The new Zimbabwean constitution that President Robert Mugabe promulgated three days ago guarantees more democracy and freedom of expression, on paper at least, and Reporters Without Borders hopes that it will reduce the negative effect of the draconian laws currently in effect. As a result of Zimbabwe’s repressive legislation, criminal charges are often brought against journalists just for doing their job. This has been seen yet again in recent cases of arrests and harassment. The new (…) … Read More
FBI killing of man with ties to Tsarnaev: Self-defense or case of excessive force?
So was there a knife?According to the preliminary FBI account, Todashev, a 28-year-old Chechen immigrant living in Orlando, Florida, became violent and lunged at an FBI special agent with a knife while being questioned about his ties to alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and an unsolved 2011 triple murder in the Boston suburb of Waltham. The agent, reacting to an “imminent threat,” shot Todashev dead.Later in the day, FBI officials backed away from that version of events, leaving no clear official account of what happened moments before Todashev was killed on Wednesday. Witnesses report hearing multiple shots that night, and while an autopsy reportedly completed by Thursday, the report will not be released until a criminal investigation into the event is completed. At the time of the shooting, up to half a dozen law-enforcers, including two Massachusetts State Police troopers and an FBI agent from the agency’s Boston division, were present at the condo not far from Universal Studios. The FBI claims that moments before Todashev “just went crazy” and attacked the agent, he had agreed to sign a confession which would have implicated both him and Tamerlan in the unsolved killings in which three male victims brutally had their throats slit. The murders took place on September 11, 2011, the ten year anniversary of the World Trade Center attack. While law enforcement sources initially said Todashev stabbed the agent with a knife, there was later “confusion” over what object he actually used to attack his questioner, ABC news reports.“Definitely no one said that he had pulled a gun but there was some media talk about whether he had pulled a knife, and then the FBI retracted that and said we don’t know exactly what happened,” said Sahar Aziz, and Associate Law Professor at Texas Wesleyan University. “So there is definitely a question of whether shooting him was a use of excessive force. Because even if, for example, he had punched the officer, it could possibly be unreasonable or unnecessary to shoot someone in defense of being punched. Usually you are supposed to use commensurate force,” she told RT.‘He just wanted everything to be over’ The FBI first began surveillance and later questioned Todashev several days after the April 15 Boston attack took place. From all accounts, he had cooperated with investigators up until his death. Todashev had reportedly purchased a plane ticket before the bombings occurred to return to his native Chechnya, but canceled his trip at the FBI’s request.“He had a ticket to New York. From there, he was going to go home [to Chechnya],” WESH Orlando quoted his friend and roommate Kushen Taramov as saying. “[The FBI was] pushing him to stay, saying, ‘we want to interview one last time.’” Taramov said Todashev canceled the ticket at the FBI’s insistence. When news of the shooting first broke, Taramov said he and Todashev had been interviewed by FBI agents for nearly three hours on Tuesday in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings.“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back.” Taramov, who noted that Todashev had been interviewed on multiple occasions following the Boston attack, denies law enforcement accounts that his friend simply went crazy and attacked.”He didn’t flip out,” Taramov, said. “I think something went wrong there. I think they just shot him. He didn’t do anything. I know him. He just wanted everything to be over.” Todashev did have a history of violence. According to records from the Orange County Sheriff Office, Todashev had been charged earlier this month with aggravated battery for allegedly fighting with a father and son over a parking space in a mall parking lot in Kissimmee, Florida. Todashev said he acted in self-defense.While living in Boston, he was also arrested in February 2010 after getting into a fight with strangers. One witness stated Todashev “was clearly the aggressor,” according to police reports.However, his father, Abdulbaki Todashev, described his son as “a very calm” man, saying his son would not become aggressive without reason.