In this weekend’s issue, Parade features a very personal conversation with Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and director Lee Daniels (Precious) about their new movie and the questions it raises about race in America.
The trio
The “powerful chronicle” of one black man’s years of service in the White House during the most tumultuous period in the nation’s civil rights history, Lee Daniels’ The Butler (in theaters Aug. 16) was a “labor of love” for the trio.
Whitaker, 52, plays Cecil Gaines, whose experiences attending presidents from Eisenhower through Reagan are loosely based on those of Eugene Allen, a White House butler who died in 2010.
Winfrey, 59, in her first dramatic role since 1998’s Beloved, plays Gaines’s wife, Gloria, who battles a drinking problem and watches her husband clash with their activist son.
The film revisits major events—the Freedom Rides, the lunch counter sit-ins, the Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations—through their impact on the Gaines family.
On using the N-word, Lee Daniels calls it a word he used quite a bit, until Oprah sat him down and talked to him about its power.
Winfrey says she feels strongly about it. “I always think of the millions of people who heard that as their last word as they were hanging from a tree.” – Parade
Vote counting was underway in Zimbabwe’s tightly fought election Wednesday, amid high turnout and accusations of rigging by President Robert Mugabe’s allies who wish to extend his 33-year rule.
The 89-year-old Mugabe is Africa’s oldest leader and is running for office for the seventh and perhaps final time.
His rival Morgan Tsvangirai hopes the election will usher in a new era for the troubled southern African nation.
Organisers reported high turnout across the country for the first election since the violent polls of 2008, that led to an uneasy power-sharing government between the two men.
There were no reports of widespread violence this time round, despite the fierce rhetoric of the campaign.
Police said officers in Harare fired warning shots in the air and arrested 10 soldiers who tried to jump the queue to vote.
At many stations voters started queueing before sunrise in the winter cold hours before polls opened. The lines continued well into the evening, with many marking their ballots by candle light.
Mugabe voted before lunchtime in a Harare suburb, where he insisted the poll would reflect the will of the people.
“I am sure people will vote freely and fairly, there is no pressure being exerted on anyone,” he said.
The one-time teacher came to prominence as a hero of Africa’s liberation movement, guiding Zimbabwe to independence from Britain and white minority rule.
But his military-backed rule has been marked by a series of violent crackdowns, economic crises and suspect elections that have brought international sanctions and made him a pariah in the West.
On Tuesday Mugabe vowed to step down if Tsvangirai was the victor. “If you lose you must surrender,” he said.
Tsvangirai, the current prime minister, said that promise should be taken “with a pinch of salt”.
Tsvangirai won the first round of voting in 2008, but was forced out of the race after 200 of his supporters were killed and thousands more injured in suspected state-backed attacks.
But the 61-year-old former union boss has repeatedly voiced concerns that the election is being rigged.
Tsvangirai’s party on Wednesday listed a battery of alleged irregularities.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a senior member of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, said the names of thousands of voters were missing from the electoral roll.
Biti, speaking after a meeting with the electoral commission, added: “They are admitting that there’s still two million people who are dead on the voters’ roll, but they said ‘because they’re dead, they can’t vote’.”
The MDC has handed its evidence to observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Since no Western groups were allowed to cover the presidential and parliamentary poll, the SADC’s account will be closely watched.
The African Union, which has been accused of whitewashing problems in the run up to the vote, said initial reports indicated it was “peaceful, orderly, free and fair”.
In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf also said that early signs indicated a “peaceful environment” — but that it was too soon to say if the election had been fair.
“We’ve made clear to the government of Zimbabwe and the region that further reductions in our sanctions will only occur if these next elections are credible, transparent and reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people,” she told reporters.
Tsvangirai cut a confident figure as he cast his own ballot, predicting his MDC would win “quite resoundingly”.
“This is a very historic moment for all of us,” he said. It is the time to “complete the change”.
Turnout appeared to be particularly brisk in the urban areas where Tsvangirai has enjoyed his strongest support, and which he must retain to stand any chance of victory.
But some analysts cautioned against interpreting the high urban turnout as a sign Tsvangirai would sweep the election.
“This election is going to be decided in the rural areas,” where two thirds of Zimbabweans live and where Mugabe enjoys strong support, said Michael Bratton, founder of polling organisation Afrobarometer.
