Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan | 

MLK Jr.’s birthday, the racist filibuster

 and the fight for voting rights

By AMY GOODMAN and DENIS MOYNIHAN |
January 16, 2022 

U.S. democracy is in crisis, as Republican supporters of the January 6 Capitol insurrection restrict or even eliminate democracy’s core tenet of one person, one vote. Former President Donald Trump is driving democracy’s demise, spouting the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him through massive voter fraud. Countless audits, over 60 court cases and both Democratic and Republican state secretaries of state confirmed President Joe Biden trounced Trump by over 7 million votes.

Nevertheless, Republican shills up and down the party power structure, from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to operatives at the state and local level, have embraced Trump’s Big Lie, ramping up voter suppression, gerrymandering and the use of dark money to ensure they can grab power and hold it indefinitely, even as the GOP is shrinking as a share of the electorate.

Two bills are currently before the Senate to stop this slide into authoritarianism: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Similar versions have already passed in the House. Senate Democrats must first overcome Republican filibusters, though. The filibuster has long been used to derail civil-rights legislation in the Senate, and now is no different.

It normally takes 60 of the 100 senators to defeat a filibuster, currently an insurmountable barrier in the face of Republican opposition. Democrats could use a targeted override of the filibuster, a “carve-out,” which would need the votes of all 50 members of the Senate Democratic caucus along with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. But two conservative Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have indicated they likely won’t support the maneuver.
“Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace,” President Joe Biden asked at a speech Wednesday in Atlanta, advocating for the temporary filibuster override needed to advance these voting rights bills. “Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”



Bull Connor was the brutal, white supremacist commissioner of public safety in Birmingham, Alabama, during most of the civil-rights era. Biden’s reference to Connor echoed a Nation Magazine article written by Martin Luther King, Jr., in March, 1964, as activists were pushing passage of the Civil Rights Act:

“As had been foreseen, the bill survived intact in the House. It has now moved to the Senate, where a legislative confrontation reminiscent of Birmingham impends. Bull Connor became a weight too heavy for the conscience of Birmingham to bear. There are men in the Senate who now plan to perpetuate the injustices Bull Connor so ignobly defended. His weapons were the high-pressure hose, the club and the snarling dog; theirs is the filibuster. If America is as revolted by them as it was by Bull Connor, we shall emerge with a victory.”

The essay appeared four months after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and nine months before King received the Nobel Peace Prize.

“It is not too much to ask, 101 years after the Emancipation, that Senators who must meet the challenge of filibuster do so in the spirit of the heroes of Birmingham,” King continued in that piece, invoking the powerful memory of the four young African American girls killed in the racist bombing of The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963, and two more youth killed in rioting that immediately followed. “There could be no more fitting tribute to the children of Birmingham than to have the Senate for the first time in history bury a civil-rights filibuster. The dead children cannot be restored, but living children can be given a life. The assassins who still walk the streets will still be unpunished, but at least they will be defeated.”

That filibuster eventually failed, and the Civil Rights Act became law, followed by the monumental Voting Rights Act of 1965. The VRA revolutionized African American political participation in the U.S., especially in the Deep South. The right wing never stopped attacking it. Two recent Supreme Court decisions, Shelby v. Holder in 2013 and Brnovich v. the DNC in 2021, gutted the VRA, unleashing a flood of gerrymandering and laws designed to reduce voter turnout, disenfranchising millions of voters from Democratic-leaning urban centers and other communities of color.



“Frederick Douglass told us a long time ago: ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand,'” Georgia-based activist Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said Thursday on the Democracy Now! news hour. As we mark what would have been Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 93rd birthday, now is the time to demand that the U.S. Senate override the Jim Crow filibuster and pass meaningful voting rights legislation.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV and radio news hour airing on more than 1,400 stations. She is the co-author, with Denis Moynihan and David Goodman, of the New York Times best-seller “Democracy Now!: 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America.”

Ukraine points to threat of chemical pollution in Donbas due to Russia

According to the report of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, there is a threat of chemical pollution in parts of Donbas controlled by the militants. Kyiv believes that Russia can use the environmental disaster as a pretext for new aggression against Ukraine.

Ukrainian intelligence claims that “the Russian occupation administration has lost control over chemicals” brought into Donbas.

“According to Ukraine’s military intelligence, on January 14, tanks with ammonia were delivered to the PJSC “Concern Stirol” occupied by Russian troops in Horlivka, from which poisonous substances are leaking into the atmosphere due to the breach of airtightness.”

“The technogenic disaster caused by the actions of the Russian occupants can be used to accuse Ukraine of using poisonous chemicals and as a pretext to expand armed aggression against our state,” the official report of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s SDC reads.

belsat.eu

Majlis Podcast: Making Sense Of The Worst Unrest In Kazakhstan's History

January 16, 2022

By Muhammad Tahir
Bruce Pannier

A detail of a public monument in Almaty depicting Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, which was smeared with mud during the recent protests.

The first days of 2022 saw protests in the western part of Kazakhstan over a sharp increase in the price for fuel that spread across the country and evolved into manifestations of anti-government sentiment that became the biggest threat Kazakh authorities have faced since the country became independent in late 1991.

But the peaceful protests were infiltrated and turned violent in some areas, a turn of events that seems connected to a power struggle in the Kazakh government.

President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said foreign-trained "terrorists" were behind the violence and called on the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization to send troops to help restore order, and the nearly 30-year-old CSTO did send troops for the first time in its existence.

