Month: July 2018

US Media: Israel Smuggled Nuclear Plans Out of Tehran

Posted on by SeeEA

Israel agents broke into an Iranian warehouse and smuggled out tens of thousands of pages and nearly 200 computer discs on Iranian plans to build a nuclear weapon, U.S. media reports say.

The New York Times first reported the story in its Sunday edition. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used these documents, in part, to urge President Donald Trump to pull the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Netanyahu also argued that Iran still intends to build atomic bombs in the future.

The Times said three U.S. reporters examined the documents last week at the invitation of the Israeli government. The newspaper said it appears Iran had always intended to build weapons despite constantly insisting its nuclear program was strictly for peaceful civilian purposes.

But The Times said it cannot independently confirm the documents are genuine, saying most of them are at least 15 years old.

The paper reported the Israelis picked out the papers they wanted the journalists to see — meaning documents that could exonerate Iran may have been left out.

Iran has called the papers fraudulent. There has been no comment so far from Israel or the United States.

The Times report said most of the smuggled information focused on Iranian efforts on mounting a nuclear warhead onto a Shahab-3 missile.

But it said those efforts slowed down considerably after 2003.  According to The Times, there is little information revealed in the documents that the former Obama administration — who negotiated the deal with Iran — and international inspectors did not already know or strongly suspect about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The six-nation nuclear agreement with Iran calls on Tehran to curb its uranium enrichment program in exchange for sanctions to be lifted or eased.

 

Despite anger over the nuclear agreement by Trump and Netanyahu, international inspectors say Iran has so far not violated the deal.

 
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Intrigue Spikes Ahead of Trump-Putin Summit

Posted on by SeeUS

Intrigue has soared to new height ahead of Monday’s summit in Helsinki between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports.
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With Summit, Helsinki Can Burnish Role as Storied Diplomatic Venue

Posted on by SeeUS

On Monday, Finland’s capital will become the venue for talks between the U.S. and Russian leaders for the fourth time since the first American-Soviet summit in Helsinki.

It was August 1975 when Moscow, represented not by Russian, but senior Soviet officials led by the general secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, Leonid Brezhnev, met with an American delegation led by the 38th U.S. president, Gerald Ford.

The so-called Helsinki Accords, resulting in the recognition of post-war European borders, saw the signing of non-binding agreements in which 35 states, including the United States, Canada, and all European states except Albania and Andorra, attempted to improve relations between communists and the West, marking the start of a process called Detente.

Fifteen years later, on September 9, 1990, the 41st U.S. president, George H. W. Bush, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev met in the Finnish capital to focus on events in the Persian Gulf. This second meeting, wrote Soviet diplomat Alexander Belonogov, “demonstrated in every possible way a high degree of agreement” which was largely unprecedented.

It was on March 21, 1997, that U.S. and Russian presidents, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin, held negotiations in Helsinki amid a more subdued atmosphere.

“American helicopters circled above the city center, and at all the events there was equipment brought in from the United States,” said Helsinki-based Nikolai Meinert, was among the journalists covering the event. “Of course the attention of local media was great, but there were practically no memorabilia: no flags, no portraits, streets were not blocked off when Clinton and Yeltsin arrived,” he told VOA.

“Yeltsin was not in very good physical condition after the summer 1996 elections and ensuing heart surgery,” he added, explaining that Yeltsin’s physical restrictions made Helsinki a convenient venue, its distinguished contemporary diplomatic history notwithstanding.

Clinton, too, found himself briefly handicapped when he broke his leg just before the summit, relegating him to a wheelchair and forcing him to cancel a solo saxophone performance he’d been invited to give at Helsinki’s “Cotton Club,” a jazz venue located in the Swedish Theater building on Boulevard Esplanadi.

Russia ultimately agreed to have former socialist nations arrange NATO accession in exchange for an invitation to become a member of the G-8.

“The situation is different now than in 1997, and even more so than in 1990,” says Jussi Lassila, a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Relations who has monitored summits since the late ’80s.

Bilateral ties fraught by disagreements over the status of Crimea and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Lassila suggested, give Helsinki President Sauli Niinisto a new chance to showcase his capital city as a prime venue for resolving tough diplomatic issues.

Part of Helsinki’s continued appeal to U.S. officials, says Arkady Moshes, senior researcher and head of the Russia and EU Program at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, is Finland’s unique standing with both Washington and Moscow.

“The choice is due to the fact that the United States does not currently perceive Finland as a country that might be predisposed towards Russia,” he said. “The United States treats Finland as a country that has equal, pragmatic and beneficial relations with both Washington and Moscow.

“Directly or indirectly, this is a success for Finnish foreign policy,” said Moshes, who interprets to the upcoming meetings as an attempt to quell U.S.-Russian diplomatic confrontation.

“Finland is a member of the European Union, and, in general, the European Union, in spite of everything, makes a number of decisions in the field of security,” he said.

“Today, Finland makes it very clear it still wants to be at the heart of the European Union,” particularly as a primary venues for addressing some of the toughest diplomatic issues on the planet.

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service.

 
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Trump Unleashes New Attacks on US Media, Democrats

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As he headed to the Helsinki summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a new attack Sunday on two of his favorite targets, the U.S. news media and opposition Democrats.

The U.S. leader contended on Twitter that the American news media “is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems know how to do is resist and obstruct. This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country – but at some point, it will heal!”

The U.S. leader said he was looking forward to meeting Putin in the Finnish capital, but said, “Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition!”

In one of a string of tweets, Trump said, “There hasn’t been a missile or rocket fired in 9 months in North Korea, there have been no nuclear tests and we got back our hostages.  Who knows how it will all turn out in the end, but why isn’t the Fake News talking about these wonderful facts?  Because it is FAKE NEWS!” 

Heaping praise on Russia

Trump congratulated France on winning the World Cup, saying it had “played extraordinary soccer.”

“Additionally, congratulations to President Putin and Russia for putting on a truly great World Cup Tournament – one of the best ever!” Trump said. 

 

Trump has feuded with the U.S. news media throughout his 18-month presidency, almost daily branding stories he doesn’t like as “fake news.”  He refused to answer a CNN reporter’s question at a Friday news conference in Britain, calling it a “fake news” network, and then pointedly calling on a reporter from his favorite cable television channel, Fox News, describing it as a “real network.”

During the weekend, the White House withdrew an appearance by Trump national security adviser John Bolton from a CNN interview show Sunday, after he had already accepted an invitation.

Trump has routinely assailed Democratic lawmakers for failing to support his legislative agenda.  But it has often has been recalcitrant Republican colleagues of Trump who have cast decisive votes against key measures he supported to overhaul national health care and immigration policies, dooming the legislation.

 
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Anxiety in Estonia as Trump, Putin to Meet

Posted on by SeeUS

As the ferries from Finland approach Tallinn, the first prominent landmark looming port side is a 314-meter high television tower.  It is Estonia’s tallest building, but its prominence as a landmark exceeds mere elevation.

The Soviet-era tower played a key role in Estonia establishing independence in 1991.

As army tanks rolled to seize the tower, intent on preventing the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonians surrounded the structure with trucks and formed human shields.  At the top of the tower two Estonian police officers are said to have repulsed Soviet soldiers by threatening to release Freon gas they claimed would have killed everyone inside.

