International development secretary Andrew Mitchell leaves No 10 with briefing papers on display The international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, has been caught leaving Downing Street with “protected” government documents on display. The documents revealed government concern that funding to Afghanistan must resume or the country could be destabilised. After expressing about the banking sector in Afghanistan wasting funding from the international community, Mitchell’s briefing document reads: “The world bank have told us that the suspension of UK and other donor funds to the Afghan government will soon begin to destabilise activities essential for transition.” Falling victim to an indiscretion that has caught out a number of public figures before – to career-ending effect in the case of counter-terrorism officer Bob Quick – Mitchell left No 10 on Tuesday with his briefing papers on display. Mitchell is unlikely to suffer Quick’s fate because he is well regarded by David Cameron. The dossier – marked “Protect” – makes clear government policy on British attitudes towards the impending departure of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and towards criticism of the Afghan banking system by the IMF. Confirming the government is pleased Karzai is intending to stand down after two terms in office in 2014, the document reads: “This is very important. It improves Afghanistan’s political prospects very significantly. We should welcome Karzai’s announcement in public and in private.” The document also details government concerns – highlighted repeatedly by international organisations in recent months – that foreign aid to Afghanistan is sent to a finance ministry and banking sector of questionable standing. Funds have been suspended, but the document says the IMF will send a new inspection team in the autumn. Mitchell’s document reads: “We are hopeful that the government will have demonstrated sufficient progress towards credible reforms of the financial sector, and actions to address the Kabul bank fraud so that a new programme can be agreed over the autumn.” Afghanistan Hamid Karzai Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Allen West (R-FL) Says the ‘Arab Spring’ Is Actually About Reestablishing the Caliphate
August 30, 2011 No CommentExtreme right-wing Florida Congressman Allen West, who recently declined to run for United States senate, said in his weekly address that the Arab Spring of democratization in the Middle East and surrounding areas is really about Muslims trying to re-establish the historical caliphate: This so-called “Arab Spring” is less about a democratic movement, than it is about the early phase of the restoration of an Islamic Caliphate, the last being the Ottoman Empire. We are witnessing secular Muslim leaders being deposed in very volatile and unstable nations. This growing Islamic Totalitarianism manifested in militant Islam has had a modus operand [sic] of capitalizing on unstable political situations (Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia). Now we see these same types of instances occurring in Egypt, Libya, and Syria and the rose-colored glasses of some seek to portray this as a great awakening of liberty. History does not support this in the Middle East. We must evaluate these occurrences through the prism of keen strategic and operational insight which looks out 10, 20, or 30 years. If we had done so during the deposing of the Shah of Iran, we might have been able to prevent what arose. The Iran with which we must contend today is the major exporter of Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism. In the rest of the essay, he goes on to condemn Barack Obama, Palestine and the United Nations, while calling for militant support for Israel and its current borders. The term “caliphate” refers to the historical unified Islamic government that dominated much of the Middle East and northern Africa through 1924. West and others seem to be suggesting the return of a caliphate would involve a anti-Western, anti-Israeli unified Muslim front that could threaten the United States and its allies. West’s remarks echo those of Glenn Beck who frequently warns of a coming caliphate. West has a history of extreme rhetoric relating to Islam and the caliphate comments are far from the worst: (h/t Saint Petersblog )
Continue reading …Sharpton Peeved That City Pulled Permits for ‘March on Washington’ – With Irene Looming
August 30, 2011 No CommentNo politician wants to be “Katrina-ed,” observed NBC reporter Jamie Gangel on this past Sunday's “Meet the Press.” Such reluctance doesn't extend to politics as practiced by the Rev. Al Sharpton. Sharpton told listeners of his radio show on Friday how he was chagrined that city officials in Washington, D.C., pulled the permits for a “March on Washington” to coincide with the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. (audio after page break) Problem was, the dedication and march were planned for Aug. 27 — the same day that Irene, the most serious threat from a hurricane to the capital since the mid-1980s, was expected to sweep past the city on its rampage up the East Coast. Sharpton talked about this with author and radio host Andre Eggleston, who guest hosted for Sharpton on Friday while Sharpton phoned in (audio) — SHARPTON: How you doing, Andre? EGGLESTON: Rev, I'm doing fine and congratulations again on “PoliticsNation” (Sharpton's new cable show, the result of an affirmative action hiring by MSNBC). It's well deserved, long overdue too for you, Rev. You're doing fantastic. … followed by Sharpton graceless in response … SHARPTON: Well, it will start Monday night, but I will be doing the show tonight from here live at six o'clock Eastern and five o'clock Central time on MSNBC. People can watch tonight and then the permanent show starts Monday night and then from then on at six o'clock. And it's going to be a good show. I'm going to make sure I keep it real. We are in Washington a day before what had planned to be our march and I resisted all the way until they pulled the permits late last night. The National Mall will be closed tomorrow and on Sunday as a result of Hurricane Irene even though the hurricane will not reach Washington until after the march. Their concern is the winds and the sound equipment and all after what happened in Iowa and the concern is about buses and trains will be down and how people cannot get back to their homes. They can get into Washington. Question is, would they be able to get out? I understand the governor of New Jersey is calling a state of emergency which would close that turnpike. We had about 300 buses alone coming from New York that use that turnpike. So we reluctantly will delay the march. We're going to have it but we'll delay it and probably do it late September around the date that they have the dedication. (of the MLK Memorial) “… After what happened in Iowa” — Indiana, actually. God is in the details, reverend. “… Even though the hurricane will not reach Washington until after the march” — yes, all of hours after the march. Not so funny thing about hurricanes – they're unpredicable. Bet the ranch that one will head out to sea and you might lose your ranch instead. Is Sharpton aware that much of Washington was built on a swamp? Or that the site of the MLK Memorial , overlooking the Tidal Basin, is one of the areas in the capital most prone to flooding? Not incidentally, it was the organizers who raised money and built the MLK Memorial who postponed its dedication, not city officials.
