Blog Archives

Taliban Releases Four Remaining Turkish Engineers

The Taliban says it has released the four remaining Turks held hostage since their helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan last month.

In an emailed statement issued on May 14, the Taliban said the remaining four Turkish nationals were released “as a sign of goodwill and as an Islamic and humanitarian gesture of respect.”

Four other Turkish engineers aboard the helicopter were freed on May 12.

The eight Turkish engineers were seized when bad weather forced their helicopter to make an emergency landing in Afghanistan’s Logar Province on April 21.

An Afghan translator and two pilots — one from Russia and one from Kyrgyzstan — were seized along with the Turks.

The Taliban’s statement did not make any reference to the Afghan translator and the two pilots.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

FBI releases photos of Boston blast suspects

The FBI has released images and videos of two men wanted as key suspects in connection to the Boston marathon blasts and is asking the public for help in identifying the two men.

Richard Deslauriers, an FBI special agent, said in a press conference on Thursday that the FBI regards the suspects as “armed and extremely dangerous”, adding that the agency does not believe there is any imminent danger of another attack.

The bombings that killed three people and wounded 176 began a week of security scares that rattled the United States and evoked memories of the September 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks.

“Today we are enlisting the public’s help to identify the two suspects,” DesLauriers said at the news conference.

Somebody out there knows these individuals as friends, neighbours, co-workers or family members of the suspects.

Richard Deslauriers, FBI agent

Both men carried backpacks that were believed to contain the bombs.

The man identified as suspect No. 1 wore a dark baseball cap. Suspect No. 2 wore a white cap backwards and was seen setting down his backpack on the ground, DesLauriers said.

“Somebody out there knows these individuals as friends, neighbours, co-workers or family members of the suspects. Though it may be difficult, the nation is counting on those with information to come forward and provide it to us,” he said.

Massive manhunt

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Boston, said that with the release of the images the FBI set off one of America’s biggest ever manhunts.

“These two men are now the most wanted men in America and it is understood that investigators have in the last hour or so already been passed a number of names, some of which are recurring. So those leads will obviously be checked out.”

Investigators hoped the men would be identifiable within hours of the release of the pictures and video, a national security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Investigators were looking at the men for some period of time before deciding to make the videos public, and they had extensive video and still pictures to justify the FBI decision to label the two men as suspects, the official said.

At least one other person of interest who featured in crime scene pictures had been ruled out as a suspect.

Also ruled out earlier in the week was a Saudi student who was injured in the attacks, the official said. 

426

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

Romney releases long-awaited tax return

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney paid $ 1.9m in taxes on more than $ 13m in income in 2011, an effective tax rate of 14.1 per cent, his campaign has said.

The announcement was made on Friday ahead of the release of the full return and Romney’s 20-year summary, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and made available for public view online.

Fighting back against Democratic party claims that he paid little or no taxes in earlier years, the Romney campaign also released a letter certifying he owed an average effective federal tax rate of 20.2 per cent over the 20-year period ending in 2009.

Democrats led by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid have suggested Romney paid scant taxes in those earlier years. Despite heavy political pressure, his campaign has refused to release earlier returns.

President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies have used Romney’s refusal to release more returns as evidence that he is an out-of-touch millionaire.

Romney, who faces Obama in the November 6 election, earns the majority of his income from investment profits, dividends and interest, which is taxed at a lower rate than income.

Romney’s campaign said the lowest annual federal personal tax rate he owed over the 20 years was 13.66 per cent.

Romney paid about $ 3m in federal income taxes in 2010 – or 13.9 per cent.

“He’s cleaning house, as he’s had a bad week – in fact he’s had a bad month,” said Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington. ”By getting it out now, it’s one less problem he has to worry about. Also, very few people read newspapers on a Saturday.”

“But the question is, why doesn’t he release tax returns going back before [2010 and 2011]?”

Investment income

In addition, Brad Malt, the trustee of the Romney’s blind trust, said in a blog post that “the Romneys donated $ 4,020,772 to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30 per cent of their income”.

“The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 per cent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years,” Malt added.

