BRICS Bank to issue bonds in 2nd quarter: VP
The BRICS Post – March 25, 2016
The New Development Bank launched by the BRICS will soon issue between 3-5 billion yuan in bonds in China in the second quarter of 2016, a senior bank official said on Thursday.
Leslie Maasdorp, NDB vice-president and chief financial officer, was speaking on the sidelines of the Boao forum in China.
The new lender will prioritise projects aimed at developing renewable energy sources, Maasdorp said.
The five countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, hold equal voting rights.
“The New Development Bank plans to issue its first bond in China because the renminbi value is much more stable (compared with local currencies of other BRICS nations). China has a deep, liquid bond market,” Maasdorp was quoted by China Daily.
Maasdorp also said that the new lender intends to finance one project of each member state with the money raised via its first bond issue.
The new financial institution headquartered in China’s Shanghai has been set up to foster greater financial and development cooperation between the five emerging markets.
The Bank will announce its first investment projects next month.
Maasdorp reiterated on Thursday that the BRICS Bank will adopt a lean structure to aid “speed of execution”.
The bank has received an ‘AAA’ institutional rating from domestic credit rating agencies and has appointed Bank of China and China Development Bank as rating advisers, an official statement said.
The founding members of the NDB have already brought in capital of $1 billion as initial contribution.
Standard Chartered and Goldman Sachs have been appointed as advisers for international ratings.
At a press conference in Shanghai last month, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the NDB “will soon become a strong and well-respected international financial institution, playing a leading role in the changing international financial architecture”.
“Suicide Bombers” Known to, Imprisoned by Security Agencies BEFORE Brussels Attack
By Tony Cartalucci | New Eastern Outlook | March 25, 2016
It is now revealed that not only were at least three bombers involved in the March 22 Brussels attack well-known to Western security agencies, two – brothers Brahim and Khalid El Bakraoui – were both arrested, charged, and imprisoned for violent crimes in 2010 and 2011, the elder brother for shooting at police with an AK-47s automatic rifle during a holdup, and the younger brother for carjacking and possession of several AK-47s, respectively.
It is also now confirmed that the elder brother, Brahim El Bakraoui, was arrested and deported from Turkey last year for suspected terrorist activity, but not before Ankara attempted to notify Brussels in order for El Bakraoui to be detained upon his arrival back in the EU. Brussels, however, failed categorically to act on the alert, allowing El Bakraoui to return home without consequence.
The third suspect, Najim Laachraoui, had traveled to Syria between 2012-2013 and has had an international warrant out for his arrest since 2014 for allegedly aiding in the recruitment of Europeans for the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS).
Germany’s largest press agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, reported in their article, “Reports: Brothers known to police were among Brussels suicide bombers,” that:
Two Brussels brothers who were known to police are among the suicide bombers who carried out deadly terrorist attacks on the international airport and subway in the Belgian capital, local media reported Wednesday.
And that:
[Khalid El Bakraoui] had been sentenced in early 2011 to five years in prison for carjackings, after having been arrested in possession of Kalashnikov rifles, according to the Belga news agency.
His brother, 30-year-old Brahim, had been sentenced in 2010 to nine years in prison for having shot at police with a Kalashnikov rifle during a hold-up, Belga said.
The New York Times, in their article, “Brussels Attack Lapses Acknowledged by Belgian Officials,” would report regarding Brahim El Bakraoui’s arrest and deportation from Turkey that:
The Belgian justice and interior ministers acknowledged that their departments should have acted on a Turkish alert about a convicted Belgian criminal briefly arrested in Turkey last year on suspicion of terrorist activity, who turned out to be one of the suicide bombers. And the Belgian prosecutor’s office said that person’s brother — another suicide bomber — had been wanted since December in connection with the Paris attacks.
Apparently in Belgium, you can possess a small military arsenal, even use it against police, and still get out of jail early enough to travel to Syria to join a known terrorist organization before being deported without consequence, then join a terrorist network back home lined by equally known criminals to Belgium security agencies, before carrying out a deadly high profile terrorist attack.
And unlike most ISIS suicide attacks, featuring suicide belts or vests, the bombers involved in the Brussels attack appear to have been pushing carts that contained bombs. It is more than possible that the brothers were unaware of the “one-way” nature of their attack, as a third bomber – Laachraoui, the suspected “bomb maker” – managed to escape, and several reports indicate at least one of the brothers may have possibly dropped off a device at the airport which was remotely detonated before moving onward to the Brussels metro to carry out a second bombing.
