At one o’clock in the morning, after a day covering the protests across the Egyptian capital, I found myself in Abdel Munim Riyad square, a downtown traffic junction close to Tahrir, Cairo’s central plaza, which had been occupied by demonstrators for several hours. Egyptian security forces had just launched an attack on Tahrir and thousands of people were now pouring in my direction, teargas heavy in the air. A few hundred rallied in front of me on Al Galaa Street; spying an empty police truck in the road, several people began to smash it up, eventually tipping it over and setting it on fire. In the distance, riot police could be seen advancing from Tahrir. I called the news desk to report that violence was spreading; while I was on the phone the police began to charge, sending me and several hundred protesters running. A short distance away I stopped, believing it safe; a number of ordinarily dressed young men were running in my direction and I assumed them to be protesters also fleeing the police charge behind them. Yet as two of them reached me I was punched by both simultaneously and thrown to the ground, before being hauled back up by the scruff of the neck and dragged towards the police lines.

The men were burly and wore leather jackets – up close I could see they were amin dowla, plain-clothes officers from Egypt’s notorious state security service. All attempts I made to tell them in Arabic and English that I was an international journalist were met with more punches and slaps; around me I could make out other isolated protesters also being hauled along, receiving the same treatment. We were being dragged towards a security building on the edge of the square, two streets away from my apartment, and as I approached the doorway of the building other security officers took flying kicks and punches at me. I spotted a high-ranking uniformed officer and shouted at him that I was a British journalist. He responded by walking over and punching me twice, saying in Arabic, “Fuck you and fuck Britain”. Other protesters and I were thrown through the doorway, where we had to run a gauntlet of officers beating us with sticks. Inside we were pushed against the wall; our mobiles and wallets were removed. Officers walked up and down ordering us to face the wall and not look back, as more and more protesters were brought in behind us. Anyone who turned round was instantly hit. After approximately an hour we were dragged out again one by one.

Around 50,000 people are expected to protest in Egypt on the January 28th 8:00 am (local time) until January 29th 7:30 am (local time). The event is being organised on Facebook with the following description:

“We will go out rallies in all mosques and churches of Egypt’s main heading on the public squares and sit until we receive our rights usurped. Egypt’s Muslims and Christians alike will emerge to fight corruption and unemployment, injustice and lack of freedom. Will be selected mosques and churches on Thursday night.”

سنخرج بمسيرات في كل مساجد وكنائس مصر الكبرى” متجهين ناحية الميادين العامة ومعتصمين حتى ننال حقوقنا” المسلوبة. مصر ستخرج مسلميها ومسيحييها من أجل محاربة الفساد والبطالة والظلم وغياب الحرية. سيتم تحديد المساجد والكنائس ليلة الخميس.”

Egypt protests continue into second day despite ban and police presence

January 26th 2011

Running battles between police and anti-government protesters continued in Egypt for a second day, despite the declaration of an official ban by the government on protests and gatherings, and a massive deployment of police in the country’s capital. Riot police and plain clothes officers armed with staves and bars broke up a demonstration outside one of Cairo’s biggest tourist hotels, the Ramses Hilton, on the banks of the river Nile. Tonight groups of demonstrators and police are still playing a violent game of cat and mouse through the city centre’s streets – with protesters quickly re-grouping after being broken up. The sound of police sirens and detonating tear gas canisters could be heard across the city, in the biggest protests against the regime of 82-year-old president Hosni Mubarak in three decades. Protests took place across Egypt, with gatherings broken up by police outside a number of locations in the capital, including Cairo’s supreme court, Nasser metro station and on Ramses Street.

Police continued to round up scores of people, including photographers and reporters covering the demonstrations. The latest clashes occurred on a day when officials announced that 860 people had been rounded up following mass protests against Mubarak on Tuesday, when at least four people died. The crackdown by authorities brought harsh words from European leaders, who expressed concern and said the events underlined the need for democratisation and respect for human and civil rights. One of the toughest comments came from German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, who said he was “extremely concerned” and called on all involved to show restraint. “We are seeing in the last few weeks that a country’s stability is not endangered by granting civil rights. It is through the refusal of civil and human rights that societies become unstable,” he said in a reference to Tunisia. British foreign secretary William Hague said: “We deeply regret the loss of life in the Egyptian protests. All parties should show restraint and avoid violence. It is important that the government listens to the concerns of those demonstrating and respects rights of freedom of assembly and expression. Openness, transparency and political freedom are important tenets of stability. We urge the government and demonstrators to seek a peaceful way forward.”

Hillary Clinton did not criticise Egypt’s government – a key American ally in the Middle East – saying only that the country was stable and Egyptians have the right to protest while urging all parties to avoid violence. “We believe strongly that the Egypt government has an important opportunity at this moment in time to implement political, economic and social reforms that respond to legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people,” she said at a news conference with visiting Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh. Many of those demonstrators admit to being inspired by the Jasmine revolution in Tunisia, and have adopted some of the same chants and slogans. As in Tunisia, Egyptian opponents of Mubarak have been quick to utilise social networking sites to organise protests, although those appeared to be working intermittently amid claims – denied by the government – that Facebook, at least, had been shut down. “Mubarak never experienced this level of public anger and such a rejection of his legitimacy in 30 years of power,” said political analyst Issandr El Amrani. “This looks quite bad for him.”

Protests in Egypt

4.40pm GMT January 26th 2011

• There has been a second day of protests in Egypt against the government of Hosni Mubarak. The demonstrators want Mubarak to stand down as president and want the government to provide some solution to the country’s economic problems, including serious poverty, rising prices and high unemployment.

• Police have rounded up 860 protesters since yesterday, the Associated Press is reporting. Again they used tear gas and beatings on the demonstrators. Facebook, Twitter and mobile phones have been sporadically blocked.

• European leaders have criticised Egypt, but Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, did not condemn the Cairo government, a key US ally in the Middle East.

• Anonymous, the group that conducted cyber-attacks in support of WikiLeaks, has threatened to do the same to the Egyptian government if it does not stop censoring the media.

4.31pm: The Associated Press is reporting that 860 protesters have been “rounded up” by police since yesterday. In a report on today’s anti-government demonstrations, which took place in defiance of an official ban, police used tear gas and beat protesters to disperse them. The demonstrators are demanding that Hosni Mubarak stands down as president and the government provides some solution to Egypt’s economic problems, including serious poverty, rising prices and high unemployment.

The news agency reports:

“After nightfall today, more than 2,000 demonstrators were marching on a major downtown boulevard along the Nile when dozens of riot police with helmets and shields charged the crowd. It was a scene repeated throughout the day wherever demonstrators tried to gather. The crackdown by authorities brought harsh words from European leaders, who expressed concern and said the events underline the need for democratisation and respect for human and civil rights. However, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton did not criticise Egypt’s government – a key US ally in the Middle East – but only said the country was stable and Egyptians have the right to protest while urging all parties to avoid violence. Activists used social networking sites to call for fresh demonstrations Wednesday. But Facebook, a key tool used to organize protests, appeared to be at least partially blocked in the afternoon. On Tuesday, Twitter and cell phones appeared to be sporadically blocked as well. The interior ministry warned today that police would not tolerate any gatherings, and thousands were out on the streets poised to crack down quickly on any new signs of unrest after clashes yesterday that killed three demonstrators and one police officer.

Early today, thousands of policemen in riot gear and backed by armored vehicles took up posts in Cairo on bridges across the Nile, at major intersections and squares as well as outside key installations such as the state TV building and the headquarters of Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party. Police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of several hundred activists on a main commercial thoroughfare in central Cairo, chasing them through side streets as both sides pelted each other with rocks with hundreds of onlookers watching anxiously. Earlier, dozens gathered outside the Journalists’ Union in downtown Cairo and renewed the chants heard against Mubarak throughout Tuesday’s much larger protests. “Mubarak is leaving, leaving. Oh Egyptian people, be brave and join us,” they chanted. As police charged the crowd, beating them with sticks, they chanted “peaceful, peaceful.” In the city of Suez east of Cairo, an angry crowd of about 1,000 people gathered outside the city’s morgue demanding to take possession and bury the body of one of three protesters who died in clashes on Tuesday.

In the southern city of Assiut, eyewitnesses said riot police set upon some 100 activists staging an anti-government protest Wednesday, beating them up with batons and arresting nearly half of them. “Down, down Hosni Mubarak,” chanted the crowd. “Oh, people, join us or you will be next.” Security officials said up to 200 protesters were detained early today. More were likely to be detained as authorities review police videotapes of the protests, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Egypt protests: Cairo and Suez see clashes with police

Police have clashed with anti-government protesters in two major Egyptian cities following Tuesday’s unprecedented protests, witnesses say. Police broke up demonstrations in central Cairo, beating protesters with batons. Demonstrators also gathered in the eastern city of Suez. Meanwhile security officials said at least 500 people had been arrested in a crackdown against the protests. Public gatherings would no longer be tolerated, the interior ministry said. Anyone taking to the streets against the government would be prosecuted, it added. The BBC’s John Leyne in Cairo says the authorities are responding in familiar fashion, treating a political crisis as a security threat. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif as saying the government was committed to “freedom of expression by legitimate means”, state news agency Mena reported. Police had acted with restraint, he said. However, Washington called on the Egyptian government to lift its ban on demonstrations.

White House spokesman Robert Gibb said it was important for President Hosni Mubarak to demonstrate “responsiveness” to his people. Protesters have been inspired by the recent uprising in Tunisia, vowing to stay on the streets until the government falls. They have been using social networking sites to call for fresh demonstrations, but both Facebook and microblogging site Twitter appear to have been periodically blocked inside Egypt. The government denied it was blocking the sites. Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said it respected freedom of expression and “would not resort to such methods”, Reuters news agency reported.  Following a “day of revolt” across Egypt on Tuesday in which four people died, protesters attempted to stage new demonstrations in Cairo on Wednesday. There were scuffles reported outside the journalists’ union building in central Cairo as hundreds of people gathered to protest. Police beat some with batons and fired tear gas when they tried to break through a cordon, and protesters on nearby buildings threw stones. Reuters news agency reported more clashes outside a central court complex in the city.

Witnesses say riot police have been charging demonstrators throughout the day wherever in Cairo they happen to gather. Meanwhile, in the eastern city of Suez, crowds gathered outside the morgue where the body of a victim of Tuesday’s protests was being kept. One of Tuesday’s demonstrators, Mostapha El-Shafey, told the BBC he planned to join protests again on Wednesday. “I want to see an end to this dictatorship. Thirty years of Mubarak is enough. We’ve had enough of the state of emergency. Prices are going up and up,” he said. Demonstrations are illegal in Egypt, which has been ruled by President Mubarak since 1981. The government tolerates little dissent and opposition demonstrations are routinely outlawed.

Protesters in Egypt greeted by a police crackdown

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — Protesters taking to the streets in Egypt on Wednesday felt the wrath of security forces, a day after an unparalleled display of public rage at the government and full-throated cries for the ouster of the longtime president. Police turned water cannons and tear gas on protesters in the early hours of Wednesday morning to try to break up unprecedented anti-government demonstrations as the Interior Ministry warned it “will not allow any provocative movement or a protest or rallies or demonstrations.” In the heart of Cairo, where people were being beaten with sticks and fists and demonstrators were being dragged away amid tear gas. Witnesses saw security forces harassing journalists and photographers. A minor clash happened in Suez, as well, according to the Interior Ministry. The ministry urged “citizens to renounce attempts to bid and trade their problems and not lose sight of the consequences of provocation for those who attempt to try to open the door to a state of chaos or portray the situation in the country this way.” The clampdown comes after thousands of protesters spilled into the streets of Egypt on Tuesday, an unprecedented display of anti-government rage inspired in part by the tumult in the nearby North African nation of Tunisia. At least four people died in the Tuesday clashes, the Interior Ministry reported — three protesters in Suez and one police officer in Cairo. It also said at least 102 security personnel were injured.

Calling its relationship with Egypt “strong and friendly,” the U.S. State Department regards Mubarak’s help in maintaining security in the Mideast as critical. The government, which has diplomatic relations with Israel, has helped forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians and has helped in efforts to stabilize Iraq, the State Department said. It contributes to U.N. peacekeeping missions, “played a key role during the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis,” and is a “key supporter of U.S. efforts against terrorists and terrorist organizations such as Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, the department said in a background note about Egypt. U.S. military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually, and the U.S. Agency for International Development has passed along over $28 billion in economic and development assistance to the country since 1975. Asked about the protests, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that the United States believes the “Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday that the United States wants “to see reform occur, in Egypt and elsewhere, to create greater political, social, and economic opportunity consistent with people’s aspirations.” “We have raised with governments in the region the need for reforms and greater openness and participation in order to respond to their people’s aspirations — and we will continue to do so, Crowley said.