The soldiers hesitated and that evening, on August 20, Estonia declared itself an independent republic.

Since then the smallest Baltic state, with a population of just 1.3 million, has joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.  But on the eve of the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, some Estonians say despite the geo-political insurance policies NATO and the EU provide they are again feeling vulnerable.

Outside the Tuum Cafe and Bar in Freedom Square on a warm and sunny Sunday, friends find themselves discussing what the next day’s meeting – 100 kilometers north across the sea in Finland – will mean for their country.

“I’m worried,” says sales manager Mehis Nurmetalu.

Feeling ‘vulnerable’

The 42-year-old veteran of the Estonian Defense Forces says he trusts neither Trump nor Putin as leaders of two powerful nations to negotiate in a way that will be in his small country’s best interest.

“Our neighbor (Russia) is very active and there are still no solutions about Crimea, Ukraine, Syria – the Middle East,” he notes. 

All of the Baltic and Scandinavian states, could be in play as well, adds Nurmetalu.

Another former Estonian Defense Forces soldier – who prior to that served in the Soviet Red Army in Afghanistan – says he prefers Trump’s approach to predecessor Barack Obama’s, praising his pressuring of NATO members to spend more on their militaries.

The veteran, who does not want to give his name because of the sensitive nature of his past military service, favors the dialogue between Trump and Putin,  but says despite the American president’s direct rhetoric, “We don’t know what he is really thinking.”

The military veteran stresses that while Estonians like Russian people and culture, they never again want to be controlled by Moscow. 

To Estonia’s younger generation, born after independence, it is only something they know from their history books or their parents.

High school student Getter Kitsing, 16, who aspires to be an actor or media photographer, says her parents worry that it is starting to feel like old times again.

Estonia “is vulnerable,” she says.  “When I think of all the things happening in the EU and NATO, I’m starting to think that while Estonia is still a safe place, it might not be in the future.” 

Of Monday’s summit, she expresses distrust of both Trump and Putin.

“Maybe it helps make things better, but what comes out of it might not be very good,” says the student.  “I think Trump is very childish.  He just throws words out of his mouth and doesn’t think about them.  Putin is more sophisticated, a grown-up.”
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Syrian Government Targets Rebels Near Israel-Occupied Golan

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Syrian government forces unleashed hundreds of missiles on a rebel-held area near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, the latest phase in an offensive to end the insurgents’ presence in southern Syria.

The government’s push came after it had secured control of most of Daraa province in an offensive that began in June. On Sunday, the first batch of armed fighters and their families were preparing to leave from the city of Daraa, the provincial capital, in buses that would take them to the rebel-held Idlib province in the north.

 

Similar deals in other parts of Syria resulted in the evacuation of thousands of opposition fighters and civilians _ evacuations that the United Nations and rights groups have decried as forced.

 

In Daraa, the deal will hand over areas that have been held by the rebels for years back to government control. Daraa, which lies on a highway linking Damascus with Jordan, is the cradle of the 2011 uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

 

Since early Sunday, government forces turned their missiles toward a stretch of land controlled by the armed opposition in northern Daraa and the countryside of adjacent Quneitra.

 

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces fired more than 800 missiles at an area between northern Daraa and Quneitra countryside, about 4 kilometers or 2.5 miles from the frontier with the Golan Heights.

The Observatory said government forces advanced on Massharah, a village in Quneitra countryside while the rebels fought back in intense clashes that killed several pro-government fighters. The pro-Syrian government Central Military Media said a number of insurgents were killed in the clashes.

 

The Observatory reported airstrikes in Massharah, the first in over a year to hit Quneitra countryside. It also reported airstrikes in a nearby village in northern Daraa, where the government has been seeking to recapture a key hill in the area after failing to reach a deal with the rebels there. Capturing the hill would enable Syrian forces to move against militants linked to the Islamic State group.

 

Daraa activist Abou Mahmoud Hourani said an estimated 400 members of the armed opposition and their families will be evacuated out of Daraa. The Syria state TV al-Ikhbariya said the evacuation of nearly 1,000 persons is likely to be completed on Sunday.
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Palestinian Militants Declare Cease-Fire in Gaza

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Palestinian militants have declared a cease-fire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Fighting has tapered off in Gaza, following Israel’s heaviest air strikes on Palestinian militants since the Gaza War four years ago. Hamas and Islamic Jihad declared a truce, after firing dozens of rockets and mortars across the Israeli border.

Israeli warplanes attacked more than 40 Hamas targets Saturday, including tunnels, weapons depots and training bases. The military said the air raids were in retaliation for more than three months of Palestinian violence on the Gaza frontier, including burning kites that have destroyed vast areas of Israeli farmland and forests.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel dealt a severe blow to Hamas.

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he hopes that Hamas got the message, and if not, Israel is prepared for further military action.

Militants in Gaza say the ball is in Israel’s court.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Daoud Shihab said the Palestinians do not want war, but he warned that armed groups are prepared to defend themselves if Israel launches more attacks.

Months of violence have raised fears that Israel and Hamas could be headed for the fourth Gaza war in a decade. The popular assessment on both sides of the border is that the cease-fire is just a timeout until the next round of conflict.
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Obama in Ancestral Home Kenya to Launch Sister’s Project

Posted on by SeeAF

Former U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Kenya, the country of his father’s birth, for a private visit, his first to this country since leaving office.

Obama is in Kenya to help launch his half-sister’s, Auma Obama, sports, vocational training and resource center through her foundation Sauti Kuu.

This visit is expected to be low key in the capital Nairobi unlike his previous visits where he electrified hundreds of Kenyans who lined the streets to see him as a senator in 2006 and then as president 2015.

 

Many Kenyans consider Obama native to this country – a local kid made good – and bask in the glory of his success, despite the fact that Obama never lived in Africa. He was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood.
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Casualties Reported After Iraqi Security Forces Fire on Protesters

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Iraqi media reports a number of protesters were killed after security forces stormed a sit-in camp Sunday in front of provincial council headquarters in the southern port city of Basra.  Iraq’s prime minister has has vowed to increase government spending in Basra to improve public services and increase job opportunities for young people.  

Protesters shouted and screamed as armed Iraqi forces fired at them to disperse protests in Basra.  Amateur video appeared to show protesters falling to the ground after being shot.  Iraqi officials claimed security forces had fired into the air to disperse the protesters.

One protester claimed forces loyal to pro-Iranian Shi’ite militia commander Hadi al Amari had fired at the crowd.

Government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said the government is investigating.

He says it has not been confirmed Shi’ite militiamen fired on the protesters, but government security forces were in a state of full alert to protect the demonstrators.

Arab media showed video of the headquarters of mostly Shi’ite political parties that were ransacked and burned by protesters during the past 48 hours.  Shi’ite parties are vying for control of the next Iraqi government, following disputed parliamentary elections.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of several mostly shi’ite cities in southern Iraq to demand improved public services, such as water and electricity.  Frequent power outages amid an intense summer heat have left many angry and disenchanted.

Hadithi claims low oil prices have exacerbated the economic crisis, forcing government cutbacks in services.  

Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi told local dignitaries the government would step up spending on the region.

