Just Foreign Policy News
July 15, 2011
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I) Actions and Featured Articles
Video – Rep. George Miller on the Colombia Trade Agreement
"Death squads are unleashed against union activists and union rights leaders and defenders. Union leaders are gunned down in broad daylight."
http://youtu.be/zb91g8GBJhc
Jewish Daily Forward: "We Can’t Say This"
The Forward challenges the anti-boycott law.
http://forward.com/articles/139822/
Washington Post: Israelis and Arabs march in Jerusalem for Palestinian statehood
Daniel Argo, from the Israeli group Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity, the main organizer of the march, asserted that Palestinian statehood would free Israel from the burden of occupation. "The struggle for Palestinian independence is also a struggle for freedom for Israelis," Argo said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/israelis-and-arabs-march-in-jerusalem-for-palestinian-statehood/2011/07/15/gIQAQPnSGI_story.html
NPR: U.N. Official Says U.S. Is Breaking Rules In Torture Investigation
The UN chief torture investigator said the US was violating U.N. rules, after the country denied him unmonitored access to Bradley Manning.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/12/137791682/u-n-official-says-u-s-is-breaking-rules-in-torture-investigation
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II) Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Writing for Gush Shalom, veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery credits the boycott by Israelis of products made in Israeli settlements with inducing the EU to enforce trade agreements that bar settlement products from EU trade preferences. Several big enterprises have already given in and moved out, under pressure from foreign investors and buyers, Avnery writes. He attributes the anti-boycott law to this success.
2) Writing on the Huffington Post, Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now challenges claims that Israel’s new anti-boycott law is similar to anti-boycott laws in the U.S. She notes that US law doesn’t prevent doesn’t bar U.S. citizens from organizing boycotts of anything or any country, or participating in boycotts of anything or any country, that are organized by domestic or foreign individuals or organizations. U.S. law bars participation in unsanctioned boycotts and embargoes imposed by other countries that conflict with U.S. policies. Furthermore, the settlements are not part of Israel, even under Israeli law; and boycotting them does not contradict US policy, which officially opposes the settlements.
3) A Japanese newspaper said the US is in talks with NATO to remove US tactical nuclear weapons from Europe, AFP reports. Washington is talking with other NATO member nations about the withdrawal of all shorter-range, tactical nuclear weapons that have been deployed in Europe since the Cold War era, Asahi Shimbun said. If a complete abolition in Europe is agreed, it could give impetus to US-Russia nuclear disarmament talks, the newspaper said.
4) US combat deaths in Iraq are on the rise, an ominous harbinger of what lies ahead if an agreement is reached to keep troops in Iraq after the withdrawal deadline at the end of the year, the New York Times reports. The same Iraqi government that wants US troops to stay is also tacitly condoning attacks by Shiite militias on US troops.
The Iraqis would prefer an agreement for a continued troop presence without submitting it to Parliament. The US has insisted any deal must be ratified by Parliament because their lawyers have decided it is the only way to secure legal immunities for soldiers who stay. The public relations game is to draft language that obscures the reality that US soldiers will continue to face an enemy and to defend themselves and will almost certainly continue to die, the Times says.
5) Bill Clinton’s foundation says it will send experts to Haiti to check storm shelters it donated that reportedly have developed leaks and mold, AP reports. The statement follows a report in The Nation that some shelters were leaking and moldy.
6) A new round of portable antiaircraft missiles – weapons that governments fear could be obtained by terrorists and then fired at civilian jetliners – have been slipping from storage bunkers captured by Libyan rebels, the New York Times reports. The leakage resumed recently with rebel gains in the western mountains, which opened up new ammunition stores. The new leakage of the missiles, which are of the same type that officials in other African nations have said have already been trafficked over Libya’s borders, underscores the organizational weakness of the forces opposed to Qaddafi; it also raises concerns that if more Qaddafi depots fall to the rebels, then further stocks of the weapons could become accessible to black markets, the Times says. US requests that the rebels secure the weapons have had little effect, the Times says.