Continue reading …I’m always pleased when judges actually uphold our constitutional values . After all, it happens so rarely these days! Last week, Rep. Steven Chabot (R-OH) banned ordinary citizens from bringing cameras into a town hall meeting — even having police confiscate cameras from citizens who dared to violate this rule . Bizarrely, Chabot still allowed reporters to bring in cameras and record the event. Coincidentally, just four days after Chabot took this extraordinary measure to prevent embarrassing clips of him from appearing on YouTube, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit handed down an opinion saying citizens have a right to film police engaged in their official duties . The court’s reasoning, however, has very clear implications for Chabot’s camera ban : Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting “the free discussion of governmental affairs.” Moreover, as the Court has noted, “ [f]reedom of expression has particular significance with respect to government because ‘[i]t is here that the state has a special incentive to repress opposition and often wields a more effective power of suppression.’” The First Amendment right to gather news is, as the Court has often noted, not one that inures solely to the benefit of the news media; rather, the public’s right of access to information is coextensive with that of the press. The proliferation of electronic devices with video-recording capability means that many of our images of current events come from bystanders with a ready cell phone or digital camera rather than a traditional film crew, and news stories are now just as likely to be broken by a blogger at her computer as a reporter at a major newspaper. Such developments make clear why the news-gathering protections of the First Amendment cannot turn on professional credentials or status. Chabot might take some small comfort in the fact that he does not reside in the First Circuit — Ohio is part of the much more conservative Sixth Circuit — but Chabot should not expect the right-leaning judges on his home circuit court to bail him out. As the First Circuit notes, at least three other appeals courts and numerous trial courts agree with their holding that government officials cannot simply ban cameras.
Continue reading …NYT Editor Finds Issa’s Retraction Demands ‘Troubling’ – But Hit Piece Has Been Corrected 3 Times
August 30, 2011 No Comment
The New York Times so far has issued three corrections to reporter Eric Lichtblau’s August 15 front-page hit piece on conservative California Rep. Darrell Issa of California, but the paper won't consider a retraction because, as the Times's Washingtion bureau chief says: “The article was carefully reported, written, and edited, and we stand by the story both in its broad thrust and, except as noted, in its particular details.” Lichtblau, who along with James Risen is notorious for printing the sensitive details of classified terrorist surveillance programs on the front page of the Times, is not known for his fairness to conservative subjects; his 2008 book “ Bush’s Law ” bluntly accused the administration of lying about the “war on terror” (quotation marks are Lichtblau’s). Stephen Clark of FoxNews.com reported on Issa’s aggressive counterattack, which has resulted so far in three corrections, in print and also appended at the end of the original story online: Correction: August 16, 2011 An article on Monday about the business empire of Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California, misstated the worth of the companies involved in his splitting up of a holding company. The split entailed separate multimillion-dollar companies, not multibillion-dollar ones. Correction: August 26, 2011 An article on Aug. 15 about Representative Darrell Issa’s business dealings, using erroneous information that Mr. Issa’s family foundation filed with the Internal Revenue Service, referred incorrectly to his sale of an AIM mutual fund in 2008. A spokesman for the California Republican now says that the I.R.S. filing is “an incorrect document.” The spokesman, Frederick R. Hill, said that based on Mr. Issa’s private brokerage account records, which he made public with redactions, the purchase of the mutual fund resulted in a $125,000 loss, not a $357,000 gain. And the article, using incorrect information from the San Diego county assessor’s office, misstated the purchase price for a medical office plaza Mr. Issa’s company bought in Vista, Calif., in 2008. It cost $16.3 million, the assessor’s office now says — not $10.3 million — because the assessor mistakenly omitted in public records a $6 million loan Mr. Issa’s company assumed in the acquisition. Therefore the value of the property remained essentially unchanged, and did not rise 60 percent after Mr. Issa secured federal funding to widen a road alongside the plaza. Issa still disputes other outstanding points, claiming as “wildly inaccurate” the suggestion he “went easy” on Toyota during congressional hearings on unintended acceleration because of “his electronics company’s role as a major supplier of alarms to Toyota.” Clark quoted Dean Baquet, the Times’s Washington bureau chief, responding to Issa’s demand for a retraction of the story: “The article was carefully reported, written, and edited, and we stand by the story both in its broad thrust and, except as noted, in its particular details,” he wrote. “We do not believe a retraction is warranted.” Baquet concluded his letter suggesting he was feeling persecuted: “Finally, I’d like to say that it is troubling to see your office using the letterhead and imprimatur of a powerful congressional committee to wage personal and meritless attacks on a reporter and a news organization,” he wrote. James Taranto quipped in his Opinion Journal column Monday : “Except as noted” may be the new “fake but accurate.”