Critics, including President Barack Obama, have urged Romney to follow his father’s model. When George Romney ran for president, he released 12 years of tax returns.

Mitt Romney is refusing. He has said he is following the example of Republican Sen John McCain, who released two years’ worth of returns in his race against Obama in 2008.

The vast majority of Romney’s income came from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate than wages. His total wealth has been estimated as high as $ 250m.

Obama’s tax return shows he earned nearly $ 790,000 last year and paid an effective tax rate of almost 21 per cent.

On average, the wealthy in the US pay higher income tax rates than those who make less.

Explaining rates

People making $ 1 million or more annually paid an average effective rate of 25 per cent last year in federal income and payroll taxes, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

The White House has argued that even so, some millionaires end up paying lower rates than many of those earning less. That is largely because many wealthy people earn income from dividends that are taxed at just 15 per cent, instead of the top 35 per cent rate on salaries.

A report in October by the Congressional Research Service, an agency that conducts research for lawmakers, said about a quarter of those earning $ 1m or more per year – 94,500 taxpayers – had a lower tax rate than 10.4 million moderate-income people.

Romney proposes dropping all income tax rates by 20 per cent, reducing the top tax rate from 35 per cent to 28 per cent.

The bottom rate would go from 10 per cent to 8 per cent.

Romney says he would pay for the rate cuts by eliminating or reducing tax credits, deductions and exemptions, but will not say which ones would go.

692

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

Bulgaria Releases Photo Of Second Bomber Suspect

Bulgarian authorities have released a computer-generated image of a suspected accomplice of a man who killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver in a bus bombing a month ago.

The image of a man with short dark hair is accompanied by a photo from a fake driver’s license, in which the man appears to be wearing a wig.

The Interior Ministry said that “there is data that the man [in the image] is related to the terrorist attack at the airport.”

The ministry didn’t provide any further details, but the photo appears to confirm suspicions the bomber wasn’t working alone.

Two weeks ago, a computer-generated image of the suicide bomber’s face was released by Bulgarian experts.

Based on reporting by AP and Interfax

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Bulgaria Releases Image Of Suicide Bomber’s Face

Bulgarian experts have constructed an image of the face of a suicide bomber who killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver on the Black Sea coast two weeks ago.

The bomber’s head was found at the scene.

The interior minister said on August 1 that the computer-generated image shows a man aged around 30, with swept-back black hair and dark eyes.

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said the badly damaged face of the bomber was reconstructed “thanks to modern technology, supplied to Bulgaria by partner services.”

In a video of the run-up to the July 18 attack, released by police, the purported bomber wore checked Bermuda shorts and a blue T-shirt and carried a small rucksack.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Myanmar releases detained student leaders

Authorities in Myanmar have released 20 student leaders detained during the fiftieth anniversary of an army crackdown, a political activist has said.

Saturday’s release comes a day after several people were picked up in Yangon, Mandalay, Lashio and Shwebo on Friday night. They were then sent off to undisclosed locations.

Phyo Phyo Aung, a former political prisoner who was among those held, said they were freed late on Saturday.

Phyo Aung, a member of the All Burma Students Union, said she and three other members of the group were questioned at a building in Yangon that was once a Home Ministry office, because their organisation had been deemed illegal.

“Police officials told us that they just wanted to question us in connection with our plans to commemorate the anniversary,” she told the Reuters news agency, referring to the army’s suppression of protests in 1962 when dozens of students were killed and a university building blown up.

‘Act of oppression’

The arrests could prove detrimental to the improvements the government has seen in its image at home and abroad since enacting a series of reforms last year.

“This act of oppression has given us the impression that the old ways of practice are still in effect, despite all the
positivity for change that we have been hearing,” Cambodian politician Son Chhay, vice president of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, said in a statement.

“If they are even going to arrest people before any crime has taken place, this shows that they continue to use fear and
intimidation to repress”, said the group of southeast Asian politicians providing support to Myanmar’s democratic transition.

Friday’s arrests were the largest crackdown on dissent since the end of military rule last year.

The military seized power in 1962 and ruled the country under various guises until March last year.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged the government to release all political prisoners during a high-profile trip to Europe which ended last week.

