Category: International Affairs,

Netanyahu questioned ‘under caution’ in corruption case

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was questioned “under caution” in Case 4000, according to an Israeli official, making him a suspect now in three corruption investigations.

…Investigators questioned Netanyahu at his residence in Jerusalem for five hours Friday morning, marking the eighth time the Israeli leader has been questioned in graft probes targeting him and his inner circle.

An Israeli official told CNN that Netanyahu was questioned “under caution,” which refers to the questioning of someone suspected of having committed a crime, with the warning that anything they say, or decline to talk about, could be used against them in court proceedings.

Netanyahu questioned ‘under caution’ in corruption case – CNN

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EU tells Google, Facebook and Twitter to remove terrorist content within 1 hour

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Europe is telling tech companies to take down terrorist content within an hour of it being flagged — or face sweeping new legislation.

…Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft all agreed in 2016 to review and remove a majority of hate speech within 24 hours. The category includes racist, violent or illegal posts.

…European lawmakers are concerned that social media platforms can be used to spread extremist content, and influence elections on the continent. Some have called for tech companies to be made legally responsible for content on their platforms.

But critics say that a heavy handed approach could restrict the free speech of Europeans.

EU tells Google, Facebook and Twitter to remove terrorist content within 1 hour – Mar. 1, 2018

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State Department report will trim language on discrimination

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, International Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

State Department officials have been ordered to pare back passages in a soon-to-be-released annual report on global human rights that traditionally discuss women’s reproductive rights and discrimination, according to five former and current department officials.

The directive calls for stripping passages that describe societal views on family planning, including how much access women have to contraceptives and abortion.

…This sends a clear signal that women’s reproductive rights are not a priority for this administration, and that it’s not even a rights violation we must or should report on,” one serving State Department official said.

…A broader section that chronicles racial, ethnic and sexual discrimination has also been ordered pared down, the current and former officials said.

…Tillerson and Trump have both said human rights should not block other U.S. foreign policy priorities, especially when it to comes to key allies such as Egypt or Saudi Arabia. But the administration hasn’t held back on talking about human rights when speaking out against enemies like Iran and North Korea.

Last year, Tillerson broke with tradition and chose not to personally unveil his department’s human rights report — dismaying activists and lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who believe human rights should be a pillar of U.S. foreign policy.

State Department report will trim language on women’s rights, discrimination – POLITICO

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Iran says Damascus suburbs assault to continue as fighting rages

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

Iran said pro-Damascus forces would press ahead with attacks on an insurgent enclave near the Syrian capital, as ground fighting raged on there in defiance of a U.N. resolution demanding a 30-day truce across the country.

Turkey, too, said its military operations in another theater of war in the north of Syria would not be affected by the unanimous Security Council vote demanding the truce to allow for aid access and medical evacuations.

Anti-government rebels said they clashed with pro-government forces near Damascus on Sunday, as rescuers and residents said warplanes struck some towns in the eastern Ghouta pocket.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes and artillery killed nine people and injured 31 in the eastern suburbs. The UK-based monitoring group said Sunday’s bombing was less intense than attacks over the past week.

Iran says Damascus suburbs assault to continue as fighting rages

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Trump officials fight eviction from Panama hotel they manage

On By peanutgallerynhIn Money, Class, and Poverty,, The Americas,Leave a comment

One of President Trump’s family businesses is battling an effort to physically evict its team of executives from a luxury hotel in Panama where they manage operations, and police have been called to keep the peace, The Associated Press has learned. Witnesses told the AP they saw Trump’s executives carrying files to a room for shredding.

…In October, Ithaca Capital led a push to terminate Trump Hotel’s management contract and seek compensatory damages. Trump’s company – which he still owns but does not directly control – refused to hand over control of the property, arguing that the vote to fire Trump Hotels was invalid.

A Panamanian court declined to support that claim in December, and the parties have since been fighting in court. The AP reported that the Trump management team ran off a group of Marriott executives who had been invited to tour the property amid a search for a replacement hotel operator.