Suspects “Escaped” Police Raid a Week Before the Attacks
In addition to the El Bakraoui brothers’ previous arrests in 2010 and 2011, as well as the eldest brother’s arrest and deportation from Turkey last year for suspected terrorist activity, they were also allegedly involved in a police raid just one week before the Brussels attack. During the raid, at least one suspect was killed while two others escaped, the El Bakraoui brothers.
The London Telegraph in their article, “Brussels shootout: Four arrested as Islamic State flag found near the body of gunman,” reported that (emphasis added):
According to Dernière Heure, the two suspects at large are thought to be Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, respectively 26 and 30. Known for gangster-related crimes, the name of one has cropped up in anti-terror investigations, according to Le Monde.
After the standoff, police and special forces expanded their search and homed in on a neighbouring street, rue de l’Eau, after finding two gun cartridges and dark clothing in the area. During a raid on a house, they picked up another Kalashnikov.
The Belgium police and the Western media have categorically failed to foster understanding and help form a clear picture of the terrorists they are allegedly attempting to apprehend. At least four suspects were arrested after the raid, but then released without charges. The identity of the suspects and the circumstances of their release have not been reported.
Terrorists Under Security’s Noses, in their Clutches, Yet Still Carrying Out Attacks
Virtually every single terror suspect involved in the Charlie Hebo massacre and Paris attacks last year in France, and the Brussels attack this week, have been long-known to Western security agencies.
Many have even been detained, convicted, and even imprisoned for violent crimes, with at least one Charlie Hebo massacre suspect having had been previously arrested in 2005 specifically for terror-related charges.
Slate Magazine would report in their article, “The Details of Paris Suspect Cherif Kouachi’s 2008 Terrorism Conviction,” that:
Kouachi was arrested in January 2005, accused of planning to join jihadists in Iraq. He was said to have fallen under the sway of Farid Benyettou, a young “self-taught preacher” who advocated violence, but had not actually yet traveled to Iraq or committed any acts of terror. Lawyers at the time said he had not received weapons training and “had begun having second thoughts,” going so far as to express “relief” that he’d been apprehended.
Kouachi would be later released before travelling to the Middle East to train and fight alongside Al Qaeda. CNN would report in an article titled, “France tells U.S. Paris suspect trained with al Qaeda in Yemen,” that:
Western intelligence officials are scrambling to learn more about possible travel of the two Paris terror attack suspects, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, with new information suggesting one of the brothers recently spent time in Yemen associating with al Qaeda in that country, U.S. officials briefed on the matter told CNN. Additional information from a French source close to the French security services puts one of the brothers in Syria.
Many of the other suspects have also been on terror watch lists for their travels to Syria where they have fought alongside ISIS before inexplicably being allowed to return to Europe and rejoin society without consequence, including at least one of the suspects involved in the recent Brussels attack.
Considering that the US itself admitted in a 2012 US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report that it and its allies, including “the West, Gulf countries, and Turkey,” sought the creation of a “Salafist” (Islamic) “principality” (State) in eastern Syria precisely where ISIS now resides, it should not be surprising to find what appears to be an intentionally ineffective security policy put in place, allowing known, violent criminals, with obvious ties to terrorist organizations to operate freely both overseas in open combat against the West’s enemies, and at home to carry out a constant procession of attacks that foster fear, hatred, hysteria, and above all obedience to Western special interests at home.
Just as with the Charlie Hebo massacre, where the backstories of the suspects raised questions as to why they were not already long-ago jailed, the multiplying indicators that Western security agencies knew about, but inexplicably failed to stop known terrorists before this week’s attack will likely conjure up familiar excuses of “incompetence” or “overtaxed” security organizations.
And just like the terrorists security agencies have repeatedly failed to stop despite tracking and even capturing and detaining them multiple times, those among Western security agencies and governments responsible for negligence ahead of this most recent attack are very likely never to see the inside of a jail cell.
All that’s left is for the public to reconcile the West’s alleged claims it is fighting ISIS versus its actions which appear to be aiding, abetting, and perpetuating this global menace, at home and abroad.