The official number of people killed in Kazakhstan during the violence was 225 as of January 14. Additionally, more than 4,500 people were injured, and more than 10,000 people were detained.

On this week's Majlis podcast, RFE/RL's media-relations manager, Muhammad Tahir, moderates a discussion that looks at how one of Central Asia’s seemingly most stable countries was suddenly torn apart.

This week's guests are: from Washington, the former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, William Courtney; from Kazakhstan’s capital (which is still called Nur-Sultan at the moment), Aliya Tlegenova, a researcher at Paperlab, a Kazakhstan-based policy research center; Darkhan Umirbekov, a senior correspondent with RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service, known locally as Radio Azattyq; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

Picketers who protested against Russian troops in Kazakhstan detained and tried in Moscow

2022.01.08 15:44

On January 7, several people protesting the involvement of Russian troops in Kazakhstan were detained in Moscow. Activist Alexander Zimbovsky, who was arrested on January 6, was sentenced to 15 days in jail, according to the Russian human rights resource OVD-Info.

Russian human rights activists say that Arshak Makichyan was detained on January 7 near the monument to Kazakh poet Abai Kunanbayev. He was picketing against the involvement of Russian troops in Kazakhstan.

Later it emerged that not far from the Kazakhstan embassy in Moscow, the police detained two underage girls who wanted to attach to the embassy building posters with inscriptions “Shal, ket! (“Old Man, go away!”) and “CSTO, ket!” (“CSTO, go away!”).

It is also reported that Russian activist Alexander Zimbovsky, who was detained while picketing on January 6, was sentenced to 15 days in jail for allegedly disobeying the police.

belsat.eu

Belarus authorities start detaining

people for comments praising protesters in Kazakhstan

2022.01.07 

On Friday, pro-Lukashenka Telegram channels have reported the detention of a Belarusian citizen who left a comment praising Kazakh protesters on Telegram.

“It’s great, well done Kazakhs, we need them here [in Belarus],” the man wrote.

In the so called repentant video filmed by the Belarusian police, the detainee says that he published a post about the events in Kazakhstan on the Telegram channel listed as ‘extremist’ by the Belarusian authorities. He said that he wanted Kazakhs to come to Belarus and do the same in our country, i.e. exhibit a bright example of protesting.

It is still unknown what the man has been charged with and where he is being kept.

The unrest in Kazakhstan broke out on January 2. Since then, the protesters drew a cut in fuel prices from the authorities (previously, they had been raised twice), then the government stepped down, and finally, the Kazakh people saw the ultimate resignation of Nursultan Nazarbayev come true.

On the night of January 6, Armenia’s Prime Minister and Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council Nikol Pashinyan announced that the Collective Security Treaty Organisation decided to send ‘peacekeeping forces’ to Kazakhstan for ‘a limited period of time’ on the back of the appeal of Kazakh President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev. Pro-Lukashenka government confirmed the involvement of the Belarusian troops.

Gulagu.net: Looting in Kazakhstan organized by authorities

2022.01.07 03:51

Citing own sources in the Russian FSB, the Russian Gulagu.net initiative reported that in Kazakhstan security forces used prisoners to discredit the protest and obtain grounds for the entry of Russian troops.

“From the very beginning, the special services of Russia and Kazakhstan planned to implement a hybrid scenario of a soft takeover of Kazakhstan by Russia under the pretext of ‘allied assistance,'” the report said.

According to the report, as soon as “the protest reached a dominant level in relation to the security forces, prisoners from Kazakh jails were involved. They had been released for the purpose of organizing pogroms and looting. At the same time, some of them had already been eliminated by the security forces.

“But they fulfilled their task perfectly: there are a lot of documented facts of looting, there is evidence of attacks on law enforcement agencies, there are facts of brutal reprisals against law enforcement officers, there are corpses with severed heads and video for the archive with the process of severing. This gives the necessary justification for sending in external forces, it demoralizes ordinary protesters, it turns a political protest into a palatable form of pogroms, it shows the security forces that the beast is against them, it blocks the social empathy of undecided Kazakhs to the process of protest,” says the letter published on Gulagu.net.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization recently announced the beginning of a “peacekeeping mission” in Kazakhstan. The military will help the head of state, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, to fight the mass protests which began on January 2.

The “peacekeepers” included fighters of Russian airborne troops, as well as soldiers from Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

belsat.eu

Questions persist over Kazakh version of deadly unrest

AFP 

As the dust settles on lethal clashes in Kazakhstan that prompted authorities to call in Russian-led troops, questions are mounting over the authoritarian government's handling of the unprecedented crisis.

© Handout Russian troops are returniNg home after order was restored in Kazakhstan

© Stanislav FILIPPOV Former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev shakes hands with his hand-picked successor President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in this 2019 file picture

While President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has pinned the blame on bandits and foreign militants, many ordinary people question the official storyline.

© Handout Many ordinary people question the official storyline after the sweeping unrest in Kazakhstan

Following days of internet shutdown, prosecutors announced late Saturday the unrest that began with peaceful protests over energy price hikes had left 225 people dead, including 19 law enforcement and military personnel.

But many stress that a number of issues remain unexplained.

It is unclear why so many civilians died, and who the "foreign terrorists" the government blames for the violence are.