On Thursday, Fintiklis arrived at the property with management staff and lawyers intending to take over the hotel immediately. The Trump management team again refused to yield control of the property, and according to the legal complaint filed by Ithaca’s lawyers, refused to allow Fintiklis to check into any of his company’s 202 hotel rooms.

Trump officials fight eviction from Panama hotel they manage

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Why Are U.S. Troops Staying in Syria? Trump WH Won’t Say

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

In a pair of letters issued within the last month, Pentagon and State Department officials indicated that the Trump administration envisions U.S. soldiers remaining on the ground in Syria and Iraq indefinitely, even once Islamic State militants have been defeated, and does not believe it requires additional permission from Congress to do so.

…As disconcerting as it is that the administration continues to deploy soldiers in Syria with no authorization from Congress and asserts that no such authorization is required, it is also refusing to give straight answers about its objectives there. Then again, that makes us no different than every other belligerent in the Syrian conflict: Claiming to be just fighting terrorists has been a standard refrain for a while now in Damascus, Moscow, Ankara, Tehran, and Jerusalem as well, even when ulterior motives are plain to see.

…Syria and Russia claim that they are targeting Islamist militants who are using the area to launch mortar attacks on Damascus and using civilians as human shields. Russia claims the Western media is biased against it and reports of Syrian atrocities in eastern Ghouta are fake news. The U.N., however, has called the situation a potential “massacre” and is pushing for the Security Council to impose a 30-day ceasefire to allow for medical evacuations and the delivery of emergency aid.

…Russia has threatened to veto any resolution that does not make an exception for strikes on jihadi militants such as it is purportedly targeting in eastern Ghouta — though it’s unclear how a resolution could allow the continued bombing of the area and also enable aid to safely reach the 400,000 civilians who live there. The U.S. delegation to the U.N. has accused Russia of stonewalling any meaningful action.

Turkey, meanwhile, continues its campaign to drive Kurdish forces out of the northern region of Afrin, where it is now clashing with pro-Assad fighters sent there to help the Kurds resist the Turks. The Turkish incursion is a delicate situation for the U.S., as Turkey is a NATO ally but the Kurdish militias have been some of our most reliable partners in Syria.

Why Are U.S. Troops Staying in Syria? Trump Admin. Won’t Say

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UN Security Council Passes Syria Cease-Fire After Hundreds Killed In Bombing Siege

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution calling for a 30-day cease-fire in Syria, following one of the bloodiest weeks of aerial bombardment in the war that has devastated the country.

In the eastern suburbs of Damascus, a region called Eastern Ghouta, nearly 500 people have been killed in a deadly escalation by the Syrian government that began Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Associated Press. More than 120 of the dead are children, the group says.

The Security Council resolution aims to get humanitarian aid to Eastern Ghouta and other areas under siege.

UN Security Council Passes Syria Cease-Fire After Hundreds Killed In Bombing Siege : The Two-Way : NPR

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Myanmar bulldozes what is left of Rohingya Muslim villages

On By peanutgallerynhIn Race,, Religion,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

First, their villages were burned to the ground. Now, Myanmar’s government is using bulldozers to literally erase them from the earth — in a vast operation rights groups say is destroying crucial evidence of mass atrocities against the nation’s ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority.

…Myanmar’s armed forces are accused not just of burning Muslim villages with the help of Buddhist mobs, but of carrying out massacres, rapes and widespread looting. The latest crisis in Rakhine state began in August after Rohingya insurgents launched a series of unprecedented attacks on security posts.

Myanmar bulldozes what is left of Rohingya Muslim villages – ABC News

State sponsored evil. Cue the Israeli-like propaganda about racist facism being all about safety for its citizen in 3,2,1…

Ahed Tamimi’s trial gets under way behind closed doors

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Middle East,, Race,, Religion,Leave a comment

Ahed Tamimi, 17, was arrested in December after a video of her slapping and hitting two Israeli officials outside of her house in the village of Nabi Saleh went viral. Her mother, Nariman, was arrested soon after.