7) Speaking in opposition to the Colombia trade agreement, Rep. George Miller argued that it is the job of the elected leaders in the US to ensure "that those who receive trade preferences respect essential democratic rights," notes Colombia Reports [video: http://youtu.be/zb91g8GBJhc.] "Death squads are unleashed against union activists and union rights leaders and defenders. Union leaders are gunned down in broad daylight," Miller said.
Afghanistan
8) Reporting on the UN civilian casualty figures, Laura King of the Los Angeles Times notes that the figures "contrast with the relatively upbeat security assessments presented recently by senior U.S. military officials." Even in parts of the country where the U.S. military has cited significant progress, civilians feel trapped between the warring parties.
Iraq
9) Iraqi officials say elite units controlled by Prime Minister Maliki’s office are ignoring parliament and the government’s own directive by operating a clandestine jail in Baghdad’s Green Zone where prisoners routinely face torture, Ned Parker reports for the Los Angeles Times. The Red Cross requested immediate access to the jail and added that there could be three more connected to it where detainees also are being mistreated. Critics say that many of those jailed by Maliki’s forces are locked up for political reasons, because of personal feuds or to cover up corruption.
The Red Cross said former detainees reported beatings, electric shock to the genitals and other parts of the body, suffocation using plastic bags, scalding with boiling water or burning with cigarettes, being hung from ceilings with hands tied behind the back or being hung upside down from the top frame of a bunk bed, the pulling out of fingernails, being left naked for hours and rape using sticks or bottles. Detainees also alleged that female family members were brought to Camp Honor and raped in front of them, the Red Cross said.
Jordan
10) Riot police officers broke up a peaceful demonstration in Amman on Friday, beating protesters and Jordanian and foreign journalists, the New York Times reports.
Honduras
11) Gunmen in Honduras have killed a rural radio station’s director who was a supporter of ousted President Zelaya, AP reports. Human rights advocates say at least 22 journalists have been killed in Honduras since 2007.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) It Can Happen Here!
Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom, 15/07/11
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1310733120/
[…] In 1997, Gush Shalom declared a boycott of the products of the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. We believe that these settlements, which are being set up with the express purpose of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, are endangering the future of Israel.
The press conference, in which we announced this step, was not attended by a single Israeli journalist. But the boycott gathered momentum. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis do not buy settlement products. The European Union, which has a trade agreement that practically treats Israel as a member of the union, was induced to enforce the clause that excludes products of the settlements from these privileges.
There are now hundreds of factories in the settlements. They were literally compelled, or seduced, to go there, because the (stolen) land there is far cheaper than in Israel proper. They enjoy generous government subsidies and tax exemptions, and they can exploit Palestinian workers for ridiculous wages. The Palestinians have no other way of supporting their families than to toil for their oppressors.
Our boycott was designed, among other things, to counter these advantages. And indeed, several big enterprises have already given in and moved out, under pressure from foreign investors and buyers. Alarmed, the settlers instructed their lackeys in the Knesset to draft a law that would counter this boycott.
Last Monday, the "Boycott Law" was enacted, setting off an unprecedented storm in the country. Already Tuesday morning, Gush Shalom submitted to the Supreme Court a 22 page application to annul this law.
The "Boycott Law" is a very clever piece of work. Obviously, it was not drafted by the parliamentary simpletons who introduced it, but by some very sophisticated legal minds, probably financed by the Casino barons and Evangelical crazies who support the extreme Right in Israel.
First of all, the law is disguised as a means to fight the de-legitimization of the State of Israel throughout the world. The law bans all calls for the boycott of the State of Israel, "including the areas under Israeli control". Since there are not a dozen Israelis who call for the boycott of the state, it is clear that the real and sole purpose is to outlaw the boycott of the settlements.
In its initial draft, the law made this a criminal offense. That would have suited us fine: we were quite willing to go to prison for this cause. But the law, in its final form, imposes sanctions that are another thing.
