Month: May 2017

Pizza Hut Fires Israeli PR Firm over Prison Hunger Strike Ad

Posted on by SeeEA

Pizza Hut has apologized and fired an advertising firm responsible for an Israeli Facebook ad that mocked the leader of a mass Palestinian hunger strike.

The ad on Pizza Hut Israel’s Facebook page was deleted, and the parent company said in a statement that the post was “completely inappropriate.”

The ad attempted to make light of Marwan Barghouti, the imprisoned leader of the 24-day-old hunger strike.

Barghouti, 58, is serving five life terms after an Israeli court convicted him of directing attacks during a 2000 Palestinian uprising that killed five people. Barghouti, in prison since 2002, never mounted a defense, saying the court had no jurisdiction over him.

Barghouti said he demands better conditions for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israeli alleges Barghouti, widely seen as a potential successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is using the strike to raise his profile.

On Sunday, Israel’s Prison Service released a video claiming to show Barghouti secretly snacking; Palestinians allege the video was fabricated. Pizza Hut then published a Facebook post with a pizza box superimposed on Barghouti’s prison cell, asking if he would rather have broken his hunger strike with a pizza.

In a statement released by Pizza Hut International’s Middle East Twitter account on Tuesday, the company said it apologized for any offense and said the ad “does not reflect the values of our brand.” A spokesman for Pizza Hut’s parent company in the U.S., Yum! Brands Inc., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Erez Rubenstein, a partner at the Israeli advertising company behind the ad, confirmed his firm had been dismissed and said the Facebook post was regrettable in hindsight. “We didn’t mean to offend anybody,” he said.

The fate of prisoners is an emotional issue for Palestinians. During decades of conflict, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have spent time in Israeli prisons for offenses ranging from stone throwing to participating in deadly attacks. Palestinians say Israel’s military court system is rigged against them.

Pizza Hut International’s statement came in response to a Twitter campaign to boycott the company, which operates in Israel, the West Bank and around the Arab world. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Committee called off its boycott of Pizza Hut after accepting the apology.

Meeting canceled

Meanwhile, Barghouti’s lawyer, Khader Shkirat, said the Israel Prison Service abruptly canceled a planned prison meeting with his client that had been scheduled for Thursday. Shkirat was later informed he would be able to see Barghouti on Sunday.

The attorney said he was given no explanation. He said he is increasingly concerned about Barghouti, who has been held in isolation since the start of the hunger strike on April 17.

“We want to know exactly what his health situation is,” Shkirat said. “The fact that the Israelis are not allowing anybody to visit him makes us more worried.”

Assaf Librati, a spokesman for the prison service, confirmed the visit had been canceled, but said he did not know the reason.

Barghouti’s family and supporters allege Israel is trying to demoralize the strikers by keeping him isolated and by recently releasing the video purportedly showing him eating in his cell.

Sari Bashi, a regional director for Human Rights Watch, said the release of the video “raises questions about the violation of the right to privacy.”

She said it’s also problematic to “make an allegation against somebody who is in your custody and then hold him incommunicado so he cannot respond to that allegation.”

The video was released Sunday and led the evening news on Israeli TV channels.

Librati said “we thought it’s important for the public to see the behavior of the hunger strike leader,” but he did not address the privacy issue. “We did not expect the video to break the hunger strike or stop it,” he said.

The level of prisoner participation in the strike has held largely steady since the release of the video. Librati said 870 prisoners were still participating in the strike Wednesday, compared to 890 late last week.

Appeal to pope

Israel holds about 6,500 Palestinians for offenses carried out in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from stone-throwing to membership in groups outlawed by Israel and attacks that wounded or killed Israelis. Several hundred are being held without trial in so-called administrative detention.

Israel has refused to negotiate with the prisoners, who seek better conditions, including the key demand of more family visits.

Also Wednesday, Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, sent an open letter to Pope Francis, urging him to speak out in support of the prisoners.

“We are an entire nation held captive and the Palestinian prisoners are the most dramatic reflection of this long and horrific captivity,” she wrote. “How can the world remain silent in the face of such an injustice?”
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Key Moments That Led Up to FBI Director Comey’s Firing

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump abruptly fired James Comey as director of the FBI in the midst of the law enforcement agency’s investigation into whether Trump’s presidential campaign was connected to Russian meddling in the election. In a letter to Comey, Trump said the dismissal was necessary to restore the public’s trust and confidence.

 

Often lauded for his independence, Comey had come under intense scrutiny in recent months for his role in the agency’s investigation into the email practices of Trump’s opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, including a pair of letters he sent to Congress on the matter in the final days of last November’s election.

 

A look at key moments in Comey’s tenure and the lead-up to Trump’s decision to fire him.

 

Sept. 4, 2013: Comey is sworn in to office as the seventh director of the FBI. He was nominated for the post by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate.

 

July 5, 2016: Holds news conference to announce that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring criminal charges against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, over her email practices as secretary of state, but criticizes Clinton and her staff for being “extremely careless” in their handling of classified material.

 

July 5, 2016: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump calls the FBI’s decision not to bring criminal charges against Clinton the greatest example yet that the system is “rigged.”

 

July 7, 2016: Comey vigorously defends the decision not to prosecute Clinton over her use of a private email server as secretary of state. Under an onslaught of Republican criticism, Comey says that to charge Clinton would have been unwarranted and mere “celebrity hunting.”

 

Oct. 28, 2016: Days before the election, Comey informs Congress by letter that he was reopening the investigation into Clinton’s email practices based on new evidence, citing the discovery of emails on a laptop used by a top Clinton aide. Justice Department officials warned Comey against sending the letter, saying that doing so would be inconsistent with department policy meant to avoid the appearance of prosecutorial interference or meddling in elections.

 

Oct. 28, 2016: Trump reacts to FBI’s decision to investigate new messages related to Clinton’s emails, telling a campaign rally that he has “great respect for the FBI for righting this wrong.”

 

Nov. 6, 2016: Comey tells Congress in a follow-up letter that a review of newly discovered Clinton emails has “not changed our conclusions” that she should not face criminal charges.

 

Nov. 6, 2016: Trump criticizes Comey’s second letter to Congress, saying Clinton was being protected by a “rigged system” and pronouncing her “guilty,” despite the FBI’s conclusion that criminal charges were unwarranted.

 

Nov. 8, 2016: Trump is elected president.

 

Nov. 12, 2016: During a telephone call with top campaign donors, Clinton blames Comey for her defeat by Trump. Clinton said her campaign was on track to win the election until Comey sent the letter to Congress on Oct. 28.

 

Nov. 13, 2016: In a CBS “60 Minutes” broadcast after the election, Trump said he hadn’t decided whether to keep Comey.

 

Jan. 6, 2017: Comey is among a group of four top U.S. intelligence officials who briefed then-President-elect Donald Trump on their conclusions that Russia meddled in the presidential election on his behalf. Trump told The Associated Press by telephone after the meeting that he “learned a lot” but declined to say whether he accepted their conclusion about Russia.