Clashes erupt as police use tear gas to break up ‘illegal’ protest

Police used batons and tear gas to break up an anti-government demonstration Wednesday; the activists had defied an earlier ban on such gatherings by the authorities.At least 500 people have been across the country, security officials said. Egyptian anti-government activists clashed with Egyptian police  for a second day. Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters continued to stage mass demonstrations around Cairo Wednesday, in defiance of an official ban on any gatherings. Police quickly moved in and used tear gas and beatings to disperse the protesters. According to Egyptian security officials, at least 500 people were arrested across Egypt. The figure includes 90 people in Cairo and 121 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in the southern city of Assiut, the officials told reporters without providing further details.On Tuesday, tens of thousands turned out in several cities for the biggest anti-government protests in years, activists used social networking sites to call for fresh demonstrations. But Facebook, key tools used to organize protests, appeared to be at least partially blocked in the afternoon. Interior Ministry warned police would not tolerate any gatherings, and there was a heavy security presence on the streets, poised to crack down quickly on any new signs of unrest.

Tuesday’s demonstrations were the latest in outbursts of political discontent in Egypt that have been growing more frequent and more intense over the past year. Protests have erupted sporadically over police brutality, poverty and food prices, government corruption and mismanagement, and more recently over sectarian strife between Christians and Muslims. Parliamentary elections in November were widely decried as fraudulent.Many in Egypt see these events as signs of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak’s vulnerability in an election year. There is speculation that 82-year-old Mubarak, who recently experienced serious health problems, may be setting his son Gamal up for hereditary succession. But there is considerable public opposition and, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic memos, it does not meet with the approval of the powerful military. And the regime’s tight hold on power has made it virtually impossible for any serious alternative to Mubarak to emerge. At Wednesday’s protests, police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of several hundred activists on a main commercial thoroughfare in central Cairo, chasing them through side streets as both sides pelted each other with rocks with hundreds of onlookers watching anxiously.

Earlier, dozens gathered outside the Journalists’ Union in downtown Cairo and renewed the chants heard against Mubarak throughout Tuesday’s much larger protests. “Mubarak is leaving, leaving. Oh Egyptian people, be brave and join us,” they chanted. As police charged the crowd, beating them with sticks, they chanted “peaceful, peaceful.” Many protesters say they have been inspired by the uprising in Tunisia – even invoking some of the identical slogans heard in the other north African nation. On Tuesday, protesters clashed with police, who used rubber bullets, water cannons, tear gas and truncheons to disperse them. Three demonstrators and one police officer were killed in the clashes. The crackdown by Egyptian authorities has brought harsh words from European leaders, who expressed concern and said the events underline the need for democratization and respect for human and civil rights. However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton did not criticize Egypt’s government – a key U.S. ally in the Middle East – but only said the country was stable and Egyptians have the right to protest while urging all parties to avoid violence.

For up to the minute news regarding the protests in Egypt log on to Twitter and search for: #jan26

First Street Protest

How a fruit seller caused revolution in Tunisia

(CNN) — One figure has played a pivotal role in the tumultuous events that have swept through Tunisia during the past few weeks, resulting in the fall this weekend of President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali and his regime after 24 years. But Muhammad Al Bouazizi did not live to see the historic outcome of which he was a key part. Al Bouazizi was a poor 26-year old Tunisian who could not find a job after finishing college. He refused to join the “army of unemployed youth,” as it has become known in Tunisia, and instead started a small business as a street vendor, selling vegetables to support his family. His attempt to overcome his poverty in the streets of Sidi Bouzid, central Tunisia, was halted by a police officer who seized his goods, claiming that Al Bouazizi was working without the necessary legal permit.

The exact reasons behind Al Bouazizi’s subsequent outrage are not clear. Some observers allege that the police officer slapped him across his face; others that Al Bouazizi tried to complain at a center for unemployed graduates — but that no one listened to him and he heard only laughter and insults. Whatever his intentions, Muhammad Al Bouazizi’s actions changed Tunisian history. On December 17 last year Al Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of a government building. He remained in hospital for 18 days, fighting severe burns over his entire body. At one point he was visited in hospital by President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and a photo was released of the meeting by the presidency. Khadija Cherif, who works for the Paris-based group Federation of Human Rights Leagues, said he was a “symbol for all the young college graduates who were unemployed, and Bouazizi was a sort of catalyst for the violent demonstrations which followed in the Sidi Bouzid region.”

Rioting followed not only in Sidi Bouzid — a traditional stronghold for opposition against authoritarianism in Tunisia — but across the country as young and unemployed Tunisians took to the streets to protest against living conditions and the economy. Al Bouazizi died of his injuries on January 4: 10 days later Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled with his family to Saudi Arabia. Each year thousands of young men and women from north Africa try to enter Europe illegally, looking for a better life. They call themselves “harraka” — which translates as “the burners” — because the first thing they do when they reach Europe is to set fire to their passports and documents to avoid being sent back home. Many in Tunisia now see Al Bouazizi as a “harraka” — but in his own way.

Opinion: How WikiLeaks helped fuel Tunisian revolution

London (CNN) — Editor’s note: Maha Azzam is an expert on the Middle East and North Africa, and an Associate Fellow at London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House. Corruption has been one of the main features of the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia. It has gone hand in hand with authoritarian control of the state. Opposition groups and the public often spoke of endemic corruption among the Tunisian ruling elite. However, the revelations made by WikiLeaks that in June 2008 the U.S. embassy in Tunis said that “Whether it’s cash, services, land, property, or yes, even your yacht, President [Zine el Abidine] Ben Ali’s family is rumored to covet it and reportedly gets what it wants,” gave even greater weight and proof to an already widespread belief that Ben Ali and his wife’s family, the Trabelsis, were the “quasi-mafia” often referred to by Tunisians. It added to the long list of grievances against a regime that had been in power for 23 years and had remained unaccountable.

With the political and security apparatus under their control, the regime was able to exploit the economic system and the financial sector to enrich themselves. The Ben Ali clan had a hand in every aspect of the new economy, be it duties on imports and exports, media, internet providers, telecoms, banks, shopping centers or property development. According to WikiLeaks, prime real estate was reportedly expropriated from its owner by the government for use by the water authority, then later granted to Mohamed Sakher El Materi — Ben Ali’s son-in-law — for private use. The cables reported: “With real estate development booming and land prices on the rise, owning property or land in the right location can either be a windfall or a one-way ticket to expropriation.” Privatizations offered a valuable channel. Members of the family would buy at a symbolic price and then sell to entrepreneurs at massive profits. They acquired commissions in foreign investments and were often the go-betweens in the award of public contracts. The leaked U.S. embassy cables cited that: “Lax oversight makes the banking sector an excellent target of opportunity, with multiple stories of ‘First Family’ schemes.”

Anyone doing business in Tunisia, be they local or foreigner, would have been aware of the power and control of the Ben Alis, the Trabelsis and the coteries of power that surrounded them. However, the WikiLeaks revelations added to the “disgust” that many Tunisians had already been feeling at the chasm in wealth prevalent in Tunisian society, a country where unemployment runs at 30%. The widespread protests that erupted were due to economic pressures and corruption, but they were also against a political system that abused human rights and showed no respect for the rule of law. A new generation of Tunisians, connected to the internet and using Twitter , was galvanized to action against a repressive police force and security services. Today’s technology provided them with channels that despite their government’s restrictions, proved invaluable in spreading information and support for the protests, while WikiLeaks merely further exposed an already discredited and reviled regime. Others in the region share the same long brewing discontent. The question now in the minds of many is whether the 50-year-old Egyptian who shouted anti-government slogans in front of the Egyptian parliament before setting himself on fire on Monday, and the four Algerians who have done so over the last few days, echoing the action of Muhammad Al Bouazizi, the young Tunisian who set himself on fire and died in mid-December, will help set in motion a similar chain of events.

Tunisia: The WikiLeaks connection

The man now president, Mohamed Ghannouchi was profiled in January 2006 in a secret US cable in 2006, recently released by Wikileaks. “A technocrat and economist, Ghannouchi has served as prime minister since 1999. Is rumored to have told many he wishes to leave the government but has not had the opportunity. Length of his service as PM also suggests Ben Ali [president until resignation] does not view him as a threat and he is unlikely to be viewed as a qualified successor. However, average Tunisians generally view him with respect and he is well-liked in comparison to other GOT and RCD [ruling party] officials.” Then US ambassador William Hudson said: “Given the fact Ben Ali has a dictatorial hold, it is hard to believe he’ll voluntarily step down.” Even so, “the mere fact an increasing number of Tunisians are talking about the end of the Ben Ali era is remarkable.” Publication of WikiLeaks sourced private US comments on the corruption and nepotism of a hated “sclerotic” regime is said to have helped create Tunisia’s protest, and generated talk by US commentators of a “Wikileaks revolution”.

Tunisians savour taste of freedom after Ben Ali ousted

A week ago writing an article for the BBC would have been a sacking offence for Tunisian journalists, writes Haykel Tlili – who works for Le Temps paper, owned by the ex-president’s son-in-law. Here he assesses how Tunisians are taking to changing times. Since the overthrow of President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali last week the people of Tunisia wake up each day in what still seems to be a dream. Sometimes this turns to a nightmare with the sound of gunfire, something Tunisians are unaccustomed to hearing. But there is a tangible sense of joy and pride that people feel about the popular uprising. They are determined not to let what has been dubbed the “Jasmine Revolution” falter as the country accustoms itself to the change of guard.

Change and all that it heralds is being savoured across Tunisia like the smell of the sweet jasmine flower as it opens at night. The latest news about shootings overnight or the arrest of the personal presidential guards is hotly debated in the morning. The announcement of the new government – which contains some of that old guard – has not been met with a ringing endorsement. “We do not want to see any of them in the new Tunisia,” many Tunisians are saying. From Egypt, the foreign minister, who has kept his post, urged Tunisians to remember that the new government is a unity administration. “Its goal is clear, its duration is specified – legally and with the agreement of all parties,” he said, urging calm. However, three ministers from the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) have already resigned, wanting demonstrations “to uproot all that is related to the old ruling party”.

Yet changes are already visible. Tunisia’s media is emerging from the stranglehold of 23 years of authoritarian rule. Journalists working for the Dar El Anwar media group, which publishes three newspapers, have called for the resignation of their editors in chief. “They were appointed by the ancien regime, and they were suffocating our freedom,” says Asma Sahboun, a journalist at Dar El Anwar’s Echourouk paper. Nadia Barrouta, who works for the Assabah newspaper – the largest of the Dar Assabah Group – explains what it was like working for a pro-government publication. “We were not even able to ask critical questions to any of the officials two weeks ago, it’s like a dream now,” she says. Staff where I work at Dar Assabah, owned by the ex-president’s son-in-law Sakher El Materi, who is now in exile in Dubai, have supported the uprising. We are resolute about not jeopardising the freedom of speech that has eluded us in the past.

Regarded by Tunisians as a means of propaganda for the former dictatorship, the media groups are hoping to gain their respect. “The media must become an honest mirror telling them what is really going on,” someone recently said on a television discussion programme. The excitement most people feel about seeing such changes is sometimes overcome by nerves. There are fears of possible conspiracies that could see the return of Mr Ben Ali and the former ruling RCD party. There is also anger in some quarters that human rights activists were let down by the West during the years of RCD rule. After the chaos of the past few days, life is cautiously restarting. And from my perspective as a business reporter, a return to calm is imperative. The turmoil has cost the country an estimated 3bn Tunisian dinars ($2bn; £1.3bn) – and the tourist industry has been badly affected. Many people have been called to resume work at offices, banks and shops. But they will need to know that the way forward will be long and difficult – from the reconstruction of what was destroyed in the protests to the birth of North Africa’s first democracy.

Rural protesters reach Tunis, press government to quit

Protesters from a rural region in central Tunisia where unrest began a month ago have reached the capital Tunis, adding to the pressure on Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi and his newly-formed government to quit. By News Wires (text)  AFP – Some 1,000 demonstrators from rural central Tunisia, calling for the resignation of the transitional government, reached the capital on Sunday. The marchers, from a poor farming region where an uprising against authoritarian rule began last month, called for the resignation of a government put in place after the ouster of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The people have come to bring down the government,” they chanted as they marched through the centre of Tunis.

