Turkey expels Israel’s ambassador over refusal to apologise for Gaza flotilla raid
September 2, 2011 No Comment
Move comes on same day that UN report finds that Israel used ‘excessive and unreasonable force’ to stop flotilla Turkey dramatically downgraded its relations with Israel on Friday, expelling the country’s ambassador and cutting military ties with its former ally over Israel’s refusal to apologise for an armed assault on a Gaza-borne aid flotilla that killed nine people. The move, which takes Turkish-Israeli relations to a new low, came on the day a UN report into the Gaza flotilla incident was published. It found that Israeli had used “excessive and unreasonable” force to stop the flotilla approaching Gaza, but that it was justified in maintaining a naval blockade on the Palestinian enclave. Announcing the measures, Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that the Israeli ambassador, Gabby Levy, and other senior Israeli diplomats would have to leave their posts by Wednesday and that Turkey’s representation in Israel would be downgraded to the junior level of second secretary. Levy was reported to be in Israel and would not be returning to Ankara. “The time has come for Israel to pay for its stance that sees it above international laws and disregards human conscience,” Davutoglu said. “The first and foremost result is that Israel is going to be devoid of Turkey’s friendship … as long as the Israeli government does not take the necessary steps, there will be no turning back.” Davutoglu also said Turkey would take measures in the future to protect its shipping, without going into detail. The UN investigation chaired by Geoffrey Palmer, a former New Zealand prime minister, focused on the events of 31 May last year on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-flagged vessel which was the largest ship in an flotilla aimed at breaking the Gaza blockade. It was boarded by Israeli commandoes who were resisted by some of those on board. Nine pro-Palestinian activists – eight Turkish citizens and a Turkish American – were killed in the raid. The breakdown in diplomatic relations followed several months of delicate negotiations between Turkish and Israeli diplomats over the wording of an Israeli apology for the incident and compensation for bereaved families, which Ankara had made a condition of improving relations. However, a compromise over a text broke down when it was rejected by right-wingers in the Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu. “There is a deep sense of frustration within the Turkish foreign policy establishment that despite the efforts to mend the relationship and despite coming very close to agreeing to a text, the situation became untenable,” said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who is now an analyst for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace thinktank. “The publication of the UN report really established a deadline. Its publication had already been postponed twice, and the Israelis then asked for another six months delay, which Turkey would not accept. “There is a feeling that neither Israel nor Turkey has anything to win by this, and there must be a degree of frustration in Washington too, as it invested a lot of time and effort in the efforts to mend this. Turkey seems to have lost the ability to play a role in the Middle East peace process because of the breakdown in the relationship with Israel. It was one of the few countries that could talk to both sides. That ability is gone and is unclear if we will be able to regain it. By being unable to settle the relationship with Turkey, meanwhile, Israeli has lost a friend and ally. This is a lose-lose situation.” Israel issued no official response to the Turkish decision, but Israeli officials have suggested to journalists that Ankara was distancing Israel to improve its standing in the Arab world. They have also pointed to the judgment in the Palmer report that the blockade of Gaza is justified under international law. Turkey has rejected that finding and called for the blockade to be reassessed by the UN and by the international court of justice. However, Alon Liel, a former Israeli diplomat who once served in Turkey, argued that the current government had made a strategic mistake by failing to agree an apology with Turkey. “The talks on the apology and on fixing this crisis in the relationship had been continuing for six months. The professional staff, the military and legal experts and diplomats had reached an agreement, on a technical apology, but even this was rejected by [foreign minister and coalition partner Avigdor] Lieberman. The issue of an apology is very unpopular in Israel, and Netanyahu ultimately adopted the Lieberman position,” Liel said. He warned that the Turkish expulsion of the Israeli ambassador would increase public pressure in Jordan and Egypt for their governments to follow suit. Liel said: “In my 30 years as a diplomat we always put contacts with Middle East countries as a top priority, second only to the United States, but it seems that this government have given up on the region, assuming there will be no peace with Palestinians so nobody will like us anyway.” In the streets of Istanbul, the breach in relations with Israeli was mostly popular. Many Turks are angry that Israel refuses to apologise. Yalçin Kuzgöl, owner of a barber shop in the gentrifying neighbourhood of Cukurcuma, thinks the UN was unable to issue an independent opinion: “All UN decisions and statements are always made in the favour of Israel, no matter what they have done. This is also the case for the Mavi Marmara report.” In the pre-dominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Tarlabasi, barber Hassan Teke said: “Israel has become like a spoiled child, the spoiled child of the US.” None of his customers have heard of the government announcement yet, but the mention of Israel and the Mavi Marmara still gets a reaction: many Turks are angry that Israel refuses to apologise. A few metres further down the street, a Kurdish man who wishes to remain anonymous has a very different opinion: “I think that the reaction of the Turkish government is two-faced and wrong. Turkey has no right to complain about the lack of human rights in other countries as long as the Turkish government keeps killing its own citizens in the [Kurdish] southeast.” He added: “So Israel made a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. To cut all relations because the other party does not want to apologise is exaggerated.” Turkey Middle East Europe Israel Gaza flotilla Gaza Palestinian territories United Nations Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Even though recent college graduates are still faring significantly better than their lesser-educated counterparts, they’re still facing lower salaries than they would be earning if they had graduated a few years ago. Average hourly wages for both men and women dropped by about a dollar from 2000 to 2010, as you can see in the