 

Jan. 22, 2017: Two days after taking office, Trump appears to single out Comey at a White House reception to thank law enforcement officers and others that helped during the inauguration. Trump called Comey over to where he was standing in the Blue Room to offer a handshake and a partial hug, then commented that Comey has “become more famous than me.”

 

March 8, 2017: During a cybersecurity conference at Boston College, Comey said he planned to serve his entire 10-year term, quipping, “You’re stuck with me for another six years.”

 

March 20, 2017: Comey testifies to Congress that the FBI has been investigating possible links between Trump associates and Russian officials since July, the same month he held an unusual news conference to discuss the investigation into Clinton. Comey had previously refused to acknowledge the parallel Trump investigation, and his disclosure enrages Democrats who already blamed Comey for costing Clinton the presidency.

 

March 20, 2017: Comey testifies at the same hearing that the FBI and Justice Department have no information to substantiate Trump’s unsubstantiated claim on Twitter that former President Barack Obama wiretapped him before the election.

 

May 2, 2017: Clinton again lays part of the blame for losing the election on Comey’s Oct. 28 letter. “If the election were on Oct. 27, I would have been your president,” she tells a women’s luncheon in New York.

 

May 3, 2017: Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey insists that he was consistent in his handling of the separate investigations into Clinton and Trump. Comey also said it made him feel “mildly nauseous” to think his actions in October might have influenced the election outcome. But he told senators: “I can’t consider for a second whose political futures will be affected and in what way. We have to ask ourselves what is the right thing to do and then do it.”

 

May 9, 2017: Comey sends Congress a letter correcting his prior sworn testimony regarding emails handled by longtime Clinton associate Huma Abedin. Comey had told Congress that Abedin had sent “hundreds and thousands” of emails to her husband’s laptop, including some with classified information. The two-page, follow-up letter said that, in fact, only “a small number” of the thousands of emails found on the laptop had been forwarded there while most had simply been backed up from electronic devices.

 

May 9, 2017: Trump abruptly fires Comey. “It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission,” Trump states in a letter addressed to Comey.
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After Macron Win, France’s Main Parties Fret Over Parliament Elections

Posted on by SeeEU

France’s mainstream parties of the left and right struggled on Wednesday to adjust to the new political landscape created by centrist Emmanuel Macron’s victory in Sunday’s presidential election that has broken their dominance of national politics.

With parliamentary elections looming next month, Macron’s triumph fueled power struggles between moderates and hardliners on the left, while leaders of the conservative The Republicans warned against defections to the president-elect’s camp.

The Socialists, whose term in government comes to an end in tandem with the departure of President Francois Hollande, have traditionally disputed power with the center-right in France over the past half century. But neither party got through to Sunday’s presidential runoff, when Macron defeated the far-right’s Marine Le Pen.

The legislative elections on June 11 and 18 will now decide whether Macron’s ‘Republic on the Move’ party – barely a year old and still without seats in parliament – will win enough seats to let him govern effectively for the next five years.

Benoit Hamon, the unsuccessful Socialist Party candidate in the presidential contest, said he would set up a new movement after several of his hallmark proposals during that campaign were abandoned by his own party.

Radical left-winger Jean-Luc Melenchon, also eliminated in the presidential contest after coming fourth, criticized his erstwhile allies in the Communist Party and vowed to campaign without them for seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.

Defection risks

Meanwhile, the leadership of The Republicans, the main right-wing party, urged top party officials to resist the temptation of defecting to Macron as the elections approached.

“Leaving your party is the best way of getting the door slammed in your face,” Francois Baroin, head of The Republicans’ parliamentary election team, told journalists.

Macron’s new party is casting its net wide as it seeks support for a majority that will allow him to push through reforms to revive an economy dogged by high unemployment and poor growth.

Anxious to avert defections, the Republicans said they would abandon key austerity proposals that their unsuccessful presidential candidate, Francois Fillon, had stood for.

Baroin tried to highlight the risks facing defectors by citing the example of Manuel Valls, a former Socialist prime minister who said he was ready to back Macron in the June election. The Republic on the Move party made clear that even top-rank politicians from established parties, like Valls, were not guaranteed a slot on its list of parliamentary contenders.

“As of today, he (Valls) does not fit the criteria that would allow the investiture committee to take him on,” Jean-Paul Delevoye, the man in charge of choosing Macron’s party’s candidates, told Europe 1 radio.

Republic on the Move is expected on Thursday to announce its list of candidates for contesting the elections.

An Elabe poll for BFM TV found that 52 percent of those polled wanted Macron’s party to get a majority in parliament while 47 percent wanted opposition lawmakers to hold a majority.

Macron, an ex-banker, served as economy minister in a Socialist government under Valls, but left to make his successful bid for president at the head of his new party on a promise to turn the page on old Left-versus-Right politics.
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This Day in History: Mandela Become South Africa’s First Black President

Posted on by SeeAF

On this day in 1994, Nelson Mandela defied three centuries of white-minority rule and decades of racial strife in South Africa, becoming the country’s first-ever black president.

The live television coverage gripped the world as Mandela, then aged 75, addressed the nation during a moment of unparalleled history.

Having survived 27 years in prison, President Mandela was not bitter during his public remarks. In fact, the anti-apartheid icon paid tribute to his predecessor, F.W. de Klerk, and adopted a tone of reconciliation.

“We saw our country tear itself apart in terrible conflict… The time for healing of wounds has come… Never, never again will this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another,” he said.

Four years earlier in 1990, Mandela was freed from prison and began intense negotiations that led to multi-racial elections and his presidency. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with de Klerk, in 1993.

Mandela, lovingly called the “Father of the Nation,” served as president until 1999. After stepping down, he became among the world’s most respected active elder statesman until the early 2000s.

He died in 2013 at age 95. 
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Senate Democrats Slam Comey Firing, Demand Special Prosecutor

Posted on by SeeUS

Senate Democrats on Wednesday slammed President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey and renewed demands for a special prosecutor to oversee an ongoing Russia investigation, a call that Republicans continued to resist.

“I’ve known Jim Comey for years. We were classmates at the University of Chicago Law School,” said Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. “The president’s dismissal of the FBI director in the middle of a major investigation into Russian interference in our election raises serious questions.”

“If there was ever a time when circumstances warranted a special prosecutor, it is right now,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. “[Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein] must get his investigation far away from the heavy hand of this administration.”

Several Republicans accused Democrats of shedding false tears over Comey, noting that it was Democrats who reacted with outrage, with some even calling for Comey’s departure, when the FBI director announced the reopening of the Hillary Clinton email probe less than two weeks before the November election.

“The prior Democratic leader [Harry Reid], when asked if James Comey should resign … replied, ‘Of course, yes,’ ” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.