The “Caravan of Liberation” set off on Saturday from the town of Menzel Bouzaiane, where the first victim of a bloody crackdown on protests against Ben Ali was killed last month. “We have come… to bring down the rest of the dictatorship,” said Mohammed Layani, an elderly man draped in a Tunisian flag. There have been daily protests in recent days calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi, who has been the premier since 1999 and has stayed on despite the downfall of Ben Ali. Protesters have also called for the break-up of the ex-ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally, the RCD, which has dominated Tunisian politics for decades.

Interim president promises ‘total break’ with old regime

A day after quitting the ruling party of former leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia’s interim President Foued Mebazaa promised a clean break with the past as protesters continued to press for the departure of the old guard. AFP – Tunisia’s interim president on Wednesday promised a “total break” with the past and hailed “a revolution of dignity and liberty,” as prosecutors opened a vast inquiry against the previous leader. Investigators will look into the extensive domestic and foreign assets held by former president Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, who resigned abruptly on Friday and fled to Saudi Arabia after a wave of social protests against his regime. “Together we can write a new page in the history of our country,” Foued Mebazaa said in an address to the nation in which he also vowed to ensure an amnesty for political prisoners, media freedoms and an independent judiciary.

The new government is to hold its first cabinet meeting on Thursday amid protests against the inclusion of old regime figures and for the abolition of Ben Ali’s once all-powerful Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party. In his first public appearance since being sworn into office on Saturday, Mebazaa thanked the army for ensuring security during recent days of chaos. “We have discovered those responsible for the terror in our country. We have arrested these armed gangs,” he said. He also paid homage to “the martyrs of dignity and liberty” — a reference to the dozens of people killed in the protests. Thousands of Tunisians rallied against the new government earlier Wednesday. “We want a new parliament, a new constitution, a new republic! People rise up against the Ben Ali loyalists!” some 2,000 protesters chanted at a peaceful protest in the centre of Tunis — one of several around the country.

Negotiations over the inclusion of the main UGTT trade union in the new government also broke down, following the pull-out of four ministers Tuesday. “We cannot take part in a government that includes symbols of the old regime,” Abdessalem Jrad, secretary general of the UGTT labor union after a meeting with Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi. The government meanwhile gave legal status to three parties barred under the previous administration and freed a dissident journalist, Fahem Boukadous, who was sentenced to four years in prison last year for his work. The central bank also took over a bank owned by Ben Ali’s brother-in-law in the first such move against assets controlled by the former strongman’s influential family, which formed the core of Tunisia’s business elite. The authorities also shortened a curfew in place for several days, saying the security situation had improved. But a state of emergency banning public assemblies remains and police have orders to shoot anyone running away. Traffic was visibly heavier in Tunis and some shops and offices re-opened.

Mebazaa and Ghannouchi on Tuesday quit the RCD party, which in various forms has dominated Tunisian politics and state organisations for decades and has been one of the main drivers of public anger in the streets. But Ghannouchi and seven other ministers from the previous government under Ben Ali held on to their posts including the interior and defence ministries. “Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water,” Tunisia’s Le Quotidien daily commented in an editorial that emphasised the new national unity government was temporary and would prepare for democratic elections. “The participation of the RCD in this government should not be a source of discord or a stumbling block,” it said. The tumultuous events in Tunisia — dubbed the “Jasmin Revolution” — have inspired dissidents across the Arab world and sparked protests in numerous countries including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Egypt.

Tunisia’s new leadership is due to hold democratic parliamentary and presidential elections in the next six months, although no dates have been set. Under the constitution, elections should be held in less than two months. The banned Islamist Ennahdha (Awakening) movement has said it will seek to acquire legal status as a political party to take part in the elections. One of Ben Ali’s fiercest critics, Moncef Marzouki — who has said he intends to run in the presidential election — also returned to Tunisia on Tuesday after years of exile in Paris, amid emotional scenes at Tunis airport. On Wednesday he visited the tomb of Mohammed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old graduate forced to sell fruit and vegetables to make a living who set himself on fire last month to protest against the seizure of his stand by police. His suicide sparked off the protests against Ben Ali’s regime. “I’m not here for politics. I’m here to pay homage to a region thanks to which Tunisia is acquiring its freedom. It’s thanks to this region that I am here in Tunisia. It’s my duty to come here,” Marzouki told AFP.

Tunisia’s interim prime minister promises free elections

CNN) — Tunisia’s interim prime minister said Friday that his country would hold its first free democratic elections since gaining independence, vowing to leave politics after those elections. “We want to make the next elections the first transparent and legitimate elections since independence,” Tunisian Interim Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi said Friday on state-run Tunis TV. “After this transitional period — with all honesty — I will leave any political role I have even if I was selected or appointed,” he said. “I will leave political life and retire.” Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956. Ghannouchi’s remarks came in an interview with two independent journalists on Thursday that Tunis TV aired on Friday. Ghannouchi spoke of coming political reforms that he said would “scrap all undemocratic laws including laws involving political parties, the elections, and the anti-terrorism law that was abused by the former regime.” “I lived like all Tunisians, in pain and fear,” under former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali — who was ousted in a rebellion a week ago — Ghannouchi said.

Ghannouchi resigned from his ruling party this week and was appointed interim Prime Minister by the interim President Fouad Mebazaa. Tunisia’s new government is interrogating 33 people from Ben Ali’s entourage, a top official said Friday, while 1,200 others who have “spread terror among the population and carried out unacceptable acts” have been arrested, according to state media. Tunisia’s Interior Minister Ahmed Friaa announced the arrests in a news conference, saying that “33 members of families close to the former president have been brought to justice and are now being interrogated.” “These people’s jewels and huge sums of money in their possession have been seized,” the country’s official TAP news agency reported, citing Friaa, a holdover from the previous government. In the interview that aired Friday, Ghannouchi said, “We have frozen their bank accounts and properties in the country,” referring to assets belonging to families close to the former president. “A judge was appointed to determine how to deal with their wealth,” Ghannouchi said.

He said that the Tunisian government is trying to freeze money belonging to relatives of the former president and said that the money would eventually be returned to the Tunisian people. Former presidential guard director Ali Seriati is among those being interrogated, Friaa said. Friaa also confirmed earlier reports that Imed Trabelsi, the nephew of the ousted president, is among those being interrogated. The identities of those being questioned will not be released until “they are judged,” TAP reported. Some of the 1,200 people arrested by the new government have been released, Friaa said, while 382 others face charges such as carrying illegal firearms, looting and committing violence. Friaa described those who’d been killed in Tunisia’s recent uprising as “martyrs of the Revolution,” according to TAP. He said that all political parties that have applied to be officially authorized “had received positive reply,” according to TAP, including the Green Tunisia Party, the Left Socialist Party and Tunisia’s Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party. Friaa also said that a new group called the Baath Party — which appears to be an offshot of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s party — had also applied for authorization.

Video from Tunis TV showed thousands of protesters in the capital, Tunis, for another day on Friday, calling the new government a sham and demanding that officials with connections to the old guard be fired. On Thursday, Tunisia’s new government announced it will recognize political groups banned under the regime of Ben Ali and grant amnesty to all political prisoners. The Thursday announcement followed the first meeting of the new cabinet formed by the North African country’s interim leaders as they and other former members of Ben Ali’s ruling party tried to climb from under his shadow. Ben Ali’s Constitutional Democratic Rally’s central committee was dissolved earlier Thursday, and all Cabinet members who once belonged to the party have quit it. The party, known as the RCD, suffered a major blow earlier this week when Ghannouchi and interim President Mebazaa submitted their resignations from the party, though they remained in the government, Tunis TV reported. Mebazaa has said he plans to sever “any link with the past,” referring to the unpopular years of the former regime’s authoritarian rule. His government is tasked with leading Tunisia toward new elections.

But for many Tunisians, the resignations and promises are not enough. “The Tunisian people don’t want this party, this dictatorial party,” English teacher Mohammed Basha said. “We want a real revolution. We don’t want any more lies, because we are fed up. Twenty-three years of lies.” Ben Ali ruled Tunisia for 23 years. The RCD initially formed a consensus government with the opposition, but protesters demanded that members of the old administration — whom they called “leftovers” — be swept out of power. Ben Ali’s ouster followed weeks of protests over what discontented Tunisians said were poor living conditions, high unemployment, government corruption and repression. They were sparked when Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed college graduate, set himself ablaze after police confiscated a fruit cart that was his source of income. He died early this month. More than 100 people were killed in protests that followed over the past five weeks, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The fatalities include victims of live fire, suicides and weekend prison riots. The rallies in Tunisia, one of the Arab world’s most secular countries, have ignited unrest elsewhere in the region, including Algeria and Egypt.

Tunisians urge interim PM to quit

As unrest spreads across volatile Tunisia, protestors are mounting pressure on the country’s Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi and his cabinet to quit. Thousands held demonstrations in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia, as well as other cities and protested against the presence of Ghannouchi and other allies to ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the new government. Country’s main trade union also called for a new administration and organized a protest march dubbed the Caravan of Liberation which set off from central Tunisia for the capital on Saturday. Tunisia’s interim prime minister, however, has pledged to leave office after elections, which is expected to be held in the next six months, but he has given no indication of when the vote will be held. “We want to make the next elections the first transparent and legitimate elections since independence,” Ghannouchi addressed the nation on Friday on state-run Tunis TV.

“After this transitional period — with all honesty — I will leave any political role I have even if I was selected or appointed,” he said. “I will leave political life and retire.” Police officers who previously defended the Ben Ali regime have also joined the protests. The ongoing unrest in Tunisia, which led to the ouster of president Ben Ali, seems to be spreading to other North african countries. On Tuesday an Egyptian man lost his life after he set himself on fire on the roof of his house in protest at the dire living conditions and joblessness in the country. Two other Egyptian men that were inspired by events in Tunisia attempted to set themselves on fire in downtown Cairo too. Earlier on Saturday, hundreds of Egyptians gathered outside the Tunisian Embassy in Cairo to show their solidarity with Tunisians and called for protests similar to those in Tunisia. Self-immolation attempts have spread across North African countries after an attempt by an unemployed Tunisian man to set himself on fire sparked an uprising that ended the 23-year rule of Ben Ali.

Caravan rally reaches Tunisia’s capital

A protest march against Tunisia’s interim government has reached the capital, adding to pressure on Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi. Some 1,000 demonstrators from the rural area where protests against Tunisia’s authoritarian rule began had joined the “Caravan of Liberation” to Tunis. They want the resignation of Mr Ghannouchi, who served under ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, and has pledged to quit after elections. A vote is expected within six months. The main trade union, the General Tunisian Workers’ Union (UGTT), has backed the caravan protest, which set off on Saturday from Menzel Bouzaiane – the town where the first victim of the uprising was killed by security forces in December. “The aim of this caravan is to make the government fall,” said Rabia Slimane, a teacher taking part in the caravan protest. A final day of mourning is being observed on Sunday for those killed in the unrest that led to last week’s toppling of Mr Ben Ali, amid speculation as to whether Tunisian unrest could spread to other countries. In Algeria, police broke up an anti-government demonstration on Saturday by about 300 protesters calling for greater freedoms. There were also protests in Yemen against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Mr Ghannouchi has left Mr Ben Ali’s ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) party and insisted that figures from the previous regime who have remained in positions of power – including the ministers of defence, interior, finance and foreign affairs – have “clean hands”. But this has failed to satisfy many opposition figures and protesters. On Saturday, policemen – who had defended the regime of the ousted president – were among those protesting, which the BBC’s Magdi Abdelhadi in the Tunisian capital says marked a very dramatic development. The official death toll during the unrest leading to Mr Ben Ali’s flight was 78, though the UN says more than 100 people died. Authorities have promised to investigate the deaths of protesters. Primary school teachers were reported to be planning a strike against the current government, which could hamper plans to reopen schools and universities this week. They have been closed since the final days of the unrest.

Protests against Mr Ben Ali’s government began in December, driven by economic grievances and resentment about political repression. Particular anger was directed at the former president’s family, widely despised for its conspicuous consumption and perceived corruption. As the protests continued to escalate, Mr Ben Ali and his wife fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January. Tunisian officials say they have arrested 33 members of Mr Ben Ali’s family. On Saturday, AFP quoted a Canadian officials as saying that one of the ex-president’s brothers-in-law had fled to Montreal.

“Making North America Safer”

Security

The threat of international terrorismoriginates for the most part outside North America. Our external borders are a critical line of defense against this threat.Any weakness in controlling access to NorthAmerica from abroad reduces the security of the continent as a whole and exacerbates the pressure to intensify controls on intracontinental movement and traffic, which increases the transaction costs associated with trade and travel within North America.

