Israel: use of Covid vaccines in prisoner swap deal sparks row

Secret deal reportedly involved Israel paying Russia $1.2m to send Sputnik jabs to Syria

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Benjamin Netanyahu, did not comment on whether his government had paid for Moscow’s supply. Photograph: Alex Kolomoisky/AP

Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem

Sun 21 Feb 2021 

Israel’s agreement to secretly provide coronavirus vaccines for the Syrian regime to sweeten a prisoner swap deal has raised questions about whether limited global vaccine supplies could see doses become a new form of diplomatic currency.

The clandestine deal made last week, and confirmed by an Israeli source who asked for anonymity, reportedly involved Israel paying Russia $1.2m (£850,000) to send Sputnik V jabs to Syria.

While it is not clear how many doses were bought, the deal is highly contentious, not least due to questions about whether Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus will distribute them equally

It has also spotlighted Israel’s unwillingness to provide the millions of Palestinians who live under its control with significant doses, especially if it is quietly agreeing to secure potentially hundreds of thousands for an enemy state.

On Saturday, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed reports of the deal by saying “not one dose of Israel’s vaccines was used”. However, he did not comment on whether his government had paid for Moscow’s supply.

Netanyahu had previously said the trade involved the repatriation of a young Israeli woman who crossed the border into Syria. In return, his government had returned two Syrian shepherds it had been holding. It is not clear why the Israeli woman entered Syria.

An unconfirmed report on Israel’s Army Radio on Sunday suggested the prime minister was now considering using vaccines as a tool to improve relations with rival Arab countries.

Israel’s military censor had initially blocked reports of the vaccine clause in the local press, but lifted the gag order on Saturday after foreign media spread the news.

Gideon Saar, a former ally of Netanyahu who now hopes to oust him in elections next month, said that the “censorship of something that Damascus and Moscow know about, and Israeli citizens don’t, is incomprehensible”.

Yoav Limor, a commentator for the rightwing daily Israel Hayom, said the prisoner swap deal was “tarnished” by the secret clause.

“It is legitimate for the Israeli government to decide to deviate from past norms and to pay with another form of currency,” he said. ‘“However, the decision to hide that is baffling and worrisome.”

The Syria vaccine deal might increase pressure on Netanyahu to use a similar method with the Hamas militant group in the blockaded Gaza Strip. The families of two Israeli soldiers whose bodies are held in the enclave have been calling for the government to use vaccines as a bargaining chip.

It will also open up the country to already established criticism from rights groups and UN officials that it should be offering vaccines to all Palestinians it occupies anyway, and without conditions.

Israel has allowed the Palestinian Authority to send 2,000 vaccine doses into the blockaded Gaza Strip, and has transferred 5,000 of its own Moderna vaccine to Palestinian medical workers in the occupied West Bank.

However, most Palestinians will have to wait much longer for vaccines. Meanwhile, all Israelis over 16 are eligible and nearly half the country has received at least one shot, allowing the government to gradually reopen the economy.

Israel says the Palestinian Authority, which is attempting to source millions of vaccines, is responsible for inoculating Palestinians.

 

Russian state media airs footage of Israeli spy Eli Cohen in Damascus

In previously unseen footage, broadcast during talks for the release of the Israeli woman who crossed the border into Syria, the legendary spy is seen walking through streets of the country’s capital.

BY NETA BAR AND HANAN GREENWOOD

Eli Cohen reportedly seen in Damascus in footage aired by Russian state media. Credit: Channel "RT"/Screenshot.

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(February 21, 2021 / Israel Hayom) Russia’s English-language state television channel RT has aired what it claims to be previously unseen footage of legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen in Damascus.

The broadcast came as Moscow was mediating efforts to return an Israeli woman who had crossed the border into Syria.

According to RT, the rare footage was discovered in film taken by a Russian military attaché in Damascus at the time. The half-hour clip includes a street brawl and images of police officers arresting drivers, as well as images of the bustling market in Damascus’ Old City. Alongside the tourist scenes, the film also allegedly contained snippets from a military base visited by the Russian attaché and of Eli Cohen walking through the streets of the Syrian capital.

It is unclear whether the Israeli spy was caught on camera by chance or if he was filmed on purpose. According to RT, the clip was filmed near Syrian Air Force headquarters, in the heart of the city’s government district, and the vicinity of Cohen’s apartment.

Cohen’s widow, Nadia, told Israel Hayom that she had watched the clip with excitement. “This is another reminder of my Eli,” she said.

She blasted Israel’s treatment of her husband and the fact that his remains are still in Syria—something that she finds particularly egregious following the return of the Israeli woman who had crossed the border into the enemy country two weeks ago.

She said that Israel was guilty of “an indescribable crime” for sending her husband into Syria despite knowing officials had become suspicious of him.

“When you sit here among your people, and you see them raise their children and grandchildren, and they look at me and my children—there is no change, no compassion. Let’s hear them; let’s hear what they have to say to each of us. It’s something indescribable from beginning to end.”

“The people are great. A prime minister and another one everyone knows is a murderer were involved in his murder. The nation’s embrace is what compensates us. They see his fame, his work before their eyes. Day by day, I gain sympathy for Eli. It doesn’t come from above but at eye level. It’s amazing, and there really are no words for it.”

Lambasting the government, Cohen said, “Nothing comes from the decision-makers. Our anger … after [late Mossad chief] Meir Dagan, we were like flies they batted away. Meir Dagan embraced us, but after that, we were done.”

