Gazette 081214

Tuesday August 12th 2014

Rights groups organizing flotilla to try breaking Israeli blockade of Gaza

ISTANBUL –  A group of human rights organizations say they are organizing a flotilla of boats that will attempt to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said Tuesday it planned to sail to Gaza "during 2014." It did not specify how many vessels would participate, but said the flotilla was "a reflection of the growing worldwide solidarity with the Palestinian people."

It said it will also organize demonstrations in ports worldwide in coming months.
The group organized two previous flotillas, in 2010 and in 2011. During the first, Israeli forces stormed the Turkish boat Mavi Marmara, killing nine people on board. The incident led to a breakdown in Turkish-Israeli relations.
Israel says it imposed the blockade in 2007 to prevent Palestinian militants bringing weapons into Gaza.

Bennett: Giving Hamas money in exchange for quiet is 'political extortion'

As reports emerged Tuesday of a possible deal being crafted between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to end more than a month of hostilities on the Gaza front, right-wing politicians began speaking out against making concessions to Hamas.
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) addressed reports that Israel was considering agreeing to a Hamas demand to pay the back salaries of thousands of its employees in Gaza. "The 'money for Hamas in exchange for quiet' formula is political extortion," he wrote on his Facebook page.
"Let's tell the truth: the money will go to terrorists who are digging [tunnels] beneath us, to those producing missiles and to the people shooting at us," the minister warned.
Bennett argued that the Hamas "extortionists," were essentially saying, "Pay us, and we will shoot at you later; don't pay us, and we will shoot at you now."
He said that the "money to terrorists in exchange for quiet" formula would allow Hamas to recuperate after Operation Protective Edge and rearm itself for the next round of fighting.
"We can't fight Hamas with one hand and fund them with the other," he argued.
Bennett said that he was fighting to prevent Israel from agreeing to such cease-fire terms in the security cabinet's discussions of the issues and he called on the other government ministers to do the same.
"You don't pay Hamas, you defeat them," he stated.
Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said that the emerging truce deal would "cancel out all the achievements of Operation Protective Edge and turn Hamas into the victor."
She said that rather than give Hamas more benefits, Israel should worsen conditions in Gaza immediately. Hotovely called for Israel to halt shipments of goods to Gaza and to stop supplying electricity to the Strip.

Israelis, Palestinians begin new talks to end Gaza war

(Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resumed indirect talks mediated by Egypt on Monday to end a month-old Gaza war, Egypt's state news agency said, after a new 72-hour truce held for a day.

Israeli negotiators flew in and out of Cairo on Monday, an Egyptian official said, but no details were released on the talks.

Hamas is demanding an end to Israeli and Egyptian blockades of the Gaza Strip and opening of a seaport in the enclave, a project Israel says should be dealt with only in any future talks on a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians.

A month of war has killed 1,938 Palestinians and 67 Israelis while devastating wide tracts of densely populated Gaza. Egypt's Foreign Ministry has urged both sides to work toward "a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire agreement".

Gaza hospital officials have said the Palestinian death toll has been mainly civilian since the July 8 launch of Israel's military campaign to quell Gaza rocket fire.

Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians, while heavy losses among civilians and the destruction of thousands of homes in Gaza have drawn international condemnation.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the new negotiations would be "the last chance" for an agreement. Israeli representatives are not meeting face-to-face with the Palestinian delegation because it includes Hamas, which Israel regards as a terrorist organization.

British forces drop humanitarian supplies to Yazidi refugees in Iraq

RAF has brought 'essential supplies' of water and solar lanterns, says international development secretary

British forces have succeeded in dropping humanitarian supplies to Yazidi refugees besieged by forces from the Islamic State (Isis) on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.
Justine Greening, the international development secretary, said the RAF had dropped "essential supplies" of water and rechargeable solar lanterns.
The successful mission came 24 hours after the crew of an RAF C130 Hercules had to abort two missions on Sunday night amid fears that the cargo could have injured people on the ground.
Britain announced on Monday that it would deploy RAF Tornado jets to provide greater surveillance for the crews dropping humanitarian supplies. The deployment came amid growing calls for a recall of parliament to allow Britain to join the US in launching air strikes against forces from Isis.

Mark Pritchard, the Conservative backbencher, became the latest MP to join an informal cross-party coalition led by the former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw and the former Tory armed forces minister Andrew Robathan calling for Britain to step up its involvement.
Pritchard wrote on the PoliticsHome website: "The international community can pour as much aid into the region as it likes. But unless Islamic State fighters are killed and removed from the battlefield, they will go on killing and committing further atrocities.
"The UK must not walk by on the other side and that is why overnight news that RAF Tornados are once again going to fly in Iraqi airspace is welcome. However, this intervention needs to be in an unequivocal combat role, not just in an intelligence, surveillance and targeting role."

