Conservatives remain strong in Alberta, but the NDP is the emerging ‘progressive’ choice

By Gregory Jack, Ipsos Public Affairs Special to Global News

Posted September 6, 2021 

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Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh kicks off a tour of Alberta in Calgary July 17, 2021. Global News

Federal election campaigns can be unpredictable, as we have seen over the last several weeks. But one thing (almost) always remains true: Albertans vote Conservative.


Ipsos polling suggests history will repeat in the 2021 federal election, but there are plenty of reasons to believe this campaign could be an early sign of what is to come in Alberta. And that has everything to do with the NDP’s ascent in the province and across Canada.

This federal election matters more for Alberta in terms of what it will mean for provincial politics going forward, and less about what it will mean for how many Conservative MPs the province will send to Ottawa this time around (hint: a lot).

Most ridings will reliably vote Conservative, but that is because the main objective for Alberta voters in this election is simple: vote the Liberals (and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) out of office.

There is no love lost in Alberta for the Liberals or Trudeau, despite the Liberals winning four seats in Alberta in 2015.

They lost them all in 2019. Residual anger with the National Energy Plan, the Trudeau name and brand, scandals involving Alberta Liberal MPs, and the overall Liberal government’s record in its first term in office — which never seemed to take the west into consideration, let alone favour it — contributed to those losses.

In the years since the Liberals were first elected in 2015, the Trans Mountain pipeline and a lack of support for the oil and natural gas sector, in general, grew as irritants for Albertans, who felt Trudeau abandoned his early promises to support their sector, despite eventually buying the pipeline.

The desire to vote the Liberals out of office became very strong, often overriding other considerations.

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole seems to be fending off challenges to his right as well. Fringe right-wing parties such as the Maverick Party and the People’s Party are attracting scant attention, and even fewer votes.

Even in Alberta, where these parties seem most at home, their ability to pull enough votes from the Conservatives is not likely to be enough to cost the Conservatives seats.

There has also been lots of talk of the “Kenney effect” on the federal election, and whether the Liberals would use the United Conservative Party (UCP) Premier Jason Kenney as a foil to campaign against the Conservatives.

So far, that effect has been no effect at all. It’s not that Kenney has been helping his federal counterparts; he’s been visibly invisible during the campaign.

Kenney’s approval rating on handling the pandemic is currently the lowest among all the premiers. COVID-19 is surging in Alberta. Kenney is facing criticism for his management of the pandemic, his own overall record, and for being absent from Alberta during a fourth wave of COVID-19.


READ MORE: Premier Jason Kenney makes 1st public appearance in weeks via Facebook Live

Meanwhile, the NDP has been on the rise since its surprise 2015 victory in Alberta, and it is no longer scary to vote NDP in Alberta.

Before the federal campaign started, in fact, the federal NDP was within six points of the Conservatives, before dropping back to a statistical tie with the Liberals. But the NDP numbers are improving nationally. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also enjoys high personal approval ratings across the country, including in Alberta.

Provincially, the NDP, and its leader Rachel Notley, lead the UCP and Jason Kenney.

Although the next Alberta provincial election is two years away, what happens in the federal election on Sept. 20 will influence what happens in Alberta over the course of those two years.

If O’Toole prevails and Kenney loses his bogeyman Trudeau in Ottawa, Albertans may become even more comfortable electing a provincial NDP government.

Alberta is rapidly becoming a true two-party province, and despite assumptions to the contrary, the province has more than its fair share of progressives, especially in urban ridings. However, those two parties are the NDP and the Conservatives, with the Liberals left out.

Vote switching typically occurs between Liberals and Conservatives, or New Democrats and Liberals. In Alberta, the Liberal brand is the third rail. NDP voters will jump to the Conservatives before going to the Liberals, and vice versa.

The Liberal brand is tarnished federally, and non-existent provincially. Whether Alberta becomes a two-party province federally of NDP and Conservative voters in the future remains to be see

Things are slowly changing in Canada’s fourth-largest province. Those changes may not show up in a seat count in this election, but the NDP has a real chance to become Alberta’s natural alternative to conservative parties, both federally and provincially.

They may pick up some extra votes in the federal election; they will likely hold their one seat and perhaps threaten a few others. The Liberals seem certain to be wiped out in Alberta again.

If the NDP continues to gain support, and the progressive vote coalesces around the party, it could mean trouble for Kenney, no matter how many seats the Conservatives take in 2021.

The Conservatives should win the most Alberta seats on Sept. 20, but the real story is the significance of the federal campaign on Alberta’s next provincial election.