The US and European Union have suspended some sanctions in recent months in response to reforms by the new quasi-civilian government, which include moves to liberalise the economy, the release of more than 600 political prisoners and the introduction of laws allowing demonstrations.

However, despite government claims that the reforms are “irreversible”, the arrest and detention of dissidents still goes on, albeit not as often, which rights groups say proves the retired generals still in power are not fully committed to
promises they have made.

404

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

Pakistan Releases Indian Prisoner After 31 Years

An Indian man has been released after spending more than three decades in a Pakistani jail on allegations of spying for Pakistan’s rival India.

Surjeet Singh, 69, was arrested in 1981 and held in a jail in the eastern city of Lahore.

Recently, Pakistani legal system officials said Singh had completed a life term and should be sent back to India.

Authorities in Pakistan and India often arrest each other’s nationals, accusing them of being spies after they cross land or maritime borders.

Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India have fought three wars since the division of the subcontinent in 1947.

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and dawn.com

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

US releases bleak unemployment figures

Job growth in the US fell sharply in May, with the unemployment rate rising for the first time in 11 months, putting pressure on the Federal reserve to ease its monetary policy.

Friday’s figures released by the Department of Labour are troubling news for US President Barack Obama, whose prospects of winning re-election in November could hinge largely on the health of the economy.

The department said that employers added a paltry 69,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the least since May of last year,

In addition, 49,000 fewer jobs were created in the prior two months than had been thought, with the unemployment rate rising to 8.2 per cent from 8.1 per cent in April
 
Mitt Romney, Obama’s Republican presidential challenger, wasted no time in jumping on the data to criticize the president’s economic policies.

“Today’s weak jobs report is devastating news for American workers and American families,” Romney said in a statement, calling the report “a harsh indictment of the president’s handling of the economy”.

‘Large hole’ 

The White House expressed disappointment in the data.

“We’d like to see faster job growth,” Alan Krueger, the chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, told the Reuters Insider website.

“We have a large hole in jobs right now because of job losses than happened during the recession.”

There were a couple spots of relative brightness in the report.

An influx of workers into the labour market largely explained the rise in the jobless rate, and the department’s survey of households – a more volatile measure – showed robust jobs growth.

A separate report on US factory activity in May showed some slowing but suggested the economy was not falling off a
cliff.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected non-farm payrolls to increase 150,000 and the jobless rate to hold steady at 8.1 per cent.

Unseasonably warm weather had brought forward hiring into the winter months, and was widely blamed for the step back in March and April.

Worldwide slowdown

However, the report hinted at a fundamental weakness. 

“Some had believed that we had decoupled from China slowing and all the problems in Europe, but that seems to be
short-sighted,” said Malcolm Polley, president and chief investment officer of Stewart Capital Advisors in Indiana,
Pennsylvania.

“We’re slowing alongside the rest of the world.”

Data from overseas on Friday was similarly troubling.

Chinese factory output barely rose in May and manufacturing activity in Britain shrank at its fastest pace in three years.

Earlier data had shown manufacturing activity also declined in Germany and France.

Unlike Europe, where many economies are falling into recession, US manufacturing activity is still growing.

The Institute for Supply Management said its factory gauge slipped to 53.5 last month from 54.9 in April, staying
comfortably above the 50 line that separates expansion from contraction.

New orders hit their highest point in more than a year.

‘Missing ingredient’

The weak payrolls report could cause the Fed to move closer to launching a third round of bond purchases.

The US central bank, which holds a policy meeting on June 19-20, was already nervous over the course of the eurozone debt crisis.

“This puts the Fed firmly in play and they will likely feel compelled to respond,” said Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

“The missing ingredient preventing the Fed from action had been the equity market, but now we are seeing it softening.” 

The Fed cut overnight interest rates to near zero in late 2008 and bought $ 2.3 trillion in bonds to try to spur a stronger
recovery.

It has also said it expects to keep rates “exceptionally low” through at least late 2014.

Until recently, financial markets had thought officials would likely push up borrowing costs sooner.

However, interest rate futures on Friday showed traders now see no chance that rates will rise before the second quarter of 2015.

