Opinion

Tim Scott’s Run For President Was Never Real, And Neither Was He

Stephen A. Crockett Jr.
Wed, November 15, 2023

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) arrives for the third Republican presidential primary debate in Miami on Nov. 8.

Goodbye, Sen. Tim Scott! We barely knew you.

No, literally, we don’t know you. If the South Carolina Republican were walking down the street wearing a hoodie with the words “HI EVERYONE, I’M SEN. TIM SCOTT!” on the front, I’d argue that still no one would know him.

And Republicans want it that way.

On Fox News’ “Sunday Night In America with Trey Gowdy,” a show watched only by Republicans, Scott announced Sunday that he is no longer running for president.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on the campaign trail without question,” Scott told Gowdy, a former U.S. representative from South Carolina. “But when I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate. I am suspending my campaign.”

If Tim Scott drops out of the presidential race, does it make a sound?

Does anyone wonder why we learned of Scott’s girlfriend right before he left the race? I mean, he literally introduced America to “Mindy Noce, an interior designer and mother of three from Charleston, South Carolina,” opening her up to scrutiny just before telling the waitress to “hold the presidential campaign, I couldn’t eat another bite.”

A bizarre turn of events for a candidate who seemed to have the support of major donors, having accumulated some $22 million in donations and a $35 million bump into the senator’s super PAC, Opportunity Matters Fund, from Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle Corporation.

So if it wasn’t money, then what stopped the lone Black Republican senator, who had the opportunity to possibly become the first Black GOP presidential nominee, from continuing his campaign? Well, Tim Scott is not a full-throated, full-fledged politician, as he’s allowed himself to become a Republican sideshow who wasn’t quite ready for the big stage.

To understand Tim Scott is to understand America’s relationship ― more specifically, white America’s relationship ― with the Black friend. Since the beginning of time, there has always been a Black friend, sometimes as a guardian (think Jim in “Huckleberry Finn”), or the voice of God (again, Jim in “Huckleberry Finn”), or just literally God (think Morgan Freeman in “Bruce Almighty”).

The main role of the Black friend has always been to propel his white counterpart. Never the main attraction, the Black friend is always a sounding board to show the moral qualities of their white protagonist. So Tim Scott has become a caricature of an archetype. When a Republican says he has a Black friend, he’s referring to Tim Scott. Whenever Republicans have been accused of being racist, they bring up Tim Scott. Remember, after the massacre last year in Buffalo, New York ― where a white man walked into a grocery store and killed 10 Black people and wounded three more ― there was a huge conversation about whether America is a racist country? It was Tim Scott who argued, honestly, as the lone Black senator in the Republican Party and one of only 13 Black senators in the country’s history, that America doesn’t have a race problem.

During his speech, Scott said he’s “experienced the pain of discrimination.” But he cautioned that “race is not a political weapon to settle every issue the way one side wants.” This was said by a Black man who truly believes that he worked harder than other Black folks to become a member of Congress, and not that Congress has a race problem.

Scott is a lap dog who does it all for the head rubs because the white gaze is a powerful drug. He learned during his brief campaign that he wasn’t ready for prime time, having spent the majority of his career as a sideshow. Prime time means that all parts of your life get examined. I’m guessing Scott felt it necessary to bring out his girlfriend because he was getting tired of the speculation about his sexuality.

This is the dirty part of politics that is actually one of the only areas of true bipartisanship: minding other people’s business. Whatever Scott does in his private life is his business, and he shouldn’t be forced to parade his partner as proof of anything. He should be allowed a full life with whomever he chooses, but this is the problem when you’ve always been an opening act. 

Scott poses on stage with Mindy Noce after the third Republican presidential primary debate on Nov. 8.

Scott poses on stage with Mindy Noce after the third Republican presidential primary debate on Nov. 8.

Tim Scott has never been a fully actualized politician. At this point, he is a kindergartner’s drawing of a politician from memory. Scott is a Black man who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association during his run for Senate in South Carolina, which means he believes that America doesn’t have a race problem or a gun problem. And the two have collided more than once in Scott’s own backyard. Think about this: Scott was a senator in South Carolina on June 17, 2015, when 21-year-old Dylann Roof walked into Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church and shot and killed nine Black people after having been welcomed into the church for Bible study. This was not a random attack. Roof, a white supremacist, targeted the church because of its history and its connection to the Black community. Scott didn’t just lose constituents on that day. He lost his friend, senior pastor and state Sen. Clementa C. Pinckney.

“I remember Wednesday, June 17, 2015, like it was yesterday,” Scott wrote in a 2020 op-ed for The Post and Courier titled “We Must Meet Racism with Love and Peace.” “I had just finished having dinner with my good friend, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, in Washington, D.C., and was sitting on my bed when the phone rang.”

“It was the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office with news of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church,” Scott wrote. “I texted the Rev. Clementa Pinckney: ‘Are you okay?’”

But that still wasn’t enough for Scott to support commonsense gun laws. He either punted ― like he did after the 2019 mass killing in Odessa, Texas, where Scott claimed that mental illness was to blame, and that he needed more information on private gun sales before he could take a position ― or else he simply voted in lockstep with other Republicans to uphold America’s allegiance to the Second Amendment.

When the people of South Carolina demanded that something be done after losing nine members of their community to racist gun violence, Scott and Gov. Nikki Haley, a fellow Republican, decided that it was finally time to take down the Confederate flag.

Wait, I hear you say. Nine people died in a racist, savage killing, and all they did was remove a flag?

Yes.

“The Confederate battle flag did not cause the hateful, racist actions that left nine families and our entire state grieving, and it remains part of our state’s rich and provocative history. But for so many, the flag signifies pain and division that has no home here, and that does not represent the present or the future of our great state,” Scott said on July 9, 2015, less than a month after the Emanuel AME slayings.

“I do not believe that the vast majority of those who support the flag have hate in their hearts,” he said. “But it is clear that this is the right step forward for our state.”

I’m confused as to why a definitive act to denounce not only racism, but a symbol of hate and the continuation of slavery, feels like an apology. But such is life for the lone Black Republican senator: always sorry, even when you’re doing the right thing.

The truth of the matter is this: No matter how much Scott allowed himself to be a trophy for Republicans, they were never going to choose a Black man as their presidential nominee. Strom Thurmond would roll over in his grave so much, it would sound like a rock tumbler.