Gregory Jack is vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs

Oklahoma hospitals deluged by ivermectin overdoses, doctor says


Jason McElyea says people overdosing on anti-parasitic drug that some people believe without evidence can cure or treat Covid

Oklahoma is among states struggling to cope with a surge in hospitalisations and deaths caused by the Delta virus variant. 

Photograph: Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/Rex/Shutterstock


Martin Pengelly and agencies
@MartinPengelly
Sat 4 Sep 2021 

An Oklahoma doctor has said overdoses of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which many believe without evidence can prevent or cure Covid-19, are helping cause delays and problems for rural hospitals and ambulance services struggling to cope with the resurgent pandemic.


Ivermectin is used to kill internal and external parasites in livestock animals and, in smaller doses, in humans.

“There’s a reason you have to have a doctor to get a prescription for this stuff, because it can be dangerous,” Dr Jason McElyea, a family doctor in Sallisaw, told KFOR, an Oklahoma TV station.

“The [emergency rooms] are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated.

“Ambulances are stuck at the hospital waiting for a bed to open so they can take the patient in and they don’t have any, that’s it. If there’s no ambulance to take the call, there’s no ambulance to come to the call.”

McElyea told the Tulsa World a colleague was forced to send one severely ill Covid patient to a hospital in South Dakota, three states away to the north.

“They had sat in a small hospital needing to be in an [intensive care unit] for several days, and that was the closest ICU that was available,” he said.

Oklahoma is among states struggling to cope with a surge in hospitalisations and deaths caused by the Delta virus variant. According to Johns Hopkins University, in the past week Oklahoma has recorded more than 18,400 cases and 189 deaths. The same source puts the death toll in Oklahoma over 8,000, out of more than 647,000 across the US.

The vast majority of US hospitalisations and deaths are among unvaccinated people. Amid opposition to vaccines and public health mandates stoked by Republican politicians, conservative media and disinformation on social media, many have turned to ivermectin.

This week, the influential podcaster Joe Rogan, who has been dismissive of vaccines, announced he had tested positive for Covid and was taking ivermectin.

In Arkansas, the drug was given to inmates at a jail. Louisiana and Washington issued alerts after an increase in calls to poison control centers. Some animal feed supply stores have run out of the drug because of people buying it in its veterinary form.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cited a case of a man who drank an injectable form of ivermectin intended for cattle. He suffered hallucinations, confusion, tremors and other side effects and was hospitalised for nine days.

McElyea told KFOR: “Growing up in a small town, rural area, we’ve all accidentally been exposed to ivermectin at some time. So it’s something people are familiar with. Because of those accidental sticks, when trying to inoculate cattle, they’re less afraid of it.”

Authorities have tried to debunk claims that animal-strength ivermectin can fight Covid-19.

“Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm,” the US Food and Drug Administration warned, adding that the drug can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, seizures, delirium and death.

The American Medical Association appealed for an “immediate end” to the drug’s use, outside studies seeking to determine if the drug has any use against Covid-19, with federal and state regulators tracking side effects and hospital admissions.

A panel from the National Institutes of Health found “insufficient evidence” for or against using the drug for Covid-19.

In Oklahoma, McElyea said: “Some people taking inappropriate doses have actually put themselves in worse conditions than if they’d caught Covid. The scariest one that I’ve heard of and seen is people coming in with vision loss.

“You have to ask yourself, ‘If I take this medicine, what am I going to do if something bad happens?’ What’s your next step, what’s your back-up plan? If you’re going to take a medicine that could affect your health, do it with a doctor on board.

“It’s not just something you look on the internet for and decide if it’s the right dose.”

Northeastern Health System in Sequoyah said in a statement posted on Facebook later on Saturday that Dr McElyea was not an employee but was affiliated with a medical staffing group that provided coverage for its emergency room.

NHS Sequoyah had not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin, including overdose, the statement said.

'Virtuous cycle': Putting a price on CO2 in Gabon's forests

Issued on: 06/09/2021 - 

At the end of June, Gabon became the first country on the continent to receive international funds to continue its efforts against deforestation 

Amaury HAUCHARD AFP/Fil


Marseille (AFP)

How much is a tree worth when its roots are in the ground and its leaves are helping suck carbon from the air? Answer: in most places, far less than the dollar value of its wood.

The value we put on nature is the subject of a motion at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille.

A trailblazing partnership attracting particular attention is just getting off the ground in the rainforest of Central Africa, which absorbs tons of CO2 -- the gas responsible for climate change.

At the end of June, Gabon received $17 million from the Central African Forest Initiative (Cafi), which was launched in 2015 by the UN to bring together Central African countries and international donors.