Impediment seen

McConnell said authorizing a new probe would be disruptive.

“Today we’ll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation,” the majority leader said. “That could only serve to impede the current work being done to not only discover what the Russians may have done, but also to let this body and the national security community develop countermeasures to see that it doesn’t occur again.”

Under a law passed after the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, special prosecutors can be named to handle politically sensitive investigations and shield them from Washington’s partisan fray.

Democrats argued Trump’s actions demonstrate why a special prosecutor is needed.

“The president removed the sitting FBI director in the midst of one of the most critical national security investigations in the history of our country,” said Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. “Does anyone really believe that President Trump is interested in getting to the bottom of Russia’s interference with our elections?

“A quick review of President Trump’s Twitter account, where he does most of his deep thinking, would dispel any such illusion,” Leahy added.

Committee’s mission

The Senate’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is being handled by the Intelligence Committee, whose chairman, Republican Richard Burr of North Carolina, noted that any president is fully empowered to replace the FBI director at any time.

“The president’s made the decision. He has the full authority to do that,” Burr said. “But it doesn’t change the mission of my committee for the task in front of us.

“An interruption in any of the access we [the committee] have to documents and personnel would be harmful to our investigation,” the chairman added.

Democrats countered that Americans can have full confidence in the results of the Russia probe only if it is overseen by a figure whose independence from political pressure is beyond question.
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New Study Warns of Wage Theft in US

Posted on by SeeUS

Analysts at a liberal research institution in Washington say U.S. employers are stealing $15 billion a year from workers by failing to pay legally required minimum wages.

The Economic Policy Institute says the wage theft hits nearly one-fifth of low wage workers in the 10 largest U.S. states. The study’s authors say affected workers lose an average of $64 a week, or $3,300 a year out of their modest salaries.

Young people, women, minorities and immigrants are often stuck in low-level jobs and thus are most likely to be affected by wage theft. EPI says the shortfall obviously hurts workers, but also slows demand for goods and services, which can crimp economic growth.

On Thursday, government officials will look at the job market from a different angle, when the weekly jobless claims are published.  Economists track the number of Americans who sign up for unemployment assistance to gauge the health of the market.

A survey of economists shows most experts expect the number of such layoffs to rise slightly but still remain at a relatively low level consistent with a strong job market. A separate study produces the U.S. unemployment rate, which was just 4.4 percent in April, less than half the rate during the worst of the recession. Some analysts say with fewer unemployed workers seeking jobs, employers may have to boost wages to attract and keep staff members.  

Higher wages could contribute to inflation, and so could rising prices of imports, including oil. Friday, officials will report the latest data on price changes at the retail level with the Consumer Price Index. Experts predict the study will show inflation rose about 2 percent over the past year, a moderate level.  

U.S. central bank officials are supposed to guide the economy in ways that keep prices stable and unemployment low. They try to cool inflation by raising interest rates, but do so cautiously to avoid stalling the economy and hurting job growth. That is why experts quoted in the financial press say the Federal Reserve will raise rates again, slightly, at their June meeting.
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Explainer: Eminent Domain

Posted on by SeeUS

You own it, but the government needs it. Here’s the legal tool they use to take it.
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Yemen Minister: 60 Percent of Population in Dire Poverty

Posted on by SeeEA

Yemen’s planning minister says 60 percent of the country’s population is in dire poverty more than two years since the Shi’ite rebels forced the country’s internationally recognized government and president out of the capital.

 

Mohamed El-Saadi says 22 million Yemenis are in need of humanitarian relief, a figure that exceeds the U.N.’s recent estimate that 19.8 million in Yemen need assistance.

El-Saadi spoke during a meeting on Wednesday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, attended by the Gulf Cooperation Council and international organizations.

 

He warned that the “general security, political and humanitarian situation has witnessed an unprecedented decline.”

 

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling Yemen’s Houthi rebels March 2015. The war has killed more than 10,000 civilians and pushed a large portion of the population to the brink of famine.

 
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Trump, New South Korean President Agree to Cooperate Against North Korean Nuclear Threat

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump and new South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed in a phone call Wednesday to closely cooperate in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program.

South Korean officials said that Trump, in the call on Moon’s inauguration day, described issues involving Pyongyang’s military ambitions as complicated, but ones that could be resolved.

Trump said the U.S.-South Korean relationship, long a bulwark against North Korean threats, was strong and invited Moon to visit Washington, the South Korean presidential office said.

The new South Korean leader, however, has taken a more conciliatory approach toward North Korea than Trump, who has dispatched a naval strike group to the waters off the Korean peninsula as a warning to the North against its nuclear missile development. Trump wants new sanctions against the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and further isolation for the reclusive communist nation.

Moon’s assumption of power ends nearly a decade of hardline conservative rule in South Korea, with Seoul focused in years past on pressuring North Korea to curb its weapons development.

Moon, in his inaugural address, said, “If needed, I will fly directly to Washington. I will go to Beijing and Tokyo. And if conditions are met, I will go to Pyongyang. In order to bring about peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, I will do everything that I can.”

The new South Korean leader has also been reluctant to support the deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system, for which Trump recently demanded $1 billion in added defense costs. China also opposed the advanced weapons system as a threat to the region and has retaliated against South Korea with limits on tourism and imports.

Moon has played down policy differences with Washington. He has emphasized the importance of the U.S. alliance with South Korea and voiced confidence that Seoul and Washington ultimately want the same thing: to bring North Korea to the negotiating table to peacefully resolve the nuclear threat.

North Korea has yet to comment on Moon’s election.
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US Offers Reward for Information on al-Nusra Leader

Posted on by SeeEA

The United States has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on the military leader of Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate, al-Nusra.

The State Department said it would offer the reward for information “leading to the identification or location” of Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who the department named a “specially designated global terrorist” in 2013.

This is the first reward offered under the State Department’s “Rewards for Justice Program”.

Golani, a Syrian national believed to be in his 40s, is the leader of the al-Nusra front which is a U.S. State Department designated “foreign terrorist organization.”   The group, also known as the Fatah al-Sham Front, formally cut ties with al-Qaida last year.

 
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Member of Jihadi John’s Gang Jailed in Turkey

Posted on by SeeEU

A member of a notorious gang of British jihadists that brutalized and beheaded Western hostages in Syria, including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, was sentenced Tuesday in Turkey to a seven-and-a-half-year prison term.

Aine Davis was an alleged associate of Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State executioner nicknamed “Jihadi John” who was killed in a drone strike a year ago. Davis was charged with membership of a terrorist organization. A weightier charge of preparing acts of terrorism, which carried the possibility of a longer sentence, was dropped by Turkish prosecutors, who struggled during an 18-month-long court process to amass the necessary evidence for the graver charge.