But the real reason Scott dropped out of the race was because of one fact he was forced to accept; one fact he couldn’t deny; one fact that he couldn’t pretend didn’t exist — he was never a viable candidate.

“He never cracked 4 percent in 538’s average of national polls,” ABC News noted Tuesday. “He plowed much of his campaign cash into TV ads in early states, and that did seem to work at first: By mid-August, according to 538’s averages, he was polling at 12 percent in Iowa, 12 percent in South Carolina (his home state) and 8 percent in New Hampshire.”

It may be difficult to admit that America was built on a foundation of racism, or that loose gun laws make it easier for bad actors to get access to firearms. But it’s hard to stare reality in the face and realize that no matter how much you shine yourself up to make yourself presentable to the folks whose acceptance you desperately want, you are still a Black man, and the group you’ve aligned yourself with will always have a problem with that.

Opinion

Vivek Ramaswamy's Loud Voice Doesn't Resonate With Young Indian Americans
Ramaswamy, an Indian American millennial, doesn't represent the core values of the demographics invoked for his deeply cynical campaign.


Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy talks to members of the media in the spin room following the first debate of the GOP primary season, Aug. 23, 2023, in Milwaukee.

By Kaivan Shroff, Guest Writer
Aug 30, 2023

As a young Indian American commentator, it’s both exciting and challenging when an Indian American breaks into the national political arena. To date, we’ve seen former Louisiana Gov. Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley run for president. But the reality is that Jindal is a footnote to history, Harris is predominantly perceived as a Black woman first, and Haley is white-passing and has only recently embraced her Indian American identity for this latest presidential bid. Moreover, each of these figures is from a previous generation — coming of age in a very different America than the one inherited by millennials and Gen Z.

Therefore, my interest was piqued when, a few months back, I learned of an Indian American millennial who’d entered the 2024 presidential race out of nowhere. That candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, burst onto the national political scene last Wednesday at the Republican primary debate.

Though I had already done a deep dive into the right-wing tech bro and culture warrior, I watched Ramaswamy’s debate performance with a unique sense of dread. I hoped the people watching at home knew this was no representation of either my generation or the Indian American community. Ramaswamy, 38, is one of the few high-profile young Indian American political voices, but nearly every word out of his mouth betrays the core values of the demographics he’s invoking for his deeply cynical campaign.

In rallying cries to his fellow Indians to break free from the British Empire, Mahatma Gandhi often cited and drew from the American Revolution. No doubt Ramaswamy, who has centered the “revolution” in his messaging, knows this well. However, unlike Ramaswamy, the vast majority of Indian Americans ― having come of age during or just after Indian Independence in the mid-20th century ― treasure the hard-won privilege of democracy.

At the debate, the biotech entrepreneur fed red meat to the MAGA base, arguing that former President Donald Trump “was the best president of the 21st century” and dismissing urgent threats to democracy both domestically and abroad (e.g. siding with Vladimir Putin’s Russia over Ukraine). In stark contrast, in 2016, a reported 77% of Indian Americans voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and in 2020, over 70% of Indian Americans supported the Biden-Harris ticket.

In fact, in response to Trumpism and its anti-immigrant rhetoric, Indian Americans have become increasingly politically engaged in support of progressive policies. As journalist Vidya Krishan explains: “Indian Americans used to be sheltered from America’s racial storm — but then came Trump and COVID-19.”

Ramaswamy and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley participate in the first debate of the GOP presidential primary season.

Unlike the majority of our community, Ramaswamy sees self-opportunity in the modern Republican Party. Not unlike other non-representative, prominent Republicans, Ramaswamy is eager to weaponize his minority identity against other marginalized groups. He is particularly, and viciously, anti-Black. For example, Ramaswamy, who’s written a book mockingly titled “Woke, Inc.” ― a screed against diversity, equality and inclusion efforts and corporate social responsibility ― cheered on the Supreme Court’s recent decision prohibiting affirmative action in college admissions, arguing that a supposed crisis of “fatherlessness” is actually to blame for unequal outcomes for Black Americans.

“I went to public schools through eighth grade. It was racially diverse, majority-Black or something close to it,” Ramaswamy told ABC News’ Linsey Davis in June. “There wasn’t a single one of those Black kids that could not have achieved everything that I have in my life ― I’ve lived the American dream, I’m now running for U.S. president ― if they had also been given the same privilege that I had, which was two parents in the house and a focus on education.”

Ironically, Ramaswamy is inarguably the beneficiary of such DEI and affirmative action policies, having attended Yale Law School on a Paul & Daisy Soros scholarship targeted to “new American” immigrant families.

Just as he exploits his identity as an Indian American immigrant, Ramaswamy also attempted to use the debate to claim the mantle of a next-generation leader. But here, too, his positions were painfully out of step with the young voters he supposedly represents. “I think we do need somebody of a different generation to lead this nation forward,” he said during the Fox News event. Yet despite young voters being more politically engaged than ever, Ramaswamy’s signature domestic policy idea is to raise the voting age to 25.

On issues that matter most to young voters, such as gun violence and climate change, his answers could not have been farther from the mainstream preferences of our demographic. In response to a question about extreme weather wreaking havoc across the country, Ramaswamy declared that “the climate change agenda is a hoax.” He also confirmed to moderator Bret Baier that if elected, he would shut down the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ― the federal agency that regulates firearms ― in addition to the FBI and the IRS.

As we saw with presidential hopeful Andrew Yang in 2020, limited representation in the national discourse can lead to outlandish or downright wacky figures filling in representation gaps in our politics and media. Ramaswamy comes served up with all the fixings to a political media that is starving for something different from Trump indictments and Hunter Biden investigation pressers ― and surely, there is much more Vivek to come. Therefore, it’s critical that readers, viewers and voters understand that Ramaswamy is an extraordinarily contrived figure who does not resonate with or represent Indian Americans, young voters, or young Indian American voters like me.

CNN Quietly Cut Disputed Israeli Military Claim From Some Video Reports

Matt Shuham
Wed, November 15, 2023 


After Israeli armed forces shut down a children’s hospital in Gaza last week, a spokesperson for the country’s military gave a tour to members of the international press, taking time to show them something that he argued was evidence of Israel’s claim that the hospital in the Palestinian enclave may have been used to hold hostages taken by Hamas in an Oct. 7 attack: a calendar.