"If a tree is standing it's worth nothing, if you cut it down it's worth something, but that's useless for the planet," said Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Costa Rica's former environment minister who now heads the Global Environment Facility, a specialised funding organisation.

"Without Gabon, there won't be rain in Africa. Without the Congo Basin forest we will never, never, achieve 1.5 degrees Celsius," he said referring to one of the ambitions outlined in the Paris climate deal.

- 'No real alternative' -

Saving the world's rainforests is an "extremely ambitious goal", said Bard Vegar Solhjell, Director of the Norwegian Development Agency (Norad), which is funding the Gabonese operation.

"But we have no real alternative if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change," said Solhjell, Norway's former environment minister.

Norad is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on programmes to fight deforestation in several areas of the world.

Forest exploitation in 2019 in Ivindo National Park, which has just been given UNESCO World Heritage Site 

Amaury HAUCHARD AFP/File

From Brazil to Indonesia, trees are felled at an industrial scale largely to make way for the expanding footprint of agriculture.

But the picture is different in Gabon, which has preserved its section of a forest system that covers nearly 90 percent of its territory and spreads out across the Congo Basin.

In this region, protection of forests is inextricably linked to the fight against poverty, said Solhjell.

Local people rely on slash-and-burn farming and cutting trees for firewood.

According to Cafi, Gabon's forests absorb 140 million tons of CO2 every year and emit about 30 million.

They also house 60 percent of the remaining population of critically endangered forest elephants.

The country has agreed to combat illegal logging and reduce forest degradation.

The June payment was part of a much larger fund available for the country, which can claim payments for emission reductions.

- 'Virtuous cycle' -

Flore Koumba Pambo, scientific adviser at the Gabon National Parks Agency, said the funding would help fuel other projects, such as the Ivindo National Park, which has just been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

She hopes it is the start of a "virtuous cycle", adding: "We are very proud of this recognition."

For Rodriguez, the Gabon partnership is a testing ground and possible blueprint for other initiatives.

It is also "a great opportunity to talk about carbon pricing" -- a thorny issue that will be discussed at crunch UN climate talks in Glasgow.

The donors say transparency is a crucial part of the process, as is evaluation.

"We've also invested a lot in building up civil society, we have seen how important working with that side is," said Solhjell.

In terms of assessing the value of natural services and supporting developing countries to preserve natural heritage, he said the Gabon project had clear benefits.

"We are actually paying for the services Gabon is doing to the region and the world," he said.

© 2021 AFP

Greece faces criticism a year after migrant camp fires

Issued on: 06/09/2021 -

The two-day blaze forced families with young children to flee into the surrounding towns and villages 

ANGELOS TZORTZINIS AFP

Athens (AFP)

One year after fire ripped through the notorious Moria migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, the authorities say they've tackled the critical overcrowding and brought order to the chaos.

Critics counter they achieved this through a policy of forcibly pushing back would-be refugees before they can claim asylum on Greek soil -- a charge the right-leaning government elected in 2019 denies.

While Athens says the country will "never again be the gateway to Europe", its policies highlight the deep divides within the EU over migration as fears are rising of a new wave following last months' fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

The previous migration crisis in 2015 saw Moria -- built just two years earlier to hold 3,000 people -- inundated as a huge wave of migrants began arriving on small boats from nearby Turkey.

As other European states responded by shutting their borders, the bottlenecks grew -- worst of all on Lesbos, which handled most of the arrivals from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

As numbers at Moria ballooned to 20,000, the camp became a byword for squalor and violence, where prostitution, sexual assault, disappearances of minors, drug trafficking and fights were rife.

Then late on September 8, the first of two fires broke out, as pandemic-stoked tensions soared.

- 'Framed' -

According to witnesses, a row broke out as 200 migrants refused to quarantine after either testing positive for Covid-19 or coming into contact with someone infected.

Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said then that the fires "began with the asylum seekers".

Raw anguish is etched on the faces of migrants forced to flee from the notorious and overcrowded Moria camp

 ANGELOS TZORTZINIS AFP

The six young Afghan men jailed for 5-10 years earlier this year for arson insist they were falsely accused for ethnic reasons.

Μustafa Hosseini -- whose brother Mahdi is one -- told AFP they had been framed because they were from the Hazara minority facing persecution in Afghanistan.

The only witness was a Pashtun -- the country's dominant group.

No one died in the two-day blaze. But it sparked a chaotic exodus of 12,000 asylum seekers.