“Never in his life would he attack anyone unprovoked,” the elder Todashev stressed.Todashev’s estranged wife, Reniya Manukyan, said her husband was cooperating with the FBI and had nothing to hide. “He wasn’t involved. So he was not even nervous [to talk with the FBI],” local NBC affiliate News Channel 5 cites her as saying.Manukyan said their common Chechen roots and an interest in mixed martial arts brought her husband into contact with Tsarnaev, but “they weren’t friends or anything.” “He expected that they were going to come and question him because they both come from the same place from Chechnya,” she explained.She also denies her husband’s role in the 2011 triple homicide, though she does confirm he traveled back to Boston in the summer of 2011. DNA from that crime scene is currently being tested and compared with Todashev’s DNA.Later, in an angry post on Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social network, Manukyan blasted the FBI with an expletive-strewn post, claiming: “ Killing my husband Ibragim was another [proof] that everything is a setup about Tsarnaev brothers as well. ”Many questions with no answers, yetEarly on Wednesday morning, officials at the FBI headquarter in Washington dispatched a shooting-response unit to Florida to help investigators determine what had occurred.The following day, scores of FBI employees could be seen coming and going from the condo where Todashev was killed.In addition to the FBI’s review team, a separate Shooting Incident Review Group committee will analyze the incident. The independent committee, which includes up to 13 members of the FBI, will evaluate whether use of force was justified. No new information will likely surface until those investigations are concluded.But apart from the use of deadly force, several other questions have been raised regarding the death of Todashev.If Todashev had a history of violence, was being interviewed in connection with a recent terrorist event, and was believed to have played a role in a related triple homicide, why was he being interviewed in his home at midnight and not at a law enforcement facility?How did a knife or other unidentified object come into his possession during the course of the several hour interview?If law enforcers are unwilling to state emphatically that the object in question was even a knife, was lethal force necessary to subdue him while vastly outnumbered by several agents?Todashev had yet to be charged with a crime and had every right to refuse being questioned without having a lawyer present. From all accounts, he had been willing to cooperate with the FBI on multiple occasions. He also chose not to return home to Chechnya although he had already purchased tickets and no warrant had been issued for his arrest. If he felt cornered or pressured into making a confession, why would he attack half a dozen law enforcers rather than ask for a lawyer?And last but not least – was the final interrogation videotaped?“We know very little about what happened because the only source of information is the FBI and presumably it’s not in their self-interest to reveal too much information [since] there’s now an investigation into his death because this could possibly be a case of excessive force in violation of his constitutional rights,” Sahar Aziz argues. Whatever happened that night, Taramov recalled an ominous conversation he had with Todashev just hours before his death.“We had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen…He felt inside he was going to get shot,” Taramov said.”I told him, ‘everything is going to be fine, don’t worry about it.’ He said, ‘I have a really bad feeling.’” … Read More
Amnesty report blasts US for Gitmo, drone strikes, ‘absence of accountability’
Guantanamo, where more than 100 inmates have been on hunger strike since February, is listed first among Amnesty International’s human rights concerns in the US chapter of its annual report, which covers the year 2012. It states that the majority of Gitmo’s 166 detainees were kept at the facility without charge or criminal trial, “nearly three years after President Obama’s deadline for closure of the Guantanamo detention facility.” Amnesty International’s 2012 annual report is a survey on human rights in 159 countries. The organization, founded in 1961, claims it does not accept funding from governments. It draws information on human rights abuses from its 3 million members and supporters around the world. The human rights group also keeps count of the death toll at Guantanamo: “Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a Yemeni national who repeatedly expressed distress at his indefinite detention without charge or trial, died during the year, bringing to nine the number of detainees known to have died at Guantanamo since January 2002 ,” the report said.Latif was one of the first Gitmo prisoners, taken into US custody in 2001. He was ordered to be released from prison by the US District Court in Washington in July 2010, but the decision was overruled a year later on the grounds that Latif was an Al-Qaeda combatant.The Amnesty International report recounts the 2012 trials – or rather, “attempts at trials” – for the Gitmo detainees. Five Gitmo prisoners accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks were arraigned for a capital trial last year that did not take place.The report states that before being sent to Guantanamo, those five and another detainee “had been held incommunicado for up to four years in secret US custody, during which