#category of detainees

[detainedstaffday]

Convention on the safety of the United Nations and Associated personnel.

This Convention applies in respect of United Nations and associated personnel and United Nations operations, as defined in article 1. This Convention shall not apply to a United Nations operation authorized by the United Nations Security Council as an enforcement action under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations in which any of the personnel are engaged as combatants against organized armed forces and to which the law of international armed conflict applies. Article 3 -Identification

The military and police components of a United Nations operation and their vehicles, vessels and aircraft shall bear distinctive identification. Other personnel, vehicles, vessels and aircraft involved in the United Nations operation shall be appropriately identified unless otherwise decided by the Secretary-General of the United Nation; All United Nations and associated personnel shall carry appropriate identification documents. Article 4 - Agreements on the status of the operation The host State and the United Nations shall conclude as soon as possible an agreement on the status of the United Nations operation and all personnel engaged in the operation including, inter alia, provisions on privileges and immunities for military and police components of the operation. Article 5 - Transit A transit State shall facilitate the unimpeded transit of United Nations and associated personnel and their equipment to and from the host State. Article 6 - Respect for laws and regulations

Without prejudice to such privileges and immunities as they may enjoy or to the requirements of their duties, United Nations and associated personnel shall: (a) Respect the laws and regulations of the host State and the transit State; and (b) Refrain from any action or activity incompatible with the impartial and international nature of their duties. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall take all appropriate measures to ensure the observance of these obligations. Article 7 - Duty to ensure the safety and security of United Nations and associated personnel

United Nations and associated personnel, their equipment and premises shall not be made the object of attack or of any action that prevents them from discharging their mandate. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure the safety and security of United Nations and associated personnel. In particular, States Parties shall take all appropriate steps to protect United Nations and associated personnel who are deployed in their territory from the crimes set out in article 9. States Parties shall cooperate with the United Nations and other States Parties, as appropriate, in the implementation of this Convention, particularly in any case where the host State is unable itself to take the required measures. Article 8 - Duty to release or return

United Nations and associated personnel captured or detained Except as otherwise provided in an applicable status-of-forces agreement, if United Nations or associated personnel are captured or detained in the course of the performance of their duties and their identification has been established, they shall not be subjected to interrogation and they shall be promptly released and returned to United Nations or other appropriate authorities. Pending their release such personnel shall be treated in accordance with universally recognized standards of human rights and the principles and spirit of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Article 9 - Crimes against United Nations and associated personnel

The intentional commission of: (a) A murder, kidnapping or other attack upon the person or liberty of any United Nations or associated personnel; (b) A violent attack upon the official premises, the private accommodation or the means of transportation of any United Nations or associated personnel likely to endanger his or her person or liberty; (c) A threat to commit any such attack with the objective of compelling a physical or juridical person to do or to refrain from doing any act; (d) An attempt to commit any such attack; and (e) An act constituting participation as an accomplice in any such attack, or in an attempt to commit such attack, or in organizing or ordering others to commit such attack, shall be made by each State Party a crime under its national law. Each State Party shall make the crimes set out in paragraph 1 punishable by appropriate penalties which shall take into account their grave nature. Article 10 - Establishment of jurisdiction

Each State Party shall take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the crimes set out in article 9 in the following cases: (a) When the crime is committed in the territory of that State or on board a ship or aircraft registered in that State; (b) When the alleged offender is a national of that State. A State Party may also establish its jurisdiction over any such crime when it is committed: (a) By a stateless person whose habitual residence is in that State; or (b) With respect to a national of that State; or (c) In an attempt to compel that State to do or to abstain from doing any act. Any State Party which has established jurisdiction as mentioned in paragraph 2 shall notify the Secretary-General of the United Nations. If such State Party subsequently rescinds that jurisdiction, it shall notify the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Each State Party shall take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the crimes set out in article 9 in cases where the alleged offender is present in its territory and it does not extradite such person pursuant to article 15 to any of the States Parties which have established their jurisdiction in accordance with paragraph 1 or 2. This Convention does not exclude any criminal jurisdiction exercised in accordance with national law. Article 11 - Prevention of crimes against United Nations and associated personnel

States Parties shall cooperate in the prevention of the crimes set out in article 9, particularly by: (a) Taking all practicable measures to prevent preparations in their respective territories for the commission of those crimes within or outside their territories; and (b) Exchanging information in accordance with their national law and coordinating the taking of administrative and other measures as appropriate to prevent the commission of those crimes. Article 12 - Communication of information

Under the conditions provided for in its national law, the State Party in whose territory a crime set out in article 9 has been committed shall, if it has reason to believe that an alleged offender has fled from its territory, communicate to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and, directly or through the Secretary-General, to the State or States concerned all the pertinent facts regarding the crime committed and all available information regarding the identity of the alleged offender. Whenever a crime set out in article 9 has been committed, any State Party which has information concerning the victim and circumstances of the crime shall endeavour to transmit such information, under the conditions provided for in its national law, fully and promptly to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the State or States concerned. Article 13 - Measures to ensure prosecution or extradition

Where the circumstances so warrant, the State Party in whose territory the alleged offender is present shall take the appropriate measures under its national law to ensure that person’s presence for the purpose of prosecution or extradition.

Measures taken in accordance with paragraph 1 shall be notified, in conformity with national law and without delay, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and, either directly or through the Secretary-General, to: (a) The State where the crime was committed; (b) The State or States of which the alleged offender is a national or, if such person is a stateless person, in whose territory that person has his or her habitual residence; (c) The State or States of which the victim is a national; and (d) Other interested States. Article 14 - Prosecution of alleged offenders The State Party in whose territory the alleged offender is present shall, if it does not extradite that person, submit, without exception whatsoever and without undue delay, the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution, through proceedings in accordance with the law of that State. Those authorities shall take their decision in the same manner as in the case of an ordinary offence of a grave nature under the law of that State. Article 15 - Extradition of alleged offenders

To the extent that the crimes set out in article 9 are not extraditable offences in any extradition treaty existing between States Parties, they shall be deemed to be included as such therein. States Parties undertake to include those crimes as extraditable offences in every extradition treaty to be concluded between them. If a State Party which makes extradition conditional on the existence of a treaty receives a request for extradition from another State Party with which it has no extradition treaty, it may at its option consider this Convention as the legal basis for extradition in respect of those crimes. Extradition shall be subject to the conditions provided in the law of the requested State. States Parties which do not make extradition conditional on the existence of a treaty shall recognize those crimes as extraditable offences between themselves subject to the conditions provided in the law of the requested State. Each of those crimes shall be treated, for the purposes of extradition between States Parties, as if it had been committed not only in the place in which it occurred but also in the territories of the States Parties which have established their jurisdiction in accordance with paragraph 1 or 2 of article 10. Article 16 - Mutual assistance in criminal matters

States Parties shall afford one another the greatest measure of assistance in connection with criminal proceedings brought in respect of the crimes set out in article 9, including assistance in obtaining evidence at their disposal necessary for the proceedings. The law of the requested State shall apply in all cases.