Continue reading …The United States may not deserve a triple AAA credit rating, but the same sub-prime mortgage assets that caused the housing bust do — at least according to the country’s leading ratings agency. Standard & Poor’s is set to slap a coveted AAA rating on a set of bonds tied to mortgages given to homeowners
Continue reading …Gov. Barbour’s ‘Disadvantaged’ Relative Masterminded $100 Million of Post-Katrina FEMA Fraud
September 2, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Rosemary Barbour, the ‘disadvantaged minority’ married to Gov. Haley Barbour’s nephew. For Republicans, it’s all in the family! Corruption, I mean: WASHINGTON — Six years after Hurricane Katrina, a relative of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was found by a federal court to have masterminded a massive fraud against the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the inspection of the legendary trailers that housed storm refugees along the Gulf Coast. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims found last week that Rosemary Barbour’s company, Jackson, Miss.,-based Alcatec LLC, had engaged in a fraudulent billing scheme as part of a $100 million, five-year maintenance contract with FEMA. She was ordered to pay more than $350,000 in penalties and damages. In often colorful language, the judge described the testimony of Rosemary Barbour during an eight-day trial in May in Jackson as “exasperating” and “bumble-headed.” Rosemary Barbour, the company’s sole owner, is the wife of the governor’s nephew, Charles Barbour, a former Hinds County supervisor who last week lost a Mississippi Senate GOP primary. But of course, politically-connected wrongdoers never serve jail time, as we’ve all learned. This 2005 New York Times story’s pretty interesting: “PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss., Dec. 6 – Rosemary Barbour happens to be married to a nephew of Mississippi’s governor, Haley Barbour. Since the Reagan administration, when Mrs. Barbour worked as a White House volunteer as a college student, she has been active in the Republican Party. She also happens to be one of the biggest Mississippi-based winners of federal contracts for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. To some contract watchdogs, this could be an example of how the federal government responsibly reached out to give a piece of the billions of dollars in federal hurricane-recovery work to a small Mississippi-based company owned by a Latina. Mrs. Barbour, 39, who was born in Guatemala but now lives in Jackson, Miss., is certified by the United States Small Business Administration as a disadvantaged small-business owner.” This is interesting, don’t you think? Alcatec qualified as a minority-owned firm during the bid process. Barbour, an American citizen and active in Republican politics, was born in Guatemala. She said she used her maiden name, Ramirez, when she made the bids, so that federal officials would not know of her family ties.” Righht. From Lefthanded Leftist, who’s following the story : How can a graduate of Westover and Goucher who worked in the Bush 41 administration and married into a powerful political family at age 24 be legitimately certified as “disadvantaged?” Even if she was born in Guatemala? The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that her story about using her maiden name might be just that–a story, to try to throw us rubes off the nepotism/cronyism trail. I’m sure she probably is registered with the SBA as a disadvantaged minority and actually did fill out the paperwork with her maiden name, but that’s likely only because one of Haley’s or her own old Washington buddies or friends of friends helped her cook up that cover story…when they found out that she was born in Guatemala and her maiden name is Ramirez, a Latina/minority/disadvantaged-sounding name if there ever was one… But this seems like an abuse of “disadvantaged minority” status by both Barbour/Ramirez and the SBA. Because the “disadvantaged minority” Rosemary Barbour is neither.
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Welcome to Growing Up Geek , an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our very own Associate Editor, Sean Buckley . The hardest question I was ever asked as a kid was “what do you want to be when you grow up?” When the boys all cried “Fireman!,” and the girls unanimously pledged their life to marine biology, I came up short. Growing up? I hadn’t planned on that. Peter Pan complex (and book collection) aside, I had it as good as any boy during the 80s / 90s split. I grew-up in the pre-internet stone-age, when the world was still a mystery that couldn’t be Wiki’d away. Playground rumors went without debunk, and wild stories ran amok across the schoolyard — pixies in England, aliens in New Mexico, and magical robot cars in Japan. The world was a fantastic, impossible place. It still is, but I’d be lying if I said the finality of reality isn’t a small disappointment compared to the lies I loved as a child. With the information superhighway still under construction, I had to find other ways to spend my summers. Sure, countless hours were wasted well spent saving 8-bit princesses (and the world of course), but the best weeks of summer were had at Boy Scout camp, the County Fair, and trudging across the country on family road trips. Continue reading Growing Up Geek: Sean Buckley Growing Up Geek: Sean Buckley originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …A high surf advisory is in effect until 5pm along the central California coast, as the damaging impact of the huge waves pounding the area comes to light: A body-boarder has gone missing, and a marijuana-smuggling boat crashed on shore, likely a victim of the powerful surf, the AP reports….
