28 Feb

HAVANA, Cuba, Cuban anti-terrorist fighter Antonio Guerrero called for the continuation of the struggle for peace and love in order to wipe out hatred from the world.

During a peace and thanks-giving religious ceremony organized by the Cuban Council of Churches for the return of the five antiterrorists, Guerrero thanked the religious community for their support full of faith and hope.

The service was attended by representatives of different religions and congregations, gathered in the Cuban Inter-religious Platform, who worked for family reunification.

Antonio Guerrero returned December 17 to Cuba along Gerardo Herandez and Ramon Labanino. The three of them along Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, also in Cuba, were given unfair prison sentences in US jails after they infiltrated Florida-based ultrahigh organizations that planned terrorist actions against Cuba.

The president of the Cuban Council of Churches, Joel Ortega thanked religious people from other countries for their efforts to bring the five men home.

“We are living in a world which is threatened by violent practice that endangers nature, culture, peace, justice and the human species. So, we are here to confirm our commitment to build a better future, not for a few of us, but for all of us, said Ortega during the ceremony.

Politics

Donald Trump accuses Obama of orchestrating protests and leaks against him

In interview with Fox, president says – without evidence – his predecessor ‘is behind’ demonstrations over travel ban and national security leaks

President Donald Trump says Barack Obama is behind the recent protests against him. In an interview with Fox and Friends, which will air on Tuesday morning in the US, Trump also accuses Obama and his allies of involvement in the leaks of information from the White House. There is no evidence to support Trump’s claims

Donald Trump has accused former president Barack Obama and his “people” of organizing the demonstrations that have roiled city streets, airports and town halls during the first weeks of his presidency.

In an interview with Fox and Friends, which will air on Tuesday morning in the US, he also suggested Obama and his allies were behind the leaks of classified information from the White House to the press.

There is no evidence that the former president has had any hand in either activity.

Trump was asked by the Fox interviewer whether he believes Obama is involved in organizing protests, including the recent spate of raucous Republican town hall meetings, and “if he is, is that a violation of the so-called unsaid president’s code?”

“No, I think he is behind it. I also think it’s just politics. That’s just the way it is,” Trump said in the pre-taped interview, a portion of which was released on Monday night.

Trump continued: “You never know what’s exactly happening behind the scenes … I think that President Obama’s behind it because his people are certainly behind it.”

Republicans and rightwing media outlets have accused the former president of directing the demonstrations though a group called Organizing for Action (OFA), a progressive group that grew out of Obama’s presidential campaigns. It is chaired by Jim Messina, who was Obama’s deputy chief of staff during his first term and his campaign manager during the 2012 election.

As a nonprofit, the group cannot advocate for a political candidate, though its agenda aligns closely with the Democratic party and Obama’s key policy positions. There is no evidence the former president is personally involved with the group.

Last week, Republicans faced angry constituents in town halls and district offices around the country. The action follows protests that erupted at airports in response to the Trump administration’s travel ban, which closed the US borders to people from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

In the interview with Fox, Trump accused Obama and his allies of possible involvement in the leaks of information from the White House.

“Some of the leaks possibly come from that group,” Trump said in the interview.

Berta Cáceres court papers show murder suspects’ links to US-trained elite troops

The Honduran environmental activist’s killing a year ago bears the hallmarks of a ‘well-planned operation designed by military intelligence’ says legal source

Indigenous Hondurans and peasants march to demand justice for the murder of Berta Cáceres on 17 August 2016 in Tegucigalpa.

Hondurans demand justice for Berta Cáceres on 17 August 2016 in Tegucigalpa. Officials have denied a state role in the killing despite the arrest of one serving and two ex-soldiers. Photograph: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Image

Leaked court documents allege that the murder of the Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres was an extrajudicial killing planned by military intelligence specialists linked to the country’s US–trained special forces, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Cáceres was shot dead a year ago while supposedly under state protection after receiving death threats over her opposition to a hydroelectric dam.

The murder of Cáceres, winner of the prestigious Goldman environmental prize in 2015, prompted international outcry and calls for the US to revoke military aid to Honduras, a key ally in its war on drugs.

Eight men have been arrested in connection with the murder, including one serving and two retired military officers.