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First ever literary festival in the contested Indian region called off after fears of trouble Kashmir’s first ever literary festival has been cancelled following concerns from organisers that it could erupt into violence. The Harud (meaning autumn in Kashmiri) literary festival was set to be held from 24-26 September in Srinagar, focusing on local writings from Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh and hosting “significant writers from across India”. But organisers said yesterday in a statement that “with great sadness” the festival was being postponed. “With many authors voicing their concerns about possible violence during the festival due to the heightened nature of the debate, and a call for protest at the venues, we neither have the desire to be responsible for yet more unrest in the valley nor to propagate mindless violence in the name of free speech. We are therefore left with little alternative but to cancel the festival for now,” they said. Rumours had been circulating that Salman Rushdie, whose controversial novel The Satanic Verses was banned in India, was being invited to speak at the festival, provoking calls to boycott the event. But the festival said it had “neither invited nor was planning to invite” the Booker prize-winning author. Around 20 authors from Jammu and Kashmir, and 20 from other parts of India, were on the programme, it said, with sessions planned on “The Silenced Voice: Creativity and Dissent”, “Jail Diaries”, “Gulistan: The Forgotten Environment” and “Chronicles of Exile”. As well as the unrest over Rushdie, over 200 people including the acclaimed writers Mirza Waheed and Basharat Peer put their names to an open letter stating their fears that “holding such a festival would, willy-nilly, dovetail with the state’s concerted attempt to portray that all is normal in Kashmir. Even as the reality on the ground is one of utter abnormality and a state of acute militarisation and suppression of dissent, rights and freedoms”. “A literary festival, by definition, is an event that celebrates the free flow of ideas and opinions. It not only assumes a freedom from fear,” the petition says, “it demands a certain independence of mind and spirit. To hold it in a context where some basic fundamental rights are markedly absent, indeed, denied to the population, is to commit a travesty.” But Harud’s organisers said yesterday that “if those opposing the festival truly believed in free speech, they would have allowed this forum to go ahead and would come and express their dissent at the festival”. They added that they hoped to “re-energise” the festival at a future date, “when calmer sense prevails, and we are confidently able to provide a sense of security to our speakers and guests”. “Till then it is a sad day for us, and a victory for a vocal minority who feel that they alone are the doorkeepers to people’s minds and hearts,” they added. Kashmir has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since it was divided between the two countries in 1947. Up to 70,000 people have died in the conflict, with a recent inquiry finding the remains of 2,156 people along the Indian side of the disputed border. Accusations of systematic human rights violations in the region have been consistently denied by Indian authorities. India Salman Rushdie Kashmir Alison Flood guardian.co.uk
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Anywhere but Westminster: Chester FC was formed by fans from the ashes of liquidated club Chester City last year. John Harris watches their clash against fellow co-op club FC United of Manchester and talks to those involved John Harris John Domokos
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Decision not to award £72m comes after Edinburgh council voted not to build tram line as far as city centre Scottish ministers are trying to force Edinburgh councillors to reverse a dramatic decision to stop building a new tram line before it reaches the city centre. In a blunt ultimatum, the city has been warned that Transport Scotland will withhold an outstanding grant of £72m towards the crisis-hit scheme unless it resurrects its plans to build the new line through the city centre at a total cost of up to £1bn. The Scottish cabinet decided on Tuesday that it could not support last Thursday’s decision, forced through in a revolt by Labour and Tory councillors, to stop the line at Haymarket , two miles short of the planned terminus in the city centre. The move is a deliberate act of brinksmanship by ministers in advance of an emergency council meeting this Friday, called by the city’s lord provost, George Grubb, in a last attempt to rescue the project. The tram line was originally due to cost less than £545m and run from the airport to Newhaven, on the city’s coast. That included £500m of government funding through Transport Scotland, of which £72m is yet to be paid. John Swinney, the Scottish finance secretary, said the decision to stop the line at Haymarket “takes the project far, far away from the original concept that ministers committed funding towards, that we’re not prepared to make that money available”. “It’s time for the council to think long and hard about where it’s going with this project,” he added. “What’s clear is the government will not be funding a project that just goes to Haymarket. It is now down to the council to come forward with