According to the law, any settler who feels that he has been harmed by the boycott can demand unlimited compensation from any person or organization calling for the boycott – without having to prove any actual damage. This means that each of the 300,000 settlers can claim millions from every single peace activist associated with the call for boycott, thus destroying the peace movement altogether.
As we point out in our application to the Supreme Court, the law is clearly unconstitutional. True, Israel has no formal constitution, but several "basic laws" are considered by the Supreme Court to function effectively as such.
First, the law clearly contravenes the basic right to freedom of expression. A call for a boycott is a legitimate political action, much as a street demonstration, a manifesto or a mass petition.
Second, the law contravenes the principle of equality. The law does not apply to any other boycott that is now being implemented in Israel: from the religious boycott of stores that sell non-kosher meat (posters calling for this cover the walls of the religious quarters in Jerusalem and elsewhere), to the recent very successful call to boycott the producers of cottage cheese because of their high price. The call of right-wing groups to boycott artists who have not served in the army will be legal, the declaration by left-wing artists that they will not appear in the settlements will be illegal.
[…] The power of the settlers is immense, and moderate right-wing members are rightly afraid that, if they are not radical enough, they will not be re-elected by the Likud Central Council, which selects the candidates for the party list. This creates a dynamic of competition: who can appear the most radical.
No wonder that one anti-democratic law follows another: a law that practically bars Arab citizens from living in localities of less than 400 families. A law that takes away the pension rights of former Knesset members who do not show up for police investigations (like Azmi Bishara.) A law that abolishes the citizenship of people convicted of "assisting terrorism". A law that obliges NGOs to disclose donations by foreign governmental institutions. A law that gives preference for civil service positions to people who have served in the army (thus automatically excluding almost all Arab citizens). A law that outlaws any commemoration of the 1948 Naqba (the expulsion of Arab inhabitants from areas conquered by Israel). An extension of the law that prohibits (almost exclusively) Arab citizens, who marry spouses from the Palestinian territories, to live with them in Israel.
Soon to be enacted is a bill that forbids NGOs to accept donations of more than 5000 dollars from abroad, a bill that will impose an income tax of 45% on any NGO that is not specifically exempted by the government, a bill to compel universities to sing the national anthem on every possible occasion, the appointment of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry to investigate the financial resources of left-wing [sic] organizations.
Looming over everything else is the explicit threat of right-wing factions to attack the hated "liberal" Supreme Court directly, shear it of its ability to overrule unconstitutional laws and control the appointment of the Supreme Court judges.
Fifty-one years ago, on the eve of the Eichmann trial, I wrote a book about Nazi Germany. In the last chapter, I asked: "Can It Happen Here?" My answer still stands: yes, it can.
2) Israel’s New Boycott Law and U.S. Law: Like Apples and Orangutans
Lara Friedman, Huffington Post, 7/14/11
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lara-friedman/israel-boycott-law_b_898317.html
[Friedman is Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now.]
Comparing the boycott law passed Monday by the Israeli Knesset with US anti-boycott law is like comparing apples and orangutans.
[…] Here are the facts:
U.S. law (found in the Export Administration Act — EAA; the official reference is: 48 C.F.R. 652.225-71) "prohibits compliance by U.S. persons with any boycott fostered by a foreign country against a country which is friendly to the United States and which is not itself the object of any form of boycott pursuant to United States law or regulation," and imposes criminal penalties on those who do comply with such boycotts.
U.S. law (found in the Tax Reform Act — TRA), penalizes those who participate in such boycotts (as defined under the EAA) by denying them certain tax benefits.
The key words in all of this are "by a foreign country." The objective behind these laws is clearly spelled out on this webpage (which is helpfully being circulated by the defenders of the new boycott law, but apparently not being read). That objective is: "preventing U.S. firms from being used to implement foreign policies of other nations which run counter to U.S. policy…" The key words here, again, are: "other nations."