Davis is one of 850 Britons estimated by security forces to have traveled to Syria to join the IS terror group. Of those, 350 have returned to Britain, adding to a potential terrorist threat. British police admit that keeping tabs on all of them is a challenge. Up to 30 intelligence officers are needed to mount 24-hour surveillance of each suspect.

‘I am not IS’

Davis, who was arrested in November 2015 during a raid on a villa in Silivri, west of Istanbul, denied membership of IS at his trial. After his arrest, Turkish officials said he had been planning with others to mount an attack in Istanbul to coincide with the 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead.

At Tuesday’s trial, a Saudi national and a Jordanian were also found guilty of IS membership and given the same sentence as Davis.

The BBC reported Davis denied involvement with the terror group. “I am not IS. I went to Syria because there was oppression in my country,” he said. Speaking in English, he told the court, “I want to make clear I am innocent of the charges. I don’t even know why this case has taken so long to judge. I just want my freedom.” Davis claimed he went to Syria on two occasions to participate in humanitarian work.

‘The Beatles’

According to European captives who were freed by IS in return for ransoms, Davis was a member of a group of four British militants whom hostages nicknamed “the Beatles.” Thanks to IS propaganda videos, the group quickly acquired a singular place in this century’s annals of terrorism.

The quartet put their Western captives, especially the British and Americans, through rounds of excruciating suffering, routinely beating and waterboarding them and staging mock executions.

Foley was earmarked for the worst treatment of all the Western hostages, possibly because he had a brother who had served with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “You could see the scars on his ankles,” Jejoen Bontinck, a 19-year-old Belgian and convert to Islam, told The New York Times subsequently. Bontinck, a jihadist recruit who fell afoul of IS, shared a prison cell with Foley in 2013. “He told me how they had chained his feet to a bar and then hung the bar so that he was upside down from the ceiling. Then they left him there.”

The 35-year-old Davis, who is from west London, is thought to have been radicalized in jail after having been convicted on drug dealing and firearms charges. He is the highest profile British IS militant to have been arrested. Both U.S. and British authorities lobbied Ankara for his extradition, hoping to put him on trial in their own countries. In 2014, his wife, Amal el-Wahabi, was sentenced in a British court after convincing a friend to try to smuggle $21,000 to Davis.

Three other defendants, Jermaine Burke, Mohammed Karwani and Deniz Solak, all of them British, were found not guilty at Tuesday’s trial. Turkish officials say the trio will be deported to Britain. They will be interviewed on their return by police, a British intelligence official told VOA.

Arrests in Britain

There were 260 terrorist arrests in 2016 in Britain, and more than 19,000 people were pulled over for extra counterterrorism checks at British ports of entry.

Of the 850 Britons who joined IS or al-Qaida-linked groups in Syria, 15 percent are thought to have been killed. Some of the returnees have been jailed on their return, including Mashudur Choudhury, 34. He is the first person to be convicted after returning from Syria. Imran Khawaja, a 29-year-old from London, was jailed in 2015 after he faked his death in a bid to enter Britain undetected. Tarik Hassane, a 23-year-old Londoner, was jailed for life in 2014 for plotting to shoot a police officer.

Officials say many returnees cannot be prosecuted because of a lack of evidence. Some of them are thought to have become disillusioned with jihadism, but many are thought to pose a significant terror risk and their names have been added to a watch list of more than 3,000 high-risk radical Islamists in Britain whom authorities are trying to monitor.

“We don’t know how many others will return,” Nazir Afzal, the former Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England, told VOA. “We don’t know how many will return aiming to inflict harm.”
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Tunisia Orders Army to Protect Businesses Amid Protests

Posted on by SeeEA

Tunisia’s president took the unusual step Wednesday of ordering the army to protect businesses struggling because of weeks of protests over unemployment and corruption.

 

President Beji Caid Essebsi announced in Tunis that “the state must protect the people’s resources” after protests in Tunisia’s impoverished inland provinces in recent weeks. Sit-ins and other demonstrations have blocked roads and notably led to a halt in production at oil and phosphate facilities.

 

Essebsi said this “grave but necessary decision” was made at a top-level government security meeting. He insisted on the people’s freedom to demonstrate but said it must be “within the framework of the law.”

 

After extremist attacks and political violence in recent years, Tunisia is in a prolonged state of emergency that allows authorities to take exceptional measures such as sending in the army to assure security.

 

“The democratic process in Tunisia is seriously threatened,” the president said.

 

He argued that the Tunisian economy has lost 5 billion dinars ($2 billion) because of phosphate mine stoppages, worsening government debt.

 

The protesters are desperate for job opportunities and better living conditions in regions blighted by poverty in comparison with richer coastal cities.

 

They are also skeptical of a government economic reconciliation plan that would allow magnates accused of corruption under the overthrown regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to resume business activities, in exchange for reimbursing the state for ill-gotten gains.

 

Protesters say it’s an effort to whitewash corruption, while the government says it’s a way to boost the atrophying economy, which has yet to recover from the 2011 Arab Spring revolution that brought Tunisia democracy. The economy was further damaged by Islamic extremist attacks targeting tourists in 2015.

 

The president, a former ally of Ben Ali, also lashed out at political parties and other groups that are encouraging civil disobedience.
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Bail for Ugandan Activist Charged With Insulting President

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A university researcher jailed last month in Uganda for allegedly insulting President Yoweri Museveni on Facebook has been granted bail.  

Stella Nyanzi entered the packed courtroom Wednesday looking frail. The typically outspoken activist had to be supported by three female wardens.

Nyanzi collapsed during the break before Magistrate James Eremye read his ruling.

“Exercising my discretion, I proceeded to allow the accused her bail, but on the following conditions; one, the accused shall execute a bond 10 million shillings not cash…,” said Eremye.

Nyanzi’s bail comes after four weeks behind bars. Nyanzi was arrested and charged with cyber harassment and offensive communication over a Facebook post in which she allegedly called President Yoweri Museveni “a pair of buttocks.”

The post was part of an online campaign Nyanzi had launched calling on the president to live up to his campaign promise to provide free sanitary pads to poor girls. 

Human rights lawyer Nicholas Opio represented Nyanzi before the court. He said she suffers from hypertension and has had a bout of malaria.

“We are happy that the court has finally released Stella on bail. We pray that the authorities do respect the orders of the court and not seek to re-arrest Dr. Stella,” said Opio. “Now that she is out, we will have a proper discussion on how to respond on the case before court.”

Before the magistrate’s ruling, the state attorney, Jonathan Muwaganya, made his conditions for Nyanzi’s bail application clear.

“Right now she is alleged to be sick, but your worship, should you find that release of the applicant is tenable at this stage, she should be required to refrain during the subsistence of the case from making any adverse cyber attacks or any derogatory statements against the person of the victim in court or his close members of his household,”Muwaganya said.

In a statement Wednesday, Amnesty International called the charges against Nyanzi “ludicrous” and “an affront to freedom of expression.” Amnesty said the charges should be dropped immediately.  