Fox News Claims Broadcast TV Database Infringes Copyright
EFF and Partners Support Media Monitoring Service in Fight for Fair Use
EFF | March 24, 2016
San Francisco – A media monitoring service that creates a text-searchable database of television and radio content is defending its fair use rights before a federal appeals court. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), New York University’s Technology Law and Policy Clinic, and Public Knowledge urged the court Wednesday to protect this innovative technology—and others that have yet to be developed—from being shut down by copyright infringement claims.
“Search engines and book digitization have proven the enormous social benefits of indexing and archiving the media,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kit Walsh. “This case is the latest in a long line of copyright-based challenges to these important tools, and it should fail just as the others have.”
In this case, Fox News sued a company called TVEyes, claiming the company’s broadcast content database—used by journalists, scholars, and political campaigns to study and monitor the national media—infringed its copyright in its programming. The district court acknowledged that the service is generally a fair use of copyrighted material, but then, in a second ruling, held that some of the features of the TVEyes database could facilitate infringement, including the ability to share links or search by date and time. In a departure from established legal precedent, the court ruled that this was enough to defeat TVEyes’ fair use defense.
TVEyes appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In an amicus brief filed Wednesday, EFF and its partners argued that the law does not impose liability on a toolmaker based on the possibility that users will misuse a tool, except in limited circumstances not present here and not even alleged by Fox News.
“TVEyes’ liability should not turn on the hypothetical conduct of its users,” said EFF Legal Director Corynne McSherry. “If the district court decision is upheld, all kinds of new technologies could be at risk. We are asking the appeals court to follow the law and reject Fox News’ claims.”
For the full amicus brief:
https://www.eff.org/document/amicus-brief-37
For more on Fox News v. TVEyes:
https://www.eff.org/cases/fox-news-v-tveyes
Turkey Eyes Law to Censor Universities Amid Professor Arrests
Sputnik – 24.03.2016
Turkey’s government has proposed a new law, which would have universities fire faculty for political disagreement with the government.
The new law would allow universities to systematically dismiss faculty based on their political leanings.
The law was proposed amid the arrest of several academics, who were arrested for signing a peace petition against the current military operation in Turkey’s southeast. The academics were detained on charges of “terrorist propaganda.”
Under the proposed law, faculty could be dismissed for such charges as “supporting terrorism,” “participation in the strikes and demonstrations that impede the learning process,” and “slandering the reputation of the state.”
“These first arrests are likely to be the tip of the iceberg. The next weeks could see a wave of them in jail,” Gareth Jenkins, a political analyst based in Istanbul told Nature.
The law would also target the arrested professors’ supporters, as their actions, by definition are “behavior which smears the state’s reputation” in the new law.
Under current law, the professors cannot be dismissed, because such charges are not part of the law. One of the more contentious issues is that faculty could be fired for “participation in the activities of political parties, which go beyond the provisions stipulated by the law.”
Turkey orders closed trial for Cumhuriyet editor threatening to expose Erdogan in court
RT | March 25, 2016
The editor of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, Can Dundar, has been punished with a trial behind closed doors, after threatening to put President Erdogan on the defensive with renewed allegations.
Many media trials in Turkey of late have gripped national and international attention, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues his relentless pursuit of alleged enemies of the state.
Dundar has been sentenced to life on the charge of espionage – and has vowed to do his utmost to make the wrongdoings of the Turkish government the focus of his Friday trial, effectively turning the tables.
Like others in recent years, Dundar, 54, and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul, 49, stand accused of trying to topple the government, something they allegedly attempted to do by publishing last May a video purporting to reveal truckloads of arms shipments to Syria overseen by Turkish intelligence.
Erdogan did admit to the trucks belonging to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT), but said they were carrying weapons for the Turkmens – the group fighting both Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). He added that the prosecution had no right to peer into the trucks, and that the whole thing was set up to discredit his administration.
Dundar threatened to show the tape in court, knowing the risks involved. It did not pan out according to plan, and has resulted in the punishment he received Friday morning – that he will not see an open trial. In addition, the courts decided that Erdogan will act as a co-plaintiff in the trials, Reuters learned from a witness.
“We are not defendants, we are witnesses,” he told Reuters in an interview hours before the trial. “We will lay out all of the illegalities and make this a political prosecution … The state was caught in a criminal act, and it is doing all that it can to cover it up.