He says rebuilding the country takes time and that it is not possible to move from a state of war against the Islamic State group to a position of complete focus on public services in a heart-beat.  

Local leaders like Sheikh Mansour Tamimi told a news conference the problem is not lack of money, but government corruption.

He says current and former Iraqi officials, from provincial council members to government ministers, are all corrupt and must be punished.  

Iraqi media reported the government imposed a curfew on Basra province and security forces were on high alert in Najaf and Karbala, where protesters attacked government buildings.  Internet outages were also reported across much of the region.  

 

 
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Protests in Southern Iraq to Demand Better Services, Jobs

Posted on by SeeEA

Iraqis demanding better public services and jobs took to the streets again on Sunday in the southern oil-rich province of Basra, as authorities put security forces on high alert and blocked internet on the sixth day of protests in the country’s Shiite heartland.

The protests come at a delicate time as Iraq is in a limbo of sorts, awaiting the final results of a recount of the ballots from May’s national elections before a new government can be formed. The elections, the fourth since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, saw the lowest touronaut in 15 years and were married with allegations of fraud and irregularities.

Thousands of protesters gathered outside the local government building and closed the roads leading to major oil fields north and west of the city of Basra on Sunday, activist Laith Hussein told The Associated Press over the phone.

Security forces guarding the local government building opened fire, causing some protesters to scatter away, he added.

Elsewhere in Basra, protesters also forced authorities to close the vital Um Qasr port on the Persian Gulf, and planned to march to the border crossings with Kuwait and Iran, he said.

On Saturday night, a group of protesters tried to break into the headquarters of Badr Organization, one of the powerful Shiite parties, which also has an armed wing, but the guards opened fire, wounding some of the protesters, Hussein said.

He could not confirm whether there were fatalities from either of the incidents. Health and police officials were not immediately available to comment.

Around noon, Basra anti-riot police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters, said Sadiq Saleh, one of the demonstrators.

“I will not leave my place here until I get all my rights,” said the 35-year-old who has been out of work for the past three years. “The government lies to us, they always give us such promises and we get nothing.”

There were also similar protests on Saturday in Baghdad. Hundreds poured into Baghdad’s Tahrir Square and the eastern Shiite district of Sadr City. Some protesters set tires on fire and tried to break into the Badr Organization’s office in Sadr City, prompting guards to open fire. No casualties were reported.

Protests in Basra boiled over on Tuesday, when security forces opened fire, killing one person and wounding five people, and spread to other provinces within days. Angry mobs broke into local government buildings and burned the offices of some political parties in some cities.

In Najaf, the protesters broke into Iraq’s second-busiest airport, causing damages to the passenger terminal and delaying fights.

Citing security concerns, Kuwait Airways and the Royal Jordanian suspended their flights to Najaf until further notice. Flights to other Iraqi airports have not been affected, they said. Also, FlyDubai, based in the United Arab Emirates, said it cancelled Saturday’s flight to Najaf and suspended all flights until July 22. It added the carrier will continue to monitor the situation.

In a bid to contain the protests, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi dispatched a six-minister committee headed by the oil minister, Jabar Ali al-Luaibi. The committee promised jobs for those living in the areas around the oil fields and announced allocations for urgent projects, mainly for water.

On Friday, al-Abadi flew to Basra from the NATO summit in Brussels to try to diffuse the unrest. He also asked the state-run Basra Oil Company to provide more jobs to locals and announced urgent allocations.

But that didn’t assuage the protesters.

“These announcements are just anesthetization to the residents of Basra,” Hussein, the activist, said. “Every year, they give the same promises, and nothing happened on the ground.”

The only solution is “to replace the current faces that represent the parties that failed to develop Basra by new faces from new political parties from Basra itself,” he also said.

Like others, Hussein demanded Baghdad give more powers to a new, local Basra government.

The demonstrations were given a boost after a representative of the Shiite community’s spiritual leader, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, offered his solidarity with the protesters during Friday sermon, but called for peaceful demonstrations.

Basra is Iraq’s second-largest province and home to about 70 percent of the country’s proven oil reserves of 153.1 billion barrels. It is located on the Persian Gulf bordering Kuwait and Iran, and is Iraq’s only hub for all oil exports nowadays to the international market.
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Trump to May: ‘Sue the EU’

Posted on by SeeEU

U.S. President Donald Trump advised British Prime Minister Theresa May to sue the European Union instead of negotiating with the bloc, as part of her Brexit strategy.

 

“He told me I should sue the EU,” May told BBC television. “Sue the EU. Not go into negotiations — sue them.”

Her revelation about how Trump advised her ended several days of speculation about what advice the U.S. leader had offered the prime minister.

Trump said last week in an interview with The Sun newspaper that he had given May advice, but she did not follow it. The president told the newspaper ahead of his meeting with May that she “didn’t listen” to him.

“I would have done it much differently. I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me. She wanted to go a different route,” Trump said.

Trump did not reveal what advice he offered May in a press conference with her Friday. Instead, he said, “I think she found it too brutal.”

He added, “I could fully understand why she thought it was tough. And maybe someday she’ll do that. If they don’t make the right deal, she may do what I suggested, but it’s not an easy thing.”

May also told the BBC that the president had advised her not to walk away from the negotiations “because then you’re stuck.”

For the past few months, British politics have been obscured by squabbling, irritability and bravado about how, when and on what terms Britain will exit the European Union, and what the country’s relationship will be with its largest trading partner after Brexit.

Britons narrowly voted to leave the EU in a referendum in June 2016.

 

 
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HRW: Egypt Uses Counterterrorism Laws to Prosecute Critics

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A human rights watchdog says Egyptian authorities “are increasingly using counterterrorism and state-of-emergency laws and courts to unjustly prosecute journalists, activists, and critics for their peaceful criticism.”

Human Rights Watch said Sunday the abusive practices and distortion of counterterrorism measures happened while Egypt was chairing “one of the key United Nations committees to ensure compliance with counterterrorism resolutions and while the U.N.’s most senior counterterrorism official was visiting the country.”

Nadim Houry, HRW’s terrorism/counterterrorism director, said “While Egypt faces security threats, the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has exploited these threats cynically as a cover to prosecute peaceful critics and to revive the infamous Mubarak-era state security courts.”

The watchdog says before the presidential election in March the Egyptian police and National Security Agency forces carried out a “wave of arrests of critics” of the president. After the election the arrests continued with the detention of prominent activists and journalists under Egypt’s 2015 counterterrorism law. HRW says the law “criminalizes a wide range of acts, including publishing or promoting news about terrorism, if it contradicts official statements.”

Some cases, according to the human rights group, have been transferred to the Emergency State Security Courts that the government claims are being used only against terrorists and drug traffickers. These courts, however, do not guarantee a fair trial and their decisions are not subject to appeal, HRW reports.
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Syria, Arms Control Likely to Figure Prominently at Helsinki Summit

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As the 2018 World Cup reached its climax Sunday, no one could draw more satisfaction from the tournament than Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The mega sporting event, which Putin personally lobbied to secure for Russia, has allowed the Kremlin to burnish the country’s image abroad, say analysts and even Putin’s domestic critics.