Cohen had previously said that Dagan had contacted U.S. officials to help obtain Cohen’s remains in 2011, at the outset of the Syrian civil war.

She said that late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and President Reuven Rivlin complained when they were called murderers, “but you murdered them,” she said. “They don’t like it. So what did they do? Did they not murder him? Did they not murder his children? Me? People like [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, the pope, come. We give them a letter, and the letter gets crumpled up in their hand and doesn’t get passed on to anyone.”

Calling her husband “the people’s hero,” she said.”We will not be silent. We will continue to commemorate him. We will soon embark on a campaign to establish a museum in his memory. Just a week and a half ago, we built a private monument next to the Upper Custom House [in the Golan Heights]. There were a lot of graduates, generals. Everything comes from the people: the love, the embrace, the affection.”

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

SOCIALIZE BIG PHARMA

Coronavirus vaccine: Did Pfizer put profit first?

The global pharmaceutical industry was able to develop multiple COVID-19 vaccines in record time. But has profit been put over human lives?



Pfizer has so far insisted on reserving intellectual property rights for its vaccine

Last year, Albert Bourla had a choice and he decided to take a massive risk. The CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer could have made it easy for himself by accepting billions of dollars and participating in Operation Warp Speed, the US government's initiative to create multiple vaccines as fast as possible. But he preferred to remain independent.

Bourla decided to invest $2 billion (€1.6 billion) in BioNTech, a startup company in western Germany. His instinct was right: BioNTech came up with the formula for the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the United States, EU and other governments. By the end of the year, Pfizer had produced 50 million doses of BioNTech's COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, BNT162b2. The goal for 2021 is to produce more than a billion doses.

For many, Bourla and BioNTech founders Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin are heroes in the global fight against COVID-19. The companies had previously collaborated on a flu vaccine in 2018, and their latest endeavor could save the lives of incalculable numbers of people.

Bourla (left) and Sahin are seen as heroes in the

 fight against the pandemic Viagra and more

Pfizer got its start in 1849, when Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles F. Erhart, both of German descent, founded Pfizer & Co. in New York and started producing an antiparasitic drug called santonin. Today, Pfizer has more than 100,000 employees, and one of its bestsellers is the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.

New challenges arose in 2020 for the pharma sector, which generated global sales of about $1.1 trillion in 2019. The rapid development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines showed what the industry could do under enormous pressure. However, the real test might only be beginning for a sector that has often been accused of being more interested in maximizing profits than in saving lives.
'Pfizer exercised pressure'

A few weeks ago, only the mass-circulation press was using the expression "vaccine debacle" in Germany. But now it's being employed widely, by politicians and much of the population. The gist: while countries such as Israel, the UK and the United States are vaccinating populations in large numbers, the EU — represented by an incompetent negotiating team — failed to order enough doses in time. On top of that, the narrative goes, the EU was also too tightfisted.

Peter Liese, a member of the European Parliament for the Christian Democrats and a medical doctor, has regularly appeared on German TV talk shows to counter that argument.

"Pfizer exercised pressure on the European Commission," Liese told journalists in August. "Pfizer apparently did not initially want to accept something that is the law in Europe — namely that, when a mistake is made and somebody is hurt, there has to be liability."

The negotiations dragged on and finally concluded in November. For weeks, more than 20 lawyers for the US giant sat across the table while the European Commission's negotiators kept a low profile and did not comment on the proceedings.

In retrospect, said Liese, this was a mistake. "The reasons were not communicated because the Commission always behaves well. There was the question of privacy, and it did not want to disavow the negotiating partners," he said. "But it would have made a different impression on the public, and there would have been more pressure on Pfizer, of course."


When Liese met with BioNTech scientists during the stalled negotiations process, he could sense how uncomfortable they were with the issue. "I could read in their eyes how embarrassed they were that a contract with the EU might actually not be signed despite the fact that they were working in the EU and had been given EU support to develop the vaccine in the first place," he said.

The issue of liability has been lost in the current discussion, but Liese said had the European Union not been so assertive on this point, fewer people would be as willing to be vaccinated at all. "Those in charge at Pfizer have failed to satisfactorily refute the accusation that they put profit over health," he said.

Argentina's raw deal

Argentine Health Secretary Gines Gonzalez Garcia exploded when asked about Pfizer at a press conference earlier in February. The company, he said, had "behaved very badly."

In August 2020, more than 6,000 Argentines responded to a call to participate in the phase 3 trials of the BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Half of them received the vaccine; the other half were given a placebo. The participants saw themselves less as test subjects than as contributors to the formalizing of a contract.

They would be disappointed. Not a single dose has been administered in Argentina now that the vaccine has been approved. Argentina is currently supplied with Russia's vaccine, Sputnik V.

Government officials have also said they were unable to find an agreement with Pfizer regarding liability. "They are responsible for the vaccine, not the state," said President Alberto Fernandez. "The state buys, and they sell. I do not understand why we should provide them with a standard that would absolve them of all civil and criminal liability."

Pfizer has argued that the negotiations did not fail for reasons of liability, but because Argentina did not want to pay for the transport of the vaccine, which must be stored at an extremely low temperature.

