British millions for new Somalian security forces ~ Telegraph
by Damien McElroy
The Telegraph
‘William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said Somalian leaders “need international support to build up” security forces, police and coastguard and will get broad international backing at a conference on Somalia in London next week.
Under a plan bankrolled by international donors, Britain could be prepared to increase the £60 million it is currently spending on rebuilding the war-torn north African country.
[...] Security is one of the four key aims of the conference, which has been convened by David Cameron and includes representatives of 55 countries and organisations.
The Somalian government payroll currently includes 8,500 soldiers and 6,000 police in Mogadishu, the capital. Most are hastily drafted members of militias whose ultimate loyalty is to clans or warlord leaders.’
US prepares $130m military aid package for Syrian rebels ~ AP
Associated Press
The US readied a package Saturday of up to $130m in non-lethal military aid to Syrian opposition forces while European countries consider easing an arms embargo, moves that could further pressure the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
US secretary of state John Kerry was expected to announce the plans about the defensive military supplies at a meeting Saturday that was bringing together the Syrian opposition leadership and their main international allies.
The supplies possibly could include body armor, armored vehicles, night vision goggles and advanced communications equipment.
US officials said the details and costs were to be determined at the meeting. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss Kerry’s announcement.
Kerry met with Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib before the conference began.
Israel’s booming economy puts billions in US aid under spotlight ~ NBC
by Martin Fletcher
NBC News
Boosted by newly discovered natural resources, Israel is surging ahead economically – a success that is pushing the issue of the country’s $3 billion in annual aid from the United States onto the agenda.
The country made its first intervention in the foreign currency market in almost two years Tuesday, buying $100 million to peg back the growing strength of its shekel.
A Bloomberg survey this week said the shekel was the strongest of 31 major currencies tracked over the last six months.
Last week, Israel passed another milestone, a potential gamechanger for its economy. Gas began to flow from gas fields off the coast. By 2015 Israel is expected to be fully energy independent, and may be a net exporter.
And there’s more good news: In this water-challenged region, Israel is well on the way to water independence. Its water desalination industry supplies up to 40 percent of the country’s demand for water, and another 40 percent comes from recycled water from domestic and commercial consumption. Israel reuses its water two to three times.
The boom may give a louder voice to calls for a reduction to the $3 billion worth of financial assistance Israel receives from the U.S. each year – especially in the Washington, where budget battles continue.
U.S. campaign groups such as Stop The Blank Check and the Council for the National Interest have long campaigned for the aid program to end, but Republican Sen. Rand Paul recently joined the debate by saying the U.S. could no longer afford to keep borrowing money and then handing it out to others.
Israeli Gas Field Opens, Setting Stage for Energy Boom ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
Production at the off-shore Tamar Field, operated by US-based Noble Energy with help from smaller partners, has reportedly begun today, providing a huge boost in natural gas production in Israel.
Tamar is about 50 miles west of Haifa, and is one of several gas fields in the Mediterranean in this area. Other fields are disputed, with Israel and Lebanon both claiming ownership. The Lebanese government’s own statement on where they believe the maritime border to be does not include Tamar Field, however.
That means an almost immediate reduction in energy prices inside of Israel, with the state-run electricity company the first beneficiary. When production gets up to its maximum, financial experts say that Israel could become not only energy independent, but a net exporter.
If Israel begins exporting billions of dollars annually worth of natural gas, it must inevitably raise the question of how they will continue to justify soliciting massive aid packages from the West, with the US providing many billions of dollars annually itself, and may give those nations, with budget problems of their own, a good reason to ditch subsidies to Israel.
Congress blocked Kerry from offering more aid to Egypt ~ The Hill
by Julian Pecquet
Secretary of State John Kerry had hoped to offer considerably more aid to Egypt than the $250 million he announced during his trip to Cairo but was blocked by Congress, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said.
“This is not the aid package that the administration wanted to announce,” Royce told The Hill. The administration wanted to release a “larger sum,” but bowed to the wishes of Royce’s committee as well as congressional appropriators, he said.