And Monday the Russian leader will once again be center stage with a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, ending in some ways the international ostracism the Russian leader has faced since his forcible annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Monday’s meeting in Helsinki for the first face-to-face summit between the leaders of the World’s two biggest nuclear-armed nations has been a hastily-pulled together encounter. European leaders are apprehensive about what may come out of it, fearing Trump may bank too much on personal chemistry and gloss over substance. Former U.S. government officials worry there’s been too little preparatory work by the White House ahead of the high-stakes sit-down.

Both U.S. and Russian diplomats have been playing down expectations for the four-hour summit in the Finnish capital, which will include a lengthy one-on-one discussion between the two leaders, saying they expect no breakthroughs on contentious issues — including on accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential race.

No set agenda

With no set formal agenda, President Trump has suggested the encounter is more about breaking the ice between the two men, who have met briefly twice before on the sidelines of international summits, than anything else. He told reporters last week that he’s going into the meeting “not looking for so much.”

And that is what America’s European allies and some former U.S. officials, who have publicly expressed doubts about the wisdom of holding the summit, hope is the end result, too — namely, nothing much.

They have expressed fears that Trump, who last week berated NATO allies, and hinted unless they increased their defense spending rapidly, he’d consider pulling the U.S. out of the nearly 70-year-old security alliance, will be lured by the more experienced summiteer Vladimir Putin into offering concessions — possibly agreeing to lift sanctions imposed on Russia for the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.

Some media commentators have suggested Trump might even agree to recognize formally the annexation — predictions the freewheeling U.S. President prompted after telling reporters on Air Force One on June 29 that he might consider doing so. “We’re going to have to see,” Trump said.

Crimea

In June, too, at an ill-tempered G-7 summit in Quebec, Trump reportedly told other Western leaders — possibly to shake them up — that Crimea might as well belong to Russia because most people living there speak Russian.

The White House, though, has firmly denied that Crimea’s status is up for grabs.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a July 3 press briefing in Washington: “We do not recognize Russia’s attempt to annex Crimea.” She added: “sanctions against Russia remain in place until Russia returns the peninsula to the Ukraine.”

And Ukraine’s President, Petro Poroshenko, who met with Trump for 20 minutes during last week’s NATO meeting, has discounted Trump offering any concessions on Crimea, saying he’s satisfied with the assurances he got from the U.S. President.

He told France 24 that he’s certain Trump won’t negotiate about Crimea during his meeting with Putin.

So what will the two men talk about in Helsinki? Trump has declared no issue off the table. And in the past few days he has reiterated his desire to establish warm relations with Putin, saying he doesn’t see him as an enemy but as a competitor, who might one day become a friend.

European concerns

But it is remarks like that which are prompting European apprehension and the alarm especially not only of the British, French and Germans but also Baltic and Polish leaders. They view Putin’s Kremlin as an implacable foe, one determined to sow divisions in the West, drive a wedge between America and Europe and to reassert Russian influence over Central Europe.

Trump’s position is that dialogue is important. The U.S. leader has said in the past that “getting along with Russia [and others] is a good thing, not a bad thing” to explain why he wants to improve relations with Moscow. And his ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman, has pressed the importance of channels of communication being open between Washington and Moscow, saying not to talk would be irresponsible.

Tense relations

Not since the Cold War have relations between the West and Moscow been so fraught with clashes over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its pro-separatist operations in eastern Ukraine, as well as its military intervention in Syria. There are also ongoing disputes over nuclear arms treaties, NATO policy, and cybersecurity.

On Saturday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov seemed to echo Washington’s position — that the summit is about initiating U.S.-Russian dialogue. “The ideal outcome would be to agree to engage all the channels on all divisive issues…and also on those issues where we can already usefully cooperate,” he said.

Lavrov also said Putin is “ready to answer any questions” about the alleged involvement of Russian military intelligence officers in the hacking of Democratic Party computers in 2016. His comment came less than 24 hours after the U.S. Justice Department issued criminal indictments of a dozen Russians for interfering in U.S. politics.

Trump’s domestic foes fault him for shying away from criticizing Putin personally, arguing it gives credence to claims made by a former British spy that the Kremlin holds compromising information on the U.S. president. Trump has angrily dismissed the claims.

Russian officials say Putin has no intention of raising Ukraine and Crime. But it seems clear that NATO will come up. Lavrov pointedly criticized Saturday NATO expansion, saying it was “swallowing countries” near Russia’s borders. “Today we have common threats, common enemies. Terrorism, climate change, organized crime, drug trafficking. None of this is being effectively addressed by NATO expansion.”

European officials worry that Putin will seek to exploit disunity within NATO days after last week’s contentious summit in which President Trump clashed repeatedly with European leaders, shaking them up with demands for defense spending hikes beyond previously agreed targets.

European officials worry Trump may during his meeting with Putin offer to axe planned NATO war games in Baltic in a gesture of goodwill. On Thursday, the U.S. President said: “Well, perhaps we’ll talk about that.” In June, Trump shocked South Korea and Japan by telling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their meeting in Singapore that he would pause joint military exercises.

Mideast

U.S. and Russian officials say Syria will figure prominently in the discussions between Trump and Putin— including ways to wind down the multi-sided conflict in the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Putin in Moscow last week for talks focusing on the Iranian presence in Syria, prompting speculation that he was laying the groundwork for the Russian leader and Trump to reach a deal that would see the withdrawal of Iranian forces and their proxy Hezbollah militia from areas bordering Israel.

Netanyahu told his Cabinet Sunday that he had spoken by phone with Trump on Saturday to discuss Syria and Iran. The prime minister said Trump reaffirmed his commitment to Israel.

But it is arms control that’s likely to prove the most fruitful issue for the two leaders. Despite the Cold War-style strains between the U.S. and Russia, the two countries met a February verification deadline required by the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which among other things requires both countries to limit their deployed strategic nuclear warheads and bombs to 1,550 apiece. U.S. ambassador Huntsman told VOA in April that he saw the meeting of the deadline as “a kind of opening,” adding he hoped it would lead to broader discussions on nuclear arms control, something he believes can be built on to help improve U.S.-Russia relations.
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With Trump-Putin Summit, Russia Eyes Return to Global Power Status

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As Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares for his first one-on-one summit with President Donald Trump in Helsinki this week, Russian political observers said Kremlin expectations are low but for one key issue: Russia’s symbolic return from international isolation to global powerbroker.

Ahead of the summit, President Trump — after a contentious week of meetings with traditional U.S. allies in Brussels and London — has suggested his talks with the Russian leader “may be the easiest of them all.”

Yet, Russian analysts warn that Trump will be faced with a shrewd negotiator whose arguments have been well-honed during his 18-year reign of power.

“For Putin, there’s always a way to repeat what he’s always said: ‘Russia has never done anything wrong. Russia does not have to improve or change anything,’” said Maria Lipman, Moscow-based editor of Counterpoint, a journal published by the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University. 

“If America wants to change its policy, we welcome that. We have nothing to regret, nothing to correct,” she added, describing the Kremlin’s view in recent years.

Relations turnaround

The Helsinki summit comes amid a political fallout in often-contentious relations that nosedived over Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and further eroded over allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Russia’s actions in east Ukraine, Syria, and allegations the Kremlin may be responsible for the poisoning of a former Russian spy — and the related death of a British national just last week from a Russian-made nerve agent on British soil — has only exacerbated the distrust.