Officials have denied state involvement in the activist’s murder, and downplayed the arrest of the serving officer Maj Mariano Díaz, who was hurriedly discharged from the army.

But the detainees’ military records and court documents seen by the Guardian reveal that:

Díaz, a decorated special forces veteran, was appointed chief of army intelligence in 2015, and at the time of the murder was on track for promotion to lieutenant colonel.

Another suspect, Lt Douglas Giovanny Bustillo joined the military on the same day as Díaz; they served together and prosecutors say they remained in contact after Bustillo retired in 2008.

Díaz and Bustillo both received military training in the US.

A third suspect, Sergeant Henry Javier Hernández, was a former special forces sniper, who had worked under the direct command of Díaz. Prosecutors believe he may also have worked as an informant for military intelligence after leaving the army in 2013.

Court documents also include the records of mobile phone messages which prosecutors believe contain coded references to the murder.

Bustillo and Hernández visited the town of La Esperanza, where Cáceres lived, several times in the weeks before her death, according to phone records and Hernández’s testimony.

A legal source close to the investigation told the Guardian: “The murder of Berta Cáceres has all the characteristics of a well-planned operation designed by military intelligence, where it is absolutely normal to contract civilians as assassins.

“It’s inconceivable that someone with her high profile, whose campaign had made her a problem for the state, could be murdered without at least implicit authorisation of military high command.”

The Honduran defence ministry ignored repeated requests from the Guardian for comment, but the head of the armed forces recently denied that military deaths squads were operating in the country.

Five civilians with no known military record have also been arrested. They include Sergio Rodríguez, a manager for the internationally funded Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam which Cáceres had opposed.

Refugee women and children ‘beaten, raped and starved in Libyan hellholes’

Militia-run detention centres in Libya are ‘no more than forced labour camps and makeshift prisons’, Unicef says

Children outside a detention centre in Libya

Children outside a government-run detention centre in Libya. Photograph: Romenzi/Unicef

Women and children making the dangerous journey to Europe to flee poverty and conflicts in Africa are being beaten, raped and starved in “living hellholes” in Libya, the United Nations children’s agency, Unicef, has said.

Children are being sexually abused, coerced into prostitution and work, and held to ransom for months in squalid, overcrowded detention centres, as they flee war and poverty in Africa to undertake one of the most dangerous journeys in the world to Europe, the agency warned in a new report.

Last year, more than 181,000 refugees and migrants, including more than 25,800 unaccompanied children, arrived in Italy via the central Mediterranean smuggling route, through Libya. Thousands of people died on the way.

Unofficial detention centres controlled by militia serve as lucrative businesses that profit from trafficking, and are “no more than forced labour camps … and makeshift prisons”, Unicef said. “For the thousands of migrant women and children incarcerated, [the centres] were living hellholes where people were held for months.”

Three-quarters of migrant children interviewed in Libya by the International Organisation for Cooperation and Emergency Aid, (IOCEA) a Unicef partner, reported experiencing violence, harassment or aggression at the hands of adults during their journey to Italy. The “snapshot” survey of 122 women and child migrants also found a growing number of teenage girls forced by smugglers to have Depo-Provera contraceptive jabs, so they could be raped without becoming pregnant.

Sexual violence and abuse was widespread and systematic at crossings and checkpoints. A third of the women and children interviewed said their assailants wore uniforms or appeared to be associated with the military. Nearly half of the women and children reported sexual abuse during migration, often multiple times and in multiple locations, the report found.

“The central Mediterranean from north Africa to Europe is among the world’s deadliest and most dangerous migrant routes for children and women,” said Afshan Khan, Unicef regional director and special coordinator for the refugee and response crises in Europe. “The route is mostly controlled by smugglers, traffickers and other people seeking to prey upon desperate children and women who are simply seeking refuge or a better life. We need safe and legal pathways and safeguards to protect migrating children that keep them safe and keep predators at bay.”

The Unicef study, A Deadly Journey for Children (pdf), found most women and children had paid smugglers at the beginning of their journey, under “pay as you go” schemes, leaving many of them in debt and vulnerable to abuse, abduction and trafficking.