Weak consumer spending

The level of employment is about five million jobs below where it was in December 2007, when the economy fell into recession. 

Analysts say the economy needs to create roughly 125,000 jobs a month just to keep the unemployment rate steady. 

The labour force participation rate – the share of working-age Americans who either have a job or are looking for one – rose to 63.8 per cent, after dropping to a 30-year low in April.

Job gains were weak across the board last month, with the private sector adding only 82,000 positions. Government payrolls dropped by 13,000, dragged down by ongoing belt-tightening by local governments.

Construction employment fell 28,000 in May, the fourth straight decline. Manufacturing, the recovery’s star performer,
added 12,000 jobs.

Given the high unemployment rate, average hourly earnings rose only two cents and the average work week fell to 34.4 hours. Slower income growth is holding back any large increase in consumer spending.

A report from the Commerce Department showed consumer spending rose 0.3 per cent in April after gaining 0.2 per cent in March.

884

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

U.S. Releases Documents From Bin Laden Compound

A selection of documents seized in last year’s raid on Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout has been posted online by the U.S. Army’s Combating Terrorism Center.

In the 17 declassified documents, bin Laden, who was killed in the May 2, 2011, raid, complained about dysfunction in Al-Qaeda as well as dwindling trust from Muslims he wished to incite.

The documents show bin Laden remained focused on attacking Americans and coming up with plots to kill U.S. leaders.

Bin Laden planned to release a statement about “starting a new phase to correct [the mistakes].”

He even wished to target a plane carrying U.S. President Barack Obama.

Bin Laden described “trusted Pakistani brothers” but did not identify any Pakistani official who might have been aware or complicit in his hiding in Abbottabad.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Guinea-Bissau army releases former leaders

Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau have released the country’s interim president and leading presidential candidate after seizing the two men in an April 12 coup, local media and a minister in Ivory Coast have revealed.

Ex-premier and presidential election front-runner Carlos Gomes Junior and interim President Raimundo Pereira arrived in Abidjan in Ivory Coast on Friday evening, according to Adama Bictogo, the Ivorian minister for African integration. 

The pair were released a day after the West African regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), announced the deployment of a military force to the country.

The organisation also threatened sanctions against soldiers who resisted ECOWAS demands for the return to civilian rule.

The military also announced on Friday that it would follow ECOWAS’ recommendations of a 12-month transition period after the army had initially proposed a two-year transition.

Firm response 

A team of the country’s former rulers arrived late on Friday in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast’s main city, the Ivorian presidency said.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, current head of ECOWAS, has pledged a firm response to the instability “to prevent our sub-region from giving into terrorism and transnational criminality”.

The announcements came shortly after a team of West African leaders left Guinea-Bissau after several hours of closed-door talks with their counterpart Antonio Indjai, who is widely thought to have masterminded the coup.

Daba Na Walna, Guinea Bissau’s military spokesperson, downplayed regional concerns, saying the “return
to civilian rule is on track”, and adding: “The right place for soldiers are the barracks.”

The future transition government “will be a government of technocrats and neutral personalities who will have to oversee a transition period of 12 months”, he added.


AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

Egypt releases presidential candidates list

Egypt’s election commission has released a final list of 13 candidates eligible to run in next month’s presidential election, the first since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, the former president, last year.

Thursday’s list includes Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under Mubarak, who was disqualified and then reinstated over a 24-hour period this week.

“After listening to Shafiq’s appeal, the committee decided to halt the decision to exclude him from the presidential race,” Farouk Soltan, the head of the election committee, said while announcing the list in Cairo.

Shafiq was disqualified on Tuesday, after the military council approved a new law denying political rights to anyone who served as president, vice-president or prime minister in the decade prior to Mubarak’s fall.

The electoral committee also decided to refer the new law to the Supreme Constitutional Court to determine whether it was constitutional or not.

“This could be a challenge to the legitimacy of the presidential election and the whole transition process,” Omar Ashour of the Doha Brookings Centre told Al Jazeera.

Candidates able to stand include Amr Moussa, former foreign minister; Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, an independent moderate; and Mohammed Mursi, chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

Abol Fotouh may now receive backing from supporters of the Salafist al-Nour party.