Straw welcomed the plan to deploy Tornados. But officials made it clear that the Tornados, whose actual deployment over Iraq has yet to be agreed by ministers, would be used solely for surveillance to avoid a repeat of Sunday night, when the crew of an RAF C-130 Hercules aircraft had to abort their mission to avoid injuring refugees on the ground.

4 civilians killed in attack on Nato convoy in Kabul: Official

KABUL: A suicide attacker targeting a Nato troop convoy in Kabul on Sunday killed four civilians and wounded at least seven others, Afghan officials said, as emergency services rushed to the scene.

"At around 11:30am, a convoy of foreign forces was targeted by a suicide bomber in police district 6, killing four civilians and wounding seven," interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on his Twitter account.

There was no immediate comment from the Nato.

Human Rights Watch director barred from Egypt

The executive director of Human Rights Watch and another senior staff member have been denied entry to Egypt.

Kenneth Roth and Sarah Leah Whitson were in Cairo to launch a report by the group on mass killings last year.
Hundreds of people were killed on 14 August 2013 after security forces broke up protests against the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi.
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who was elected head of state in May, was the army chief at the time of the killings.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is one of a number of rights groups that have expressed alarm at a broad crackdown on dissent by authorities since the army's overthrow of Mr Morsi in July 2013.
'Security reasons' After arriving at Cairo International Airport, the pair were detained by officials for 12 hours before being put on planes out of the country.
Ms Whitson, the head of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division, said Egyptian officials told her they were being deported for "security reasons".
In a statement, HRW said it was the first time that Egyptian authorities had denied its staff members entry to the country, including during the rule of ex-President Hosni Mubarak.
The group said its report, due to be released on Tuesday, "documents how Egyptian police and army methodically opened fire with live ammunition on crowds of demonstrators" after Mr Morsi's removal from power.

Egypt massacre was premeditated, says Human Rights Watch

Rabaa killing of 817 people was a planned Tiananmen-Square-style attack on largely unarmed protesters, report argues

Egyptian security forces intentionally killed at least 817 protesters during last August's Rabaa massacre, in a premeditated attack equal to or worse than China's Tiananmen Square killings in 1989, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has argued in a report.
The 195-page investigation based on interviews with 122 survivors and witnesses has found Egypt's police and army "systematically and deliberately killed largely unarmed protesters on political grounds" in actions that "likely amounted to crimes against humanity".
The report recommends that several senior individuals within Egypt's security apparatus be investigated and, where appropriate, held to account for their role in the planning of both the Rabaa massacre and others that occurred last summer – including Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Egypt's then defence minister and new president. As head of the army at the time, Sisi had overall responsibility for the army's role at Rabaa, and has publicly acknowledged spending "very many long days to discuss all the details".
The Rabaa massacre, which took place a year ago on Thursday, amid a week of violence from all sides, accompanied the dispersal of a six-week-old encampment in Cairo set up by demonstrators protesting the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi. Egypt's military and police leaders maintain that the dispersal was carried out as humanely as possible, and only turned violent because an armed group within the camp started firing on security officials, killing eight policemen.
But HRW concluded that the camp's estimated 85,000 members were not given enough time to leave before troops started firing; were prevented for most of the day from leaving via safe exits; and used firearms "in only a few instances, which do not justify the grossly disproportionate and premeditated lethal attacks on overwhelmingly peaceful protesters".
The report documents scores of incidents where unarmed protesters were killed, often by snipers shooting from nearby buildings or, according to multiple witnesses, from helicopters flying overhead.

 Islamic State Militants Crush Tribal Uprising In Syria

Islamic militants have crushed a tribal uprising against their rule in eastern Syria after three days of clashes in a string of villages near the border with Iraq, killing and beheading opponents along the way, activists said Monday.

The fighters from the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State group control huge swaths of territory in eastern and northern Syria and are fighting rival rebels, Kurdish militias and the Syrian army for more territory.
 

Meanwhile, at least 10 people including four children and two women were killed Monday when Syrian forces dropped explosives-filled barrels from a helicopter over the Bab Nayrab district of Aleppo in northern Syria, activists said. Many others were buried under the rubble of buildings, they said.

The Syrian army regularly dropped the so-called barrel bombs over populated areas in rebel-held territory. Aleppo, once Syria's commercial capital, has seen heavy fighting since rebels seized part of the city in 2012.