Police warned on Wednesday that anyone trying to release unofficial results ahead of the official figures risked being arrested.
Already Sunday, Mugabe had threatened to arrest Tsvangirai if he tried to declare an early victory.
Some 6.4 million people, around half of the population, are eligible to vote. A candidate needs 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off.
The sharp-tongued Mugabe has focused his campaign on attacking homosexuals and on promises to widen the redistribution of wealth to poor black Zimbabweans.
As the economy recovers from a crisis that saw mass unemployment and galloping inflation, Mugabe loyalists insist their hero is “tried and tested”.
Tsvangirai hopes his plans to lure back foreign investors, create a million jobs in five years and improve public services will deliver a long-awaited victory.
The final results are expected within five days. – AFP
If today were April 1 instead of August 1, a proposal for a 60m-high monument to Nelson Mandela plastered on to the sheer cliffs of Table Mountain in Cape Town like a giant green carbuncle might be explicable and good for a laugh.
But that idea is being punted, apparently seriously, by a Dutch design firm on behalf of an obscure Rotterdam-based organisation, “Mandela on the bike foundation”.
Concept designs for the 12-storey sculpture that includes a restaurant, conference centre and exhibition area – all in the shape of Mandela’s face a-la-Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial in the US – were posted on a dedicated website last month, timed to coincide with Madiba’s birthday.
The proposed monument honouring Madiba “will teach next generations about the man who gave his life for justice and show his heritage”, according to the design firm, WHIM Architecture.
The project team says the size of the building “suits the visibility and accessibility on the mountain overlooking Cape Town and its coastline”, although the sheer cliffs shown in most of their drawings do not appear to belong to Table Mountain.
The designs were also posted on a Facebook site, and on Monday the project team reported that they’d received “a few comments/questions about our proposal” that they wanted to respond to.
“We are thinking of a monument, that is highly visible within the city and shows the beauty of the existing city and its landscape… Of course we see the beauty of Table Mountain, and we respect this. Table Mountain should maintain its natural beauty. The sketch design is a first visualisation on how we think we can create something monumental for Nelson Mandela but also for Cape Town.
“The further development of the project should be done in close collaboration with the (local) government, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the inhabitants of Cape Town.”
Asked to comment, Table Mountain National Park manager Paddy Gordon said “I nearly fell off my chair” when seeing the images.
“As custodians of this international iconic site, we could not even begin to consider this proposal. In terms of the mountain’s legal status as a national park and World Natural Heritage Site, let alone its Natural Wonder of the World award, a development of such huge proportions would never be allowed.
“Though we agree that the nation owes a huge debt to Madiba and that we need to honour his contribution for generations to come, we hope to support a very different approach to achieve this. Besides, I’m convinced that Madiba himself would not wish for his beloved Table Mountain to be maimed in this way.”
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille replied diplomatically via her spokesman Solly Malatsi: “The city will weigh the merits of the proposal once we’ve seen it.”
There were mixed reactions on Facebook, with Judith Egberink commenting “nice!!” while Amanda van Zyl McCarthy wrote: “Table Mountain is NOT Mt Rushmore!….do not even think of messing up our mountain!” and Philip Zietsman said: “What a k*k idea! Shudder.”
Architect and design consultant Pierre Jordaan was short and sweet with his ironic response: “Nice … go f&*%k up your own mountain.” – IOL
New Zealand knows of al Qaeda-trained activists within the country who need to be monitored, Prime Minister John Key said Thursday amid debate on the need for stronger spy laws.
Key took to the airways to defend legislation that allows the country’s intelligence agency to spy on local residents, saying opponents refused to acknowledge security threats were genuine and needed to be addressed.
“In the real world, in New Zealand, there are people who have been trained in al Qaeda camps,” he told commercial radio.
“(People) who operate out of New Zealand, who are in contact with people overseas, who have gone off to Yemen and other countries to train. That’s the real world, the reality of what we’re dealing with.” Key did not provide any further details on the potential al Qaeda threat in the remote South Pacific nation, which sent a small military force to Afghanistan but played no part in the US-led invasion of Iraq.
New Zealand’s intelligence service, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), is currently barred from spying on New Zealand citizens or residents.