In an Israeli government video, Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, called it “a guarding list where every terrorist writes his name and every terrorist has his own shift guarding the people that were here.” Hamas denied the claim, and skeptics pointed out that the document was simply a list of dates and days of the week since Oct. 7 under the title “Al Aqsa Flood Battle,” Hamas’ name for the attack, along with the Oct. 7, 2023, date. It included no names ― of “guards” or anyone else.

Eventually, Israel backtracked somewhat: A spokesperson acknowledged a translation error in Hagari’s statement and, notably, said that video of his remark distributed to media outlets had been corrected, with the specific reference to the document deleted.

In the United States, at least one news outlet has made similar changes but without any editor’s note or other acknowledgment of the change or the dispute over the initial video.

CNN’s international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson’s full report, from Al-Rantisi hospital, included Robertson announcing that “more evidence, Hagari says, points towards Hamas and possible hostage presence below the hospital.”

Then CNN showed Hagari making a statement about the “guarding list” on which “every terrorist has his own shift.” After that, the report showed Robertson pointing out a toy flashlight on the floor next to a knife. Hagari claimed he hadn’t seen the objects until Robertson mentioned them. Robertson then asked, “What does it tell you?” Hagari eventually answered that he believed there was “no other answer” than that the room was used to hold hostages.

The clip made the rounds this week, with critics saying it showed CNN had given too much space to the Israeli military’s claims.


But in several other broadcasts of Robertson’s report, as well as on CNN’s YouTube page and website, none of that remains. Instead, Robertson’s report skips ahead to the journalist asking Hagari about other hospitals and the IDF spokesperson arguing “we were right to fire” upon Al-Rantisi.

In an email to HuffPost, a CNN spokesperson acknowledged that the report, which first aired on Kaitlan Collins’ program, “was cut ― purely for length ― for subsequent shows.” The spokesperson argued that such cuts were “not uncommon at all,” especially given the nine-minute length of the original segment.

But CNN has seemingly provided no acknowledgment or explanation to its online readership about these scenes apparently being cut from other versions of Robertson’s report ― the CNN.com page for the report includes no editor’s note or clarification, nor does CNN’s YouTube page.

Compare the videos below.

Collins posted what appears to be the original video report on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. For the segment in question, fast-forward to 6:19:


However, on CNN’s website and YouTube page, starting at the same point in the report, the content about the “guarding list,” as well as the knife and flashlight, has apparently been excised:


These weren’t the only changes. The version of the report that Collins posted online includes a comment from Robertson after Hagari displays a handful of guns and explosives purportedly found in the hospital: “[Hagari] says he can show us evidence they found a lot more [guns and explosives], but this is what they made safe for our visit,” Robertson says. The longer version of the report also includes Hagari’s claims about the IDF offering help to evacuate the hospital, as well as his claims about bringing incubators into Gaza. In addition, the longer version of the report includes Hagari’s accusation that Hamas was “holding hostages in a children’s hospital.” None of these claims are included in the versions of the report on CNN’s website or YouTube channel.

Live CNN footage saved on the Internet Archive shows different versions of Robertson’s reporting airing at different times: Robertson mentioned Hagari’s claim of “a rotor for guards, for guard duty” and “a guard room that had a list of guard duties” during live interviews Monday with Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer. He told Tapper, after noting the document, “That is breaking the conventions of international humanitarian law when it comes to protections of hospitals, that is, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.” The Israeli embassy to the United States quoted Robertson’s remark in a tweet on Tuesday.

Later on Monday, Robertson’s full video report first aired on Collins’ program and did include the footage of the “guarding list” material, as well as the other quotes that were later cut, according to archived footage.

Subsequently, the version of Robertson’s report that aired Monday on “CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip” did not include the extra material, nor did the version aired Tuesday on “CNN This Morning.”

Daniel Marans contributed reporting.

THE ARTICLE IN QUESTION

Israel shows alleged Hamas ‘armory’ under children’s hospital in Gaza. Local health officials dismiss the claims

Nic Robertson, Rebecca Wright, John Torigoe and David Shortell, CNN
Tue, November 14, 2023


Editor’s Note: CNN reported from Gaza under IDF escort at all times, but did not submit the material for this report to the IDF and retained editorial control over the final report.

The Israeli military’s focus on hospitals in Gaza is growing more intense as its campaign to eliminate Hamas from the enclave enters a sixth week.

The IDF invited news media to visit a medical center for children on Monday, where a spokesperson alleged parts of the basement had been a Hamas “command and control center” and may have been used to hold hostages.

A CNN team embedded with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and was shown guns and explosives in one room located beneath Al-Rantisi children’s hospital on Monday, which IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari termed an “armory.”

He also pointed to a chair with a rope next to it and a piece of women’s clothing, which he said would be tested for DNA, and a makeshift toilet.

Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas locates its operational bases in tunnels under hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. The access provided by the IDF provided Monday was an effort to back up those assertions, which are denied by Hamas, as well as health officials and hospitals in Gaza.

Concerns are mounting that hospitals are now being targeted for military action. Searing images and accounts from civilians inside continue to emerge and as doctors warn they cannot evacuate their most vulnerable patients.

Speaking by phone to CNN on Tuesday, Mohammed Zarqout, who has responsibility for all of Gaza’s hospitals, said the basement at Al Rantisi had been used as a shelter for women and children – not to store Hamas weaponry and hold hostages – as well as being the location of the pharmacy and some of the hospital’s administrative offices before rainwater made it “impossible” to use.

Zarqout also told CNN that medical staff had been forced to leave the hospital by Israeli soldiers, and had been unable to take all the patients with them when they left.

CNN embedded with Israel's military inside Gaza but did not submit the material for this report to the IDF and retained editorial control over the final report. - CNN

In a statement on Sunday, the IDF said it was enabling passage by foot and ambulance to evacuate from three hospitals: Al-Shifa, Al-Rantisi and Nasser hospitals.

Israeli troops had been conducting operations inside Al-Rantisi only a few hours before CNN’s visit, according to Hagari. He added that a forensic team would soon test the material left behind in the basement rooms to confirm any potential connection to the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas during its rampage in Israel on October 7.

The IDF is also working to determine if there is a connection between an apparent nearby tunnel entrance and the rooms under the hospital.

CNN was shown a shaft, about 200 meters away from Al-Rantisi, which Hagari claimed was located next to a Hamas commander’s house and also a school.