There’s nothing ambiguous here. U.S. law doesn’t bar U.S. citizens from organizing boycotts of anything or any country, or participating in boycotts of anything or any country, that are organized by domestic or foreign individuals or organizations. What U.S. law bars is participation in unsanctioned boycotts and embargoes imposed by other countries that conflict with U.S. policies — including but not limited to the (effectively moribund) Arab League boycott of Israel.
So what does this mean in practice? It means that a group of angry Americans can organize a boycott of France and French products to protest France’s perceived non-support of the US in the Iraq war, notwithstanding the fact that France is a country that is "friendly to the United States." And Americans are free to organize a boycott against Canada, a close friend of the U.S., to protest seal hunting or to organize a boycott against Mexico, simply because they don’t like it. And any American can organize a boycott of Arizona to protest its outrageous racial profiling policy. And a food co-op in Olympia, Oregon can legally boycott Israeli products.
And in practice, even if opponents of a boycott of settlement products could somehow make the case that such a boycott was being fostered by a foreign government, U.S. anti-boycott law would not apply. Israel has never annexed the West Bank, and settlements are not legally part of Israel, even under Israeli law. So such a boycott could not fairly be characterized as targeting "a country which is friendly to the United States." Moreover, U.S. anti-boycott law stipulates that compliance with foreign boycotts is prohibited if they reflect "foreign policies of other nations which run counter to U.S. policy" — but U.S. policy has long opposed settlements.
Welcome to democracy, under which citizens can peacefully protest whatever they want, foreign or domestic, including through boycotts.
Except in Israel. In Israel, as of Monday, people are still free to use boycotts to express their views on consumer prices (like the recent cottage cheese boycott), their religious intolerance (like regular boycotts by religious Jews of businesses that open on the Sabbath), and even their unconcealed racism (like boycotts of businesses that employ Arabs and boycotts of anything Arab at all). In Israel, one can still in fact use boycotts to protest anything and everything. Except, that is, to protest Israeli government policy as it relates to settlements and the occupation. Under Israel’s new anti-boycott law, participating in or calling for any such boycott opens one up to being sued for practically unlimited "compensation," with the person doing the suing not even obligated to prove that any actual "damage" was done.
[…]
3) US may pull tactical nukes out of Europe: Report
AFP, Jul 15, 2011
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_690939.html
Tokyo – The United States is in talks with Nato to remove US tactical nuclear weapons from Europe, in a push toward a nuclear-weapons-free world and to cut costs, a Japanese newspaper said on Friday.
Washington is talking with other Nato member nations about the withdrawal of all shorter-range, tactical nuclear weapons that have been deployed in Europe since the Cold War era, the influential Asahi Shimbun said.
In-depth discussions will take place in coming months and the talks should conclude by the time Chicago hosts a Nato summit next May, the liberal daily said, citing a senior US official tasked with nuclear disarmament policies.
The talks are being held as part of Nato’s Defence and Deterrence Posture Review, said the report filed from the paper’s Washington bureau.
The move came as US President Barack Obama wants to negotiate with Russia about reducing tactical nuclear weapons and nuclear stockpiles, following the ratification this year of the US-Russia New Start disarmament treaty, it said.
If a complete abolition in Europe is agreed, it could give impetus to US-Russia nuclear disarmament talks, the mass-circulation newspaper said. Japan is the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Post-war Japan has strongly pushed nuclear non-proliferation efforts, a topic that is closely followed by Japanese media.
4) In Shadow Of Death, Iraq And U.S. Tiptoe Around A Deadline
Tim Arango, New York Times, July 14, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html
Baghdad – The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is privately telling American officials that it wants their Army to stay here after this year. The Americans are privately telling their Iraqi counterparts that they want to stay. But under what conditions, and at what price to the Americans who remain behind?
