November 2017 - Page 4 of 23

Pope Francis Hopes to Bring Spotlight to Myanmar Refugee Crisis

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeEU

Pope Francis is to arrive Monday in Myanmar in an effort to draw global attention to the Rohingya refugee crisis.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church is to visit Bangladesh on Thursday.

The pontiff’s schedule does not include a visit to a refugee camp, but he is expected to meet with a small group of Rohingya in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.

“I am coming to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a message of reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace,” Pope Francis told Vatican Radio, “My visit is meant to confirm the Catholic community of Myanmar in its worship of God and its witness to the gospel.”

In recent weeks, Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, according to officials from both countries.

Despite the deal, Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario told the French news agency AFP, the situation remains “explosive and tough to resolve.”

“I am hopeful the Rohingya can be returned to Myanmar,” D’Rozario, the Archbishop of Dhaka, told AFP.

Reports said the deal was signed following talks in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and Bangladesh’s foreign minister, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali. The French news agency AFP quoted Ali as saying, “This is a primary step. [They] will take back [Rohingya]. Now we have to start working.”

The U.N. refugee agency spokesperson said conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns.

“Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm,” Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Friday.

D’Rozario, who was made cardinal by Francis in 2016, is still looking forward to the pontiff’s visit. There are about 360,000 Catholics in Bangladesh.

“The cries of the Rohingya are the cries of humanity,” D’Rozario said. “These cries ought to be heard and addressed. The main thing is to tell the people ‘We are on your side,” he said.

The cardinal spent two days visiting a refugee camp, speaking with families forced to leave their homes in Rakhine state.

“The international response for relief has been satisfactory, but how long will it last for? Generosity will not continue to flow as it did in the initial phase of the crisis.”

D’Rozario added that Bangladesh, though overcrowded and impoverished, deserves praise for its efforts in helping those fleeing violence.

“There are a lot of tensions, social tensions. Land is not available. It’s a very densely populated country, physically they don’t have any space. I admire the local people [for their restraint], the population has more than doubled. There are environmental issues with all the trees cut to make shelters. There will be landslides when there is big rain,” he said.

About 600,000 people have fled Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh, which is now undergoing its own crisis as it seeks to accommodate the Rohingya.

“It is not possible for Bangladesh alone to tackle this. The future looks very bleak,” D’Rozario said.

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Pope Holds Minute of Silence for Egypt Mosque Attack Victims

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeEU

The pope has led a minute of silence in St. Peter’s Square for the victims of the deadly attack on a mosque in Egypt.

Francis said following the traditional Angelus greeting on Sunday that the victims “were praying in that moment. We also pray in silence for them.”

The pope said the attack on Friday “brought great pain,” adding that he continued to pray for the dead and the wounded “and for the whole of that community, that has been so hard hit.”

The pope previously expressed in a telegram his “strong condemnation” of the attack, which killed 305 people in the deadliest assault by Islamic extremists in modern Egyptian history.

The pontiff also asked for prayers for his six-day trip Myanmar and Bangladesh, for which he departs later Sunday.
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Israel Races to Head off UN Settlement ‘Blacklist’

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeEA

Weeks ahead of the expected completion of a U.N. database of companies that operate in Israel’s West Bank settlements, Israel and the Trump Administration are working feverishly to prevent its publication.

While Israel is usually quick to brush off U.N. criticism, officials say they are taking the so-called “blacklist” seriously, fearing its publication could have devastating consequences by driving companies away, deterring others from coming and prompting investors to dump shares of Israeli firms. Dozens of major Israeli companies, as well as multinationals that do business in Israel, are expected to appear on the list.

“We will do everything we can to ensure that this list does not see the light of day,”Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, told The Associated Press.

The U.N.’s top human rights body, the Human Rights Council, ordered the compilation of the database in March 2016, calling on U.N. rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein to “investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on Palestinians.”

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements, built on occupied land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state, to be illegal. Israel rejects such claims, citing the land’s strategic and religious significance, and says the matter should be resolved in negotiations.

Israeli officials say that about 100 local companies that operate in the West Bank and east Jerusalem have received warning letters that they will be on the list. In addition, some 50 international companies, mostly American and European, also have been warned.

The companies have not been publicly identified, but one official said they include Israeli banks, supermarkets, restaurant chains, bus lines and security firms, as well as international giants that provide equipment or services used to build or maintain settlements. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

The only company to confirm receiving a warning letter has been Bezeq, Israel’s national telephone company. Bezeq’s chief executive, Stella Handler, posted a copy of the letter sent by Zeid’s office in September on her Facebook page. It accused Bezeq of using West Bank land for infrastructure, providing phone and Internet services to settlements and operating sales offices in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Handler angrily wrote that Bezeq provides service to all customers, regardless of race or where they live.

“The council’s bias against Israel is so extreme that it has lost all relevance in the world,” she wrote. “We will not cooperate with a move that is all in all anti-Israeli propaganda.”

But hours later, Handler removed the post, saying she had done so at the request of the government. The Israeli official confirmed the government has asked companies not to speak about the issue. Bezeq declined comment.

Israel has long accused the United Nations, and particularly the rights council, of being biased against it.

Israel is the only country that faces an examination of its rights record at each of the council’s three sessions each year. Some 70 resolutions, or about quarter of the council’s country-specific resolutions, have been aimed at Israel. That is nearly triple the number for the second-place country: Syria, where hundreds of thousands have been killed in a devastating six-year civil war.

Israeli leaders and many non-governmental groups also complain that some of the world’s worst violators of human rights, including Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Congo and Cuba, sit on the council.

Some Western diplomats have said the database could set a harmful precedent by blurring the line between business and human rights on issues that are better left to trade policy than the Geneva council.

Israel seems to have little leverage over the council. But its campaign has received a big boost from the United States. The Trump administration has taken a tough line against the U.N., demanding reforms and in October, withdrawing from the cultural agency UNESCO because of alleged anti-Israel bias.

In a speech to the council last June, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley railed against its makeup and demanded that Israel be removed as a permanent fixture on its agenda. She also hinted that the U.S. could quit the council.

The upcoming release of the database could test that commitment. It has triggered a quiet, but high-stakes effort by Israel and the U.S. to try to block its release.

“We just view that type of blacklist as counterproductive,”State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said recently.

Danon, the Israeli ambassador, accused the council of unfairly targeting Israel at a time of conflict throughout the world, saying it amounted to a “blacklist”of Jewish companies and those who do business with the Jewish state.

He also said it would turn the rights council into “the world’s biggest promoter of BDS,”an acronym for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement – a grassroots international boycott movement against Israel. Most of the companies linked to the blacklist are frequent targets of the BDS movement.

“What kind of message will this send?” Dannon said.

But Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said the list is an “important step”moving from verbal condemnation to practical action against the settlements. He expressed hope that it would lead companies to stop doing business with the settlements and even lead to sanctions against those that continue.

The original resolution calling for the list stipulates only that the council’s high commissioner is requested “to transmit the data therein in the form of a report”to the council.

To that end, Israel and its allies have been encouraging the council to leave the list out and submit only a basic, broad-strokes report that doesn’t name names, according to several U.N. diplomats familiar with the discussions. The diplomats were not authorized to comment publicly and demanded anonymity.