Royce wouldn’t say how much Kerry had hoped to announce, but the State Department has been pressing Congress to greenlight $450 million in direct aid since last fall.
US aid spending unlikely to change, despite $8 billion wasted in Iraq ~ CS Monitor
by Tom A. Peter
A US government report detailing widespread waste and missed opportunities in America’s $60 billion reconstruction effort in Iraq is unlikely to dramatically alter America’s aid policy, say international development experts.
Yesterday the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) released a report entitledLearning From Iraq that examined many of the challenges and mistakes that led to the wasting of at least $8 billion, or 13.3 percent of US reconstruction spending in Iraq.
Although the report offered suggestions for improvement, the US continues to fund a number of programs in Afghanistan that bear a strong resemblance to the failed Iraq projects outlined in the report.
Ashley Jackson, a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, says that most of the problems highlighted in SIGIR’s final report on Iraq were issues the agency repeatedly warned Congress and Presidents Bush and Obama about.
“This is something they started reporting on years ago and nothing has changed,” she says.
SIGIR’s sister institution, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, has issued regular reports on US spending in Afghanistan, uncovering many of the same wasteful spending patterns. Both organizations’ findings have resulted in numerous criminal investigations, but Ms. Jackson says the watchdogs lack the authority to implement aggressive changes that could prevent future waste.
“These agencies are really useful in exposing things, but unless they have the ability to correct them, it’s not going to happen. It’s just going to be another report,” says Jackson, who has worked extensively in Afghanistan.
Hagel to Barak: US Will Keep Up Aid to Israel Despite Fiscal Troubles ~ Antiwar
by John Glaser
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday at the Pentagon to reassure him that the diplomatic window on Iran is closing and that, despite tough fiscal times in Washington, exorbitant amounts of aid to Israel would not be affected.
According to the Pentagon, “Secretary Hagel expressed his strong commitment to Israel’s security, including maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge and continued US support for missile and rocket defense systems in spite of fiscal constraints.”
“Secretary Hagel and Minister Barak,” the Pentagon statement adds, “agreed that the United States-Israeli defense relationship has never been stronger than during the Obama administration and that both nations will continue this unprecedented close cooperation.”
On Iran, Hagel reiterated the US position to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapons with all options on the table – Washington’s euphemism for military action.
In their two hour meeting, the two officials also addressed the war in Syria, pledging “to continue US-Israel contingency planning to counter that potential threat.”
Many observers who expected Hagel, who had a reputation for issuing harsh criticisms of Israel, to differentiate the US relationship with Israel at least slightly, have thus far been disappointed by his close adherence to the Obama administration’s approach over the last four years.
U.S. lawmakers question military aid to Egypt, citing concerns about Israel ~ Washington Post
by Ernesto Londoño
Concerned about Egypt’s political instability and the U.S. budget crunch, a growing number of American lawmakers are challenging the wisdom of providing $1.3 billion a year in military aid to Cairo, arguing that the policy is overdue for a wholesale review.
Lawmakers say that Washington’s largess, which includes large fleets of M1A1 tanks and F-16 fighter jets, could backfire, given the unpredictability of Egypt’s Islamist-led government and its fraught relationship with Israel.
Washington’s increasingly controversial aid package to Egypt, a titan in the Middle East, is on the agenda this weekend when Secretary of State John F. Kerry meets with Egyptian leaders in Cairo. Kerry has argued that disengaging from Egypt would be a mistake, but he will have to contend with louder calls for a review of a policy established decades ago, in a vastly different political context.
Critics of Egypt in the House and Senate have introduced bills this year seeking a temporary halt or outright end to shipments of military supplies to Egypt. While the bills have not drawn widespread support, the arguments that underpin them have gotten significant traction, members of Congress said in interviews.
Israel Could ‘Gradually’ Lose $500 Million in US Aid ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
While Democrats and Republicans continue to trade blame for sequestration, while predicting doom and gloom for their assorted pet projects, the focus of many continues to be on Israel, and the notion that the several billion dollars of annual aid could be trimmed a bit.