“We were arrested for two reasons: to punish us and to frighten others. And we see the intimidation has been effective. Fear dominates,” he added.
Dundar and Gul made an appearance before the courthouse on Friday morning, emphasizing that “journalism is not a crime” and once again calling publicly for their acquittal.
Both journalists were arrested in November and released following three months in detention after a constitutional court ruled on their release before trial – something Erdogan was not happy about.
“This institution, with the involvement of its president and some members, did not refrain from taking a decision that is against the country and its people, on a subject that is a concrete example of one of the biggest attacks against Turkey recently,” the state leader said at a rally in early March.
Just after the journalists’ release, Erdogan said he didn’t “obey or respect the [court’s] decision.” Their case “has nothing to do with press freedom,” he said, accusing them of “spying.”
He has also been heard saying Dundar would “pay a heavy price” for his crimes.
Numerous rights groups and press associations have voiced grave concern for press freedom in Turkey, all issuing calls to free Dundar and Gul. The International Press Institute called the trial “politically motivated.” Reporters Without Borders went a step further, calling Erdogan “increasingly despotic.”
The development follows several others in recent months, all involving the media being charged with similar crimes for similar offenses. This month authorities seized control of Zaman – the country’s top-selling newspaper, for allegedly aiding Fethullah Gulen – a religious scholar in exile whom Erdogan accused of leading a “terrorist” movement.
Since Erdogan came to power in 2014, a little under 2,000 such cases have been started, the majority for “insulting” the president.
Read more:
Almost 2,000 court cases opened in 18-months for ‘insulting’ Turkish President Erdogan
The Brussels Attacks: What is True, What is Fake? Three Daesh Suspects at Brussels Airport
By Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research – March 25, 2016
Two Fake CC surveillance Videos of the bomb attacks, Ibrahim’s Laptop Computer discovered in a Rubbish bin;
The alleged Will (Testament) of one of the Daesh suspects;
Foreknowledge of the Attacks by the Belgian police and security authorities;
An EU terror emergency drill simulating a Metro attack held three weeks earlier, …
Mystery, “Evidence” concerning the deceased suicide bombers?
The role and death of suicide bombers Khalif and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui respectively at the Maelbeek metro station and Brussels airport?
Where are the official surveillance video recordings? So far they have been suppressed?
The Mysterious Photo: Three Daesh Suspects at Brussels Airport Caught on the CC Surveillance Camera?
A review of official police statements suggests that the still photos allegedly from the Airport CC Surveillance Camera were not initially released by the Police, they were first published by Dernière Heure, DH.be, which is part of Belgium’s media giant Groupe Multimédia IPM S.A.
It is worth noting that DH.be together with La Libre (also part of Groupe IPM) (mistakenly) published the fake CC surveillance video of the Brussels airport bomb attacks by using the footage of the Moscow terror attack of January 2011.
The “real” video footage from the airport CC surveillance cameras has so far not been made public
Below is the picture of the three Daesh suspects walking in Brussels airport. There is no mention as to when (at what time) the still video picture was taken.
Apart from this still image, no official CC surveillance video footage was released. (See our analysis on the fake CC videos).
As mentioned above, there are contradictions regarding the time of release and the source of the above images.
Derniere Heure DH.net.be published the still photo from the CC camera at 10.27am, two and a half hours BEFORE its alleged official release by the Brussels police: at 12.58pm.
The airport was closed shortly after the 8am attack: there are three possible answers:
1) that the airport security authorities made the video images available to DH.be prior to releasing it to the police.
2) that the Brussels police authorities released the images to DH.be as an exclusive, prior to their official release. (Unlikely)
3) that the source of the still image did not emanate from the airport surveillance CC cameras, but from another source which was used by Derniere Heure DH.be
Most media reports acknowledged that the mysterious photo of the alleged suicide bombers was released by the Brussels police.
The Facebook entries below confirm the exact time at which the airport photos were released:
First Release by DH.be at 10.27am (entitled “Photo Exclusive” by DH.be)
Second Release by Politie Brussel/Police de Bruxelles: 12.58pm
The press release of the federal prosecutor’s office on March 23d confirms the identity of one of the suspects, Ibrahim El Bakraoui and mentions the photo. The time of its release is not mentioned.