September 11 highlighted the need for new approaches to border  management. In December 2001, Canada and the United States signed the Smart Border Declaration and an associated 30-point Action Plan to secure border infrastructure, facilitate the secure movement of people and goods, and share information. A similar accord, the United States-Mexico Border Partnership Agreement, and its 22-point Action Plan, were signed in March 2002. Both agreements included measures to facilitate faster border crossings for pre-approved travelers, develop and promote systems to identify dangerous people and goods, relieve congestion at borders, and revitalize cross-border cooperation mechanisms and information sharing. The three leaders pledged additional measures at their March 2005 summit meeting.

The defense of North America must also consist of a more intense level of cooperation among security personnel of the three countries, both within North America and beyond the physical boundaries of the continent. The Container Security Initiative, for example, launched bytheUnited States in thewake of 9/11, involves the useof intelligence, analysis, and inspection of containers not at the border but at a growing number of overseas ports from which goods are shipped. The ultimate goal is to provide screening of all containers destined for any port in North America, so that once unloaded from ships, containers may cross land borders within the region without the need for further inspections.

WHAT WE SHOULD DO NOW

• Establish a common security perimeter by 2010. The governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States should articulate as their long-term goal a common security perimeter for North America. In particular, the three governments should strive toward a situation in which a terrorist trying to penetrate our borders will have an equally hard time doing so, no matter which country he elects toenter first.Webelieve that thesemeasures should beextended to include a commitment to common approaches toward international negotiations on the global movement of people, cargo, and vessels. Like free trade a decade ago, a common security perimeter forNorthAmerica is anambitious but achievablegoal that will require specific policy, statutory, and procedural changes in all three nations.

• Develop a North American Border Pass. The three countries should develop a secure North American Border Passwith biometric identifiers. This document would allow its bearers expedited passage through customs, immigration, and airport security throughout the region. The program would be modeled on the U.S.-Canadian ‘‘NEXUS’’ and the U.S.-Mexican ‘‘SENTRI’’ programs, which provide ‘‘smart cards’’ to allow swifter passage to those who pose no risk. Only those who voluntarily seek, receive, and pay the costs for a security clearance would obtain a Border Pass. The pass would be accepted at all border points within North America as a complement to, but not a replacement for, national identity documents or passports.

• Develop a unified North American border action plan. The closing of the borders following the 9/11 attacks awakened all three governments to the need for rethinking management of the borders. Intense negotiations produced the bilateral ‘‘Smart Borders’’ agreements. Although the two borders are different and may in certain instances require policies that need to be implemented at two speeds, cooperation by the three governments in the following areas would
lead to a better result than a ‘‘dual-bilateral’’ approach:

Harmonize visa and asylum regulations, including convergence
of the list of ‘‘visa waiver’’ countries;

Harmonize entry screening and tracking procedures for people,
goods, andvessels (including integrationofname-basedandbiometric
watch lists);

Harmonize exit and export tracking procedures;

Fully share data about the exit and entry of foreign nationals; and

Jointly inspect container traffic entering North American ports, building on the Container Security Initiative.

• Expand border infrastructure. While trade has nearly tripled across both borders since the Canadian-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and NAFTA were implemented, border customs facilities and crossing infrastructure have not kept pace with this increased demand. Even if 9/11 had not occurred, trade would be choked at the border. There have been significant new investments to speed processing along both theCanadian-U.S. andMexican-U.S. borders, but not enough to keep up with burgeoning demand and additional security requirements. The three governments should examine the options for additional border facilities and expedite their construction. In addition to allowing for continued growth in the volume of transborder traffic, such investments must incorporate the latest technology, and include facilities and procedures that move as much processing as possible away from the border.

WHAT WE SHOULD DO BY 2010

• Lay the groundwork for the freer flow of people withinNorth America. The three governments should commit themselves to the long-term goal of dramatically diminishing the need for the current intensity of the governments’ physical control of cross-border traffic, travel, and trade within North America. A long-term goal for a North American border action plan should be joint screening of travelers from third countries at their first point of entry into North America and the elimination of most controls over the temporary movement of these travelers within North America. Law Enforcement and Military Cooperation Security cooperation among the three countries should also extend to cooperation on counterterrorism and law enforcement, which would include the establishment of a trinational threat intelligence center, the development of trinational ballistics and explosives registration, and joint training for law enforcement officials.

As founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Canada and the United States are close military allies. When Canadian troops hunt terrorists and support democracy in Afghanistan, or when Canadian ships lead patrols in the Persian Gulf, they engage in the ‘‘forward defense’’ of North America by attacking the bases of support for international terrorism around the world.Although Mexico is not aNATOmember and does not share the same history ofmilitary cooperation, it has recently begun to consider closer collaboration on disaster relief and information-sharing about external threats. Defense cooperation, therefore, must proceed at two speeds toward a common goal. Wepropose thatMexico begin with confidence-building dialogue and information exchanges, moving gradually to further North American cooperation on issues such as joint threat assessment, peacekeeping operations, and eventually, a broader defense structure for the continent.

WHAT WE SHOULD DO NOW

• Expand NORAD into a multiservice Defense Command. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has for decades been the primary vehicle for expression of the unique defense alliance between Canada and the United States. As recommended in a report of the Canadian-U.S. Joint Planning Group, NORAD should evolve into amultiservice Defense Command that would expand the principle of Canadian-U.S. joint command to landandnaval aswell as air forcesengaged in defending the approaches toNorth America. In addition, Canada and the United States should reinforce other bilateral defense institutions, including the Permanent Joint Board on Defense and Joint PlanningGroup, and inviteMexico to send observers.

• Increase information and intelligence-sharing at the local and national levels in both law enforcement and military organizations. Law enforcement cooperation should be expanded from its current levels through the exchange of liaison teams and better use of automated systems for tracking, storing, and disseminating timely intelligence. This should be done immediately. In the area ofmilitary cooperation, collaboration can proceed more slowly, especially between U.S. and Mexican militaries. However, the ultimate goal needs to be the timely sharing of accurate information and intelligence and higher levels of cooperation. The United States and Canada should invite Mexico to consider more extensive information-sharing and collaborative planning involving military organizations and law enforcement as a means to build mutual trust and pave the way for closer cooperation in the future. Training and exercises should be developed to increase the cooperation and interoperability among and between the law enforcement agencies and militaries. These steps will provide better capabilities for detectionof threats, preventativeaction, crisis response, and consequence management.

At least one major trilateral exercise conducted by law enforcement authorities and one by the militaries should be established as a goal over the next year. Of course, the extent of cooperation will be affected by the progress of reform of the police forces, customs, and judicial branch in Mexico. In addition to the sharing of information, a Joint Analysis Center should be established immediately to serve as a clearing house for informationanddevelopment of products for supportinglawenforcement and, as appropriate, military requirements.

Copyright © 2005 by the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.

United We Fall (12 Parts)

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H. CON. RES. 40

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 22, 2007

Mr. Goode (for himself, Mr. Wamp, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. Paul, Mr. Stearns, Mr. Duncan, and Ms. Foxx) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

—————————————————————–

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada. Whereas the United States Departments of State, Commerce, and Homeland Security participated in the formation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) on March 23, 2005, representing a tri-lateral agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico designed, among other things, to facilitate common regulatory schemes between these countries; hereas reports issued by the SPP indicate that it has implemented regulatory changes among the three countries that circumvent United States trade, transportation, homeland security, and border security functions and that the SPP will continue to do so in the future;

Whereas the actions taken by the SPP to coordinate border security by eliminating obstacles to migration between Mexico and the United States actually makes the United States-Mexico border less secure because Mexico is the primary source country of illegal immigrants into the United States; Whereas according to the Department of Commerce, United States trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have significantly increased since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); Whereas the economic and physical security of the United States is impaired by the potential loss of control of its borders attendant to the full operation of NAFTA and the SPP;

Whereas the regulatory and border security changes implemented and proposed by the SPP violate and threaten United States sovereignty; Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System from the west coast of Mexico through the United States and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union to facilitate trade between the SPP countries; Whereas the State of Texas has already begun planning of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a major multi-modal transportation project beginning at the United States-Mexico border, which would serve as an initial section of a NAFTA Superhighway System; Whereas it could be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents in the United States, which would likely increase the insurance rates for American drivers;

Whereas future unrestricted foreign trucking into the United States can pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the United States of illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities; and Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System would likely include funds from foreign consortiums and be controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the United States: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That—

(1) the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System;

(2) the United States should not allow the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) to implement further regulations that would create a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and

(3) the President of the United States should indicate strong opposition to these acts or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

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H. CON. RES. 487

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 28, 2006

Mr. Goode (for himself, Mr. Paul, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, and Mr. Tancredo) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on International Relations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

—————————————————————–

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada. Whereas, according to the Department of Commerce, United States trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have significantly widened since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); Whereas the economic and physical security of the United States is impaired by the potential loss of control of its borders attendant to the full operation of NAFTA; Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System from the west coast of Mexico through the United States and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union;

Whereas it would be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents in the United States, which would increase the insurance rates for American drivers; Whereas future unrestricted foreign trucking into the United States can pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the United States of illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities; and Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System would be funded by foreign consortiums and controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the United States: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That—

(1) the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System;

(2) the United States should not enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and

(3) the President should indicate strong opposition to these or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

North American leaders end summit with pact on import safety

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico ended a two-day summit in Quebec Tuesday with a pledge to crack down on unsafe goods flowing into North America, while working to make the two borders more efficient and secure. The move follows recent safety scares linked to Chinese-made products, including unsafe food additives, toothpaste and toys. “We agreed to work together on consumer protection. We have to identify and stop unsafe goods from entering our countries, especially those designed for our children,” said Stephen Harper. The Canadian prime minister, U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon spent more than an hour answering questions at the summit’s final news conference at the posh Fairmont Le Château Montebello, along the Ottawa River.

Security and trade issues dominated the summit as the prime minister and the two presidents met Tuesday with a council of corporate executives, who are pushing for broader co-ordination across North America, from regulatory standards to emergency planning. “Their leaders provided us with important information on how we could exploit our partnership in the field of security and prosperity to strengthen our economics and to create good jobs here in North America,” said Harper. The fact that a meeting was held with the North American Competitiveness Council was a key complaint from critics of the summit, who are upset that their elected leaders are only listening to the corporate elite and refusing to hear from social activists, environmentalists and others. Harper said the three agreed to ensure that security measures imposed in the future do not hurt trade between the countries. “We realize border security must not threaten the friendly relations that we have,” said Harper.

Meetings key to prosperity: leaders

The three men also defended the annual meeting as crucial to the prosperity of the three countries, citing NAFTA with creating more jobs and wealth. Calderon said the meeting has confirmed his belief that North America hasn’t yet reached its full potential. “Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have to act together not only to improve the lives of our people but also to prevent the fast integration process that we’ve seen in other parts of the world…Asia, Europe, specifically,” said Calderon. The leaders downplayed criticism that the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which boosts co-operation in the areas of security, trade and public-health, will lead to a North American union, similar to the European Union. “Look, we have an enormous commercial, trading relationship,” said Harper, who said such criticism in Canada comes from opposition politicians. “It’s important we get together for discussions.” Bush said the criticism is a longstanding and common political scare tactic — setting up a conspiracy theory and challenging others to prove it doesn’t exist. “Some like to frighten our fellow citizens into believing relations … are harmful,” said Bush. “I just believe they are wrong … It’s in our interest to work out common problems for the good of our people.” Bush also addressed Harper as “Stephen” on Tuesday, a change from a much-publicized 2006 news conference where he repeatedly called him “Steve.”

Afghanistan, Arctic on agenda

The three leaders also covered a number of other issues during the closing news conference. Bush praised Canada’s role in Afghanistan, where more than 2,500 Canadian soldiers are serving. Harper on Monday told Bush that Canada would likely not continue in a combat role in the country past February 2009 without a consensus in Parliament. “I believe Canada is doing a fabulous job in Afghanistan,” said Bush. “Canada’s contribution is more than combat. It’s helping to build institutions.” Bush and Harper also acknowledged their difference of opinion on the sovereignty of the Northwest Passage — a claim disputed by numerous countries including the United States, Japan and the European Union. Harper restated his position that Canada intends to strengthen its sovereignty in the region, while Bush repeated he believes the waterway is in international territory. “There are differences,” said Bush. “The U.S. doesn’t question Canadian sovereignty over its Arctic islands and supports Canadian investment to exercise its sovereignty.”  The leaders also pledged to work to find “practical solutions” to environmental challenges, including climate change and energy supplies.