Key wants the restriction removed, saying it needs to cooperate more closely with agencies such as the police and military in an increasingly complex cyber-security environment.
Groups ranging from the Law Society to Internet giants Facebook and Google have raised concerns about the proposal, while “hacktivist” group Anonymous crashed Key’s website this week in protest.
One of the strongest opponents is Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, who received an apology from Key last year after revelations the GCSB illegally spied on him before he was arrested for alleged online piracy.
The Auckland-based German national mocked Key’s assertion, suggesting al Qaeda’s presence in New Zealand was most likely limited to “Kiwi kids watching ’how to make a bomb’ on YouTube’s terrorist channel”.
“The only terrorists living in New Zealand are those who terrorised my family to impress Hollywood and the White House,” he tweeted, referring to the armed police raid on his Auckland mansion in January last year.
The Green Party accused Key of scaremongering in an attempt to justify changes that would have a “chilling” effect on the privacy of New Zealanders.
“John Key is trying to frighten the New Zealand public into submission as he pushes through his law to strip away their rights,” Greens co-leader Russel Norman said.
The spy bill is currently being debated by parliament, where it is expected to pass by a single vote. – Sapa/AFP
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry expressed its extreme dissatisfaction with South Africa’s statement on the most recent events in Egypt.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation had declared its rejection for the latest events which caused former president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster and the constitution’s suspension.
These measures oppose the conventions and customs of the African Union, the department said.
South Africa’s continued claim of Morsi’s legitimacy insults millions of Egyptians’ will, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“It is sadly ironic that Egypt was among the first to defend the rights of South Africans in their fight against apartheid whereas South Africa’s current government takes a negative stance regarding the Egyptians’ attempt to rectify the course of their revolution.”
Thousands of supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi have defied a new warning from the military-backed cabinet and are continuing their sit-ins in the capital, Cairo.
The country’s interim leaders have ordered police to end ongoing protests at two sites in the city.
But Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood said they had no option but to continue the month-long sit-ins.
The United States has again urged Egypt to respect freedom of assembly.
Pro-Morsi demonstrators want to see the Islamist leader reinstated. He was removed by the army on 3 July, after just one year in office.
They have defied previous threats of removal, despite clashes with security forces that have left dozens dead.
The Egyptian interior ministry says gradual steps will be taken to disperse the crowds.
“The continuation of the dangerous situation in Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares, and consequent terrorism and road blockages, are no longer acceptable given the threat to national security,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Police had been tasked to end the demonstrations “within the law and the constitution”, it added.
‘Attempt to terrorise’But Essam el-Erian, vice president of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political party, said the protesters would not be deterred by the latest threats.
“There are expectations of a massacre taking place in front of the eyes of the whole world,” he said.
“The free people in Egypt and the world must stand against this stupid cabinet mandate for the police to end the sit-in protests.”
The main protest sit-in is at a square near the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in the capital’s north-east, where clashes erupted on Saturday in which some 70 people were killed, and in Nahda Square near the main campus of Cairo University.
“Nothing will change,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad told AFP news agency after the cabinet threat.
He dismissed the dispersal announcement as an “attempt to terrorise Egyptians” and said the decision to clear the camps had been taken by a “gang” that had no respect for the law.
Another Muslim Brotherhood member, Mohamed el-Beltagy, told Associated Press the army had forgotten “its main role in protecting the Egyptian borders and decided to kill its people”.
The government has not given details of when the clearance could happen.
US state department spokeswoman Marie Harf appealed for it to avoid violence.
“We have continued to urge the interim government officials and security forces to respect the right of peaceful assembly,” she said.
“That obviously includes sit-ins. So we’ve made that point publicly and privately, and we’ll continue to do so.”
Official visitorsMeanwhile, three top Muslim Brotherhood figures have been referred to court on charges of inciting violence.
Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie, his deputy Khairat al-Shater and senior leader Rashad Bayoum face trial over allegations of inciting the killing of protesters outside of their headquarters last month.
An African Union delegation confirmed on Wednesday that it had met Mr Morsi, who has not been seen in public since being ousted.
He had received no official visitors until Tuesday, when he met EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton who said he was “well”.
The ousted leader has been formally remanded in custody at an undisclosed location, according to a judicial order.