Nyanzi is expected to return to court May 25.
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Kenya Seeks to Reassure Nation as US Suspends Some Health Funding

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Kenya’s government says it is reaching out to U.S. officials so it can address concerns of “corruption and weak accounting procedures” the U.S. embassy says have prompted the suspension of $21 million in assistance to Kenya’s Ministry of Health.

Kenya’s government spokesperson Eric Kiraithe sought to reassure the nation in an interview with VOA’s Swahili service.

He says, “There are no health services that are going to be affected. We will look into our budget and where there are any gaps that have arisen as a result of the U.S government’s move, we will be able to fill in.”

He told VOA his government is reaching out to the United States via diplomatic channels to learn the conditions to be met so the suspension can be lifted.

Announcing the suspension Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy said funding for “life-saving and essential health services” and “medications going directly to Kenyans” is not affected.

The U.S. government contributes more than $650 million annually to Kenya’s health sector. The embassy said “a small portion” of that aid is suspended — $21 million of direct assistance to the Ministry of Health.

Citing corruption concerns, the embassy said “we are working with the Ministry on ways to improve accounting and internal controls.”

There have been several accusations of irregularities at the health ministry during the past year.

The most prominent is the “5 Billion Afya House” scandal. In October, a government audit revealed the health ministry, which is housed at Afya House, could not account for about $51 million, or 5.3 billion Kenyan shillings, in missing funds. The money was suspected to have been paid to supply companies, some of whom were linked to top government officials. Investigations are ongoing.

The health sector has seen other upheaval as well. Public doctors demanding promised wage increases, equipment and better working conditions went on strike nationwide for more than three months.

A leader of that strike, Dr. Ouma Olunga, called the U.S. suspension an important wake-up call.

“If we were to rid our systems of corruption and then get aid, I think we will move much faster because, as I mentioned, we have accountability issues, so how do you help someone who is stealing from themselves?” said Olunga.

The opposition has seized on corruption as a top issue before nationwide elections in August.

Kenya dropped six places past year to position 145 out of 176 countries in the annual Corruption Perception Index released by the global watchdog Transparency International.
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Ankara Slams Washington on Kurdish Arms

Posted on by SeeEU

Washington’s decision to arm the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, has provoked outrage among some in Turkey. 

“We will not accept this decision by the U.S.,” said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, before a visit to London. “The U.S. knows well the Syrian Kurds are a terrorist organization.”

The YPG militia is widely recognized as the most effective in Syria in fighting Islamic State. However, it is considered by Ankara to be an affiliate of the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish State and is designated by Washington as a terrorist organization.

“Every weapon obtained by the People’s Protection Units [YPG] constitutes a threat to Turkey,” declared Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli, speaking on television, promised to oppose its NATO ally. “We hope the U.S. administration will put a stop to this wrong and turn back from it,” he said.

President Donald Trump’s decision comes in the face of months of lobbying led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and warnings of serious repercussion to bilateral ties. However, Erdogan has remained silent since Tuesday’s announcement. 

Erdogan in Washington

“The reaction is quite low key, compared to previous statements from the highest level, namely the president,” observed former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in Washington and in Iraq. “The way there was no high-level reaction and that the Washington visit will go ahead, shows to me that this decision will not have a destructive effect on relations.”

Erdogan is due in Washington next week for a long-awaited meeting with Trump. “This photo opportunity in the White House is too big an opportunity to miss by Ankara,” Selcen said, “and if this is seen by Washington, then they will believe they have a free hand.”

The Washington visit is seen as the most important leg of an international tour by Erdogan to bolster his legitimacy, after last month’s controversial referendum victory granting him sweeping powers. The vote remains marred by voter fraud allegations.

The ongoing controversy over Kurdish fighters is a running sore between allies, especially as most experts predicted Washington would ultimately arm the YPG.

“It’s obvious Americans are quite pragmatic about the Syrian question,” said Atilla Yesilada, political consultant of Global Source Partners. “They prefer Kurds, not because they are in love with them, but simply because Kurds have 50,000 valiant fighters at the gates of Raqqa. What they need is heavy weaponry.”

Weapons and PKK

The kind of weapons Washington will ultimately deliver to the YPG will likely be closely followed by Ankara. The Turkish military has repeatedly claimed sophisticated anti-tank missiles delivered by its Western allies to Syrian Kurdish forces have fallen into the hands of the PKK fighting in Turkey.

Washington is going on the charm offensive.

“We’ll work out any of the concerns,” U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday. “We will work very closely with Turkey in support of their security on their southern border. It’s Europe’s southern border, and we’ll stay closely connected.”

A Pentagon statement Tuesday stressed the delivery of weapons to the YPG and their use would be closely monitored.

But the YPG is still claiming victory.

“We believe that from now on and after this historic decision, [the YPG] will play a stronger, more influential and more decisive role in combating terrorism at a fast pace,” spokesman Redur Xelil said in a written statement to Reuters.

Ankara has threatened retaliation against its Western partners if they pursued a policy of arming what it considered terrorist organization. U.S. forces depend heavily on the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, not only for military operations against Islamic State, but also as a strategic logistics hub. Turkish ministers from time to time have threatened Washington over its use, but analysts predict Ankara remains reluctant to take such a drastic step and risk wrecking relations with Trump.

Erdogan has met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, five times in less than a year, most recently this month in Sochi. But given that Moscow also is backing the YPG, Ankara’s room for maneuvering is viewed as limited.

Washington’s decision to support the YPG will also likely preclude any repeat of last month’s Turkish military strikes against the Syrian Kurdish militia, both in Syria and Iraq.

“The Americans have pushed Ankara into a corner where no military operations against the presence of YPG in Syria are possible and, second, Ankara from now on will have to live with the fact the YPG is a political organization like any other that is fighting Islamic state,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Selcen.
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Kosovo Lawmakers Dismiss Government

Posted on by SeeEU

Lawmakers in Kosovo voted to dismiss the government of Prime Minister Isa Mustafa in a no-confidence motion Wednesday, leading to a snap election next month.

Seventy-eight members in the 120-seat parliament voted to dismiss the government after months of political gridlock over a border deal which critics argued would mean less land for the tiny Balkan country.

The opposition more broadly accused the government of failing to deliver on campaign promises and claimed there was diminishing public trust in the government.

“The country is badly governed. The country needs a new government,” said Valdete Bajrami of the opposition Initiative for Kosovo party, which proposed the motion.

Mustafa, however, has argued that his government has lowered unemployment and debt, and warned that the the consequence of this vote will be “the country’s destabilization through creating a lack of trust in institutions, and an institutional vacuum.”

According to the law in Kosovo, elections must be held within 45 days. Mustafa, who’s government was slated to run the country for another year, is expected to call the elections by the end of the week.