It’s a shocking idea to many, since Israel aid is among the most sacrosanct items in the US budget, and officials just assume growth in any given year as a matter of course, with special boosts of “emergency” aid whenever Israel happens to start a war.
AIPAC has been loudly lobbying against any cuts against what Secretary of State John Kerry has referred to as the “vital mission” of throwing billions of dollars at Israel annually, but barring a deal Israel will “gradually” see its stipends getting a little smaller.
This could potentially bring the already ugly sequestration battle to an even uglier point, since Congressmen on either side of the aisle, when presented with an “Israel or something else” choice are always going to choose what they perceive as the pro-Israel move, and anything, whether devastating tax hikes or deeper cuts to other programs will almost surely come first if officials have anything to say about it.
British Defense Secretary: Cut Welfare, Not Troops ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond has publicly demanded that the government agree to yet more cuts to their welfare budget, saying that keeping military spending up should be a “first priority” for the nation.
The coalition government appears to be split on the matter, with Liberal Democrats opposed to any further cuts to the Welfare budget in the near term, and Hammond leading a call for a “Tory agenda” of getting military spending protected by cuts elsewhere.
Hammond may face even more opposition from within his own party, however, as Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has been anoutspoken supporter of cuts in the Afghan war as a way to save money in the overall budget.
Prime Minister David Cameron seems to be looking for a “have your cake and eat it too” solution where the government would pump money into the “foreign aid” budget instead, and then funnel that money into military spending by arguing that an occupation is the best “aid” of all.
AIPAC Lobbyists to Congress: Despite Sequester, Don’t Touch Israel Aid ~ Antiwar
by John Glaser
Douglas Bloomfield at The Jewish Week informs us that 13,000 lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will descend upon Capitol Hill this weekend for their annual conference to order members of Congress not to cut $3 billion-plus in aid to Israel, even as automatic budget cuts are set to take place in a matter of days.
At a time when sequestration is about to take a big bite out of the Pentagon budget, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will be sending thousands of its citizen lobbyists to Capitol Hill next week to make sure Israel is exempted from any spending cuts.
This could prove a very risky strategy at a time when millions of Americans will be feeling the bite of the sequestration debacle, from the defense budget to the school lunch program.
But not aid to Israel, which will be untouched if AIPAC gets its way.
People are coming up with all kinds of things that will need to be cut if (when) this sequester takes place. At Wired‘s Danger Room, for example, it was reported that cuts to the military budget “will mean delays for veteran funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.” So grieving American families may have to wait longer to bury their loved ones who died fighting in Afghanistan, but Israel won’t suffer one bit. Nothing could be more important than contributing money to the apartheid state.
Kerry reveals more US aid for foes of Assad ~ Boston Globe
by Matt Viser
Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Thursday that the United States is preparing to provide $60 million to Syrian opposition groups trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The funds will not be used to arm the fighters, which some rebel groups and some US lawmakers had sought. Instead, the financial support will mostly be used to help opposition leaders provide basic security, sanitation, and educational services in areas they now control.
“Assad cannot shoot his way out of this,” Kerry said, standing next to Moaz al-Khatib, the head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition. “And as he deludes himself in pursuit of the military solution, [we] make a different choice. Our choice is a political solution.
“This is a complicated challenge,” he added. “But the principle that guides this challenge is very simple: No nation, no people should live in fear of their so-called leaders.”
The agreement was the centerpiece of Kerry’s nine-country tour of Europe and the Middle East, and it was announced at a villa on a hill above Rome following Kerry’s first meeting with Khatib. Most of Kerry’s diplomatic energy has been spent trying to marshal together countries and find a way to offer a coordinated response to the Syrian conflict.
British PM: Use Foreign Aid for Military ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
Cynical effort to score political points or just the ultimate expression of interventionist fervor? Either way, British Prime Minister David Cameron, having just gotten done pushing for a hike to his nation’s foreign aid budget, is now looking to loot that budget to spend on military adventures.