The eligible candidates were among a total of 23 hopefuls before the commission disqualified 10 of them earlier this month.

Among those barred from running are Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s former vice-president and spy chief, along with Khairat al-Shater of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist Hazem Abu Ismail.

Soltan told a news conference on Thursday that he intended to refer to criminal investigators some of the 10 disqualified hopefuls because their applications contained material that broke the law.

He did not elaborate, but it is widely suspected that the 30,000 signatures collected and submitted by some independent applicants included forged ones.

Independent candidates are obliged under the election law to collect 30,000 endorsements from Egyptians in at least 15 of Egypt’s 18 provinces as part of the requirements to run.

The generals who took power in Egypt when Mubarak stepped down 14 months ago in the face of a popular uprising have promised to hand over power to a civilian administration by July 1, ending a transition period marred by the use of deadly force by troops and police against pro-democracy protesters, a sharp rise in violent crime and a worsening economic crisis.

Presidential elections are set for May 23 and 24 with a runoff scheduled in June.


AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)

* Kuwait releases 199 Iraqi prisoners; 27 in 2012

Babinaoz (Reuters) – revealed the Kuwaiti embassy in Baghdad for the release of 199 prisoners Iraqis over the past years, including 27 prisoners this year.

The embassy said in a statement that “the Embassy of the State of Kuwait progressing thanks and gratitude to all of the Iraqi leadership sought and helped to release the Kuwaiti citizen to war.”

The statement continued: We find it pertinent to note that Kuwait has released many of the Iraqi prisoners amnesty Amiri, as it freed 111 prisoners since 2000 to the year 2005, and released two prisoners during the year 2006, and in 2007 released the 19, as were fired release of 15 another prisoner in 2008, and 8 prisoners in 2009, and four prisoners in the year 2010, and in 2011, released 13 prisoners during the visit of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of the State of Kuwait, confirmed the release of 27 prisoners during the year 2012. “

LINK

Comments

Dinar Daddy’s Tidbits

Europeans Welcome Belarusian Political Prisoner Releases, Demand More

European leaders have welcomed this weekend’s release in Belarus of two high-profile political prisoners but tempered their statements with demands that Minsk release other dissenters and respect their rights.

Prison authorities freed a former opposition presidential candidate and his aide without warning after they were reportedly pardoned by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

After his release, late on April 14, onetime candidate Andrey Sannikau accused Belarusian officials of playing “a game” and predicted that other political prisoners would soon be freed.

Sannikau and his former campaign aide, Dzmitry Bandarenka, were among a handful of prominent opposition activists and politicians still jailed over the December 2010 presidential election that handed Lukashenka a fourth term.

The European Union and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have applauded the releases but warned that there is more work to be done by Minsk.

“I welcome the news that former presidential candidate [Andrey Sannikau] as well as his main campaign aide Dzmitry Bandarenka are now free and will be able to rejoin their families and friends,” Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, said in a statement on April 15.

She said the two men “stand out as prominent symbols for the tireless work and commitment of many for a democratic and European Belarus” and repeated the EU and other governments’ accusation that their jailings were “on political grounds.”

Lukashenka’s regime has sporadically bowed to Western pressure over the routine jailing of political opponents and others who dare to criticize the government, and European and other sanctions were recently tightened against influential Belarusian officials.

“I call on the authorities of Belarus to release unconditionally now also all other remaining political prisoners and to remove all restrictions on the enjoyment of their civil and political rights,” Ashton’s statement added. “This would certainly contribute to possibilities for moving towards improved relations between the EU and Belarus.”

Dzmitry Bandarenka is welcomed from jail by wife Volha in Minsk on April 15.

​​
There are thought to be around 10 remaining political prisoners high on Western demands for release by Lukashenka’s regime, including another presidential candidate in 2010, Mikola Statkevich.

The OSCE’s chairperson-in-office, Irish Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore, mentioned Statkevich by name in his comments.

“This is excellent news for [Sannikau], his family and his friends, but I remain concerned over the fate of other jailed political opponents, notably former presidential candidate [Mikola] Statkevich,” Gilmore said in an OSCE statement. “I call upon President [Lukashenka] to build upon this positive development and release all remaining jailed opposition leaders.”