The pressure campaign has shown some signs of success. After an earlier delay, Zeid’s office said the release of the “report” has been pushed back again, from December to early next year.

For now, it does not appear that the list’s publication would be the direct trigger that leads the U.S. to quit the council. Haley’s office said it is focused on implementing reforms on the council, though publication of the list could make U.S. participation “less likely.”

Eugene Kontorovich, the director of international law at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative think tank in Jerusalem, said he was “deeply skeptical” the report will not be published and said the Israeli government would be better off trying to discredit the report ahead of time. “I think it’s important for people to understand how bad this is,” he said.

The resolution, he warned, would cause “reputational harm”to companies and put “a cloud over business in Israel.” Although nonbinding, he said it could be used as a basis for future legal action. “The goal of this is to cause problems for Israel,” he said.
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Saudis Launch Counterterror Coalition

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeEA

A Saudi-led Muslim military coalition, commanded by a celebrated former Pakistan army chief, was officially launched Sunday in Riyadh where defense ministers of the participating nations are holding their inaugural meeting.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also defense minister of Saudi Arabia, opened the meeting of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition or IMCTC.

An official statement explained that the “pan-Islamic coalition” of 41 predominantly Sunni Muslim countries will coordinate and multiply their individual efforts in the global fight against terrorism and violent extremism.

“The meeting [in the Saudi capital marks the official launch of the IMCTC and strengthens the cooperation and integration of member countries in the coalition,” it reads.

While supporters dubbed the Saudi-led coalition the “Muslim NATO,” skeptics, including those in Pakistan, continue to question its objectives and see it as a sectarian-based grouping against rivals – Shi’ite Iran, Syria and Iraq.

Saudi officials announced formation of the coalition in 2015, headquartered in Riyadh, with a mission to fight terrorism, particularly to counter the threat of Islamic State.

Tehran has opposed the move from the outset, however, and has been lobbying against it, believing it is aimed at increasing Saudi influence in the region.

The coalition’s formation specifically has been the focus of debate in Pakistan after former Pakistani military chief Raheel Sharif was appointed as IMCTC’s first commander.

Critics have warned that Islamabad’s participation could upset the country’s minority Shi’ite community and undermine bilateral relations with Iran, which shares a nearly 1,000-kilometer border with Pakistan.

The Pakistani Senate — upper house of parliament — witnessed another heated debate on the issue last week where opposition members urged the government not to give any undertakings in Sunday’s meeting in Riyadh without taking the parliament into confidence.

Senator Farhatullah Babar, in his speech, noted that the coalition encompasses four key areas, including ideology, communications, counter-terrorism financing and military. Those areas, particularly ideology, present potential pitfalls and challenges with possible consequences for Pakistan, local media quoted Babar as saying.

After IMCTC’s inaugural meeting, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and head of the country’s main spy agency, ISI, among others plan to visit Riyadh Monday at the invitation of the Saudi leadership for important consultations, although it is not known exactly what the issues are.

“If the IMCTC turns out to be a Saudi platform to bash geopolitical enemies and advance sectarian narratives, then this country [Pakistan] would best stay away from such a misadventure,” warned the leading English language newspaper, DAWN, in an editorial Saturday.

The newspaper noted with concern the Saudi crown prince’s statement issued Friday in which he dubbed Iran’s supreme leader “the Hitler of the Middle East.”

In its announcement ahead of Sunday’s meeting, the IMCTC quoted its commander, General Sharif, as saying that terrorism is the biggest challenge confronting the Muslim world.

The general retired in November 2016 and is credited with effectively countering terrorist groups operating in Pakistan during his three-year tenure as the chief of the powerful military.

But Shi’ite community leaders and independent critics in Pakistan have criticized the government, as well as Sharif, for accepting the assignment, fearing it would fuel domestic sectarian rivalries.

Pakistan has always walked a tightrope while trying to maintain a balance between its immediate neighbor, Iran, and also Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Kingdom hosts hundreds of thousands of Pakistani expatriates, and is a key source of oil supplies to Islamabad on deferred payments and cash grants to help Pakistan’s traditionally struggling economy.

The Pakistan government, under extreme domestic pressure, had refused to join Saudi-led military operations against Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2015.

The parliament barred then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif from joining the operation, saying Pakistan’s involvement in a foreign conflict would exacerbate sectarian tensions at home and upset its friends in the Muslim world.

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Iran Airs More Allegations Against Detained British Woman

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeEU

Iranian state television has aired more allegations against a detained Iranian-British woman, something her husband said Sunday appeared timed to further pressure London as it considers making a $530 million payment to Tehran.

The case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has gained momentum in recent weeks as British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson faces tremendous criticism at home over his handling of it.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, already serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly planning the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government while traveling there with her toddler daughter, also faces new charges that could add 16 years to her prison term.

On Thursday, Iranian state television aired a seven-minute special report on Zaghari-Ratcliffe. It included close-ups of an April 2010 pay stub from her previous employer, the BBC World Service Trust.

It also included an email from June 2010 in which she wrote about the “ZigZag Academy,” a BBC World Service Trust project in which the trust trained “young aspiring journalists from Iran and Afghanistan through a secure online platform.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe left the BBC in 2011 and then joined the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency. Both her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, and Thomson Reuters repeatedly have stressed she was not training journalists or involved in any work regarding Iran while there.

The state television report comes as the British foreign minister faces criticism after he told a parliamentary committee that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “teaching people journalism” when she was arrested last year. Though Johnson later corrected himself, the Iranian television report made a point to highlight them.

Speaking to The Associated Press on Sunday, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband said the report and other Iranian comments about his wife seemed timed to exert as much pressure as possible on the British government. He said the material appeared to be from his wife’s email, which investigators from the hard-line Revolutionary Guard immediately got access to after her arrest.

“It’s trying to justify the new charges,” Ratcliffe said.

The report comes as Britain and Iran discuss the release of some 400 million pounds held by London, a payment Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi made for Chieftain tanks that were never delivered. The shah abandoned the throne in 1979 and the Islamic Revolution soon installed the clerically overseen system that endures today.

Authorities in London and Tehran deny that the payment has any link to Zaghari-Ratcliffe. However, a prisoner exchange in January 2016 that freed Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other Iranian-Americans also saw the United States make a $400 million cash delivery to Iran the same day. That money too involved undelivered military equipment from the shah’s era, though some U.S. politicians have criticized the delivery as a ransom payment.

Analysts and family members of dual nationals and others detained in Iran have suggested that hard-liners in the Islamic Republic’s security agencies use the prisoners as bargaining chips for money or influence. A U.N. panel in September described “an emerging pattern involving the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of dual nationals” in Iran.

Others with ties to the West detained in Iran include Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly “infiltrating” the country while doing doctoral research on Iran’s Qajar dynasty. Iranian-Canadian national Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, a member of Iran’s 2015 nuclear negotiating team, is believed to be serving a five-year prison sentence on espionage charges.

Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father Baquer, a former UNICEF representative who served as governor of Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province under the U.S.-backed shah, are both serving 10-year prison sentences on espionage.

Iranian-American Robin Shahini was released on bail last year after staging a hunger strike while serving an 18-year prison sentence for “collaboration with a hostile government.” Shahini is believed to still be in Iran.

Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon who advocates for internet freedom and has done work for the U.S. government. He was sentenced to 10 years last year on espionage-related charges.

In addition, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing.
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Egypt’s President: Attack on Mosque ‘Will Not Go Unpunished’

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeAF

As the imam was about to deliver his Friday sermon in a mosque in Egypt’s volatile northern Sinai Peninsula, terrorists struck.

Shouting Allahu Akbar, or God is great, the militants opened fire. In the resulting stampede, worshippers found the exits blocked with burning vehicles. In the end, 305 people, including 27 children, were gunned down and 128 were injured.

Ebid Salem Mansour, a 38-year-old worker in a salt factory, told the Associated Press, “Everyone lay down on the floor and kept their heads down. If you raised your head, you get shot.”

“The shooting was random and hysterical at the beginning and then became more deliberate,” he added. “Whoever they weren’t sure was dead or still breathing was shot dead.”

Other eyewitnesses said the militants fired on ambulances as emergency personnel tried to evacuate the wounded to hospitals.

The attack targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of a mystic movement within Islam. Sufis are seen as heretics by the Islamic militants.

Prosecutor’s statement

Nabil Sadeq, Egypt’s chief prosecutor, said in a statement there were between 25 to 30 attackers. Some of them were masked and others were bare-faced. One, the statement said, carried a black banner with the declaration of the Muslim faith: There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. The banner matches those carried by the Islamic State, which has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

An Islamic State affiliate has been carrying out attacks in the region since 2013.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed that the attack “will not go unpunished.”

Egyptian government warplanes attacked terrorist targets in the Sinai following the carnage at the mosque.

The Egyptian president ordered a mausoleum be built in memory of the victims of the attack.

U.S. President Donald Trump reacted to the violence, calling it a “horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenseless worshippers.”

Neighboring Israel sent condolences to Egypt following the attack. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 and maintain close security cooperation.

Battling Islamic State

Egypt’s security forces are battling an Islamic State insurgency, mostly in the northern region of Sinai, where militants have killed hundreds of police officers and soldiers since fighting there intensified in the past three years.

Militants have targeted security forces, but have also struck beyond the Sinai by hitting Christian churches and civilians in other parts of Egypt.

Egyptian media reported that Sissi met with top security officials, including the defense and interior ministers, immediately after the attack as security was stepped up around government buildings.
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Former Soviet Dissident: Foreign Policy Styled After Realpolitik ‘Absolutely Wrong’

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeUS

In February 1986, Natan Sharansky, a Soviet political prisoner, crossed the Glienicke Bridge linking East and West Berlin under American diplomatic escort, thus ending nine years of Gulag-style labor camps in Siberia and dark, cold cells in Moscow.

“Thirteen years after I asked to be deprived of Soviet citizenship, I was finally deprived of Soviet citizenship,” he said.

Sharansky emigrated to Israel, took up several ministerial positions in the Israeli government, including deputy prime minister.

In an interview with VOA on the sidelines of events marking the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution, Sharansky recalls his battles with the KGB and calls on leaders of the free world to take up the mantle left by visionaries such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and continue the legacy of democracy.

WATCH Sharansky: ‘By Sun, I See That We Were Going to the West’

‘By sun, I see that we were going to the West’

“They were taking me somewhere, they refused me to tell me where; by sun, I see that we were going to the West. After three or four hours, it was clear that we were no longer in the Soviet Union. I demanded [to know]: ‘Is this hijacking? What is happening to me?’”

He was finally informed by one of the four KGB men accompanying him that the Soviet state had determined that his actions were “not worthy of a Soviet citizen” and he was being expelled.

“This is how I understood I am free,” Sharansky told VOA.

Sharansky’s release was negotiated along with an exchange of spies between the U.S. and the then-Soviet Union. The transfer was layered in drama, with the Soviets seeking to keep their control of the political activist to the very last minute, while the Americans were pushing for their own concessions.

The American side insisted that Sharansky would cross the bridge a half-hour before the spies were exchanged, making clear that the “spying for the Americans” charge the Soviets put on Sharansky were groundless; he was a human rights activist both on the day he was sentenced and on the day he was freed.

Sharansky told VOA that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s counterpart, complained to him when the former prisoner and the USSR leader later met.

“You say of all the people you’re grateful, No. 1 Reagan, No. 2 [Soviet dissident Andrey Dmitriyevich] Sakhorov, only No. 3 is me. I’m the one who released you!” Gorbachev said, according to Sharansky.

Sharansky insists, then and now, that the order of thanks for the collapse of the Soviet Union, and any authoritarian regime for that matter, is as follows: first of all, dissidents such as Andrey Sakharov in their time who “keep this spark of freedom of alive, I know this is very difficult, it needs a lot of courage and in many cases it has a tragic ending;” secondly, leaders like Reagan and Margaret Thatcher “who saw the real nature of the regime and understood it was an evil empire and you have to stand up to it and link the question of human rights with international policy.”

‘In the interest of détente, in the interest of peace, in the interest of stability’

Sharansky acknowledges, though, not everyone holding leadership positions in democratic societies treats the task of supporting democratic movements in totalitarian regimes with equal enthusiasm.

In the era of Reagan and Thatcher, international politics was largely dictated by “realpolitik,” he says, referring to a policy approach dominated by concerns for power juggling instead of moral objectives.

“Even if it was absolutely wrong morally, in the interest of détente, in the interest of peace, in the interest of stability,” Western societies largely practiced a noninterference or little-interference policy in the realm of human rights back then, he said.

Today, he says, there’s also the belief that it may be better not to demand change from dictatorships, which often appear invincible, at least on the outside, citing China as a regime that “is strong, or looks strong.”

“There are terrible human rights violations, and the world doesn’t ask questions, because they do not have the courage to demand a change to the policy,” he said.

The seeming habit of governments of bringing out a long list of “interests” or problems that “have to be dealt with first” before human rights issues, often put down as “abstract values,” are addressed, is “an absolutely wrong approach,” in Sharansky’s opinion; nevertheless, this approach, in his words, “is very typical,” citing his own experience.

WATCH: Sharansky: ‘Our Representatives Were Absolutely Shocked’

Chinese official ‘didn’t look like the one shocked by the question’

In 1997, while serving as minister of Industry and Trade in Israel, Sharansky met with a visiting Chinese delegation.

“I said: Mr. Vice President, I was in a political prison for many years, I know how important it was that the [outside] world were asking about my fate, so I’m asking you, what about the fate of Chinese political prisoners?”

“He [the Chinese vice president] didn’t look like the one shocked by the question, but our representatives, our foreign affairs officials, were absolutely shocked! I think after this, there was some kind of order that I didn’t have any more meetings with Chinese [delegations]; they tried to prevent me from asking this kind of question again!” Sharansky said.

In the end, he says, Israel’s ability to affect Chinese government’s behavior is limited, “but it’s very important that when the American president and leaders of European countries are meeting with Chinese leaders that they put the question, the fate of dissidents on the top of their agenda.”

“I know that nowadays more often it doesn’t happen than happen,” he conceded.

Reagan and Thatcher’s legacy

The former Soviet political prisoner sums up the legacy of Reagan and Thatcher in the roles they played in bringing down the Soviet empire: “Your solidarity with people struggling for freedom is not only your moral principle, it’s your basic interest.” His message for the new generation of leaders: “the more you understand this and your policy reflects this, the more you can influence the world.”