time at least two of them had been tortured.” Another detainee who was allegedly tortured, Pakistani national Majid Khan, pleaded guilty in December 2012. He became the seventh prisoner convicted by a military commission at Guantanamo, and one of the five who had pleaded guilty in return for the possibility of early release from US custody. The report also raised the issue of the 600 detainees in US custody at the US Military base in Afghanistan’s Bagram. Fifty of the inmates are non-Afghan nationals, some also held without charge or trial.Drones: ‘A violation of international law’The ongoing US program of targeted killings of suspected terrorists in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen –as well as the questionable legal grounds of the practice – was the basis of another lengthy entry. “Available information, limited by secrecy, indicated the US policy permitted extrajudicial executions in violation of international human rights law under the USA’s theory of a ‘global war’ against Al-Qaeda and associated groups,” the report said Drone strikes have increased sevenfold under Obama, Bloomberg reported in April. The US covert program to target and kill Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders saw 35 strikes in Pakistan in 2008, the last year President Bush was in office, the Long War Journal reported. That figure grew in the following years, reaching a peak of 117 attacks in 2010. Last year, 46 US drones strikes took place in Pakistan. A high court in Pakistan recently ruled that US drone strikes in the country should be considered war crimes. It also recommended that the Pakistani government address the issue in the United Nations, saying the strikes violated the organization’s charter and the country’s laws, but the growing uproar in Pakistan has done little to change Washington’s drone war.”Our researchers, when talking to people in Pakistan, find that the people are living in constant fear in very remote areas. You really cannot figure out, at the end of the day, who has been injured or killed in a drone attack,” Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty said, according to AP. The London-based group’s report was issued on Wednesday, the same day Washington admitted to killing four US citizens with drones. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney-General Eric Holder revealed that Anwar Awlaki was the only US citizen specifically targeted by a drone, while three others – Abdulrahman Awlaki, Samir Khan and Jude Kenan Mohammed – were also casualties in the drone war. President Obama is expected to address the issue in his Thursday speech at the National Defense University. Bush administration still unaccountable for secret detention deaths The CIA’s program of secret detention is mentioned among other US human rights violations. Amnesty International is concerned that no one was held accountable for the deaths of two people, who are believed to have perished in US custody abroad. “On 30 August, the US Attorney General announced the closure of criminal investigations into the death of two individuals in US custody outside the USA. He stated that no one would face criminal charges in relation to the deaths, believed to have occurred in Afghanistan in 2002 and Iraq in 2003,” the report said. The report described the deaths as “crimes under international law committed under the administration of President George W. Bush.”Tasers: ‘Excessive use of force’Forty-two people died in the US in 2012 after tasers were used against them by police, according to Amnesty International. “Most of those who died after being struck with a Taser were not armed and did not appear to pose a serious threat when the Taser was deployed,” the report said. According to Amnesty International’s report, taser use has caused 540 deaths since 2001. The report cites the American Heart Association, which conducted a study on the use of Tasers that concluded they can “cause cardiac arrest and death.”The potential risks of tasers – electroshock pistol-like weapons capable of jolting the target with 50,000 volts of electricity – have long been a source of public concern. A recent high-profile case of alleged Taser-induced death involved Richard Metcalf, a 35-year-old from western New York. Metcalf died in November after suffering a massive heart attack while in the custody of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. … Read More
Woolwich killing a betrayal of Islam and UK Muslims – Cameron
The British Prime Minister told press following an emergency meeting with cabinet members and security officials that there was “no justification” for the murder of the soldier in Woolwich on Wednesday.”This was not just an attack on Britain, and on the British way of life, it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to this country. There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act,” said Cameron.An active service member was hacked to death by two suspected Islamist extremists in southeast London on Wednesday. The two suspects were injured by police shooting when they were apprehended and have spent the night in separate hospitals. One of them is reported to be in a serious condition.Prime Minister Cameron said it was essential that Britain stood united against extremism and that the best way to combat terrorism “is to go about our normal lives.”Referring to the investigation into Wednesday’s killings, Cameron said “you would not expect me to comment on this when a criminal investigation is ongoing.” The identity of the soldier murdered in Woolwich has still not been revealed.DETAILS TO FOLLOW. … Read More