Belarus stayed away from talks in March on the EU’s Eastern Partnership, which is aimed at improving political and economic relations between the EU and six former Soviet republics: Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele called Sannikau’s and Bandarenka’s releases “a fundamental first step one would naturally expect — especially in a situation when the head of state promised to pardon those who asked for it. Although personally I think it is against the principles of modern Europe and against human dignity to force people to admit what they never did, when their only ‘crime’ was expressing their own opinion.”

He added: “The EU has repeatedly stressed that all political prisoners must be released and rehabilitated, only then we can consider normalization of the relations with Minsk.”

A founder of the Charter 97 group and leading proponent of the European Belarus civil initiative, Sannikau was beaten and jailed over street protests that broke out within hours of voting on December 19, 2010. He was sentenced to five years in prison, and had spent recent months at a labor camp that he described as “torture.”

“I think we are witnessing a game,” Sannikau said on April 15. “Now they [the authorities] will watch the reaction to see what will happen.”

He speculated that “almost all” the remaining political prisoners might be released “in the very near future.”

But he urged critics at home and abroad to keep the pressure on Lukashenka’s administration. “[W]e have to stress that until they release all political prisoners, there shouldn’t be any steps on the part of those who are calling for this — Europe [or] our public opinion.”

Written by Andy Heil based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Belarus Service and RFE/RL correspondent Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Syria Releases 8 Assyrians Who Were Arrested

Posted GMT 4-13-2012 0:41:25

(AINA) — Syrian authorities have released eight of the nine Assyrians arrested on April 4 (AINA 4-6-2012) in the city of Qamishli, according to the European Syriac Union. The released Assyrians are in good health and have joined their families. No information was given on the one remaining Assyrian still under arrest.

Assyrian International News Agency

Russia Releases Incomes For Top Officials

Russia’s government has released income declarations for top officials ranging from President-elect Vladimir Putin to outgoing head of state Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin and Medvedev reported 3.7 million rubles ($ 124,000) and 3.3 million rubles ($ 114,000), respectively, in 2011 income.

Meanwhile, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has reported $ 12.6 million in joint family income, amid allegations that he had made large profits through shady deals.

Shuvalov, a close Putin ally, is a top candidate for a high position in Russia’s new government.

He has admitted to making multimillion-dollar investments in state companies via an offshore trust.

Shuvalov made 9.6 million rubles ($ 325,000) in 2011 income, while his wife, Olga Shuvalova, declared 365 million rubles ($ 12.3 million) in income as well as several properties abroad.

Based on reporting by AFP and ITAR-TASS

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Current Chief of IAEA Releases Its Brakes on Rush to War With Iran

Yukio Amano“Amano’s director-generalship began under a bad star.”

That’s Julian Borger at the Guardian quoting Mark Hibbs, the journalist who helped take down the AQ Khan nuclear-weapons black market and is now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Yukio Amano, the “head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog at the heart of the growing Iranian crisis,” Borger explains, “has been accused by several former senior officials of pro-western bias, over-reliance on unverified intelligence and of sidelining sceptics.”

Some of the controversy around Amano’s management dates to his election in 2009, when he narrowly beat Abdul Minty, a South African diplomat. [Hibbs said] “The election was extremely polarised and bitter. Minty clearly appealed to states who see themselves as underdogs and have-nots. Amano was supported by the US and others who saw him as rolling back the IAEA’s political aspirations under ElBaradei to a more technical agency.”

Previous director Mohamed ElBaradei was noted for his objections to IAEA findings being used as a pretext for ultimatums and/or war with Iran. Borger also reminds us of those WikiLeaks cables that confirmed suspicions about Amano almost too perfectly.

[They] revealed Amano’s assiduous courting of American support. In an October 2009 cable, the US charge d’affaires, Geoffrey Pyatt, wrote: “Amano reminded [the] ambassador on several occasions that he would need to make concessions to the G-77 [the developing countries group], which correctly required him to be fair-minded and independent, but that he was solidly in the US court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.”

