Wednesday, February 02, 2022

US dissatisfied with Israeli probe of death of Palestinian Arab

After IDF dismisses and reprimands commanders, US demands “thorough criminal investigation” into death of Palestinian Arab after operation in Jiljiliya.

Israel National News
02.02.22 01:17

Ned PriceREUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/POOL/File Photo

The US said on Tuesday that it expects a “thorough criminal investigation” into the circumstances of the death of Omar Assad, a Palestinian Arab with US citizenship, who died after IDF soldiers operated in the Palestinian Arab village of Jiljiliya last month.

On Monday, the IDF published the results of a probe into the incident, which resulted in a reprimand of the Commander of the "Netzah Yehuda" Battalion and dismissal of two other commanders, who will not serve in commanding roles for two years.

“We continue to be deeply concerned by the circumstances of the death of Mr. Omar Assad, a U.S. citizen who was found dead on January 12, 2022, after Israeli soldiers detained him in the West Bank. We note the public statement on the report of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Commanders’ Investigation into the case and its findings, including the determination that ‘the incident showed a clear lapse of moral judgment’ and a failure to ‘protect the sanctity of any human life,’” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price in a statement.

“The IDF public summary of the investigation further states that disciplinary action is being taken against the commander of the ‘Netzah Yehuda’ Battalion and other officers responsible for the unit involved in the incident, and that the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division investigation of the case is ongoing,” he added.

“The United States expects a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability in this case, and we welcome receiving additional information on these efforts as soon as possible. We continue to discuss this troubling incident with the Israeli government,” stated Price.

“We convey, again, our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family of Mr. Assad. The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad,” the statement concluded.
How a Small School District Became a Focal Point in the Battle Over Texas Book Censorship

A viral photograph showed Granbury Independent School District officials carting books out of the high school library.

Bethania Palma
Published 1 February 2022
Image via LAW Ho Ming / Getty Images

Granbury Independent School District, a small public school district south of Fort Worth, Texas, became a scrimmage line in the state’s ongoing controversy over book censorship in January 2022 when district officials began removing books from schools.

On Jan. 27, 2022, Christopher Tackett, the parent of a high school senior at Granbury High School, posted a photograph of two men hauling books out of the school library.



The boxes in the carts are labeled “Krause’s list.” The photograph, along with quotes from high school students who have protested the book removal, have gone viral:



The above image and quote are authentic, and reflect an ongoing effort by Republican legislators in Texas to remove books about certain social topics, like race and the LGBTQ community, from school libraries. The quote came from a high school student who spoke during the school district’s Jan. 24, 2022, board meeting.

The book removals have raised questions about the legality and transparency of the process.

Carolyn Foote, a retired librarian spearheading #FreadomeFighters, a movement promoting reading and information access, told Snopes in a phone interview that the removal of books from school libraries puts professional staff like school librarians in a bind because they are bound by a higher law, namely the First Amendment.

Foote pointed to a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined libraries are places of voluntary inquiry and dissemination of ideas, and thus “enjoy a special affinity with the rights of free speech and press,” as the online SCOTUS archive blog Oyez.org summarized.

“As librarians we’re aware of the Supreme Court ruling,” Foote said. “When material is being removed from a library because someone is finding the ideas controversial, that flies directly in the face of the Supreme Court ruling, that’s typically the way that ruling has been viewed.”

We take a look at how the controversy evolved in Texas below.

What Is ‘Krause’s List’ and Why Is It Important?


“Krause’s list” refers to a list of 850 books compiled by Texas State Rep. Matt Krause in October 2021.

Krause cited his role as chair of the House Committee on General Investigating, in an Oct. 25, 2021, letter sent to Texas school districts in which he stated he was “initiating an inquiry into Texas school district content.”


The letter included the list of 850 books and questions about whether districts had copies of those books and how much was spent on them, and also asked districts to identify additional content about other sensitive issues, namely:

[Human] sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), sexually explicit images, graphic presentations of sexual behavior that is in violation of the law, or contain material that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex or convey that a student, by virtue of their race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.

We reached out to Krause’s Chief of Staff Shane Birdwell via email asking what prompted Krause to create the list, and how and why the books on the list were selected. We have not received a response, but will update this story if we do.

An analysis by the literary network Book Riot found the majority of the books on the list were about LGBTQ issues.

Shortly after Krause sent the letter and the list, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent his own letter to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which included a vague threat of criminal investigation.

In the Nov. 10, 2021, letter to TEA, which is an oversight agency tasked with providing administrative support to school districts, Abbott wrote that he was “directing” the agency “to investigate any criminal activity in our public schools involving the availability of pornography.”

We reached out to TEA for comment but have not received a response to our emails and phone messages. But in a statement provided to the Texas Tribune, TEA expressed confusion with Abbott’s letter, noting that it is individual districts, not TEA, that are tasked with managing school library content.

“In most school districts, the review and selection of individual library materials traditionally has been an administrative responsibility managed by professional district staff,” the TEA statement said.

We have also reached out to Abbott’s office for comment on his letter and related issues resulting from it, and will update this story if we receive a response.