American combat deaths are on the rise, an ominous harbinger of what lies ahead if an agreement is reached to keep troops here after the withdrawal deadline at the end of the year. For the same Iraqi government that wants the Americans to stay is also tacitly condoning attacks by Shiite militias on American troops, by failing to respond as aggressively to their attacks as it does to those of Sunni insurgent groups like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
The Maliki government’s unwillingness or inability to rein in the militias adds an element to a discussion that until now had been focused on the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces and the domestic political considerations in Washington and Baghdad, not the safety of American soldiers.
Lately, American officials have been vocal in levying accusations at Iran for arming the militias that are attacking American forces, but less so in denouncing the Iraqi government’s complicity.
[…] The unequal response by the Iraqi security forces to the threats from Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups is a legacy of the sectarian violence that was unleashed by the American invasion eight years ago. That upended the Sunnis’ long reign and installed a government dominated by Shiites who still nurse grudges against their former oppressors.
Another layer of frustration for the Americans is the Iraqi judicial system, which is also often infected with sectarianism.
A recent case in Hilla, a town in Babil Province, south of Baghdad, illustrates the uneven treatment in Iraq’s courts. An American Army unit caught three men laying a roadside bomb, and turned them over to the local judiciary. According to a local official, the men were members of the Promised Day Brigade, a militia under the control of Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric whose followers in Parliament helped Mr. Maliki secure a second term as prime minister.
Yet the men were acquitted after a two-hour trial in which the court barred American military officials from testifying. The case became public only because a frustrated American commander issued his own news release, outside the usual communications of the American military command in Baghdad.
"We are deeply disappointed in the court’s decision," the commander, Col. Reginald Allen of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, said in the statement. "To free three suspects without a fair trial, after they were found at the crime scene with a clear intent to commit harm, undermines the rule of law and sends a terrible message that can only serve to embolden the enemies of a free and secure Iraq."
Colonel Allen’s comments amounted to unusual candor from an American official about the frustrations of operating in Iraq today, and raised the ire of public relations officials at the United States Embassy here. Embassy officials are emphasizing the narrative that Iraq and the United States are entering a new phase in their relationship, a more normal one between two sovereign countries, even as the recent attacks underscore the violent reality of Iraq eight years after the American invasion.
[…] Under the security agreement, American troops can act, but only in self-defense – usually, firing back when fired upon – and are barred from operations against militant networks based on intelligence.
Mr. Panetta said this week that the Americans would take matters into their own hands if the Iraqis did not step up, and the blowback was immediate. A spokesman for Mr. Maliki said any such operations were "a violation of the security agreement signed between Iraq and the United States." Mr. Panetta’s comments also antagonized Mr. Sadr, whose spokesman was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying they "openly mocked Iraq’s sovereignty."
All things being equal, the Iraqis would prefer an agreement between the two governments for a continued troop presence without the political complications that would come from submitting it to Parliament. The Americans have insisted that any deal must be ratified by Parliament because their lawyers have decided it is the only way to secure legal immunities for soldiers who stay.
To make this palatable to the citizens of Iraq and the United States, the public relations game is to draft language that is politically acceptable yet obscures the reality that American soldiers will continue to face an enemy, will need to defend themselves and will almost certainly continue to die.
5) Clinton foundation sends experts to look at Haiti shelters amid complaints of leaks, mold
Associated Press, July 13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/clinton-foundation-sends-experts-to-look-at-haiti-shelters-amid-complaints-of-leaks-mold/2011/07/13/gIQANmdTCI_story.html
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Former President Bill Clinton’s foundation says it will send experts to Haiti to check storm shelters it donated that reportedly have developed leaks and mold.
Foundation Chief of Staff Laura Graham says the independent experts will evaluate the 20 shelters in the town of Leogane. Graham says any construction deficiencies will be fixed.
Her comments Tuesday follow reports published by The Nation magazine that some shelters were leaking and moldy. It reported that people in the town are upset that the structures lack air conditioning and can’t be used as schools.
The foundation says the structures were intended to be emergency storm shelters but local people could use them temporarily as schools if needed.