Wires leading into the shaft provided power to the tunnel from solar panels fixed onto the roof of the Hamas commander’s house, he also said.

“We [put] a robot inside the tunnel and the robot saw a massive door, a door that is in the direction of the hospital,” Hagari said.

Zarquot said “the tunnel they claim to be a Hamas tunnel is actually an electrical wire assembly point. We raised the wires to prevent any electrical shocks caused by floods.”

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari inside Gaza - CNN
Vast destruction

CNN’s team witnessed huge amounts of destruction on their way through Gaza with the Israeli military as they were taken to Al-Rantisi hospital.

Countless houses, tall apartment blocks, hotels and villas had been destroyed. Bullet and shell holes were visible everywhere and firefights were ongoing.

Days of intensive fighting near hospitals in the enclave in recent days have lead to what medical personnel still working there describe as siege-like conditions.

While hospitals are protected in times of war under international humanitarian law, that protection may be compromised if they are believed to be sites of military activity. The World Health Organization has recorded at least 137 attacks on health facilities in Gaza, which it said resulted in 521 deaths and 686 injuries.

Other protected sites, like schools, civilian shelters, and United Nations facilities have already been damaged or destroyed in over a month of Israeli airstrikes. On Monday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee announced that over 100 UN staffers had been killed in Gaza since fighting began – the most in the United Nation’s history.

Men walk along the border of Gaza in southern Israel on November 13, 2023. Swathes of the heavily populated enclave has come under relentless Israeli bombardment - Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

Israeli forces’ orders for hospitals to evacuate or risk danger from fighting as troops try to root out Hamas have sparked criticism from global health organizations and aid groups. A joint statement by the regional directors of UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Health Organization on Sunday called for “urgent international action to end the ongoing attacks on hospitals in Gaza.”

“We are horrified at the latest reports of attacks on and in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Rantissi Naser Paediatric Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, and others in Gaza city and northern Gaza, killing many, including children. Intense hostilities surrounding several hospitals in northern Gaza are preventing safe access for health staff, the injured, and other patients” the statement reads.

Doctors continue to refuse to leave Al-Shifa – the biggest in Gaza – as of Monday, , because they say they fear hundreds of patients will die if they are left behind. Israel has alleged a Hamas center is hidden in the basement there, a claim which the hospital staff and Hamas have denied.

Thousands of civilians are believed to be sheltering at the hospital, and approximately 700 at-risk patients are receiving treatment there, according to Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, Director-General of the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza.

“The problem is not the doctors, it’s the patients,” Al-Burish told CNN on Monday. “If they are left behind, they will die, and if they are transferred, they will die on the way, this is the problem.”

The Guardian Deletes Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ After It Goes Viral on TikTok

Sharon Knolle
Wed, November 15, 2023



The Guardian made the unusual move Wednesday to delete a 21-year-old letter written by Osama bin Laden from their site after several TikTokers urged followers to read the al Qaeda leader’s missive, causing “Letter to America” to go viral on the social media platform.

Guardian readers are now met with the message, “This page previously displayed a document containing, in translation, the full text of Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to the American people,’ as reported in the Observer on Sunday 24 November 2002. The document, which was published here on the same day, was removed on 15 November 2023.”

In a statement to TheWrap, a spokesperson for the U.K. outlet said, “The transcript published on our website 20 years ago has been widely shared on social media without the full context. Therefore we have decided to take it down and direct readers to the news article that originally contextualized it instead.”

Among the takeaways people are discussing on TikTok: bin Laden’s statement that Sept. 11, 2001 happened because of America’s support of Israel. “They threw hundreds of thousands of soldiers against us and have formed an alliance with the Israelis to oppress us and occupy our land; that was the reason for our response on the eleventh,” the letter, which can easily be found elsewhere online, reads in part.

The TikTok trend seems to have started with a video posted by Lynnette Adkins, in which she told her nearly 12 million followers, “I need everyone to stop doing what they’re doing right now and go read ‘Letter to America,’ I feel like I’m going through an existential crisis right now.”

Responses from fellow TikTokers include “my eyes have been opened.” Another user who shared the letter wrote, wrote, “We’ve been lied to our entire lives, I remember watching people cheer when Osama was found and killed.”

In one of her many follow-up videos, Adkins says, “TikTok is going to save this generation,” because older people are “programmed to think a certain way.”

Trending searches on TikTok included “Osama letter to America summary,” “a letter to America full text” and “a letter to America explained.”

Bin Laden’s resurfaced anti-Israel message comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed allegations that the country is committing war crimes in Gaza. The latest conflict in the Middle East ignited Oct. 7 following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israeli civilians that left more than 1,400 dead.

Israel and Palestine supporters have clashed around the world in the month after the Hamas attack and Israel’s military response, including recently in Los Angeles, where a Jewish man died of the head injury he sustained during an alleged confrontation with a Palestinian proponent.

Several celebrities, including former United Nations Goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie, have called for a ceasefire in the region.

The post The Guardian Deletes Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ After It Goes Viral on TikTok appeared first on TheWrap.

Guardian Removes Decades-Old Bin Laden Text After It Goes Viral
Corbin Bolies
Wed, November 15, 2023 

Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

The Guardian took down on Wednesday a 2002 letter written by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, saying the version of the letter on its website that had circulated on social media in recent days needed more context. “The transcript published on our website 20 years ago has been widely shared today on social media without its original context,” a Guardian spokesperson told The Daily Beast in a Wednesday email. “Therefore we have decided to take it down and direct readers to the news article that originally contextualized it instead.” The link housing the full letter now directs readers to a November 2002 story about the letter initially published in The Observer, the paper’s sister publication. The letter had reached the top of the Guardian’s website in recent days and had circulated on social media thanks to bin Laden’s comments on Palestine.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ Goes Viral 21 Years Later — on TikTok

Miles Klee
Wed, November 15, 2023 

osama-bin-laden-letter.jpg Osama bin Laden born March 10, 1957. member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the Islamic extremist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks again - Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty ImagesMore

As a famous @dril tweet noted of the terrorist group ISIS, “You do not, under any circumstances, ‘gotta hand it to them.'” Yet amid the continuing horrors of the war between Israel and Hamas militants, as people struggle to make sense of the violence and escalating rhetoric, more than a few people are willing to give al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden credit for his 2002 polemic against the United States, published as an explanation of the ideology that led him to orchestrate the attacks of 9/11.