Foote said she believes efforts to ban books from school libraries is political, as opposed to a genuine effort to protect students. In Virginia, a flashpoint in the race for governor was an effort to bar high school students from reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Beloved,” a Toni Morrison classic about the horror and trauma of slavery, as part of the curriculum.

Republican Glenn Youngkin beat incumbent Terry McAuliffe, and Foote said that political operatives may have viewed his support for dropping the book as a winning strategy.

“I’m sure politicians in other states looked at that and thought, this is a way to garner some votes,” Foote said. “But the problem for us as librarians and educators is that it’s happening on the backs of kids. These are real kids who are getting the message that their identity is not acceptable, whether it’s race, or LGBTQ identity.”

The effect of the list has been controversy, and arguably, chaos. Some school districts, like Austin and Dallas, have stated they have no plans to comply with Krause’s request because, essentially, there is no force of law behind it. Dallas ISD called the letter an “unofficial” request.

Other districts, like Granbury and North East, have responded by pulling hundreds of books off library shelves, and, at least in the case of Granbury, rewriting district policy to accommodate doing so.

Texas state House Democrat and Public Education Committee Chairman Harold Dutton sent Krause a letter challenging the notion that Krause has any jurisdiction to make such an official request of school districts in the first place.

“It is my understanding that members of the General Investigating Committee were never advised, nor consulted, nor ever voted on your request to Texas school districts,” Dutton wrote. “Ignoring House rules and the process creates an added suspicion that only you can explain.”

What Happened in Granbury

Tackett said few details have been offered to the public about how the Granbury ISD book review would be conducted, who would be responsible for it, or how those people would be selected. He said the list of books was made public when he posted it on Twitter, after receiving it in response to an open records request.

“We have no clue how long the reviews will take, we have no clue about the criteria they’re using, we don’t know who is on the committee,” Tackett said. “With all of these things, it prompts a lot of questions about the integrity of the process.”

We reached out to Granbury ISD spokesman Jeff Meador asking how the process for reviewing books taken from the school libraries will proceed.

Meador said Granbury ISD drew from Krause’s list to make its own list of about 130 books to pull from the school’s library shelves and put under review by a committee.

When we asked for details about how the committee will operate, who will review books, and how those reviewers were selected, Meador requested we file an open records request. We have done so, and will update this story if the relevant information is provided.

The Granbury district’s actions and Tackett’s tweets have created an uproar, resulting in viral stories and national news coverage.

At a Jan. 24 school board meeting, some students sharply criticized the district’s decision to pull the books, resulting in name-calling by the district superintendent, who said critics were “gaslighters” intending to “incite division.”

Meador pointed to a school district statement outlining the board’s discretion to select books for removal. In that Jan. 27 statement, the district said:

“School board trustees recently amended local district policy to allow removal of ‘materials because they are pervasively vulgar or based solely upon the educational suitability of the resource in question.'”

Meador told Snopes that as of this writing, only five books, by Young Adult genre novelist Abbi Glines, were removed from schools permanently.

“All others are only off the library book shelves pending the review, which will begin this week,” Meador stated by email on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022.

Many of the books on the list provided by Meador are clearly not “pervasively vulgar,” as they have to do with the history of racism. Titles include a book about the history of the KKK. Many others deal with LGBTQ issues. One title deals with bioethics.

When asked whether the district followed its own rules in undertaking the book removal and review process, Meador pointed us to a legal policy that states:

Students’ First Amendment rights are implicated by the removal of books from the shelves of a school library. A district shall not remove materials from a library for the purpose of denying students access to ideas with which the district disagrees. A district may remove materials because they are pervasively vulgar or based solely upon the educational suitability of the books in question.

A statement Meador made to the local Hood County News, however, pointed to political preferences being at least part of district officials’ motivation:

While we acknowledge some parents and community members will not agree with the potential removal of any book, we understand the conservative climate of our community and that a large majority recognizes that several social and cultural topics are best left to parents and families to discuss with their children

When asked about the comment, Meador stated that he had no further comment.

“School district policies are sort of a trust commitment between the administration and the staff, the school board and the teachers, and the school and the community,” Foote noted. “The trust is that we created these policies and this is how we interact with each other. When things start happening that venture beyond the published polices and aren’t done in a transparent manner, it creates a lot of distrust with the community at large or within the school community, because you have broken that contract.”

Foote said that the controversy has had a chilling effect on educators and school district professionals, and while some districts have chosen to stand up to pressure to remove books, others have taken steps like resorting to self-censorship, even if it violates their own district policies, to avoid acrimony.

Foote also said students pay the price for efforts to take books from their libraries that could help them get through challenging moments in their lives. And the nature of the books being targeted sends the message that certain minority groups are not welcome in the public schools.

“The truth of the matter is our students do live in the real world,” she said. “There are students in our schools who are facing abuse, and reading a story about someone else who overcame it could really be powerful for that student. We have LGBTQ students in our schools who are struggling with acceptance, or maybe bullying. Reading about how another LGBTQ character came through that experience is important for them. Same thing with books about race. All of those stories speak to someone.”