The provisions of paragraph 1 shall not affect obligations concerning mutual assistance embodied in any other treaty. Article 17- Fair treatment

Any person regarding whom investigations or proceedings are being carried out in connection with any of the crimes set out in article 9 shall be guaranteed fair treatment, a fair trial and full protection of his or her rights at all stages of the investigations or proceedings. Any alleged offender shall be entitled: (a) To communicate without delay with the nearest appropriate representative of the State or States of which such person is a national or which is otherwise entitled to protect that person’s rights or, if such person is a stateless person, of the State which, at that person’s request, is willing to protect that person’s rights; and (b) To be visited by a representative of that State or those States. Article 18 - Notification of outcome of proceedings The State Party where an alleged offender is prosecuted shall communicate the final outcome of the proceedings to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall transmit the information to other States Parties. Article 19 - Dissemination The States Parties undertake to disseminate this Convention as widely as possible and, in particular, to include the study thereof, as well as relevant provisions of international humanitarian law, in their programmes of military instruction. Article 20 - Savings clauses Nothing in this Convention shall affect: (a) The applicability of international humanitarian law and universally recognized standards of human rights as contained in international instruments in relation to the protection of United Nations operations and United Nations and associated personnel or the responsibility of such personnel to respect such law and standards; (b) The rights and obligations of States, consistent with the Charter of the United Nations, regarding the consent to entry of persons into their territories; (c) The obligation of United Nations and associated personnel to act in accordance with the terms of the mandate of a United Nations operation; (d) The right of States which voluntarily contribute personnel to a United Nations operation to withdraw their personnel from participation in such operation; or (e) The entitlement to appropriate compensation payable in the event of death, disability, injury or illness attributable to peace-keeping service by persons voluntarily contributed by States to United Nations operations. Article 21 - Right of self-defence Nothing in this Convention shall be construed so as to derogate from the right to act in self-defence. Article 22 - Dispute settlement

Any dispute between two or more States Parties concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention which is not settled by negotiation shall, at the request of one of them, be submitted to arbitration. If within six months from the date of the request for arbitration the parties are unable to agree on the organization of the arbitration, any one of those parties may refer the dispute to the International Court of Justice by application in conformity with the Statute of the Court. Each State Party may at the time of signature, ratification, acceptance or approval of this Convention or accession thereto declare that it does not consider itself bound by all or part of paragraph 1. The other States Parties shall not be bound by paragraph 1 or the relevant part thereof with respect to any State Party which has made such a reservation. Any State Party which has made a reservation in accordance with paragraph 2 may at any time withdraw that reservation by notification to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Article 23 - Review meetings At the request of one or more States Parties, and if approved by a majority of States Parties, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall convene a meeting of the States Parties to review the implementation of the Convention, and any problems encountered with regard to its application. Article 24 - Signature This Convention shall be open for signature by all States, until 31 December 1995, at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Article 25 - Ratification, acceptance or approval This Convention is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval. Instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Article 26 Accession This Convention shall be open for accession by any State. The instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Article 27 -Entry into force

This Convention shall enter into force thirty days after twenty-two instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession have been deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. For each State ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to the Convention after the deposit of the twenty-second instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, the Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the deposit by such State of its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. Article 28 - Denunciation

A State Party may denounce this Convention by written notification to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Denunciation shall take effect one year following the date on which notification is received by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Article 29 - Authentic texts The original of this Convention, of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall send certified copies thereof to all States.

[opencommunion]

“The Prisoners Affairs’ Commission and the Prisoners’ Club stated that according to the monitoring conducted by Palestinian Prisoners’ institutions, 2070 arrest cases were documented in the West Bank, including Al-Quds, during October 2023, among them 145 children, and more than 55 women.

The most significant change concerning the prisoners’ data is the sharp increase in the crime of administrative detention (imprisonment without charge) where the occupation issued 1,034 administrative detention orders during October, among them 904 new orders, and 130 renewal orders.

The occupation escalated arrest campaigns after October 7, with the number of arrests reaching 1760 by the end of October, covering all categories. The average daily arrests after this date were around 73, which is three times the number of prior arrest campaigns, including 17 journalists, and 14 members of parliament were arrested.

Regarding administrative detention, the occupation issued 872 orders after October 7, most of them new orders. The prisoners' institutions note that after this date, arrest campaigns were concentrated in Al-Khalil governorate and its towns, with 500 arrests, followed by Al-Quds with more than 400 arrests.

The prisoners' institutions clarify that the above data on arrest cases include everyone who was arrested during this period, whether the occupation continued their detention and subsequently transferred them to prisons, or those who were released shortly after arrest. This data also includes those who were systematically arrested from their homes, through military checkpoints, following summons, and those who were taken as hostages from the family to pressure a family member to surrender.

The rate of arrest cases in the West Bank executed during the month is the highest since the years of Al-Aqsa Intifada. In addition to arrests suffered by our people in the territories occupied in 1948, accurate data on which are not available, as well as the number of detainees from Gaza including workers.

According to the data, the number of prisoners in occupation jails until the end of October was about 7,000, including 62 female prisoners. Accurate numbers of child detainees are not available, the number of administrative detainees (detained without charge) reached 2070, and the number of detainees from Gaza classified by the occupation as ‘unlawful combatants’ is 105.”

RNN Prisoners

[mariacallous]

GAZA/JERUSALEM, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Israeli forces and Hamas fighters held their fire beyond the original deadline of a truce on Tuesday, extended at the last minute by at least two days to let more hostages go free.

With both sides expressing hope of further extensions, mediator Qatar hosted the spy chiefs from Israel's Mossad and the U.S. CIA at a meeting to "build on progress", a source briefed on the visits told Reuters.

A single column of black smoke could be seen rising above the obliterated wasteland of the northern Gaza war zone from across the fence in Israel, but for a fifth day there was no sign of jets in the sky or rumble of explosions.

Both sides reported some Israeli tank fire in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City in the morning, but there were no reports of casualties. Israel said its troops had been approached and fired a warning shot.

Previously during the truce, Hamas fighters released 50 Israeli women and children, some of them toddlers, from among the 240 hostages they captured in southern Israel during a deadly rampage on Oct. 7. In return, Israel released 150 security detainees from its jails, all women and teenagers.

Hamas also released 19 foreign hostages, mainly Thai farmworkers, under separate deals parallel to the truce agreement.

Israel has said the truce could be prolonged as long as Hamas continues to release at least 10 hostages per day. But with fewer women and children left in captivity, keeping the guns quiet beyond Wednesday could require negotiating to free at least some Israeli men for the first time.

"We hope the occupation (Israel) abides (by the agreement) in the next two days because we are seeking a new agreement, besides women and children, whereby other categories that we have that we can swap," Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya told Al Jazeera late on Monday.

Israeli security cabinet minister Gideon Saar told Army Radio that the two-day extension had been agreed under the terms of the original offer, and Israel remained willing to extend the truce further if more hostages were released.

"Immediately upon the completion of the hostage-recovery framework, the warfighting will be renewed," he said.

Qatar's foreign ministry said it was now trying to secure a further extension based on Hamas releasing more hostages.

FIRST RESPITE

The truce brought the first respite to the Gaza Strip in seven weeks, during which Israel had bombed swathes of the territory into a desolate moonscape.

Many Gazans used the opportunity to return to abandoned or destroyed homes, like Abu Shamaleh, who was picking through the rubble of his flattened home in Khan Younis, looking for anything recoverable in the masonry. He said 37 family members had been killed.

"Today I have nothing in this world but memories. Everything is gone," he said. There was no machinery to excavate the body of a cousin still buried in the ruins, he said. "The truce is the time to lift the rubble and search for all the missing people and bury them. We honour the dead by burying them."

Among Israeli hostages yet to be freed was ten-month-old baby Kfir Bibas, along with his brother Ariel, 4, and their parents Yarden and Shiri, bundled from a kibbutz by gunmen on Oct 7. Yarden's sister told reporters relatives had learned the family would not be in the group to go free on Tuesday. Israeli officials said they believed they were being held by a militant group other than Hamas.