“I need everyone to stop what they’re doing right now and go read — it’s literally two pages — go read ‘A Letter to America,'” said TikTok user Lynette Adkins in a video posted to the platform on Tuesday, referring to the title often given to the text by bin Laden. “Come back here and let me know what you think. Because I feel like I’m going through like an existential crisis right now, and a lot of people are. So I just need someone else to be feeling this too.”

Commenters felt similarly awestruck by the document. “Just read it.. my eyes have been opened,” wrote one. “Read our entire existence for filth and he did NOT miss,” another said of bin Laden’s criticisms of the U.S. The clip itself went viral, with other young TikTokers also sharing the letter approvingly, encouraging followers to read it. “We’ve been lied to our entire lives, I remember watching people cheer when Osama was found and killed,” wrote a 25-year-old user who posted the letter in full. “I was a child, and it confused me. It still confuses me today. The world deserves better than what this country has done to them.”

Writing a year after 9/11, bin Laden noted in his message that he was seeking to answer two questions that had occupied American media since that terrible day: “Why are we fighting and opposing you?” and “What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?” The first section is surely the most relevant to the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as it denounces the U.S. for helping to establish and maintain a Jewish state in the Palestinian territories. “The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals,” bin Laden argued. “Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily.”

Bin Laden expounded further about how the oppression of Palestine had to be “revenged,” going on to impugn Western imperialism and hegemony in broader terms, before shifting into a justification for killing civilians in his jihad. “The American people are the ones who pay the taxes which fund the planes that bomb us in Afghanistan, the tanks that strike and destroy our homes in Palestine, the armies which occupy our lands in the Arabian Gulf, and the fleets which ensure the blockade of Iraq,” he wrote. “This is why the American people cannot be not innocent of all the crimes committed by the Americans and Jews against us.”

While some of bin Laden’s judgments would not have been out of place in mainstream American politics of the era — he takes the U.S. to task for not signing the Kyoto Protocol treaty on restricting emission of greenhouse gases, for example — the letter is also interspersed with antisemitic tropes and hate speech. He repeatedly wrote that the country was dominated by Jews who “control your policies, media and economy,” elsewhere condemning homosexuality and fornication as “immoral,” and accusing the U.S. of spreading AIDS, which he termed a “Satanic American Invention.” As for what al-Qaeda wanted, bin Laden said that the U.S. had to renounce its culture of “hypocrisy” and become an Islamic nation.

The top Google Search result for “Letter to America” directs to a page on the website of The Guardian, which published it in 2002. For a while on Wednesday, social media-driven interest in the text made it the publication’s top-trending story — but then the outlet removed the letter, and replaced it with a brief message: “This page previously displayed a document containing, in translation, the full text of Osama bin Laden’s “letter to the American people,” as reported in the Observer on Sunday 24 November 2002,” it reads. “The document, which was published here on the same day, was removed on 15 November 2023.” No other explanation is offered.

The deletion prompted even more discussion on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), where people questioned the editorial decision and asked for other links to the document. “Thankfully they can’t wipe our memories, or undo our further radicalization,” wrote an X user who said it was “no coincidence” The Guardian took the article down after it made the rounds online. “They really want us to stay ignorant,” wrote another. A third reader argued that bin Laden “was not the bad guy.” But many were shocked to see sympathy for — or agreement with — the terrorist who masterminded 9/11. “These so-called TikTok leftists praising Osama Bin Laden now?” tweeted one person in apparent disbelief. “How do you get radicalized to be ridiculous?”

If nothing else, it must be a sign of how polarized and angry Americans have become over a Middle East conflict that has already claimed thousands of lives, and the role the U.S. has played in the region for decades. You know things are dire when, for some people engaged in the debate, an extremist mass murderer starts making sense.

Best of Rolling Stone

'Out of control' fires endanger wildlife in Brazilian wetlands

AFP
Wed, November 15, 2023 

The Pantanal wetlands in western Brazil are famed as a paradise of biodiversity, but these days they have enormous clouds of smoke billowing over them, as raging wildfires reduce vast expanses to scorched earth.

Known for its lush landscapes and vibrant wildlife, including jaguars, caimans, macaws and monkeys, the Pantanal is home to the world's biggest tropical wetlands and, in normal times, a thriving ecotourism industry.

But in recent weeks it has been ravaged by fires that are threatening its iconic wildlife, as Brazil suffers through a southern hemisphere spring of droughts and record heat.

There were 2,387 fires in the Pantanal in the first 13 days of November, an increase of more than 1,000 percent from the entire month of November 2022, according to satellite monitoring by Brazilian space research agency INPE.

"The situation is completely out of control. And between the heat wave and the wind, it's only going to get worse," says biologist Gustavo Figueiroa, 31, head of the environmental group SOS Pantanal.

"The Pantanal is a region that's used to fires. Normally, it regenerates naturally. But this many fires isn't normal."

The Pantanal sits at the southern edge of the Amazon rainforest, stretching from Brazil into Bolivia and Paraguay across more than 170,000 square kilometers (65,000 square miles).

It has been hit hard by drought this year, with normally flooded areas reduced to shriveled ponds.

At one such spot along the dirt highway across the region, the 150-kilometer (95-mile) "Transpantaneira," a small group of caimans can be seen trying to swim in the shallow water.

Nearby, the corpse of another sits rotting on the bank.

Elsewhere, a dead porcupine lays on a carpet of ash in the charred remains of what was once a forest.

"It probably died of smoke inhalation," says veterinarian Aracelli Hammann, who is volunteering with a wildlife rescue group.

They made the grim find in the Encontro das Aguas park, home to the world's largest jaguar population.

Nearly one-third of the park has been hit by fires in the past month, according to environmental group ICV.

The other main front that firefighters are battling is in the Pantanal National Park to the southwest, where fires have burned 24 percent of the surface area.

Figueiroa warns the two fire fronts "are about to merge."

Exacerbating the situation, firefighters face huge logistical battles, given that many hard-hit areas are only reachable by boat.

- 'Domino effect' -

Experts say the fires are mainly caused by human activity, especially burning land to clear it for farming.

Climate conditions have only made things worse.

Experts say even when animals survive the flames, they risk starvation.

"We've seen a range of dead animals, including insects, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, which are unable to flee," says Figueiroa.