Sources:

Hixenbaugh, Mike. “Book Banning in Texas Schools: Titles Are Pulled off Library Shelves in Record Numbers.” NBC News, 1 Feb. 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-books-race-sexuality-schools-rcna13886

Chappell, Bill. “A Texas Lawmaker Is Targeting 850 Books That He Says Could Make Students Feel Uneasy.” NPR, 28 Oct. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1050013664/texas-lawmaker-matt-krause-launches-inquiry-into-850-books.

Ellis, Danika. “All 850 Books Texas Lawmaker Matt Krause Wants to Ban: An Analysis.” BOOK RIOT, 5 Nov. 2021, https://bookriot.com/texas-book-ban-list/.

Goldenstein, Taylor. “Austin ISD Is First to Defy Texas House Inquiry into Books about Racism, Sexuality.” Houston Chronicle, 29 Oct. 2021, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Austin-ISD-dismissesTexas-House-inquiry-into-16575282.php.

Lopez, Brian. “Texas House Committee to Investigate School Districts’ Books on Race and Sexuality.” The Texas Tribune, 26 Oct. 2021, https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/26/texas-school-books-race-sexuality/

Pollock, Cassandra. “Gov. Greg Abbott Chastises School Board Group with Vague Accusation of ‘Pornographic Images’ in Library Books.” The Texas Tribune, 1 Nov. 2021, https://www.texastribune.org/2021/11/01/greg-abbott-texas-schools-books/

Ellis, Danika. “All 850 Books Texas Lawmaker Matt Krause Wants to Ban: An Analysis.” BOOK RIOT, 5 Nov. 2021, https://bookriot.com/texas-book-ban-list/

Bethania Palma
Published 1 February 2022

A student pilot's death leads to efforts to combat mental health stigma at flight school

A small plane lands
A small plane lands at Duluth's Sky Harbor Airport.
Bob Kelleher | MPR News 2009

In October 2021, a small plane crash in a field in North Dakota stunned the friends and family of the 19-year-old pilot, John Hauser.

Hauser was a student at the University of North Dakota's aerospace program. The preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report found there were no mechanical problems with the plane.

It was after Hauser's death that his family found letters from him revealing he had been experiencing depression and was worried it would cost him his pilot’s license. He wrote to his parents that life without flying was not worth living.

Hauser’s death by suicide fueled fresh urgency by the administration of the flight school at UND to address the stigma among student aviators around seeking mental health counseling. Robert Kraus, dean of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at UND, told host Cathy Wurzer about the effort.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

 THE GREEK ROBIN HOOD WHO BECAME A FOLK HERO

BY WILLIAM KENNEDY/FEB. 1, 2022 

By 2010, crisis in the global financial markets, excessive debt held by the government, and a series of other complex factors all contributed to the Greek economy falling into shambles, as Investopedia reports. Further complicating the lives of Greek authorities at that time were a series of bank robberies; one totaling about €250,000 (roughly $280,000 in today's money) and two others equaling around €240,000. No one was hurt. Greek law enforcement believed the man behind the robberies was Vassilis Palaiokostas, a man referred to as the Greek Robin Hood.

Since the 1980s, Palaiokostas had stolen millions from state-owned banks and jewelry stores in Greece, handing out the money to the poor — just like that notorious bandit from Sherwood forest used to do. Also adding to Palaiokostas' folkloric reputation: He'd been jailed prior to his 2010 crime spree, but he managed to escape, not once, but twice. Following his most recent robberies, says the BBC, Palaiokostas remains among the most high-profile criminals at large today, possibly because he spurns a life of riches, choosing instead to spend only what he needs on himself and then give the rest away.

HIS FIRST ARREST

After burning himself out with factory work, and as Greek government and economy began to show the fault lines that would one day lead to the economic crash around the turn of the millennium, Vassilis Palaiokostas (above), his brother Nikos, and an accomplice pulled off a string of robberies from the late '70s to the mid-1980s. The criminals would then distribute what they stole to the poor and needy. As the Greek economy worsened, the risky exploits of the Palaiokostas brothers and their accomplices enraptured the public. They became folk heroes, taking a stand against the monied elite, as the BBC reports.

Authorities caught up with the Palaiokostas brothers by the early '90s, and both were imprisoned on separate occasions. Around this time, the Palaiokostas brothers also became expert escape artists. The first attempt at a prison break — driving a tank through a wall of the facility — failed, but the second, using bed sheets to climb over the wall, was successful. Vassilis Palaiokostas was once more at large, and the stealing continued. What made catching him so difficult? He continued stealing from the rich, and giving to the poor, which helped maintain his cover.

THE ESCAPES

The luck of the Palaiokostas brothers would not hold. By 1999, Vassilis Palaiokostas was one of most wanted men in the entire country of Greece and the European Union. After crashing his car, Paleokostas was taken into custody and sentenced to 25 years in a high security prison, as Reader's Digest reports. Almost immediately, Palaiokostas and accomplices began to plan their escape, and after about six years in jail and careful planning, the Palaiokostas brothers tried their first escape by helicopter, and were successful.