He attributes the reluctance to confront authoritarian regimes to a lack of understanding, due to deceptive appearances, of what goes on inside those regimes.

WATCH: Sharansky: The Nature of Totalitarian Regime

Anatomy of totalitarian regime

In every totalitarian regime, there are three categories of people, Sharansky says: a small group of true believers, a vast number of “double thinkers,” and dissidents.

He describes double thinkers as those “who don’t believe in the regime, who don’t believe in its ideology, but are afraid to speak the truth, so they pretend.” However, observers from the outside often mistake double thinkers, who tend to make up the majority of these societies, as true believers, he says.

“You see, these massive parades, everybody shouting ‘welcome’ to their leaders, everybody crying and weeping when the leader is dead, all these people must be true believers; look how strong this regime is!” Sharansky explained.

Such mass shows of support often can deceive outsiders and lead to dissidents’ voices being discounted when in fact “dissidents are usually people who are very connected to what is happening inside the minds of people” and understand the regime’s weaknesses, Sharansky said.

“That’s why my friend Andrei Amalrik, 20 years before the Soviet Union fell apart, predicted that it would fall apart, explaining exactly what’s happening in the minds of the people. … He predicted it 20 years before it happened,” he added.

Sovietologists were wrong

Soviet dissident Amalrik published a book in 1970 titled Will the Soviet Union Survive until 1984? He said that he originally intended to use the year 1980 in the book’s title, but settled on 1984 instead, in recognition of British writer George Orwell’s seminal political novel 1984, which depicted the horrors of life under totalitarianism.

In contrast, “Sovietologists [academics who specialize on the former Soviet Union], even one year before it happened, before the Soviet Union fell apart, were writing and saying how strong the [Soviet] system is,” Sharansky said, adding the same can be said about other dictatorships.

WATCH: Sharansky: ‘It’s Not They Who Guarantee Work and Food’

Mitterrand: ‘I was wrong’

In the epilogue of his memoir, Fear No Evil, Sharansky wrote about a meeting with then-French Prime Minister François Mitterrand that underscores the odds against which dissidents and their supporters had to fight in their struggle to be heard.

During the meeting, Mitterrand pointed to a chair Sharansky was sitting in and said: “Avital [Sharansky’s wife] sat there often when she came to ask for my assistance. I always wanted to help her, but the truth is, I never believed she had a chance. I thought she was naïve, and that they’d never let you out. But your wife was right and I was wrong.”

Sharansky: ‘I Prefer to Be a Free Person in Their Prison’
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Men Also Coming Forward With Stories of Sexual Harassment

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeUS

It’s not just women who are a part of the viral #metoo social media campaign against sexual harassment. Men are coming forward, too. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission statistics show that about 16 percent of all sexual misconduct complaints are coming from male employees. It seems men prefer to stay silent about these encounters and are less likely to report the incidents. VOA’s Daria Dieguts has more.
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Official’s Account of Arrest Fuels Debate Over Zimbabwe Takeover

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeAF

Zimbabwe’s former finance minister testified Saturday that armed, masked men in uniform abducted him from his home during the military operation leading to the ouster of longtime leader Robert Mugabe and held him for a week in an unidentified location, fueling debate about the legality of the popular, mostly peaceful takeover by the armed forces.

The account by Ignatius Chombo came a day after a High Court judge, a retired general, ruled that the military’s actions last week, which commanders described as a move against “criminals” around Mugabe, were legal. While some critics said it set a dangerous precedent, the decision by Judge George Chiweshe reinforced the military’s assertion that it acted within the law even though it set off events, including impeachment proceedings and street demonstrations against the 93-year-old Mugabe, that ended his 37-year rule.

Minister describes abduction

The joyful inauguration on Friday of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former top aide to Mugabe, showed that most Zimbabweans are happy to have a new leader who might take steps to revive the shattered economy and grant them more freedoms. Even so, perceptions that the abrupt political transition was constitutionally sound are important to Zimbabwe’s new leadership, which must prepare for 2018 elections and seeks to attract foreign investment.

However, Chombo and two leaders of the ruling ZANU-PF party’s youth league who said they were abducted by the military before being handed over days later to the police described experiences reminiscent of human rights violations that were a routine occurrence during Mugabe’s rule. The three men have been linked to a party faction loyal to Mugabe’s wife, Grace, whose presidential ambitions triggered the military intervention.

“I was in the custody of armed persons who were dressed in soldiers’ uniforms,” said Chombo, who has been charged with corruption. “I don’t know where I was taken to.”

He described in court how the raid in the early morning of Nov. 15 began with two explosions, one of which shook his home. Men entered his bedroom with AK-47 assault rifles pointed at him, his wife and his maid, then handcuffed and hustled him out of the house through a smashed living room window, blindfolding him with his own T-shirt, Chombo said.

A one-hour drive to an unidentified location led to days of custody during which interrogators told him that he had performed badly in his role as a government official and ruling party leader, he said. He said he was blindfolded most of the time and never saw his captors’ faces. He was not assaulted and saw a doctor after requesting pills, but suffered lacerations during the forced exit from his home, falling several times while barefoot.

Rights violated

Several days ago, his captors told him to pack his things and they drove him home, he said. There, two cars with police were parked.

“They said, ‘You are under arrest,”’ Chombo said.

Defense lawyer Lovemore Madhuku said it was obvious that Chombo was originally taken by state agents, likely the military, and that his constitutional rights had been violated because he was not taken to court within 48 hours of his detention. The police arrest, he said, was designed to provide legal cover for an illegal act.

“The military must know that there is a constitution in this country,” Madhuku said. “There’s no such thing as a military arrest.”

However, state prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba said the police arrest of Chombo was lawful and that there was no evidence the “armed men” who previously held him belonged to the military.

The detained youth leaders, Kudzanai Chipanga and Innocent Hamandishe, have been accused of denigrating the military. All three men are now in police custody.
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Congress Returns to Lots of Work, Little Time

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeUS

The crush of unfinished business facing lawmakers when they return to the Capitol would be daunting even if Washington were functioning at peak efficiency.

It’s an agenda whose core items — tax cuts, a potential government shutdown, lots of leftover spending bills — could unravel just as easily as advance in factionalism, gamesmanship and a toxic political environment.

There’s only a four-week window until a Christmas deadline, barely enough time for complicated negotiations even if December stays on the rails. And that’s hardly a sure bet in President Donald Trump’s capital.

First: Avoid shutdown

Trump and congressional leaders plan a meeting Tuesday to discuss how to sidestep a shutdown and work though the legislative to-do list.

For the optimistic, it’s plain that Democrats and Republicans have reasons to cooperate, particularly on spending increases for the Pentagon and domestic agencies whose budgets otherwise would be frozen. An additional round of hurricane aid should be bipartisan, and efforts to reauthorize a popular health care program for children seem to be on track.

Tax cuts advance

Republicans are advancing their cherished tax cut measure under special rules that mean Senate Democrats cannot use delaying tactics. The measure passed the House just before the Thanksgiving break and moves to the Senate floor this coming week.

After the Senate GOP’s failure on health care this summer, the majority party is under enormous pressure to produce a victory on taxes. Still, GOP deficit hawks such as Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona remain uneasy about the overhaul.