"Kfir is only 10 months old. He is a child who still doesn't even know how to say 'Mommy'," Jimmy Miller, a cousin, told Channel 12 TV. "We in the family are not managing to function... The family hasn't slept for a long, long time already - 51 days."

Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, after its gunmen burst across the fence and went on a violent spree, killing around 1,200 people and seizing 240 captives.

Since then, Gaza health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 people have been confirmed killed in Israel's bombardment, around 40% of them children, with many more dead feared to be lost under rubble.

More than two-thirds of Gaza's 2.3 million people have lost their homes, with thousands of families sleeping rough in makeshift shelters with only the belongings they could carry.

When the war resumes, Israel has made clear it intends to press on with its assault from the northern half of Gaza into the south. U.S. officials said they have told their ally to be more careful protecting civilians as its forces press on.

"You cannot have the sort of scale of displacement that took place in the north replicated in the south. It will be beyond disruptive, it will be beyond the capacity of any humanitarian support network," one U.S. official said in a call with reporters. "It can't happen."

Despite releasing 150 detainees under the truce, Israel has been arresting Palestinians far faster than it lets them go: according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, a semi-official organisation, 3,290 Palestinians have been detained since Oct. 7.

Israel added an additional 50 Palestinian women to its list of 300 detainees cleared for release under the truce, seen as a sign it was prepared to negotiate for more hostages to go free under further extensions.

Israel's siege has led to the collapse of Gaza's health care system, especially in the northern half of the territory where no hospitals remain functioning. The World Health Organization said more Gazans could soon be dying of disease than from bombing.

There were already a very high number of cases of infants suffering from diarrhoea, said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris: "No medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene and no food."

[codmw2019-2022]

Modern Warfare® Campaign: Biographies of the Story’s Major Players.

Part 2 (2 of 2): Kate Laswell

October 01, 2019 by Call of Duty Staff

Kate Laswell

Supervisor, Special Activities Division (SAD), CIA

Kate Laswell was born in Annapolis, Maryland. Kate believes that past is prologue, witnessing both diplomatic and military failures in the war on terror, her tradecraft is largely dedicated to breaking this repetitive cycle. Kate has a Master’s degree in strategic intelligence analysis and studied Near East linguistics at the American University of Beirut. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Cornell University with a BA in International Affairs.

Laswell began her career as a communications analyst. Her earliest evaluation showed an advanced aptitude for strategic analysis. Kate’s acumen was quickly recognized by the Islamabad Station Chief, and she was relocated to Pakistan, where she served as a “targeter” – a critical support role in the early days of the lethal drone strike program.

On the fast track, Laswell was transferred to U.S. Africa Command at Camp Lemonnier. Shortly thereafter, the base was ground zero for a shocking attack by a suicide bomber. She considered her survival, a calling to serve the greater good and has devoted her career to global security.

As she climbed the CIA ranks, Kate looked for a female mentor who could show her how to retain her personal life and still be respected for her operational judgment. Not finding that role model, Laswell worked with unapologetic obligation to her mission. Laswell has always been hard to manage but brings reliable maneuvers to the table. A retired colleague said, “when it comes to unconventional information warfare, Kate Laswell rewrote the book.”

In 2008, the historically paternal agency broke its glass ceiling, calling on Kate to supervise a Special Activities Division (SAD) “black site” program in Europe, Asia and South America, a post with no official commission. Kate’s leadership post with the SAD was considered controversial, after she refused to testify in open hearing, on the use of rendition. Often polarizing but always respected, over her tenure, Laswell developed detainee information that saved tens of thousands of lives. Evaluation reports credit Kate’s success with not being risk averse.

Laswell currently reports directly to the CIA Inspector General, through an elite category of Top Secret called “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented” or TS/SCI. This clearance authorizes select special agents, largely unconstrained latitude in responding to critical terrorist activity, at home and abroad. To execute her missions, Kate works closely with the special activities paramilitary ground branch officers under her command (Alex), and has a close professional relationship with Captain Price.

[void-voyage]

8 Nov 2023 - via RNN telegram

Fragment of the speech by Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades military spokesman Abu Obeida

"The file of the prisoners is still present with us in the details of this battle. We renew our confirmation that the only clear path for this cause is a deal to exchange prisoners completely or in parts. We have female prisoners in our prisons and the occupation holds our women captives. We have civilian, sick, and elderly prisons in the enemy's prisons. We hold prisoners of the same categories with us. We have fighters and resistance members in the occupation's prisons, and the enemy has our fighting soldiers as prisoners. There is absolutely no solution to the prisoners' file except through this path and exchange, whether categorically or as a comprehensive operation. Moreover, we still affirm that the enemy, which continues the aggression and refuses to facilitate the conditions for their release, is the one obstructing and sabotaging all efforts to deliver the detainees of foreign nationalities, and even exposing their lives and the lives of their captives to imminent danger every hour and every day. The enemy thwarted a few days ago the release of 12 of those with foreign nationalities. The large number of dead among the prisoners and detainees, those still under the rubble, and those undergoing treatment standing between life and death, are nothing but evidence of this enemy's arrogance and confusion."

[beardedmrbean]

A federal judge struck down a portion of New Jersey's so-called "sanctuary" law blocking private migrant detention contracts with the Biden administration's federal agencies. 

In August 2021, Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy enacted Assembly Bill 5207, prohibiting New Jersey, its political subdivisions and private entities "from prospectively contracting to own or operate any facility that detains individuals for violating civil immigration laws." 

At the time of the bill’s passage, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for detaining individuals for civil immigration violations was using four detention facilities in New Jersey, but as the legislation became law, three of those four facilities stopped housing detainees on ICE’s behalf. Now, just one remains – the Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC). Its private operator CoreCivic, Inc.’s federal contract was set to expire on Aug. 31, and afterward, the New Jersey law would have prevented the private contractor from renewing it. 

In a Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kirsch sided with CoreCivic’s lawsuit filed earlier this year, ruling the legislation unconstitutional. 

"A state law that wholesale deprives the federal government of its chosen method of detaining individuals for violating federal law cannot survive Supremacy Clause scrutiny," the judge wrote. "[The law] would impose on the United States an intolerable choice between either releasing federal detainees or carrying out detention in an entirely novel way."

ADAMS SAYS HOCHUL 'WRONG' ON NYC MIGRANT CRISIS, URGES 'REAL LEADERSHIP' TO PUSH ASYLUM SEEKERS ACROSS STATE

Biden administration attorneys argued that if New Jersey's neighboring states passed laws similar to AB 5207, "ICE will be unable to detain some (or perhaps many) noncitizens who are public safety or national security risks." The United States claimed "a drastic decrease in ICE'S ability to contract for detention facilities would also result in massively increased costs in terms of both transportation needs and the hiring of more officers to ensure that noncitizens are safely transported to distant facilities." 

The administration also asserted that attempting to comply with AB 5207 by building and operating its own detention facility in New Jersey is "not a practical or legal possibility," because constructing and opening a new facility would be more expensive and time-consuming than entering into a contract with a private company or public entity for an existing facility. 

The Elizabeth center is the only facility that houses ICE detainees within 60 miles of New York City. As of mid-June 2023, the EDC held approximately 285 detainees.

The federal government has been housing immigration detainees in New Jersey since at least 1986.

If the state law forces ICE to house detainees outside of New Jersey, ICE would likely need to initiate "a competitive solicitation process for new private contracts in other States to replace the lost capacity in New Jersey," which "wouldn't be available for some time," Kirsch's ruling says. Biden administration attorneys cite the EDC's proximity to two international airports — the Newark Liberty International Airport and the JFK International Airport — that make EDC crucial to ICE'S operations, as well as the operations of other federal agencies. 