Nikos Palaiokostas and a fugitive convict who also escaped were soon recaptured, but Vassilis remained at large, and continued to steal from the rich and powerful. The law caught up with him again after he kidnapped Greek billionaire George Mylonas, according to the BBC. Greek authorities' second attempt at imprisoning Palaiokostas was equally unsuccessful, and unbelievably, he escaped, again via helicopter. He has yet to be recaptured — linked to additional robberies, continuing to steal. He also remains beloved by some in Greece for his philanthropic crime sprees, just the kind that Robin himself is known for.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/754133/the-greek-robin-hood-who-became-a-folk-hero/?utm_campaign=clip

GOP lawmaker introduces resolution to 'reprimand' the Associated Press for reporting on racism

Jon Skolnik, Salon
February 01, 2022

Screen cap / YouTube

Tennessee state legislator introduced a joint resolution to "reprimand" the Associated Press (AP) for publishing an article highlighting racism within the military's ranks, saying the outlet "engaged in the lowest form of yellow journalism."

The bill, reported by a CBS/ABC-affiliate, was proposed by Republican state Rep. Bud Hulsey, who objected to an AP story that ran back in May, entitled "Deep-rooted racism, discrimination permeate US military."

In the article, AP reporters Kat Stafford, James Laporta, Aaron Morrison and Helen Wieffering interviewed "current and former enlistees and officers in nearly every branch of the armed services" who "described a deep-rooted culture of racism and discrimination that stubbornly festers, despite repeated efforts to eradicate it."

Additionally, the AP found that the military "processed more than 750 complaints of discrimination by race or ethnicity from service members in the fiscal year 2020 alone."

Hulsey's resolution contends that because the AP found 750 complaints – when there are 425,000 members of the active-duty military – racism in the ranks, by his accounting, is "uncommon and not a largescale problem."

The "allegations that members of the U.S. military are racist and that the military itself accepts a culture of discrimination are not only blatantly false," the resolution reads, "but an insult to the brave men and women who combat racism and discrimination at home and around the globe."

It also adds that "the AP has engaged in the lowest form of yellow journalism and should be held accountable by the American public and their elected officials."

The publication, for its part, has firmly stood by the article in question. Kat Stafford, one of its authors, tweeted weeks ago that she and her colleagues "spent nearly a year interviewing dozens of service members and experts – some of whom could not speak publicly out of fear of retribution. We poured over copious documents & FOIAs. We did our homework. No matter how much one tries [to] deny it, racism does exist."

AP spokesperson Lauren Easton likewise said that "the Associated Press stands by its reporting."

The Tennessee resolution does not make clear precisely what a "reprimand" would entail from a legal perspective. As the CBS/ABC-affiliate noted, the state legislature has only reprimanded judges, lawmakers, and doctors. In 2020, the legislature considered a bill that would have legally recognized CNN and The Washington Post as "fake news," but the measure ultimately failed to see enough support.
Biden Administration Rejects Use of Testimony Obtained From Torture in Guantánamo Trial

The Justice Department rejected an interpretation by the retired chief prosecutor that lawyers could sometimes use statements obtained during C.I.A. interrogations.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was accused of plotting Al Qaeda’s suicide bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole off Yemen in October 2000, which killed 17 sailors.Credit...Dimitri Messinis/Associated Press


By Carol Rosenberg
Feb. 1, 2022

The Biden administration has pledged to no longer invoke statements made by a prisoner during his years in C.I.A. custody in his death-penalty proceedings, repudiating an earlier effort to use evidence obtained from torture in a case at Guantánamo Bay.

Last year, the veteran chief prosecutor for war crimes, Brig. Gen. Mark S. Martins, had argued that such evidence could be used in pretrial proceedings, before a jury was chosen. He left the job in September after disagreeing with lawyers for the Biden administration over the pretrial litigation tactic.

Now the Justice Department has rejected that interpretation. A 37-page filing submitted Monday night at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the law governing military commission trials at Guantánamo Bay “prohibits the admission of statements obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment at all phases of a military commission.”

The filing, however, did not entirely foreclose the possibility that a future U.S. government might choose to interpret the law that governs military commissions differently, and try to use evidence obtained through torture. Instead, the Justice Department asked the appeals court to step aside and let military judges at Guantánamo Bay decide the question as it comes up.

“If a dispute arises regarding any past orders or any future attempt to admit such statements, the issue should be adjudicated in the first instance, in its specific concrete context, in the military courts below,” the brief said. It was signed by Col. George C. Kraehe, the acting chief prosecutor for military commissions and a former Justice Department lawyer who was recently mobilized to the Army, and Matthew G. Olsen, the assistant attorney general for national security.

Lawyers brought the appeal on behalf of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi man who is accused of plotting Al Qaeda’s suicide bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole off Yemen in 2000. Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed in the attack.

Mr. Nashiri was captured two years later and spent four years in C.I.A. custody, where psychologists working for the agency and other interrogators subjected him to waterboarding, isolation, sleep deprivation and mock execution. His case has been bogged down in pretrial proceedings for a decade as the court tries to deal with the legacy of the torture.