Top IRS official takes the Fifth: what it means
Lois Lerner, head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt filings, will take the Fifth in front of Congress tomorrow. … Read More
Rioters in Sweden protest alleged brutality, racism after police shoot elderly man
Between 60 to 100 people – most of them young men – took part in the riots which began around 10pm local time in the Stockholm district of Husby. Police turned up at the scene after a car was set on fire. Upon arrival, officers were met with stone-throwing protesters, Police Chief Daniel Mattsson said, as quoted by The Wall Street Journal. One policeman was attacked by youths kicking him and two others were injured by rocks, police officer Jorgen Karlsson told AP. Rioters torched cars in a local parking garage. Around 50 vehicles were damaged in the fire, which forced the evacuation of a nearby building. Windows were smashed at two schools and several local businesses. Mattson said there were 18 criminal incidents reported and that the unrest lasted for four hours.Allegations of police misconductWitnesses say that police officers reportedly called rioters and residents “monkeys” on Sunday night, discriminating against their race. Rouzbeh Djalai, editor-in-chief of local newspaper The North Side, told The Local that she spoke to a youth leader and some of teenagers after the riots. The group reportedly approached police asking if they could help. The youth leader told her that he was called a “nigger” by police, while the boys were called “monkeys.” They also said the police attacked them with batons.”If the police don’t want to cooperate, they should just say it; they don’t have to call people names and hit them with batons,” Djalaie said. Residents of Husby are angry that police are increasing their presence in the neighborhood, instead of focusing on long-term solutions to the area’s problems.”There’s frustration in Husby and it risks spiralling out of control; people want long-term solutions to social problems instead of an increased police presence,” Djalai said. ”It’s a neighborhood where one third of junior high school graduates leave school without adequate grades; they step straight out into unemployment. It’s obvious what the consequences are,” she added.Seeking justiceThe riots were in response to the fatal shooting of an elderly man last week. The man was shot and killed by police after officers responded to a call that a person was roaming Husby with a knife. Once officers arrived, the man disappeared into an apartment, police spokesman Lars Byström told TT news agency. He then stepped onto a balcony and threatened officers.”He screamed at police from the balcony that he wanted to kill them,” a neighbor told the Expressen newspaper. Negotiators were called to the scene and police learned that a woman was also in the apartment. After failed attempts at negotiating, police broke down the apartment door in an effort to secure the woman’s safety. But things took a turn for the worse once officers arrived inside the residence. “Then the person in question appeared holding a machete. Officers felt cornered and threw a flash grenade so they could overpower the man. That didn’t work either and they then felt forced to open fire,” said Byström.It is unclear how many officers fired shots and how many shots were fired, but witnesses say police fired five or six shots in total. “We saw the flashes when they shot. Even if you’d never seen an actual shooting before, you knew what it was,” a witness said.Police say the 69-year-old man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds.However, local youth organization Megafonen reported on May 15th that neighbors said there was never an ambulance. Instead, they say a hearse turned up to cart away the body at 2am.The woman inside the apartment escaped with no injuries, according to police. Her relationship with the man remains unknown.Megafonen arranged a protest against the alleged police brutality last week, in response to the fatal shooting. The group – a community-based organization aimed at organizing residents to fight for social justice – demanded an independent investigation and public apology.”Last week, the police shot an old man who was holding a knife. How can they do this without taking responsibility? I can understand the reaction (riots),” Megafonen founder Rami al-Khamisi said.Prosecutors from the Swedish National Police Crimes Unit are currently investigating the shooting. … Read More
Indonesia considers ban on witchcraft
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