And where is Tokayev's mentor and predecessor, 81-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has not been heard from since last year?

Dauren Bitkembayev, 30, who lost his elderly parents in the unrest, told AFP he needs answers.

He and others want to know why gun attacks on civilian cars in the country's largest city occurred even after the military had appeared to restore order.

A video shared on social media shows a car engulfed in flames close to barriers put up by the military. Inside the vehicle were a retired postal service worker and a former teacher, Bitkembayev's late parents.

© Alexandr BOGDANOV There are doubts the authorities will ever tell the truth about the unprecedented violence in Kazakhstan

"It looks like military shot (the car) up... and we thought (violence) was over," the eyewitness, who filmed the burning car, can be heard saying.

"Everyone is saying it was the army (who fired). I don't understand," said Bitkembayev, who works in a pawn shop ransacked by looters during the upheaval.

© Nikolay KORZHOV IMAGES Planes with Russian troops take off from Almaty on Saturday. Their withdrawal comes after President Vladimir Putin said their mission to quell protests that turned into unprecedented violence in the Central Asian country has ended.

"Were they blind? They could see it was a grandfather and a grandmother -- what kind of looters or terrorists could they be?" Bitkembayev asked.

- 'Susceptible to propaganda' -

Some doubt the authorities will ever tell the whole truth.

Daniyar Moldabekov, a commentator and political reporter, said society was polarised.

"With internet shut down, some turned out to be too susceptible to propaganda ready to believe that everyone who has been out on the streets is a terrorist and villain," he told AFP.

"Others understand that a lot of civilians died, there are a lot of innocent people in prisons, and instances of torture have been reported."

The government has offered detailed accounts of how members of law enforcement died but provided little evidence proving the involvement of "foreign terrorists".

Rights activists have been putting together a list of hundreds of people detained, killed or missing.

It has taken authorities days to release an official death toll.

Kazakhstan had initially acknowledged fewer than 50 fatalities. A higher mortality count of 164 had been quickly retracted last week. On Saturday, officials said 225 had died.

Over 12,000 people have been detained since the unrest erupted in early January, including journalists and rights activists.

Internet has been returned to the vast country after a blackout that lasted close to a week in Almaty, but establishing facts on the ground remains difficult.

Outside morgues in Almaty, relatives of people suspected to have been killed stood on the street, waiting for information and a chance to bury their loved ones.

Three men from the eastern city of Semey told AFP security service representatives had warned them not to speak to journalists.

In a car parked behind an AFP car, two bulky men appeared to be monitoring the scene.

- 'Terrorist threat' -

Official attempts to highlight foreign involvement have met with particular controversy.

Days after the violence peaked in early January, pro-government television showed a man from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan with cuts and bruises on his face, appearing to confess to accepting money to participate in unrest.

But he was quickly identified by the public as a well-known jazz musician.

Pianist Vikram Ruzakhunov was eventually allowed to return home. In a guarded media appearance, he attributed the bruises on his face to "a harsh arrest".

Russia has defended the official version of events.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called Ruzakhunov's arrest "an isolated case that does not give rise to doubts about the seriousness of the terrorist threat".

But many commentators saw an example of long-standing law enforcement excesses that have intensified during the state of emergency.

The police state championed by pro-government media is "returning us to a past that we are trying to flee from," said Alisher Yelikbayev, a businessman and popular blogger.

The government's explanation for the unrest is muddied by a high-stakes power struggle.

Rights activist Galym Ageleuov said Tokayev's "loud declarations" of international "terrorist" involvement in a coup attempt helped justify the decision to invite troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

Authorities later announced the arrests on coup-plotting charges of a former national security chief close to Nazarbayev and two of his deputies.

This week, Tokayev -- who was handpicked by Nazarbayev to take over the presidency in 2019 -- criticised his mentor for failing to share the country's vast wealth with ordinary people, a development unimaginable just weeks ago.

"It has become clear that power in Kazakhstan is not monolithic," said commentator Moldabekov.

"Not only have citizens got questions for the 'elites', but they also have questions for each other."

cr/as/bp

The 'Green City' of Freiburg: Is this Germany's future?

Climate Minister Robert Habeck wants to make Germany climate-neutral by 2045. The southern city of Freiburg is already close to achieving his vision.



Freiburg, Germany's "Green City"

When Robert Habeck's election campaign came to Freiburg on September 10, 2021, he was very much on home ground. The Green Party's motto is "Ready – because you are." So where better than this Green stronghold to take the lead on sustainability and help Germany achieve climate neutrality as quickly as possible?

In 2008, the Black Forest city of Freiburg (population: 230,000) rather grandiosely adopted the title of "Green City." It likes to describe itself as the environmental capital of Germany. With 1,800 hours of sunshine a year, this southwestern city is a big promoter of solar energy, in line with Habeck's plans.

It already boasts a great many showcase projects: Freiburg's new city hall was one of the first in the world to be conceived as a zero-energy building, with 800 solar panels on the facade. The new soccer stadium has a world-beating solar installation on the stadium roof. The archdiocese of Freiburg aims to be the first in Germany to reduce the church's CO2 emissions to zero.

As the new climate protection minister, Robert Habeck wants to make Germany climate-neutral by 2045. And, as so often, Freiburg is ahead of the game: It hopes to achieve this seven years earlier, in 2038.