DHS CALLS FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO NYC’S MIGRANT CRISIS OPERATIONS AS ADAMS PUSHES BACK

"While ICE has discretion to release certain noncitizens pending their removal proceedings if they are not flight risks and do not pose a public-security threat, ICE is required to detain categories of noncitizens who are subject to mandatory detention under the immigration laws or those who pose risk to public safety," the opinion says. "Congress has likewise granted DHS discretion over the manner in which it detains individuals for civil immigration violations." 

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shot down a similar California law in September 2022. 

Murphy’s office told Politico that the New Jersey Attorney General’s office will plan an appeal. The state maintains "private detention facilities threaten the public health and safety of New Jerseyans, including when used for immigration purposes." 

Last week, all but one of New Jersey’s Democrat congressional delegation penned a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding the Department of Justice rescind its statement of interest in the CoreCivic lawsuit opposing the state law. The letter cites reports from detainees and legal advocates about "inhuman conditions" at the Elizabeth facility, including lack of proper air quality, sanitation violations, overcrowding, inadequate media and mental health care and alleged "incidents of retaliation and abusive treatment by guards and staff." They also cited "extensive complaints, lawsuits, protests and calls for action" against the facility. 

[xtruss]

Abu Ghraib: The Crimes of the “War Criminal US” and Horrors of Its Occupation of Iraq

© Photo : 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson/U.S. Army/

Abu Ghraib was a prison in the Iraqi city of the same name, located 32 kilometers west of Baghdad. The first buildings were constructed by a British contractor in the 1950s and were designed from the outset as a place of detention.

Under Saddam Hussein

During Saddam's leadership, the Mudiria al-Amn al-'Amm, or Directorate of General Security (DGS), operated the high-security prison where, according to Western media reports, mass torture and execution of political prisoners of the government took place.

In fact, however, there was no evidence that the prison was a political and not a conventional one. The latter is suggested by a mass amnesty for common law prisoners who were paroled in 2002, just before the Western coalition invaded Iraq.

There is also little evidence of mass executions, as research on mass graves near the prison has confirmed the burial of 993 prisoners over the entire period. However, according to Western claims, between 4,000 and 12,000 prisoners were executed in "Saddam's torture center" in 1984 alone, and about 1,500 in 1997.

During US-Led International Coalition Invasion

In 2003, after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government, the Americans inherited an already empty prison. With its convenient location and ready-made infrastructure, Abu Ghraib became the main detention center for Iraqi prisoners of war and political prisoners.

Until August 2006, the prison was used jointly by coalition forces and the Iraqi government. Convicted criminals served their sentences in the block under the full control of the local authorities. The rest of the prison was under the control of US Armed Forces and was used as a forward operating base and correctional facility.

Under the control of US forces, Abu Ghraib had several categories of detainees:

Members of the Baath Party that ruled under Saddam. Among them was Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister of Iraq;

People suspected of Baathist activities, former military and police officers. Because the party was popular, everyone from teachers to merchants was imprisoned;

Religious figures, tribal sheikhs, and social authorities accused of supporting the regime. One such detainee was tribal sheikh Karim Rashid al-Janabi of the small town of Babil;

Those suspected of involvement in attacks on US forces. They could have been any passerby who happened to be in the area at the time of the attack;

So-called "hostages" - relatives or friends of suspected insurgents to put pressure on the latter. Thus, women, the elderly, teenagers, and children were detained without charge;

Those arrested for felonies and misdemeanors. After the dissolution of the army and police, the country descended into chaos and anarchy.

Thus, during the US presence, Abu Ghraib became a place of detention for prisoners from a broad spectrum of the predominantly local population, held on arbitrary grounds and suspicion, in violation of the "detention and imprisonment" principles of the Geneva Convention.

Exposing Torture

In the spring and summer of 2003, human rights organizations that went to Iraq with the US began to draw attention to the use of violence by the occupying forces against Iraqi prisoners of war and detainees.

In November 2003, Abdel Turki, the US-appointed human rights supervisor for the Iraqi interim administration, reported to Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, numerous cases of torture and abuse of detainees in the country's prisons, including Abu Ghraib. As Turki later recalled, there was no response.

Word of what was happening at Abu Ghraib got out, and the news spread quickly. One such report in the spring of 2004 nearly sparked a large-scale popular uprising in Baghdad.

It all started when a letter written by one of the female prisoners began to circulate and ended up outside the prison. The gist of the message was that the women imprisoned at Abu Ghraib were constantly being abused by the Americans, and sometimes by loyal Iraqi guards, and that many of the women ended up pregnant because of their abusers.

A copy of the letter was distributed by hand and posted on the walls. In one Baghdad mosque, the letter was read during a sermon.

As a result, popular resistance to the coalition intensified in Iraq. Unarmed people stoned US military convoys, shouted anti-American slogans, and attacked military vehicles. And in some parts of Baghdad, there were armed ambushes.

But the investigation into the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib did not begin because of this, but because of the curiosity of Joseph Darby, an American military police officer who, in December 2003, borrowed a CD from his colleague Charles Greiner for his own use. The CD contained, among other things, gruesome evidence of torture and abuse of prisoners in the prison. Three weeks later, he reported this to his superiors.

On January 13, 2004, a command investigation was opened against 17 members of the military for abuse.

The commander of the coalition ground forces in Iraq, Ricardo Sanchez, appointed Major General Antonio Taguba to lead the investigation into the torture at Abu Ghraib.

On February 23, 2004, 17 military personnel, including a battalion commander, company commander, and 13 military police privates, were suspended from duty pending the investigation.

On March 20, a spokesman for US coalition forces announced that preliminary investigations had resulted in criminal charges against six soldiers. Hearings in the case began on April 9.

None of the official statements at the time were much of a secret, because the information was softened as much as possible - it was about "abuses," "abuse of power," and "antics of individuals."

In early to mid-April, however, CBS obtained a copy of Taguba’s report, along with all of the photos. US authorities tried to stop reporters from publishing this information, but when they learned that famed journalist Seymour Hersh knew what was going on and was preparing to publish it in The New Yorker, they began to act proactively.

On April 28, 2004, CBS aired a report on the investigation, accompanied by some pictures of torture of detainees (some of the most innocuous) - and the report soon appeared in media around the world. The information was presented in a very softened form, with references to the Taguba Report - what was happening were the antics of individual sadists and abusers who had somehow infiltrated the US forces, and it was an isolated violation, not a systematic practice.

The prison authorities and Brigadier General Janis Karpinski were blamed for failing to educate the guards about the provisions of the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and detainees.

Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, Sergeants Javal Davis, Michelle Smith, Santos Cardona, and Jeremy Sivits, and Armin Cruz were "designated" as direct organizers of the torture. Among the most active participants were two servicewomen, Lynndie England and Sabrina Harman. Sgt. Charles Greiner was recognized as the unofficial leader.

They all came from rural America and had a low level of education, so they were perfectly suited for the role of “outsiders.” Especially since there was no doubt about their guilt - they appeared in the abuse photos.

In the course of speaking with Janis Karpinski, it became clear that there was a separate Cell Block 1A at Abu Ghraib, run by military intelligence, where high-value detainees were interrogated. CIA and Pentagon officials regularly appeared there, and their visits were not recorded in any way.

Karpinski went on to say that Israeli special forces were present at the prison (something denied by the Israeli Defense Ministry).