Democrats’ limited leverage

While Democrats are largely sidelined on taxes, they hold leverage over a mix of budget-related issues.

First, there’s the need to avert a government shutdown after a temporary spending bill expires Dec. 8. The most likely scenario, congressional aides say, is for an additional extension until Christmas. On a parallel track are talks to raise spending limits that are keeping agency budgets essentially frozen unless those caps are raised. If that happens, then negotiations could begin in earnest on a massive catchall spending measure in hopes of having it signed into law by year’s end.

Taxes have gotten all the attention so far, but the showdown over a potential shutdown right before Christmas could soon take center stage. Democrats are counting on GOP fears of a holiday season closure to ensure Republican concessions during December talks.

Both sides would have to make concessions that may upset partisans in either party. Just as House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., fears a revolt on the right, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California risks an uprising on her left. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., round out the quartet of top negotiators.

“Everybody’s got complicated politics. The chance of short-term failure is pretty high — short-term failure being a shutdown,” said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist. “But the four of them, assuming they don’t want to shut the government down for a long time, are going to have to come to an accommodation.”

Talks on the spending caps are stuck, however, aides say. A GOP offer to lift the Pentagon budget by more than $54 billion next year and nondefense limits by $37 billion was rejected by Democrats demanding balance between the two sides of the ledger.

Immigration battle

Long-delayed battles over immigration and Trump’s promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border are huge obstacles. Many Democrats whose votes are needed on the spending bills insist they won’t vote for any legislation that includes the wall. Trump remains dead set on his $1.6 billion request for a down payment on the project.

Those same Democrats also insist that Congress must act by year’s end to protect immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and whose protected status is set to lapse next year. Trump backs the idea despite issuing an executive order reversing the Obama administration protections, starting next spring. Conservatives oppose drawing in the immigration issue to legislation to keep the government running.

Hurricane aid

Hurricane relief is adding one more wrinkle.

Congress has approved more than $50 billion in aid in response to a series of devastating hurricanes. The most recent request by the White House is the largest yet at $44 billion, but it’s not nearly enough to satisfy the powerful Texas delegation, which is pressing behind the scenes for more.

“Completely inadequate,” said Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas. “We must do far more to rebuild, repair and allow Texans to return to normal as quickly as possible.”

The wild card

Trump is a wild card. He warmed to the idea of cutting deals with Democrats after a September pact with Schumer and Pelosi to lift the government’s debt ceiling.

He promised Democratic leaders that he would sign legislation to give the young immigrants legal status, provided border security is addressed as well.

But that demand on border security came with a long list of conditions subsequently added by the White House. Among them: building his Mexico border wall, overhauling the green card system and strengthening measures against people who stay after their visas expire.

Trump has not really engaged on the year-end agenda, however, and his impulsiveness could be a liability. He almost disowned an omnibus spending bill in May after media accounts portrayed the measure as a win for Democrats.
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On Monday, Who’s the Boss at Consumer Rights Agency?

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeUS

Who’s the boss? That’s the awkward question after the departing head of a government agency charged with looking after consumer rights appointed a deputy to temporarily fill his spot. The White House then named its own interim leader.

One job, two people — and two very different views on how to do it.

The first pick is expected to continue the aggressive policing of banks and other lenders that have angered Republicans. The second, President Donald Trump’s choice, has called the agency a “joke,” an example of bureaucracy run amok, and is expected to dismantle much of what the agency has done.

So come Monday, who will be leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

Both say law on their side

Senior Trump administration officials said Saturday that the law was on their side and they expect no trouble when Trump’s pick for temporary director of the CFPB shows up for work. Departing director Richard Cordray, an Obama appointee long criticized by Congressional Republicans as overzealous, had cited a different rule in saying the law was on his side.

In tendering his resignation Friday, Cordray elevated Leandra English, who was the agency’s chief of staff, into the deputy director position. Citing the Dodd-Frank Act that created the CFPB, he said English, an ally of his, would become acting director upon his departure.

Corday’s move was widely seen as an attempt to stop Trump from shaping the agency in the months ahead.

The White House cites the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. Administration officials on Saturday acknowledged that some other laws appear to clash with Vacancies Act, but said that in this case the president’s authority takes precedence.

Important, though temporary, job

Who prevails in the legal wrangling is seen as important even though this involves just a temporary posting. Getting a permanent replacement approved by the Senate could take months.

The president’s pick for temporary appointee, Mick Mulvaney, had been widely anticipated. Mulvaney, currently director of the Office of Management and Budget, has been an outspoken critic of the agency and is expected to pull back on many of Cordray’s actions in the six years since he was appointed.

Trump announced he was picking Mulvaney within a few hours of Cordray’s announcement Friday.

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, has been a total disaster as run by the previous Administrations pick,” Trump tweeted Saturday from his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is spending a long Thanksgiving weekend. “Financial Institutions have been devastated and unable to properly serve the public. We will bring it back to life!”

The administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the White House’s thinking, called Trump’s appointment of an acting director a “routine move.” They said the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has already approved Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney and will issue a written legal opinion soon.

The clashing appointments raise the question: What happens when the two new heads show up and try to sit at the same desk and give orders?

One of the administration officials said Mulvaney was expected to start working Monday and that English was expected to also show up — but as deputy director.

Leandra English

English is a trusted lieutenant of Cordray’s who has helped investigate and punish financial companies in ways that many Republicans, Mulvaney in particular, think go too far. In his announcement Friday, Cordray highlighted English’s “in-depth” knowledge of the agency’s operations and its staff. Before joining the CFPB, English served at the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management.

“Leandra is a seasoned professional who has spent her career of public service focused on promoting smooth and efficient operations,” Cordray said in the statement.

Mick Mulvaney

Mulvaney was a South Carolina representative to the House before becoming head of the budget office. A founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, he was elected in 2010 as part of a tea party wave that brought many critics of the U.S. budget deficit to office. He has taken a hard line on federal spending matters, routinely voting against increasing the government’s borrowing cap and pressing for major cuts to benefit programs as the path to balancing the budget.

He also has been unsparing in his criticism of the CFPB. In a widely quoted comment, he once blasted the agency as “joke,” saying its lack of oversight by Congress and its far-reaching regulations had gone too far.

“The place is a wonderful example of how a bureaucracy will function if it has no accountability to anybody,” he told the Credit Union Times in 2014. “It turns up being a joke in a sick, sad kind of way.”

Congress weighs in

U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee and a longtime critic of Cordray, said Mulvaney would “fight not only to protect consumers from force, fraud, and deception but will protect them from government interference with competitive, innovative markets and help preserve their fundamental economic opportunities and liberties.”

Democrats have seized upon Mulvaney’s words in criticizing his appointment to the agency.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, issued a statement Saturday calling Mulvaney “unacceptable” to lead the CFPB because of his “noxious” views toward its mission to protect consumers.

“He was also the original co-sponsor of a bill to completely eliminate the Consumer Bureau,” she wrote, “and supported other legislation to harmfully roll back Wall Street reform.”
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US Vice Consul, Shot in Brazil, Leaves Hospital

Posted on 11/26/2017 by SeeUS

The U.S. vice consul in Brazil was discharged Saturday from a hospital after being shot in the foot in an attempted robbery at a seaside holiday resort near Rio de Janeiro, local media reported.

