Osama bin Laden’s death has stirred up a debate over whether the US should pull out of Afghanistan early. Asked about it on his upcoming 60 Minutes appearance, President Obama reminded Steve Kroft that he’s already committed to a draw-down of troops starting in July. But bin Laden’s death “reconfirms…
Continue reading …
Coroner critical of MI5, but clears them of blame as families of 7/7 bombing victims call for overhaul of security services Families of the victims of the 7 July attacks have called on the government to overhaul Britain’s security services after the inquest coroner yesterday described their handling of a critical piece of intelligence as “dreadful” and suggested another failure could have had “dire consequences”. Returning verdicts of unlawful killing on each of the 52 victims of the attacks, Lady Justice Hallett also expressed concerns about MI5′s recordkeeping and about “confusion” in its system of assessing targets at the time of the attacks. But, crucially, she exonerated the domestic intelligence service of any blame in failing to prevent the 2005 bombings, stressing that the evidence she had heard over 75 days at the high court in London “does not justify the conclusion that any failings on the part of any organisation or individual caused or contributed to any of the deaths”. The coroner also found that the emergency services’ response to the bombings, which has been heavily criticised for being too slow at several of the sites, had not contributed to any of the deaths. “I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that each of [the victims] would have died whenever the emergency services reached them,” she said. She saw no grounds for any future public inquiry, she indicated. “I am not aware of our having left any reasonable stone unturned,” she said. “One would hope, therefore, that these proceedings will be an end to the investigation of what happened on 7/7.” Speaking after the verdicts, however, Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed in the Edgware Road bombing, said the inquest “causes a lot more questions to be asked than it answers”. “It really must compel [the Home Secretary] Theresa May to review the whole operation of the security services in the UK, not just MI5.” He called for an independent inquiry into the killings, with a broader remit than the tightly constrained inquest. At an emotional press conference after the verdicts were returned, Ros Morley, widow of Edgware Road victim Colin Morley, called for an apology from MI5, saying: “In any other organisation, if huge mistakes were made and lives were lost, people feel there’s a duty to look into that, to have a degree of humility, which I feel has been lost.” June Taylor, the mother of Carrie Taylor, who died at Aldgate, was overcome by emotion and collapsed at the press conference after declaring that the family “still have no positive answers”. But other family members said they felt the conclusion of the inquest, which opened in October, should represent the end of the investigation into the events of 7 July, when four suicide bombers detonated devices on the London transport network. Grahame Russell, whose son Philip died in the bus bombing at Tavistock Square, said: “There are still issues. The problem I have is that if I continue to hold concerns about issues, then my life would become very bitter.” The coroner’s recommendations “can help people in the future, one would hope,” he said. “But they help me not at all. They do not bring my son back.” The coroner made nine recommendations which she believed could help prevent future deaths, encompassing improvements in training and communication for paramedics and other emergency responders, and a suggestion that Transport for London look at putting first aid equipment on underground trains. Two of the recommendations related directly to the security services. Hallett said MI5 must review its procedures on showing photographs to informants after poorly edited images of two of the bombers — “they were dreadful” — were shown by intelligence officers to a key Islamist informant in US custody. “Given the confusion that reigned within the Security Service about these photographs,” she added, “it was not clear to me what records were kept of the procedure.” Similarly, she was troubled, she said, that the MI5 spokesman Witness G gave evidence that it was not normal practice to revisit photographs when new sources became available. So poor were the records from the time of the investigation, she said, “Witness G himself had to visit retired desk officers at their homes to discover as best he could what they had done, and why.” She instructed the MI5 director general Sir Jonathan Evans to investigate the service’s documentary procedures, “given the possibly dire consequences of a flawed decision which cannot be properly supervised”. The coroner also expressed concern about MI5′s failure to investigate the 7 July ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan in detail after undercover teams observed him repeatedly meeting the fertiliser bomb plot mastermind Omar Khyam more than a year before the atrocities. “I am concerned about the fact that the Security Service’s other commitments prevented a more intense investigation of a possible terrorist, who made long and suspicious journeys to