 
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Minister: Germany to Make Reforms to Army After ‘Extremist’ Plot

Posted on by SeeEU

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday said she would respond to the discovery of a suspected plot in the German army with reforms, including revising one of the force’s post-Nazi era founding principles.

German police on Tuesday detained a second soldier suspected of involvement in what prosecutors believe was a plan by a military officer and a student, both in custody, to carry out an “extremist” attack and blame it on migrants.

Von der Leyen, under fire for her handling of the growing scandal, told reporters she would on Wednesday inform a special session of the parliamentary defense committee about the investigation into the case.

She said the ministry would clarify its “Traditionserlass,” a policy last updated in 1982 that gives a differentiated view of how troops are to treat and view the legacy of the German military.

Von der Leyen, whose post includes the role of commander in chief of Germany’s armed forces, is a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel who is gearing up for a national election in five months’ time.

The military needed a faster and more efficient reporting scheme for incidents and potential threats and would need to increase the political education of troops, the minister said.

“I am completely clear … that we need a broad process in the military itself, that we must travel together – from recruits to generals, from instructors to the minister,” she said.
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Parents of Freed Nigeria Schoolgirls Still Wait to See Them

Posted on by SeeAF

Parents of the 82 Nigerian schoolgirls released over the weekend from Boko Haram captivity said Wednesday they still were awaiting word from the government on when they will be able to see their daughters.

One father said he was thrilled to find out his daughter was among those released in exchange for five Boko Haram commanders. But Abana Ishaya said he cannot travel the long distance from his home in northern Nigeria to the capital without the government’s invitation and assurance that he will see her.

 

Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in April 2014, bringing the extremist group’s deadly rampage in northern Nigeria to the world’s attention. A first group of 21 girls was freed in October and they have been in government care since then, despite calls by families and human rights groups for them to be released to their loved ones.

 

“I’m very anxious to meet her so I can celebrate with her and others that were freed, and also to pray for the remaining ones who are still missing so they can be rescued,” Ishaya told The Associated Press. “I really want to see my daughter, but I can’t come unless with government invitation.”

 

Families say 113 of the Chibok schoolgirls remain missing. They are among thousands kidnapped by Boko Haram during its eight-year insurgency that has left thousands dead and driven millions from their homes.

 

Nigeria’s government has said the first group of 21 Chibok girls has been receiving medical attention, trauma counseling and rehabilitation. During a meeting with the 82 newly released schoolgirls on Sunday night, President Muhammadu Buhari promised that he personally would oversee their rehabilitation and that they would be able to pursue their education.

 

But families remain in Chibok, some 900 kilometers (559 miles) from the capital, Abuja.

 

Allen Manasseh, a spokesman for the Chibok parents, said he hopes the latest round of family reunions are better managed this time around.

 

“Some parents were airlifted from Chibok and brought to Abuja only for them to discover that it wasn’t their daughters,” he said, adding it was equally upsetting for the girls who thought they would see their loved ones.

 

The government “should open those girls up, you know, to their families to interact with, open them up to any other citizens or members of the global community that are ready to assist them,” Manasseh said.

 

A group of United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday called on Nigeria’s government to ensure the girls’ rehabilitation and reintegration, saying release was only a first step in their recovery.

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which helped negotiate the girls’ release along with the Swiss government, on Sunday said they soon would see their families.
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Lawmakers, Others React to Firing of Comey

Posted on by SeeUS

After U.S. President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, Democratic members of Congress denounced the move and renewed calls for an independent investigation of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Democrats likened the dismissal to President Richard Nixon’s firing of an independent special prosecutor on October 20, 1973, during the Watergate investigation and discounted Trump’s contention that the move was related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe of the emails of Hillary Clinton, Trump’s rival for the presidency.

Here are reactions from Democrats and Republicans to Comey’s firing:

“No one should accept President Trump’s absurd justification that he is now concerned that FBI Director Comey treated Secretary Clinton unfairly. … This is nothing less than Nixonian.” — Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, in a statement.

“Today’s action by President Trump completely obliterates any semblance of an independent investigation into Russian efforts to influence our election and places our nation on the verge of a constitutional crisis.” — Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, in a statement.

“Given the recent controversies surrounding the director, I believe a fresh start will serve the FBI and the nation well.” — Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, in a statement.

“This is Nixonian. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein must immediately appoint a special counsel to continue the Trump/Russia investigation.” — Senator Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, in a statement.

‘A big mistake’

“Earlier this afternoon, President Trump called me and informed me he was firing Director Comey. I told the president: ‘Mr. President, with all due respect, you are making a big mistake.’ … Given the way the president has fired Director Comey, any person who he appoints to lead the Russia investigation will be concerned that he or she will meet the same fate as Director Comey if they run afoul of the administration.” — Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, in remarks to reporters.

“There is now a crisis of confidence at the Justice Department and President Trump is not being held accountable because House Republicans refuse to work with us to do our job.” — Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, in a statement; he called for immediate emergency hearings.

“The president’s actions today are shocking. … The only way this administration can begin to demonstrate a commitment to the rule of law … is to cooperate fully with the ongoing congressional investigations and to support the appointment of an independent special counsel.” — Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, in a statement.

“This FBI director has sought for years to jail me on account of my political activities. If I can oppose his firing, so can you.” — fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked intelligence documents and is now living in Russia, on Twitter.

“Over the course of the last several months, Director Comey’s decisions on controversial matters have prompted concern from across the political spectrum and from career law enforcement experts.” — Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, in a statement.

‘No one … can be trusted’

“There can be no question that a fully independent special counsel must be appointed to lead this [Russia] investigation. At this point, no one in Trump’s chain of command can be trusted to carry out an impartial investigation.” — Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, on Twitter.

“It is essential that ongoing investigations are fulsome and free of political interference until their completion, and it is imperative that President Trump nominate a well-respected and qualified individual to lead the bureau at this critical time.” — Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, in a statement.

“James Comey is a man of honor and integrity and he has led the FBI well in extraordinary circumstances. I have long called for a special congressional committee to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The president’s decision to remove the FBI director only confirms the need and the urgency of such a committee.” — Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, in a statement.

“The need for a special prosecutor is now crystal clear. President Trump has catastrophically compromised the FBI’s ongoing investigation of his own White House’s ties to Russia. Not since Watergate have our legal systems been so threatened.” — Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, in a statement.

“This is an important move to restore public confidence in the fair administration of justice at the federal level. Mr. Comey did not seem to understand some of the laws he was asked to investigate and unfortunately politicized his sensitive position as the FBI director.” — Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.
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States Sue Over Trump Decision to Restart Coal Lease Program

Posted on by SeeUS

Four U.S. states filed a lawsuit Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s decision to restart the sale of coal leases on federal lands, saying the Obama-era block of the leasing program was reversed without studying what’s best for the environment and for taxpayers.

The attorneys general of California, New Mexico, New York and Washington, all Democrats, said bringing back the federal coal lease program without an environmental review risks worsening the effects of climate change on those states while shortchanging them for the coal taken from public lands.