Stephanie Masland Bohlen was operated on Friday at Samaritan Hospital, Agencia Brasil said.

Masland Bohlen and her husband were approached by two unidentified people late Thursday as they stopped to adjust their GPS navigation system on a highway in Angra dos Reis, in the southern part of Rio state, according to local media.

When they tried to flee, Masland Bohlen was shot in the foot. Her husband was unharmed.

Civil police are handling the investigation.

A British tourist was shot and wounded in Angra dos Reis in August when she, her husband and their three children accidentally drove into a favela controlled by criminals.

The Rio area is one of the world’s most famous tourist destinations but many favelas — largely unregulated communities of working-class Brazilians — are public safety nightmares.
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Saudis Set to Launch Counterterror Coalition Commanded by Ex-Pakistan General Sharif

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeEA

A Saudi-led Muslim military coalition, commanded by a celebrated former Pakistan army chief, will be officially launched on Sunday when Riyadh hosts defense ministers of the participating nations at its inaugural meeting.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia, will open the meeting of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition or IMCTC, said an official statement issued on the eve of the event.

The statement explains that the “pan-Islamic coalition” of 41 predominantly Sunni Muslim countries will coordinate and multiply their individual efforts in the global fight against terrorism and violent extremism.

“The meeting [in the Saudi capital] marks the official launch of the IMCTC and strengthens the cooperation and integration of member countries in the coalition,” it reads.

Saudi officials announced formation of the coalition in 2015, headquartered in Riyadh, with a mission to fight terrorism, particularly to counter the threat of Islamic State.

Tehran has opposed the move from the outset, however, and has been lobbying against it, believing it is aimed at increasing Saudi influence in the region.

The coalition’s formation specifically has been the focus of debate in Pakistan after former Pakistani military chief Raheel Sharif was appointed as IMCTC’s first commander.

The Pakistani Senate — upper house of parliament — witnessed another heated debate on the issue this week where opposition members urged the government not to give any undertakings in Sunday’s meeting in Riyadh without taking the parliament into confidence.

A day after IMCTC’s inaugural meeting, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and head of the country’s main spy agency, ISI, among others also plan to visit Riyadh on Monday at the invitation of the Saudi leadership for important consultations, although it is not known exactly what the issues are.

The newspaper noted with concern the Saudi crown prince’s statement issued Friday in which he dubbed Iran’s supreme leader “the Hitler of the Middle East.”

In its announcement ahead of Sunday’s meeting, the IMCTC quoted its commander, General Sharif, as saying that terrorism is the biggest challenge confronting the Muslim world.

“The IMCTC encompasses an integrated approach to coordinate and unite on the four key domains of ideology, communications, counterterrorism financing, and military, in order to fight all forms of terrorism and extremism and to effectively join other international security and peacekeeping efforts,” Sharif said.

The general retired in November 2016 and is credited with effectively countering terrorist groups operating in Pakistan during his three-year tenure as the chief of the powerful military.

The Pakistan government, under extreme domestic pressure, had refused to join Saudi-led military operations against Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2015.

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Missing American Military Personnel Identified After Plane Crash

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeUS

The three American sailors who missing since their plane crashed into the Philippine Sea were identified by the U.S. Navy on Saturday as Lt. Steven Combs, Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Airman Matthew Chialastri, and Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Apprentice Bryan Grosso.

The Navy said Thursday that eight U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft had covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles in the two-day search for the missing sailors.

On Thursday, search and rescue efforts were halted for the three sailors, who were lost at sea Wednesday when a U.S. Navy transport plane crashed into the western Pacific Ocean.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families,” said Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, commander, Task Force 70.

“As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates, and I appreciate the professionalism and dedication shown by all who participated in the search efforts.”

Routine mission

The Navy said the twin-propeller C2-A Greyhound aircraft plummeted into the sea about 925 kilometers southeast of Okinawa while it was on a routine mission taking passengers and cargo from a U.S. base in Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

It said the eight people were rescued about 40 minutes later and taken to the Reagan where they are reported in good condition. There was no immediate explanation for the crash, and the Navy said the incident is being investigated.

U.S. President Donald Trump, at his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, said via Twitter that he is monitoring the situation.

“Prayers for all involved,” he said.

Joint exercises with Japan

The Reagan was operating in the Philippine Sea as part of joint exercises with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, part of 10 days of training designed to increase defensive readiness and interoperability in air and sea maneuvers between the two countries.

More than 14,000 U.S. personnel are participating in the drills, which also include the guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem, USS Chafee and USS Mustin, and a maritime patrol and reconnaissance squadron.

Fifth accident this year

Wednesday’s crash was the fifth major Navy incident in Asian waters this year. Two fatal accidents left 17 sailors dead and prompted the Defense Department to remove of eight top Navy officers from their posts, including the 7th Fleet commander.

The destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in August off Singapore, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead and five injured. The USS Fitzgerald, another destroyer, collided with a container ship in waters off Japan in June, killing seven sailors.

After investigations, the Navy concluded the collisions were avoidable, resulting from widespread failures by commanders and crewmembers, who did not recognize and respond quickly to the emergencies as they unfolded. The Navy has called for improved training, and increasing sleep and stress management for sailors.

Separately, in January, the USS Antietam ran aground near Yosuka, Japan, and the USS Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel in May.

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Life Back to Normal in Zimbabwe

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeAF

Today is the first day of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presiden Mnangagwa is meeting with top Zimbabwean politicians today to settle his cabinet, and also to start delivering on the many promises he made during his inaugural address.
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Suspected Militants Kill More Than 300 in Sinai Mosque Attack

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeEA

Militants arrived at Radwa mosque in four-wheel-drive vehicles, set off an explosion and then ran inside, where they opened fire on worshipers as they tried to escape. The gunmen also reportedly used burning cars to block exits from the building.
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Egypt Launches Airstrikes Against Targets in Sinai Following Mosque Attack

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeEA

Airstrike comes a few hours after Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi vowed that the attack ‘will not go unpunished’
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Fugitive Catalan Leader Launches Campaign From Belgium

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeEU

The fugitive leader of Catalonia’s separatist movement has launched his campaign for the upcoming Catalan elections from Belgium, where he awaits extradition.

Carles Puigdemont, who wants to be re-elected as regional president, launched “Together for Catalonia” from Bruges on Saturday. Spanish media reports that 90 of the candidates he chose traveled from Catalonia in northeastern Spain to the Belgian city for the launch.

Puigdemont and four former members of his government fled to Belgium following a declaration of independence by Catalonia’s parliament on Oct. 27 and a swift crackdown by Spanish authorities, which included firing his government and calling regional elections for Dec. 21.

Puigdemont’s extradition could take several weeks or longer, meaning he can run his campaign from abroad. He faces arrest if he returns to Spain.
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France: Macron Outlines Plan Tackling Violence Against Women

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeEU

President Emmanuel Macron has announced an initiative to address violence and harassment against women in France, with plans aimed at erasing the sense of shame that breeds silence among victims and changing France’s sexist culture.

In a speech on Saturday marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Macron laid out a plan to encourage women to take action, strengthen laws against offenders and educating citizens on the issue – starting from nursery school.