According to Karpinski, the intelligence officers were behind the torture, and she and her subordinates decided to take the blame. The guards themselves stated that they were following orders from military intelligence officers to extract confessions and useful information from the detainees.

However, orders from military intelligence regarding the treatment and torture of detainees were only given verbally and never in writing.

Ultimately, clarity on all these questions was provided in the New Yorker articles by Seymour Hersh himself. He received information from his sources that what happened at Abu Ghraib was not the antics of guards who violated their official duties, but a secret special Pentagon program, codenamed "Patina," aimed at tracking and destroying Al Qaeda terrorists, previously worked out in Afghanistan and the Guantanamo Bay prison. US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in charge of the program, and George W. Bush could not have been unaware of what was going on.

As it turned out, the systematic torture began in August 2003, when Major General Geoffrey Miller, the head of the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities, arrived in Baghdad, where sleep deprivation interrogations, cold torture, and fixation in uncomfortable positions were widely practiced. He also persuaded US commanders to place all prisons under the control of military intelligence. All of this was authorized by Ricardo Sanchez.

It was this program and Miller's recommendations that were applied at Abu Ghraib, in an even harsher form than at Guantanamo. The program was also adapted to the realities of the Middle East, so that the emphasis of the harassment was on the sensitivity of Arabs to humiliation of a sexual nature, especially in public. The photos were taken for the purpose of further blackmail and coercion to become informants for US intelligence agencies.

According to the testimony of a number of detainees, US soldiers raped them, rode on them, and forced them to fetch food from prison toilets. In particular, the detainees said "They made us walk on all fours like dogs and bark. We had to bark like dogs, and if you didn't bark, they hit you in the face without mercy. Then they threw us in our cells, took away our mattresses, poured water on the floor and made us sleep in this mud without taking the hoods off our heads..."

In early May 2004, US military leaders acknowledged that some of the torture methods did not comply with the Third Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and agreed to issue a public apology.

12 members of the US Armed Forces were found guilty of charges related to the Abu Ghraib incidents. They were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

The investigation did not identify any senior Pentagon officials responsible for the incident.

On March 9, 2006, the US military command decided to close the prison.

In August 2006, all Abu Ghraib detainees were transferred to other prisons in Iraq, and on September 2, the prison was taken over by the Iraqi government.

— Sputnik International | March 19, 2023

[aliitvodeson]

Al-ajaazera has published the details (personal note- they are not a neutral journalist organization. I have specially chosen their version BECAUSE it’s pro-Palestinian…. So if they’re writing about how there’s not requirement for the hostages to stay alive…..)

Highlighting:

If there are fewer than 33 living Israeli detainees to be released, a number of bodies from the same categories shall be released to complete this stage

And to be clear: it’s not “release of Israeli POWs” (as screenshot tweet claims)….. it is hostages, including children. Highlighting:

During the first phase, Hamas shall release 33 Israeli captives (alive or dead), including women (civilians and soldiers), children (under the age of 19 who are not soldiers), those over the age of 50, and the sick

To be clear: I WANT a ceasefire. I want PEACE. I want this horrible, deadly, atrocity to END. But do not pretend like this is in anyway equal comprise… Israel in this deal would release between 30-50 Palestinians for a single potential corpse of a hostage

[detainedstaffday]

Human Rights Committee General Comment 35, Article 9 (Liberty and Security of Person).

International human rights law provides a clear and universal framework relating to detention, enshrined by the following standards:

United Nations CCPR/C/GC/35.

The right to take proceedings for release from unlawful or arbitrary detention.

Paragraph 4 of article 9 entitles anyone who is deprived of liberty by arrest or detention to take proceedings before a court, in order that the court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of the detention and order release if the detention is not lawful. It enshrines the principle of habeas corpus. may, in appropriate circumstances, be limited to review of the reasonableness of a prior determination.

The right applies to all detention by official action or pursuant to official authorization, including detention in connection with criminal proceedings, military detention, security detention, counter-terrorism detention, involuntary hospitalization, immigration detention, detention for extradition and wholly groundless arrests. It also applies to detention for vagrancy or drug addiction, detention for educational purposes of children in conflict with the law and other forms of administrative detention. Detention within the meaning of paragraph 4 also includes house arrest and solitary confinement. When a prisoner is serving the minimum duration of a prison sentence as decided by a court of law after a conviction, either as a sentence for a fixed period of time or as the fixed portion of a potentially longer sentence, paragraph 4 does not require subsequent review of the detention.

The object of the right is release (either unconditional or conditional) from ongoing unlawful detention; compensation for unlawful detention that has already ended is addressed in paragraph 5. Paragraph 4 requires that the reviewing court must have the power to order release from the unlawful detention.132 When a judicial order of release under paragraph 4 becomes operative (exécutoire), it must be complied with immediately, and continued detention would be arbitrary in violation of article 9, paragraph 1.

The right to bring proceedings applies in principle from the moment of arrest and any substantial waiting period before a detainee can bring a first challenge to detention is impermissible.134 In general, the detainee has the right to appear in person before the court, especially where such presence would serve the inquiry into the lawfulness of detention or where questions regarding ill-treatment of the detainee arise. The court must have the power to order the detainee brought before it, regardless of whether the detainee has asked to appear.

Unlawful detention includes detention that was lawful at its inception but has become unlawful because the individual has completed serving a sentence of imprisonment or the circumstances that justify the detention have changed. After a court has held that the circumstances justify the detention, an appropriate period of time may pass, depending on the nature of the relevant circumstances, before the individual is entitled to take proceedings again on similar grounds.

“Unlawful” detention includes both detention that violates domestic law and detention that is incompatible with the requirements of article 9, paragraph 1, or with any other relevant provision of the Covenant. While domestic legal systems may establish differing methods for ensuring court review of detention, paragraph 4 requires that there be a judicial remedy for any detention that is unlawful on one of those grounds.139 For example, the power of a family court to order release of a child from detention that is not in the child’s best interests may satisfy the requirements of paragraph 4 in relevant cases.

Paragraph 4 entitles the individual to take proceedings before “a court,” which should ordinarily be a court within the judiciary. Exceptionally, for some forms of detention, legislation may provide for proceedings before a specialized tribunal, which must be established by law and must either be independent of the executive and legislative branches or enjoy judicial independence in deciding legal matters in proceedings that are judicial in nature.

Paragraph 4 leaves the option of taking proceedings to the persons being detained or those acting on their behalf; unlike paragraph 3, it does not require automatic initiation of review by the authorities detaining an individual. Laws that exclude a particular category of detainees from the review required by paragraph 4 violate the Covenant. Practices that render such review effectively unavailable to an individual, including incommunicado detention, also amount to a violation. To facilitate effective review, detainees should be afforded prompt and regular access to counsel. Detainees should be informed, in a language they understand, of their right to take proceedings for a decision on the lawfulness of their detention.

Persons deprived of liberty are entitled not merely to take proceedings, but to receive a decision, and without delay. The refusal by a competent court to take a decision on a petition for the release of a detained person violates paragraph 4. The adjudication of the case should take place as expeditiously as possible. Delays attributable to the petitioner do not count as judicial delay

The Covenant does not require that a court decision upholding the lawfulness of detention be subject to appeal. If a State party does provide for appeal or further instances, the delay may reflect the changing nature of the proceeding and in any event must not be excessive.

[opencommunion]

Prisoner and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner Club, via RNN Prisoners:

“Summary of the arrest campaign carried out by the occupation for the day 15/11/2023.