The civil war in Syria, now in its fourth year, has continued to bleed while attention has shifted to conflicts in Gaza and Iraq. The Islamic State group, which consists mainly of foreign fighters, has taken over much of northern and eastern Syria as well as western and northern Iraq.

The group has declared a self-styled caliphate in territory it controls along the Iraqi-Syrian border, imposing a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

The armed revolt by the Shueitat tribe in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour was the first sign of local resistance by tribesmen to the Islamic State group since its fighters swept into the province.

Russian aid convoy 'will not be admitted into Ukraine'

Ukrainian spokesman says convoy not certified by Red Cross, raising fears that Russia could use initiative to send in troops

A Ukrainian security spokesman has said that a humanitarian convoy being dispatched to eastern Ukraine by Russia will not be admitted into the country.
Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, said the convoy had not been certified by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
A convoy of 280 Russian trucks headed for Ukraine early on Tuesday, one day after agreement was reached on an international humanitarian relief mission.
But the Red Cross, which was due to coordinate the operation, said it had no information on what the trucks were carrying or where they were going. That has raised fears in Ukraine and the west, where leaders have voiced concerns that Russia could use the initiative as a pretext for sending troops into separatist-held territory.
An aide to the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, said Kiev would require the aid to be reloaded onto other transport vehicles at the border by the Red Cross if it was to enter. "We will not allow any escort by the emergencies ministry of Russia or by the military. Everything will be under the control of the Ukrainian side," the aide, Valery Chaly, said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Itar Tass news agency had said the convoy departed from near Moscow, meaning it would take it a couple of days to arrive in east Ukraine, about 620 miles (1,000km) to the south-west. "It has all been agreed with Ukraine," Business FM radio quoted President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, as saying.
Thousands of people are said to be short of water, electricity and medical aid due to the fighting. The US president, Barack Obama, has said any Russian intervention without Kiev's consent would be unacceptable and violate international law.

Nigerian officials announce 10 confirmed cases and two deaths from Ebola

Ebola, one of the world’s most fatal diseases, has surfaced in Africa’s most populous country.
Nigerian health officials have announced 10 confirmed cases and two deaths in the country from the Ebola outbreak that is sweeping West Africa, including a nurse and a man from Liberia whom the nurse had been caring for.
he man, Patrick Sawyer, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had flown to Nigeria in late July and died soon after. He had infected at least seven other people, including the nurse, who died Aug. 5, officials said.
By Friday, President Goodluck Jonathan had declared a state of emergency, officially adding Nigeria, home to more than 160 million people, to the list of nations struggling to control one of the largest public-health emergencies in recent history. More than 900 people have died.
The story of Mr. Sawyer, who according to Nigerian newspaper accounts was aware that he was sick when he left Liberia, demonstrates just how difficult containing the disease will be in the modern age of rapid travel and growing urbanization. Nigeria has Africa’s largest economy and is deeply connected to the outside world, a fact that could magnify the consequences if the outbreak is not contained.
“Rapid epidemic transmission has been with us a long time, but my guess is that it’s accelerating, with the number of people on the move and intensity of air travel, global trade and the numbers of displaced people we have globally,” said Jeffrey Sachs, an economist and the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Health officials emphasized that Nigeria still had only a few confirmed Ebola cases – 10 as of Sunday, with two deaths – and that its government had mobilized substantial forces to try to stop the spread of the disease.
David Daigle, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s effort in Nigeria, said the ministers of health and information were on hand Friday for the opening of an emergency operation centre in Lagos, a sign that the government was treating the situation seriously.
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Missouri shooting: Family demand justice

The family of an unarmed black teenager killed by a police officer in the US city of St Louis have called for justice for their son.

The father of Michael Brown, 18, told reporters their son was a "good boy" who "deserved none of this".

The FBI and the US justice department's civil rights division have opened an investigation into the shooting.

On Monday night, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse a large crowd in the suburb of Ferguson.

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said a group which had gathered at a burned-out convenience store became rowdy at dusk.
Members of the crowd threw rocks at police, he said, and there was gunfire coming from the crowd.

Earlier in the day, US Attorney General Eric Holder said the case deserves a "fulsome review".

The justice department has also sent its community relations team to the area.
Related: Ferguson, Missouri Unrest Enters Second Night: Police Confront Angry Mob with Tear Gas, Tanks

Kerry stayed at Myanmar hotel owned by tycoon blacklisted by US

YANGON, Myanmar –  The U.S. says Secretary of State John Kerry did not break any rules when he stayed in a glitzy hotel owned by a tycoon blacklisted because of ties to Myanmar's former military regime.
In a country where cronies own almost all the biggest and best-known firms -- including hotels in the capital Naypyitaw -- Kerry would have been hard-pressed to find anywhere else to stay during the gathering of Southeast Asian foreign ministers this past weekend.