Lesbos locals, who had seen more than 450,000 migrants pass through in a year, were enraged as towns, villages and fields were again flooded -- including by children, pregnant women and disabled people forced to sleep rough for days.

The Moria blaze sparked a chaotic exodus from the camp, with 12,000 migrants forced to sleep rough for days and sparking anger of local residents 

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI AFP

Against strong local opposition, authorities set up what was meant as a temporary camp on a former army range. That flooded last winter.

Mireille Girard, the UN refugee agency's representative in Greece, acknowledged that the site has been much improved since but "is not a lasting solution".

The EU committed 276 million euros ($328 million) for Greece to build reception facilities on the five Aegean islands -- Lesbos, Leros, Kos, Samos and Chios.

A new camp on Lesbos was due to be ready before winter but work hasn't begun. Meanwhile, authorities shut two projects providing housing to vulnerable migrants on the island.

- 'Winter in tents' -

"No one should have to spend the winter in tents," Girard said. "Tents after a fire, yes, but a year later?"

Greek authorities stress that Lesbos is significantly less crowded.

Hundreds of migrants were moved to the mainland after the inferno, with many more processed since.

Migration flows are also lower, the government says.

Migration Minister Mitarachi on Friday said Greece "is no longer and will never again become the gateway to Europe".

Also on Friday, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic condemned Greece over a new bill to regulate deportations and return of migrants, as well as curbs on civil society organisations that help them.

Such groups say the reduced migrant flow reflects the current government's more hardline approach to even legitimate refugees.

For the tens of thousands fleeing war and hunger and who made their first landing in Greece, the country soon became a prison as other European nations closed their borders ANGELOS TZORTZINIS AFP

"One year after the catastrophic fire in Moria camp and its consequences, Greece continues standing firmly against refugees and their rights," Human Rights 360 co-founder Epaminondas Farmakis told AFP.

© 2021 AFP

From Moria's ashes, a UN logbook shows Lesbos camp trauma

Issued on: 06/09/2021 -

Only after the Moria fire did nations take action to move hundreds of unaccompanied

 minors from the squalid and dangerous conditions of the Lesbos camp 

LOUISA GOULIAMAKI AFP

Athens (AFP)

Unaccompanied children at the Moria migrant camp on Greece's Lesbos island had to deal with rats, flooding and the threat of electrocution: all carefully documented by the staff caring for them.

Daily entries written by Greek employees of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) also referred to suspicions that some older camp residents were sexually abusing vulnerable minors.

AFP discovered the details in a logbook recovered from the ashes of the camp after it was completely destroyed on September 9, 2020 following a two-day blaze.

The logbook was found in the "safe zone", an area close to the then facility's main road, separated by barbed-wire from the rest of the camp.

This was where unaccompanied minors -- with a court order requiring they be kept safe -- lived, until they could be transferred to the mainland or a European country.

The United Nations' IOM was responsible for looking after them. By their own account, they were unable to do so adequately.

The IOM declined to comment on the logbook, but its authenticity was confirmed by cross-checking with IOM documents in the public domain, and by checking it with minors who stayed at Moria during the period covered by the logbook entries: November 2018 to May 2019.

At the time, according to the UNHCR -- the UN refugee organisation -- 406 of Moria's residents were minors who had crossed unaccompanied by their parents from the Turkish coast to the Aegean island.

- 'Danger of electrocution' -

The logs, written in Greek, make frequent reference to the children's self-inflicted harm, including substance abuse.

Entries also note suspicions that older residents of the camp were sexually abusing unaccompanied girls.

On December 25, 2018, a man approached the entrance of the safe zone and accused a girl of stealing money from him.

Moria, home to more than 12,000 migrants including hundreds of unaccompanies minors, was totally destroyed on September 9, 2020 after a two-day blaze 

ANGELOS TZORTZINIS AFP

He said he had given her money, the care worker notes, "in exchange for things that can't be described".

On November 18, 2018, the duty care worker writes: "Inside the box with the mandarin oranges we found a dead rat," noting a serious problem with rats and the danger of disease they posed to both residents and staff.

The same day, rain flooded the guardroom and one of the containers where the children lived.

"Serious danger of electrocution," notes the care worker.

A few days later, November 22, 2018, rain again flooded some of the containers.

The care worker on duty suggests the children in one of those affected should move to other containers until the weather gets better.

"Danger of electrocution," he writes, underlining his warning with the pen.

The log also records frequent power cuts.

- Killed in the 'safe zone' -

"All night long, S. and H. stayed with us in IOM's room," one care worker writes in the December 1, 2018 entry -- a reference to a teenage girl and her baby, whose names have been removed to protect their identities.