“Climate change has to be considered when we are talking about compensating states and New Mexico citizens for their resources,” said Cholla Khoury, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas’ director of consumer and environmental protection.

The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management administers 306 coal leases in 10 states, producing more than 4 billion tons of coal over the past decade. Most of that coal — 85 percent — comes from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.

Production and combustion of coal from federal lands accounted for about 11 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2014.

The Obama administration blocked the sale of new leases in 2016 to conduct an environmental study and a review of the royalties that mining companies pay the U.S. government for coal that’s extracted. Federal officials and members of Congress said the current royalty rates were shortchanging taxpayers.

In January, Interior officials said they were considering raising those royalty rates to offset the effects of climate change from burning the coal.

In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to amend or withdraw the coal leasing program moratorium.

The next day, Zinke did so, saying the Obama administration’s environmental review would cost “many millions of dollars” and that improvements to the program can be made without a full-scale environmental review.

The lawsuit by the four attorneys general, which was filed in Great Falls, Montana, says the reversal was made “with no justification other than an objection to the time and cost of complying with the law.”

Lifting the moratorium without properly considering the environmental effects or ensuring that the program is providing fair market value for the publicly owned coal violates federal laws, they allege.

“They didn’t follow the law,” Khoury said. “You can’t make piecemeal changes without doing this assessment to fully understand all parts of this program.”

Interior Department officials did not return telephone and email messages seeking comment.
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Lawmakers Chastise Health Secretary About Memo to Agency Workers

Posted on by SeeUS

Two U.S. lawmakers have reprimanded one of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members, Heath and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, for an HHS memo that appeared to restrict department employees from communicating directly with Congress.

Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa and Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, both Republicans, said in a letter to Price that the directive to his department’s employees was “potentially illegal and unconstitutional.”

 

The two committee chairmen noted that U.S. law guarantees government workers the right to contact Congress, and they said the memo issued by one of Price’s aides this month “will likely chill protected disclosures of waste, fraud and abuse.”

Although the memo does not explicitly forbid HHS workers from making contact with members of Congress, Grassley and Chaffetz wrote that “federal employees will most certainly read this instruction as a prohibition.”

“Protecting whistle-blowers who courageously speak out is not a partisan issue,” the two lawmakers said in a letter to Price, which they sent to Price on May 4 and made public Tuesday. “It is critical to the functioning of our government.”

A law in effect since 1912 gives federal employees the right to contact Congress directly on matters concerning their jobs. Additional action by Congress in the 1980s and ’90s strengthened protections for government workers who act as whistle-blowers.

Grassley and Chaffetz asked Price to reissue his memo to clarify HHS employees’ rights in such matters. A spokeswoman for the agency told The Washington Post a response was being prepared.
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Iran Guards Look Beyond Election to Next Supreme Leader

Posted on by SeeEA

Determined to protect a dominant security role and vast economic interests, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards military force is quietly backing a hardliner in May 19 presidential polls, with an eye towards a bigger prize: the succession of the supreme leader.

President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate elected in 2013 in a landslide on promises to open up Iranian society and reduce its international isolation, is widely seen as the favorite to win a second term next week.

But the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and the Basij, a volunteer militia under the Guards’ command, are taking steps to promote the candidacy of his main rival, hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi.

Media outlets affiliated with the Guards have been criticizing Rouhani’s performance in power. Experts who study the force say they are also likely to use their street muscle to help get Raisi supporters to the polls.

“The IRGC will be running buses and mini-buses to make people vote. They will be mobilizing voters not only in the rural areas but also the shantytowns around the big cities,” said Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who has done extensive research on the Guards. “They want their supporters voting.”

The Islamic Republic’s security hawks are worried that Rouhani with a fresh mandate would chip away at prerogatives that have given the Guards huge economic and political power.

Whether or not Rouhani wins a second term, the bigger prize is controlling who will succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose power far exceeds that of the elected president.

Khamenei, in power since 1989, is now 77. Some analysts say Raisi’s presidential bid is a test run for a man who could be groomed to take over as Khamenei’s successor.

“This election is not only about choosing the president.

It’s about succession after Khamenei,” said Alfoneh. “The IRGC believe that it’s their chance to completely eliminate the technocrats and control the succession process after Khamenei.”

Arrests

Khamenei’s successor will be chosen by a body called the Assembly of Experts, elected last year for an eight year term.

Rouhani himself sits in the assembly as one of its biggest vote-getters, and he and his allies nearly swept the seats from the capital Tehran.

But many members of the body are not firmly associated with either the reformist or traditionalist camp, and the faction that wins the presidential election could gain an advantage in trying to solidify backing for its candidate for supreme leader.

The Guards have been making their preferences known. In mid-March, the IRGC arrested a dozen administrators of reformist social media channels on the platform Telegram, which is hugely popular in Iran and used by millions of people.

The arrests prompted parliamentarian Mahmoud Sadeghi to write a letter to the head of the Guards asking the group not to interfere in the upcoming presidential election.

Sadeghi wrote that media outlets affiliated with the Guards were also “working against reformists and the supporters of the government,” according to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) which printed a copy of the letter.

Raisi was a member of a committee which oversaw the execution of thousands of dissidents in 1988, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based research and advocacy organization. During his time at the judiciary, Raisi established ties with senior members of the Revolutionary Guards.

“Raisi is the Revolutionary Guards candidate,” said Mohsen Sazegara, a founding member of the Revolutionary Guards who is now a U.S.-based dissident. “He worked closely with the Revolutionary Guards when he was at the judiciary.”

Attempts to reach a Revolutionary Guards media office were unsuccessful.

Although Khamenei is guarded about his political preferences, Raisi also appears to have the supreme leader’s backing as a presidential candidate and possible successor.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Raisi attended religious classes taught by Khamenei for a period of 14 years, according to an official biography posted online. Last year, Khamenei appointed Raisi as head of a multi-billion dollar religious foundation, Astan Qods Razavi.

A delegation of senior Revolutionary Guards commanders went to visit Raisi in the city of Mashad when he was appointed head of the foundation last year, according to Fars News.

Among the group were the head of the Guards, the head of the Basij, and Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, the branch of the Guards responsible for operations outside of Iran’s borders, including in Iraq and Syria.

Maintaining domestic security is one of the key reasons why the Guards want to have a candidate of their choosing for the presidency and the supreme leader.

The disputed 2009 presidential elections, which put Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into office for a second term, led to the most widespread unrest in the history of the Islamic Republic.

Millions of protestors took to the streets in Tehran and several other large cities.

The Guards oversaw the crackdown on protesters primarily through the Basij. Dozens of demonstrators were killed and hundreds were arrested, according to human rights organizations.

But there is another reason why the Guards want an ally in Iran’s top positions: the group has vast economic holdings, from construction to oil and mines, worth billions of dollars.