But the decision illustrates the conundrum of American policies. Washington is eager to engage with Myanmar's new nominally civilian government, but when it comes to business, finds itself grappling with the legacy of sanctions imposed during decades of military dictatorship.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki insisted Tuesday that Kerry did nothing wrong.
She said Myanmar's Foreign Ministry assigned members of his delegation to the Lake Garden Hotel. It's owned by the Max Myanmar group, which belongs to the blacklisted tycoon, Zaw Zaw.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which outlines dealings with "specially designated" or "blacklisted" nationals, "includes an exemption for activities related to travel, including hotel accommodations," she added.
Though most U.S. sanctions imposed on Myanmar when it was under military rule have been lifted, American companies are still barred from doing business with individuals perceived as having profited from past or current military connections.
Removing people from the blacklist is a legal, rather than political, process today, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski insisted during a visit to the country in June. He met with a number of cronies, telling them what they would have to do. Among other things, he said, they need to demonstrate in a verifiable way that they are engaging in responsible business practices and that they have cut ties with the military-tied businesses.

From Truth and Reconciliation to Lies and Obfuscation: The Senate RDI Report

On a bright spring day in 2005, in a country I cannot name, I entered a drab, unremarkable building, a gateway to a grim, unaccustomed world. Its spaces were impersonal, antiseptic, institutional. The residents of that alien world, both the guards and the guarded, were never exposed to natural light. They inhabited a claustrophobic universe of their own, a place suffused with a permanent air of foreboding, in which both time and external reality had been suspended. On entering that world one could sense an invisible bond among the inhabitants, the captors and the captured, impenetrable to outsiders. A harsh necessity had bound them together, condemning them both.
No one with a soul, upon first exposure to this place, could fail to be affected by it. And yet, when I spoke with the Americans there, it was to another reality, far outside their confined spaces, that I referred. I told them of the importance of what they were doing, how the information they generated, confirmed by investigations whose leads they had supplied and which had culminated in the arrests of committed terrorists, may well have saved the lives of hundreds and perhaps thousands of innocents, most of whom would forever remain blissfully unaware of their debt to the inhabitants of that room.
Over nine years have passed since my visit to a so-called CIA "black site," where mass murderers -- some actual, some merely aspirant -- were detained and interrogated, but the issues with which some of us struggled in those days remain very much with us. Within the next few weeks, a redacted version of both the executive summary and the findings and conclusions of a highly classified report prepared by the Senate Intelligence Committee will be formally declassified, and will hit the street. Dealing with the CIA's now-defunct terrorist detention and interrogation program, which existed from 2002 to 2009, it is expected to be accompanied by a similarly redacted version of a CIA rebuttal, and by yet another commentary, this time from the minority Republican members of the same committee. If the reader is surprised that the Republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee would feel constrained to provide a separate assessment of what purports to be their own committee's work, it is because I have left out an important detail regarding whose report this actually is.

White House Picks Engineer From Google to Fix Sites

EDGARTOWN, Mass. — Faced with the politically devastating collapse of HealthCare.gov last year, President Obama’s White House staff lured Mikey Dickerson away from Google to save the day.

Mr. Dickerson will lead a new government team that is intended to identify and fix the government’s other failing computer systems and websites, officials said Monday.

The decision to hire Mr. Dickerson full time is a blunt acknowledgment that even Mr. Obama’s government — with a leadership that embraced technology to win two national elections — has yet to fully adopt a Silicon Valley mind-set when it comes to cutting-edge computer systems and consumer-friendly Internet portals.

It is also a calculated bet that Mr. Dickerson can do from inside the government what he did as an outsider: break through the bureaucratic rules about technology procurement and standardized practices to inject a bit of innovative thinking across agencies.

‘Prince of Pot’ set to return to Canada today after time in U.S. jail

The country’s self-styled “Prince of Pot” is due to return to Canada today after finishing a U.S. sentence for selling marijuana seeds to customers across the border.
Marc Emery is set to cross into Windsor, Ont., from Detroit after serving a five-year sentence, and his wife, Jodie Emery, says she will be there awaiting his arrival.
The 56-year-old Vancouver resident was extradited to Seattle in May, 2010.
Emery then pleaded guilty to selling marijuana seeds from Canada to American customers before serving his time in several American correction facilities.
When he was first arrested almost a decade ago, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency heralded his seizure as a “significant blow” to the legalization movement.
Jodie Emery says details are still be worked out for a 30-city cross-Canada marijuana advocacy tour and a visit to Europe for several speaking engagements.

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