Since last night until dawn today, Wednesday, the ‘israeli’ occupation forces arrested at least 78 citizens from the West Bank, including 17 girls (university students) from Al-Khalil. The arrests were concentrated in Al-Khalil governorate, while the rest of the arrests were distributed across the governorates of Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus, and Al-Quds.

The arrest campaign was accompanied by widespread bullying, severe beatings, confiscation of phones, threats against the detainees and their families, as well as extensive destruction and vandalism in the homes of citizens, and acts of terror and threat that reached the extent of directly threatening to shoot.

The Prisoner and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner Club confirmed that with the unprecedented escalation of arrest campaigns, the occupation intensified its arrests targeting all categories, including students at various Palestinian universities. The targeting of students through arrest has been one of the most prominent systematic and consistent policies of the occupation.

Thus, the total number of arrests since the seventh of October has risen to more than 2650, including those arrested from homes, military checkpoints, those who surrendered under pressure, and those held as hostages.

It should be noted that the data related to the cases of arrest include those whom the occupation continued to detain, or those who were later released.”

[hesperocyon-lesbian]

Setting aside your framing of “terrorist” for a sec because frankly it just isn’t a coherent political category and more often serves as a dogwhistle, you know how many Palestinians are held prisoner without charge by Israel right? 1,200. And that’s not including the ones held on trumped up charges. The only difference between the Israelis Hamas holds hostage and the Palestinians that Israel holds hostage is that Hamas treats their prisoners better out of the two.

Multiple protestors calling for a ceasefire interrupt Senator Anthony Blinken during a Senate hearing in which he discussed giving $14.3 billion in aid to Israel (via NBC)

[newstfionline]

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Biden Moves To Lift Nearly Every Restriction On Israel’s Access To U.S. Weapons Stockpile (Intercept) The White House has requested the removal of restrictions on all categories of weapons and ammunition Israel is allowed to access from U.S. weapons stockpiles stored in Israel itself. The move to lift restrictions was included in the White House’s supplemental budget request, sent to the Senate on October 20. “This request would,” the proposed budget says, “allow for the transfer of all categories of defense articles.” The request pertains to little-known weapons stockpiles in Israel that the Pentagon established for use in regional conflicts, but which Israel has been permitted to access in limited circumstances—the very limits President Joe Biden is seeking to remove. “If enacted, the amendments would create a two-step around restrictions on U.S. weapons transfers to Israel,” said John Ramming Chappell, a legal fellow with the Center for Civilians in Conflict. Created in the 1980s to supply the U.S. in case of a regional war, the War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel, or WRSA-I, is the largest node in a network of what are effectively foreign U.S. weapons caches.

House Expels George Santos From Congress in Historic Vote (NYT) George Santos, the New York Republican congressman whose tapestry of lies and schemes made him a figure of national ridicule and the subject of a 23-count federal indictment, was expelled from the House on Friday after a bipartisan vote by his peers. The move consigned Mr. Santos, who over the course of his short political career invented ties to the Holocaust, Sept. 11 and the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, to a genuine place in history: He is the first person to be expelled from the House without first being convicted of a federal crime or supporting the Confederacy. Mr. Santos was once heralded as a sign of Republican resurgence. Instead, he became a Republican Party liability whose vast web of lies and misdeeds led many to question how he had managed to escape accountability for so long.

Haiti’s gang wars having ‘cataclysmic’ impact on access to food staples (Guardian) Haiti’s brutal gang wars have spread from the capital to key farming heartlands, displacing tens of thousands of people and having a devastating impact on access to food staples, the United Nations has warned. Violence has gradually escalated in the Bas-Artibonite region north of the capital, the source of staples such as rice, according to a new report released on Tuesday, which said about 22,000 had been displaced amid murders, looting, kidnappings and widespread sexual violence. Armed with semi-automatic rifles and pistols, gangs have burned houses, attacked irrigation systems, stolen crops and livestock and demanded “taxes” for farmers to access fields, it said. Kidnappings and torture for ransom are also frequent, it said. Initially focused on transport routes, the UN said gangs are now increasingly attacking residential neighborhoods and abducting people en masse, as well as carrying out gang rapes of women and even young children.

Detainees in El Salvador’s gang crackdown cite abuse during months in jail (AP) The day he was arrested, Luis was in a government office trying to get a document attesting to his clean criminal history so he could apply for a call center job. That was April 2022, the month after El Salvador President Nayib Bukele received special powers suspending fundamental rights like access to a lawyer or being informed of why you were arrested. The exceptional powers remain in effect more than 1 ½ years and some 72,000 arrests later. During the 11 months he spent incarcerated, Luis often feared he would die. When Luis arrived at prison with other detainees, barefoot and wearing only boxers, a double column of club-wielding guards awaited. He says the guards beat the inmates when they entered a room to have their heads shaved, and beat them again on the way out. It’s still difficult to think about the abuse, he said, but at least he survived prison, unlike many others who were arrested under the special powers.

Estonia could close Russian border in face of ‘hybrid attack’ (Politico) A dramatic surge in the number of migrants from Africa and the Middle East arriving on the EU's eastern frontier are part of a "blatant hybrid attack" orchestrated by Moscow, Estonia's foreign minister said, warning that crossings from Russia could be banned altogether. In a statement Wednesday, Margus Tsahkna said the Baltic nation is "prepared to close its border with Russia" if the situation continues. Finland closed all its border crossings with Russia earlier this week after Russia allegedly sent over 600 migrants into the Nordic country in just a few weeks.

There are now more land mines in Ukraine than almost anywhere else on the planet (Vox) Russia’s full-scale invasion has made Ukraine one of the most mined countries in the world. In less than two years, the conflict has potentially created one of the largest demining challenges since World War II. This includes anti-tank mines, which target vehicles—though if triggered, they do not distinguish between a battle tank and a school bus. There are also anti-personnel mines, which are intended to kill or hurt people, and more makeshift explosives, like booby traps, that serve similar aims. Unexploded artillery and cluster munitions also litter the landscape. Both sides have been firing off tens of thousands of rounds of artillery each day. Even if only a small percentage of those are duds, they can still detonate, maim, and kill, sometimes long after the fighting. About 174,000 square kilometers of Ukraine is suspected to be contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance, called UXOs. It is an area about the size of Florida, about 30 percent of Ukraine’s territory.

Myanmar’s military is losing ground against coordinated nationwide attacks (AP) About two weeks into a major offensive against Myanmar’s military-run government by an alliance of three well-armed militias of ethnic minorities, an army captain, fighting in a jungle area near the northeastern border with China, lamented that he’d never seen such intense action. His commander in Myanmar’s 99th Light Infantry Division had been killed in fighting in Shan state the week before and the 35-year-old career soldier said army outposts were in disarray and being hit from all sides. “I have never faced these kinds of battles before,” the combat veteran told The Associated Press by phone. “This fighting in Shan is unprecedented.” Eight days later the captain was dead himself, killed defending an outpost and hastily buried near where he fell, according to his family. The coordinated offensive in the northeast has inspired resistance forces around the country to attack, and Myanmar’s military is falling back on almost every front.

