U.S. and the World
Polish Government Agrees to Pay Victims of CIA Torture
The CIA paid Poland as much as $50 million to use the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence base to interrogate prisoners it brought in from other countries. Former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and then-Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who allowed the use of the base, may even be subject to prosecution.
Many Poles feel betrayed that their country, so recently subject to abuses under Communist rule, was used as a torture site by the United States. read more
Pope Francis Ends Vatican Control of U.S. Nuns’ Group
After three years of negotiations, Pope Francis has ended the administration of the U.S. nuns’ leadership group, handing control back to the nuns themselves. Under Pope Benedict, the Vatican initiated the takeover of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), whose members represent about 80% of U.S. nuns. read more
Chinese Government Inc. has Invested $81 Billion in U.S. in Last 10 Years
While Chinese companies are enjoying the benefits of buying up parts of U.S. companies, they’re also taking advantage of their country’s “firewall,” behind which corporate parents hide when their U.S. subsidiaries misbehave. Even serving Chinese companies with legal papers is challenging, with U.S. subsidiaries denying they have a connection to their Chinese parent companies. Some companies even claim immunity from U.S. law. read more
Record Number of Americans Giving Up Citizenship
The United States, alone among developed nations, requires its citizens and permanent residents to file tax returns regardless of where they live or where their income is earned. Such returns became more essential last year, when the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act went into effect. That law requires foreign financial institutions to report account information for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to the U.S. government. read more
Human Rights Watch Calls United States “Strong on Process and Short on Substance”
The U.S. underwent its first Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council in 2010. After the review, the government accepted 171 recommendations. Five years later, the U.S. has followed through on none of those recommendation, according to Human Rights Watch. “At the UN rights review, the U.S. has been strong on process and short on substance,” according to Antonio Ginatta, HRW’s U.S. advocacy director. read more
Corporations are not Afraid of Regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Financial institutions don't appear to be afraid of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency has “a dysfunctional bureaucracy” whose roots go back to congressional decisions, according to James Angel, a Georgetown University professor who specializes in financial regulation. “It will take more than one chair to turn things around,” Angel said. read more
Saudi Military Kills Civilians Using Widely Banned U.S.-Supplied Cluster Bombs
Human Rights Watch said in a new report that it uncovered video, photographs and other evidence of the Saudi air force employing cluster bombs near villages in Yemen’s northern Saada Province on two separate occasions. The group, however, did not directly link any civilian casualties to the use of the controversial ordinance, which has been banned by more than 100 countries under the Convention on Cluster Munitions. read more
What Do We Know about the Torture Photos Obama Refuses to Release?
As it awaits an administration decision this month on the release of photos showing torture of terror suspects, the American Civil Liberties Union has published what it knows about the contents of the still-secret photos. As a result of its Freedom of Information Act request, the ACLU says more than a hundred documents it did receive from the government “either referenced photos related to cases of abuse or actually contained the photos, which were redacted before they got to us.”
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U.S. Cuts back its Watchdogs after Billions Lost and Billions More to be spent on Escalating Afghanistan War
Sopko was told by the State Department that he must remove 40% of his staff from Afghanistan within the year. The reduction will mean the number of SIGAR staff members will fall from 42 to 25.
“Any assertion that the Embassy Kabul unilaterally ordered SIGAR to make staffing cuts in 2016 is false,” a State Department official said. read more
Alarming Conditions at U.S. Air Base in Djibouti
Air traffic controllers, civilians who work for the Djibouti government, regularly nap, listen to music, play video games and text on their mobile phones while directing military traffic from several nations, as well as civilian traffic from major world airlines. Many of the controllers are also resentful of the foreign presence in their country. read more
Good News from the U.S.-Mexican Border
Thanks to an agreement, Minute 319, between the U.S. and Mexican governments, a surge of Colorado River water was released from its floodgates down into Baja California en route to the Sea of Cortez last year. The efforts are paying off. Birds not seen in 50 years, such as the yellow-billed cuckoo, are returning to the area. read more
NSA Used German Intelligence to Spy on Offices of French President and other EU Allies
The American-German cooperation went on for at least a decade. The news is embarrassing for Merkel, who was vocal about the NSA tapping her phone calls. “You don’t spy on your friends,” she said at the time. But Germany’s intelligence agency did just that by sharing intelligence gathered from its “eavesdropping facility in Bavaria to monitor email and telephone traffic at the Élysée Palace, the offices of the French president, and of key EU institutions,” said The Guardian.
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Obama Gave CIA Waiver on Drone Strike Rules for Attacks in Pakistan
The Wall Street Journal has reported Obama “secretly approved a waiver” that gave the CIA “more flexibility in Pakistan than anywhere else to strike suspected militants.” That may have cost two hostages, American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto, their lives. “If the exemption had not been in place for Pakistan, the CIA might have been required to gather more intelligence before that strike,” Adam Entous reported in the Journal. read more
Who are the 8 Americans Killed by Drone Strikes?
Since drones have been employed to kill terror suspects overseas, at least eight Americans have died in such attacks, seven during the Obama administration. One American victim of a U.S. drone mission was Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, the 16-year-old son of al-Awlaki. He was killed in Yemen. The government claimed he was not targeted, but then-presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs said at the time that the death was justified and “he should have had a more responsible father.” read more
U.S. Special Forces Operate in more than 80 Countries
Meaghan Keeler-Pettigrew and Stuart Bradin of the Global Special Operations Forces Foundation argued that more of our foreign military spending ($5.65 billion in 2015), the bulk of which goes now to Israel and Egypt, should instead be used to bolster other countries’ own special forces.
They pointed out recent terrorist attacks in Kenya and the threat posed in Nigeria by Boko Haram. Those countries get no more than $1.2 million and $600,000 respectively in U.S. military aid. read more
Is Facebook’s Internet.org the Anti-Net Neutrality in Action?
Zuckerberg’s plan, developed with manufacturers such as Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Samsung, allows free access via mobile phones in developing areas only to certain parts of the Internet. Surprise—Facebook is one of the applications able to be reached by way of the Internet.org app. Wikipedia is also available as are weather and a few other sites. But if you want to go to a site not on the app, you must either pay a fee or you’re out of luck. read more