6) Antiaircraft Missiles On The Loose In Libya
C. J. Chivers, New York Times, July 14, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/world/africa/15libya.html
Ga’a, Libya – Five months after the armed uprising erupted in Libya, a new round of portable antiaircraft missiles – weapons that governments fear could be obtained by terrorists and then fired at civilian jetliners – have been slipping from storage bunkers captured by rebels.
In February, in the early stages of the uprising, large numbers of the missiles slipped from the hands of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government as the rebels established control over eastern Libya and the ammunition depots there. The leakage resumed recently with rebel gains here in the western mountains, which opened up new ammunition stores.
The new leakage of the missiles, which are of the same type that officials in other African nations have said have already been trafficked over Libya’s borders, underscores the organizational weakness of the forces opposed to Colonel Qaddafi; it also raises concerns that if more Qaddafi depots fall to the rebels, then further stocks of the weapons could become accessible to black markets.
[…] Two other American officials, speaking anonymously so as not to upset diplomatic relations with the rebels, said that after the initial leakage of the SA-7s the American government repeatedly asked the National Transitional Council, the de facto rebel authority, to collect and secure the missiles and to prevent more missiles from getting loose.
When the depot here at Ga’a fell, however, those requests appeared to have had little effect. "The rebels came from all over the western mountains, and they just took what they wanted," said Riyad, a supervisor of the ruined arsenal’s small contingent of rebel guards.
[…] Rebel guards and officers offered insights into factors that allowed such weapons to end up on the side of the road in this way – including rebels who know little of weapons, undisciplined forces and inadequate security.
On the day Ga’a was captured, rebels and local men were seen carrying away crates of SA-7s, even though – given that the only aircraft over the battlefields are from NATO – they did not need them for the fighting.
The rebel military said that this diversion was the ordinary confusion of an untrained force made up of civilians, many of whom assumed the missiles could be useful in a ground war. "They think, ‘I have this missile and I will not use it against aircraft, I will use it against a tank,’ " said Col. Juma Ibrahim, a rebel military spokesman. Another officer said rebels are not allowed to bring any missile that can be used against planes to the front lines. "Our fighters are forbidden from using them," said Col. Mukhtar Farnana, the rebel military commander in western Libya.
But the rebel leadership has apparently taken few steps to collect the missiles its fighters carried away from Ga’a or to prevent more of them from leaking. And no one could explain the newly emptied Manpad crates in the sand.
The crates were in a pile that suggested that scavenging crews had cherry-picked the missiles from the ample collection of munitions inside the depot, removed them from their cases and loaded them on trucks.
Officially, the depot is closed to the public. Only rebels approved by the rebel military leadership are given access to the site.
But three visits to the depot in the past 10 days found many people roaming its ruined grounds, including, the guards said, people they allowed to take empty wooden crates for use as firewood or as storage containers in their homes.
When trucks departed with crates, the drivers sometimes honking horns, the guards did not check to see if the crates were empty, or search some of the trucks at all.
7) Colombian unionists ‘gunned down in broad daylight’: US representative
Travis Mannon, Colombia Reports, Thursday, 14 July 2011 13:50http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/17646-colombian-unionists-gunned-down-in-broad-daylight-us-representative.html
One of the most vocal members of the U.S. Congress opposing the pending free trade agreement (FTA) has spoken out again against the violence in Colombia.
Representative George Miller, the senior Democrat of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, argued that it is the job of the elected leaders in the United States to ensure "that those who receive trade preferences respect essential democratic rights." He expressed concern about the high levels of violence against unionists.
"Death squads are unleashed against union activists and union rights leaders and defenders. Union leaders are gunned down in broad daylight."
Miller added, "This isn’t yesterday’s news, the intimidation and violence continue to this day. There have been 47 confirmed killings of unionists in Colombia this year. Last year 90 unionists were murdered worldwide, 49 of them in Colombia. Colombian unionists face the highest rates of murder anywhere in the world."