Henry Kissinger’s central role in the U.S. carpet bombing of Cambodia (Washington Post) Nowhere is the debate over the legacy of former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger more searing than in the countries that bore the brunt of his military policies, such as Cambodia. Historians say his decisions led to decades of violence that have continued to haunt Cambodian society. For many in the country, Kissinger’s impact continues even after his death. Land mines planted during Cambodia’s three-decade-long civil war, which was driven in part by U.S. interference, are still exploding today. In neighboring Vietnam and Laos, officials are also still undergoing the painstaking process of identifying and removing unexploded ordnance from a war that Kissinger helped to wage five decades ago. From 1969 to 1973, as national security adviser and secretary of state under President Richard M. Nixon, Kissinger directed the carpet bombing of large swaths of Cambodia that U.S. officials at the time claimed were sanctuaries for communist insurgents from South Vietnam as well as North Vietnamese soldiers. Ben Kiernan, a historian at Yale University, has estimated that around 500,000 tons of U.S. bombs were dropped on Cambodia during this period and killed as many as 150,000 civilians. The scale of this bombing campaign was kept secret from the American public for many decades, though leaked and declassified records have revealed that Kissinger personally “approved each of the 3,875 Cambodia bombing raids.”

Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago (NYT) Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out. The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people. The translated document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases. Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision. The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot—all of which happened on Oct. 7. The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities.

The Israeli government has Haaretz newspaper in its sights as it tightens the screws on media freedom (Nieman Lab) Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, may face financial penalties from the Israeli government, which has accused it of “lying, defeatist propaganda” and “sabotaging Israel in wartime.” The move was triggered by opinion columns in Haaretz criticizing Israel’s occupation of Gaza. The government previously enacted emergency legislation to close or signal block foreign media seen as harmful to the country.

Extreme weather helped fuel surge in malaria cases last year (Washington Post) The number of malaria cases worldwide surged by millions last year, the World Health Organization said Thursday—a change driven by extreme weather events such as catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, as well as other conflicts and humanitarian crises that allowed the deadly disease to proliferate. The WHO said the spike came after a two-decade stretch beginning in 2000 that saw global cases of malaria fall from 243 million to 233 million, despite population booms in many parts of the developing world. But in recent years, the agency said, the global case count “was significantly higher than before the pandemic.” There were an additional 11 million recorded cases in 2020, followed by no change in 2021, then an increase of 5 million cases in 2022, the most recent year for which data are available—resulting in about 249 million cases worldwide. “Malaria is not a disease where you can keep a steady path. You’re either winning against it, or you’re losing,” said Peter Sands, the Executive Director of The Global Fund.

Kailasa strikes again (AP) A Paraguayan government official was replaced after it was revealed that he signed a memorandum of understanding with representatives of a fugitive Indian guru’s fictional country, who also appear to have duped several local officials in the South American country. The revelation sparked a scandal—and lots of social media mockery—in Paraguay but it’s hardly the first time self-described representatives of the United States of Kailasa duped international leaders. Earlier this year, they managed to participate in a United Nations committee meeting in Geneva and also signed agreements with local leaders in the United States and Canada. On Kailasa’s website, the fictional country is described as the “revival of the ancient enlightened Hindu civilizational nation which is being revived by displaced Hindus from around the world.” In March, Newark City Hall in New Jersey acknowledged it had gotten scammed when it signed a sister city agreement with Kailasa.

[battleofself-ferino]

Thoughts to Ponder #5

Kabul, Gaza, and Geneva: Echoes beyond Borders

The tumultuous landscapes of Kabul and Gaza have the international community watch in astounding silence and outcry, their cries deaf upon the ears of those who blindly show ignorance and their echoes loud for those whose sincerity for human peace is afloat. As the streets of Gaza and Kabul bear witness to the harshness of conflicts—the unjust dichotomy between combatants and non-combatants—everyone in the international community is challenged to extend beyond their role as passive observers and actively seek to redress the harms of conflicts through Geneva Conventions. 

The attack on Afghanistan after the World Trade Center fell in September 2001 sparked public debates on its category in the sphere of the constitution of an international conflict. It delineated the unconventional means of warfare straying from the traditional sense through inflicting non-traditional violence amongst innocent civilians (non-combatants) and states by groups or political actors without any regard to the rules set by the Geneva Conventions in 1949 particularly in the treatment of the prisoners or war. The Taliban detainees were granted protection under the third Geneva convention through Afghanistan but left Al Qaeda detainees with no protection. This move concurred upon by the U.S. overlooks the very fabric of the third Geneva Convention that addresses all combatant actors involved in the conflict. In fact, it should be viewed that Al Qaeda and Taliban be considered as one under international law, and therefore had to be granted the third Geneva Convention. 

Two years since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the instability within Kabul shackled the people within it. The failure of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces to hold territory provided the Taliban the perfect counter to take over the entire country. For human rights, it was a setback from the right affirmed and provided especially for Afghan women as Taliban’s strict enforcement of their own version of Islamic Shariah was put into action. Despite this, the Taliban needs to follow the rules of international law when it comes to upholding human rights. With political instability rampant in Afghanistan, observing basic human rights is a pillar of humanity that can reverse the ugly tides of conflicts. 

As conflict rages on, Gaza is met with the horrifying realities of casualties under the Israeli occupation. The question of the fourth Geneva Convention is significantly raised upon concerns on the attacks of innocent civilians, mainly the Palestinians of Gaza. Direct and indirect control of the most basic resources in Gaza questions Israel over its breach in international humanitarian law. Cutting off electricity, water, internet, and fuel supply is a direct violation against the principles of the fourth Geneva Convention for blocking humanitarian aid. Moreso of the evident war crimes from both sides persisted, with more than 3,000 Palestinian children harmed and killed over bomb attacks; neighborhoods bombarded with toxic chemicals such as white phosphorus by the IDF. It goes without saying that this is more than just an aggression perpetrated by the combatants, but an extremely inhuman attack carried out without any consideration on its effects on the civilian population. Systematic oppression akin to apartheid to Palestinians is a struggle that the indigenous people of Palestine had to endure since the nakba. 

The situations within Kabul and Gaza greatly reminds us, the international community, to stand up in solidarity and be educated upon the rules and rights infringed in these harsh realities. The cities stand as poignant reminders to act with urgency, compassion, and an unwavering commitment to shape a world where conflicts are mitigated by our collective resolve to protect and nourish the sanctity of every individual’s life. 

Baldwin, Clive. “How Does International Humanitarian Law Apply in Israel and Gaza?” Human Rights Watch, October 27, 2023. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/27/how-does-international-humanitarian-law-apply-israel-and-gaza.   Pradnyawan, Sofyan Wimbo Agung, Arief Budiono, and Jan Alizea Sybelle. "Aspects of International Law and Human Rights on The Return of The Taliban in Afghanistan." Audito Comparative Law Journal (ACLJ) 3, no. 3 (2022): 132-138. Terry, James. "Al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees-An Examination of Legal Rights and Appropriate Treatment." International Law Studies 79, no. 1 (2003): 7. “Instability in Afghanistan | Global Conflict Tracker.” Council on Foreign Relations. Accessed November 21, 2023. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-afghanistan. 

[nwoownews]

Hamas Delaying Release Of Second Hostage Group—Claims Israel Isn’t Following Agreement.

Hamas said it is delaying the release of a second group of hostages it agreed to release under a cease-fire deal with Israel, multiple news organizations reported, claiming Israel violated the agreement that has temporarily halted the ferocious fighting in Gaza.

Hamas said Israel is not sufficiently allowing humanitarian aid to enter northern Gaza and is not releasing Palestinian detainees on the “agreed-upon standards,” Bloomberg and Axios reported.

Hamas and Israel reportedly agreed that the Palestinian prisoners who’d served the most time in prison would be released Friday, but that wasn’t the case, which Hamas argues is a violation, Axios reported, citing an anonymous source with direct knowledge.

