Of the 166 detainees held at the prison camps, few have viable charges to face war crimes tribunal. Army Brigadier General Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor for the tribunals, told Reuters that the 36 detainees the US initially sought to prosecute was an “ambitious” number. The Guantanamo Review Task Force completed a review in 2010 that made this determination, but Martins said no more than 20 detainees have viable charges that prosecutors could realistically pursue. Seven of these have already undergone their trials, and six are facing pretrial hearings this week and next. The drastic reduction of prosecutions comes in light of the dismissal of Salim Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden whose conviction was overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit last October. Hamdan had been convicted by a US military commission of providing material support to al-Qaeda terrorists, but the appeals court decided that this was not a crime under international rule of law at the time that Hamdan worked for bin Laden. The US Congress in 2006 passed the Military Commissions Act, which defines an “unlawful enemy combatant” as someone “who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant”. The appeals court concluded that this law could not be applied retroactively, and Hamdan’s charges were dismissed. Hamdan had already finished his sentence and returned to Yemen when his charges were thrown out, but the court ruling caused Guantanamo prosecutors to give up on many of the other cases they initially sought to pursue, Martins told Reuters. Although some of the detainees facing war crimes tribunal are already known, Martins did not identify them all by name. On Monday, US military prosecutors filed charges against Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi for a war crime coined “perfidy”, claiming that he coordinated a series of suicide attacks on US and allied troops and civilians in Afghanistan. Army Lt. Col. Chris Callen, a lawyer appointed to defend al-Hadi, told AP that he would go over the charges with the detaineeon Tuesday. Pretrial hearings will also begin next week for five prisoners accused of being involved in the planning of the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Pretrial hearings are currently underway for Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian man accused of directing a number of suicide attacks, including the bombing of the USS Cole, which resulted in the deaths of 17 American sailors. Both Nashiri and Mohammed are facing the death penalty, but of the 166 detainees still held at Guantanamo, only 20 may ever be prosecuted. … Read More
Russia prepares replacement for soviet-era railway-based missiles
The design bureau that developed Russia’s most modern ballistic missiles the Bulava, Topol and Yars, has started research and development of the new project – the railway car based ICBM – Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov told the press on Tuesday.Currently work is at a primary stage and does not require significant investment. The overall costs to design a completely new railway-based missile has not yet been determined, he added.If complete and launched into production, the missile would replace the RT-24 system, also known as SS-24 Scalpel – the intercontinental weapon disguised as an ordinary freight train, which made its detection and preemptive destruction extremely difficult.Russia decommissioned its railway car based missiles in 2005 and destroyed all the systems by 2007 as part of the START II treaty on nuclear arms reduction with the US. The ‘New START’ treaty (which is also called START III in Russia) that came into force in 2011 does not limit the use of railway car based systems and allows Russia to restart production.The move could be seen as Russia’s reply to the continuing development of the global missile defense system by the US. Russia has opposed the move and demanded legally-binding guarantees that the missile system will not be used against its forces (legal guarantees would allow Russian monitors to inspect the missile defense stations). The US says the system is planned to counter the possible attack from ‘rogue states’ such as Iran and North Korea, but offers only political guarantees, leaving Russia in the dark concerning the particular details of the system.The standoff has already led to statements that Russia could quit the New START treaty if no mutually acceptable agreement is reached on missile defense. However, Russian officials repeatedly said that such a turn of events is extremely undesirable.The United States insist on its position, and it is reported that the missile defense issue was the main topic of the personal message that President Barak Obama passed to Vladimir Putin last week. However, Russian diplomatic sources again stated that Moscow was not happy with the suggestions made in the message and the there was no movement over the missile defense problem. … Read More
G20 gives ‘currency war’ stamp of approval
Japan reassured other finance ministers that it isn’t intentionally weakening the yen with its stimulus plan.According to the Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso, his colleagues understand that Japan is pursuing “price stability and economic recovery,” rather than competitively weakening the yen.Expert are split on whether the meeting will bring significant positive results. Some believe the communiqué will repeat February’s decision, when the group agreed to avoid using competitive currency devaluation to gain advantages in trade, the Associated Press reports.US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew spoke of the intention to put more pressure on Europe to boost efforts to support growth, and on Japan and China to avoid lowering the value of their currencies in order to improve exports.In Europe countries have yet to agree on the scale of austerity measures they apply locally, while Germany is pressing on deficit reduction.IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is urging countries to focus on growth rather than on adjusting budget imbalances. She also said that Europe needs “to fix its frayed banking system” first and foremost.Earlier this week, the IMF lowered its outlook for the world economy, predicting government spending cuts would slow US growth and keep the Eurozone in recession.The G20 talks, chaired by Russia, kicked off in in Washington on April 18 and continued on Friday. The meeting preludes the upcoming spring meetings of the 188-nation International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told reporters that the BRICS’ proposed creation of a new development bank is a good plan, as it will create new sources of capital needed to meet the world’s need to fund infrastructure projects.The plan to create a new development bank was agreed by the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa last month during the summit in South Africa. The project is aimed to attract investment to help fund $4.5 trillion in infrastructure projects in emerging economies. … Read More
White House Says It Will Compromise on the Budget By Doing Things It Has Already Agreed to Do
For the past few years, the
White House has previewed headline details about the
administration’s budget plan ahead of the release of the actual
budget document. Reporters from major news outlets have been
provided with key details, and, naturally, the talking points that
go with them. Last year, the
preview arrived on a Friday, with the full budget appearing the
following Monday. This year, the previews once again began to
spread on Friday. But the full budget didn’t arrive until the
Wednesday.