In the face of Kremlin denials, the Trump White House has nonetheless expelled dozens of Russian diplomats and ratcheted up sanctions, moves that have led Trump to claim “no one has been tougher on Russia than I have.” 

Yet those penalties have often clashed with Trump’s oft-stated desire to improve relations with Moscow.  It was Trump, observers note, who sent emissaries to Moscow to negotiate the summit with Putin on short notice. 

Adding further intrigue, a federal investigation revealing the Trump campaign’s ties to Russian government surrogates amid his election to the White House in 2016.    

Both Trump loyalists and the Kremlin have adamantly denied wrongdoing.

Optics, for now

Given that backdrop, Kremlin officials have joined the White House in setting the bar low for the upcoming summit.

“Putin does not expect too much from the summit from a practical point of view,” said Nadezhda Arbatova, a foreign policy specialist with the Institute for World Economy and International Relations in Moscow. “But the summit is important for Moscow, since it will be viewed as a recognition of Russia’s great power status.”

Less clear is what the two sides have to offer one another beyond platitudes aimed at better relations. 

“There can be a compromise on Syria, if Russia agrees to American requirements in exchange for preserving (Syrian leader Bashar) al-Assad at his current position,” Arbatova said. 

“As for Ukraine, no compromise is visible for the time being, since President Trump cannot lift sanctions while bypassing Congress,” she noted. 

Officials on both sides have hinted at a possible deal on arms control, a goal both Trump and Putin have endorsed without mentioning specifics. 

One thing that Kremlin officials don’t put much stock in: Trump’s tweet diplomacy, which has shown passing support for pro-Russian positions on everything from sanctions relief to recognizing Crimea as Russian territory. 

“By now, there was quite enough evidence for Russia to realize that what Trump says should be taken with a grain of salt, to say the least,” Lipman said. 

“I think everyone realizes that it cannot be taken as his intentions or U.S. policies, or even a declaration of intentions,” she said.

What Russians want

Key to Putin’s negotiating tactics: an insistence that Russia is no longer subject to American demands or pressure. 

Yet some analysts argue that it is Russian public opinion that presents its own restraints on Putin. 

“With Putin, there is no direct accountability, but policies are settled on what public opinion allows the government and Putin to do,” said Denis Volkov, a researcher at Levada Center, a leading independent polling research agency in Moscow. 

A recent study co-authored by Volkov and the Moscow Carnegie Center showed Russians support their president’s combative stance with the West, while simultaneously are eager to lessen hostilities.

“People are getting tired of foreign policy, Putin’s foreign agenda. They want the state to spend more resources at home,” Volkov said. “The view of the majority is that we help other countries too much, spend on other countries too much, and it is time to spend more money at home.”   

In other words, a Russian mirror of Trump’s own “American First” platform, where threats and largesse are doled out in pursuit of deals in the national interest. 

“It’s not the case that Putin’s only legitimacy comes from confrontation,” Volkov said. “Legitimacy also comes from cooperation, if it’s done in the proper way.” 
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Deepening Military Ties Solidify China’s Ambitions in Africa

Posted on by SeeAF

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles looking at Chinese involvement in Africa.

Since late June, top military officials from Mali, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and dozens of other African countries have gathered to discuss defense strategies and security threats.

The meeting didn’t take place in a major African city, but thousands of kilometers away, in Beijing, China.

The occasion was the inaugural China-Africa Defense and Security Forum, a high-profile showcase of expanding military partnerships hosted by China’s Ministry of National Defense.

The forum, which concluded July 11, solidifies China’s standing as a key security partner for Africa and coincides with a raft of economic and political moves that have deepened its involvement across the continent.

Ideology, economics, politics

Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center who focuses on China-Africa relations and security, told VOA that China’s military involvement in Africa blends ideology, economics and politics.

China’s presence on the continent dates back to the liberation struggles of the 1960s, when it supported anti-colonial and anti-apartheid movements in South Africa, Algeria, Sudan and other countries based on what Nantulya called “ideological concerns.”

When former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping came to power in the late 1970s, unprecedented reforms set the stage for China’s ascent as an economic powerhouse.

China’s new global posture influenced its engagement in Africa, Nantulya said, bringing economic and political layers to relationships that had previously been one-dimensional.

“The military engagement that China has on the continent has become much more complex than merely just an extension of its ideological concerns,” Nantulya said.

“Increasingly, we’re also beginning to see military-to-military exchanges between African countries and China, and these exchanges cover a whole range of issues, from peacekeeping to disaster response, to military building, army building, professional military education,” he added. “So, it’s a much bigger portfolio.”

Clear goals

African military officials at the defense forum told CGTV, a Chinese state-run broadcaster, that they have well-defined expectations of their partnerships with China.

“What we require from China, which is made very clear, is for them to provide us with the partnership, with the support, with the expertise, with the technical capability, with the capacity-building, with infrastructure, for us to be able to do the job ourselves,” said Lt. Gen. Masanneh Nyuku Kinteh of the Gambia Armed Forces.

But if African nations see in China a strategic partner, China sees, at least in part, potential customers. That’s because China is a major player in the global weapons supply chain, Nantulya said, and it’s looking for markets.

Chinese manufacturers have used their growing presence in Africa, along with generous government subsidies, to produce military hardware that’s both cheaper and easier to maintain than their competitors.

Whereas Western countries focus on heavy hardware — jets, tanks, rockets — China’s source of income has long been small arms, including pistols and AK-47 assault rifles, Nantulya said.

They sell these, along with ammunition, bullet-proof armor and unmanned aerial vehicles, not just to African militaries but also to police and intelligence forces.

One example of a close arms relationship is with Sudan, a country whose military industry China helped develop. Algeria, Mozambique and Zimbabwe also import many Chinese arms. And that portfolio is becoming more diverse, including tank deals and accompanying technical training with South Sudan and Uganda, Nantulya said.

Party-to-party

China’s military engagements span the continent, from traditional partners such as Angola, Libya and Tanzania, to more recent relationships with Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

In each case, China seeks to strengthen its military-to-military connections with party-to-party ties, Nantulya said. “China invites officials of these ruling parties in these different countries to Beijing. This is a program that is run by the [Central] Party School,” he added, referring to the institution that trains officials for the country’s Communist Party.

Through this year-round program, China promotes its ideologies and large-scale initiatives, combining political propaganda with defense strategy and tactics.

One example in which many saw Chinese political and security interests mesh was the abrupt fall from power last November of Robert Mugabe, who had led Zimbabwe for 37 years. Many analysts suspected that China played a role in what some considered a military coup.

A visit by Constantino Chiwenga, then the chief of the military, to Beijing days before Mugabe was put under house arrest stoked those rumors. Shortly after Zimbabwe’s military seized control, Geng Shuang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told Reuters that the visit “was a normal military exchange.”

Chiwenga now serves as Zimbabwe’s vice president.

‘Cult of defense’

China casts itself as a different kind of partner for African countries eager to see their sovereignty respected. Rather than make development aid contingent on political reforms or project overt military power, China pursues its security goals indirectly.