Court proceedings began on Tuesday at Israel’s Ofer detention centre, with only family members allowed into the hearing after the judge barred reporters despite a request for a public trial by Gaby Lasky, the lawyer of the Tamimis.

…Amit Gilutz, spokesperson for Israeli rights group B’Tselem, said all of the practices being used against Ahed and Nariman “are completely routine” for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“The military courts themselves are one of the most injurious mechanisms of the occupation and are not designed to seek justice or truth, but to maintain the occupation,” Gilutz told Al Jazeera.

…Ahed has since become an icon for the 330 Palestinian children currently held in Israel’s prisons, and rights groups have demanded her immediate release.

“As an unarmed girl, Ahed posed no threat during the altercation with the two Israeli soldiers who were heavily armed and wearing protective clothing,” Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy director for Amnesty International’s Middle East and Africa programme, said in a statement on Monday.

Mughrabi said Ahed had not done anything that could justify her continued detention and “the long, aggressive interrogation sessions she has been forced to endure”.

“Yet again, the Israeli authorities have responded to acts of defiance by a Palestinian child with measures that are entirely disproportionate to the incident in question,” she added.

…The village has also faced rising threats from settlers residing in Israel’s illegal Halamish settlement, located adjacent to the home of the Tamimi family.

Earlier this month, locals said Israeli settlers had snuck into Nabi Saleh in the middle of the night and sprayed graffiti around the village, including slogans such as “Death to Ahed Tamimi” and “There’s no place in this world for Ahed Tamimi”.

Ahed Tamimi’s trial gets under way behind closed doors | Palestine News | Al Jazeera

Not sure which is worse, being black in the US justice system or Palestinian in the Israeli court system. Either way, you’re pretty much fucked.

Military Trial Opens For 17-Year-Old

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,, Race,, Religion,Leave a comment

For many Palestinians, Tamimi is a symbol of resistance to a half-century military occupation that stands in the way of Palestinian independence and shows no sign of ending.

For many Israelis, Tamimi is a provocateur who goads soldiers on video and champions rock-throwing, influenced by relatives who have been involved in protests and attacks against Israelis.

Tamimi was arrested and indicted after a public outcry in Israel when a video of an altercation with the soldiers, posted by her mother, went viral.

…The altercation with soldiers happened shortly after Tamimi’s cousin was shot in the head with a rubber bullet during a demonstration as he climbed a wall of a complex that Israeli soldiers had commandeered, according to Bassem Tamimi, Ahed’s father, who is a well-known leader of protests in his village.

Military prosecutors say Ahed Tamimi’s slapping, kicking and punching of soldiers was assault. Bassem Tamimi recently told NPR that his daughter’s confrontation is a natural reaction to a life of watching her relatives being arrested and killed.

…Human rights advocates, including Human Rights Watch, have criticized Ahed Tamimi’s pre-trial detention – now at more than 55 days. “Her case raises concern that Israel’s military justice system, which detains hundreds of Palestinian children every year, is incapable of respecting children’s rights,” the rights group stated.

Military Trial Opens For 17-Year-Old Palestinian Activist : The Two-Way : NPR

The United States isn’t perfect but at least awe aren’t Israel….

The slaughter in Syria should outrage us. Yet still we just shrug.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

Sure, the government of Bashar al-Assad may have pounded the rebel-held area so hard that it killed 194 people in 40 hours, many of them children. It may have targeted seven hospitals in two days, repeatedly hitting medical workers as they sought to rescue the injured and dying. And yes, this may signal the escalation of a siege that has denied supplies to a population of 390,000 for months, squeezing them between bombardment and starvation. All that may be meticulously documented by the UN.

This bloodletting has gone on for seven years now, and for most of that time most of us – politicians, media, public – have looked the other way.