Not sure of the exact motivations for Amano’s bootlicking, but there it is for the world to see. Confirming Amano’s toadyism toward the United States

… the IAEA’s reports on Iranian behaviour have become steadily more critical. In November, it published an unprecedented volume of intelligence pointing towards past Iranian work on developing a nuclear weapon, deeming it credible.

However, some former IAEA officials are saying that the agency has gone too far. Robert Kelley, a former US weapons scientists who ran the IAEA action team on Iraq at the time of the US-led invasion, said. … “Amano is falling into the Cheney trap. What we learned back in 2002 and 2003, when we were in the runup to the war, was that peer review was very important, and that the analysis should not be left to a small group of people,” Kelley said. “… Just like [former US vice-president] Dick Cheney, Amano is relying on a very small group of people and those opinions are not being checked.”

Meanwhile …

Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund [said]: “On Iran, the difference is like night and day. ElBaradei constantly sought a diplomatic solution, while Amano wields a big stick and has hit Iran hard and repeatedly.”

And …

Jim Walsh, an expert on the Iranian nuclear programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said. … “Amano has been way out in front of the US on [holding Iran's feet to the fire]. … I think if the agency is going to be a neutral player in this — and we need a neutral player to make the sort of judgements that have to be made — it will have to be more conservative [than] the national governments on this.”

And …

Laban Coblentz, ElBaradei’s former speechwriter and a collaborator on [his book] The Age of Deception, said that huge stakes could rest on the nuances with which the IAEA director-general interprets the evidence. … “Amano and ElBaradei were looking at the same allegations. … The other thing that is the same is that so far the most substantial allegations have not been verified. What has changed is the willingness to publish those allegations that have not been verified as a tool to pressure the Iranians to come to the table.”

Compared to Dick Cheney, shamed by WikiLeaks, Yukio Amano is the wrong man for the wrong job at the wrong time. ElBaradei won the Nobel Prize; Amano is angling for the Ignoble Prize.

FPIF Latest Content

Assyrian Rights Group Releases 2011 Report on Assyrians of Iraq

Posted GMT 3-15-2012 22:0:25

Editor’s note: The Assyria Council of Europe (ACE), based in Brussels, is an independent organization that monitors and reports on the plight of Iraq’s Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans or Syriacs). The following is the introduction from their 2011 report titled Human Rights Report on Assyrians in Iraq: The Exodus from Iraq.

The rich and colourful diversity that used to signify Iraqi culture and its historical roots are severely threatened at the dawn of the 21st century. Iraq’s road to stability is blocked by a flaring conflict between a resurgent Shi’ite majority and a humiliated Sunni minority as well as from the expansionist aspirations of an over-confident Kurdish administration in North Iraq. Given the huge exodus of minorities and continuing threats and violence in 2011, there is a genuine worry that Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) in Iraq may not survive the current conflict and that their unique culture and heritage will slowly disappear from Iraq.

Despite a general decrease of violence in 2011, Assyrians and other minorities are constantly experiencing targeted violence, threats and intimidation. They do not have their own militias to defend them and do not receive effective protection or justice. In addition, minorities are also subjected to a pattern of official discrimination, marginalisation and neglect, and suffer from the effects of corruption and a policy based on sectarian interests. Assyrians perceive that they do not belong to the current Iraq and that they are being excluded from civil society. Because of the continuing displacement processes, many Assyrians are not able to sustain themselves, lacking a regular source of income, opportunities and education, and neither the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) nor the central Iraqi government provides sufficient assistance. In addition to the lack of life opportunities, especially in the KRG region and in the Nineveh Plains, Assyrians and other minorities experienced a significant rise in hostile acts and riots inside the KRG boundaries in 2011 compared to 2010. Feeling desperation, Assyrians have become restless people moving from one place to the other, and often express the desire to emigrate.

The huge exodus that has taken place since 2003 marks the biggest threat to the survival of minorities in Iraq. More than half of the Assyrian community has left Iraq since 2003: From more than 1.5 million Assyrians, the Assyrians population is estimated at approximately 500,000 today. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), minorities make up more than 30 per cent of the 2 million Iraqi refugees seeking sanctuary in Jordan, Syria and across the world; the majority of these are Assyrian Christians. Moreover, they represent an enormously disproportionate number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of refugees who moved to neighbouring countries remain trapped in poverty and chronic uncertainty. Unable to return home or to resettle elsewhere, many face growing desperation with each passing year in exile.