Freiburg: solar energy pioneer

Franziska Breyer works in the climate neutrality department at the Environmental Protection Office. She's probably one of the best people to explain how Freiburg has come to lead the field on climate protection. A trained forester, and a child of the anti-nuclear movement, she will be setting out Freiburg's climate protection policy to other cities as part of an online conference on Monday. "We're one of the top ten cities in Germany in our commitment to climate protection," Breyer says.

"Climate protection is not just an environmental issue; it must be taken into consideration at all levels" - Franziska Breyer

From 2023 onward, Freiburg intends to pump €12 million ($13.7 million) a year into additional climate protection measures, regardless of the budget constraints resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Robert Habeck wants to make it a requirement for commercial buildings in Germany to be fitted with solar panels. In the state of Baden-Württemberg, where Freiburg is located, this is already obligatory.

The city is also creating a new neighborhood. The Dietenbach district in western Freiburg will provide homes for around 15,000 people – climate-neutral homes, of course. "Nothing will be burned there anymore; no biomass, no pellets, no oil, no gas," Breyer explains. "The whole district will be heated by heat pumps and waste heat from a sewage canal, and the energy will be supplied by photovoltaic panels."
More cyclists than drivers

As with so many of her fellow Freiburgers, climate protection is in Breyer's DNA. She proudly reports that Lonely Planet, the well-known publisher of travel guides, puts Freiburg at number 3 on its list of top travel destinations for 2022, just after Auckland and Taipei. "The charismatic, environmentally conscious Black Forest metropolis can show many of us a few more tricks on how to live responsibly," it reports.

Watch video 10:31 Seeing Freiburg by Bike and Longboard

Breyer illustrates one of these tricks with a diagram about the modal split, or mobility behavior. 40 years ago, just 15% of Freiburg's residents used bicycles as their main mode of transport. Now, it's one in three. Over the same period, the proportion of car drivers dropped from 39% to 21%. "That puts us ahead of all other German cities. But we still have too many cars being registered – we still have too many cars."
Vauban: a model neighborhood in the model city

Take the streetcar from the city center, head south for quarter of an hour, and you'll get a taste of how well city life can function almost without cars. Freiburg's model district of Vauban was built on the site of a former French barracks, named after an architect who worked for the French Sun King, Louis XIV. The lifestyle enjoyed by its 5,600 inhabitants for more than 20 years may soon become the German standard.

Almost car-free: Freiburg's model district of Vauban

Vauban is Freiburg times ten: even greener, even more ecological, even more bicycle-friendly. There are brightly colored "passive" (ultra-low-energy) houses with solar panels on the roof, while a wood-fired thermal power plant supplies all the residents with electricity. Vauban has wide pavements and cycle paths, as well as designated play streets – a paradise for children. The few residents who own cars literally hide them in one of the two parking garages on the outskirts. At Expo 2010 in Shanghai, Vauban was named one of the 60 best neighborhoods in the world to live in.
Excellent transport links, and everything within reach

Andreas Konietzny was one of the first residents. The Düsseldorf-born architect moved to Vauban in 2001 and has never regretted it. "My sister was living in California at the time; once, when she was visiting, she made a note of how many steps she took to get to the supermarket, the stream, the elementary school. Her American friends didn't believe her when she told them it felt as if everything here was only 400 meters away. There, you have to get in the car to do everything."

Architect Andreas Konietzny enjoys the peace and quiet of life in car-free Vauban

In this neighborhood of short distances, which has everything except cars, Konietzny shares a car with another family. It's parked in the underground garage 300 meters from his house, and sometimes it waits for him there for weeks. Streetcar number 3 goes right to the city center – one every minute. Every year Vauban is visited by tens of thousands of tourists from all over the world. They like to stay at the sustainable Green City Hotel, which has plants climbing the outside walls and interiors decorated with local wood.
The cost of a climate protection paradise

However, there is a downside to the dream of an exemplary green life in Freiburg and Vauban, and it should not be underestimated. It's incredibly expensive. Only in Munich and Frankfurt do tenants pay out more in rent than they do in Freiburg. The main criticism of the German climate protection minister's ambitious proposals is that, for many Germans, they're simply unaffordable.

Children's adventure playground in Vauban: The district has one of the highest populations of children in Germany.

Vauban does now have some blocks of affordable student housing, but the majority of residents fit the pattern of well-heeled, well-educated, environmentally aware citizens. "A lot of teachers and architects, like me, live here now, and the flip side of this is gentrification," says Konietzny. "In the beginning, there was a different mix of residents. It's sad to see that people with less money can't afford to live here anymore."
Can Germany do more on climate protection?

Rolf Disch has been eagerly awaiting Robert Habeck's climate protection initiative for a very long time. A pioneer of solar technology, an award-winning architect and visionary, his office in Vauban is in a building fittingly named the Sun Ship.

The "Sun Ship" office building in Vauban, designed by the architect and solar technology pioneer Rolf Disch

Disch, now 77, is every bit as passionate about the transition to renewable energy as he was in the 1980s, when he developed the world's first solar recharging station, became a world champion solar car driver, and drove across Australia in his 100%-solar-powered vehicle. "I've been saying for a long time that Germany could be climate neutral as early as 2030, if it wanted to be," he points out.
Political fiasco in the solar industry

From his balcony, Disch gazes down proudly on the 59 colorful wooden houses that make up Vauban's Solar Settlement – his baby. They're all "PlusEnergy" houses, a design the architect came up with in 1994, meaning that they produce more energy than they use. It's quite shocking to see how advanced Germany was in terms of climate protection almost 30 years ago, yet how carelessly it squandered this advantage. It was only recently that PlusEnergy houses were awarded the highest level of subsidy: €37,500 per residential unit.