meet known terrorists at a time when they were obviously planning an attack.” The coroner also identified weaknesses involving the Intelligence and Security Committee of MPs and peers, which was shown to have been misled, albeit “inadvertently”, by MI5. She repeatedly emphasised there was no evidence that the attacks could have been prevented. Even the badly cropped photo, in the end, had “played no causative part in the failure to identify Khan or [Shehzad] Tanweer”. In a statement, the home secretary, Theresa May, said the inquest process had been “vitally important” and said she would “carefully consider” its recommendations. “I am pleased that the coroner has made clear there is simply no evidence that the Security Service knew of, and therefore failed to prevent, the bombings on 7/7.” The government and security services were “always looking to learn lessons”, she said. “This includes learning from the 7 July attacks and from other incidents, and there have been a considerable number of improvements put in place since 2005.” Her Labour opposite number, Yvette Cooper, said the ongoing terrorist threat that Britain faced “makes the lessons from the past even more important”. 7 July London attacks Richard Norton-Taylor Esther Addley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
• Lib Dems wounded as UK votes to maintain first-past-the-post • No campaign establishes unassailable lead of 69% to 31% Supporters and opponents alike have acknowledged that the alternative vote would never be introduced for Westminster elections after the proposal received a thumping defeat in the national referendum. With three-quarters of the votes counted, the no campaign had established an unassailable lead of 69% to 31%, another wounding blow to Nick Clegg, whose Liberal Democrats had secured a referendum as one of their cherished prizes in negotiations with the Conservatives when they formed the coalition last year. Chris Huhne, the Lib Dem energy secretary and prominent campaigner for a yes vote, accepted that there would be no further attempt to introduce voting reform during this parliament and that it was “over” for the alternative vote. But he suggested he thought another question on electoral reform might one day be put to the electorate. “I think it is very clear that the people have spoken, that the alternative vote is not a runner and we must respect that decision.” But voters had not expressed an opinion on proportional representation, he said. “The question on the ballot paper was ‘Do you support AV?’ and we must respect that.” The former Labour cabinet minister Lord Reid, a no vote campaigner, said the public had delivered a resounding rejection of AV and warned the Liberal Democrats not to look for any “backdoor” introduction of voting reform. “Anyone who now wants to find some sort of backdoor method to bring something in that is not first past the post will be seen to have snubbed the clear wishes of the electorate,” he said. “The British constitution is not some bauble to be handed out as a consolation prize. It would be an outrage if such a resounding vote was to be ignored by the Liberal Democrats.” Nick Clegg called on fellow electoral reformers to “get up, dust ourselves down and move on” as he and David Cameron, a partner in coalition government but an opponent during the campaign, absorbed the result of the referendum that had become so central to the government in its first year in office. The Electoral Commission said a total of 18.6 million votes were cast across Great Britain, giving a provisional turnout of 41.8%, higher than many had predicted. Only a smattering of 440 voting areas came out with a majority for a yes vote, including Cambridge, Glasgow Kelvin, and the London boroughs of Camden, Haringey, Islington, Lambeth and Southwark. London, as predicted, had a relatively low turnout in a year where there were no other elections. But in Scotland, where voters were also electing members of the Scottish parliament, turnout reached 50.7%. A spokesman for the yes campaign said: “Clearly it is a very disappointing day for us. We’re very proud of the campaign we ran but we acknowledge that the overarching political circumstances of the country meant we couldn’t get the message across. it is difficult to sell a solution when the British people don’t see a problem.” There is an assessment that being associated with the Lib Dems was toxic and as soon as Cameron got involved, it was game over for the yes campaign. Some campaign managers have tried to ease unhappiness in the team by saying that it was a credit to them that Cameron felt he had to get involved. But they described the prime minister as a “game changer”. Labour’s Lord Mandelson, a keen supporter of electoral reform, said: “I think that’s very disappointing, but I’m equally entirely unsurprised by it. Nobody could have foreseen the extent to which the whole vote over the last 24 hours has become a referendum on the Liberal Democrats in general and Nick Clegg in particular. “We paid a big price for combining the AV referendum with the first elections to be held after the general election last year.” He was critical of how the yes campaign had been run. “The groundwork was not done for this referendum. I think that the public felt the thing had come out of the blue as the result of