"The market rules the world: That's just the way it is," said Hugo Pizzi, an epidemiologist based in the Argentine city of Cordoba. He has written more than 20 books about infectious diseases, and is one of the country's most renowned doctors. "And many countries are happy to follow these rules. How else can you explain that Canada has bought more vaccines for its population than necessary — instead of showing solidarity."

Pizzi said he would tell Pfizer's CEO to "think about the tragedy the world is going through, about Argentina's contribution to the vaccine being approved and about what's most important: solidarity!"

Pfizer's 'mercantilistic approach'

Marta Diez, Pfizer's country manager for the Andean cluster, was ecstatic after signing a contract to supply Peru with 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. "It is a great honor to work with the Peruvian government, with the common aim to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to Peruvians as fast as possible," she said.

Peru has one of the highest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world. Almost 44,000 of the 32 million inhabitants have died of the disease, and Peru desperately needed the vaccine.

But Victor Zamora, who was Peruvian health minister when the pandemic began a year ago, is not in the mood for celebration. He was "very surprised considering the run-up," he said. "Pfizer knows at what price and on what terms countries are buying. The company knows which countries have accepted which clauses."

Peru has struggled with one of the highest death rates in the world

As in the EU and Argentina, the negotiations with Peru were tough and went on for months. Though Pfizer has called the negotiations confidential, Zamora said the company had demanded guarantees in case the state could not pay. There are reports that company officials sought access to state property as collateral.

Godofredo Talavera Chavez, a surgeon and the president of Peru's medical federation, said the company's strategy was no surprise. "Pfizer has a mercantilist approach. They used their power to sell Viagra and they're doing exactly the same with the vaccine," he said.

He said he was particularly angry because more than 300 of his colleagues had died in intensive care units as part of their efforts to fight the pandemic.
Wariness in Nigeria

When Aisha Isa Yusif heard about the BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, she got scared. Usually, the lawyer and human rights activist is not easily perturbed, but she has not forgotten what happened 25 years ago in Kano, the fourth-largest state in the country.

"When I hear the word Pfizer, I think about the lawsuit that Kano's state government filed against the pharmaceutical company,” she said. "My homeland wanted compensation for the families who were hurt by Pfizer."

During the meningitis epidemic in 1996, children in Kano were administered an oral antibiotic called Trovan as part of an operation that was passed off as humanitarian. What none of the participants or their parents knew was that Trovan had not been approved. According to official statistics from the government, 11 children died and more than 200 suffered permanent side effects such as paralysis, blindness, deafness and brain damage. Pfizer initially refused to take responsibility.

Eventually, Pfizer settled out of court with the state of Kano and agreed to pay $75 million in damages. According to WikiLeaks, Pfizer hired private detectives to look for evidence of corruption on the attorney general's part.

A number of African nations, such as Zimbabwe, 

have opted for Chinese vaccine from Sinopharm

CLIENT STATES OF CHINA

It is cases such as these that have made the Danish physician Peter C. Gotzsche one of the pharmaceutical industry's biggest opponents. Though he used to work for the industry, he grew increasingly skeptical and has now written several books in which he shares his misgivings, including Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare.

"They are worse than any other industry," he said. "Corruption, bribery and the marketing of non-approved drugs are expected." He said Pfizer has been one of the world's worst companies in the past 50 years, and can't understand why the pharma industry is allowed to make so much money in a pandemic: "There should not be any patents for vaccines. They should not be a capitalist commodity but something produced for the general good."

Could COVAX help?

Led by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the global COVAX initiative would allow rich countries to pay for poorer countries to receive vaccines. The goal is to make available 2 billion doses in 2021 in order to put an end to the current, acute phase of the pandemic.

"We are making up to 40 million doses of our COVID-19 vaccine available to the COVAX initiative this year,” Pfizer wrote in a statement in response to a request for comment from DW. "Our priority is to bring treatment and vaccines to those who need them as fast as possible."

Elisabeth Massute, an advocacy officer at Doctors Without Borders, is not impressed. "It's just 2% of the vaccines that can be produced this year and next year," she said. "When you look at how many countries will actually be provided for by COVAX, it's clearly not enough."

Massute does not consider herself an opponent of the pharma industry, but she said governments should stand up to the companies more.

"Why does the German government, for example, not say: 'We have given out so much money via our research ministry, and we will therefore attach certain conditions to the funds?'" she asked.

After all, BioNTech received €375 million in research funds to develop the vaccine as quickly as possible.

What will be decisive for the industry's reputation in the long run will be whether it agrees to waive patents. India and South Africa have already requested that this be done so that any company in the world could produce vaccines.

Pfizer, so far, has insisted on reserving its intellectual property rights. Protection is relevant for several reasons, according to the company. "First, because it helps to protect patients from potentially dangerous counterfeit and unapproved products. Second, it protects companies from improper use. Patent protection enables voluntary licensing, which allows us to make our products globally available in order to fight the pandemic," it said in a statement.

Massute doesn't believe this is a valid argument. "If you look at those who discovered insulin, the patent was sold for a symbolic dollar. Or consider the researcher who developed the polio vaccine and asked: 'Could you patent the sun?' Health doesn't fit into the traditional rules of the system, because human lives don't have a price tag."

This article has been translated from German.

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Coronavirus vaccine: Did Pfizer put profit first? | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 21.02.2021

COLONY OF QUEBEC INC.