One venue that’s served as a springboard to a deepening military presence is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s trillion-dollar global development program, which has been the backdrop for many of China’s emerging relationships in Africa.

The BRI projects — railways, dams, ports and a sprawling new free-trade zone in Djibouti — have the potential to accelerate Africa’s industrialization. In many cases, they also entail an ongoing Chinese presence and an investment that needs protecting.

“This is a huge — a massive — footprint,” Nantulya said. “And so China is coordinating its military approach to be able to secure some of those interests.”

China has also become more involved in peacekeeping missions to expand its military footprint.

“They’ve been much more willing to deploy peacekeepers in places like … Darfur, South Sudan. They’ve been much more willing to take those kinds of risks. But those kinds of risks also come with demands,” Nantulya said.

No-strings-attached engagement without political preconditions has, so far, been an effective strategy for China. But it has also restricted the moves China can make and how it presents itself to prospective partners.

“China has been captive to what one would call a ‘cult of defense,'” Nantulya said.

That would preclude making pre-emptive strikes or other overt shows of power. China considers its base in Djibouti, for example, a “logistics facility.” 

But China is part of an elite group of countries that have such overseas bases. And at least one stipulation accompanies all its deals: Countries must sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a country that China considers its own territory.

Equal partner?

To build solidarity, China presents itself as a developing country on par with partners in South Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Maj. Gen. Ibrahima Dahirou Dembele from Mali highlighted shared interests at the Defense Forum, saying, “We are close to China both culturally and historically, and in facing challenges.”

But the size of China’s economy surpasses all of Africa combined, and a recent report by The New York Times on a port transfer in Sri Lanka shows that China can be an aggressive strategic partner. 

In the past decade, China has embraced a more assertive stance around the world, Nantulya said. That’s evident in its intelligence, defense and security strategies, and embedded in its foreign policy.

But China’s “equal partner” narrative has endured.

During a Defense and Security Forum speech that aired on CGTV, Wei Fenghe, China’s national defense minister, said, “China and Africa’s countries are developing nations. It’s truly fair to say that we are for a community of shared future.”

It’s a sentiment that recalls China’s ideologically driven involvement on the continent in the 1960s and continues to resonate, despite ambitions that have become far bigger and more complex.
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May Warns Party: Back Me or Risk ‘No Brexit at All’

Posted on by SeeEU

British Prime Minister Theresa May warned her divided party Sunday that there may be “no Brexit at all” if they wrecked her plan to forge a close relationship with the European Union after leaving the world’s biggest trading bloc.

“My message to the country this weekend is simple: We need to keep our eyes on the prize,” May wrote on Facebook. “If we don’t, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all.”

Linking the fate of Brexit to her own survival in such an explicit way indicates just how precarious May’s position remains after her government was thrust into crisis and U.S. President Donald Trump publicly criticized her Brexit strategy.

With less than nine months to go before the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the EU, March 29, 2019, the country, the political elite and business leaders are still deeply divided over whether Brexit should take place and, if so, how.

​No deal with EU yet

May doesn’t yet have a Brexit deal with the EU, so the British government has stepped up planning for a so called “no deal” Brexit that could spook financial markets and dislocate trade flows across Europe and beyond.

May has repeatedly said Brexit will happen and has ruled out a rerun of the 2016 referendum, although French President Emmanuel Macron and billionaire investor George Soros have suggested that Britain could still change its mind.

In an attempt to forge a balance between those seeking a smooth Brexit and those who fear staying too close to the EU’s orbit would undermine the very nature of Brexit, May sought the approval of senior ministers for her plans July 6.

After hours of talks at her Chequers country residence she appeared to have won over her Cabinet, but just two days later David Davis resigned as Brexit secretary, followed by her foreign minister, Boris Johnson, the next day.

May called on Sunday for the country to back her plan for “friction-free movement of goods,” saying it was the only option to avoid undermining the peace in Northern Ireland and preserving the unity of the United Kingdom.

Johnson’s moment?

Davis, writing in the Sunday Times, said it was an “astonishingly dishonest claim” to say there is no worked-out alternative to May’s plan. He said her plan would allow EU regulations to harm British manufacturers.

“Be in no doubt: under the government’s proposal our fingers would still be caught in this mangle and the EU would use it ruthlessly to punish us for leaving and handicap our future competitiveness,” Davis said.

Steve Baker, a senior lawmaker who served as a deputy to Davis in the Brexit ministry before resigning with his boss, said May had presided over a “cloak and dagger” plot to undermine Brexit.

May’s position was further undermined by Trump who said in an interview published in Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper Friday that her proposals would probably kill off any chance of a post-Brexit trade deal with the world’s biggest economy.

Though Trump later contradicted his comments by then promising a great U.S. trade deal, the president made clear his admiration for the 54-year-old Johnson, who Trump said would one day make a great British prime minister.

Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser, was even quoted by Britain’s Daily Telegraph as saying that it was now time for Johnson to challenge May for her job.

“Now is the moment,” The Telegraph quoted Bannon, Trump’s former strategist and a key player in his 2016 election campaign, as saying. “If Boris Johnson looks at this. … There comes an inflection point, the Chequers deal was an inflection point, we will have to see what happens,” Bannon said.

Brexit test for May

Johnson, the face of the Brexit campaign for many has remained silent in public since he warned in his resignation letter July 9 that the “Brexit dream” was being suffocated by needless self-doubt.

The Telegraph newspaper said Johnson had re-joined the newspaper as a columnist.

The extent of divisions within May’s Conservative Party over Brexit will become clearer over the course of two debates in parliament over coming days.

Pro-Brexit lawmakers are expected to use a debate Monday on customs legislation to try to force her to harden up her Brexit plan, while a debate on trade Tuesday will see pro-EU lawmakers push for even closer ties with the bloc.

Brexiteer rebels are unlikely to have enough support in parliament to win a vote, but the debate will show how many in May’s party are prepared to vote against her at a time when some are looking to gather the necessary numbers to challenge her leadership.
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UN: Afghan War Inflicts Record Civilian Deaths 

Posted on by SeeUS

The United Nations says the conflict in Afghanistan killed nearly 1,700 civilians in the first six months of 2018, the highest number recorded at any comparable time over the last decade.

The midyear report on civilian casualties released by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Sunday documented close to 3,500 injured civilians in the same period.

“We urge parties to seize all opportunities to find a peaceful settlement – this is the best way that they can protect all civilians,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, who is head of UNAMA.
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150-Year-Old Organ in NYC in Danger of Falling Silent

Posted on by SeeUS

At more than a century old, a giant pipe organ in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral has been played during thousands of Masses, weddings and funerals. Although the organ still works, it may soon fall silent forever. Elena Wolf has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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What Fat Dogs May Tell Us About Overweight Humans

Posted on by SeeEU

Fat dogs may have more in common with obese humans than we think. Hungarian researchers have discovered that overweight dogs were interested only in top quality food and would not settle for second best. The study suggests that dogs could be used as models into the causes and psychological impact of human obesity. VOA’s Deborah Block has a report.
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Indictment Undercuts Assange on Source of Hacked Emails

Posted on by SeeUS

At the beginning of 2017, one of Julian Assange’s biggest media boosters traveled to the WikiLeaks founder’s refuge inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and asked him where he got the leaks that shook up the U.S. presidential election months earlier.