See also
Analysis: Are the airport images genuine?
In other words, can we trust DH.be which published a fake surveillance video of the bomb attack (using footage from Moscow January 2011) on March 22 at 09.07 (one hour after the bomb attack). (See our earlier report on this issue, see summary n the box below)
The CC surveillance videos of the attacks in real time published by Belgium’s media on March 22 at both the airport and the metro are fake.
This is confirmed by an earlier Global Research report. The Belgian corporate media published footage from the Moscow airport attacks (January 2011) and the Minsk Metro terror attack (April 2011).
Video 1 scan (Moscow airport, January 2011)
Video 2 scan (Minsk Airport, April 2011)
Here is a screenshot of the Minsk 2011 video footage broadcast on Belgian network TV and on the internet depicting the explosion in the Metro in Brussels, March 22, 2016
For full report see:
Fake Video Used in News Coverage of Brussels Terror Attacks by Prof Michel Chossudovsky, March 22, 2016
Media Manipulation: More Fake Video Reports of the Brussels Terror Attacks by Prof Michel Chossudovsky, March 23, 2016
Contradictions
In contradiction with the official press release, several media reports identified the three men as Khalif and Ibrahim el Bakraoui at Brussels airport together with Najim Laachraoui. The quoted source was the official surveillance camera.
Khalif allegedly committed the suicide attack at the metro station. So why was he walking together with his brother at the airport? The airport was closed down immediately after the bomb explosions. The Prosecutor’s press release (March 23) quoted above gives a superficial explanation.
In this regard, several media changed their stories, first Khalif died at the airport as the second kamikaze. The media subsequently clarified quoting The Belgian Federal Prosecutor “that one detonated at the airport and the other at the Maelbeek metro station.”
In a subsequent statement emanating from the Prosecutor’s office, Najim is confirmed as the second kamikaze at the airport. In turn, media reports then confirmed that Najim Laachraoui was the second attacker at the Zaventem Airport. Subsequent reports confirm the death of Ibrahim and Najim at the airport, without any substantiating evidence.
According to Le Monde “a second man, carrying a large bag, was seen on CCTV in the Brussels metro with Khalid el-Bakraoui” (quoted in the Guardian ).
News reports say that “authorities identified” brothers Khalid el-Bakraoui, 27, and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 30 as the suicide (Kamikaze) bombers.” Ibrahim el-Bakraoui died at Zaventem Airport while Khalid el-Bakraoui died at the Maelbeek Metro Station”
But where is the evidence, where are the bodies? Has a post mortem been conducted which confirms the identity of the kamikaze bombers.
Ibrahim’s Computer and Will Found in a Rubbish Bin
According to the Prosecutor’s press release, a computer was found abandoned in a rubbish bin contained the will of Ibrahim. This was discovered thanks to the testimony of the taxi driver who took Ibrahim to the airport. in addition to the explosives, a flag of the Islamic State was also found.
The text of the alleged will (testament) is not available.
Some media call it a “letter”. From what has been released to the media, the alleged will does not say anything. In fact it is not a will but a text focusing on Ibrahim’s personal fears. Daesh is not mentioned, neither is the planned bomb attack.
Suspects were Known to Police and Intelligence
What is of significance is that all the suspects were on the radar of police and intelligence.
The two el-Bakraoui brothers “were already being sought by police due to suspected links to the November terror attacks in Paris.”
Ironically, Brussels police categorizes Ibrahim as unknown suspect (suspect inconnu)
Unknown suspects at Zaventem airport?
Not only were the suspects known to police authorities, the government had advanced information, foreknowledge of a possible attack in Brussels:
“The Belgian security services, as well as other Western intelligence agencies, had advance and precise intelligence warnings regarding the terrorist attacks in Belgium on Tuesday, Ha’aretz has learned. The security services knew, with a high degree of certainty, that attacks were planned in the very near future for the airport and, apparently, for the subway as well.” (Haaretz, March 23, 2016)
EU Emergency Response Drill Simulating a Terror Attack in a Metro Station Held Three Weeks Before the Attacks
Three weeks before the Brussels attacks, an EU terror emergency drill was held in the UK, simulating an attack on the London underground tube. Seven countries including Belgium participated in the exercise.
Is it relevant?