"The baby was cold and crying and it must be a little sick.

"The army doctor to whom we brought it said that he does not have expertise on babies and that someone should see it tomorrow."

Because electricity is down, the workers were unable to keep the baby warm.

Unaccompanied minors are considered the most vulnerable category of persons among those fleeing war or poverty.

After the fire that destroyed Moria, EU countries rushed to take in the unaccompanied minors who until then had been stranded there.

Social workers working today with some of the boys transferred to Hamburg, northern Germany, told AFP that to recover from the trauma of their time in the camp would take months or years -- if ever.

Three months after the last entry in the logbook, on August 25, 2019, a 15-year-old boy from Afghanistan was stabbed to death in that same "safe zone".

The boy, who was on the island with his two brothers, was waiting to be transferred to Austria, where the boys should have been reunited with their parents.

© 2021 AFP

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 
Irish gang on trial in France for alleged rhino horn smuggling

Issued on: 06/09/2021 - 

'Before smuggling, its bargaining and swindles, there is poaching with its cruelties,' says environmental group Robin des Bois

Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department/AFP

Rennes (France) (AFP)

Nine alleged members of an international network of rhino horn and ivory traffickers went on trial in France on Monday after an investigation that shed light on illicit trade links between Europe and east Asia.

French prosecutors started their probe after a random motorway traffic inspection by police in September 2015 that led to the discovery of several elephant tusks and 32,800 euros ($38,900) in cash in a BMW.

The occupants of the car, who claimed they were antique dealers, were allegedly members of the Rathkeale Rovers, an Irish crime gang with roots in the Traveller community

The nine defendants on trial in the town of Rennes, which include alleged traders of Chinese and Vietnamese origin, face up to 10 years in jail and heavy fines, although two of them are on the run.

French police discovered that ivory and rhino horn were being turned into powder, flakes, and other objects on French soil before being exported to Vietnam and China where they are used in traditional medicine.

An exceptionally large horn weighing nearly 15 kilos was seized during the investigation, which would have earned around $15 million (13 million euros) once processed at Asian market prices at the time, according to environmental group Robin des Bois.

Around 40 elephant tusks were also discovered.

Robin des Bois, which is observing the trial, alleged that auction houses in the French towns of Cannes, Toulouse and Le Puy had facilitated the export of tusks to Vietnam and China.

"Before smuggling, its bargaining and swindles, there is poaching with its cruelties," the group said in a statement.

"Wildlife trafficking also contributes to the destruction and impoverishment of ecosystems, encourages speculation in elephant ivory and rhino horns and thus stimulates poaching."

The Rathkeale Rovers were the target of a joint investigation by European police in 2010 that led to 31 people being arrested, including for the theft of rhino horns, the Europol police agency says on its website.

© 2021 AFP

Belarus jails protest leader Kolesnikova for 11 years

Issued on: 06/09/2021 - 

Maria Kolesnikova is the only major leader of last year's mass protests still in Belarus 

Ramil NASIBULIN BELTA/AFP/File

Moscow (AFP)

A court in Belarus sentenced one of the country's most prominent opposition figures, Maria Kolesnikova, to 11 years in prison on Monday after she led unprecedented protests against President Alexander Lukashenko last year.

Kolesnikova's lawyer Maxim Znak was also handed a 10-year sentence, according to the press service of onetime presidential hopeful Viktor Babaryko, whose campaign was managed by Kolesnikova.

She is the only major leader of last year's mass protests still in Belarus and has been in custody for a year after resisting deportation by ripping up her passport.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been cracking down on opponents since the protests, which erupted when he claimed victory in a disputed election.

In a video from inside the court shown by Russian media, Kolesnikova -- who was handcuffed inside a defendant's cage -- made a heart-shaped symbol with her hands, which she often did at protest rallies.

She was smiling and wearing her signature dark red lipstick.

"Dear spectators, we are happy to see you," Znak, who was standing next to her, said in the video before the sentence was read out.

Kolesnikova -- a 39-year-old former flute player in the country's philharmonic orchestra -- has become a symbol of the protest movement in Belarus.

She was arrested last September, when KGB agents put a sack over her head, pushed her into a minibus and drove her to the Ukrainian border.

She resisted the attempt to throw her out of the country by reportedly jumping out of the car.

- 'Heroes' -

Kolesnikova was part of a female trio of protest leaders along with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Veronika Tsepkalo, both of whom fled the country.

Tikhanovskaya, who stood for president in place of her jailed husband and claims she won the election, called the pair "heroes" after the sentencing.