The effort seems primarily aimed at placating members of Cameron’s own Conservative Party, who are disquieted by the prospect of cuts to military spending in the ongoing budget crunch.
Cameron unveiled the plan in comments to reports during his visit to India, saying that the Department for International Development, which receives the billions of pounds in annual funding, is “working closely” with the defense ministry on was to make such a move happen.
The prime minister argued that foreign interventions to prove a “basic level of stability and security” was part and parcel to the whole concept of “foreign aid,” following that up with the claim that using the foreign aid budget for “peacekeeping” missions was justified.
US Eyes Growing Military Role in Mali ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
The US role in the French invasion of Mali has been limited so far, but with elections planned soon by the Western-backed junta, that could soon change, according to Sen. Chris Coons (D – DE).
“After there is a full restoration of democracy, I would think it is likely that we will renew our direct support for the Malian military,” Sen. Coons said. Before one takes that with a grain of salt, one must remember that the US considers Yemen’s democracy fully functioning after an election with a single US-selected candidate.
All US involvement in the war so far has been limited to aiding French and foreign African troops, with a post-coup rule against aiding the junta directly forcing them just to aid everyone else that is aiding the junta.
That could quickly change, with the US sending “trainers” and “advisers” as part of a direct aid package for the Malian military. This would almost certainly set the stage for more escalations in the future, as Mali’s war transitions from invasion of rebel-held towns into an open-ended insurgency.
UN: Foreign Military Aid to Sudan Could Be Used for Darfur Attacks ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
The UN Security Council has renewed a mandate for sanction monitors for Darfur, adding a statement along with it cautioning nations against providing any aid, training, spare parts, or anything else related to a weapons system despite no specific sanctions banning such things.
The reasoning of the statement is that any support provided to the government of Sudan could conceivably be used by the Sudanese military in future attacks on Darfur, and that then they would violate sanctions.
The existing sanctions ban providing any direct support to the Sudanese attack on Darfur, and specific guarantees from Sudan that any hardware sold to them won’t be used in Darfur. Today’s statement is effectively that they don’t believe those promises anymore.
Since the wording of the sanctions is that they only need those guarantees, it isn’t clear how the statement of concern will effect any future Sudanese deals. The Sudanese government slammed the statement, saying they reject the “fallacious claims” and that the aircraft parts are for civilian craft, not military.
Agencies warn Congress not to use humanitarian aid as tool against Syria’s Assad ~ McClatchy
by Hannah Allam
Humanitarian groups are lobbying hard against a proposal by several U.S. senators that would turn over the delivery of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to a Syrian opposition council that’s criticized as too weak and too political to handle the responsibility.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is leading the charge to require the Obama administration to give the Syrian Opposition Coalition responsibility for aid delivery. The proposal was made after a bipartisan Senate delegation visited the region last month and heard firsthand Syrians’ frustrations with the pace and scope of U.S. and other foreign assistance.
The senators recommended that the Obama administration step up its support for the coalition so that the body “can visibly play a meaningful role in delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid.”
Executives from leading international aid groups are urging Congress to reject the recommendation. They say the proposal risks the traditional neutrality of aid missions and would place delivery of aid in the hands of an organization with no network for delivering it.
Despite sanctions, U.S. aid to Afghanistan might also be helping Iran ~ McClatchy
by Matthew Schofield
The Afghan National Army may have broken the U.S.-led economic embargo against Iran by using American aid to buy Iranian fuel for its military vehicles, generators and cooking processes, according to a military audit and experts on the region.
Recent safeguards installed to stop the possibility of the practice might not be enough, according to the audit, which came out in January.
While there is no direct evidence that the Afghan army actually purchased Iranian oil with American tax dollars, the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction describes the possibility as a cause for concern.
Between a third and half of all fuel bought by Afghanistan comes from Iran, the audit stated, citing figures compiled by the Department of State. Another quarter of its supply comes from Turkmenistan, and is commonly mixed with Iranian fuel.