Political crisis adds to heavy burden on Haiti's youth


Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Kervens Casseus, 20, studies on the roof of his uncle's house in Port-au-Prince on February 18, 2021, one of many young Haitians deeply affected by political crisis, economic inequality and street crime Valerie Baeriswyl AFP/File

Port-au-Prince (AFP)

The political crisis paralyzing Haiti has not only hampered young people's schooling and compromised their future, it has aggravated existing challenges that have forced many to grow up far too fast.

Sitting on the roof of a house his uncle is building, 20-year-old Kervens Casseus balances his geology book on a broken cinder block he uses as a makeshift desk.

"The opposition and the ruling authorities: they're the ones destroying the country," says Casseus, who has not been in class once this month.

\A high school senior pursuing science studies, he has received neither homework nor any instruction from his teachers.

The school calendar is in such flux that he has no idea when the all-important Baccalaureate exams will be given.

In a country where deep economic inequality and the rise of violent street gangs cast further shadows, the young are being deprived of their childhood, parents say.

- 'I'm afraid' -

Casseus is a pupil in the county's seriously underfunded public schools. Eighty percent of Haiti's schools are private.

At an age when he should be savoring life to its fullest, Casseus sits, listless and immobilized, in the heart of the Haitian capital.

"I'm afraid," admits the slender young man, who for three years has shared a modest apartment with his aunt, since his parents live outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

"It was just this morning, when I came out looking for you, that I went out on the main street for the first time in the entire month of February," he tells an AFP reporter.

"And it felt strange."

He says the street has been unusually quiet since February 7, a date that marked what he called a "dramatic change."

That was when the political opposition and some civil society groups said they would no longer recognize Jovenel Moise as the nation's legitimate president -- kicking off weeks of violent street protests.

Amid an extended dispute over alleged election fraud, Moise has insisted that his term runs until February 7, 2022.

- The politics of school opening -

Haiti has largely been spared the worst of the Covid pandemic, so when the political crisis flared this month, students were attending school.

But since then most educational establishments in the capital have been closed, since remaining open is seen as a vote of confidence for Moise.

"Children have to go to school, but if you say that today in Haiti, some people will put you in a political category," says one teacher who, fearing reprisals, insisted on speaking anonymously.

The political crisis has aggravated the profound economic inequality affecting Haiti and its schools.

Casseus, left to navigate his own education, has difficulty even paying for his cellphone service.

Meanwhile, barely a mile away, five-year-old Lucie is ensconced in a big pink armchair and attentively following her teacher's online lecture.

Sitting before her computer, she wears the uniform of her church-run school.

"I don't think every Haitian parent has computer equipment at home and a reliable internet connection, not to mention the problem of electricity," says her father, Jean Romuald Ernest, acknowledging his own good fortune.

"Last week, the teacher had to stop class when her laptop ran out of charge," says the 47-year-old father of three -- two of whom are now back in school.

- White hair at 11 -

As a doctor married to an accountant, Ernest and his wife are in the minority in a country where 60 percent of people survive on less than $2 a day.

But that doesn't mean his family is spared the consequences of the crisis.

"We don't have children anymore" in Haiti, Ernest says. "We have small adults."

"A child who sees burning tires on the side of the road, or a person who has been shot, and asks you, 'Papa, what is that? Why did it happen?' And this child hears gunshots nearby, he is stressed," Ernest says.

Any suggestion that the polarized political scene does not affect Haitians' daily lives makes him crazy.

"I was stunned to discover that my oldest daughter, at 11, already has white hair!" the doctor says. "That's how bad the stress is."

With political uncertainty coming on top of the proliferation of armed gangs blamed for a surge of kidnappings, anxiety has become Haitians' daily lot.

The nation's media are replete with stories of the tragedies that sometimes befall Haitians attempting to flee to the American continent, but young Casseus said he understands what is driving them.

"We have our dreams, but with the crisis in the country we can't achieve them," he says.

"That's why you see most young people trying to leave the country."

© 2021 AFP

UN Security Council to meet on global warming impact on world peace



Issued on: 21/02/2021

The chamber of the UN Security Council seen on September 20, 2017

 Stephane LEMOUTON POOL/AFP/File


United Nations (United States) (AFP)

The UN Security Council will hold a summit of world leaders Tuesday to debate climate change's implications for world peace, an issue on which its 15 members have divergent opinions.

The session, called by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and conducted by video-conference, comes just days after the United States under President Joe Biden formally rejoined the Paris climate change accord.

Johnson, whose country now holds the Security Council's rotating presidency, will address the forum, as will US climate czar John Kerry, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the prime ministers of Ireland, Vietnam, Norway and other countries, diplomats say.

The meeting will serve as a test for US-China relations, one UN ambassador said on condition of anonymity, alluding to one of the few issues where the two big powers might agree. But this is not a given.

"We should watch how the Chinese position themselves with the Americans," this ambassador said.

Traditionally, the ambassador said, "you know that the Russians and the Chinese will immediately say (climate change has) 'nothing to do' with the council's issues."

Today, however, "the Chinese are more liable to be slightly open to that discussion," which "leaves the Russians pretty much on their own."

Russia does not see climate change as a broad issue for the Security Council to address. Moscow prefers dealing with climate questions on a case-by-case basis, diplomats told AFP.

Tuesday's meeting "will be focused on the security aspects of climate change," a second ambassador said, also on condition of anonymity.

Some non-permanent members of the council including Kenya and Niger have clearly expressed their concerns about climate change's impact on national security.