Fox News host Sean Hannity pointed straight to the purloined emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

“Can you say to the American people, unequivocally, that you did not get this information about the DNC, John Podesta’s emails, can you tell the American people 1,000 percent you did not get it from Russia or anybody associated with Russia?”

“Yes,” Assange said. “We can say — we have said repeatedly — over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party.”

12 Russians indicted

The Justice Department’s indictment Friday of 12 Russian military intelligence officers undermines those denials. And if the criminal charges are proved, it would show that WikiLeaks (referred to as “Organization 1” in the indictment) received the material from Guccifer 2.0, a persona directly controlled by Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, also known as GRU, and even gave the Russian hackers advice on how to disseminate it.

Whether Assange knew that those behind Guccifer 2.0 were Russian agents is not addressed in the indictment. But it seems unlikely that Assange, a former hacker who once boasted of having compromised U.S. military networks himself, could have missed the extensive coverage blaming the Kremlin for the DNC hack.

Assange told Hannity he exercised exclusive control over WikiLeaks’ releases.

“There is one person in the world, and I think it’s actually only one, who knows exactly what’s going on with our publications and that’s me,” Assange said.

Timeline

On June 22, 2016, by which point the online publication Motherboard had already debunked Guccifer 2.0’s claim to be a lone Romanian hacker, WikiLeaks sent a typo-ridden message to the persona, saying that releasing the material through WikiLeaks would have “a much higher impact than what you are doing,” the indictment states.

“If you have anything hillary related we want it in the next (two) days pref(er)able because the DNC is approaching and she will solidify bernie supporters behind her after,” says a message from July 6, 2016, referring to the upcoming Democratic National Convention and Clinton’s chief party rival, Bernie Sanders.

The exchange appears to point to a desire to undercut Clinton by playing up divisions within the Democratic camp.

“we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary … so conflict between bernie and hillary is interesting,” the message says.

At that time in the campaign, there were simmering tensions between the supporters of Clinton and Sanders that would come to a head during the convention because of the hacked emails.

WikiLeaks and a lawyer for Assange, Melinda Taylor, did not return messages seeking comment on the indictment or the exchanges with Guccifer 2.0.

Reporter told to butt out

Assange’s eagerness to get his hands on the alleged material from GRU reflected in the indictment — and prevent anyone else from beating WikiLeaks to the punch — is also revealed in leaked messages to journalist Emma Best. She, like several other reporters, also was in communication with Guccifer 2.0.

In copies of Twitter messages obtained by The Associated Press and first reported by BuzzFeed, WikiLeaks demands that Best butt out.

“Please ‘leave’ their convers(a)tion with them and us,” WikiLeaks said on August 13, 2016, arguing that the impact of material would be “very substantially reduced” if Best handled the leak.

Best told BuzzFeed she dropped the matter. About an hour after the conversation ended, Guccifer 2.0 announced on Twitter that it was sending a “major trove” of data and emails to WikiLeaks.

Seth Rich theory put to rest

The indictment also puts to rest a conspiracy theory, carefully nurtured by Assange and his supporters, that slain DNC staffer Seth Rich was at the origin of the leaks.

Rich died in July 2016 in what police in the District of Columbia say was a botched robbery. But the tragedy became fodder for conspiracy theorists who pushed the unfounded allegation that Rich, 27, had been providing information to the hackers and was killed for it.

It was Assange who first floated the idea into the mainstream, bringing up Rich’s case in an interview with Dutch television the following month.

“What are you suggesting?” the startled anchor asked him.

“I’m suggesting that our sources take risks and they become concerned to see things occurring like that,” Assange answered.

The anchor pressed Assange repeatedly, eventually saying: “It’s quite something to suggest a murder. That’s basically what you’re doing.”

Over the next few months, WikiLeaks would continue to amplify the conspiracy theory — all while stopping short of endorsing it outright. During all this time, the indictment alleges, WikiLeaks knew full well that Guccifer 2.0 was its source, cajoling the account’s operators to hand it more data and ordering rival journalists to steer clear.

The conspiracy theory has been a source of deep pain for Rich’s family, who declined to comment on the indictment.

Lisa Lynch, an associate professor of media and communications at Drew University who has written about WikiLeaks, said the indictment highlighted the cynicism of WikiLeaks’ wink-wink support for conspiracy theories.

“We can see very well-intentioned people arguing about whether those documents should be published,” Lynch said of the DNC documents. “But the whole Seth Rich thing is incredibly venal.”
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Judge Criticizes Plan to Use Shortcuts to Reunite Families

Posted on by SeeUS

A federal judge, responding to a plan to reunify children separated at the border, said he was having second thoughts about his belief that the Trump administration was acting in good faith to comply with his orders.

The Justice Department on Friday filed a plan to reunify more than 2,500 children age 5 and older by a court-imposed deadline of July 26 using “truncated” procedures to verify parentage and perform background checks, which exclude DNA testing and other steps it took to reunify children younger than 5.

The administration said the abbreviated vetting puts children at significant safety risk but is needed to meet the deadline. Chris Meekins, the deputy assistant Health and Human Services secretary for preparedness and response, filed a declaration that he is fully committed to meeting the deadline. However, he does not believe “the placing of children into such situations is consistent with the mission of HHS or my core values.”

Judge reconsiders ‘good faith’

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw took umbrage at Meekins’ statement, disputing the official’s interpretation of his orders and saying that safe reunification could and will occur by July 26.

“It is clear from Mr. Meekins’s declaration that HHS either does not understand the court’s orders or is acting in defiance of them,” he wrote late Friday. “At a minimum, it appears he is attempting to provide cover to defendants for their own conduct in the practice of family separation, and the lack of foresight and infrastructure necessary to remedy the harms caused by that practice.”

Sabraw, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said Meekins’ statement “calls into question” his comments in court hours earlier that the administration was acting in good faith.

Monitoring progress

Sabraw said in court Friday that the administration had largely complied with orders but, at the same time, he indicated he will be monitoring its actions ahead of the deadline.

The judge said the administration must provide a list of names of parents in immigration custody and their children by Monday and complete background checks for them by Thursday. He scheduled four hearings over the next two weeks for updates, including one Monday.

“The task is laborious, but can be accomplished in the time and manner prescribed,” he wrote in his order.
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Homeland Security: Russia Targeting Midterms With Social Media

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. homeland security secretary said on Saturday there are no signs that Russia is targeting this year’s midterm elections with the same “scale or scope” it targeted the 2016 presidential election.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen spoke at a convention of state secretaries of state, an event that’s usually a low-key affair highlighting voter registration, balloting devices and election security issues that don’t get much public attention. But coming amid fresh allegations into Russia’s attempts to sway the 2016 election, the sessions on election security have a higher level of urgency and interest.

Nielsen said her agency will help state and local election officials prepare their systems for cyberattacks from Russia or elsewhere. She said U.S. intelligence officials are seeing “persistent Russian efforts using social media, sympathetic spokespeople and other fronts to sow discord and divisiveness amongst the American people, though not necessarily focused on specific politicians or political campaigns.”