some arrangement between the coalition partners and they didn’t see why AV was such a big deal. “I don’t think they felt AV was the solution to many of the problems they feel are in our political system.” Results at a glance 323 of 440 districts declared Yes 31.6% 3,905,343 votes No 68.3% 8,427,622 Scottish parliament (seats) SNP 69 (+23) Labour 37 (- 7) Conservative 15 (+ 5) LibDem 5 (- 12) Other 3 (+ 1) Welsh assembly Labour 30 (+4) Conservative 14 (+2) Plaid Cymru 11 (– 4) LibDem 5 (– 1) Other 0 (– 1) English councils With 238 of the 279 councils declared, results so far are: Conservative 131 councils (+5) 4,015 councillors (+56) Labour 54 councils (+24) 2,130 councillors (+711) LibDem 8 councils (– 9) 898 councillors (– 599) Alternative vote Electoral reform Chris Huhne Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Al-Qaeda confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden today and vowed revenge, promising that America’s “happiness will turn to sadness.” The statement, which appeared on militant websites today, was dated May 3, and signed by the “general leadership of al-Qaeda,” the AP reports. “We stress that the blood of the…
Continue reading …Employers added more than 200,000 jobs in April for the third straight month, the biggest hiring spree in five years. But the unemployment rate rose to 9% in part because some people resumed looking for work. The Labor Department says the economy added 244,000 jobs last month. Private…
Continue reading …
A report says a third of Africans are now middle class. Their interests coincide with the interests of the poor and should help to bring about change One in three Africans are middle class. Or are they? A new report from the African Development Bank says: 34%, or 313 million Africans are now middle class (living on $2-$20 a day), after several decades without any change, a jump from 27% in 2000. A similar report by the Asia Development Bank (pdf) last year found something similar in the data and noted that 56% of people in developing Asia lived at the $2-$20 a day level (all figures purchasing power parity ). This is all good news. However, is someone living on just over $2 a day “middle class”? Two dollars is the average poverty line for developing countries, meaning you’re poor or middle class – but what about in between? There are various definitions of middle class in what is a burgeoning area of interest for poverty reduction research – stimulated perhaps by ideas about the middle classes as change-makers or catalysts. Think about the middle classes who voted with the poor for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president in Brazil, or the vibrant civil society of India that brings together the poor and middle-class activists (or possibly even the middle classes who are the protesters in the Middle East). There are at least five reasons why the middle classes (variously defined) might matter for poverty reduction. First, as small business owners their potential to hire employees. Second, their higher disposable income, a share of which could be saved and invested domestically. Third, their higher demand has potential to drive economic growth and attracts private investment. Fourth, their investment in human capital for children potentially leads to higher participation in education and a larger pool of skilled labour. And fifth, they’re more likely to hold the government accountable for decisions. In terms of evidence, development economist William Easterly (pdf) finds empirical evidence linking the middle classes and economic growth, and E Sridharan , from the University of Pennsylvania, outlines the role of the Indian middle class in promoting reform. The World Bank’s Martin Ravallion (pdf) also provides evidence that empirically links a middle class to growth and poverty reduction. He notes: “Countries starting out with a small middle class judged by developing country rather than western standards [$2-$13 a day per capita] face a handicap in promoting growth and poverty reduction, though this too is largely accountable to differences in the incidence of poverty.” This means – taking this definition of poor and middle class (there is no in-between) – at any given mean consumption, the countries with lower poverty will have a large middle class and see higher subsequent rates of both growth and poverty reduction. In the middle-class work there are a range of definitions: some relative – the middle class as the middle 60% of consumption expenditure; and some absolute – the middle classes as those living on a range of scales between $2-$100 a day, (a global middle class). More fundamentally, any definition of the middle class needs to be clear about the extent to which the middle class “starts” at the point where poverty “ends”, or whether there is an implicit distance between the characteristics of the poor and the middle class that would suggest a rather clearer demarcation. But at what point does saving start? At what point does consumption of non-essentials, such as mobile phones, start? MIT economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo point out, the middle classes are: likely to be less connected to agriculture; more likely to be engaged in small business activities; and benefit from formal sector employment, with a weekly or monthly salary, which