The one-two punch makes for a powerful messaging tactic, because
it allows the administration to control the conversation about the
budget for several days in advance of its actual release, and the
longer the gap, the longer the administration has to spin. The
administration gets to highlight what it wants about the budget,
and because there’s no other information available, the press
dutifully repeats what the administration wants highlighted.
Political opponents, meanwhile, have a somewhat tougher time
responding to a budget that they haven’t actually seen.
This year, the White House preview message seems to be that the
administration is making a great effort to compromise with
Republicans. The early information has highlighted President
Obama’s willingness to agree to change the way Social Security
benefits are calculated, as various Medicare savings, the $1.8
trillion in deficit reduction the administration claims to achieve,
and the tax carve outs it says it wants to close. Sure, the pitch
seems to be, we’re asking for additional tax revenue, but we’re
also making a good-faith effort to take on entitlements. We’re
compromising. Won’t you Republicans do the same? The press has
picked up on the idea. When The New York Times
reported the initial details at the end of last week, it
described the new budget as an effort by President Obama to “embody
the final compromise offer that he made to Speaker John A. Boehner
late last year.”
So is the White House really making a meaningful effort to reach
a compromise with this new budget? To answer in the affirmative,
you have see some value in rehashing old policy offers: Every one
of the entitlement and tax changes the administration has
highlighted that could be considered a compromise is a policy idea
we’ve seen the administration talk about before: The White House
has previously indicated its willingness to accept reforms to
Social Security’s benefits calculations, to negotiate lower prices
to drug companies and change the way Medicare pays for prescription
medications for seniors also eligible for Medicaid. These aren’t
necessarily bad policies, but they also aren’t really new offers,
so the administration’s affirmation that it is still willing to
accept policies it previously said it would consider does not count
for all that much.
Meanwhile, the administration has in recent months pulled back
on entitlement changes it once said it would consider: Multiple
reports have indicated that the White House has at various times
said it might agree to raising Medicare’s eligibility age; that
policy not only didn’t make it into the budget, it has been
yanked from consideration entirely. And in February, the
administration said that Medicaid reductions it once said it would
discuss were
no longer on the table. Despite what the messaging of the last
few days has suggested, the White House isn’t really expanding what
it’s willing to do to reach a deal with Republicans; if anything it
is narrowing its list of acceptable compromises. ; … Read More
Faith leaders descend on Washington, call for a “moral budget”
Faith leaders will descend on Washington for a Loaves and Fishes Day of Action on Wednesday. There message for Congress? Reject the Ryan austerity budget and stop “worshipping at the altar of deficit reduction.”In a statement from NETWORK, the Sister Simone Campbell-led social justice organization denounced Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget as creating “untenable situations for those struggling to survive” through cuts to Medicaid and the social safety net.In a multi-state, grassroots effort against austerity cuts, a coalition of faith leaders have organized events around the country on Wednesday, including delivering loaves and fishes to members of the House of Representatives (a reference the Biblical story of having enough during a time of scarcity).They’ve also released an animated message about “finding the political courage to pass a moral budget.”Continue Reading… … Read More
It’s almost like the Tea Party won
The Obama administration is doing its best to make Americans aware of – and enraged by – the impact of the sequester, hoping to pressure Republicans into a deal that will undo the cuts and replace them with the “balanced” deficit reduction framework that the president has been seeking for two years now. But several days into the sequester, it’s starting to feel like the critical mass of outrage that the White House is hoping for may not be reached.This doesn’t mean the sequester won’t have a real impact. The domestic spending cuts will force agencies that provide aid to the poor to turn away families that need it, and the combined effects of slashing $85 billion from Defense and domestic programs over the next seven months will slow an economy that’s still struggling to return to health.Continue Reading… … Read More