Contracts, business interests

While in office, Rouhani has clashed repeatedly with the Guards about their contracts and business interests.

“The entry of armed forces to economic temptations can distance them from their original duty and goal,” Rouhani said in a speech last month, according to the official website of the presidency.

The Guards, for their part, have criticized the deal with Western powers negotiated by the Rouhani government, under which most international financial sanctions were lifted in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. Rouhani has touted the agreement as his top achievement.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a senior Guards commander, said in late April that the nuclear deal did not reduce the threat of war against the country.

“This is a lie. It’s an insult,” he said, according to Fars News.

Some Iran experts say the Guards see the nuclear deal and other steps towards opening the economy to foreign firms as a threat to their economic interests.

“The IRGC are out for essentially their own corporate gains,” said Abbas Milani, the director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University in California. “They have a big share of the economy. They want a bigger share.”

He added, “They think that if Rouhani wins it’s going to chip away at some of their privileges.”

 

 
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US Homeland Security Inquiry into Haitians Spurs Fears About TPS

Posted on by SeeUS

Immigration advocates expressed concern Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security might be treating Haitian nationals unfairly and perhaps even trying to set new criteria in deciding whether to extend a humanitarian program for those temporarily living in the United States.

“It is an abuse,” said Philip Berns, an immigration attorney in Stamford, Connecticut, responding to an Associated Press report on what it called the Trump administration’s “unorthodox” inquiry into an entire community’s criminal activity.

At least 50,000 Haitians were registered in the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program after a 2010 earthquake ravaged their country. Their status expires July 22 unless Homeland Security renews it. The department must decide by May 23 to allow 60 days’ notice of its plans.

Emails reflect interest in Haitians

The AP reported Tuesday that it had obtained internal emails from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services showing the agency sought information on criminal activity by Haitians temporarily in the United States. The memos also indicated the agency’s interest in whether any had received public benefits, for which they’re ineligible.

“The law doesn’t specify [criminal data] should be a consideration for Temporary Protected Status and the government has never said it would use criminal rates in deciding if a country’s citizens should be allowed to stay under this program,” the AP reported.

The AP also noted uncertainty about whether “the agency is asking such questions about other recipients of the temporary protection, including immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador.”

13 countries on TPS list

Those countries are among 13 currently designated by Homeland Security for TPS because of dangerous conditions, such as ongoing conflict or natural or environmental disasters.

“Who’s to say [Haiti] isn’t the first of the dominoes?” Berns wondered in a phone interview. He added that Salvadorans, Hondurans and others on the list “should at the very least be paying close attention. It should be of great interest in those groups to stop this from becoming new criterion. … It really behooves them to kill this weed before it grows.”

 

Trump asked to keep his promise

Marleine Bastien, executive director of the Haitian Women of Miami, said DHS Secretary John Kelly was “disingenuous” for wasting “time and taxpayers dollars to look into the criminal background of Haitian TPS holders when they know for a fact that no one can get TPS unless they have a clean records.”

In a statement she emailed to VOA, Bastien also noted while campaigning in South Florida last year, now-President Donald Trump “promised to be Haitians’ best champion.  It is time for him to prove that by renewing TPS.”

In an email to VOA, DHS said, “Secretary Kelly hasn’t yet made a decision on TPS for Haiti. The Secretary’s decision will be based on a thorough assessment of the conditions in the country; separately, he has asked the staff for detailed information to increase his understanding of how the program operates. The two actions are separate and distinct.”

The AP’s report follows an April 10 memo in which the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ acting director, James McCament, recommended extending TPS for Haitians for six months only. In the memo, he said conditions in Haiti had improved sufficiently.

Haiti has not recovered

Paul Altidor, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States, disagreed that the Caribbean country has recovered enough to absorb tens of thousands of returnees “overnight.”  

His government has urged the Trump administration to renew TPS “for at least another year,” Altidor said in a visit to VOA’s Washington offices last Wednesday.

Haiti “has not recovered entirely from the earthquake,” the ambassador said, noting that not all of the financial aid pledged by “many friends and countries around the world” materialized. He also pointed out that his country had endured additional setbacks, such as a cholera epidemic and a devastating hurricane last October.  

Altidor said the administration of President Jovenel Moise, who took office in February, is just beginning to put together reconstruction and development plans.  

The ambassador also noted that some Haitian nationals have given birth to children  U.S. citizens  giving mixed status to families that could be torn apart. Those living in the United States “for the most part … have been quite productive members of society for the past few years,” he said.

US leaders support extending TPS

Berns, the immigration lawyer, echoed Altidor’s point about productivity.  

Under TPS, Haitians have found jobs to support themselves and send remittances to Haiti. “It’s a very efficient form of humanitarian aid to be able to send money home,” he said. “… Over the long run, they rebuild homes and get the local economy moving again.”  

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers as well as more than 400 U.S. religious leaders have recommended extending TPS for Haiti. U.S. Haitians communities are concentrated in South Florida, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts’ Boston area.

VOA Creole Service’s Sergio Rodriguez contributed to this report.
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Allies Await Canada’s Decision on Sending Troops to Mali

Posted on by SeeAF

Canada, fearful of possible casualties, is taking months longer than expected to decide whether to send troops to a U.N. mission in Mali, worrying allies and potentially undermining Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s commitment to peacekeeping.

Trudeau replaced a Conservative government in November 2015 that had little time for the United Nations. Trudeau’s Liberals declared “Canada is back” in August 2016 and said they would commit up to 600 soldiers for possible U.N. deployment.

Officials said one option was Mali, where the United Nations has a 10,000-member force to help deal with Islamist militants.

“This would be a combat mission. Casualties are inevitable,” said one person familiar with the matter.

Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan visited the African nation in November, and diplomats said they expected a decision by the end of 2016.

“The United Nations needs a response, even if it’s a ‘no,’ because that has an impact on the ground,” said a diplomatic source.

Sajjan said in a phone interview that a decision would not be coming soon. He cited the need for proper risk assessments.

A good fit

Canadian troops would be a good fit in Mali for two reasons: The army gained plentiful counterinsurgency experience during a 10-year mission to Afghanistan, and many soldiers speak French, the official language in Mali.

“Yes, there is a risk. But if you are serious about playing a major role in peacekeeping, then you have to take it,” said another diplomatic source.

Afghanistan proved painful for Canada, which lost 158 troops in the fight against the Taliban, more per capita than any other nation.

“Are Canadians really ready to see coffins coming back once again?” said a second person with knowledge of the situation.

Canadian officials had initially said they were also waiting for possible requests from the United States. But a person familiar with the matter indicated no such request would be made, saying Washington had told Ottawa officials the decision about where to send troops was up to them.

Sajjan is hosting a conference on peacekeeping toward the end of the year.

“It’s going to be pretty awkward if they haven’t made an announcement by then,” a third diplomatic source said.
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