The issue has not arisen in Guantánamo’s better known capital case against five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But the Nashiri challenge was seen as a test of how civilian courts viewed the limits on the use of evidence derived through torture at the military commissions, the hybrid federal-military court that Congress created to try foreigners on terror and war crimes charges.

The challenge arose out of a classified government filing in the case in March.

In it, prosecutors quoted something that Mr. Nashiri said in 2002 during a particularly brutal C.I.A. interrogation to end his defense team’s quest for information about a 2015 drone strike in Syria that killed another Qaeda figure, Mohsen al-Fadhli.

Mr. Nashiri’s lawyers were exploring a potential defense theory that the United States had already killed plotters of the Cole attack who were more senior and more culpable. The prosecutors asked the judge to end that line of inquiry, pointing to a classified cable that said Mr. Nashiri had told C.I.A. agents as he was being interrogated at a secret prison in Afghanistan that Mr. Fadhli had not been involved.

Defense lawyers said the law prohibited the use of the statement — or any statement by a defendant that was derived from torture or any other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment — throughout the entire proceedings. Prosecutors argued there was an exception for the period when a judge decided pretrial matters before a military jury was chosen to hear a case.

The military judge, Col. Lanny J. Acosta Jr., agreed with the prosecutors in a ruling dated May 18, 2021, that still stands.

Defense lawyers in the case said Tuesday that they were troubled by the language in the Justice Department filing that left open the possibility of an exception for a future administration, particularly given the longevity of the prosecution. It was originally conceived by the Bush administration and pursued by the Obama administration. It has been subject to long delays caused by both prosecution and defense appeals of rulings by the Guantánamo judges.

“It is a cause for concern,” said Michel Paradis, an appellate lawyer for Mr. Nashiri, who works for the Department of Defense. “The Trump administration took a very different view of torture than the Biden administration does. And this pleading leaves open the discretion to change their position.”

Also of concern, he said, was the government’s disclosure in the filing on Monday night that a war court prosecutor, in a review of 100,000 pages of secret filings, discovered another instance when prosecutors invoked something Mr. Nashiri told the C.I.A. at one of their black sites. It was in a 2014 filing.

Defense lawyers were unaware of the use of the statement from the black sites because, at the national security court, prosecutors can give information to the judge unilaterally in a process that enables them to protect, redact or rephrase classified information. The defense lawyers were weighing on Tuesday whether to seek a more vigorous, independent examination of the 100,000 pages.


Torture and Trials at Guantánamo Bay


Judge Permits Information From C.I.A. Torture in Terror Case
June 3, 2021


Carol Rosenberg has been covering the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, including detention operations and military commissions, since the first prisoners were brought there from Afghanistan in January 2002. She worked as a metro, national and foreign correspondent with a focus on coverage of conflict in the Middle East for The Miami Herald from 1990 to 2019. @carolrosenbergFacebook

A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 2, 2022, Section A, Page 13 of the New York edition with the headline: Administration Will Not Use Evidence Gained by Torture. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Major US Universities Grapple With Numerous Rape Reports in January

BY JUSTIN KLAWANS ON 2/1/22 AT 7:46 PM EST

Ohio State University (OSU) and the University of Utah (U of U) have been driven into the spotlight following numerous reports of rape submitted in January.

The U of U announced Monday in a letter to students that it was suspending all social activities at fraternities and sororities for two weeks. The decision follows two students coming forward to report that they had been sexually assaulted while participating in Greek Life events.

The first report was from a female student who stated that she was raped last September at a "wine Wednesday" party at a fraternity house. A second student came forward this week to report they had been raped at a different fraternity house party in December.

In light of the reports, the U of U stated: "We stand with these survivors. If you are a survivor of sexual assault, please know that it is not your fault and there are resources to support you."

The Salt Lake City-based university also added that it would be imposing sanctions on all Greek organizations that are officially associated with the school, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

"Fraternities and sororities have operated adjacent to our campus for more than 100 years," the U of U statement continued. "These independent organizations have been allowed to affiliate with the university with the understanding that they will serve the greater good of the campus community."

The University of Utah has been grappling with a pair of sexual assaults that were reported in January. Here, the entrance to the university can be seen.ISTOCK/GETTY

Over 1,700 miles away, sexual assault continues to be a significant problem at Ohio State University.

In January, OSU reported seven instances of rape or sexual assault, according to law enforcement logs. Five of the incidents occurred in January, with two other survivors coming forward about assaults that occurred last August and December.

This brings the total number of reported sexual assaults at OSU to 77 in 2021, according to statistics from university police.

OSU has not yet released a statement on the recent allegations. However, the university police website states that "sexual assaults, including date/acquaintance rape, are a very serious concern," and provides resources for survivors of assault.

WCMH-TV reported that crime rates had been going down on OSU's campus in all categories except for sexual assaults.

The Clery Act, which requires U.S. universities to report yearly statistics on crime, stated that rapes had been increasing at OSU every year approaching the end of the decade.


This includes 93 reported rapes in 2018, 118 in 2019, and 134 in 2020. However, 2021's 77 reported assaults actually marked a significant drop in the number of on-campus rapes for OSU compared to the spike seen the prior three years.