Friday indictments, Monday summit

The conference of top state election officials she addressed was sandwiched between Friday’s indictments of 12 Russian military intelligence officers alleged to have hacked into Democratic party and campaign accounts and Monday’s long-awaited meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump has never condemned Russia over meddling in the 2016 election despite the findings of all top U.S. intelligence agencies, and the Kremlin has insisted it didn’t meddle in the U.S. election. In the past, Trump has reiterated Putin’s denials, but this week he said he would bring up the issue when they meet Monday in Finland.

“All I can do is say, ‘Did you?”’ Trump said days ago at a news conference in Brussels. “And, ‘Don’t do it again.’ But he may deny it.”

Taking a stand

Some of the state officials who run elections say it’s important for Trump, a Republican, to take a tougher stance to avoid having the public’s confidence in fair elections undermined.

“I believe as commander in chief he has an obligation to address it and, frankly, put Putin and any other foreign nation that seeks to undermine our democracy on notice that the actions will not be tolerated,” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said in an interview this week.

Some of his peers declined to go that far.

“I don’t go around telling the president what to do,” said Jay Ashcroft, the Republican secretary of state in Missouri.

Russians hacked 21 states

Trump portrays the investigation as a partisan attack, but not all Republicans see it that way. This month, the Republicans and Democrats on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee backed the findings of an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election and acted in favor of Trump and against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

As part of that effort, Russian hackers targeted at least 21 states ahead of the election and are believed to have breached the voter registration system in at least one, Illinois, investigators say. Without naming the state, Friday’s indictment said the Russian intelligence officers stole information on about 500,000 voters from the website of one board of elections, a breach undetected for three weeks.

There’s no evidence results were altered, but the attempts prompted the federal government and states to re-examine election systems and tighten their cybersecurity.

Federal officials also say it’s possible that malware might have been planted that could tamper with voting or paralyze computer systems in future elections.

The election officials talked about technical details of blocking an incursion.

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican, told her peers how her state is using its National Guard to help test and shore up cybersecurity for elections. She said it’s important to make it clear to voters that the military is not running elections and does not have access to election data.

“The whole idea of this is to instill confidence in voters and the public that the system is secure,” Wyman said in an interview.

Some state officials also said Homeland Security is becoming more helpful in sharing information.

On Friday, a federal grand jury indicted the 12 Russian intelligence officers on charges they hacked into Democratic campaign networks in 2016 and then stole and released tens of thousands of documents. The indictment says one of the intrusions came that summer, on a vendor whose software is used to verify voter registration information. The indictment references a spoof email it says the Russian agents sent to more than 100 election-managing customers of the vendor to try to get more information.

“The indictments tell us that … no longer can we deny in any shape or form that Russians were involved,” said cybersecurity expert Sam Woolley, of the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California.
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Iraq Cuts Internet Services, Sends Forces to Quell Protests

Posted on by SeeEA

Iraq’s National Security Council deployed security forces and cut internet services Saturday as protests that began in Basra spread to several other cities.

The council held an emergency meeting Saturday in Baghdad after protests over high unemployment, poor government services and corruption spread from Basra to Baghdad, Najaf, Amara and Nasiriyah.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a statement saying “infiltrators” had used “peaceful protests to attack public and private property.” He promised that government forces “will take all the necessary measures to counter those people.”

At least two people have died in the protests in the city of Amara as protesters blocked roads, lit tires on fire and, according to a spokesman for area health authorities, fired guns “indiscriminately.” One person died earlier this week in Maysan when Iraqi forces shot at protesters reportedly trying to set fire to government buildings.

In Najaf, security forces were deployed in the streets Saturday.

Cuts to internet service reportedly took place in Baghdad, Najaf and Basra.

The protests began in Basra early this week, after residents of Iraq’s most oil-rich city grew fed up with its own poverty, water and power shortages, and the summer heat, which can approach 50 degrees Celsius at the height of the season.

Police confronted protesters in Basra when they gathered near an oil field operated by Russian oil firm Lukoil.

On Friday, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani spoke out in a televised sermon to offer support for the demonstrators. He said it was not fair that residents of Iraq’s most profitable city live in such poor conditions. 

In response, Abadi traveled from a summit in Brussels to Basra, where he asked the Basra Oil Company to hire more locals.

Abadi is a caretaker prime minister. Iraq is undergoing a vote recount after May’s national elections, stalling efforts to form a new government.
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Female-run Syrian TV Seeks to Empower Women

Posted on by SeeEA

Jin TV — which means Women TV in the Kurdish language — is the first television station in Syria run entirely by women. The station began officially broadcasting late last month and aims to provide a platform for women to raise their voices.

“This TV was established to shed light on the role of women in all walks of life because women are always marginalized and confined to limited roles, even though women are the foundation of the society,” Dalsha Othman, chief of the Arabic division at Jin TV, told VOA.

Managers of the new station say their content will give a voice to women and put a spotlight on issues that affect women in Syria and the region.

The TV station is located in the Kurdish-controlled town of Amude in northeastern Syria.

Broadcasts will be multilingual and multicultural; the programs will air in Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and Farsi.

Currently, there are 18 staff members at the TV station, and the plan is to add workers in the future.

Countering extremism

Amude was once part of an area controlled by the Islamic State terror group when the group expanded its presence in large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a force of Kurdish and Arab fighters, expelled IS militants from the region and liberated the town.

Kurdish female fighters in the YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), a brigade fighting with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), played a key role in defeating IS in northeastern Syria, including Amude. 

At the peak of its rule, approximately 10 million people lived under IS control in Iraq and Syria. The terror group committed large-scale atrocities against civilians and sought to indoctrinate them with its ideology.

Jin TV aims to counter that and increase awareness among women to prevent future attempts by extremists to recruit women by luring them through propaganda.

Jiyan Heve, a founding member of Jin TV, said that one of the station’s goals is to provide a platform for female victims of terror groups such as IS so that they can talk about the atrocities and the true nature of these militant groups.

“We seek to counter the terrorist propaganda, and Jin TV is a good platform for doing that,” she told VOA.

Experts believe that women can play a key role in preventing extremism and radicalism in communities around the world.

According to a report published in April 2018 by Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security, women are considered a community’s gatekeepers who can play a vital role in countering extremism.

“Identifying, empowering and consulting credible women leaders is a crucial part of creating sustainable deradicalization and rehabilitation programs that address individual and community needs,” the report said.

Stereotypes 

Everyone at the new broadcast operation is seeking to change stereotypes about women’s capacity and their role in the society.

Dilav Hori, a video editor at Jin TV, said she wanted to help change perceptions about women.

“We women at Jin TV are trying to disperse the traditional notion about women’s ability to rely on themselves on their own. We want women to be confident and know that running a TV [station] is not something difficult,” Hori told VOA. 

Jin TV is the second all-female station in the region. In 2017, Zan TV began broadcasting in Afghanistan with the aim of empowering women there.

Dalsha Othman, chief of the Arabic division at Jin TV, said they already receive videos and content produced by women from several countries in the region. The ultimate goal, she said, is to connect women from different parts of the world.

“Although our channel is Kurdish, we want to establish a bridge for women in the world to communicate, share and support each other,” Othman said. 

VOA’s Zana Omar contributed to this report from Amude.
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