"People always describe it as paradise when cars are deprived of their dominance in a neighborhood. So why don't they build more paradises?" - Rolf Disch (left)

Ask Rolf Disch about Germany's climate protection efforts, and he gets very worked up. He has been pleading with politicians for decades to increase their focus on renewable energies. He takes out a petition in favor of PlusEnergy that he sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel 12 years ago: It garnered 4,500 signatures.

However, this too had no success. On the contrary: In 2012, the German government decided to curtail support for photovoltaics, and the market collapsed by 80%. "They destroyed an entire industry and thousands of jobs," says Disch. "We almost collapsed here in Freiburg, too – despite being a world leader in solar technology. To this day I still don't understand it."

Watch video0 7:34 Clean and cheap: Solar's winning formula

PlusEnergy houses still far from standard

But Disch has bounced back. He's currently working on his next project: Four PlusEnergy houses, comprising a total of 83 apartments, are being built in nearby Schallstadt, south-west of Freiburg – financed by Disch himself. "I don't yet know how this is going to work economically, how it will pay for itself. We're doing it because we believe in it."

It's this kind of conviction that is all too often lacking, Disch believes – even in the city of Freiburg. He's a bit like a teacher who isn't satisfied when his student gets a B because he didn't do everything in his power to get top marks. "The environmental protection office really does mean well," Disch says. "But you don't get the feeling it's doing everything it could. Even here in Vauban, it was more a case of the people carrying the city along with them."

Germany still investing in climate-hostile technologies

Freiburg may be an exemplary student when it comes to climate protection, but in Disch's view there's still a lot more it could do. The architect stresses that construction and housing should be a main focus, as this sector accounts for 40% of total energy consumption. If Rolf Disch could give Robert Habeck one piece of advice, he would tell him to be even more radical in pushing ahead with the energy transition – and to cut ties with industries that stand for the past rather than the future.

Determined to bring down greenhouse gas emissions: Germany's minister for climate action, Robert Habeck

"In Wismar, the federal government wants to spend €600 million on saving a shipyard from insolvency, so it can build cruise ships. This is nonsense!" Disch declares. "Once one of those things gets underway, it requires vast amounts of energy. We urgently need that workforce to build solar and wind energy plants and renovate houses instead."

Verdict expected in German journalist's trial in Turkey as free press withers

A verdict is expected in the trial of a German journalist arrested in Turkey on terrorism-related charges. It comes as journalists critical of the government find it increasingly difficult to carry out their work.


Mesale Tolu, who was arrested on terrorism-related charges is confident of being acquitted

Mesale Tolu, who was arrested in Turkey in 2017 on terrorism-related charges and is facing trial, is confident that justice will done when the court hands down its verdict on Monday.

"I expect to be acquitted on both counts," she told DW. "But if the outcome was different, I wouldn't be surprised either," the journalist added. In her opinion, the Turkish judiciary is unpredictable. Her chances of getting acquitted are good because the prosecutor has called for that verdict in his plea and experts believe that the evidence against her is very flimsy.

Detained in Istanbul in 2017

In April 2017, Mesale Tolu was arrested by heavily armed anti-terror units in Istanbul. "I was violently detained before the eyes of my son," she can still recall today. Tolu, who was born in Ulm in southern Germany, spent more than seven months behind bars — five months of those with her two-year-old son. In 2018, she was allowed to leave for Germany.

Tolu had been working as a translator for a left-wing news agency when she was arrested. She and her co-defendants were accused of "membership in a far-left terror organization and spreading terrorism propaganda."

Now, five years on, Tolu finally wants closure. She wants to look ahead and fully focus on her work as a journalist with the German newspaper Schwäbische Zeitung.
34 journalists behind bars

Tolu's is not an isolated case. The Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) says there are currently 34 journalists in Turkish jails, most of whom are accused of either belonging to a terror organization, insulting the president, or spreading terrorism propaganda.

Deniz Yücel, correspondent for German newspaper Die Welt, and Adil Demirci, who, like Tolu, worked for the Etha news agency, spent months in the Silivri high-security prison, near Istanbul, facing similar charges.

German journalist Deniz Yücel was imprisoned for a year in Turkey on charges of spreading "terrorism propaganda"

Erol Önderoglu from Reporters Without Borders has observed a different trend in recent years. Up to three years ago, he thought of Turkey as the biggest jail for journalists in the world. But more recently, he says, the Turkish judiciary has been allowing journalists to go free subject to certain conditions — leaving journalists restrained mentally rather than physically.

He told DW that one should not simply look at the number of journalists behind bars. Önderoglu says other instruments are frequently employed to keep journalists from doing their jobs — including confiscating their passports, regular mandatory visits to the police, suspended jail sentences, and refusing press cards and accreditation to attend events.

Worsening situation after Gezi protests

The situation for journalists in Turkey has dramatically worsened since the Gezi protests in 2013. At the time, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to oppose the government's plan to carry out construction on the much-loved Gezi Park in the heart of Istanbul at Taksim Square. Anyone who supported the demonstrations faced the prospect of sanctions, including journalists. Hundreds lost their jobs afterwards. The second big attack on press freedom followed immediately after the attempted coup on July 15, 2016. Since then hundreds of online news platforms and dozens of newspapers and TV stations have been closed down and numerous journalists detained.