"They're part of an invisible food chain, and each death has a domino effect, reaching all the way up to the apex predator, the jaguar."

In a clearing, a group of monkeys rushes to devour bananas and eggs left for them by volunteers.

"We call it 'gray hunger' -- when fire reduces all the vegetation to ashes and there are no natural food sources left in the area for animals that survive the flames," says Jennifer Larreia, 33, head of animal rescue group E o Bicho.

In 2020, when wildfires also devastated the region, her organization provided 300 tonnes of fruit for animals in five months.

Fires in Brazil's Pantanal wetland surge to November record on lack of rain

Reuters
Tue, November 14, 2023



An aerial view shows burnt trees near a river in The Pantanal, the world's largest wetland, in Pocone

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The number of fires in Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest wetland, surged in the first few days of November, breaking the record for the month since monitoring began in 1998, data from space research agency Inpe showed on Tuesday.

The 2,387 fires recorded by Inpe in early November is already more than double October's figure and more than half of the total fires seen this year so far. On Sunday, Inpe detected 706 active fires.

Fires have more than tripled in the Pantanal compared with 2022, which was mild compared with the two previous years.

Weather experts point to the El Nino phenomenon, aggravated by climate change, as being behind the sharp increase in fires.

Normally, the region starts to receive rains at the end of September, said Vinicius Silgueiro, a coordinator at the Centro de Vida Institute.

"We're having a very unusual November with the climate change situation and the effects of El Nino: very high temperatures at a time when we would have already had rain and higher air humidity," he said.

"There was sporadic rainfall at the end of October, but two or three days after it stopped, the fires came back," he added.

Historically, November averages 442 hotspots. The previous record for the month, set in 2002, was 2,328.

Last Saturday, the federal government redoubled firefighting efforts in the region, bringing its team tackling the blazes to nearly 300, while also adding four aircraft.

"Much of the area that had burned in 2020 is burning again. These are areas that had just started natural regeneration," Silgueiro said, explaining that burned soil is very fragile, which hinders its recovery.

"The government has to prepare for a recurring risk as a result of the climate crisis, which requires measures to prepare, prevent and respond. Even more so in a biome that has lost 57% of its surface water since 1985," he said.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

ICYMI AIR POLLUTION KILLED DINOS

Dinosaur extinction: Belgian researchers reveal new groundbreaking discovery

Global News

  Nov 12, 2023  

New research out of Belgium is changing the understanding of what caused the extinction of dinosaurs.

Scientists from Belgium recently explored a fossil site in North Dakota, called Tanis, which records the geological effects of the massive Chicxulub asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago. 

The asteroid is believed to have caused the dinosaurs' mass extinction, but the scientists from Belgium found a layer of ultrafine silicate dust at the site and suggest that it wasn't just the asteroid that killed them off. 

Rescue hopes for men trapped in India tunnel rest on new drill equipment

SAURABH SHARMA
November 15, 2023 

By Saurabh Sharma

UTTARKASHI, India (Reuters) - Two of 40 men trapped inside a collapsed highway tunnel in the Indian Himalayas were treated for nausea and headache, officials said on Thursday, as they endured a fifth day confined to a small space in the rubble.

Rescue efforts have been focused on drilling through the fallen rock to create space for a pipe that can be used to pull the men to safety. But progress has been hampered by falling debris.

Authorities said they were confident an advanced drilling machine brought in from New Delhi will speed up the rescue at the site in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

The machine can drill through about 2-2.5 metres (2-2.5 yards) of rock per hour, Ranjit Sinha, the state's top disaster management officer, said. Work would begin shortly to cover the 60 metres distance to reach the men, said Devendra Singh Patwal, a state disaster management official.

AMBITIOUS PROJECT

The 4.5 km (3 mile) tunnel is part of the Char Dham highway, one of the most ambitious projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. The $1.5 billion project aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites through 890 km (550 miles) of roads.

Since the tunnel collapsed, the trapped men have been supplied with food, water and oxygen via a pipe and they are in contact with rescuers via walkie-talkies.

"Two of them, who complained of nausea and minor headache, were given medicines through the pipe and are fine now," Arpan Yaduvanshi, a local police official said.

Local media reported that a six-bed makeshift hospital had been put in place near the tunnel to cater to any medical attention the men might need once they are rescued.

Authorities have not said what caused the tunnel to cave in but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods. The highway project has faced some criticism from environmental experts and some work was halted in January after hundreds of houses along the routes were damaged by subsidence.

The federal government has said it employed environmentally friendly techniques in the design to make geologically unstable stretches safer.

(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma, writing by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Neil Fullick)

Autoworkers to wrap up voting on contract with General Motors Thursday in a race too close to call

TOM KRISHER
November 15, 2023 

DETROIT (AP) — In a tight vote, thousands of United Auto Workers members at General Motors are expected to finish casting ballots Thursday on a tentative contract agreement that could be a giant step toward ending a prolonged labor dispute with Detroit’s Big Three automakers.

The outcome of the GM vote is uncertain, despite the UAW's celebrations of victories last month on many key demands that led to six weeks of targeted walkouts against GM, Ford and Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles. The union is expected to announce GM results Thursday.

The three contracts, if approved by 146,000 union members, would dramatically raise pay for autoworkers, with increases and cost-of-living adjustments that would translate into a 33% wage gain. Top assembly plant workers would earn roughly $42 per hour when the contracts expire in April of 2028.

Voting continues at Ford through early Saturday, where 66.1% of workers voted in favor so far with only a few large factories still counting. The contract was passing overwhelmingly at Stellantis, where voting continues until Tuesday. The union’s vote tracker on Wednesday also showed that 66.1% voted in favor with many large factories yet to finish casting ballots.

About 46,000 UAW members at GM were wrapping up voting. As of Wednesday, those for the agreement outnumbered those against it by only 2,500 votes. That total didn’t include the tally from a 2,400-worker assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan, where 61% of members cast ballots against the contract. The union local there didn't release actual voting figures.

Of the four GM plants that went on strike, workers at only a large SUV plant in Arlington, Texas, approved the contract. Workers in Wentzville, Missouri; Lansing Delta Township, Michigan; and Spring Hill, Tennessee, voted it down. Workers said that longtime employees at GM were unhappy that they didn’t get larger pay raises like newer workers, and they wanted a bigger pension increase.