Rape and sexual assault continue to be a significant problem at college campuses across the United States.

The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) states that "13 percent of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation."

Tracking the true number of assaults on college campuses remains difficult due to the hesitance of victims to report the attack. "Only 20% of female student victims, age 18-24, report to law enforcement," RAINN stated.

Newsweek has reached out to the U of U and OSU for comment.
The immorality of remote warfare

Saleem Qamar Butt
PAKISTAN
February 02, 2022

The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001/02 greatly relied on the strategic bombing of the Tora Bora mountains, thought to be the hideout for OBL, and subsequently put even greater dependence on drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and other parts of the world under the unrelenting US blitz for mostly false pretexts.

The point under discussion here is to highlight not only the immorality of remote warfare that causes hard-to-hide civilian casualties in the thousands, but also the snowballing pusillanimity shrouded in high-tech military gadgets, advanced weaponry and addiction to the use of strategic bombers, satellites and armed drones taking on uncertain targets with questionable accuracy, while sitting thousands of kilometres away. A US Army Lieutenant Colonel, Paul Lushenko, and Sarah Kreps have recently analysed the pitfalls of the use of drones with a particular focus on Pakistan in a paper titled, “A More Just Drone War Is Within Reach”: ‘The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 brought an end to a 20-year war. But as a series of recent investigations by The New York Times has underscored, and also marked the beginning of postmortems about what the United States did right and, in some cases, did wrong. Drawing on Pentagon documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the Times revealed that US drone strikes killed an alarming number of civilians in Afghanistan—likely hundreds more than the 188 the Defence Department has acknowledged killing in such strikes since 2018—a pattern that appears to be consistent with US operations in Iraq and Syria. Targeting decisions were sometimes marred by confirmation bias: Pentagon analysts saw what they expected to see, often identifying civilians rushing to help those hit by US strikes as terrorists and striking them, as well. This reporting is an important first step toward accounting for the shortcomings of the drone war that Washington launched after 9/11, one that President Joe Biden’s administration should build on as it concludes its own review of drone strikes outside conventional—or declared—war zones’.

Without any clear views on the moral and soldierly side of the issue, the said paper underscores that no accounting of the drone war would be complete without determining whether policies intended to reduce civilian casualties from US strikes ever worked. To answer that question, they studied strike data from Pakistan, where the Pentagon and the CIA reportedly conducted nearly 400 strikes in the ten-year period before President Barack Obama’s administration tightened its targeting requirements. The surge in civilian casualties, which amounted to three civilian deaths per strike in 2009, also drew criticism from the United Nations and from watchdog groups such as Amnesty International. It was against this backdrop that Obama adopted a set of more stringent requirements for US strikes in undeclared theatres, including Pakistan. Subsequently, in 2013, the US administration officially shifted its standard from “reasonable certainty” of zero civilian casualties to “near certainty.” The policy change dramatically reduced civilian casualties in Pakistan without giving perceived terrorists an appreciable advantage, suggesting that similarly stringent targeting standards might save innocent lives in theatres such as Iraq and Syria, too. According to the non-profit Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which collects data from news reports, official statements, press releases, and other documents, US drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen from 2002 to 2020 killed between 10,000 and 17,000 people. Between 800 and 1,750 of the dead are thought to have been civilians, the highest percentage of them in Pakistan.

Beginning in 2011, consequent to Pakistan’s strong protest and stiffness in bilateral relations, strikes in Pakistan began to be conditioned on near certainty of no collateral damage under Obama’s instructions. As a result, civilian casualties from US strikes in Pakistan markedly decreased.

The American experts conclude that reducing civilian deaths from US drone strikes doesn’t have to come at the cost of effective counterterrorism. A tighter threshold for US drone strikes can reduce civilian casualties without emboldening the enemy. That proves US’ continued obsession with debauched remote warfare and the killing of innocent civilians termed collateral damage reduced under stricter scrutiny.

The issue of use of armed drones in non-war zones resulting in a lot of civilian casualties needs to be raised by all national and international think tanks, print, electronic and social media, by all human-rights organisations, and by the diplomatic channels at UNO and other multilateral diplomatic forums. The psychologists and psychiatrists treating thousands of American and allies’ combat soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a backlash of depraved use of remote and excessive military high-tech muscles, may also make their respective governments and societies more cognisant of millions of civilians suffering from PTSD, besides thousands being maimed forever. Let some humanity prevail in the self-created US’ war theatres and let not the UN become a defunct League of Nations and let the blue berets be deployed on the principle of saving humanity, rather than mere Western interests.
MEDICARE FOR ALL
Record enrollment numbers send a clear message about health care affordability, access
 
BY EMILY STEWART, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
 — 02/01/22 

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS
 ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

© (XiXinXing/iStock)

As the Senate mulls action of Build Back Better, 14.5 million people across America have already voiced their support for more affordable health coverage through record-breaking enrollment in Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace plans during this year’s open enrollment. Announced last week, this figure shatters the previous enrollment record of 12.6 million in 2016. And though the economic fallout from COVID-19 pandemic created a greater need for accessible marketplace insurance, unemployment numbers are back near pre-pandemic totals. This points to a different driver of this record enrollment that should guide the president and Congress in Build Back Better negotiations: more affordable coverage and assistance make a huge difference in people’s lives.

Thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act’s (ARPA) boost in premium tax credits, marketplace shoppers saw premiums drop by an average of 23 percent. This means a 35-year-old mother of two in Allentown, Pa., making $45,000 a year pays $83 a month for health care premiums, compared to the $254 per month she would have paid without the enhanced tax credit. A 46-year-old father of one in Flagstaff, Ariz., who earns $34,000 annually and was paying $181 per month for premiums, now pays only $60. These savings can be redirected toward other life essentials such as child care, rent and food. Most importantly, these families and individuals now have access to the preventive care, treatment for long-term illnesses, and prescription drug therapies they’ve been waiting for, without going into medical debt.

But as a non-profit that has partnered with state and community-based organizations across the country to support enrollment work since the ACA’s passage, we know that cheaper plans were not the only factor driving people to enroll in health coverage. Equally important was the Biden administration’s unprecedented $80 million investment in outreach, education and enrollment support, with an emphasis on helping underserved communities of color and rural areas. After years of anemic support for enrollment by the Trump administration that left many in the dark about the enrollment period and the availability of subsidized coverage, this level of support was a game-changer.

Enrolling in health insurance is a complex process. Consumer Assistance Programs (CAPs), Navigators, and community-based organizations are uniquely equipped to help as trusted entities that offer people a wide range of services in their own language, from education to enrollment support to appeals. This free, unbiased assistance comes from people who are often representative of the diverse communities in which they live and work. This is particularly important for historically excluded Black, brown and Indigenous people and those living in rural communities, who have long faced unfair and often discriminatory barriers in accessing health coverage and care.

Build Back Better would also close a major hole in health coverage and a glaring racial injustice, the Medicaid coverage gap. More than 2 million people living in 12 states have been denied affordable health coverage through Medicaid when they lost jobs or became sick, even during the pandemic, because their states have refused to expand Medicaid. Because of barriers for Black and brown people to job opportunities that provide health coverage, over 60 percent of people in the coverage gap are people of color.

The need for affordability measures, coverage expansion, and help enrolling in and maintaining coverage will not be a one-off. The 14.5 million people who took advantage of marketplace plans with increased tax credits and lower deductibles will expect that affordable coverage to continue beyond the pandemic. And polling shows that reducing health care costs is a top priority for voters, regardless of political affiliation.

This should underscore the importance of passing Build Back Better and ensuring these resources remain available in the future. A five-year extension on the tax credits, additional navigator funding should Congress finally close the Medicaid coverage gap, and $100 million for CAPs, which haven’t been funded since 2012, over the next four years will go far in ensuring people obtain, make sense of and effectively use their health coverage.

Both the polls and the enrollment numbers send a clear message to Washington lawmakers: people need affordable health care. By advancing this trifecta of policies — boosting the premium tax credits, closing the Medicaid coverage gap and deeper support for organizations helping people in their own community gain coverage, President Biden and Congress begun unlocking the door to affordable health coverage and care for millions. Now they need fully open it by passing Build Back Better.

Emily Stewart is executive director of Community Catalyst, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing a movement for health equity and justice.

Will Turkish and Russian forces really leave Libya?


Giorgio Cafiero & Emily Milliken
February 2, 2022

Turkey and Russia have gained various levels of leverage in Libya by virtue of their military presence on the ground, with no signs that their forces will leave anytime soon.

On 16 January, Stephanie Williams, the United Nation’s special adviser on Libya, stated that it is still “very reasonable and possible” for the country’s postponed elections to occur before June, in line with a roadmap agreed upon in 2020 which the UN helped to broker.

But, even if elections do occur by June, the presence of foreign fighters and mercenaries will likely be a factor that endangers the sensitive political situation. As part of the agreement, all foreign forces, including Turkish personnel, Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries, and fighters in the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, must leave Libya.

However, three months after rival parties reached an initial agreement on the withdrawal of foreign fighters and mercenaries, only the first phase of the withdrawal has been completed. Those 300 mercenaries came from Chad, according to diplomats.

Despite repeated calls from the UN and international community, the Turks and Russians have shown no sign of leaving Libya.

“Ankara has established itself as a kingmaker in the Libyan civil war”

The Turkish military and Wagner Group’s presence on the ground provides important footholds for Ankara and Moscow as both vie for influence, shares of the country’s vast energy wealth, multi-billion dollar reconstruction contracts, and long-term access to strategic military bases after the new Libyan government is established.

But the Turks and Russians have both approached the war-torn North African country very differently.

Turkey’s overt role

Ankara has thus far leveraged its public support with the current and previous UN-supported governments to remain in Libya.

Ankara began initial military deployments to Libya in support of the then-UN-supported Government of National Accord (GNA) in January 2020. Yet immediately after General Khalifa Haftar’s westward assault on Tripoli began in April 2019, Ankara started providing the GNA with drones and armoured personnel carriers.