In 2013, Gezi Park in Istanbul saw massive protests which snowballed into nationwide anti-government demonstrations

According to EngelliWeb, a project run by the Association for Freedom of Expression that records blocked websites, very little has changed. EngelliWeb told DW that more than 476,000 domains, 150,000 reports and 50,000 tweets had been blocked by the relevant authorities.
Unemployment tops 35%

Unemployment among journalists too has been steadily rising for years. At present, it tops 35%, the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) said at the start of the year.

To mark "Working Journalists Day," which is held each year in Turkey on January 10, TGS once more criticized working conditions for journalists. The union said January 10 had to be regarded as a day of struggle as long as journalists do not receive a fair wage, have to work under inhuman conditions, have their reports censored or a forced into self-censorship, and as long as 34 journalists are behind bars and are refused press cards.
Violence on the rise

Violence against journalists is also continuing to rise. Last year alone, 75 media representatives were attacked, according to the Progressive Journalists Association (CGD). In addition, some 219 journalists appeared before court in 179 trials and were sentenced to a combined total of 48 years and 11 months in jail.

Journalist Can Dündar, who lives in exile in Berlin, also faces the threat of a prison sentence of 27 years and six months were he to return home to Turkey. He was found guilty of alleged espionage and aiding and abetting terror in Istanbul.

Watch video 03:37 'A kind of revenge attempt' – Can Dundar speaks to DW

Heavy fines are another tool used to silence the media. In 2021 alone, the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) imposed 74 fines on national broadcasters, which have refused to pay allegiance to the governing AK Party. The state supervisory board forced broadcaster Halk TV to pay steep fines on 24 occasions; Tele 1 22 times, Fox TV 16 times, KRTV 8 times and Habertürk 4 times. The combined total amounted to 22 million Turkish Lira, or more than €1.5 million.

Activists read the Cumhurriyet newspaper in 2017 to protest the jailing of its journalists

That is an enormous sum for these broadcasters, who have been crippled by never-ending trials and are barely able to generate any advertising revenue. Businesses fear they could made to pay if they buy advertising from these stations. The proceeds for broadcasting public service and ministerial announcements go, at any rate, into the coffers of media close to the government. At the same time, the owners of those outlets are recipients of major state contracts.
Journalists declared terrorists

Sezgin Tanrikulu, human rights lawyer and a member of parliament for the biggest opposition party CHP, says attacks on the media and freedom of expression have taken on a new dimension in recent years. He says anyone who fails to kowtow to the Turkish government and tries to report independently is declared a terrorist.

The Turkish government, on the other hand, insists that press freedom is experiencing a heyday under the AK Party. To mark "Working Journalists Day," Fahrettin Altun, head of communications for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wrote that the media had benefitted over the last 20 years from development in various areas ranging from democracy to technology.

Watch video 02:59 Deniz Yücel sentence - Omid Nouripour (German Greens) speaks to DW

However, the only Turkish media organizations that have benefitted from Turkey's political and economic development are those who toe the government line — and up to 90% of those are owned by businesses with close ties to the government.

It was always Erdogan's aim, according to Tolu, to create a media loyal to the government. Luckily, she says there are still many independent journalists, though not in the mainstream media. These courageous people, she says, are doing all they can to keep reporting on what is happening in the country.

This article was translated from German.

Hawaii officials, military set plans to return drinking water to joint base

Aerial view of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, taken on July 1, 2016. The Interagency Drinking Water System Team in Hawaii announced on Friday a new process for drinking water flushing, sampling and testing to resolve concerns after a jet fuel spill last year near the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

 File Photo by Ace Rheaume/U.S. Navy/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The Interagency Drinking Water System Team in Hawaii announced on Friday a new process for drinking water flushing, sampling and testing to resolve concerns after a jet fuel spill last year near the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

The team, made up of the Hawaii Department of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, Army and the U.S. Navy, formed in December to come up with a plan to restore safe drinking water to the housing communities around the base.

Officials said the process will hopefully lead to a more complete understanding of the steps and timing being taken at each step of the process.

"Under this approach, we are ensuring that the drinking water testing is as thorough as possible, so residents can feel reassured that the water used by their families is fully safe," EPA Region 9 Administrator Martha Guzman said in a statement.

Complete flushing will take approximately 12 to 17 days.

"We're grateful for all federal, state and local partners and none more so than the EPA and Hawaii Department of Health," Navy Capt. Miguel Dieguez said in a statement. "Their diligent reviews and uncompromising testing should give everyone confidence in the process to deliver safe water and get residents back in the homes."

Internet woes risk isolating Lebanon in crisis

By Dalal Saoud

This protest in 2019 in Beirut, Lebanon, started over proposed taxes, especially an unexpected government plan to impose fees on WhatsApp users. Two years later, the country is in danger of losing Internet connection.

File Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- In October 2019, a government decision to impose a tax on WhatsApp users unleashed unprecedented mass popular protests in Lebanon that grew into demands for the ouster of corrupt and inept political leaders.

Over two years later, the leaders are still in power and the whole communications sector is on the verge of collapse.

The danger of Lebanon losing its Internet connection and being isolated from the outside world has catastrophic implications for the economy, society and security.