"The regime wants us to see them crushed and exhausted. But look: they are smiling and dancing," Tikhanovskaya, who is now based in Lithuania, said on Twitter.

Together the three women inspired a wave of female-led protests.

Kolesnikova and Znak, 40, had worked for Babaryko, considered one of Lukashenko's strongest opponents, who in July was jailed for 14 years on fraud charges.

Western countries have piled sanctions on Lukashenko's regime over the treatment of opposition activists at home and abroad.

Lukashenko faced a global outcry in May when a passenger plane was forced to land in Minsk and a dissident onboard was arrested.

Belarus was back in the international spotlight in August after an athlete said her team tried to force her to leave the Tokyo Olympics, and an exiled opposition activist was found hanged in a park in Ukraine.

But with the protests having run out of steam and authorities seeking to wipe out any remaining pockets of dissent, Lukashenko has shown no signs of stepping down and maintains the backing of key ally and creditor Russia.

© 2021 AFP

Several Palestinians escape Israeli prison, including top ex-militant

Issued on: 06/09/2021 -

Israeli officers by a hole in the ground outside the walls of Gilboa prison after six Palestinian militants broke out of it in north Israel September 6, 2021, by digging a tunnel

. © Gil Eliyahu, Reuters
Text by:NEWS WIRES

Six Palestinians broke out of an Israeli prison Monday through a tunnel dug beneath a sink, triggering a massive manhunt for the group that includes a prominent ex-militant.

The Israel Prison Service said an alert was sounded around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) by locals who spotted “suspicious figures” outside the Gilboa prison in the country’s north.

The group includes Zakaria Zubeidi, a former militant leader from the flashpoint city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the IPS confirmed in a statement.

In footage that recalled the iconic 1994 prison escape film “The Shawshank Redemption”, the service released a video which showed agents inspecting a narrow tunnel beneath a sink and another showing a hole just outside the prison walls.

Gilboa—which opened in 2004 during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising—is a high security site where hundreds of Palestinians are detained among other inmates.

The prison service said all those held at Gilboa over “security offences” are being relocated in case additional escape tunnels have been dug beneath the facility.

Police, the army and agents from Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency joined the search, which included aerial surveillance vehicles, officials said.

Sniffer dogs were deployed and checkpoints set up in the area surrounding Gilboa.

The army had in particular deployed heavily at a crossing point from Israel to Jenin governorate, checking identities of all Palestinian workers seeking to cross, an AFP reporter said.

The army said its forces were “prepared and deployed” in the West Bank as part of the operation.

The jail break occurred hours before Israel begins its High Holiday season, starting with Jewish New Year which begins at sundown.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the escape “a serious event that required a comprehensive effort by all of the security services”.

The premier was "receiving regular updates regarding the search efforts for the terrorists", said a statement.

Gaza groups cheer

The five others who escaped were accused of planning or carrying out attacks on Israelis.

Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Israeli blockaded Gaza Strip, called the escape “a heroic act and a victory for the will and determination of our heroic detainees”.

Islamic Jihad, one of Gaza’s most powerful armed groups after Hamas, lauded the jail break as “a powerful blow to the occupation forces”.

Zubeidi was the former head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and a well known figure among Palestinians and Israelis.

He was arrested over “terror allegations” in 2019 in a West Bank village near Ramallah.

He had faced charges in the past from the Palestinian Authority for taking part in a shooting attack on the residence of Jenin governor Qaddura Musa in 2002.

Musa died after suffering a heart attack during the incident, and Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of people, including Zubeidi, shortly afterwards.

Zubeidi in 2007 agreed to lay down his arms and went on to help found Jenin’s Freedom Theatre.

In 2011, the theatre’s well-known Israeli-Palestinian director Juliano Mer-Khamis was gunned down in Jenin’s refugee camp, in an attack that remains unsolved.

Unrest has also spiked in Jenin in recent weeks. A gun battle broke out last month as Israeli forces came under fire while looking for suspects, leaving four Palestinians dead.

(AFP)

Guantanamo, where the 'war on terror' drags on in military court


Issued on: 06/09/2021 

Some of the first detainees at Guantanamo in January 2002

 KEVIN LAMARQUE REUTERS POOL/AFP

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba) (AFP)

Twenty years after the September 11 attacks, the US "war on terror" is still being fought on a piece of hilly scrubland in southeast Cuba known as Guantanamo Bay.

Within months of the attacks, the United States rounded up hundreds of people with suspected ties to perpetrator Al-Qaeda and dropped them in the US naval base.

They were labeled "enemy combatants" without rights; the only timeframe for their release, if ever, said then-vice president Dick Cheney, was "the end of the war on terror" -- which, officially, is still ongoing.