Others do not want to "turn the Security Council into another organ which is looking just at the issues more broadly around finance, adaptation, mitigation and negotiations," the second ambassador said.

- Implications for conflict -

"Both China and Russia, but not only them, are reluctant to have the Security Council discuss climate change and its implications," said a third ambassador, who ruled out the possibility of the council adopting a joint statement at this point.

"China and Russia think that it can become intrusive, that it is not about peace and security," this ambassador said.

"They don't want the Security Council to do decision-making about economic choices. Even they understand that climate change has implications for conflict drivers."

"Desertification, population movements and competition for access to resources" are linked to global warming, said another diplomat.

This is important for Tunisia, Norway and Ireland. The latter two have been on the council since January.

In the Lake Chad region of central Africa, the problem is not something to be left "for tomorrow. It already existed yesterday," an ambassador from Africa said.

He said the issues of access to water and production of animal feed can trigger violence between different communities and lead to idle, disaffected youths being recruited by jihadist groups.

The arrival of the Biden administration with its pledge to make global warming a top priority -- in contrast with Donald Trump, who regularly questioned the science behind climate change -- should change the Security Council's dynamics on this issue, diplomats said.

Last year, Germany, which then had a seat on the council, drafted a resolution calling for the creation of a special UN envoy post on climate-related security risks.

One goal of the job would be to improve UN efforts involving risk assessment and prevention.

But Germany never put the text up for a vote because of veto threats from the United States, Russia and China.

Today, with the new US approach, that draft resolution has a chance of being approved, said an ambassador with a seat on the council.

© 2021 AFP

Argentina has new health chief after vaccine line-jumping scandal



Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Carla Vizzotti, pictured in August 2020, has been sworn in as Argentina's new health minister 

Juan MABROMATA POOL/AFP/File


Buenos Aires (AFP)

Argentina's new health minister took office on Saturday following the resignation of her predecessor after he was caught helping friends skip the line for Covid-19 vaccinations.

Carla Vizzotti, an internal medicine specialist, was sworn in by President Alberto Fernandez at the presidential residence in a brief ceremony broadcast on television. She did not issue a statement afterward or take questions from the media.

As a former deputy minister, Vizzotti, 48, was responsible for securing the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for Argentina.

Former health minister Gines Gonzalez Garci resigned late Friday after it emerged that the 75-year-old doctor had aided acquaintances in getting vaccinated ahead of their turn.

The scandal broke after a 71-year-old journalist, Horacio Verbitsky, announced on the radio that, owing to his longstanding friendship with the minister, he had been able to get vaccinated in his office ahead of the general population.

So far only health workers have been vaccinated in Argentina and vaccinations for people aged over 70 only began on Wednesday in the province of Buenos Aires.

Local media reported that other people close to the government were also vaccinated at the health ministry.

The Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation, local press reported.

So far Argentina has received 1.2 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine and 580,000 of Covishield from the Serum Institute of India.

The country has recorded more than two million cases of Covid-19 and 51,000 deaths, out of a population of 44 million people.

© 2021 AFP

Privacy faces risks in tech-infused post-Covid workplace


Issued on: 21/02/2021 

A thermal imaging camera are displayed on a screen as a person waits at the reception desk at the St Giles Hotel near Heathrow Airport in west London, in an example of technology being used to screen for Covid-19 symptoms 

Ben STANSALL AFP/File


Washington (AFP)

People returning to work following the long pandemic will find an array of tech-infused gadgetry to improve workplace safety but which could pose risks for long-term personal and medical privacy.

Temperature checks, distance monitors, digital "passports," wellness surveys and robotic cleaning and disinfection systems are being deployed in many workplaces seeking to reopen.

Tech giants and startups are offering solutions which include computer vision detection of vital signs to wearables which can offer early indications of the onset of Covid-19 and apps that keep track of health metrics.


Salesforce and IBM have partnered on a "digital health pass" to let people share their vaccination and health status on their smartphone.

Clear, a tech startup known for airport screening, has created its own health pass which is being used by organizations such as the National Hockey League and MGM Resorts.

Fitbit, the wearable tech maker recently acquired by Google, has its own "Ready for Work" program that includes daily check-ins using data from its devices.

Fitbit is equipping some 1,000 NASA employees with wearables as part of a pilot program which requires a daily log-in using various health metrics which will be tracked by the space agency.

Microsoft and insurance giant United HealthCare have deployed a ProtectWell app which includes a daily symptom screener, and Amazon has deployed a "distance assistant" in its warehouses to help employees maintain safe distances.

And a large coalition of technology firms and health organizations are working on a digital vaccination certificate, which can be used on smartphones to show evidence of inoculation for Covid-19.

- 'Blurs the lines' -

With these systems, employees may face screenings even as they enter a building lobby, and monitoring in elevators, hallways and throughout the workplace.

The monitoring "blurs the line between people's workplace and personal lives," said Darrell West, a Brookings Institution vice president with the think tank's Center for Technology Innovation.

"It erodes longstanding medical privacy protections for many different workers."

A report last year by the consumer activist group Public Citizen identified at least 50 apps and technologies released during the pandemic "marketed as workplace surveillance tools to combat Covid-19."

The report said some systems go so far as identifying people who may not spend enough time in front of a sink to note inadequate hand-washing.