He has been accused of the “premeditated murder of some prisoners, officers and soldiers” when he and several Muslim Brotherhood leaders were freed during a breakout at a Cairo prison in January 2011.
He is alleged to have plotted attacks on jails in the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Morsi is also accused of conspiring with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and has strong links with the Muslim Brotherhood.
He was overthrown by the military after mass rallies in which millions of Egyptians calling for his removal took to the streets. – Aswat Masriya/BBC
A Nigerian, Jacob Ajomale, who alleged that he was maltreated by the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, officers, by forcefully inserting a tracking device (chip) in his body through his anus, has petitioned the United Nations Council on Human Rights over alleged inhuman treatment meted to him.
Ajomale through his lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, claimed that the chip was inserted in him in December 2010.
Falana in the petition to the UN, is urging the world body to direct the United States to remove the tracking device from Ajomale’s body with immediate effect.
Besides, Ajomale has also sued United Airlines and the Nigerian Minister of Internal Affairs before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, demanding $100 million and N100 million damages for the violation of his fundamental rights to dignity of human person and right to mental and physical health as guaranteed by Sections 35 and 41 of the Constitution and Articles 6 and 12 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.
His arrest
Ajomale had averred in an affidavit that he has been living in the United States since April 12, 1997 with a visiting visa and became a permanent resident in February 2008, and never had any criminal record all through the period.
According to him, on January 22, 2009, he travelled to Nigeria for his father’s burial and on his way back, he was arrested on February 5, 2009 by one officer, Derrick, at the BWI Airport in Baltimore, Maryland, kept in a cold room for nine hours, where he was tortured in order to make an incriminating statement of using falsified passport in 2001.
He was subsequently arraigned, tried, convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment at the DC jail and Rivers Correction Centre, all in North Carolina.
Second arrest
According to Ajomale, he was released back to the community on August 11, 2009 at 7pm, after being cleared by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, but surprisingly, he was arrested again by the same officer, Derrick, on August 15, 2009 on the ground that his release from detention was a mistake.
He said: “While in detention at Worchester Detention Centre Snow Hill, Maryland, an ICE officer, William Malone told me I could be released but it was going to cost me money. I told my lawyer about it who reported to senior ICE officers. Investigation was carried out and Officer Michelle Rawlings interrogated me and promised to get back to me, which she never did. Afterwards I became the target of all the officers.
“I was hospitalised on July 12, 2010 at Atlantic hospital for sinusitis and body weakness, but was discharged without adequate treatment. I was maltreated by three officers, who flung me on an empty steel bed, and I put in a grievance report concerning the issue. In August, 2010, I was moved to Frederick Detention Centre, Maryland, and the same aggression continued against my person. I felt some vibration on my bed and reported to the authorities but no action was taken.” – Vanguard
An Award winning Nigerian music director found guilty of fathering children with his daughters will spend the rest of his life in jail.
Aswad Ayinde, 55, of Paterson, NJ, was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday after being found guilty in the second of five expected trials in which he is accused of repeatedly raping his six daughters, resulting in six children being fathered. Mr. Ayinde was found guilty in his latest trial of having intercourse with one of his daughters when she was as young as eight-years-old. The second sentence adds to the 40 year sentence Mr Ayinde received in a 2011 trial for sexually assaulting a separate daughter.
Mr. Ayinde is known for directing the music video for the Fugees 1996 smash hit ‘Killing Me Softly.’
In a disturbing disclosure during his first trial, Mr. Ayinde’s former wife said he was trying to create a ‘pure family bloodline’ by impregnating his daughters. He even claimed during a pre-trial hearing before the first trial that ‘the world was going to end, and it was just going to be him and his offspring and that he was chosen.’
In this latest trial, it was revealed that Mr. Ayinde began having intercourse with his second daughter from the time she eight-years-old, impregnating her four times.
As repoted by Mail Online the sexual assaults happened for almost 30 years until Mr. Ayinde and his wife separated, officials said. They occurred in numerous homes across northern New Jersey, even while the family was under watch of state child welfare officials, according to NBC New York. Some of the rapes even took place in an abandoned funeral home.
The family moving as far away as Florida to avoid investigation after case workers removed multiple children from the Ayinde household in 2000, resulting in Mr. Ayinde being arrested for kidnapping for trying to take them from state custody in a medical center, NBC New York reported.