Several smaller facilities were still voting, many of them parts warehouses or component factories where workers got big pay raises and were expected to approve the contract.

Keith Crowell, the local union president in Arlington, said the plant has a diverse group of workers from full- and part-time temporary hires to longtime assembly line employees. Full-time temporary workers liked the large raises they received and the chance to get top union pay, he said. But many longtime workers didn’t think immediate 11% pay raises under the deal were enough to make up for concessions granted to GM in 2008, he said.

That year, the union accepted lower pay for new hires and gave up cost of living adjustments and general annual pay raises to help the automakers out of dire financial problems during the Great Recession. Even so, GM and Stellantis, then known as Chrysler, went into government-funded bankruptcies.

“There was something in there for everybody, but everybody couldn’t get everything they wanted,” Crowell said. “At least we’re making a step in the right direction to recover from 2008.”

Citing the automakers' strong profits, UAW President Shawn Fain has insisted it was well past time to make up for the 2008 concessions.

President Joe Biden hailed the resolution of the strike as an early victory for what Biden calls a worker-centered economy. But the success of the tentative contracts will ultimately hinge on the ability of automakers to keep generating profits as they shift toward electric vehicles in a competitive market.

Thousands of UAW members joined picket lines in targeted strikes starting Sept. 15 before the tentative deals were reached late last month. Rather than striking at one company, the union targeted individual plants at all three automakers. At its peak about 46,000 of the union’s 146,000 workers at the Detroit companies were walking picket lines.

In the deals with all three companies, longtime workers would get 25% general raises over the life of the contracts with 11% up front. Including cost of living adjustments, they’d get about 33%, the union said.

The contract took steps toward ending lower tiers of wages for newer hires, reducing the number of years it takes to reach top pay. Many newer hires wanted defined benefit pension plans instead of 401(k) retirement plans. But the companies agreed to contribute 10% per year into 401(k) plans instead.

Thousands of California scientists strike over stalled contract talks


November 15, 2023 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of scientists who work for California began a rolling three-day strike Wednesday — the first walkout by a state civil service union.

Members of the California Association of Professional Scientists marched under cloudy skies in Sacramento to protest lack of progress in contract talks. The walkout will spread to Los Angeles, Oakland and other cities on Thursday and Friday.

The union represents about 5,200 members who work in more than 50 state departments and deal with issues ranging from air pollution and toxic waste control to earthquake hazards and agricultural pests, according to its website.

Members have been without a contract since 2020 despite bargaining and mediation. The membership rejected a tentative agreement earlier this year. Another state mediation session is planned for Nov. 28.

It is the first time that state workers have struck since civil servants won collective bargaining rights in 1977, The Sacramento Bee reported.

“Nobody wants to be on strike, and nobody wants to be the first,” the union's president, Jacqueline Tkac, told the Bee. “But it feels really inspiring to know that we have people that are so fired up about our situation that they’re willing to go out on strike for the first time and take that risk.”

Last week, the California Department of Human Resources filed a complaint of unfair labor practices against the union in an attempt to prevent the strike.

On Wednesday, the department said it was disappointed by the strike and that the state continues to bargain “in good faith.”

The state “will continue to work with CAPS to achieve a fair successor agreement as we have with other bargaining units,” department spokesperson Camille Travis said in an email.

The union's main concern is higher wages. It says state scientists are paid 40% to 60% less than “comparable positions who have the same level of responsibility and do similar or identical work.”

Global decline in male fertility linked to common pesticides

EVAN BUSH
November 15, 2023 

Getty Images / Westend61

A prolonged decline in male fertility in the form of sperm concentrations appears to be connected to the use of pesticides, according to a study published Nov. 15.

Researchers compiled, rated and reviewed the results of 25 studies of certain pesticides and male fertility and found that men who had been exposed to certain classes of pesticides had significantly lower sperm concentrations. The study, published Wednesday in Environmental Health Perspectives, included data from more than 1,700 men and spanned several decades.

“No matter how we looked at the analysis and results, we saw a persistent association between increasing levels of insecticide and decreases in sperm concentration,” said study author Melissa Perry, who is an environmental epidemiologist and the dean of the College of Public Health at George Mason University. “I would hope this study would get the attention of regulators seeking to make decisions to keep the public safe from inadvertent, unplanned impacts of insecticides.”

For decades, scientists have been trying to untangle puzzling questions over male fertility. Sperm concentrations are one of several factors that are a useful indicator. A report last year found that sperm counts were falling in every region of the globe and the pace of that decline was accelerating.

“There’s been some pretty, I’d say, convincing and sort of scary data on measures of male fertility over the previous 50-70 years, whatever it might be, from different places around the world suggesting sperm concentration is on decline and not just a little bit,” said John Meeker, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health who was not involved in either of the recent studies. “It’s concerning.”

Scientists have long suspected changes to the environment could be contributing, and they’ve been probing the role of pesticides for decades in studies of animals and in human epidemiology research.

The new analysis focuses on two groups of chemicals — organophosphates and some carbamates — that are commonly used in insecticides. The researchers looked at data collected from groups of people with exposures to pesticides and others who were not. Most, but not all, of the research centered on exposures in the workplace. The researchers controlled for outside factors that could contribute to lower sperm counts like smoking and age.

“It was very well done, very carefully done, very comprehensive,” Meeker said.

Perry said researchers aren’t sure how pesticides are affecting sperm concentrations and more research will be needed.

It’s likely that pesticides are one of many environmental factors that could be contributing to a decline in sperm concentrations.

“The more you study something, the more complicated it seems to get, especially when it comes to biology and the human body,” Meeker said. “We’re slowly pointing out various chemicals or classes of chemicals we think could be harmful to something like reproductive health, but as far as a single smoking gun, I haven’t seen anything to that extent.”

The trend of sperm concentration declines has been widely observed in studies around the world, but it’s a complicated topic and some scientists still have reservations. Sperm are notoriously difficult to count and the technology to do so has changed over the years. There are many confounding factors that can affect male fertility, including age, obesity and opioid use, to name a few.

Sperm concentrations are one important data point to consider, but other factors — like how sperm are shaped and how they swim — are also critical to male fertility.

Perry said she hopes agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency begin to factor the impact of chemicals and pesticides on reproductive health in their assessments.