"The invasion of privacy that workers face is alarming, especially considering that the effectiveness of these technologies in mitigating the spread of Covid-19 has not yet been established," the report said.

The group said there should be clear rules on collection and storage of data, with better disclosure to employees.

- A delicate balance -

Employers face a delicate balance as they try to ensure workplace safety without intruding on privacy, said Forrest Briscoe, professor of management and organization at Penn State University.

Briscoe said there are legitimate reasons and precedents for requiring proof of vaccination. But these sometimes conflict with medical privacy regulations which limit a company's access to employee health data.

"You don't want the employer accessing that information for work-related decisions," Briscoe said.

Biscoe said many employers are relying on third-party tech vendors to handle the monitoring, but that has its risks as well.

"Using third-party vendors will keep the data separate," he said.

"But for some companies their business model involves gathering data and using it for some monetizable purpose and that poses a risk to privacy."

The global health crisis has inspired startups around the world to seek innovative ways to limit virus transmission, with some of those products shown at the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show.

Taiwan-based FaceHeart demonstrated software which can be installed in cameras for contactless measurement of vital signs to screen for shortness of breath, high fever, dehydration, elevated heart rate and other symptoms which are early indicators of Covid-19.

Drone maker Draganfly showcased camera technology which can be used to offer alerts on social distancing, and also detect changes in people's vital signs which may be early indicators of Covid-19 infection.

A programmable robot from Misty Robotics, also shown at CES, can be adapted as a health check monitor and can also be designed to disinfect frequently used surfaces like door handles, according to the company.

But there are risks in relying too much on technologies which may be unproven or inaccurate, such as trying to detect fevers with thermal cameras among moving people, said Jay Stanley, a privacy researcher and analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Employers have a legitimate interest in safeguarding workplaces and keeping employees healthy in the context of the pandemic," Stanley said.

"But what I would worry about is employers using the pandemic to pluck and store information in a systematic way beyond what is necessary to protect health."

© 2021 AFP

The Kurdish Dream Of A State – Analysis

Kurdish-inhabited area, by CIA Factbook. Source: Wikipedia Commons

February 21, 2021 Anondeeta Chakraborty* 0 Comments

By Anondeeta Chakraborty*

The Kurds are often considered to be the largest ethnic group without a territorial boundary of a State. Today, the Kurdish population is dispersed unevenly across countries like Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria mainly. A part of the Kurdish population is also spread across Trans Caucasus and Central Asia. There remains a debate amongst scholars about the ethnic roots of the Kurds. It was during the 7th century that the name ‘Kurds’ was attributed to Western Iranian people, residing along the mountain chain of Zagros and in the eastern boundary of Taurus. The Kurdish as an ethnic group had a considerable influence in the history of middle-west until the Arab Caliphate ceased to exist in 1258.

To understand the Kurdish freedom struggle, it is imperative to have a more or less clear understanding of the Kurdish history. The Kurds have always been a significant ethnic group, even during the period of Ottoman rule. With the dissolution of the large Ottoman Empire after the First World War by the Treaty of Sevres, the large ethnic Kurdish population got divided haphazardly between the territories of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, making them a large minority group in each of the States. The Arab states have always seen the idea of an independent Kurdistan as a potential threat to their existence and hence, no stones have been left unturned to suppress the Kurdish nationalist struggle. It would be methodical to look at the history of the Kurdish freedom struggle based on respective countries involved in the Kurdish conflict.

TURKEY

The Treaty of Sevres was one of the series of treaties that brought an end to the 1st World War. It was rejected by the Turkish leader Kamal Ataturk, and the new Treaty of Lausanne was negotiated in 1923. This new treaty gave control of the entire Anatolian Peninsula as well as of the Kurdish homeland in Turkey to the nascent Turkish Republic. Unlike the Treaty of Sevres which provided for a referendum to be conducted to negotiate the issue of an independent Kurdish homeland, the new Treaty of Lausanne did not lay down a single word for Kurdish autonomy or the probability of a referendum to decide the Kurdish fate in this new Turkish state.

After Ataturk consolidated his political grip over Turkey, the actual face of the regime was getting more and more evident. By 1978, Kurdish language, Kurdish names, folklores, attires and all other forms of cultural representation was banned. In an effort to deny the very Kurdish existence in the country, they were started being referred to as the “Mountain Turks”. Following the military coup of 1980, the use of Kurdish language in either public or private life was banned, so were the use of the words “Kurds”, “Kurdistan” or Kurdish. Such forceful repression and growing discontent among the Kurdish population prompted the formation of PKK – Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (Kurdistan Worker’s Party), a far left militant and political organization under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan.

A full scale military insurgency was yet to begin until 15th August, 1984 when the PKK officially declared a Kurdish uprising. From 1984 till 1st September 1999, when the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire, Turkey saw unprecedented instances of human rights violations. About 40,000 civilians died in these 15 years. After 5 years of maintaining ceasefire, it was finally lifted by the PKK on 1st June, 2004. The military uprising of this decade was much more brutal and vicious than what it had been like earlier. The number of Human Rights abuses increased at an exponential rate. Torture, systematic execution of Kurdish civilians, forced displacement; arbitrary arrest became the norm of the day. Since the summer of 2011, the uprising took a more violent turn with large scale hostilities. In 2013, the process of negotiation was started between the PKK and the Turkish Government. Another ceasefire was declared bilaterally when Ocalan announced the “end of armed struggle” which was only to be resumed again in 2015 following the widespread massacre of PKK activists in Iraq at the hands of the Turkish military.