The report notes that the U.S.-funded fuel purchasing program between 2007 and 2012 provided at least $1.1 billion to the Afghan army. But the money has been so poorly tracked, the audit notes, that it is impossible to determine the origin of the fuel.
USAID probed for alleged bid-rigging ~ The Hill
by Julian Pecquet
Investigators are looking into allegations that the top lawyer for the State Department’s aid agency rigged a bid and that top officials tried to cover it up, according to The Associated Press.
The AP reported Thursday that the Justice Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s inspector general are investigating whether USAID general counsel Lisa Gomer interfered last year to guarantee that a now-canceled bid for a “senior government-to-government assistance adviser” would be won by the agency’s retiring chief financial officer, David Ostermeyer. Investigators with the IG’s office are also probing whether Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg tried to interfere with the internal investigation, the AP reported — possibly at the behest of USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah.
“One document said Steinberg told inspector general officials that the agency’s top administrator, Shah, asked him to speak with the internal investigators about the review,” the AP reported. “Steinberg, according to another inspector general document, ripped into the independent watchdog.”
A senior USAID official however denied that Steinberg was under investigation.
Obama Destroys Small Businesses: Interview with Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League ~ Breaking the Set
Abby Martin interviews Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League, about President Obama’s announcement to combine the Small Business Administration with the Department of Commerce, an agency that represents the nation’s largest corporate giants.
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In Israel, Rand Paul Makes Case for ‘Gradual’ Aid Cuts ~ Antiwar
by Jason Ditz
Sen. Rand Paul (R – KY) has been open in his calls for cutting America’s massive foreign aid budget. As one of the many sacred cows in the US budget, this has earned him angry condemnations, but hasn’t ended the talk.
So with Paul in Israel, the novel idea that the US can’t keep increasing foreign aid to Israel forever is a subject of huge controversy, and has the senator backpedaling furiously to insist that “gradual” cuts could be discussed while conceding that he doesn’t believe any cuts at all will happen in his lifetime.
“It’s unlikely anything changes,” Paul insisted, “but I think it is worth discussing.” During talks with the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, Paul focused on the importance of keeping the US financially solvent for Israel’s sake, saying the US would struggle to “defend Israel” if it is bankrupt.
Paul went on to say that the cuts in the foreign aid budget would start with “enemies of Israel” and that Israel itself would be among the last to face any serious cuts, saying those cuts could improve Israel’s ability to start huge wars without US permission.
US extends $4bn Israel loan program ~ Al-Akhbar
The United States agreed on Wednesday to extend its $4 billion loan guarantee program to Israel until 2016, a gesture that shows continued commitment to the Jewish state less than two weeks before the American presidential elections.
The move allows the United States to provide up to $3.8 billion in future loan guarantees, as part of a $9 billion commitment made by the US in 2003.
The program was meant to expire this year.
The American Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and Doron Cohen, the director general of the Israeli finance ministry, signed the agreement during a US-Israel Joint Economic Development Group meeting in Washington, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
US State Dept. Demands Lebanon Form New Govt. ~ Antiwar
With Lebanon’s current government in turmoil after weekend violence, the US is taking the opportunity to once again insinuate itself directly in the political situation, with the State Department is demanding that President Suleiman form a new government with the Sunni-dominated opposition parties at the lead.
“The export of instability from Syria threatens the security of Lebanon now more than ever, and it’s really up to the Lebanese people to choose a government that is going to counter this threat,” insisted spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
The US has styled itself as something of a king-maker in Lebanese politics in this government session, with Vice President Joe Biden showing up days before the election and threatening to withdraw all aid from Lebanon if they voted for the Hezbollah-dominated faction.
And while Biden got his way temporarily, the Sunni-dominated faction eventually collapsed and was replaced by Hezbollah anyhow. Now US officials are pushing for that government’s ouster and the return of the already-failed faction, which is more than likely going to force early elections.