“Exercise allows workers to practice skills they would need in the event of a major disaster such as terror attack”.
Source Daily Mail
Copyright © Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2016
Illegal settlers celebrate Purim after cold-blooded murder of Palestinian youths
International Solidarity Movement | March 24, 2016
Hebron, Occupied West Bank – On the 24th March, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) celebrated the holiday of ‘Purim’. The settlers marched through the Old City of al-Khalil, starting off from the spot where just a few hours before, Israeli forces gunned down two Palestinian youth and then executed one of them in cold blood.
In the morning, Israeli forces shot and severely injured two Palestinian youth in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and then left them lying on the ground seriously injured while Israeli medics were attending to a slightly injured Israeli soldier. Palestinian ambulances, that are not allowed to drive on this road that is only for settlers use, were prevented by Israeli forces from reaching the injured Palestinian youth. In a video published by B’Tselem, a soldier can clearly be seen shooting one of the youth in the head at point-blank range even though he is lying on the ground and is not posing a threat to anyone.
Only a few hours after this extrajudical execution, settlers started their joyous march, dressed up in costumes, with music blasting from a bus, dancing in the same spot where the two Palestinians were murdered in cold blood.
Illegal settlers celebrating in the exact spot where two Palestinians were murdered in cold-blood
Photo credit: Youth Against Settlements
The procession of settlers then proceeded down Shuhada Street, where the main illegal Israeli settlements in the heart of the city are located, before turning towards the Ibrahimi mosque. Shuhada Street, except for a tiny strip, has been completely closed for Palestinians, who are not allowed to even walk there – unlike the illegal settlers who can walk and drive. When the march reached the vicinity of Ibrahimi mosque, Israeli forces started closing off the area to all Palestinians, physically pushing back children behind barriers and preventing Palestinians from accessing the area, even if they were residents, in order to create a space free of Palestinians for the celebrations of the settlers to take place.
Settler children. One drinking wine, one holstering a machine gun and another aiming a pistol at onlookers
Israeli settlers celebrating while Palestinians are denied walking down the street
Palestinians and Internationals are not allowed to pass
One of the settlers, of which many were dressed up in costumes, was seen in a shirt flashing a raised fist on a yellow background, which is the symbol of the ‘Kach’, a party of extremist Israeli fundamentalist settlers, deemed a terrorist group even by the Israeli government. The party was founded by Meir Kahane, who publicly called for the expulsion of Palestinians and to end culture relations between Jewish and Palestinian students. On Tuesday, two days before, during celebrations for the same holiday, the loudspeakers of the Ibrahimi mosque were mis-used to broadcast hate-speech calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from al-Khalil.
Israeli settlers with a Kahane-shirt (settler in the middle)
One of the settler children dancing on top of a bus was playing with a pistol. Even though the police realized this, they merely took the weapon from him – but then gave it back shortly adfter. If a Palestinian of any age had been seen with anything resembling a weapon, the person would likely be shot immediately.
The settlers’ celebrations kept going uninterrupted with Israeli forces ensuring that Palestinians would not cross the way of the settlers, forcing them to stay back, and even closing Ibrahimi mosque checkpoint to ensure no one would even come close.
Palestinian civilians stopped by Israeli forces after they opened the street for Palestinians again while settlers freely pass the checkpoint
Israeli forces also used the roof of a Palestinian family home in the vicinity of the mosque as a look-out point. This is just another small example of the impunity and supremacy settlers enjoy with the active support of the Israeli forces, while Palestinians are systematically humiliated, oppressed and killed in cold blood under the Israeli military occupation.
US imposes more sanctions on Iran for ballistic missile program
Press TV – March 24, 2016
The US Department of the Treasury has imposed financial sanctions on two more Iranian companies for allegedly supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Washington’s latest legal move against Tehran was announced on Thursday, weeks after the United States imposed similar sanctions on 11 other companies and individuals alleged to be involved in the missile program.
The latest measures cut off Iran’s Shahid Nuri Industries and Shahid Movahed Industries from international finance.
The United States said the companies are working for an industrial group, which Washington alleged is in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile program.
The Treasury Department also imposed restrictions on two British businessmen, Jeffrey John James Ashfield and John Edward Meadows, for doing business with Iran’s Mahan Air.