Calderon leaves early

The closing news conference came earlier than expected so that Calderon could return to Mexico to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Dean, a massive storm that is pounding the Yucatan peninsula. Calderon said he had received no word of deaths caused by Dean, but that he was waiting for word from more rural and isolated areas of Mexico. No protesters showed up Tuesday outside the Château Montebello resort where the prime minister and presidents wrapped up their two-day meeting. About 1,200 demonstrators had gathered at the site on Monday, protesting against the war in Iraq, human rights and closer economic ties within North America. One carried a banner that said, “Say No To Americanada.”

In a joint statement issued Tuesday, the leaders agreed to:

• Develop common protocols through the Canada-Mexico-United States Emergency Management Council to manage the movement of goods and people, including emergency responders, across borders during a natural or man-made emergency, such as a terrorist attack or outbreak of avian flu.
• Advance multilateral trade liberalization through a successful conclusion to the World Trade Organization Doha Round of negotiations.
  Strengthen co-operation on identifying and stopping unsafe food and products before they enter the three countries.
• Look for ways to co-operate on national auto fuel efficiency standards and work together to develop clean energy technologies and resolve global warming.
• Streamline regulations and make them compatible in order to enhance the flow of trade on the continent and eliminate redundant testing and certification requirements.
• Better measure the scope of and improve the detection and deterrence of counterfeiting and piracy in North America. Expand public awareness of the importance of intellectual property rights
  in protecting North American economies and consumer health.
• Develop a plan to respond to increasing pressures on American, Mexican and Canadian competitiveness in the global markets.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives have passed a bill to repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, in a symbolic move demonstrating their gains in Congress. The vote fulfils a top promise made to Republican voters in the November’s mid-term elections. Senate Democrats, who hold the majority in that chamber, have signaled they won’t allow a vote on the repeal bill. Republicans have also vowed to deny Mr Obama the funds to implement the law. Republicans won sweeping gains in November’s mid-term congressional elections in part by attacking what they portrayed as a costly and job-killing healthcare law. The bill passed the House in a 245-189 vote, with three Democrats joining the majority Republicans. “Our vote to repeal is not merely symbolic,” Republican Representative Nan Hayworth told the Associated Press news agency. “It respects the will of the American people, and it paves the way to reform our healthcare,” he added. Mr Obama, who signed the healthcare change into law in 2010, has said he will veto the bill to overturn the law if it passes in both the House and Senate. Meanwhile, the renewed debate has given congressional Democrats an opportunity vigorously to defend the law’s more popular provisions.

“Americans deserve the freedom and security of knowing that insurance companies can’t deny, cap or drop their coverage when they need it the most, while taking meaningful steps to curb runaway health costs,” the president said in a statement on Tuesday. But Republicans are challenging the overhaul, which is set fully to take effect in 2014, as unconstitutional in federal court. Sixty votes in the Senate, which only holds 47 Republicans, would probably be needed to overturn the law – if it passes in the House later on Wednesday. Many in the US are already benefiting from the overhaul, which has allowed for extended coverage for young adults on their parents’ healthcare plan and lower prices for prescription medicine for Medicare recipients. The US healthcare reform law was approved in March of last year, making it compulsory for Americans to buy medical insurance and illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage to customers with pre-existing conditions.

17 January 2011

A former Swiss banker has passed on data containing account details of 2,000 prominent people to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The data – which is not yet available on the Wikileaks website – was held on two discs handed over by Rudolf Elmer at a press conference in London. Mr Assange promised full disclosure once the information had been vetted. Mr Elmer is scheduled to go on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday for breaking bank secrecy laws. The banker, who has given data to Wikileaks before, was fired from Swiss bank Julius Baer in 2002. “Evidently disgruntled and frustrated about unfulfilled career aspirations, Mr. Elmer exhibited behaviour that was detrimental and unacceptable for the Bank, which led to termination of the employment relationship,” the bank said in a statement sent to BBC News. “After his demands (including financial compensation) in connection with the dismissal could not be satisfied, Mr. Elmer embarked in 2004 on a personal intimidation campaign and vendetta against Julius Baer,” the statement read.

Although it was not confirmed what activities might be covered by the data Mr Elmer has passed on, the Wikileaks head noted that previous data from Julius Baer provided by Mr Elmer had shed light on tax evasion, the hiding of proceeds of criminal acts and “the protection of assets of those about to fall out of political favour”. The data covers multinationals, financial firms and wealthy individuals from many countries, including the UK, US and Germany, and covers the period 1990-2009, according to a report in Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag. “Once we have looked at the data… there will be full revelation,” said Mr Assange, who is currently on bail and confined to the UK due to an extradition request from Sweden. The Wikileaks founder has been accused of sexual misconduct by two women in Sweden, including having unprotected sex without consent – accusations he denies.

Speaking at the handover event at the Frontline Club, he said the data would be vetted before publication. It was difficult to say how long this would take, he said, although he suggested it could be as little as two weeks. The vetting would depend on the volume of information and how it was delegated, Mr Assange said. Other groups – such as the Tax Justice Network or financial media outlets – might be asked to help in the vetting process, he added. Mr Assange also said some information was likely to be handed over to the authorities – mentioning specifically the UK’s Serious Fraud Office – as was the case with a previous leak concerning Icelandic banks. “I’m against the system. I know how the system works,” said Mr Elmer at the press conference. He said a sophisticated network existed to funnel illicit money into secret offshore accounts. “I’ve been there. I’ve done the job. I know what is the day-to-day business,” he said, explaining why he thought it important to identify himself as the source.

The banker, who worked as Julius Baer’s chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands, said he and his family faced pressure akin to “a fire-breathing dragon with several heads” after he decided to blow the whistle. He said he was put in prison in Switzerland for 30 days for violating Swiss banking rules, and that he was offered money and the withdrawal of charges against him in order to buy his silence. The data included the offshore accounts of about 40 politicians, he said, and covered accounts at three banks, including his former employer. The banker also said that he and his wife had written a letter to German Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck, offering to provide the data for free, but received no response.

Mr Elmer – who runs his own whistle-blowing website – said the data he was providing had been passed to him by various sources that he would keep anonymous. “I am taking the responsibility for this,” he said. He is already facing trial in Switzerland for a previous data leak, and has admitted breaking some laws. However, Mr Elmer claimed he did not breach Swiss banking secrecy rules, as he said all of the information related to the Cayman Islands and therefore lay outside Swiss jurisdiction.

1st December 2010

Is Bank of America WikiLeaks next target? Website boss pledges to release new dossier that will rival Enron scandal

The financial system is today bracing itself for a fresh scandal after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange revealed the next target of his whistle-blowing website will be a major U.S. bank. While Assange – the man behind the diplomatic dossier which this week rocked the Obama administration – did not say which bank will be exposed or when it will happen, he revealed in a 2009 interview with news website Computerworld that his organisation had obtained large amounts of data from the hard drive of an unnamed Bank of America executive. Although he has yet to provide any details of the dossier, he compared the information contained in the documents with the Enron scandal. His threat will reverberate throughout Wall Street as bankers fear they too will be subjected to damaging revelations. Assange told Forbes magazine: ‘It (the WikiLeaks dossier) will give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume.’

‘You could call it the ecosystem of corruption,’ Assange added. ‘But it’s also all the regular decision-making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices: the oversight that’s not done, the priorities of executives, how they think they’re fulfilling their own self-interest. He promised tens of thousands of documents from a major U.S. financial firm will hit the web sometime in early 2011.’It’s not as big a scale as the Iraq material, but it’s either tens or hundreds of thousands of documents depending on how you define it.’ He would not name the firm but called it a ‘big U.S. bank.’ He claimed the dump would have a similar impact as the Enron scandal. ‘When Enron collapsed, through court processes, thousands and thousands of emails came out that were internal, and it provided a window into how the whole company was managed,’ he explained to Forbes.

‘It was all the little decisions that supported the flagrant violations.’ But he backed away from calling the bank’s actions criminal. ‘All I can say is it’s clear there were unethical practices, but it’s too early to suggest there’s criminality. We have to be careful about applying criminal labels to people until we’re very sure.’ Assange has been criticized for targeting the US government and military with WikiLeaks, but he says he just posts what he gets. ‘People say, why don’t you release more leaks form the Taliban. So I say hey, help us, tell more Taliban dissidents about us,’ he told Forbes. The anti-American criticism comes as the Obama administration opens a criminal investigation into Assange for possible espionage. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will today be the first American politician to face the possible wrath of world leaders humiliated in secret documents released by the whistleblowing website.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has said the international currency system dominated by the US dollar is a “product of the past”. Mr Hu also said China was taking steps to replace it with the yuan, its own currency, but acknowledged that would be a “fairly long process”. The remarks to two US newspapers come ahead of a state visit by the Chinese leader to Washington this week. They reflect continuing tensions over currency issues between the two powers. In a rare interview published in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, Mr Hu also reiterated criticism of a decision by the US Federal Reserve to inject $600bn into the economy, which some argue will weaken the dollar at the expense of other countries’ exports.

“The monetary policy of the United States has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the US dollar should be kept at a reasonable and stable level,” President Hu said. ‘Important contribution’ He meanwhile disagreed with suggestions that letting the yuan appreciate in value would help China to combat inflation. Beijing has previously come under pressure over its currency from the US, which has accused China of allegedly manipulating the yuan to help boost Chinese exports. Despite criticism of the current system, Mr Hu said he believed it would be a long time before the yuan – or renminbi (RMB) – was accepted as a global currency. “China has made important contribution to the world economy in terms of total economic output and trade, and the RMB has played a role in the world economic development,” he said. “But making the RMB an international currency will be a fairly long process.”

Hu calls currency system ‘product of the past’

AFP – China’s President Hu Jintao said Sunday the international currency system was “a product of the past,” but it would be a long time before the yuan is accepted as an international currency. Hu’s comments, which came ahead of a state visit to Washington on Wednesday, reflected the continuing tensions over the dollar’s role as the major reserve currency in the aftermath of the US financial crisis in 2008. “The current international currency system is the product of the past,” Hu said in written answers to questions posed by The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Highlighting the dollar’s importance to global trade, Hu implicitly criticized the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to pump 600 billion dollars into the US economy, a move criticized as weakening the dollar at the expense of other countries’ exports. “The monetary policy of the United States has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the US dollar should be kept at a reasonable and stable level,” Hu said. China’s own currency, the yuan or renminbi (RMB), is also expected to be a bone of contention in Hu’s talks with Obama, with the United States complaining that it is artificially overvalued to boost Chinese exports.

Asked about the view that appreciation of the yuan would curb inflation in China, Hu suggested that was too simplistic a formula. “Changes in exchange rate are a result of multiple factors, including the balance of international payment and market supply and demand,” he said. “In this sense, inflation can hardly be the main factor in determining the exchange rate policy,” he said. At the same time, Hu signalled no imminent move away from the dollar as a reserve currency, saying it would be a long time before the yuan, or renminbi (RMB), is widely accepted as an international currency. “China has made important contribution to the world economy in terms of total economic output and trade, and the RMB has played a role in the world economic development,” he said. “But making the RMB an international currency will be a fairly long process.” Nevertheless, Hu noted that China has launched pilot programs using the yuan, or renminbi, in settlements of international trade and investment transactions. “They fit in well with market demand as evidenced by the rapidly expanding scale of these transactions,” he said.

Latest Video to surface from Jared Lee Loughner

View Count: 4 Date: September 24, 2010

This school is with a majority of illiterate students that are in a genocide country. The teachers are illiterate. The debt that is in charge is illegal. I don’t trust in god. First Amendment – Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Fifth Amendment – No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Section 10 – Powers prohibited of States (Gold and Silver) No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. Section 8 – To promote the …

Profile: Gabrielle Giffords

Gabrielle Giffords was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, near the district she has represented for over four years. The 40-year-old is described as a trailblazer – the youngest woman elected to Arizona’s state senate, the first Jewish representative from the state and its third female to be elected to Congress. She is married to an astronaut, Mark Kelly, who has two children from an earlier marriage. Ms Giffords, a Democrat, is proud of her south-western roots, professing her love of trucks and motorcycles, having served as co-chair of the motorcycle caucus on Capitol Hill. She has said one of her dreams is to ride a motorbike to Argentina. One of her first acts in Congress was to push for a national day in recognition of cowboys. She is also a gun owner. Ms Giffords began her career working for the family tyre company after her father fell ill. At the time she was a registered Republican with no political ambitions. She sold the business before running for state office. A former Fulbright scholar who studied in Mexico, she has a masters degree in urban planning from prestigious Cornell University, a member of the so-called Ivy League. Considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, The New York Times predicted that Ms Giffords would one day run for Arizona’s governorship.