“The GNA called for support from the United States, Britain, Italy, Algeria, and Turkey to help them defend their positions,” remarked Ferhat Polat, a Deputy Researcher at the TRT World Research Centre, in an interview with The New Arab. “Turkey was the only country who stepped up and offered practical support to the previous UN-backed GNA.”

After Turkish forces and GNA-allied militias successfully pushed Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) several hundred miles east of Tripoli – the outskirts of which the renegade general’s forces reached at the peak of “Operation to Liberate Tripoli” – Ankara established itself as a kingmaker in the Libyan civil war.

Ankara leveraged its alliance with the GNA, and later the Government of National Unity (GNU), to wield control over several ports and military bases, and secure new economic, military, and reconstruction deals.

Also important to Turkey was its maritime demarcation agreement with the GNA, signed in November 2019. The degree to which Ankara managed to turn the tide of the Libyan civil war against Haftar was impressive and highlighted Turkey’s rise as a drone power.

Turkish officials have thus far denied that their forces need to evacuate the country. Ankara claims that the Turkish military’s continued presence in Libya has a legal basis.

“It should not be forgotten that the Turks, and consequently also their mercenaries, are in Libya at the request of the GNA and subsequently of the GNU, both governments supported by the United Nations because they were born through their effort,” Dr Frederica Saini Fasanotti, a non-resident fellow at the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, told TNA.

This is a detail that cannot be underestimated. Their presence will be guaranteed at least until Prime Minister Dbeibah is sacked from his role.”

It currently appears that despite the LNA-aligned eastern-based parliament ending GNU Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s mandate on 25 December, Dbeibah has no intention of leaving office.

Other experts agree. “Turkey’s military presence is highly likely to remain in the country as long as the Libyan legitimate government needs,” according to Polat. “Turkey will presumably continue to provide assistance and training as well as advisory support to Libyan Army forces so they can reach global standards.”

Russia’s clandestine influence

Whereas Turkey’s military maintains a highly overt presence in Libya, Russia asserts hard power influence in the North African country in far more shadowy ways.

Unlike Ankara, which is open about the contingent of Turkish forces in Libya, President Vladimir Putin’s government denies that the Kremlin has any relation to the Wagner Group’s activities in Libya. Yet there is strong evidence that the organisation is affiliated with the Russian government.

“Wagner is a means, a tool, or an instrument, but it should never be referred to in isolation from the Russian state,” explained Jalel Harchaoui, a senior fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, in an interview with TNA. “The connection between the Wagner Group and the Russian state is exemplified every week when we see Russian air force planes taking care of the logistics of this presence in Libya.”

Harchaoui continued, “Wagner is just a manifestation of a project that is not just tolerated by the Russian state but is actually deemed desirable and it is also assisted and coordinated by the Russian state.”

Ultimately, by denying that Moscow has any relation to the Wagner Group or other foreign fighters in the country, Russian officials can claim that they support the withdrawal of mercenaries without actually taking responsibility for the Wagner Group’s continued role in the country.

“Whereas Turkey’s military maintains a highly overt presence in Libya, Russia asserts hard power influence in the North African country in far more shadowy ways”

For years, the Wagner Group has been supporting Haftar’s LNA. Composed of former military personnel who are mostly Russian (but also Ukrainian, Serbian, and Syrian), Wagner members have advised the LNA, trained local Libyan forces, and undertaken operations. Presently, roughly 7,000 Wagner Group armed personnel are in Libya, according to the head of Libya’s High Council of State.

Although Moscow publicly denies any connection to the Wagner Group, Russia benefits from the Wagner Group’s presence on the ground. The arrangement gives Moscow access to the al-Jufra airbase and control over some of the country’s oil resources.

However, the bigger inflection point is that the Wagner Group’s presence in Libya is an important part of the Russian government’s expansion into Africa. “For Russia instead, the presence of the Wagner Group in Libya must be seen in a broader perspective that takes into account Moscow’s expanding military foothold in North Africa and the Sahel,” said Dr Umberto Profazio, a Maghreb analyst at the NATO Defense College Foundation.

“Given the confirmed presence of Wagner assets into Mali as well, Libya could well serve as a bridgehead in North Africa from where Russia can disturb European powers (France in particular) using hybrid means such as private military companies and contractors in the soft underbelly represented by the Sahel, diverting Europe’s attention from other fronts.”

Looking ahead, European countries realise that Turkey and Russia’s military presence in Libya will likely remain a reality for at least a considerable period. As the US remains largely uninvolved in Libya, there is no power that Europeans can turn to pressure the Turkish military and the Wagner Group to leave.

Within this context, the Turks and Russians have gained various levels of leverage vis-à-vis Europe by virtue of their positions on the ground in Libya. If, when, or how either Ankara or Moscow takes advantage of this new reality, in which Turkey and Russia are the two kingmakers in Libya, to the dismay of Brussels remains to be seen.

***

Giorgio Cafiero is the CEO of Gulf State Analytics.

Emily Milliken is Senior Vice President and Lead Analyst at Askari Associates