Washington has accused the private airline of transporting funds and arms for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
“We will continue to use all of our tools to counteract Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for terrorism [sic], including through sanctions,” said US Treasury official Adam J. Szubin in a statement.
Earlier on Thursday, the US Justice Department charged seven Iranians with coordinating a campaign of cyber attacks on dozens of American banks and a dam in New York state from 2011 to 2013.
The indictment described the suspects as “experienced computer hackers” who live in Iran and may have been working on behalf of the Iranian government.
On March 9, the IRGC successfully test-fired two more ballistic missiles as part of its military drills. The missiles dubbed Qadr-H and Qadr-F were fired during large-scale drills, code-named Eqtedar-e-Velayat.
The US claimed the tests violate a UN resolution. Russia, however, said the missile launches did not violate any UN resolution, and opposed the imposition of any new sanctions on Iran over the tests.
The US imposed sanctions on 11 companies and individuals for supplying Iran’s ballistic missile program after a series of missile tests last year.
The Iranian missile program “is totally for peaceful purposes and no measure can strip the Islamic Republic of Iran of its legitimate and legal right to boost its defensive capabilities and [safeguard] national security,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said on Thursday.
He said that Iran’s missile program is solely for protecting the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as combating terrorism and extremism, emphasizing that the country’s military might serves regional and global interests.
On January 16, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order lifting US economic sanctions on Iran.
Obama’s move came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran has implemented its commitments made in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and announced to remove international economic sanctions against the country.
Iran and the P5+1 – the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany – finalized the text of the JCPOA in Vienna, Austria, on July 14, 2015.
Under the agreement, limits are put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related economic and financial bans against the Islamic Republic.
Murder Epidemic Halts Colombia’s Peace Process
By W. T. Whitney | CounterPunch | March 24, 2016
Paramilitaries and armed thugs have long sullied politics in Latin America, most notably in Colombia and recently in Honduras. A recent increase in politically motivated killings in Colombia coincided with final preparations for signing a peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government, at war for 50 years. The much anticipated accord never materialized.
In Honduras the murder of longtime environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres caps a wave of killings there of journalists, teachers, women, and especially of agrarian rights activists.
Governments and private parties serving predatory interests evidently regard terror at the hands of thugs or paramilitary forces as useful for maintaining dominion. Colombia’s paramilitary phenomenon warrants a look now because paramilitary attacks have brought Colombia’s peace process to a halt. Fortunately documentation of paramilitary offenses in Colombia provides much by way of details and particulars, more so than in Honduras, for instance. That’s because Colombian paramilitaries have long met resistance and gained special notoriety.
On March 23, after 40 months of talks in Havana, negotiators on both sides in the Colombian peace talks were to have announced a “Final Agreement,” one covering five agenda items they had set out to discuss. But an impasse developed over the last one, designated as “end of conflict.” It entails a “bilateral and definitive cease of fire and hostilities” and laying down arms.
FARC negotiators held back; an epidemic of killings during March revived long-held FARC concerns about the safety of ex-guerrillas in a time of peace. Others worry too.
The Executive Committee of the Patriotic Union (UP), a leftist political party, reported March 18 that in the previous three weeks “unknown armed men,” presumably paramilitaries, had carried out 11 politically motivated killings and “disappeared” three other people – whose bodies were found later.
Speaking to reporters, Aída Avella, the UP president, accused business leaders of financing the resurgence of paramilitaries. She also accused military leaders of being “immersed” in paramilitary operations. Avella herself went into foreign exile for 17 years in 1996 after a rocket destroyed the car in which she was a passenger.
In an open letter to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Andrés Gil, a leader of the Patriotic March, condemned the assassinations. “[I]f we continue to be killed,” he wrote, “then the conclusion will be that really there’s no room for anyone on the left…. You will pass into history not as the president for peace but as the one who didn’t take the fight against paramilitaries seriously.”
Referring to the flood of paramilitary victims, the FARC peace delegation released a statement asking, “How can this be in the midst of a peace process now approaching the signing of a final accord?” Colombian authorities, the FARC said, “can no longer delay clearing away the phenomenon of paramilitarism.”
The FARC has reason to be alarmed. Many FARC guerrillas left the insurgency in 1985 in accordance with an agreement signed with President Belisario Betancur. They engaged in electoral politics as candidates for the UP party. That provoked a massacre; some say almost 5000 UP activists have since been murdered.