According to the statistics given by human rights organizations, more than 4000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed since the beginning of the uprising, with 380,000 and 1,000,000 Kurdish villagers being forcefully evacuated. Some 35,000 Kurds have been killed, 17,000 have disappeared while 119,000 Kurds have been imprisoned by the Turkish authorities arbitrarily. The condition at present is still the very same with rampant human rights violations, arbitrary arrest and detentions. Negotiations between the Turkish government and the PKK have become impossible in such a situation of mutual hostility and violence.

IRAQ

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, a significant number of Kurds became a minority in Iraq. The first phase of Iraqi-Kurdish conflict began with the arrival of the British. Through some secessionist attempts, Mahmud Barzanji became successful in uniting the Kurdish tribes to form a short-lived autonomous, self-proclaimed Kurdish kingdom in Iraq between 1919 and 1922. Though his plan of a Kurdish kingdom eventually failed, the struggle for freedom was carried out by other Kurdish leaders like Ahmed Barzani(1931), Mustafa Barzani (1943-1945) in the first phase of freedom struggle.

In 1943 after Mustafa Barzani was exiled to Iran, the Kurdish revolt suffered a setback. At this point, Iraq witnessed the 14th July Revolution ousting the Hashemite monarchy from power and bringing General Abdul Karim Qasim to power. In 1958, after returning from his exile, Barzani made an attempt to negotiate Kurdish autonomy in the north of Iraq with General Qasim’s government, which ultimately failed, culminating in the first Iraqi- Kurdish Civil War (11 Sept, 1961 to 1970) with casualties more than a million. Despite repeated attempts at negotiations for Kurdish autonomy in Iraq, a second Iraqi- Kurdish Civil War became inevitable in 1974 which resulted in a total massacre of the Kurdish militias and a recapturing of northern Iraq by the Iraqi troops. This led to a political vacuum in the area with the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) gaining power and leading an insurgency campaign against the Iraqi Government. The PUK suffered a major defeat from KDP in 1978 with support from Iran.

The Iraqi- Kurdish conflict resurfaced as a part of the Iran- Iraq War when the Kurdish parties plotted against Saddam Hussein with help from Iran. By then the Iraqi government had had enough of “non-loyal” Kurdish presence in the North and started its genocidal campaign called ‘Al- Anfal’ for the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, in which over 200,000 Kurds were killed. In spite of the mutual recognition after 2003 Iraq War and the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, conditions have not improved, with repeated clashes erupting between the Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraqi central government over a multitude of issues, but mainly power sharing and oil reserves. The 2017 Iraqi- Kurdistan referendum also ended with a diplomatic crisis.

SYRIA

Ethnically and linguistically, the Kurds form a major ethnic group in Syria. But despite such a numerical strength, the Syrian Kurds have not gained any autonomy unlike their Iraqi counterparts. Roughly 15 percent of the total Kurdish population in Syria remains stateless, in a legal vacuum without any fundamental rights. Despite Kurdish being the second most widely spoken language in Syria, it has never been officially recognized. In 1962, on the pretext of illegal immigration from Turkey and Iraq, 20 percent of Syria’s Kurdish population were stripped of citizenship.

After the 1970 military coup which brought Hafez al- Assad to power, instances of arbitrary behavior of the Syrian Government towards the Kurdish population increased by leaps and bounds. The same legacy was carried forward by his son, Bashar al- Assad. After the Arab Spring of 2011 which culminated into a deadly civil war in Syria, things got very complex in the Syrian political arena. The civil war gave birth to radical Islamic extremist militia, the ISIS (Islamic state of Iraq and Syria), which made the very existence of Kurds in Syria as well as in Iraq a big question mark.

As of now, the struggle of the Kurds is not against an arbitrary dictatorial government but against these forces of radical militia which threaten the very existence of the ethnic group. The Kurds have consolidated themselves under the pseudo military border guard called Peshmerga, to take up arms against this extremist militia. The Kurdish lands that were won back from the ISIS now form a de facto autonomous region called Rojava, under Kurdish administration, covering the sub regions of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij and Deir Ez- Zor.

CONCLUSION

With a sudden surge of right wing nationalism and majoritarianism in world politics, the chances of diminution of this long battle for recognition have taken a further step back. None of these three countries are ready to sit on the negotiation table. To worsen matters, Turkey has initiated a military offensive, codenamed Operation Peace Spring in north eastern Syria, apparently as a way of driving out the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), an ally of the PKK. But the implementation of this operation clearly suggests that it is just another tool to eliminate about 3.6 million of Kurds refugees from Turkey, in this particular area, who were proposed to be resettled here. The political atmosphere still being volatile in Iraq and Syria, no question of catering to the demands of the minority Kurds or even giving them the bare minimum social and political rights is arising; as of now. Things have taken a turn for the worst. The Kurds, as a community still needs to fight the battle for their existence. The struggle for their survival continues and it is a zillion miles away from being over.

*Anondeeta Chakraborty is a Research Coordinator at Global Counter Terrorism Council

Putin Considers Slamming Door On Iran And Opening Window For Israel – OpEd

Russia's Vladimir Putin and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. File photo Credit: Kremlin.ru

February 21, 2021

By Arab News

By Baria Alamuddin*

A remarkable meeting occurred in January between Syrian and Israeli officials at the Russian base near Latakia in western Syria. It appears to have been precipitated by Israeli concerns about the increasing sophistication of high-precision Iranian missiles and drones in Tehran’s satellite states.