The representative commended President Juan Manuel Santos and President Obama for creating the Labor Action Plan, a requisite for the approval of the FTA which forces the Colombian government to address the violence against unions. He believes, however, that the Labor Action Plan does not do anything to ensure the specifics of the plan are actually carried out.
Miller would like to see the text of the Action Plan included in the FTA to make sure the agreement could not go into effect until all the prerequisites are actually met.
Afghanistan
8) Afghan Civilian Deaths Up 15% This Year, U.N. Report Says
The United Nations, in a report that paints a picture of deteriorating safety, says it has documented 1,462 Afghan civilian deaths from January to June – most of them caused by insurgents.
Laura King, Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-civilians-20110715,0,6355969.story
Kabul, Afghanistan- The Afghan war claimed 15% more civilian lives in the first half of this year than in the same period a year ago, the United Nations said in a report Thursday that painted a picture of deteriorating safety across the country.
The grim figures contrast with the relatively upbeat security assessments presented recently by senior U.S. military officials as an American troop drawdown gets underway.
[…] Over the last year, Western commanders have been increasingly reliant on air power, and the new civilian casualty figures reflect that. The report says airstrikes were the leading cause of civilian deaths attributed to the NATO force, with strikes from helicopters in particular taking an increasing toll.
Earlier this year, after U.S. helicopter gunners mistakenly killed nine young boys gathering firewood on a hillside in eastern Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus ordered a training review for helicopter crews and those who direct and deploy them.
Even in parts of the country where the U.S. military has cited significant progress, including Kandahar and Helmand provinces, civilians feel trapped between the warring parties. At a news conference in Kabul, the capital, Georgette Gagnon, director of human rights for the U.N. mission, read out a commentary from a resident of Marja, the scene of a major U.S. Marine-led offensive 17 months ago.
"The Taliban come to any house they please, by force," the resident told the U.N. researchers. "Then they fire from the house, and then [Western and Afghan troops] fire at the house. But if I tell the Taliban not to enter, the Taliban will kill me."
"So what is the answer?" he asked. "People cannot live like this."
Iraq
9) Elite units under an office of Maliki’s linked to secret jail where detainees face torture, Iraq officials say
Iraqi legislators and security officials have been joined by the Red Cross in expressing concern about the Green Zone facility, called Camp Honor, where torture to extract confessions is alleged.
Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times, 6:45 PM PDT, July 14, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-prison-20110715,0,2324917.story
Baghdad – Elite units controlled by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s military office are ignoring members of parliament and the government’s own directive by operating a clandestine jail in Baghdad’s Green Zone where prisoners routinely face torture to extract confessions, Iraqi officials say.
Iraqi legislators and security officials have been joined by the International Committee of the Red Cross in expressing concern about the facility, called Camp Honor. In a confidential letter to the prime minister, the Red Cross requested immediate access to the jail and added that there could be three more connected to it where detainees also are being mistreated.
Iraq’s Justice Ministry ordered Camp Honor shut down in March after parliament’s human rights committee toured the center and said it had uncovered evidence of torture. The Human Rights Ministry denied Wednesday that it was still in operation. But several Iraqi officials familiar with the site said that anywhere from 60 to 120 people have been held there since it was ordered closed.
Allegations that the jail has continued to function are likely to launch a fresh debate about the breadth of powers belonging to Maliki and his closest associates. The jail falls under the prime minister’s Office of the Commander in Chief, which supervises a vast military and security apparatus.
[…] Until the inspection in March, the Camp Honor jail had illustrated the prime minister’s supremacy on security matters. He has faced complaints since 2008 about his control of the U.S.-trained counter-terrorism service and a security force known as the Baghdad Brigade, or Brigade 56. The units possessed their own jails, investigative judges and interrogators, answering only to the prime minister’s military office.
Critics say that many of those jailed by the forces are locked up for political reasons, because of personal feuds or to cover up corruption. But because of the opaque nature of the security forces and the jails they run, it is difficult to determine whether that is true.