Robert Reich, who served as President Bill Clinton’s labour secretary in the 1990s, once told the Arizona Republic newspaper that she could run for the highest office in the land. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the first or second female president of the United States. She’s of that caliber,” he said. Ms Giffords was elected to the Arizona legislature in 2000, when she was just 30. After two years in the state House of Representatives, Ms Giffords successfully ran for the state senate where she served for six years. She resigned in order to run for national office. She is well known in her district for holding hundreds of meetings there each year. She met her husband – Nasa astronaut Mark Kelly, who has piloted the space shuttles Endeavour and Discovery – on a fellowship programme for young US and Chinese leaders in 2003. The couple married in 2007, and her wedding ring is inscribed: “You’re the closest to heaven that I’ve ever been.”

He flew from his Houston base to be at her hospital bedside on Saturday. Capt Kelly – who is reportedly training to be the next commander of a space shuttle mission scheduled for April – has a twin brother who is also an astronaut serving aboard the International Space Station. Politically, Ms Giffords is a centrist, as are most Democrats from her state. She is part of the blue dog caucus in the House of Representatives, a group of fiscally conservative, moderate Democrats. She upset Arizona conservatives by supporting President Barack Obama’s health-care reform bill, a move which landed her on Sarah Palin’s list of politicians to remove from office in the mid-terms last November. She faced a tough challenge from a Tea Party candidate, Jesse Kelly, but won by a narrow margin of just 4,000 votes.

Although she voted against President George W Bush’s economic bail-out bill in 2008 – the bill ultimately failed – she voted for Mr Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act the following year. Ms Giffords has advocated for immigration reform, and supported legislation that included a guest worker programme and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants – measures that are deeply opposed by most conservatives. She has also expressed support for alternative energy, in particular, solar power. Ms Giffords is passionate about military issues and served on the Armed Services Committee. Military contractors are a big employer in her district. She has been deeply engaged in military issues, helping craft the GI bill which assists veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict in obtaining college degrees.  Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said she was “a huge voice for veterans and the military”. During the last Congress she chaired the space and aeronautics committee.

American congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot in head

At least 11 others including some of her staff members were reported to have been injured, some seriously, and six people have died. Surgeons told a press conference that they were “very optimistic” that Miss Giffords would survive. Miss Giffords’ aide was reportedly killed in the attack, as was federal Judge John Roll. Some reports said a child may have been injured. Miss Giffords, 40, who is married to astronaut Mark Kelly, was talking to a couple outside a Safeway grocery store when the attacker ran up and opened fire indiscriminately. The gunman was named by police as Jared Loughner, 22. Andrea Gooden, an eyewitness who was working across the road from the scene, said: “I heard about 15 shots. Then there were people racing across the parking lot.” She said there were many sheriffs and firefighters on the scene within minutes. A respected US website reported another eye-witness, Steven Rayle, who was on the scene at the time of the shooting and helped to hold the suspect down while waiting for police. He told Gawker.com: “The event was very informal: Giffords had set up a table outside the Safeway and about 20-30 people were gathered to talk to her. The gunman, who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Giffords in the head first.” According to Mr Rayle, who is a former Accident and Emergency doctor, Giffords was able to move her hands after being shot. Miss Giffords had been named in March as a political campaign target for conservatives in November’s elections by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin for her strong support for the health reforms of President Barack Obama.

Mrs Palin had published a “target map” on her website using images of gun sights to identify 20 House Democrats, including Miss Giffords, for backing the new health care law.  The congresswoman, who is Jewish, is a gun-owner and supporter of the right to bear arms. She was also a strong advocate of abortion rights. She won re-election to her third term in Congress last year, beating off a challenge for a Republican candidate endorsed by the Tea Party. Law enforcement officials told local media that a suspect was in custody. Witnesses said that the gunman was tackled to the ground by a bystander as he attempted to flee the scene of the shooting. Miss Giffords, who was first elected to Congress in 2006 and was re-elected for a third time in November, had just returned from Washington to Arizona after being sworn in to the new House. She had sent a message on the social networking site Twitter inviting constituent to a “Congress on Your Corner” event. “Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later,” she wrote. In a message earlier in the day, she said: “So good to be home. Happy New Year!”  Her husband, who she married three years ago, is a veteran of the Desert Storm military campaign against Iraq and he has two children from his first marriage. A veteran of three spaceflights and a highly popular member of Nasa’s astronaut corps, he had been due to command the last scheduled flight of the space shuttle programme in April, aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.

His identical twin, Scott Kelly, also an astronaut, is currently stationed 220 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station. Born in Tucson, Miss Giffords was a target of conservative Republican campaigning for her enthusiastic backing of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms and last year complained that her office in Tucson had been attacked by vandals. It is believed to be the first time that a woman politician has been the object of an assassination attempt in America, a country where elected leaders have often been the subject of attacks. US President Abraham Lincoln was shot dead while at the theatre with his wife in 1865. Another US president, James Garfield, was assassinated in 1881. President John F Kennedy was shot while driving through Dallas, Texas, in an open topped car in November 1963. His brother Robert, a senator and presidential candidate was shot dead in 1968. President Ronald Reagan survived an attempted assassination in 1981, when John Hinckley Jnr fired shots at him in the hope of impressing the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed. The black nationalist leader Malcolm X was killed while addressing a crowd in New York city in February 1965, while Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the States, was shot dead in November 1978.

Jared Lee Loughner: ‘mentally unstable dropout’ who had met Gabrielle Giffords before

Videos and statements posted on the internet by Loughner, 22, featured incoherent statements about terrorism, mind control, currency and the government. It was reported Loughner had been rejected by the US Army after failing a drugs test. He had previously been in trouble with the police over possession of drugs paraphernalia. It emerged that Loughner had been suspended from Pima Community College last September after campus police discovered a disturbing video posted on YouTube in which he ranted against the college. He had been disciplined over up to five “classroom and library disruptions”. Caitie Parker, a former classmate, said Loughner had met Gabrielle Giffords at an event in 2007. He “asked her a question and he told me she was ‘stupid and unintelligent’,” she said. Clarence Dupnik, the Pima County Sheriff, said that Loughner had been in contact with Miss Giffords’s office about the event. Other fellow students recalled troubling behaviour, including an incident in which Loughner upset a classmate. “A girl had written a poem about an abortion,” one, Lydian Ali, said. “It was very emotional and she was teary eyed and he said something about strapping a bomb to the foetus and making a baby bomber.”  Lynda Sorenson, another student who took classes with Loughner, told local media he was “obviously very disturbed”. She added: “He disrupted class frequently with nonsensical outbursts.” The college said it had written to Loughner’s parents, Amy and Randy Loughner, on October 7 about his suspension.

They said that to return, he must “obtain a mental health clearance indicating, in the opinion of a mental health professional, his presence at the College does not present a danger to himself or others”. Six weeks later, Loughner allegedly legally purchased a Glock 19 9mm semi-automatic handgun that was used on Saturday from a sports shop in Tucson, federal law enforcement officials said. Sheriff Dupnik said yesterday they believed the gunman was “unstable”. He told reporters: “There’s reason to believe that this individual may have a mental issue”. It was reported that the Department of Homeland Security was investigating whether Loughner was “possibly linked” to American Renaissance, a fanatical anti-Semitic group. Miss Giffords is “the first Jewish female elected to such a high position in the US government”, a department memo reportedly said, and may have been targeted because of this. Jared Taylor, the editor of the group’s website, described the claims as “complete nonsense” and said Loughner did not appear on their membership lists. Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, declined to comment directly on the claim but said his agents were analysing computers seized from Loughner’s house. Neighbours said that little was known locally about the Loughners, who are not thought to have other children. They live in a small home in the Orangewood Estates area to the north of Tucson. Gabriella Carillo, another fellow student, said the 22-year-old had been an intelligent teenager who had grown up not wanting to apply himself. “If he tried, he would probably be at the top of our class,” she said. “But he kind of just wasted his life. There are some guys who are just angry. I never really saw a smile on his face at all.”

Arizona shooting: Jared Loughner was urged to seek help

Mr Loughner is accused of killing six people and injuring 14, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, outside a supermarket in Tucson on Saturday. The mental health of the 22-year-old, who is being held in a US prison in northern Arizona after being declared a “danger to the community” in his first court appearance, is likely to be crucial to his trial. He received advice on the issue from a contributor at Above Top Secret, an internet forum for conspiracy theorists, where he appears to have left dozens of postings. A member assumed to be Mr Loughner posted a string of incoherent messages almost identical to texts in the home-made video clips that were unearthed after his arrest. Using the name erad3, he suggested NASA’s shuttle and Mars missions were faked, argued the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were illegal and railed against God. In a discussion apparently started by Mr Loughner last July about currencies – a common theme in his online trail – a member using the name mordant1 intervened. “I think you’re frankly schizophrenic, and no that’s not an amateur opinion and not intended as an uninformed or insulting remark,” he said. “You clearly make no sense and are unable to communicate. I really do care. Seek help before you hurt yourself or others or start taking your medications again, please.” The contributor assumed to be Mr Loughner replied: “Thank you for the concern.” The forum administrators said there was an “overwhelming amount of anecdotal evidence to support the notion that the ‘erad3’ member account here is Jared Loughner”. But they insisted he had left “no clues” in his postings, the last of which was on July 13, to suggest he represented anything more dangerous than “someone struggling with unanswered questions”.

It also emerged that Mr Loughner telephoned a friend at 2am on Saturday morning, eight hours before the shootings. The friend, Bryce Tierney, also 22, was awake but ignored the call. Mr Loughner said in a voicemail: “Hey man, it’s Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later.” Asked if he regretted not picking up, Mr Tierney told an interviewer: “I sort of wish I would have. I wonder what would have happened if I answered it.” The discoveries came amid the first news on Mr Loughner’s parents, Amy and Randy, who have not spoken publicly since Saturday’s killings. They have barricaded the front of their bungalow. “They are very devastated about the whole thing,” a neighbour, Wayne Smith, told local radio. “She’s in really bad shape and we’re hoping we don’t have to take her to the hospital. He’s a mess. They can’t talk without breaking down and just crying,” Mr Smith said, adding that he had broken news of the killings to the Loughners on Saturday as they returned from grocery shopping. Mrs Loughner “almost passed out”, he said, while Mr Loughner “sat in the road” and cried. Mr Loughner is said to have been unemployed since Jared’s birth. Neighbours described him as reclusive and aggressive. Mrs Loughner works for the Pima County Department of Parks and Recreation. Mr Smith said Mr Loughner was preparing to issue a statement about their son’s alleged murders.

 Jared Loughner: Understanding the Arizona Shooter from the Inside Out

Over the next few days to weeks, we will try to piece together what could have caused Jared Lee Loughner to attempt to assassinate Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, kill six and wound fourteen others. We will learn of a long trail of “red flags,” and questions as to why there was not some earlier intervention will arise. We will hopefully nail down whether this was the act of a lone individual or part of some conspiracy. Forensic and other psychiatrists will weigh in on this being the act of an untreated, mentally disturbed and psychotic individual. Political extremist groups will be — if you pardon the bad taste — targeted as contributing to what may have triggered Loughner. And, of course, we will have the benefit this time of a living perpetrator, so we will no doubt learn a number of answers from Loughner himself. However, even when he opens up, we may learn little more than that we are dealing with a psychotic, paranoid if not schizophrenic person. This situation and the information coming out about Loughner has caused me to try to understand what could have caused his action, drawing on my 30 years as a clinical psychiatrist and behavioral analyst.  From listening to many suicidal and rageful/violent people and hearing information similar to what we are beginning to learn about Loughner, I believe that four factors may have contributed to his actions. (This is not in any way to excuse his heinous acts, but to gain a better understanding of his psyche so that we might prevent such tragedies in the future).

1.Prisoner of his own imagination*: When someone is a loner and not regularly in conversation with others, they run the risk of their imagination obscuring their contact with reality. In fact, most people have experienced their imaginations taking over when under stress and lying awake at 3 a.m., unable to fall to asleep or shut their mind off. Furthermore what if someone’s imagination caused them to feel as if the world (both real and on the Internet) was continually trying to either control them (with rules), reject them (as we know from his attempt to enlist in the armed services) or laugh at them (more likely a nervous laugh from people feeling anxious around them)? What effect might that have on someone’s psyche?

2.Reality-based persecutory fantasies: Much of Loughner’s paranoia about government control, etc. is likely delusional, but there is one area where his persecutory beliefs are grounded in reality. When someone acts bizarre and rants and raves in public, they do trigger fearfulness and avoidance in those around them. And if that someone has no awareness or insight that they are triggering such reactions, they will come to perceive that those people who are acting awkwardly are out to get them, when in reality they are out to avoid them.