US Military Assistance to Central Asia Highly ‘Opaque’ ~ Carey L. Biron
U.S. military assistance to key Central Asian governments has increased dramatically in recent years but remains highly “unexamined,” according to new research presented in Washington on Tuesday.
Military assistance, which stood at around 5% of all U.S. aid to the region during the 1990s, today constitutes nearly a third the total. This added up to around $100 million in 2010 alone, although these figures remain “opaque,” according to researcher Joshua Kucera, who is associated with the Open Society Foundation in Washington.
In a new paper [.pdf], Kucera notes that many of these aid programs “do not require public notification [although they are not classified]” and that “recipient governments have chosen not to publicize the aid, afraid of arousing leftover Cold War suspicions of the U.S. military.”
He says the U.S. is especially focused on strengthening the special forces in the region’s militaries, particularly in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, while significant assistance is also going toward nonlethal equipment and some light weapons.
“Very soon, the military aid to these countries is going to enter a new phase,” he said on Tuesday. “As the U.S. starts to pull its forces out of Afghanistan by 2014, it has said that it intends to leave some of that equipment behind for its Central Asian partners. We don’t yet know what kind of equipment that will be.”
These programs took a significant shot in the arm in the immediate aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with overall aid to the region more than doubling in 2002, to $476 million. Within that, security assistance went up by a factor of five.
While those figures declined somewhat in subsequent years, U.S. military assistance to Central Asia really took off in 2007-08, as Washington turned its attention back to the situation in Afghanistan. Indeed, threats emanating from groups within Afghanistan continue to be the central public rationale — by both U.S. officials and Central Asian governments — for the need for the continued significant military assistance being poured into the region.
Kucera says that Central Asian governments have “a long history of overstating threats from Afghan groups” in order to gain international support and increased aid.
US Shifts Aid to Create Libyan Commando Force ~ Antiwar
Convinced that al-Qaeda is flourishing in Libya in the wake of last year’s US-backed regime change, the Obama Administration has shifted millions of dollars in Pentagon aid, initially earmarked for Pakistan, to Libya to create a new commando force in the nation.
The plan will necessitate the deployment of US special forces troops on the ground in Libya, as they are the ones who are supposed to be doing the training. The deployment will add yet another foothold to US forces in Africa.
The State Department initially submitted the plan last month, saying it was necessary to “combat and defend against threats from al-Qaeda.” Though it is being couched as a reaction to the Benghazi Consulate raid the plan was actually submitted a week before the attack.
Libyan officials have not commented on the plan, but in the past they have called for Western aid to increase the size of their new post-war military.
Netanyahu envoy says U.S. should expand arms aid to Israel ~ LA Times
A special envoy of the Israeli prime minister said the United States should expand its arms aid to Israel in light of the increased threats posed by the unstable aftermath of the “Arab Spring” revolutions.
Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States and foreign policy advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said in an interview Friday that the instability in Egypt, Libya and Syria suggest that the U.S.-Israel security ties will be “probably more important than ever before.”
He said the United States should consider increasing its emergency inventory of military equipment in Israel, and step up joint military exercises with the Israel Defense Forces to demonstrate to neighboring governments the U.S. commitment to regional stability. Since 1990, the United States has stored military equipment in Israel for use by U.S. armed forces or by the IDF in an emergency.
Shoval said political instability and violence in the region and the advance of Islamist parties show that Americans were generally too optimistic about the uprisings.
American assumptions about the region “will have to be continually reassessed and reexamined” by whichever party wins the White House in the November election, Shoval said.
Iran says Obama administration’s removal of group from US terror list shows ‘double standards’ ~ AP
Iran condemned on Saturday the Obama administration for taking an Iranian militant group formerly allied with Saddam Hussein off the U.S. terrorism list, saying it shows Washington’s “double standards.”
The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which began as a guerrilla movement fighting Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, helped overthrow the monarch in 1979 then quickly fell out with the Islamic Republic’s first leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It fought in the 1980s alongside Saddam’s forces in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war but disarmed after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The State Department delisted the group on Friday, meaning that any assets the MEK has in the United States are unblocked and Americans can do business with the organization. On Saturday, at their Paris headquarters, MEK members gathered to celebrate, tossing flower petals and displaying photos of members killed in the past 15 years.