He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and received a year’s probation – as he continued raping one daughter for at least another two years, according to officials.
The depraved father also beat and starved the girls using wooden boards and steel-toed boots for even ‘minor transgressions,’ Ayinde’s wife testified at the first trial.
Some of the children Ayinde fathered with his daughters were born in the home, with at least two babies who died in the home having been buried without notifying authorities or obtaining birth certificates, NBC New York reported.
Mr. Ayinde also fathered 12 additional children with an additional three women, according to court records
Ayinde’s tortured daughters were home schooled and isolated from other children, so as to keep the family secrets hidden, the station added.
With his wife too afraid to confront him, Mr. Ayinde carried out his evil plan without hindrance even while directing the music video for the Fugees 1996 breakout hit ‘Killing Me Softly, for which he won ‘Best R&B Video’ at the 1996 MTV Music Video Awards. The Fugees are also originally from Northern New Jersey.
Mr. Ayinde faces three more trials over the alleged assaults. – Vanguard
Sudan’s military spokesman is ready to battle a Facebook imposter who has been making online comments about the country’s armed forces, official media say.
Somebody has been using an account on social networking site Facebook to impersonate army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad, the state SUNA news agency reported late Saturday.
The pretender “makes dialogue with friends on issues including matters related to the work of the armed forces”, SUNA reported.
Saad will “take the necessary measures toward that criminal act”, it added.
“Al-Sawarmi affirmed that he has no account in Facebook and has nothing to do with the comments made by the person (who) impersonates him over the Internet,” SUNA said.
Sudan’s military is battling rebels in the far-west Darfur region as well as in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, while tensions persist along the border with South Sudan.
Analysts say authorities were humiliated in April and May when insurgents widened their offensive, and the military took one month to retake an area in South Kordofan from the rebels. – AFP
The Presidency said Nelson Mandela’s condition continued to improve on Tuesday.
Former President Mandela still remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital in Pretoria, and continues to show improvement, the Presidency said on Tuesday.
Madiba was admitted to Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in the early hours on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.
His ambulance broke down on the way to the hospital, and he has had two “scares” and minor surgery.
Earlier this month Madiba spent his 95th birthday in hospital while visitors and well-wishers continued to leave flowers, cards and candles at the tribute wall outside the hospital.
Zimbabwean Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono accepted £104000, paid into the accounts of his children, from a company that sold fuel to the Mugabe regime.
Six separate payments were made to three Gono children while they were studying in Australia, at the same time as the company concerned – which claimed to have an office in Britain – was helping to supply Zimbabwe with millions of litres of fuel.
Gono admitted the payments had been made to his twin daughters and a son, but denied having taken a bribe. He said the reserve bank had reimbursed the company on his behalf.
In almost a decade as Zimbabwe’s central banker, Gono, a close ally of President Robert Mugabe, has presided over hyperinflation, the demise of the Zimbabwe dollar and a desperate shortage of essentials, notably petrol.
Gono, who blames “illegal sanctions” imposed by the West for the country’s economic woes, became the crucial deal-maker charged with ensuring the survival of Mugabe’s regime, negotiating with private companies to raise funds for vital imports.
One such company was Ravenscourt Corporation, which sold 49million litres of fuel – almost 5% of Zimbabwe’s annual fuel consumption – to the reserve bank as part of a joint venture in 2006 and 2007.
At the same time, Ravenscourt paid money into the accounts of Gono’s children, according to bank statements obtained by Global Witness, a campaign group, following an investigation by the specialist newsletter Africa Confidential.
In particular, Ravenscourt paid £1300 into the Australian bank accounts of Gono’s twin daughters, Pride and Praise, and the same amount to his son, Passion, on May 30 2006.
On August 21 that year, Ravenscourt made another payment into each of the daughters’ accounts.
Gono said the funds had been used solely to move his children to Singapore and Malaysia after they were forced to leave Australia.
In order to conceal their new locations in Asia, it had been necessary to pay the funds from a “UK source”, he said.
The reserve bank had reimbursed Ravenscourt on his behalf.
“In my 36 years of working, I am yet to receive a bribe from anybody and I’m not about to do so now or in the future. The same applies to my family,” said Gono.