Hamas also said Israel flew reconnaissance drones over southern Gaza, a violation of the cease-fire, according to Axios and Bloomberg.

for more trending news - https://nwoow.com/category/trending-news/

[mariacallous]

This June in London, I hosted the first two foreigners to have served time in China’s prisons and gone public about it. There may well be at least 5 million prisoners in China (excluding those in the prison camps of Xinjiang and Tibet), according to former foreign correspondent turned due diligence investigator Peter Humphrey, many of them there for trivial or indeed political reasons, and at least 5,000 are foreigners. As the Biden administration continues a series of visits to Beijing, seeking a diplomatic reconciliation that the Chinese leadership seems to have little interest in, foreign officials should keep the plight of Chinese prisoners in mind.

Humphrey, together with Romanian theologian and teacher Marius Balo, came to London to testify in the British Parliament on forced labor, denial of health care, psychological torture, and mistreatment. Humphrey, who spent 48 years working on China, served two years in China’s prisons on trumped-up charges of “illegally acquiring personal information” of Chinese nationals—as a result of his work as a corporate due diligence investigator—and was denied medical treatment for prostate cancer.

As a result, his cancer was exacerbated, and he fought a life-and-death struggle with the illness for five years after his release. Balo, who served eight years in China’s prisons on false charges of complicity to contract fraud and was released last year, watched at least two fellow foreign prisoners die due to denial of medical care. “The Chinese prison system weaponizes prisoners’ health as an instrument to extort confessions, refusing to provide medical attention to prisoners who refuse to admit guilt,” Humphrey explained.

As the United States seeks to reset its relationship with China, and other democracies wrestle with how to address the challenges posed by Beijing, they must not forget China’s prisoners. Often we think of prisoners of conscience—dissidents, religious practitioners and the millions of Uyghurs and Tibetans in China’s gulags—but Humphrey and Balo are reminding the world that ordinary prisoners detained for alleged crimes are also victims of human rights abuse in China. “In their aggregate,” Humphrey said, “the harsh conditions in China’s pre-trial detention facilities and prisons add up to torture.”

There is simply no access to justice, for a start. “Among the millions of prisoners in the system, not a single prisoner has had a fair and transparent trial. Not a single one,” Humphrey said. “Sentences tend to be reckless, inconsistent, and disproportionate to any offense. So the entire system is arbitrary and subject to the whims of Communist Party officials. The system works in favor of anybody with connections to use the law to bash people they dislike.” Balo agrees. “Justice in China is always based on someone’s whims, the party’s whims, expressed through its foot soldiers,” he said.

During a trial, Humphrey explains, no defense evidence is presented, no evidence contradictory to the prosecution’s is permitted, no defense witnesses are called and no cross-examination of prosecution witnesses is allowed. Indeed, prosecution witnesses are only required to provide written testimonials and are not required to appear in person. In short, Humphrey argues, defense counsels are prevented from conducting any genuine, vigorous defense.

“Police do not conduct investigations with any real detective work or forensic procedures,” Humphrey added. Instead, they rely on extracting confessions from detainees who are “interrogated day by day locked inside a cage” and by extracting “witness statements” that are often coerced. Is it any wonder, he asked, that 99.9 percent of prosecutions result in convictions and sentences, and 99.9 percent of appeals are rejected?

China’s penal system has essentially two principal categories of detention— “administrative” and “judicial”—with three types of jail, excluding the prison camps of Tibet and Xinjiang: detention centers, remand centers, and prisons. Detention centers are run by the police and used for minor crimes, remand centers are used to hold those under investigation (pre-trial detention), while prisons hold those who have been sentenced. But in addition, there are the “black jails” —officially known by the bureaucratic term “residential surveillance at a designated location”—which are secret facilities in which the police behave with impunity and no oversight and into which those detained disappear, are denied legal representation and are cut off from family contact.

In pre-trial detention, Balo was held in a 120-square-foot cage with 10 to 12 other prisoners, none of whom spoke English. He was never allowed out, except for questioning. “I was never tortured physically. Everything was psychological torture,” he said. “I could not contact anyone. I could never see daylight. When I went to court, they shoved a bag over my head.” Each morning, everyone in the cage would wake up at 6 a.m. and be forced to watch cellmates defecate in a hole in the corner, which was the only toilet available. The television above the hole blared out the regime’s propaganda broadcasts.

Both men point not only to the denial of medical care but to systematic forced labor. “China’s entire prison system holding many millions of prisoners is in fact a gigantic, self-perpetuating commercial enterprise, which brings profits to the state, income to prison officers, and funds prison operations,” Humphrey said. “Every prison imposes forced production labor on its prisoners.” In this context, he described, prison officers become “labor supervisors, marketing and sales managers,” and they are paid bonuses for higher output. Contracts with commercial manufacturers are negotiated and won by prison officers.

Prison campuses contain entire factories producing a range of goods for the international markets, ranging from sports shoes, apparel and daily hardware items to electronic products such as keyboards and appliances. Humphrey and Balo both describe watching Chinese inmates marching out to the factories soon after 6 a.m. every day, working 12 hours a day, six days a week and being subjected to writing thought reports and ideological study on the seventh day. “They had to sing ‘the Chinese Communist Party is my mother’ as they marched,” Balo recalled.

Foreign prisoners are generally not required to perform heavy factory labor, but instead undertake manual tasks in a work room in their cell block. This includes making gift bags for retail chains, packaging materials, and packing items such as Christmas cards, plastic tags for retail display racks, keyboards, and breakfast oatmeal sachets. Balo himself packed Christmas cards for the Tesco supermarket chain, and Humphrey witnessed items being produced for brands such as H&M, C&A and 3M.

In recent years, Humphrey has received reports of prison labor production of pregnancy test kits and personal protective equipment. “Chinese prisons make huge profits,” he said. As a consequence, “there is no incentive to release prisoners early. There is every incentive to keep prisoners in prison for as long as possible to squeeze more labor out of them.”

That has implications for companies in the West. Global corporate brands are naive if they believe they can manufacture in China without the risk of forced labor in their supply chains. The United States already has several laws aimed at tackling forced labor and prison labor, including the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which gives authorities the power to block imports of goods suspected of being produced by forced labor.

And while corporate due diligence investigations have always been challenging in China, they have now been made impossible with the introduction of a new anti-espionage law that took effect on July 1. That law protects economic information in a way that could easily result in due diligence being categorized as spying.

Humphrey was jailed because of a due diligence investigation that went wrong. The person he was hired to investigate turned out to be politically well connected, and when she discovered she was the subject of his inquiries, she called the police. Under the new law, instead of facing two years in prison, Humphrey could receive a life sentence for alleged spying if he were still in China. In his view, in these circumstances multinationals cannot satisfactorily check whether a Chinese company is using forced labor or is engaging in other illegal or unethical activities. “The only way to avoid this risk is not to manufacture in China at all,” he said.

If we want to ensure that we are not complicit with forced labor, torture and unjust imprisonment, we need to raise the stakes. Goods made in China should carry a health warning, like cigarettes: “This product may have been made by slave labor.” Mandatory due diligence rules should be imposed on multinational companies investing in China, requiring them to thoroughly and regularly investigate their supply chains. If they are unable to do so due to barriers erected by the Chinese state, they should cease manufacturing in China. Only when the Chinese prison system’s lucrative business profits are threatened will we see the change required.

Doing business in China is always risky. As Humphrey and Balo remind us, the risk includes losing your liberty and potentially your life in a Chinese jail.

[dcnewsroom]

The U.S. Marshals Service has issued a solicitation for the purchase of one large transport category Boeing aircraft to fulfill its mission to transport federal detainees and prisoners in a cost-effective manner, without sacrificing the safety of the public, federal employees, or those in USMS custody. [Full story]