3.Loss of executive function: The less one is able to use the reasoning part of their mind and upper brain to do a reality check on their perception and their runaway imagination, the more they become prey to being controlled by their emotional middle brain and “fight or flight” lower brain. A person’s lowest and most primitive brain works more according to reflex than to reason, and there is also a tendency to react back at the world at an equal, “eye for an eye” level of intensity to the way they perceive the world has treated them. Therefore, the more Loughner perceived that the world was after him (because in fact the world was indeed trying to avoid him when he acted crazy), the more he felt the need to get back at it in a more massive way than a single, focused murder.

4.Revenge of the “nobody”: In this world, many people suffer from “somebody envy.” To many people, being “anybody” can feel like being “nobody.” That may explain some of the massive appeal of shows like “American Idol,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “The Biggest Loser,” etc. where “anybodies” get to become “somebodies.”

Worse than being a “nobody” is feeling put down and pushed away, as Loughner may have experienced with the multiple rejections in his life. And when people with a disturbed mind such as Loughner feel put down and pushed away, they often find a way to get back in and get even. *Many mental health professionals and others will say, “This is much more than a wayward imagination; this is delusional and psychotic thinking that requires treatment, including medication.” That is all true, but the challenge is how to gain cooperation and with it, the willingness to comply with and then continue treatment and medication. Unfortunately, establishing sufficient trust with a paranoid individual to cause them to be williing to cooperate with treatment, especially when there will be many uncomfortable side effects, is often a painstakingly long and frustrating process. Much of psychopharmacologic research is aimed at finding medications that have fewer of those side effects so that there might be greater cooperation and compliance. My aim in laying out the four factors above is that they may enable a conversation to take place with these individuals that is sufficiently empathic to tip the scale towards cooperation. One of my mentors once told me, “When you get where people are coming from and care and understand them when you’re there, they’re more likely to cooperate with where you’d like them to go.”

youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNxDoYmVzas]

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Profile of suspect Jared Loughner: ‘I can’t trust the current government’

“I can’t trust the current government,” and “I’m a sleepwalker,” Jared Lee Loughner proclaimed in an Internet video before the shooting of a federal judge, congresswoman and others on Saturday in Tucson. His rambling videos had already caused him trouble at school, scaring his community college into suspending him in September. In early October, he agreed to withdraw from school. By November, Loughner had bought a Glock, purchased legally from a Sportsman’s Warehouse in Tucson, the Associated Press and Washington Post reported. Federal sources identified Jared L. Loughner, 22, of Tucson, as the suspected gunman in the shooting Saturday at a meet-the-constituents meeting in Tucson. Public records in Arizona showed a Jared L. Loughner, born in September 1988, which would make him 22 years old. He was living on Soledad Avenue in Tucson, about a five-mile drive from the Safeway store where the shooting occurred, in the Foothill Malls area.

Pima Community College, in Tucson, issued a statement identifying Loughner as the suspect. It said he was a student from the summer of 2005 to fall of 2010, but he was suspended Sept. 29 for conduct violations. It said he agreed to withdrew from the college on Oct. 4. The college said that from February to September of 2010, Loughner had five contacts with college police for disrupting classrooms and the library. It said he was prohibited from returning to the college. A spokesman for the college said Loughner’s videos troubled administrators and campus police, leading to his suspension. In one video, he “claims that the College is illegal according to the U.S. Constitution, and makes other claims,” the college’s statement said.  Video: Clearer picture emerges of alleged Ariz. shooter Loughner and his parents, Amy and Randy Loughner, met with administrators, who required him to be obtain a certification that “in the opinion of a mental health professional, his presence at the College does not present a danger to himself or others.”college. The college didn’t say whether Loughner ever saw a psychiatrist or was being treated for any disorder. Records from a public records service showed only a minor criminal charge against a Jared L. Loughner with the same date of birth, though such records can be incomplete. The Arizona Republic reported that the charge was for possession of drug paraphernalia. The charge was dismissed in 2008 by the city attorney after Loughner entered a pre-trial diversion program.

Tamara Crawley, director of the Marana Unified School District in Tucson, said Loughner attended Mountain View High School in Tucson for three years but withdrew after completing his junior year in 2006. Crawley said she did not know why Loughner had withdrawn from Mountain View High, and it was not clear if he had transferred to another school in the area. Lynda Sorenson said she took a math class with Loughner last summer at Pima Community College’s Northwest campus and told the Arizona Daily Star he was “obviously very disturbed.”  “He disrupted class frequently with nonsensical outbursts,” she said. Federal law enforcement officials were poring over copies of a MySpace page that belonged to Jared Loughner, as well as YouTube videos published to the Internet weeks ago under an account “Classitup10” and identifying the author as Jared Lee Loughner. Thusfar there has been no official confirmation that the man who posted the videos is the same man who is suspected in the shooting, and no charges against Loughner have been announced. The videos are not blatantly political, in the sense that they do not mention the congresswoman or federal judge that he’s suspected of shooting, nor any specific legislation. They do complain that too few people in the area speak English — immigration has been a hot-button political issue, particularly in the border state of Arizona, and the federal judge who was killed had handled high-profile cases about immigration, after which he received threats. (The sheriff said Saturday night that it appears the judge was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the gunman went first for the congresswoman.) ‘I can’t trust the current government’ Referring to District 8, the congressional district served by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Loughner wrote, “The majority of people who reside in District 8 are illiterate — hilarious. I don’t control your English grammar structure.”

And he adds, “I can’t trust the current government because of fabrications. The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.” In another video, The Washington Post reported, titled “America: Your last memory in a terrorist country!,” a figure in dark clothing and a smiley-face mask burns an American flag in the desert. The Post reported that the soundtrack is a 2001 song by the band Drowning Pool, in which the singer shrieks, “Let the bodies hit the floor!” The MySpace page, which was removed within minutes of the gunman being identified by U.S. officials, included a mysterious “Goodbye friends” message published hours before the shooting. It also exhorted his friends to “Please don’t be mad at me.” Screenshots that appear to come from that page show a handgun on top of a U.S. history textbook. Pima County Sheriff’s officials said the gunman used a pistol to carry out the shooting spree. The Washington Post reported more details on the weapon: “Federal law enforcement sources said Loughner used a Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol that was found with a fully loaded magazine that held about 30 bullets. He had another magazine that held about 30 bullets and two others that each held about 15 bullets. He also was carrying a knife.” U.S. officials who provided his name to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release it publicly. Sources also gave NBC News the same name and age.

In one of the videos, Loughner claims to have been a military recruit. NBC and The Arizona Republic reported that U.S. Army officials confirmed that Loughner attempted to volunteer, but was rejected. In a rambling, philosophical YouTube video titled ” My Final Thoughts: Jared Lee Loughner,” the author does not appear. There are only words on the screen with background music, more of a slide show than a video. He muses: “All conscience dreaming at this moment is asleep. Jared Loughner is conscience dreaming at this moment. Thus, Jared Loughner is asleep.” He describes a loss of property rights by Americans, and ends with, “Terrorist: If I define terrorist then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon. … If you call me a terrorist, then the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem. You call me a terrorist. Thus, the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem.” In one of several Youtube videos, the author described inventing a new U.S. currency and complained about the illiteracy rate among people living in Giffords’ congressional district in Arizona. “I know who’s listening: Government Officials, and the People,” the author wrote. “Nearly all the people, who don’t know this accurate information of a new currency, aren’t aware of mind control and brainwash methods. If I have my civil rights, then this message wouldn’t have happen (sic).” His online profiles say he attended Northwest Aztec Middle College and Pima Community College, both in the same county as Tucson. The Arizona Republic reported that Loughner interrupted a math class at Pima with nonsensical outbursts, and was barred from class. And The Republic reports that in mid-December, about the same time as the videos were posted, Loughner posted: “WOW! I’m glad i didn’t kill myself. I’ll see you on National T.v.! This is foreshadow …. why doesn’t anyone talk to me?..” and “I don’t feel good: I’m ready to kill a police officer! I can say it.”

In a profile online, he listed his favorite books: “Animal Farm,” “Brave New World,” “The Wizard of OZ,” “Aesop’s Fables,” “The Odyssey,” “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Peter Pan,” “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “We The Living,” “Phantom Toll Booth,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Pulp,” “Through The Looking Glass,” “The Communist Manifesto,” “Siddhartha,” “The Old Man and the Sea,” “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Mein Kampf,” “The Republic,” and “Meno.” A 22-year-old woman in Arizona, Caitie Parker, claimed on her Twitter feed that she went to high school and college with the gunman, and was in a band with him. She described his politics in the past as “left wing, quite liberal, & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy.” She also described him as having a lot of friends “until he got alcohol poisoning in ’06” and dropped out of school. “Mainly loner very philosophical.” Parker described the gunman meeting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords previously: “He was a political radical & met Giffords once before in ’07, asked her a question & he told me she was ‘stupid & unintelligent.’

YouTube video transcripts

In one of the videos, entitled “Hello,” the author writes in words on a black and white screen:

“Hello, my name is Jared Lee Loughner. This video is my introduction to you! My favorite activity is conscience dreaming; the greatest inspiration for my political business information. Some of you don’t dream – sadly. Firstly, the current government officials are in power for their currency, but I’m informing you for your new currency! If you’re treasurer of a new money system, then you’re responsible for the distributing of a new currency. We now know – the treasurer for a new money system, is the distributor of the new currency. As a result, the people approve a new money system which is promising new information that’s accurate, and we truly believe in a new currency. Above all, you have your new currency, listener? Secondly, my hope – is for you to be literate! If you’re literate in English grammar, then you comprehend English grammar. The majority of people, who reside in District-8, are illiterate – hilarious. I don’t control your English grammar structure, but you control your English grammar structure. Thirdly, I know who’s listening: Government Officials, and the People. Nearly all the people, who don’t know this accurate information of a new currency, aren’t aware of mind control and brainwash methods. If I have my civil rights, then this message wouldn’t have happen. In conclusion, my ambition – is for informing literate dreamers about a new currency; in a few days, you know I’m conscience dreaming! Thank you!”

And in a second video, called “My Final Thoughts,” he questions the literacy of his listeners:

“My Final Thoughts: Jared Lee Loughner. Most people, who read this text, forget in the next 2 second! The population of dreamers in the United States of America is less than 5%! (next slide = jumble of numbers outlining “the previous year of B.C.E.”) If B.C.E. years are unable to start then A.D.E. years are unable to begin. B.C.E. years are unable to start. Thus, A.D.E. years are unable to begin. If I teach a mentally capable 8 year old for 20 consecutive minutes to replace an alphabet letter with a new letter and pronounciation then the mentally capable 8 year old writes and pronounces the new letter and pronunciation that’s replacing an alphabet letter in 20 consecutive minutes. I teach a mentally capable 8 year old for 20 consecutive minutes to replace an alphabet letter with a new letter and pronounciation. Thus, the mentally capable 8 year old writes and pronounces the new letter and pronunciation that’s replacing an alphabet letter in 20 consecutive minutes. Every human who’s mentally capable is always able to be treasurer of their new currency. If you create one new currency then you’re able to create a second new currency. If you’re able to create second new currency then you’re able to create third new currency. You create one new currency. Thus, you’re able to create a third currency. You’re a treasurer for a new currency, listener? You create and distribute your new currency, listener? You don’t allow the government to control your grammar structure, listener? If you create one new language then you’re able to create a second new language. If you’re able to create a second new language then you’re able to create a third new language. You create one new hanguage. Thus, you’re able to create a third new language. All humans are in need of sleep. Jared Loughner is a human. Hence, Jared Loughner is in need of sleep.”

“Sleepwalking. If I define sleepwalking then sleepwalking is the act or state of walking, eating, or performing other motor acts while asleep, of which one is unaware upon awakening. I define sleepwalking. Thus, sleepwalking is the act or state of walking, eating, or performing other motor acts while asleep, of which one is unaware upon awakening. I’m a sleepwalker – who turns off the alarm clock. All conscience dreaming at this moment is asleep. Jared Loughner is conscience dreaming at this moment. Thus Jared Loughner is asleep. Terrorist. If I define terrorist then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon. I define terrorist. Thus a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon. If you call me a terrorist then the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem. You call me a terrorist. Thus, the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem. Every United States Military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix is receiving one mini bible before the tests. Jared Loughner is a United States Military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix. Therefore, Jared Loughner is receiving one mini bible before the tests. I didn’t write a belief on my Army application, and the recruiter wrote on the application: None. The majority of citizens in the United States of America have never read the United States of America’s Constitution. You don’t have to accept the federalist laws.  Nonetheless, read the United States of America’s Constitution to apprehend all of the current treasonous laws. You’re literate, listener? If property owners and government officials are no longer in ownership of their land and laws from a revolution then the revolutionary’s from the revolution are in control of the land and the laws. The property owners and government officials are no longer in ownership of their land and laws from a revolution. Thus, the revolutionary’s from the revolution are in control of the land and the laws. In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can’t trust the government because of the ratifications: The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.  No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in God! What’s government if words don’t have meaning?”