Israel wanted to convey the message to Tehran that an Iranian military presence in Syria would never be permitted. Perhaps more remarkable than the meeting itself was the extensive pressure exerted by the Russians to force Damascus to participate, including temporarily suspending fuel supplies.

Some observers view Moscow’s persistent efforts to bring Israeli and Syrian officials closer together as the prelude to a peace accord, similar to those brokered with other Arab states. If Russia did facilitate such a deal, the essential elements are obvious: Return of the Golan, in exchange for wholesale Iranian exclusion from Syrian territory – a major concession to swallow for both sides, but offering huge strategic gains. If Putin decides to put his boot on Assad’s neck, this is probably an offer that the gravely weakened Syrian dictator couldn’t refuse — particularly as it was Russia’s 2015 intervention that fundamentally shifted the course of the Syrian conflict.

It’s no secret that many Assad regime officials are fed up with the contempt they experience from Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel who behave as if Damascus belongs to them. Similarly for Russia, Iran has gone from being a necessary ally to a liability. Russia’s massive military investments in Syria will never be secure as long as Iran’s radicalized militias provoke regional conflict.

Meanwhile, the depths of Putin’s commitment to Israel — and to his friend Benjamin Netanyahu —were highlighted again last week with a Russia-brokered prisoner swap, the third such exchange amid successive rounds of Israeli elections in which Netanyahu has been fighting for his political life.


Russia has conspicuously left Syrian airspace wide open for Israel to strike Iran-associated targets on a daily basis. US intelligence sources describe Syrian airspace as “saturated” with Israeli and Russian planes, necessitating close coordination. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently pledged to Israel’s leaders: “If you have facts that your state is facing threats from Syrian territory, report the facts urgently and we will take every measure to neutralize the threat.”

The Biden administration appears to have reconciled itself to Syria being consolidated under Russian influence; better this than being an Iranian satellite or spawning ground for Daesh. Trump’s Syria envoy, James Jeffrey, warns: “Russia is trying its very best to present an alternative security architecture for the region. (The Russians) are our competition in the region as much as the Iranians are.” Indeed, Biden’s lack of outreach to Arab leaderships may spur them to seek closer Russian ties.

While Biden aspires to be tough with Moscow, he clearly isn’t seeking confrontation for the sake of confrontation, evidenced by the swift return of both sides to the START Treaty. However, this will remain a highly transactional relationship, with Putin seeking as many negotiating cards as possible, even when Russia-US interests overlap.

This is likely to be the case with Iran’s nuclear program. Both Putin and Biden support a return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Indeed, behind the scenes Russia has been encouraging Tehran not to violate its JCPOA commitments, with Lavrov warning Iran “not to give into emotions” and withdraw from the IAEA Additional Protocol. Moscow furthermore has a strategic interest in widening the deal to encompass the curtailment of Iran’s proxy paramilitaries.

Russian diplomacy in Lebanon is also becoming increasingly visible in support of Saad Hariri forming a government, after Western efforts appear to have petered out. This is another arena where Russian diplomacy could constrain Iranian influence, particularly as Moscow’s curtailment of Iran’s activity in Syria would limit Tehran’s ability to arm and support Hezbollah, while abruptly putting a halt to Hezbollah’s regional aspirations. Russia has also been intervening in the floundering Afghan peace process, having most to lose from a terrorism-exporting failed state in its backyard.

Biden should be urging Turkey, as a NATO member, to act as a check on Russian expansionism, particularly as Turkish ambitions so frequently clash with those of Moscow: Ankara backed the winning side, Azerbaijan, in Nagorno-Karabakh, while Moscow (previously the pre-eminent Caucasus power) only latterly intervened to calm the situation.

As part of this Armenia-Azerbaijan peace accord, “sister states” Turkey and Azerbaijan are now physically linked by a “pan-Turkic super-highway” via Armenia. This affords Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman ultra-nationalist regime enhanced access to the Turkic states of Central Asia, which Russia and China regard as their exclusive zone of influence. Turkey’s close ties to Ukraine, including military assistance, are an irritant to Putin’s aspirations to dominate the Black Sea region.

Since 2017 the Central African Republic (CAR) has been the centerpiece for Putin’s expansionist Africa strategy, offering the tantalizing prospect of monopolies over the region’s vast mineral riches. But with the CAR dissolving into renewed paroxysms of civil war, Putin has been compelled to send hundreds of additional mercenaries (or “military instructors”), as his dreams of lucrative African adventures turn into a costly headache.

With a plurality of crises in former-Soviet states (notably Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia), a newly assertive domestic protest movement (personified by Alexei Navalny) and a tough economic outlook, Putin appears unusually vulnerable and overstretched. Thus, for the time being, Moscow has gone from being the foremost global provoker of conflicts to energetically putting out fires and calming things down — not least in the Middle East, where Putin is sick of Tehran’s warmongering and ceaseless provocations.

Russian pre-eminence in Syria and the region is certainly not our ideal scenario, given the implications for governance, freedoms and human rights. However, given the overarching menace from Tehran, Hezbollah, Daesh, Al-Qaeda and a thousand and one other paramilitary proxies, matters could be infinitely worse.

• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.