The study found that children whose parents have not paid enough money to smugglers were held to ransom for thousands of dollars, mostly between Sudan or Libya, or in Libya itself.

Most said they expected to spend extended periods working in Libya to pay for the next leg of the journey. One Nigerian boy, aged 15, who was held in a Libyan detention centre, told IOCEA: “Here they treat us like chickens. They beat us, they do not give us good water and good food. They harass us. So many people are dying here, dying from disease, freezing to death.”

A survey by IOM in October found that 70% of migrants travelling overland through north Africa to Europe have become victims of human trafficking and exploitation along the way, and a pattern of torture, forced labour and arbitrary detention of migrants and asylum seekers in Libya has been documented by the UN.

This year is proving the deadliest yet

Jewish centers and schools cope with another wave of bomb threats

Fifth wave of threats against community centers and institutions since January is being investigated after headstones were vandalized at another Jewish cemetery

Volunteers from a local monument company help to reset vandalized headstones at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in Missouri. Photograph: Michael Thomas/Getty Images

Guardian staff and the Associated Press

Jewish centers and schools around the country are coping with another wave of bomb threats as officials in Philadelphia begin raising money to repair and restore headstones that were vandalized at a Jewish cemetery over the weekend.

Jewish Community Centers and day schools in at least a dozen states received threats, according to the JCC Association of North America. No bombs were found. All 20 buildings – 13 community centers and seven schools – were cleared by Monday afternoon and had resumed normal operations, the association said.

It was the fifth round of bomb threats against Jewish institutions since January, prompting outrage and exasperation among Jewish leaders, as well as calls for an aggressive federal response to put a stop to it.

“The justice department, Homeland Security, the FBI and the White House, alongside Congress and local officials, must speak out and speak out forcefully against this scourge of anti-Semitism impacting communities across the country,” said David Posner, an official with JCC Association of North America. “Members of our community must see swift and concerted action from federal officials to identify and capture the perpetrator or perpetrators who are trying to instill anxiety and fear in our communities.”

US attorney general Jeff Sessions said on Monday that recent bomb threats made against Jewish groups are “unacceptable” and a “very serious and destructive practice”.

The FBI and the justice department’s civil rights division are probing the threats.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, police investigated what they called an “abominable crime” after several hundred headstones were toppled during the weekend at Mount Carmel Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery dating to the late 1800s.

Police, who are conducting a criminal mischief-institutional vandalism investigation, said the vandalism appeared to be targeted at the Jewish community, though they cautioned they had not confirmed the motive. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said authorities were doing everything possible to find those “who desecrated this final resting place”.

Money was being raised to repair and restore the vandalized headstones, while the Anti-Defamation League and a police union are offering a $13,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

A man visiting Mount Carmel Cemetery on Sunday called police to report that three of his relatives’ headstones had been knocked over and damaged. The discovery came less than a week after similar vandalism in Missouri, where more than 150 headstones were vandalized, many of them tipped over.

The Missouri incident prompted a response from Donald Trump, who had been criticised by Jewish groups and political opponents for a lack of comment on an increase in threats against Jewish community centers around the US and a White House statement to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day that did not mention Jews or Judaism.

Questions regarding Trump’s attitude to antisemitism and possible antisemitic views among his aides and supporters have persisted since he announced his run for the White House. During the campaign, Trump attracted criticism for tweeting an alleged antisemitic image – he denied any intent to do so but deleted and replaced the image in question – and running ads that critics said employed timeworn antisemitic tropes.

Some observers pointed to the influence of advisers including campaign chairman and now senior White House counsel Steve Bannon, the former head of the “alt-right” Breitbart website who was accused by his ex-wife of making antisemitic remarks, an accusation he denied.

Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is Jewish. The president’s daughter, Ivanka, converted when she married Kushner.

Well-intentioned volunteers rushed to the Philadelphia cemetery after the damage was discovered Sunday to begin putting the headstones back up, complicating efforts to tally the damage and perhaps investigate the crime, said Steven Rosenberg, chief marketing officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2017 at 10:27 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Nearly all of these are English-edition daily newspapers. These sites have interesting editorials and essays, and many have links to other good news sources. We try to limit this list to those sites which are regularly updated, reliable, with a high percentage of “up” time.