The worsening economic and financial crisis, severe power cuts, lack of funds and scarcity of foreign currency have significantly affected the country's Internet service, once the best in the region.

RELATED Lebanese end 2021 with more poverty, no holiday joy

Internet services started to deteriorate with the country's electricity crisis last summer, when the government decided to reduce subsidies on fuel, and the central bank was no longer able to provide hard currency for such imports. The country almost plunged in total darkness with severe power cuts reaching 22 hours a day.

Electricity outages continue with no solution in sight.

Ogero Telecom, the state-owned telecommunications company and Lebanon's sole Internet provider, began in June to experience similar outages, unable to secure enough diesel fuel to power its stations. The result was an unreliable, slow or lost Internet connection and prolonged disruptions, lasting for hours or sometimes a few days in the remote areas.

RELATED Depositors turn to courts to free money from Lebanese banks

"The main problem facing the communication sector today started with the electricity problem, but the whole economic situation is moving from one crisis to another," Imad Kreidieh, chairman and general director of Ogero, told UPI. "The risks are increasing day by day ... to reach a stage of total disconnection is a very dangerous thing."

Bills to pay

One major concern is to cover the dues of international providers supplying Lebanon with Internet and keeping it online.

"We have bills to pay for the international providers, some $6 million per year," Kreidieh said.

With dwindling foreign currency reserves, shortage of U.S. dollars and no budget yet approved, it is not known how cash-strapped Lebanon will cover such dues.

"The Internet is connecting the whole country, and the risk of disconnection affects all the sectors: the security services, airport, banks, central bank, medical and educational institutions and the judiciary," Kreidieh said. "It is crazy to reach the point where the telecommunication sector -- and so the Internet -- stop working."

Kreidieh said the company needs $100 million a year to keep the operations going. "That's not much compared to the services we are providing," he said.

He has been warning of the deteriorating conditions in his sector since June and "knocked on all doors" to secure international assistance, "but no one is willing to help."

Ogero revenues were on the rise before the country's worst financial crisis broke out in 2019, earning $450 million per year since 2017, with 70% profit margin, Kreidieh said. In 2021, revenues dropped to $34 million due to the collapse of the Lebanese pound, which lost more than 90% of its value in two years.

The pound slid from 1,500 LL to the U.S. dollar in 2019 to a record level of 33,000 LL earlier this week.

Ogero, which provides Internet to 1.2 million housing units and a large number of institutions, is still collecting subscriptions in Lebanese pounds at the rate of 1,500 LL.

Kreidieh said Ogero's 303 stations are still operating around the clock and any Internet outage or connectivity issue is being solved.

"It is not yet a big crisis. Those who are being affected by the Internet outages in any day do not exceed 3 or 4% for an average of 3 hours... this is by itself a miracle," he said.

However, he fears reaching a point at which spare parts, to be purchased in dollars from abroad, are needed.

'Cannot afford to be offline'

When the crisis started last summer, many businesses and institutions turned to private Internet companies for alternatives. Losing the Internet connection implicates big losses and would likely push them out of business or out of the country.

"They panicked and came asking for options, including a very costly satellite Internet access that could barely fit their requirements," said Gabriel Moubarak, group sales director at GlobalCom. "Those are companies, with businesses in the U.S. and Europe, that cannot afford to be offline."

Moubarak warned of companies' exodus, noting that a number of them have closed their businesses in Lebanon and relocated in Cyprus, Dubai, Egypt and Jordan, which are "more safe and secure."

"Any type of business is relying on the Internet but also the army, the security services, the government, the banking system, insurance companies, medical sector and airport," he told UPI. "Everybody will be affected."

Even those working online from home with companies abroad and securing "fresh U.S. dollars" are at risk.

One journalist had to travel to Dubai for 20 days to be able to work with a good Internet connection.

No Internet also means that people would not be able to connect, check on their kids or ask for help in a country where security incidents are frequent.

Corruption, political interference and bad decisions have contributed in bringing down a once profitable communication sector, said Amer Tabsh, a telecommunications and information technology consultant.

"This sector can bring billions of dollars to the treasury," Tabsh said. "Political interference is part of the problem... When they [the state] decided to run this sector after it was in the hands of international companies, we reached the point where we cannot even secure diesel fuel to keep it running."

While Kreidieh doesn't expect to reach a total Internet disconnection, as "no one will take the risk of starting the total collapse of the national economy," Tabsh warned that "all what's happening now is set to reach this point... It will collapse unless a miracle happens."

IMF official urges 'deep reforms' to Tunisian economy


Since dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled by mass protests in 2011, Tunisia's troubled democratic transition has failed to revive the economy (AFP/FETHI BELAID)

Françoise Kadri
Sat, January 15, 2022

Tunisia's crisis-stricken economy needs "deep reforms" such as slashing its vast public wage bill, the International Monetary Fund's outgoing country chief has said as the government seeks a new bailout.

Jerome Vacher, speaking in an interview at the end of his three-year term as the global lender's envoy to the North African country, said the coronavirus pandemic had helped create Tunisia's "worst recession since independence" in 1956.

"The country had pre-existing problems, in particular budget deficits and public debt, which have worsened," he said.

Tunisia's debts have soared to nearly 100 percent of Gross Domestic Product.

Its GDP plunged by almost nine percent in 2020, the worst rate in North Africa, only modestly offset by a three percent bounceback last year.