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As if the bananas official video for “Yoü and I” weren’t enough, Lady Gaga has announced via Twitter that she’s made a series of five “fashion films” set to the song in collaboration with Dutch fashion photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. She tweeted the first clip last night, and it’s pretty minimalist — Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Flavorwire Discovery Date : 02/09/2011 00:03 Number of articles : 5
Continue reading …Julian Assange faces arrest in Australia over unredacted WikiLeaks cables
September 2, 2011 No Comment
Government says at least one intelligence official identified after complete cache of cables was published Julian Assange could face prosecution in Australia after publishing sensitive information about government officials amongst the 251,000 unredacted cables released this week. WikiLeaks published its entire cache of US diplomatic cables without redactions to protect those named within, a move condemned by all five of the whistleblowing website’s original media partners. Australia’s attorney general, Robert McClelland, confirmed in a statement on Friday that the new cable release identified at least one individual within the country’s intelligence service. He added it is a criminal offence in the country to publish any information which could lead to the identification of an intelligence officer. “I am aware of at least one cable in which an ASIO officer is purported to have been identified,” he said. “ASIO and other Government agencies officers are working through the material to see the extent of the impact on Australian interests. “On occasions before this week, WikiLeaks redacted identifying features where the safety of individuals or national security could be put at risk. It appears this hasn’t occurred with documents that have been distributed across the internet this week and this is extremely concerning.” The new development adds to the pressure on the WikiLeaks founder, who is currently fighting extradition from the UK to Sweden to answer allegations of sexual misconduct. Assange will be unable to remain in the UK if his extradition appeal is successful, as his visa will by then have expired. Assange already faces legal action in the US, where a grand jury has been convened in Virginia to decide whether to prosecute the founder of the whistleblowing website. Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the document, remains in custody in the US facing 34 separate charges. The newly published archive contains more than 1,000 cables identifying individual activists; several thousand labelled with a tag used by the US to mark sources it believes could be placed in danger; and more than 150 specifically mentioning whistleblowers. The cables also contain references to people persecuted by their governments, victims of sex offences, and locations of sensitive government installations and infrastructure. The Guardian, New York Times, El País, Der Spiegel and Le Monde, who worked with WikiLeaks publishing carefully selected and redacted documents in December last year, issued a joint statement condemning the latest release. “We deplore the decision of WikiLeaks to publish the unredacted state department cables, which may put sources at risk,” it said. “Our previous dealings with WikiLeaks were on the clear basis that we would only publish cables which had been subjected to a thorough joint editing and clearance process. We will continue to defend our previous collaborative publishing endeavour. We cannot defend the needless publication of the complete data – indeed, we are united in condemning it. “The decision to publish by Julian Assange was his, and his alone.” Julian Assange WikiLeaks Australia New York Times Newspapers Le Monde Newspapers & magazines The Guardian James Ball guardian.co.uk
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In joint statement, European Union countries agree to embargo on oil industry over violence against pro-democracy protesters European Union governments have agreed to ban imports of Syrian oil and extended sanctions to seven new Syrian individuals and bodies to intensify pressure on President Bashar al-Assad’s government. The US, the EU and other western powers want Assad to end a violent five-month-old crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that the United Nations says has killed 2,000 civilians. But Assad shows no sign of heeding their calls for him to step down. The EU has already banned Europeans from doing business with dozens of Syrian officials, government institutions and military-linked firms tied to the violence, but those measures seem to have had little influence on Assad’s policy. Friday’s steps are the first time the EU has targeted Syrian industry and the key oil sector, but analysts say the sanctions, which do not go as far as the investment ban imposed by the US last month, may have only a limited impact on Assad’s access to funds. “In view of the gravity of the situation in Syria, the council today further tightened the EU’s sanctions against that country,” EU governments said in a statement. “The prohibition concerns purchase, import and transport of oil and other petroleum products from Syria,” they said. The decision also expanded the list of people and entities subject to EU travel bans and asset freezes by seven, including four individuals. The measures goes into effect on Saturday. But Italy has won an exemption on existing contracts, which can be fulfilled until 15 November, underscoring divisions in Europe over energy sanctions which have slowed the implementation of economic measures against Assad. Italy defended its demand for a grace period, with its foreign minister, Franco Frattini, saying Italian firms needed time to adapt. “It is a technical request,” Frattini told reporters. “Given that Italy imports 30% of all EU imports from Syria, we need … some weeks to comply with these sanctions, which we support and which obviously Italy had always called for.” Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal argued that the sanctions would apply real pressure. “They will go straight to the heart of the regime. This will squeeze the regime,” he said, but added that what was required was a UN resolution and a tough stance towards Assad by the Arab League. Firms such as Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total are significant investors in Syria. EU countries are the main buyers of Syrian oil exports, but industry sources say that even when imports to Europe are blocked, European companies will continue operating within Syria until the EU imposes sanctions on all co-operation with Syrian energy firms. Syria Middle East Oil Commodities European Union guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …As you’d expect, responses to the news that the economy gained zero jobs last month have been pretty universally downbeat. Still, there are some valuable insights out there, that go beyond the woeful top-line numbers. Here are a few of the more interesting ones: • White House economics adviser Gene Sperling: “We have to do
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