…What explains this global indifference? Partly it’s because those of us far away have our own, legitimate preoccupations. Trump and Brexit are not mortal threats on a par with the barrel bombs of Damascus, but they have convulsed America and Britain alike. In recent days, it has not helped that the very aid organisations we might ordinarily expect to sound the alarm about an emergency such as Syria have been shaken by scandal and forced to look inward.

Part of it, surely, is that it has just gone on so long. For seven years we have known that a civil war is raining horror on Syria, and we’ve got used to it. The sound of Syrian children choking to death has become the background noise of this decade. And, crucially, we don’t know what to do about it.

The slaughter in Syria should outrage us. Yet still we just shrug | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian

Sigh….

Mueller indicts Alex van der Zwaan: What it means and why it matters

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Europe,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Yanukovych was in the midst of a power struggle with another prominent Ukrainian politician, which he decided to solve by jailing her in the fall of 2011. Manafort and Gates’s job was to run cover for this clearly undemocratic prosecution. So they retained a team from Skadden Arps, which included van der Zwaan, to put together a “report” that conveniently concluded that there was no political motive for putting her in jail.

This was a big deal in Ukraine but a relatively obscure issue for most of the rest of the world.

…The key piece of information in all of this is the timing: Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign manager on August 19, 2016 — weeks before the alleged conversations between Gates, Person A, and van der Zwaan. The resignation was the result of widespread reporting about Manafort’s shady ties to Yanukovych, particularly an allegedly off-the-books payment.

If Gates and van der Zwaan were talking about the Skadden report in September 2016, and van der Zwaan felt the need to lie to the FBI about it, it suggests that there may have been something criminal about the report’s production — or at least, something whose release would be politically damaging.

Mueller indicts Alex van der Zwaan: What it means and why it matters – Vox

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Manafort Charges Renew Questions About Skadden’s Work in Ukraine

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Europe,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

One of New York’s most prestigious law firms raised eyebrows five years ago when it produced a report for the pro-Russian government in Ukraine that largely defended the prosecution and conviction of Yulia Tymoshenko, the blond-braided former prime minister.

The report, by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLC, defied the view held by the U.S. and the European Union that the case against her was politically motivated. The firm’s $12,000 payment was modest, just below the amount that required public bidding.

The following year, however, with no further work done, Ukraine sent Skadden $1 million. After the pro-Russian government was run out of town in 2014, the new authorities began investigating.

…Manafort and his partner Richard Gates are accused of laundering millions of dollars from unreported work for Ukraine and its political parties, money that ran through offshore accounts.

…Manafort was a longtime political adviser to Tymoshenko’s rival, the pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych, advising him on political strategy and sprucing up his image in Washington. After Yanukovych clinched the presidency in 2010, he ordered an investigation of Tymoshenko that resulted in a conviction and seven-year sentence, widely condemned abroad.

…Correspondence between Craig, Manafort and the Ukrainian government show Skadden agreeing to accept payment from a “third party,” Radionov, the prosecutor, said. What that means is unclear.

…The indictment provides fresh details about Manafort’s clandestine influence campaign on behalf of Yanukovych in the U.S. It alleges that offshore accounts associated with Manafort and Gates paid more than $2 million between 2012 and 2014 to two companies that lobbied members of Congress and their staffs about Ukraine sanctions and “the propriety of imprisoning his presidential rival.”

…Investigators in the U.S. and Ukraine have been looking into Manafort’s and Skadden’s work. But Serhiy Gorbatyuk, the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Yanukovych-era crimes, says seven letters from the general prosecutor to the U.S. Justice Department have gone unanswered. This week, an FBI agent meeting with Ukrainian prosecutors in Kiev got an earful about lack of cooperation and failing to use proper procedures to collect documents in Ukraine, Radionov said.

Manafort Charges Renew Questions About Skadden’s Work in Ukraine – Bloomberg

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