The prime minister’s military office promised reforms when, in April 2010, it was found to be running a separate secret jail in western Baghdad, where more than 400 inmates had been held for months. But nothing changed at Camp Honor, where family members and attorneys were barred from seeing detainees and allegations of torture were rampant.
Lawmakers, security officials and the Red Cross letter expressed deep concern that despite parliament’s success in extracting the pledge to close Camp Honor, people were still being imprisoned there.
Detainees "are still being held by the counter-terrorism center or Brigade 56 in the same location they declared was shut down," said Salim Abdullah Jabouri, the head of parliament’s human rights committee. "These people are held 30-50 days. After they have obtained confessions, the detainee is transferred to Rusafa with his confession," he added, referring to one of Baghdad’s main detention facilities.
The people in Maliki’s military office haven’t changed their practices, said a second member of parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity so he could comment freely. "They have more power. They have more prisoners. They are holding them in the IZ," the Green Zone, said the lawmaker, a prominent member of the Iraqiya bloc. "This is the reality."
Jabouri said he became aware of the detentions after he started looking for a leader of the Sunni Awakening movement who had helped U.S. troops fight Islamic extremists in northern Iraq.
Jabouri said he received a phone call about three weeks ago from the man, who said he had been transferred to a regular jail after he was tortured in the Green Zone facility and confessed to being a member of the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq and of a wing of the late dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party.
As many as 120 detainees had been through the secret jail since March, Jabouri said. Most of the cases he knew of involved prisoners from provinces with large Sunni populations, where security forces regularly carry out raids looking for Islamic militants and members of the former Baath Party.
The Red Cross said in its May 22 letter that detainees whom it interviewed after they had been transferred out of the facility reported beatings, electric shock to the genitals and other parts of the body, suffocation using plastic bags, scalding with boiling water or burning with cigarettes, being hung from ceilings with hands tied behind the back or being hung upside down from the top frame of a bunk bed, the pulling out of fingernails, being left naked for hours and rape using sticks or bottles.
Detainees also alleged that female family members were brought to Camp Honor and raped in front of them, the Red Cross said.
[…]
Jordan
10) Police in Jordan Break Up March With Beatings
Kareem Fahim, New York Times, July 15, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/world/middleeast/16jordan.html
Amman, Jordan – Riot police officers wielding wooden clubs broke up a peaceful demonstration near a square in this city’s downtown area on Friday afternoon, beating protesters and journalists. The incident was a sign of escalating tensions over the slow pace of political reform in the kingdom.
The protest on Friday, organized by youth groups and attended by labor unionists and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, began after prayers at the Husseini mosque in downtown Amman. By about 1:30 p.m., hundreds of protesters were marching through a market district, chanting "The people want to reform the government," and "We are citizens, not subjects." Police officers entirely surrounded the march.
Half an hour later, the protesters faced off against a small group of government loyalists, and a youth leader called on protesters to stage a sit-in. Dozens of police officers then charged the gathering and then gave chase as protesters ran. Against a shuttered shop, a cluster of more than 10 officers struck a man with truncheons, as frightened fathers hurried their children away from the violence. Several Jordanian and foreign journalists covering the clashes were also beaten.
[…]
Honduras
11) Pro-Zelaya journalist shot to death in Honduras
Associated Press, Thu, Jul. 14, 2011
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/14/2315102/pro-zelaya-journalist-shot-to.html
Gunmen in Honduras have killed a rural radio station’s director who was a supporter of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
Police say 26-year-old Nery Jeremias Orellana was riding on a motorcycle when he was stopped and shot in the head by unidentified assailants. He died later in a hospital.
Orellana headed Radio Joconguera de Candelaria in the province of Lempira near Honduras’ border with El Salvador. He was a member of the National Popular Resistance Front. The group formed after the coup that removed Zelaya from office two years ago.
Human rights advocates say at least 22 journalists have been killed in Honduras since 2007.
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