Now, most of the 780 suspects who were locked in cages and bare cells have been freed, often after more than a decade without being charged.

Today, 39 remain, some promised a release that never materialized, some hoping for it, and 12 whom Washington regards as dangerous Al-Qaeda figures, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 plot.

- Forever trials -

Under President Joe Biden, their trials have resumed after a delay caused mainly by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Guantanamo detainees prepare for the evening prayer in March 2002 

PETER MUHLY AFP

On September 7, after a 17-month pause, the pre-trial hearings for Mohammed and four others are set to resume, just days ahead of the anniversary of the attack.

But there is no certainty that a verdict will be handed down for the five by the attack's 21st anniversary next year, or the following year.

The military commissions system overseeing the 12 accused Al-Qaeda figures has proven chaotic, unwieldy and often contrary to US law, to the point that in 20 years, only two have been convicted.

Benjamin Farley, a Defense Department lawyer representing one of the five in the 9/11 trial, called the commissions "an expensive and failed experiment in ad hoc justice."

Marred by accusations the government has withheld and falsified evidence, and wiretapped defense attorneys, the biggest cloud hanging over the cases is that defendants say they were brutally tortured by their captors, tainting the prosecution.

"I think everyone on all sides knows the commissions are a failure," said Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The problems are such that the 10 could spend the rest of their lives in Guantanamo, she told AFP.

- Embarrassment -

Guantanamo has proven both a headache and an embarrassment for the US government, drawing charges of sweeping human rights abuses from around the world.

A picture posted on the website www.muslm.net on September 3, 2009 purports to show Al-Qaeda's Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged organiser of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp 

MUSLM.NET/AFP/File

Isolated on a rocky coastline miles from the main Guantanamo naval base, the facility was rooted in the CIA's notorious operation to seize Al-Qaeda suspects for secret rendition to its "black sites" scattered around the world.

There, they underwent intense interrogation and torture, including waterboarding, that continued for days, weeks and even years.

Then they were brought to Guantanamo, where the government of Republican George W. Bush decided they had no rights, under US law or the Geneva Conventions.

From the first 20 detainees in January 2002, their numbers ballooned to 780.

But reviews showed the government had no evidence to tie many to Al-Qaeda or 9/11, and they were quietly released -- though for some that took a decade.

- Propaganda tool -

When Democrat Barack Obama became president in January 2009, there were about 240 still in custody.

Not only was the prison a human rights embarrassment and what one Obama official called a "propaganda tool" for violent jihadists, there was evidence to suggest three detainees had been killed one night in 2006 by interrogators, who claimed the deaths were coordinated suicides.

One of Obama's first actions was to order Guantanamo to be closed within a year. But Republicans in Congress blocked the closure, leaving the detainees in legal limbo.

Obama, nevertheless, pushed to release most of the detainees, and only 41 were left when Donald Trump took office in January 2017.

But instead of continuing the releases, Trump froze them and threatened to fill more Guantanamo cells with Islamic State fighters captured in Iraq and Syria.

Biden, who was Obama's vice president, has favored closing the prison. But analysts say he is not going to copy Obama's move, knowing it could be politically disastrous.

Instead, with the Covid-19 threat having eased with vaccinations, the military commissions resumed hearings in May and Biden has sought to quietly release those not facing trial.

© 2021 AFP

Libya frees son of former dictator Gaddafi after 7 years in detention

Issued on: 06/09/2021 

FILE PHOTO: Saadi Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, sits behind bars during a hearing at a courtroom in Tripoli, Libya February 7, 2016. 

REUTERS - Ismail Zetouni
Text by:FRANCE 24

Libyan authorities have released Saadi Gaddafi, a son of the former leader Muammar Gaddafi who was ousted and killed during a 2011 uprising, a Libyan official source and a unity government source said on Sunday.

Saadi Gaddafi fled for Niger during the NATO-backed uprising, but was extradited to Libya in 2014 and has been imprisoned since then in Tripoli.

He immediately departed on a plane to Istanbul, the official source said.

Saadi, now 47, was known for his playboy lifestyle during his father's dictatorship.

The former professional footballer had been held in a Tripoli prison, accused of crimes committed against protesters in 2011 and of the 2005 killing of Libyan football coach Bashir al-Rayani.

In April 2018, the court of appeal acquitted him of Rayani's murder.

During the uprising, three of the dictator's seven sons were killed, and the country has since sunk into chaos, with rival factions vying for power.

A 2020 ceasefire ended the factional fighting and paved the way for peace talks and the formation of a transitional government this March, ahead of elections set for December.