He said that 123 women died of violence against them in France last year. Holding a moment of silence for them, he said: “It is time for shame to change camps.”
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US Reverses Decision to Close Washington PLO Office

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeUS

The U.S. has reversed its decision that would have closed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington.

The U.S. said last week the PLO had to close its office because the organization had violated a little-known provision in U.S. law prohibiting a PLO Washington office if the organization asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Israelis or prosecute Israelis for crimes against Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the international court earlier this year to “open an investigation and to prosecute Israeli officials for their involvement in settlement activities and aggressions against our people.”

Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian legislator, told the Associated Press that the U.S. made a “correct” decision in reversing its original choice. He said the first decision should not have been made because “the United States cannot play the role of a mediator and at the same time take the side of the Israelis against the Palestinians …We cannot have peace in this region if the United States government continues to be biased to the Israeli positions.”

A State Department spokesman says the U.S. has “advised the PLO Office to limit its activities to those related to achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.”

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US Wrestles With the Issue of Asylum

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeUS

When people come to the U.S. seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or are afraid they will suffer persecution, they are permitted to file for asylum regardless of their immigration status.

U.S. law offers asylum to those people facing persecution in their home countries on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular group.

WATCH: What is Asylum and How Does it Work in the US?

There are two kinds of asylum: affirmative and defensive. An immigrant may claim affirmative asylum within one year of their last arrival in the United States. An immigrant may request defensive asylum while fighting an order of deportation.

During the years 2013-2015, an average of about 25,000 people received asylum each year. Almost twice as many affirmative applicants were approved as defensive applicants.

Detention

Applicants must be physically present in the U.S. to apply for asylum.

Current policy is to detain asylum-seekers, often when they arrive at a port of entry. Waiting while their cases go through the courts can mean spending months in a detention center.

“We are closing the doors on so many people, and the first thing that they get when they come here to the U.S. is like ‘OK, we’re going to lock you up,’” said Rosa Santana, a detainee visitation coordinator at First Friends immigrant advocacy group. “We don’t know what these people have been through, their traumas. Putting them in detention is another trauma for them.”

First Friends is a local nonprofit in Jersey City, New Jersey, and its visitation groups visit immigrant detainees at the Elizabeth Detention Center, Hudson County Correctional Center, Bergen County Jail and Essex County Correctional Center-Delaney Hall.

Credible fear

Asylum-seekers must apply within one year from the date of last arrival or show proof of an “exceptional” change based on extraordinary circumstances. Above all, they must prove to the asylum officer or to an immigration court judge that they have a “credible fear” of returning to their home country.

To Judy Pepenella, community organizer at the Conservative Society for Action in New York, asylum is a “touchy” subject.

“I have a problem, personally, and it has to be honesty. You know, just because you have to get out and you don’t have the ability to become a citizen and you don’t want go back, it has to truly be an issue,” Pepenella told VOA.

Pepenella, a Republican and conservative, said though she doesn’t believe in jailing asylum-seekers, each case must be looked at on its merit.

“When they come here, are they gonna become citizens, or are they going to stay on an immigrant or not American basis? If you come, become a citizen, become part of the process, become part of what makes America great,” Pepenella added.

WATCH: Asylum in the US: The Pros and Cons

Future of asylum

The White House wants to tighten standards in the U.S. asylum system.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has claimed the current asylum system is “subject to rampant abuse and fraud” and he called for tighter rules for people seeking asylum in the United States.

Sessions said current policies allow applicants to take advantage of a “broken” court system that is backlogged by about 600,000 cases nationwide, although not all are asylum cases.

Figures from the months of July, August and September of 2016 and 2017, while hardly conclusive, indicate that asylum cases were being adjudicated at a faster rate since Trump took office in 2017 than the previous year — and that the percentages of approval, at least for affirmative cases, have fallen off slightly.

July 2016: 1,957 cases adjudicated; 996 affirmative approvals

August 2016: 2,262 cases adjudicated; 884 affirmative approvals

September 2016: 2,232 cases adjudicated, 967 affirmative approvals

July 2017: 3,934 cases adjudicated; 1,252 affirmative approvals

August 2017: 5,336 cases adjudicated; 1,543 affirmative approvals

September 2017: 4,255 cases adjudicated; 1,513 affirmative approvals

Pepenella struggles with asylum.

“I’m not saying everyone is lying, please make sure you understand that, there are nations that people need help to get out of,” she said.

But Santana sees it in stark, human terms.

“We know that they are not lying. We can hear the desperation, you know, when we talk to them,” she said. “Every day we have tears in our eyes from the stories that we hear. Because we know that people are really risking their lives to come here.”
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Trial of Turkish-Iranian Trader to Start Without Main Suspect

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeUS

The politically fraught trial of a Turkish-Iranian businessman accused of running a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran gets underway next week but is widely expected to start without the main suspect: Reza Zarrab.

Zarrab is a 33-year-old multimillionaire of dual Iranian-Turkish citizenship with business interests in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, and ties to the governments of Turkey and Iran.

He was arrested in Florida in March 2016 while on a family trip to Disney World and later moved to New York to face criminal charges of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions between 2010 and 2015 by laundering money through the U.S. financial system and bribing Turkish officials.

US-Turkey relations

The impending trial has become a flashpoint in deteriorating U.S.-Turkish relations.

Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan has personally lobbied the U.S. to release Zarrab, raising questions that Erdogan and other Turkish official are worried Zarrab could implicate them with bribery and corruption.

Meanwhile, the recent transfer of Zarrab from a federal detention center in New York to an undisclosed location has prompted speculation that he is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, possibly on unrelated matters of interest to Turkey.

Zarrab is accused of using a network of front companies in Turkey and the UAE to disguise hundreds of millions of dollars of business transactions on behalf of the Iranian government and other Iranian entities.

One entity, Mahan Air, is charged with ferrying fighters to Syria. Among other things, Zarrab is accused of shipping gold to Iran in exchange for Iranian oil and natural gas in a scheme known as “gold for gas.”

To facilitate his scheme, Zarrab allegedly paid tens of millions of dollars to Turkish government officials and bank executives.

The sanctions, aimed at Iran’s access to U.S. financial institutions, were lifted after Iran struck a deal with the U.S. and other major world powers in 2015 to keep a peaceful nuclear program.

Eight other people, including Zarrab’s 39-year-old brother, Mohammad Zarrab, and a former minister of economy, Mehmet Zafer Caglayan, have been indicted on charges related to the scheme.

But only one other, Mehmet Atilla, a former deputy general manager of Halkbank, one of Turkey’s largest banks, has been arrested.

Their trial has been repeatedly postponed and is now scheduled to start Monday in New York with jury selection.

Allegations

In court filings, prosecutors have alleged that Zarrab has had a personal relationship with Erdogan and that Erdogan may have known of of Zarrab’s sanctions-busting scheme.

Erdogan is not accused of any wrongdoing, but he and other Turkish officials have slammed the case as a conspiracy against Turkey.

Erdogan has repeatedly pressed President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama to drop the case. In September, he said Trump told him that the “prosecution is out of his jurisdiction.”

Yet as Zarrab’s trial draws near, there are indications that Zarrab may be negotiating a deal with U.S. prosecutors.