new proposals which will be considered on their merits.” Thursday’s vote caused furious recriminations in the city. It split the council’s ruling Liberal Democrat and Scottish National party coalition after the SNP abstained, leading to a defeat for the Lib Dems by Labour and the Tories. The opposition parties said the additional £230m needed to build the line to the centre would saddle the city with an unacceptable level of extra debt for another 30 years and push the overall cost of the nine-mile line to £1bn. It has since emerged that stopping the line at Haymarket would cost a further £30m to build a new terminus and turning circle, and would lose money on running costs. There have been calls for the project to be scrapped altogether. Swinney’s ultimatum was welcomed by the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Willie Rennie, because it gave his beleaguered colleagues on Edinburgh council a much stronger case to build the longer line to St Andrew’s Square in the city centre. The warning from Swinney may also force SNP councillors to vote in favour of the scheme. The SNP has opposed the project from the start and believes a city-wide referendum should be held on its future. Rennie said: “The Scottish government decision to reject the Haymarket option is the right call. Sense seems to be breaking out all round. I hope all parties on the council will now back the profitable St Andrew’s Square scheme.” But Andrew Burns, the leader of the council’s Labour group, said: “This situation is lurching between chaos and farce, and [this] announcement risks making matter even worse. At the very time the Scottish government needs to be constructive, they have decided to try and sabotage the whole project. “John Swinney could have averted the present crisis by ordering his SNP councillors to do what he is now demanding. Instead we have the ludicrous situation of an SNP government doing one thing and an SNP council doing another, but both doing it incompetently.” Scotland Scottish politics Edinburgh Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …House Republicans are introducing a bill today with hopes to force major changes on the United Nations. The bill would require the UN to allow member countries to fund the UN agencies of their choosing rather than according to a formula, end funding for Palestinian refugees, limit U.S. funding to be used only for purposes specifically outlined by Congress, and end contributions to peacekeeping programs until changes in management take place. With the United States contributing 22% of the UN's operating budget, the GOP believes there is enough leverage to force these changes in the UN. Led by the Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, the changes are designed to end corruption and inefficiency in the global organization. How involved do you think the U.S. should be in the UN? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. As explained in Bloomberg , The U.S. pays 22 percent of the UN’s regular operations budget and is assessed 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget. The U.S. payments totaled $3.35 billion in 2010, of which $2.67 billion was dedicated to the 16 peacekeeping operations worldwide, from South Sudan to Haiti. Ros-Lehtinen’s aim in shifting the UN budget to a voluntary system is to encourage competition for funds and therefore elicit more effective performance from UN agencies, said a House aide familiar with the legislation. He wasn’t authorized to speak on the record. The bill’s timing runs counter to the emergence of the administration’s “Obama Doctrine” of working with others to address international issues, particularly those that don’t pose an immediate security threat to the U.S., said Jeffrey Laurenti, a UN analyst at the Century Foundation, a New York-based economic, political and social research foundation. The bill comes at a time when President Obama is increasingly building his foreign policy with multilateral institutions like the UN and NATO, which he uses to justify the U.S. involvement in indirect threats like Libya. For this reason, it is likely the bill will face opposition from the Senate. What do you think of the new legislation? Should the U.S. decrease its involvement in the UN?
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Lee Platt, 28, pleads guilty to blackmail and handling stolen goods after phone containing family photos went missing A man has pleaded guilty to blackmailing Coleen Rooney, the wife of the Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney. Lee Platt, 28, admitted blackmail during an appearance at Manchester crown court on Tuesday. Platt, from Manchester, also pleaded guilty to a charge of handling stolen goods. He was arrested after Coleen Rooney lost her mobile phone during a concert at the MEN Arena in May. The phone apparently contained family snaps of the couple’s son, who cannot be identified as a section 39 order was made by a judge preventing his identification. She was later contacted with a demand for money to have the phone returned. Instead of paying up, she contacted police. Two other co-defendants, Jennifer Green, 25, and Steven Malcolm, 42, also from Manchester, deny the same charges. Platt will be sentenced at Manchester crown court at a later date. Crime Wayne Rooney Manchester Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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