“Given the body of evidence and these consistent findings, it’s time to proactively reduce these insecticide exposures for men wanting to have families,” Perry said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

UK Sikhs feel uneasy and overlooked after Canada killing

James PHEBY
Tue, November 14, 2023 

Expatriate Sikhs are concerned about India's crackdown on the separatist Khalistan movement 

(Oli SCARFF)

Britain's Sikh population, whose ancestors first migrated from the Punjab more than a century ago, have long been admired as a model of integration and for maintaining a strong identity.

Lauded in their country of origin and beyond for their valour, industriousness and charity, Sikhs took those values to Britain, which during the country's imperial past praised them as a martial race.

They won accolades for standing up to rioters in London in 2011, for charity work during the coronavirus pandemic, and most recently for feeding the hungry during the cost-of-living crisis.


"We don't often complain," Jas Singh, adviser to the Sikh Federation UK, which represents some 500,000 Sikhs in the UK, told AFP at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Smethwick, near Birmingham in central England.

But the tight-knit community is now appealing for help to address long-term issues such as racism and a lack of representation in politics and culture.

"We still need help just like everybody else," said Kulbinder Kaur Gakhal, an education administrator at the Smethwick gurdwara, one of the oldest and largest in Europe.

"The fact that we only have two Sikh MPs. Given our numbers, we should have maybe six or seven. Across the civil service, there's very low Sikh representation -- in the police, in education," added Jas Singh.

"This is a wall of discrimination that we face," he added.

Despite official figures showing a 169 percent rise in attacks on Sikhs in 2021/22, there is no approved definition for anti-Sikh hate crimes in the UK.

- Fresh worries -

A statue outside the gurdwara paying tribute to the many Sikhs who fought with the UK in the world wars is frequently vandalised, said Gakhal.

"They have security cameras and information that's led them to know who's done it. But the authorities aren't able to pinpoint, so it's a shame," she added.

But it is an Indian crackdown on the Khalistan movement, which wants an independent Sikh state in India, and its wider global fallout that has left many in the community particularly concerned.

New Delhi has banned the movement as a security threat and taken a particular interest in those close to Amritpal Singh, a firebrand Sikh leader who was arrested in April in India after a month-long manhunt.

In February, hundreds of his supporters, some carrying swords and guns, had pushed past barricades outside a police station near Amritsar, demanding the release of an aide held inside.

Protests were held around the world over the manhunt, including in London, where Avtar Singh Khanda -- a friend of Amritpal Singh -- was accused by Indian media of pulling down an Indian flag.

The 35-year-old activist, who was never named by UK police as a suspect, died on June 15 after suddenly falling ill with blood cancer.

His funeral at the Smethwick temple, which has pro-Khalistan flags flying outside, was attended by thousands.

- Shockwaves -

The announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September that there were "credible allegations" linking India to the killing of another pro-Khalistan activist in Toronto on June 18 sent shockwaves through the Sikh diaspora.

India strenuously denies any links, but the announcement prompted Khanda's family and friends to demand a coroner's inquest into his death.

"I don't know what investigation they did, but it would have only taken a few hours," Amit Singh, a volunteer at Smethwick-based Punjab broadcaster PBC, told AFP.

"The community feels that they definitely didn't take anything seriously. Until an investigation occurs, doubt will remain," added Singh, who was with Khanda shortly before he was taken to hospital.

The High Commission of India in London did not reply to an AFP request for comment on the case.

According to Jas Singh, more broadly there was now "a high level of apprehension and fear" among Britain's Sikhs, "especially those who travel back to India".

"There is extra security at the gurdwara. It's disappointing that the police and the authorities have not reached out to the community," he added.

He believes the UK government's desire to secure a trade deal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has led them to ignore the community's concerns.

"Not only do we have their silence, but we also have them going the other way with (UK Prime Minister) Rishi Sunak announcing pro-Khalistan extremism as an issue.

"Sikhs have no arrests, no pending cases, no threat or risk to British interests," he added.

jwp/phz/fg/smw

India and Canada investigating ‘threat’ to Air India flights by Sikh separatist group
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Wed, November 15, 2023 



Indian and Canadian authorities were investigating alleged threats against Air India flights after a Sikh separatist leader warned against flying with the airline.

Ties between the two G20 nations plummeted to the lowest ever in September after Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of being involved in the killing of a Canadian national linked to the secessionist Khalistan movement.

The murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a designated terrorist in India – kicked off a diplomatic row between the nations and triggered multiple protests by separatist Sikh groups in Canada.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Canada-based separatist leader, released a video earlier this month where he repeated multiple threats of danger to those travelling by the Indian state carrier on 19 November.

“We are asking the Sikh people to not fly via Air India on 19 November. There will be a global blockade. Do not travel by Air India or your life will be in danger,” he said.

“It is my warning to the government of India,” added Mr Singh Pannun, who is also a designated terrorist in India.

Canadian transport minister Pablo Rodriguez in a social media post said the Trudeau administration "takes any threat to aviation extremely seriously".



"We are investigating recent threats circulating online closely and with our security partners. We will do everything necessary to keep Canadians safe," he added.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was reportedly working with its domestic and international partners as part of an investigation into the “threats” against the Air India flights.

The Canadian government had previously denounced an online hate video that was widely circulated during the initial days of the spat between the two countries.

Following the threats, authorities in India beefed up security at the capital New Delhi and neighbouring Punjab airports. All Air India passengers at Delhi and Punjab airports will be put through a “secondary ladder point check”, according to an order issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. The process involves an extra round of frisking of passengers and checking their bags at the aerobridge as they enter the aircraft.

Additionally, a pre-existing security alert issued for the festive season in October for all civil aviation installations has been extended till 30 November.

New Delhi said it would take up the threat against Air India flights originating from and terminating in Canada with concerned Canadian authorities.

However, Mr Singh Pannun told The Guardian that the video "clearly states I’m asking the global Sikh community to boycott Air India and instead Sikhs should fly Air Canada and British Airways".

"Where is the threat? There is none."

In 1985 an Air India flight was bombed in a terrorist attack orchestrated by Khalistan leaders. The Air India flight 182 from Montreal exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 people on board.

"RCMP have every right to investigate a terror threat. And if they consider calls for boycott an act of civil disobedience, if that is terror, then so be it, let them investigate,” Mr Singh Pannun said.

“We are simply asking Sikhs not to make the decision to direct their money towards countries like India.”