For starters, his whereabouts remains a mystery.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website, Zarrab was “released” from the Metropolitan Correction Center, a federal detention center in New York, Nov. 8.

But the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, where Zarrab will be tried, says he remains in “federal custody.”

Nick Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, confirmed Zarrab’s detention to VOA but declined to elaborate.

Indication he’s talking

Legal experts say Zarrab’s release from federal detention is an indication that he’s talking to prosecutors as part of a guilty plea deal.

“One cannot be sure, but the most likely explanation for the release of a detained defendant, in the absence of any formal release from detention, is that he is in the custody of the FBI,” said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor now a professor at Columbia University in New York. “This move rarely happens, but has occurred in extraordinary circumstances.”

Benjamin Brafman, Zarrab’s lead attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.

In recent weeks, Brafman and Zarrab’s other lawyers have not participated in key pretrial proceedings, such as providing questions for prospective jurors. That has fueled speculation that Zarrab may skip his own trial.

In an Oct. 30 court filing, Victor Rocco, an attorney for Atilla, Zarrab’s co-defendant, wrote that it appeared “likely that Mr. Atilla will be the only defendant appearing at trial.”

Eric Jaso, a former federal prosecutor now a partner at the Spiro Harrison law firm in Short Hills, New Jersey, said the absence of Zarrab’s lawyers from court proceedings could mean Zarrab is cooperating with the government.

Adding to the mystery, the federal judge overseeing the case dropped Zarrab’s name from the title of the case in an order issued Monday and replaced it with Atilla’s name.

The title change suggests Atilla will be the only defendant on trial Monday, Richman said.

“It is also consistent with Zarrab’s having already entered a guilty plea, although that is not necessarily the case,” Richman said.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim, whose office is prosecuting the case, gave no indication last week that his office has dropped the case against Zarrab.

“This case, our case, the prosecution that’s going on and we’ll start next week in the courthouse, was brought and will continue to be brought by career prosecutors, by career FBI agents and investigators,” Kim said at a press conference.
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Zimbabwe Court: Military Takeover Was Not A Coup

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeAF

The Zimbabwe High Court ruled Saturday that the military takeover that led to Robert Mugabe’s resignation was legal, a key decision since the military had insisted that its moves did not result in a coup.

The court said that the military acted to stop the takeover of Mugabe’s powers by those around him, thus ensuring that non-elected individuals do not exercise executive functions

The court’s decision comes a day after Zimbabwe’s first new leader in nearly four decades was sworn in, promising major reforms to ease the country’s long-running economic crisis.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa took office Friday in a nation left deeply scarred by 37 years of authoritarian rule by Robert Mugabe, who resigned Tuesday under intense pressure from the military and the ruling party.

In his inaugural address, Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe would attempt to pay its international debts, would loosen import restrictions, and would work to ensure Zimbabweans get easier access to hard currency — a promise that drew massive cheers in a nation where nine currencies are legal tender, but where cash is woefully scarce.

He also said he is committed to compensating farmers whose land was taken under Mugabe’s rule. Mugabe critics say the country’s controversial land-reform program, which forced experienced white commercial farmers off their property, has caused hunger in the nation once considered the breadbasket of southern Africa.

Mnangagwa will serve out the remainder of Mugabe’s term, which is slated to end in mid-2018 after elections the new president promised will be “democratic.”

“I encourage all of us to remain peaceful even as preparations for political contestations for next year’s harmonized free and fair elections gather momentum. The voice of the people is the voice of God,” the new president said Friday.

Mnangagwa also took time in his inaugural address to praise his predecessor. He called Mugabe the “father of our nation,” while also acknowledging the former president had made “errors of commission and omission.”

Mugabe remains a hero to millions for his role in freeing Zimbabwe from British colonial and white minority rule. But human rights groups have accused him of rigging elections, allowing his cronies to steal millions from the treasury and being responsible for the torture and killing of thousands of political opponents.

Mnangagwa’s inauguration culminates a dramatic turn of events for Zimbabwe. On November 5, Mnangagwa was fired from his position as Zimbabwe’s vice president amid a succession struggle with Mugabe’s wife, Grace.

He fled into exile for two weeks while the military, which has close ties to Mnangagwa, seized control of state institutions and put pressure on Mugabe to resign.

Mugabe and his wife, Grace, who were granted immunity from prosecution on Thursday, were nowhere to be found among the front row of Southern African presidents at Friday’s ceremony.

Zimbabweans packed a 60,000 seat stadium in the capital to see Mnangagwa take the oath of office. Across Harare, attendees draped themselves in Zimbabwean flags and enthusiastically applauded military and police bands.

Some attendees traveled a long ways for the ceremony, like 34-year-old Solomon Gatsa, who took a five-hour bus ride from the nation’s second city of Bulawayo. He offered the new president some simple advice.

“The first thing, he starts to change the economy,” he told VOA outside the stadium. “After that, the people need to have a job.”

Emillia Majandari, who is 35, said she was less focused on the details of his speech. She said she has only ever known one president, Mugabe, and had to see this event in person.

“I’m very excited, I wanted to see for myself, is it real?” she said. “I’m overexcited. I’m overjoyed. The joy I have — ah!”
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Head of Consumer Watchdog Names Successor, Trump Names Another

Posted on 11/25/2017 by SeeUS

The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resigned Friday and named his own successor, leading to an open conflict with President Donald Trump, who announced a different person as acting head of the agency later in the day.

That means there are now effectively two acting directors of the CFPB, when there should only be one.

Typically an acting director position would be filled according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. But Richard Cordray, along with his resignation, elevated Leandra English, who was the agency’s chief of staff, into the deputy director position.

Under the Dodd-Frank Act that created the CFPB, English would become acting director. Cordray, an Obama appointee, specifically cited the law when he moved English, a longtime CFPB employee and ally of his, into that position.

Trump appoints CFPB critic

Within a few hours, President Donald Trump announced his own acting director of the agency, Mick Mulvaney, who is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney had widely been expected to be Trump’s temporary pick for the bureau until a permanent one could be found.

Mulvaney is a long-time critic of the CFPB, and has wanted the agency’s authority significantly curtailed. So the difference between English and Mulvaney running the agency would be significant.

Senate confirmation needed

The person nominated to be director of the CFPB requires confirmation by the Senate, and it could be many weeks or months before the person would be able to step into the role permanently. Cordray’s move was aimed at allowing his favored successor to keep running the agency for as long as possible before a Trump appointee is confirmed by the Senate.

Cordray had announced earlier this month that he would resign by the end of this month. There is wide speculation that Cordray, a Democrat, is resigning in order to run for governor in his home state of Ohio.

What CFPB does

The CFPB was created as part of the laws passed following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. The agency was given a broad mandate to be a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks and credit card, student loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders. Nearly every American who deals with banks or a credit card company or has a mortgage has been affected by new rules the agency put in place.

Cordray used that mandate aggressively as its first director, which often made him a target for the banking industry’s Washington lobbyists and congressional Republicans who believed Cordray was overreaching in his role, calling the CFPB a “rogue agency.”

As director, he also was able to extract billions of dollars in settlements from banks, debt collectors and other financial services companies for wrongdoing. When Wells Fargo was found to have opened millions of phony accounts for its customers, the CFPB fined the bank $100 million, the agency’s largest penalty to date.
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