FARC negotiator Carlos Antonio Lozada may have been thinking of that experience when he told reporters March14 that, “[W]e have to take measures to avoid being betrayed and attacked as happened in the past.” He noted that the government recently dismissed a technical sub-commission report, already agreed upon, calling for “a bilateral and definitive ceasefire.”
The FARC negotiating team took the occasion of Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit with them on March 21 to seek help in regard to the paramilitary problem. Kerry had accompanied President Obama on his historic visit to Cuba. The negotiators released a communication saying, “Mr. Kerry, we ask through you that the United States help curb paramilitary violence, which in the midst of the peace process keeps mowing down the lives of defenders of human rights and social leaders.”
The request is not without irony. The United States provides funds for the Colombian army, known to facilitate paramilitary operations. And in the early 1960s U.S. military experts advised the Colombian government to utilize paramilitaries to augment its campaign then of pushing back against leftist guerrillas.
In a joint press conference February 4 with President Santos in Washington, President Obama introduced a U. S. plan called “Peace Colombia.” The two leaders had met to celebrate the upcoming peace accord and the end after 15 years of Plan Colombia, that U.S. mechanism for supporting counterinsurgency and drug-war efforts in Colombia.
For Voz newspaper editor Carlos Lozano, the name of the new venture signifies a “Pax Romana, or peace of the graveyard.” He lamented that “within Peace Colombia there’s not one entry for combating paramilitarism, which is the principal obstacle to peace in Colombia.”
Trivializing the FARC and thereby perhaps signaling the guerrillas’ irrelevance in a Colombia at peace, the New York Times recently headlined a reporter’s story thus: “Inside a Rebel Camp in Colombia, Marx and Free Love Reign.” It celebrated the collapse of communism by likening the supposed decline of the FARC to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
To the extent that such triumphalism extends to official U.S. attitudes, prospects for peace in Colombia are diminished.
Nevertheless, neither Colombia’s government nor the United States will likely have the final say in regard to disruptions at the hands of paramilitaries. Other forces, powerful and based on realities, are in play, and have been. A voice on their behalf is heard from, of all places, inside prison.
Political prisoner Húbert Ballesteros joined the Communist Party and Patriotic Union in 1986. More recently he’s been a leader of both the Fensuagro agricultural workers’ union and the CUT labor federation. Writing on March 12, he reflects upon “the killings in Antioquia, Sur de Bolívar, Arauca, Bogotá, and Cauca; the jailing of social leaders in Cauca, and the spread of paramilitary bands the length and breadth of the country.” According to Ballesteros, “We can no longer continue assuming that this oligarchy wants peace [other than] a cheap peace, a silencing of the guns.”
He knows what to do: “[W]hile we are building scenarios of peace, we must organize the people for resistance, and do so massively and convincingly so that this government understands that people are no longer content to live under its domination.” We must deal with “the true problems of the country, which are unemployment, poverty, corruption, and social and political marginalization.”
W.T. Whitney Jr. is a retired pediatrician and political journalist living in Maine.
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Does Kevin Barrett Seek to “Absolve Islam of a Terrible Crime”?
The Kevin Barrett-Chomsky Dispute in Historical Perspective – Last part of the series titled “9/11 and the Zionist Question”
By Prof. Tony Hall | American Herald Tribune | August 28, 2016
Amidst his litany of condemnations, Jonathan Kay reserves some of his most vicious and vitriolic attacks for Kevin Barrett. For instance Kay harshly criticizes Dr. Barrett’s published E-Mail exchange in 2008 with Prof. Chomsky. In that exchange Barrett castigates Chomsky for not going to the roots of the event that “doubled the military budget overnight, stripped Americans of their liberties and destroyed their Constitution.” The original misrepresentations of 9/11, argues Barrett, led to further “false flag attacks to trigger wars, authoritarianism and genocide.”
In Among The Truthers Kay tries to defend Chomsky against Barrett’s alleged “personal obsession” with “vilifying” the MIT academic. Kay objects particularly to Barrett’s “final salvo” in the published exchange where the Wisconsin public intellectual accuses Prof. Chomsky of having “done more to keep the 9/11 blood libel alive, and cause the murder of more than a million Muslims than any other single person.” … continue
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