“We call on the international community to respect the will of the Iranian people for a regime change in Iran,” Maryam Rajavi, the Paris-based head of the exiled opposition group, said Saturday.
Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the delisting of MEK was “a violation of America’s legal and international obligations” that could threaten U.S. interests. The decision “will bring U.S. responsibility for past, present and future terrorist operations by this group,” the statement also said.
Iranian State TV criticized the decision, saying that the U.S. considered the MEK “good terrorists” and claims Washington is using the group to work against Tehran. State radio said the move highlights President Barack Obama’s anti-Iranian sentiments.
“There is much evidence of the group being involved in terrorist activities. Delisting them shows America’s double standard policy on terrorism,” state TV said. The U.S. distinguishes between “good and bad terrorists” and the MEK are now “good terrorists because the U.S. is using them against Iran,” the report also said, adding that Washington and Israel use the group to spy on Iran’s nuclear program.
Clinton offers $45 million to Syrian rebels, who want more support ~ McClatchy
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday announced $45 million in additional aid for Syrian opposition activists, the latest U.S. push for influence in a civil war that’s raged beyond the international community’s control.
Clinton announced the new aid package before meeting with visiting Syrian dissidents on the margins of this week’s U.N. General Assembly, where world leaders sounded bleaker than ever about the prospects for a negotiated political resolution to the 18-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
U.S. humanitarian aid for Syria now will total more than $132 million this year, though Syrian rebels are more interested in weapons and military training than in the American promises of more “nonlethal assistance.” Of the $45 million pledged Friday, $30 million is earmarked for humanitarian assistance and $15 million for radios, training and other technical support for opposition activists.
The U.S. government has refused to directly arm or fund the so-called Free Syrian Army, a loose confederation of rebel militias, largely out of fear that the assistance would make its way to Islamist extremist groups that have joined the battle to unseat Assad.
Torture and Extra-Judicial Killings Rampant in Iraq, Says Iraqi Official ~ Antiwar
John Glaser @ Antiwar
The secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party Ayad al-Samarrai is expressing renewed concerns about torture in Iraqi prisons, which are resulting in the death of many detainees.
Samarrai claims that Iraqis are being captured on a political, not criminal, basis and that security forces are detaining people, only to have their dead bodies over to their families hours after detention without providing any information on what happened.
The secretary-general also criticized the impunity allowed by the Iraqi parliament. The parliament, he said, “has not summoned any security official to investigate this torture and abuse taking place in prisons. Although there were many complaints about this matter, the Ministry of Human Rights has yet [to] get involved.”
These are not the first of such allegations. In January of this year, Iraq’s former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, accused current Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki of detaining and brutally torturing more than 1,000 political opponents in secret prisons and denying them access to legal counsel.
“Information has reached us that is beyond doubt regarding the brutal torture of our detainees in an attempt to extract false confessions from them,” Allawi wrote at the time.
Maliki’s turn towards dictatorship sharpened almost immediately after US occupation forces left in December. He has circumvented Parliament, consolidated illegitimate power in a long trend of quasi-dictatorial behavior, harshly cracked down on peaceful activism, harassed and even attacked journalists that were critical of his regime, and recently betrayed an agreement that would have limited his ability to marginalize his Sunni rivals.
But the Maliki government continues to receive enthusiastic US support in the form of billions of dollars a year in aid and tens of billions worth in military assistance. TheNew York Times revealed recently the US is trying to send small units of American troops back to Iraq, and the continued support of the Maliki regime is clearly being offered in an attempt to maintain leverage over Iraq – a far cry from the democracy promotion heralded by both the Bush and Obama administrations.
America’s Love Affair with Israel – Breaking the Set
Abby Martin dissects America’s love affair with Israel, and why the presidential campaign is just one big competition over who can be a bigger ally to the nation.