But preparations are marred by disputes between key stakeholders over when to hold elections, what elections to hold, and on what constitutional grounds.

Libya has suffered chaos, division and violence in the decade since the uprising. The Government of National Unity was installed in March as part of a peace push that was also meant to include elections planned for December.

Saadi Gaddafi's release resulted from negotiations that included senior tribal figures and Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, the official source said. Another source said the negotiations also involved former interior minister Fathi Bashagha.

In 2018 the Justice Ministry said Saadi Gaddafi had been found not guilty of "murder, deception, threats, enslavement and defamation of the former player Bashir Rayani".

In July the New York Times said it had interviewed Saadi's brother, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who was held for years in the town of Zintan, as his supporters indicate he will run in the presidential elections planned for December.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)

Tessa Ganserer fights for trans rights in German election run

Issued on: 06/09/2021 - 

Tessa Ganserer, a candidate for the Green Party (Die Gruenen), is setting her sights even higher, with a run for the national parliament 

John MACDOUGALL AFP

Berlin (AFP)

In 2018, Tessa Ganserer made history as the first openly transgender woman to serve in a German state assembly.

Today, the deputy for the Greens in the Bavarian regional legislature is setting her sights even higher with a run for the national parliament.

But while Ganserer earned an image as a trailblazer, she has struggled to have her identity recognised by the powers-that-be, not least on this month's election ballot.

Her supporters will tick a box marked with her masculine birth name, followed by her new name in brackets, a bureaucratic move the 44-year-old finds offensive.

Transgender activists have long fought against being addressed by their birth names -- "dead names" -- after they have begun publicly making their gender transition.

"It's humiliating -- it hurts me because I dropped my masculine name which is simply incorrect," Ganserer, who is seen as having a strong chance of winning a Bundestag mandate in the September 26 poll, told AFP.

The engineer specialising in forestry has lived as a woman since her coming out nearly three years ago. Now everyone, including her arch-conservative colleagues in the Bavarian legislature, calls her Tessa.

However, she has not yet legally changed her name in protest against the administrative hurdles in place for transgender people.

The path can take years, cost up to 2,000 euros ($2,400) and is what Ganserer calls a "violation of human dignity" whose protection is enshrined in the first article of Germany's Basic Law.

- 'Very intimate questions' -

"I would have to file a request with a court, undergo two psychiatric examinations -- only for a judge to decide if I am accepted by the state as the woman who I have already been publicly for three years," said Ganserer, who represents a constituency in Nuremberg.

She said the psychiatric evaluations covered "very intimate questions" including "your first sexual experience, the nature of your sexual fantasies, even the type of undergarments you wear".

Ganserer said the law governing such name changes dates from the 1980s -- a very different era in the long struggle for transgender rights.

Over the years, Germany's highest court has declared several of its provisions unconstitutional.

In a 2011 ruling, the tribunal abolished an obligation to undergo a sex change operation to qualify for a complete civil status update, and urged the executive branch to give the law a complete overhaul.

Several other European countries have already done so. In Switzerland, Spain and Denmark, it is enough to apply for a new identity card to have a different gender recognised.

In Germany, similar changes proposed by the Greens party and the liberal Free Democrats were rejected earlier this year by Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives over differences in the type of counselling and support services offered to transgender people.

In 2018, Tessa Ganserer made history as the first openly transgender woman to serve in a German state assembly J

ohn MACDOUGALL AFP

The ruling "grand coalition" of conservatives and Social Democrats has failed to present its own draft law.

"I can't understand it," sighs Ganserer. "There shouldn't be any more excuses. Human rights apply to all human beings."

- 'Exhausted' -

"It was really hard for me to come out," she said, recalling her fears of attacks from political opponents, scrutiny of her private life and trolling on social media -- all of which came to pass.

"But I was exhausted," she remembered. "I wanted to continue in politics but I also had to finally be myself and live as the woman who I've actually always been."

Her family was supportive. Her wife, with whom she has two sons, has stayed by her side.

Tessa Ganserer's goal now is to abolish the existing law covering the identity of transgender people while working to advance the rights of the LGBTQI+ communities.

The German interior ministry reported a 36-percent rise in verbal and physical harassment of sexual minorities in 2020.

"There's still too much hatred and violence against them because they are as they are," Ganserer said, adding that she has also been the target of "insults, mockery and even threats", and regularly lodges official complaints.

She hopes to be able to shake things up in the Bundestag and expresses hope that under the new post-Merkel government -- possibly with the Greens in the next ruling coalition -- change will be possible.

© 2021 AFP