Forces loyal to incumbent Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo have attacked several UN vehicles in the country’s main city, Abidjan, the UN says. Six vehicles were attacked, with two people injured, a spokesman said. Mr Gbagbo has refused to admit defeat after the election in November, in which the UN recognised his rival Alassane Ouattara as the winner. Mr Ouattara and his government-in-waiting have been under siege by Mr Gbagbo’s forces in an Abidjan hotel. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the latest attacks.  “The secretary general is deeply concerned that regular and irregular forces loyal to Mr Gbagbo have begun to attack and burn United Nations vehicles,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said, adding that those responsible would be held accountable.

The UN mission in Ivory Coast (Unoci) said it had “noticed over the last three days that president Gbagbo’s camp has transformed its hostility towards Unoci from verbal propaganda into physical attacks”. The presidential vote was supposed to reunify the world’s largest cocoa producer, which has been divided between north and south since a conflict in 2002. Last month Mr Gbagbo ordered all foreign peacekeepers to leave the country immediately – but the UN has refused to recognise his authority to make such decisions.

31 December 2010 – The United Nations today warned Côte d’Ivoire’s outgoing president that it would “repulse and defeat” any attack by his partisans on the headquarters of his internationally recognized successor, and that he himself would be held personally accountable for human rights abuses. “They cannot possibly take the Golf Hotel,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Y. J. Choi told UN Radio, when asked about threats by Minister for Youth Blé Goudé to attack tomorrow the UN-protected hotel where opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, clear victor in November’s run-off election, is based after outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to step down and vacate the presidential palace. “We are heavily armed and present and preparing ourselves,” he said of the 9-000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire, known as UNOCI, some of whose forces are guarding the building. “They will be defeated, they will be repulsed. There is no doubt about this. “I hope he (Mr. Goudé) will not step into this fatal minefield,” he added, noting that the UN had so far not seen any sign of preparations for an attack.

Meanwhile, the UN human rights chief has directly warned Mr. Gbagbo and his entourage that they will be held personally accountable amid continuing reports of extrajudicial executions, disappearances, sexual violence and arbitrary detentions following his refusal to step down. “No longer can heads of State, and other actors, be sure that they can commit atrocious violations and get away with it,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in Geneva today, announcing that she had written “in the strongest terms” to Mr. Gbagbo reminding him of his duty under international law to refrain from committing, ordering, inciting, instigating or standing by in tacit approval of rights violations. She sent similar letters to Ivorian Republican Guard Commander General Bruno Ble Dogbo, Marines Rear Admiral Vagba Faussignaux, and Security Operations Command Centre General Georges Guiai Bi Poin.

Ms. Pillay reiterated her strong concern that deteriorating security and interference with UNOCI continue to block investigation of a large number of reported violations. “We have received reports of at least two mass graves; however, UN human rights teams have been denied access to the scenes of these atrocities in order to investigate them,” she said. “Denying access to alleged mass grave sites and places where the victims’ mortal remains are allegedly deposited constitutes a clear violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.” She voiced concern at calls by Mr. Goudé and others for attacks against the UN and “non Ivorians,” as well as reports about the marking of homes with ethnic identities, which could be followed by attacks against civilians from certain ethnic groups. Yesterday Mr. Ban warned against any attempts to attack the Golf Hotel amid fears that renewed violence could plunge the West African country back into civil war, a chapter that the elections were meant to close.

In 2002 the country was split by civil war into a rebel-held north and a Government-controlled south. UNOCI, which has been on the ground since 2003 helping to monitor a ceasefire and promote reunification, has rebuffed Mr. Gbagbo’s demand that it leave following its certification of Mr. Ouattara’s victory. Ms. Pillay’s announcement followed a joint news release by UN human rights experts decrying a litany of reported abuses in the violence that has followed Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to leave office. Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns cited the number of reported extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and reiterated warnings against the risks of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Special Rapporteur on violence against women Rashida Manjoo cited allegations of sexual violence committed by armed men and called on all parties to do their utmost to prevent such abuses. The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, stressing that victims, including relatives of the disappeared, have the rights to justice, redress, truth and reparation, vowed to see that those rights are respected. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention noted that hundreds of people have reportedly been arbitrarily arrested and some taken to illegal centres in what it called “heinous violations” of international human rights law.

Meanwhile, UN agencies are rushing aid to nearly 20,000 Ivorian refugees who have fled to neighbouring Liberia. The UN refugee agency said it would set up camps and called on the international community to provide more funding, noting that it had pre-positioned aid in the region to assist 30,000 refugees and spent $3 million from its emergency reserves. “Our teams in Liberia continue to distribute emergency aid across villages where refugees are sheltered,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement, listing plastic sheeting, blankets, jerry cans, sleeping mats, kerosene, lamps, buckets, soap, mosquito nets and other basic household items. “We will need donor support to keep continuing our aid efforts.” The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has already airlifted emergency supplies into Liberia as part of a rapid scale up of humanitarian operations, including five metric tons of high energy biscuits. “We are mobilizing food stocks at a regional and local level to help these people, who are facing a grim start to the New Year,” WFP Deputy Executive Director Amir Abdulla said. “These biscuits will provide a welcome nutritional boost to refugees, many of whom have crossed the border with little in the way of food for their families.”

Côte d’Ivoire: Ban warns of consequences for those attacking UN peacekeepers

13 January 2011 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today warned forces loyal to the outgoing Côte d’Ivoire president, who has refused to step down despite his election defeat, that they will be held accountable for their criminal attacks on United Nations peacekeepers in the country. At the same time, the UN humanitarian chief stressed that the lives and livelihoods of many thousands of Ivorians were threatened by the deteriorating crisis sparked by Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to leave office despite opposition leader Alassane Ouattara’s UN-certified and internationally-recognized victory in November’s run-off election. In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Ban voiced deep concern that regular and irregular forces loyal to Mr. Gbagbo have begun to attack and burn vehicles belonging to the nearly 9,000-strong UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), which has been supporting efforts over the past seven years to reunify a country split by civil war in 2002 into a Government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.

“Beginning this morning, there have been a total of six incidents involving such attacks in Abidjan [the commercial capital] where a UNOCI military vehicle was burned. A doctor and the driver of an ambulance targeted in one of the attacks were injured,” the statement said. UNOCI noted that two vehicles were burned and three others damaged. Mr. Ban also strongly condemned an armed attack yesterday on a UN convoy in the Abobo quarter of Abidjan, as well as the continuing use of the State broadcasting corporation by Gbagbo loyalists to instigate violence against the UN mission, including false allegations that peacekeepers are extending active support to forces supporting Mr. Ouattara. In the light of Mr. Gbagbo’s refusal to vacate the presidential palace despite the recognition of Mr. Ouattara’s election victory by the UN, the African Union (AU) and many countries, the new president and his Government are currently based in the Golf Hotel under UNOCI protection.

“The Secretary-General once again warns those responsible for organizing and carrying out such attacks that they will be held accountable,” today’s statement concluded. “He stresses that both attacks on peacekeepers and destruction of assets deployed for purposes of protecting civilians constitute crimes under international law.” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos warned today that the humanitarian consequences of the violence in Côte d’Ivoire will rapidly worsen if the political crisis is not urgently resolved. Over 23,500 Ivorians have already fled to neighbouring countries over the past five weeks, the vast majority to Liberia, amid growing fear and insecurity, while 16,000 others are internally displaced in the west of the country, the majority of them pregnant and nursing women, and school-age children.

“A peaceful and rapid solution to the crisis is critical for the people of Côte d’Ivoire and for the region as a whole,” Ms. Amos said in a news release. “It is important that all parties refrain from inflammatory rhetoric, hate speech and incitement to violence to ensure that the situation does not escalate any further.” Humanitarian organizations are doing their utmost to ensure that aid reaches the needy, especially women, children and the elderly, as quickly as possible. In Liberia and in western Côte d’Ivoire, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have already started distributing food and non-food items. Aid and staff are also being pre-positioned in other neighbouring countries. Over the past few weeks, contingency plans have been extensively revised to ensure the UN and its partners stand ready to respond in case a major humanitarian crisis unfolds.

“To ensure effective implementation of humanitarian activities, it is essential that a conducive environment is created and maintained,” Ms. Amos said. “There are continuing allegations of serious human rights violations from around the country. The violence has already caused a 10-fold increase in internal displacement in the space of a few days, showing how quickly a political crisis can have grave humanitarian consequences.” The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Ndolamb Ngokwey, told a news conference in Abidjan that 85 tonnes of food were on the way today to the western region where most of the displaced are seeking refuge. UNOCI Human Rights Division Director Simon Munzu, meanwhile, said the country was not on the brink of genocide as some have said but it was possible it could move towards genocide.

“Whatever our political opinion, our ethnicity, our religion, whether we are foreigners or Ivorians, I believe that we must remain vigilant to avoid, to prevent, to impede that we arrive at a genocide,” he added. There are similarities between current phenomena in Côte d’Ivoire, such as political intransigence and highly partisan media, and those that led to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which 800,000 people are estimated to have been murdered, he noted. November’s run-off election was meant to be the culminating point of the agreement that ended the 2002 civil war but the situation has deteriorated seriously since Mr. Gbagbo’s rejection of the result. He has demanded UNOCI’s departure, which the UN has rejected, and Mr. Ban is expected to ask the Security Council for between 1,000 and 2,000 additional forces for the mission.

UN convoy attacked in Abidjan

UN peacekeeping forces have come under attack in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan as tensions grow over the outcome of the recent presidential run-off election in the West African country. A hostile crowd fired shots at a UN convoy in the Abobo district on Wednesday. The peacekeepers responded with warning shots, Radio France Internationale reported on Thursday.
“The patrol did not fire on the crowd,” spokesman for the UN peacekeeping forces in Ivory Coast, Hamadoun Toure, told journalists on Thursday. He added that UN peacekeepers on patrol were blocked by barricades and a crowd then surrounded the vehicles. After that, gunmen, who had holed up inside a building, opened fire on the UN convoy. “We did not shoot into the crowd, just so that is clear,” the UN official noted. Almost 20,000 Ivorians have fled to neighboring Liberia following the crisis which followed the disputed November 28 election. The United Nations expects the number of refugees to hit 30,000, according to Reuters.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR in a Saturday statement said that the growing number of Ivorian refugees has had a major impact on several Liberian communities. “Our staffs report that host community houses are full and congested,” the UNHCR said. “There are homes where 7 to 20 family members share a single room.” The embattled self-declared Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has ignored calls from countries both on the African continent and worldwide to concede defeat to Alassane Ouattara in November 28 run-off presidential election. “Between 16 and 21 December, human rights officers have substantiated allegations of 173 killings, 90 instances of torture and ill treatment, 471 arrests and detentions and 24 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances,” UN’s Deputy Human Rights Chief Kyung-wha Kang said on Thursday. The European Union on December 13 slapped sanctions against Gbagbo and his political aides to intensify his diplomatic isolation.

The union gave carte blanche to draft a list of officials deemed to be “obstructing the process of peace and national reconciliation … and who are jeopardizing the proper outcome of the electoral process,” EU ministers said in a statement. Sanctions including visa bans and asset freezes “will particularly target those leading figures who have refused to place themselves under the authority of the democratically elected President,” the statement read. “We call for an immediate and peaceful handover of power,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters after the ministerial meeting. “We decided to adopt, without delay, restrictive measures against those who are obstructing peace and reconciliation.” “I hope today’s decision will persuade the incumbent government to respond before we reach that stage,” she said. On December 9, the 53-nation African Union (AU) decided to suspend the membership of Ivory Coast over the disputed presidential election. The AU said the suspension would remain until president-elect Ouattara takes power.

On December 2, Ivory Coast’s electoral commission announced that opposition candidate Ouattara had won the nation’s long-awaited presidential election with 54 percent of the vote. However, the Constitutional Council immediately contested the result, citing the electoral commission’s failure to declare the vote result by its declared deadline. The council overruled earlier provisional poll results a day later and declared Gbagbo as the winner of the country’s presidential run-off election. The opposition leader Ouattara had earlier named Guillaume Soro to head his government as prime minister should he win the presidential election. “The process underway to settle this conflict is irreversible,” Soro said. The disputed presidential election has raised the risk of a long power struggle in the country. The world’s top cocoa-producing nation is still reeling from the 2002-2003 civil war, which split the West African country in two.