enables them to adopt a longer-term perspective towards their finances. However, in contrast to the rather idealised image of the middle class as “risk-taking entrepreneurs”, Banerjee and Duflo highlight empirical evidence showing that many businesses operate at low profits or fail to experience significant growth. What about the idea of a catalytic class ? This is the idea: the catalytic class is a group, whose expansion triggers internally driven, self-sustaining, political and economic change, a group whose exertion of pressure for better governance and economic reform leads to change when the class hits a certain size (in population or economic or tax revenue size). The interests of this class coincide with the interests of the poor. As noted in the Globe and Mail , the catalyst class (a) has an interest in accountability because they pay more taxes; (b) probably don’t work for the state and thus don’t see their loyalty and interests tied to the status quo; (c) have parents who led quite different consumption lifestyles to them; (d) probably have internet (cafe) access and cell phones; and (e) want “open business conditions, fair and honourable contracts, and a route to employment unclotted by corruption”. That sounds more like the middle class to me. Andy Sumner Nancy Birdsall guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The attorney general made the surprising move of suspending the deportation of a gay man in a civil union with a US citizen yesterday. The AP reports that Holder has asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider its decision. The board had called for the deportation of Paul Wilson…
Continue reading …
First black man to stand for office in Russia leaves pro-Kremlin party claiming its policies are acting as a brake on democracy His business as a watermelon farmer and his promise to “toil like a negro” played to the worst stereotypes, but the man nicknamed Russia’s Barack Obama seemed to offer a breath of fresh air when he ran for office on a pro-Kremlin ticket two years ago. Now, Joaquim Crima has dealt a blow to the image of Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party by resigning from it with a scathing letter to the Russian prime minister, saying that the party is ” acting as a brake on our country’s road to democratisation “. Crima, 38, originally from Guinea Bissau, was the first black man in Russia to stand for public office when he put himself forward in district elections in Srednyaya Akhtuba, in the southern Volgograd region. At the time, he praised Putin as an “excellent person, and a serious figure on the world stage” and said he wanted to follow the premier’s example and go into politics with United Russia. Crima, known locally as Vasily Ivanovich, came a disappointing third in the local poll in 2009, but his progressive electoral promises and his skin colour won him the Obama nickname and extensive coverage in the nationwide press. Putin met him last year and praised him for repairing a village road. In a letter to the premier published online yesterday, however, the businessman said he was quitting United Russia because it had failed to raise state salaries or cut food prices and was “turning more and more into a party of bureaucrats”. The announcement came at a particularly embarrassing time for Putin, who arrived in Volgograd today to chair a United Russia conference. Crima told Putin he was particularly disappointed that party bosses had refused last summer to help him send 20 tons of free watermelons to people in villages near Moscow that had been damaged by fire. “In the end they just rotted,” he wrote. To make matters worse, Crima has defected to Fair Russia, a political party set up by the Kremlin that has shown occasional signs of slipping its leash. Russia Europe Vladimir Putin Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s ultimatum widens rift between leaders and increases pressure on president An unprecedented power struggle at the heart of the Iranian regime has intensified after it emerged that the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had given an ultimatum to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to accept his intervention in a cabinet appointment or resign. A member of the Iranian parliament, Morteza Agha-Tehrani – who is described as “Ahmadinejad’s moral adviser” – told a gathering of his supporters on Friday that a meeting between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei had recently taken place, in which the president was given a deadline to resign or to accept the decision of the ayatollah. The extraordinary confrontation came to light after Ahmadinejad declined to officially support Khamenei’s reinstatement of a minister whom the president had initially asked to resign. The rift between the two men grew when the president staged an 11-day walkout in an apparent protest at Khamenei’s decision. In the first cabinet meeting since ending his protest, the intelligence minister at the centre of the row, Heydar Moslehi, was absent and in the second one on Wednesday, he was reportedly asked by Ahmadinejad to leave. In a video released on Iranian websites, Agha-Tehrani quotes Ahmadinejad as saying: “[Khamenei] gave me a deadline to make up my mind. I would either accept [the reinstatement] or resign.” Although Khamenei is not constitutionally allowed to intervene in cabinet appointments, an unwritten law requires all officials to always abide by the supreme leader without showing any opposition. Clerics close to Khamenei have launched a campaign to highlight his role in Iranian politics, saying that to disobey him is equal to apostasy, as he is “God’s representative on earth”. Meanwhile, the president was reportedly absent from religious ceremonies this week at Khamenei’s house, where he was publicly criticised by close allies of the ayatollah. Iranian officials are traditionally required to participate in such ceremonies in order to cover up any political rift that might compromise Khamenei’s power. Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Thursday that several members of parliament had revived a bid to summon Ahmadinejad for questioning over “the recent events”. It said 90 MPs had signed the petition, up from only 12 last week. Under Iranian law, at least 85 more signatures are required for a possible impeachment of the president. Supporters of Khamenei say that Ahmadinejad is surrounded by “deviants” in his inner circle, including his controversial chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei , who wants to undermine the involvement of clerics in Iran’s politics. Mashaei and his allies have recently been accused of using supernatural powers and invoking djinns (spirits) in pursuing the government’s policies. On Thursday, the commander of the powerful revolutionary guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying: “People [close to Khamenei] are not relying on djinns, fairies and demons … and they will not stand any deviation [of the government in this regime].” Iran’s elite revolutionary guards, who played an important role in securing Ahmadinejad a second term in Iran’s 2009 “rigged” elections, have distanced themselves from Ahmadinejad in recent months as Mashaei’s “secular” views have become more pronounced. In the face of these recent confrontation with Khamenei, Ahmadinejad has been left isolated, with only a handful of serious supporters.Iran’s opposition, exhausted by the brutal crackdown of the green movement and the placing of its leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi under house arrest in the past 80 days, has found itself watching these recent developments and wondering what will happen next. Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Middle East Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
EU to impose asset freezes and travel restrictions on Syrian officials involved in operation which has killed 500 people The EU agreed on Friday to impose sanctions on Syria next week to step up pressure on the regime as it persisted with its violent crackdown on protesters, killing at least 16 during a “day of defiance”. European countries will formally announce the sanctions on Monday, imposing asset freezes and travel restrictions on top Syrian officials involved in a seven-week crackdown that has killed more than 500 by some estimates. The crackdown has tested the courage of protesters and some in the movement had warned that it might even break their resolve. But many thousands turned out in 65 towns and cities across the country on Friday, according to activists. Video footage from several cities showed large crowds chanting “the people want to topple the regime” and “the martyr is loved by God”. Perhaps the biggest protest was reported in the south, in the town of Jassem, close to the troubled city of Deraa. One video purportedly from the town showed thousands gathering and calling out “He who kills his people is a traitor” and “We sacrifice our blood and souls for you Deraa”. State media have reported that the army is ending its military operation in Deraa, but the city is still shut off. A 15-member delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross was allowed rare access to the city on Thursday. The UN said it had persuaded Syria to allow its teams to check on humanitarian conditions after the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, personally called the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad. Death tolls have been hard to quantify. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least six people had been shot dead after security forces opened fire in Homs and Hama. The National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria put the toll at 16 people nationwide. Syrian state television said an army officer and four policemen were shot dead by a “criminal gang” in Homs. The regime also moved to round up prominent activists. Dissident and former political prisoner Riad Seif was arrested in the Damascus area of Midan, where protests broke out for the third week in a row. “My father was shoved into a bus with other protesters who were detained during the demonstration near the al-Hassan mosque,” his daughter Jumana told Reuters. As long as no member state objects, the EU’s decision to impose asset freezes and travel bans will go into effect next week. Like the US sanctions imposed last week they do not target Assad himself. Katherine Marsh is a pseudonym for a journalist living in Damascus Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East European Union Europe Katherine Marsh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …