three goals in the World Cup.

“[Penalties] are a question of luck, that is the reality,” Romero said. “I had confidence in myself and, fortunately, everything turned out well. Hope has been intact since day one.”

Wednesday’s game marked the fifth time in World Cup history a semifinal went to penalty kicks. Messi, a four-time FIFA World Player of the Year, converted the first shot for Argentina, followed by teammates Ezequiel Garay, Sergio Aguero and Rodriguez.

For Messi, it is widely believed a World Cup championship will elevate him to the same mythical plane occupied by another Argentine football legend, Diego Maradona. Maradona almost singlehandedly lifted his country to the World Cup title in 1986, in part with his famous “Hand of God” goal in the quarterfinals against England. He is considered by many to be the second greatest football player of all time behind Brazilian extraordinaire Pele.

Argentina has won all six of its World Cup matches this year. The Dutch, who were denied a fourth trip to the World Cup finals, finished 5-1.

Football powers to collide

Argentina and Germany, two of the perennial world football powers, have met twice before in the World Cup championship game. Argentina won in 1986, and the Germans won in 1990.

This time, the Argentine team, which depends heavily on the play of Messi, will be facing a well-rounded German squad with an array of offensive weapons such as attack man Thomas Mueller. Germany is the highest-scoring team in the tournament with 17 goals.

In Tuesday’s semifinal game, Germany gave one of the most breathtaking displays of offensive firepower in World Cup history in a 7-1 rout of host Brazil. Germany scored five goals in the first 30 minutes, with four coming in a six-minute span.

Brazil and the Netherlands will play for third place on Saturday in Brasilia.

The post Argentina Beats Netherlands, Advances To World Cup Championship appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Uruguay Delays Legalized Sale Of Marijuana Until 2015

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Uruguay has delayed the legalized sale of marijuana until next year due to complications in implementing the new law, according to comments made by President José Mujica on Wednesday.

The small South American nation has become the face of progressive views on the consumption of marijuana. Despite moves to legalize the country’s cannabis market – a move which was approved in December – Mujica told AFP that sales to consumers would “go to next year” due to “practical difficulties.”

“We are not just going to say, ‘hands off and let the market take care of it,’ because if the market is in charge, it is going to seek to sell the greatest possible amount,” Mujica, 79, told AFP.

Legal buyers in Uruguay must be 18 years or older. The country’s regulations stipulate that marijuana products available to consumers will contain a 15 percent concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the plant’s main active psychoactive ingredient.

Uruguay’s government will oversee the entire supply chain for the growing and sale of marijuana. Mujica emphasized that the delay in sales to consumers, which was meant to begin this year, is necessary to ensure an organized rollout.

According to Mujica, Uruguay is looking for a smooth transition – unlike in the US, where legalized marijuana has become available in a handful of states and has often left law enforcement in legal limbo.

“If we want to do this sloppily, it is not hard to do that; that’s what the United States is doing. But if we want to get this right…we are going to have to do it slowly.”

Despite the delay in consumer sales, Uruguay is already seeing the impact of the new legislation. In June, the Association of Cannabis Studies of Uruguay began the process of registering with the Education and Culture Ministry. The group would become the country’s first officially recognized marijuana-growing club. Under the law, joining such a club is one of three legal ways to obtain marijuana.

In addition to retail sales, Uruguay’s citizens (and legal residents) will be permitted to cultivate up to six marijuana plants per household, and harvest 480 grams per year, AP reported. Licensed marijuana buyers will be allowed to purchase 40 grams per month, or 10 grams per week, through legal pharmacies. Marijuana-growing clubs, meanwhile, will be permitted to have up to 45 members, and grow no more than 99 plants.

Although Uruguay has long been thought of as one of the safest countries in Latin America, a recent uptick in organized crime pushed the largely prosperous nation to legalize marijuana in the hopes of routing the growth of the sort of cartel violence that has afflicted countries such as Mexico and Colombia.

By implementing progressive drug policies, Uruguay’s leadership seeks to avoid “heading down the same path as other Latin American countries, where violence becomes endemic and linked to illicit drug markets,” says John Walsh, a leading drug policy expert at the Washington Office on Latin America.

The post Uruguay Delays Legalized Sale Of Marijuana Until 2015 appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Gaza-Israel: Ban Calls For Restraint To Avert ‘Full-Blown War’

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Warning that Gaza is on a knife’s edge, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today the situation could spiral quickly beyond anyone’s control, and urged the international community to work with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to avert further escalation “in a region that can ill-afford another full-blown war.”

“I am alarmed by the new wave of violence that has engulfed Gaza, southern Israel and the West Bank – including Jerusalem. This is one of the most critical tests the region has faced in recent years,” said the Secretary-General, as he briefed the press at UN Headquarters on the latest developments.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has flared in the wake of the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank in late June and the subsequent kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teenager from East Jerusalem last week.

And just yesterday, with militants in the Gaza Strip stepping up rocket attacks against Israel, and Israeli airstrikes on the enclave intensifying, Mr. Ban reiterated his call on all actors to exercise maximum restraint and avoid further civilian casualties and overall destabilization.

The UN chief told reporters that he had spent much of the day working the phones with regional and world leaders – including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, United States Secretary of State John Kerry and several others, including the Secretaries-General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the League of Arab States.

With the situation deteriorating, Mr. Ban said the risk the violence could expand “is real.” As such, he again firmly condemned the multiple rocket attacks launched from Gaza on Israel, and declared that such attacks are “unacceptable” and must stop.

“I also urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to exercise maximum restraint in responding to provocations and to respect international obligations to protect civilians. I condemn the rising number of civilian lives lost in Gaza,” said the Secretary-General.

Mr. Ban said that he commended President Abbas for courageously upholding his commitment to security coordination, which is essential to achieving stability on the ground. “President Abbas remains the best partner for peace,” he added.

“I shared with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders my condolences and condemnation of the recent attacks on innocent civilians,” said the UN chief, underscoring that the killers must be brought to justice. He also encouraged leaders on both sides to do their utmost to end all attacks – including provocations and attacks by Israeli settlers.

“Extremism in all its forms is fuelling the cycle of violence. This is a time for justice, not for revenge. It is a time for statesmanship and wisdom,” declared Mr. Ban.

He said that during his discussions today, the leaders agreed on the urgency of the situation – and the imperative to resume meaningful negotiations towards a viable two-State solution.

With this is mind, the international community must work with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restore a political horizon to avert further escalation.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General said the UN is ready to rapidly respond to emerging humanitarian needs, and noted that the Organization is already working closely with Palestinian and Israeli authorities and other partners, including the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Mr. Ban also encouraged the Government of Egypt to urgently open its crossing for humanitarian purposes to help alleviate the suffering in Gaza.

“I know emotions are running very high. I urge all sides to exercise maximum restraint. Calm must be restored as soon as possible. The lives of countless innocent civilians and the peace process itself are in the balance,” he stated.

The post Gaza-Israel: Ban Calls For Restraint To Avert ‘Full-Blown War’ appeared first on Eurasia Review.

US Should Explain Surveillance On Civil Liberties Group, Says HRW

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The US government should thoroughly explain why it placed five American Muslim leaders, including the head of a prominent Muslim civil liberties group, under electronic surveillance, Human Rights Watch said today. The information was included in an investigation made public on July 9, 2014.

The investigation by the media organization First Look, based on documents provided by Edward Snowden, reveals that Nihad Awad, co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was placed under surveillance by the government in July 2006. The surveillance, including collection of all his electronic communications, continued until February 2008. Any alleged basis for Awad’s surveillance – and that of the other four American Muslims whose surveillance was revealed by First Look – remains secret.

“American Muslims have been under surveillance by their own government for years, often based on nothing more than a misguided belief that terrorists might be hiding in their midst,” said Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “In light of that history, and the chilling effect these revelations will have on other human rights and civil liberties groups, the government has a heavy burden to show that this secret electronic surveillance was both lawful and necessary.”

Human Rights Watch noted that the US law enforcement agencies have long engaged in unjustified targeting of American Muslim communities for surveillance and investigation, even as they have stressed the importance of partnering with those same communities in counterterrorism efforts. The documents made public on July 9 may heighten fear among other organizations, as well as the broader American Muslim population, that they may be improperly targeted.

Human Rights Watch, along with 44 other organizations, also sent a letter to President Barack Obama, calling for a full public accounting of the practices described in today’s report.

The post US Should Explain Surveillance On Civil Liberties Group, Says HRW appeared first on Eurasia Review.

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