That is "quite weak and far from enough" to create jobs to counteract an unemployment rate of 18 percent, Vacher said.

He said young graduates face particular challenges in finding work, despite the country being able to offer "a qualified workforce and a favourable geographic location".

Since dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled by mass protests in 2011, Tunisia's troubled democratic transition has failed to revive the economy.

President Kais Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament on July 25 last year, and the government has since asked the IMF for a bailout package -- the fourth since the revolution.

Tunisian authorities say they are optimistic about reaching a deal by the end of this quarter.

Vacher said discussions are still at an early stage and that the IMF first wants "to understand what they're planning in terms of economic reforms".

"It's an economy that needs very deep, structural reforms, especially to improve the business environment," the French economist said.

- Hefty public wage bill -

But Vacher added that the government "understands the main challenges and problems, which is already a good basis", urging Tunisia to come up with a "solid and credible" reform plan.

To do that, it must tackle its huge spending on public sector salaries.

"The public wage bill is one of the highest in the world," Vacher said.

In a country of 12 million people, more than half of public spending goes to paying the salaries of around 650,000 public servants -- a figure that does not include local authority wages.

Nor does the figure include Tunisia's hefty public companies, which often hold monopolistic positions across sectors from telecoms to air transport and employ at least 150,000 people at the public expense.

All this drains resources that the state could be investing in education, health and infrastructure, Vacher said.

"There needs to be a big efficiency drive in the public sector (to meet) public expectations in terms of services," he said.

The IMF has long called for a restructuring of Tunisia's system of subsidies on basic goods such as petrol and staple foods, which essentially see more state funds doled out to the biggest consumers -- a system Vacher said was unfair.

The lender recommends scrapping subsidies and instead creating a system of targeted cash payments to needy groups.

The IMF's recommendations are important as not only could it lend billions more to Tunisia, but other bodies including the European Union have said they will condition future aid on the global lender's green light.

For Vacher, the biggest responsibility lies in the hands of Tunisia's decision-makers.

"It's up to them to act to find solutions, put forward reforms, a vision and an ambition," he said.

While many observers have predicted doom for Tunisia's public finances, Vacher said the situation is "not optimal, but manageable".

But "there is an urgent need to make the public finances more sustainable."

fka/par/jsa/hc

WAR CRIMINALS

Secret memo: Bush and Blair planned war in Iraq

January 16, 2022 - 1:15 PM News Code : 1219383 Source : Al MayadeenLink: 

The "exceptionally sensitive" letter published for the first time reveals details of a 2002 meeting at Bush's Texas ranch.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): David Manning, former British Prime Minister and Tony Blair's chief foreign advisor, wrote a secret memo about the meeting between Tony Blair and former US President George W. Bush in Texas in April 2002.

Blair visited Bush at his ranch at the time, and details of what was discussed remained unknown, until now.

The memo was sent to Simon Mcdonalds, Principal Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Jonathan Powell, Blair's Chief of Staff, as well as other senior British officials.

According to the newly available secret memo, the Prime Minister and the US President met from April 5-7 and had multiple conversations in private. Manning details that on April 6, he and Jonathan Powell joined the former leaders for casual conversations.

Along with Bush came Condi Rice, Bush's former National Security Advisor, and Andy Card, Bush's Chief of Staff.  Manning emphasized that the contents of the letter should not be shared and no copies made.

He entails that Bush and the British PM discussed Iraq on April 5, although the US central command had no plans for war, a small cell within US central command had been secretly established to study details of the military planning, with 99% of Centcom unaware.

Bush, according to the memo, was willing to meet with UK strategists to work through challenges and find strategies to win and had a desire to ensure regional stability would not be affected. Bush “did not much care” who would take Saddam Hussein's place when he was overthrown and acknowledged that PR had to be handled with extreme caution.

The former President plotted to put Saddam on the forefront of the UN inspection team, challenging his assertion that he was not developing WMD, being careful that timing to execute Saddam's overthrow would be crucial. "He would not want to launch any operation before the US Congressional elections in the autumn. Otherwise, he would be accused of warmongering for electoral benefit."

Blair emphasized the need for UN inspectors to be able to enter Iraq at any time and "be free to visit any place or installation."

Bush and Blair agreed to highlight Saddam's human rights record and the risks of his WMD program. Blair's strategy would be critical in controlling European public opinion and assisting Bush with an international alliance by depicting the "opportunity given to Saddam to cooperate," which would be used as a pretext if, as Manning expected, Saddam failed to do so.

Therefore, Saddam's refusal would have Europeans more at ease for toppling his regime and the "threat of WMD."

If the public demanded to know why the US wanted to act "now", the memo details how they would link the answer to 9/11 and the failure to take action until it is was late.

"It was also Bush’s view, though he would not be saying this publicly, that if a moderate secular regime succeeded Saddam in Iraq this would have a favorable impact on the region particularly on Saudi Arabia and Iraq."

Bush also expressed his desire to create a coalition for his Iraq policy, dismissing those on the American Right saying UN inspectors were not needed. George Bush senior told Blair that the US needed a coalition for Iraq "whatever right-wing kooks" might be saying.

Manning concludes the memo by saying that although Bush tentatively decided a campaign against Iraq would be best executed after November-February, the military planning "is not yet advanced very far," noting that only when planning is finalized would the options be discussed with Centcom.