His terms of employment encompassed such financial support for his children, he said.
Mohamed Iqbal Mahmed, director and part owner of Ravenscourt, refused to say why the money was paid to the Gono children or whether it had been repaid by the reserve bank.
“I categorically and unequivocally state that they [the payments] were not bribes or inducements to obtain favours from anyone,” he said. – The Daily Telegraph
The assault on the heavily guarded Central Prison in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan took place despite reports that regional officials had received intelligence a fortnight ago suggesting such an attack was imminent.
The carefully planned attack underlines the growing capabilities of the Pakistani branch of the Taliban, an offshoot of the Islamist insurgents of the same name in neighboring Afghanistan.
Fighting continued into the early hours of Tuesday, with explosions and machine gunfire rattling the city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on the edge of Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
At least 12 people were killed, officials said, including five policemen and four prisoners from the minority Shi’ite sect whose throats were slashed by gunmen, officials said. The Taliban are mostly majority Sunni Muslims.
Mushtaq Jadoon, the town’s civil commissioner, said the 253 escaped prisoners included 30 top militants and six people on death row. Those who escaped are believed to have been whisked away to nearby South and North Waziristan, areas where the Taliban has strongholds.
As the attack unfolded, gunmen blew up electricity lines to the prison and detonated bombs to breach the outer walls.
They fought their way inside using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, and called the names of Taliban prisoners they wanted to release through loud speakers.
Once inside, attackers shot open most of the locks and used bombs to blast their way deep into the prison, shouting “All the locks are broken! Those who want to escape, now is your chance,” prison officials who were there at the time told Reuters.
Security forces said they had imposed a curfew on the city and the gunbattle was over by dawn. A Reuters reporter at the scene saw security forces and bomb disposal squads conducting searches amid ruined walls strewn with bullet holes.
The attack came a year after a similar mass jailbreak in the northern town of Bannu which Taliban militants said was carried out with inside help from prison guards.
There was no official comment from the central government.
Another security official said provincial authorities received warning of the impending attack two weeks ago.
He said phone intercepts indicated the militants had been planning a jail break and interrogations of captured fighters confirmed it. Security officials had alerted the provincial governor of the threat based on the intercepts.
As the gunbattle unfolded, gunmen took over a nearby house and hospital, holding the residents hostage as they fired on police from the rooftops and laid ambushes for reinforcements.
A senior Taliban official told Reuters separately the attack on the prison was masterminded by Adnan Rashid, a Taliban commander who was himself freed when his prison in the northern town of Bannu was overran by militants last year.
After that attack, militants told Reuters they had been helped by insiders in the security services. An inquiry later found there were far fewer guards on duty than there should have been and those who were there lacked sufficient ammunition. – Reuters
Seventeen lawmakers from the European Parliament have called on President Barack Obama to put an end to the persecution of US soldier Bradley Manning accused of aiding the enemy after he handed over a bunch of sensitive military documents to the WikiLeaks website.
In an open letter to President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the group of seventeen praised Manning for shedding light on “evidence of human rights abuses and apparent war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We hereby urge you to end the persecution of Bradley Manning, a young gay man who has been imprisoned for over three years, including ten months in solitary confinement, under conditions that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez deemed ‘cruel and abusive.’ Bradley Manning has already suffered too much, and he should be freed as soon as humanly possible,” MEPs from Spain, France, Sweden, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, and Ukraine wrote.
The lawmakers specifically stressed that the “aiding the enemy” offense thrown at him by the US court martial would set a terrible precedent.
“To consider releasing information about war crimes to the public to be ‘aiding the enemy’ would be a terrible setback for the defense of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law worldwide,” they underscored.
“Army prosecutors closed their arguments in the case without having provided any real evidence that Bradley Manning aided the enemy, or that he intended to do so,” they said.
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning faces a potential life sentence for passing hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables to the transparency website WikiLeaks, which exposed America’s crimes in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and further abuses around the world.
The military judge in Manning’s trial is expected to deliver a final verdict today, July 30. The sentencing stage of the trial is expected to run for several weeks in August.
Manning faces life imprisonment if found guilty
The sentence a US court will pass upon Wikileaks informant Private Bradley Manning will show what fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden would get should he return to his country, a senior Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov said.
“When the sentence is passed upon Manning for handing files to the Wikileaks website, it would be clear what would await Snowden if he returned to the United States,” Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian lower house’s international committee, said on Twitter on Monday.
Snowden, who is wanted by the United States for leaking classified data about the US National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, formally requested temporary asylum in Russia on July 16. Washington has repeatedly called on Moscow to reject Snowden’s request for asylum and send him back to the United States to stand trial on charges of espionage and theft. – Voice of Russia, RIA, RT, Express Tribune, TASS, Scoop
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Tuesday she found that deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was well and had access to television and newspapers when she visited him.
Sources told AFP that Ashton had left Cairo in a military helicopter heading to the undisclosed location where Morsi is being held.
Ashton was speaking to journalists after meeting Morsi on Monday night. “I’ve tried to make sure that his family know he is well,” said Ashton.
Ashton, who is trying to mediate a resolution to Egypt’s political crisis, added: “I said I wouldn’t come unless I could see him (Morsi).” Asked about a media report that she had offered Morsi a “safe exit”, she replied: “I did nothing of the kind.”
Spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said on her Twitter feed that Ashton and Morsi had an “in-depth discussion” lasting two hours.
Morsi is in army detention at an undisclosed location, facing charges of conspiring with Islamist group Hamas to carry out “hostile acts.”
Ashton was on her second visit to Egypt since widespread political unrest gripped the country following Morsi’s ouster on July 3. – Voice of Russia/dpa
Britain’s government on Monday defended a controversial campaign featuring vans with billboards urging illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest”, after criticism from a senior minister.
Two trucks, each displaying a huge poster with a number for migrants to text if they wish to return to their country of origin, were driven around six London boroughs for a week in a pilot scheme by the interior ministry.
Posters, leaflets and advertisements in local newspapers will run for a further month.
Business Secretary Vince Cable, a member of the Liberal Democrat party which is the junior partner in the coalition government with Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives, called the campaign “stupid and offensive”.
But Cameron’s spokesman defended the vans, saying it was “clear that this is already working” and that getting illegal immigrants to leave voluntarily was the most cost-effective solution.
The interior ministry had already received a “great deal of interest” as a result of the campaign, the spokesman added.
The government will decide whether or not to roll out the vans nationwide after the ministry has collected all the necessary information, he added.
Immigration is a key issue with less than two years until Britain’s next general election, as the centre-right Conservatives fear a growing threat from the UK Independence Party, which campaigns for migration curbs and an exit from the European Union.
But the “go home” campaign has revived tensions in the coalition government, with the office of Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg reportedly saying he had not been told about the van plan in advance.
The posters feature a huge picture of a pair of handcuffs together with a number said to represent the number of arrests in the local area and the words: “In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest.”
It tells people to text the word “HOME” to the displayed number to get help.
The trucks were driven through several areas of London with large ethnic minority populations.
A Home Office spokesman said the cost of the entire campaign, £10,000 ($15,000, 11,500 euros), was less than the £15,000 cost to forcibly remove one illegal immigrant from Britain.
The opposition Labour Party’s home affairs spokeswoman, Yvette Cooper, said the scheme was “ludicrous”.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said ethnic communities would take the billboards as a “sign of open warfare”.
“I think it’s very Big Brother, very state-ish, very sort of East Germany circa the 1980s, it’s just a horrid way of doing it,” the member of the European parliament told LBC radio.
There was also a backlash from British commentators and on social media.
In a commentary on the Guardian newspaper website, user “Pukkah Punjabi”, a graphic designer from London, described how she had called the Home Office and asked them to help her go “home” — to her house in the suburb of Willesden Green.
She said “go home” had been a racist slogan of abuse against migrants when she was growing up in the 1970s.
The Twitter hashtag #racistvan drew a series of other users saying they had texted the ministry to ask for train times and lost keys, while there was even a spoof Twitter account @theracistvan, with the sole message “RT (retweet) if you’re in the UK illegally.”
The Conservatives in particular have been trying to shore up their right-wing credentials on the immigration issue in recent months, with centre-left Labour being seen as weaker on the issue.
In June Britain said it would charge “high-risk” adult visitors from Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Ghana a refundable bond of £3,000 for a six-month visa. – AFP
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