This report highlights the situation of the Iraqi Assyrian population in the year 2011, and tries to find an answer to the question why Assyrians have been emigrating from Iraq, shedding light on the conditions under which minority people were living in Iraq of 2011.

ACE documented dozens of attacks, and revealed patterns of structural discrimination against Assyrians and their organizations during 2011. As a result of the continuing violence at least 9 people were killed. Every week seven people were wounded in attacks targeting Assyrians. Six Assyrians were abducted; eight attempts were made to bomb churches and kill as many parishioners as possible. This kind of violence is aimed at causing fear and exodus, destroying minorities’ social infrastructure and depriving them of their means of subsistence.

Assyria Council of Europe

Assyrian International News Agency

Turkey Releases Two High Profile Journalists From Jail

Posted GMT 3-13-2012 23:57:27

Istanbul (VOA) — Turkey’s release on bail of two high-profile journalists, after a more than a year in jail, is being heralded as an important victory for press freedom.

The jailing of Neden Sener and Ahmet Sik on anti-terror charges had drawn condemnation both nationally and internationally. But with the journalists still facing trial and with more than 100 other journalists still in prison, pressure remains on the government for reform.

Neden Sener and Ahmet Sik were among four Turkish journalists released on Monday to cheering supporters, many of whom were fellow journalists. The two reporters had been in jail pending trial for more than a year. But in a surprise move, a court released them on bail on legal technicalities, along with two other colleagues. Ahmet Sik angrily attacked his detention.

He called the justice inadequate, and said it will not bring law and democracy to Turkey. Sik said around 100 other journalists are still in prison.

Sik and Sener were detained under the country’s anti-terror laws. They were accused of involvement in an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government, known as Ergenekon. Both are well-known journalists who are critical of the ruling AK party. Their cases have become the focal point of growing national and international concern about the growing numbers of imprisoned journalists in Turkey.

Emma Sinclair Webb, the Turkish representative of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, cautiously welcomed their release.

“The very fact getting out of prison is itself such a relief and lightens the climate somewhat, when you have two people who are so well-known released from prison. Of course, there are reasons to be very glad. But there are [those] still on trial, for aiding and abetting an illegal armed gang,” said Webb.

The two journalists whose trials are in June face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. According to the Council of Europe, more than 90 journalists are currently in jail, while Turkish human rights groups claim the figure is more than 100. That is among the highest in the world. But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan disputes the numbers.

Mr. Erdogan said only six people are officially accredited journalists. He says 69 others are associated with terrorist organizations and have nothing to do with journalism.

The vast majority of the detained journalists are held under Turkey’s anti-terror laws. Most of the cases involve prosecutions in connection with the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK. But critics claim the language in the anti-terror laws has allowed them to be used against government critics.

Criticism has been growing in particular from the European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join. Richard Howitt is a member of the European Parliament’s committee on Turkey.

“There is no doubt that some of them are being prosecuted for criminal activities alleged, and maybe some of them are guilty,” said Howitt. “But there is also no, absolutely no, doubt I have to say that some of them are in jail because they have written or broadcast things which are unpalatable to the government and to the authorities in this country, and that is not just unpalatable to those of us in Brussels and European Union. It is unacceptable.”

The cases of Sik and Sener were raised at last month’s biannual meeting of European and Turkish parliamentarians in Istanbul. The decision to release two high-profile cases could be an indication of a change in government policy, according to political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Istanbul’s Bachesehir University.

“In Turkey, the power, the ruling power, is so personalized that such an important move can come only from the prime minister, and indicates his will to, the optimistic scenario would be, he may shift his position on the public freedoms,” said Aktar..

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc welcomed the release of Sener and Sik. But Sinclair Webb of Human Rights Watch, worries their release may only be a symbolic gesture. She said fundamental reforms are still needed.

By Dorian Jones

Assyrian International News Agency