Multi-Religious Society: No More Conflicts 

By N.M. Rishard –APRIL 19, 2018

N.M. Rishard

As we all know that world order has changed dramatically. Many countries particularly western countries experience different challenges due to its new phenomena resulted by this new world order. For instance, migration to west as refugees is significant consequences of modern days. The war in some part of Middle East countries compelled their respective citizens to migrate to another country hoping to lead a peaceful life. Besides, they are given opportunities to pursue their higher studies in high ranked universities such as oxford and Harvard. The PhD holders prefer securing any related jobs for their respective fields to returning to their motherland. This is the same thing what happens to the people who go to western countries to gain any jobs. This unprecedented trend that brought various cultures, religions, ethnics and castes into a specific environment, has created some major challenges.

When it comes to Sri Lankan context, it is totally different to that of above mentioned reality. Many studies have apparently proved that all communities in Sri Lanka irrespective of their identities have led a peaceful and harmonious life for more than thousand years without downgrading each other, even though there were few exceptional incidents emerged in the past history. Therefore, pluralism having different religious identities and ethnic backgrounds is not a new phenomenon to us as Sri Lankans; rather it rooted very profoundly in the blood of this nation. Unfortunately, ethnic polarization erupted in middle of 70s and later, it emerged as a war between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE which claimed for a separate and autonomous land. Three decades of war were filled by black memories such as eviction, robber, murder, kidnapping, torture and bomb explosion that put the country down economically, politically and socially. During the war that was intensified in Northern Province, entire nation including the people who were in southern region faced many difficulties and hardships. For instance, bus journey from Kandy to Colombo that was only 115 kilo meters had to pass through more than five check points where all passengers should get down with their bags for the security purposes.

Another black page of this bloody conflict is explosions which were carried out by the terrorist group in public places. This scenario created fears and tension among general public. Moreover, we had to lost many lives of our relatives and neighbours. Specially, northern people suffered a lot. Most teenagers, at their age of education, were compelled by the terrorist group to join and carry weapons. Thousands of people including children, pregnant women and elders were evicted forcibly from north region and they were not given permission to take land deed or other documents with them. The war continued without having a sustainable solution even though several the peace negotiation talks were conducted very frequently with the mediation of foreign organizations in several occasions. However, the prolonged war came to an end after continuous sacrifices and dedications carried out by military forces. Former-president Mahinda Rajapaksha’s regime was able to eradicate the clutches of terrorism and the entire citizens, irrespective of religion and faith, celebrated the victory that is still considered as “second independence”. The expectation of the society at that time was to bring a real peace and co-existence among the communities that were not prevalence for approximately three decades. Mahinda Rajapaksha had a golden opportunity to re-unite the nation and to be celebrated as a national leader or hero. But, unfortunately, what happened was totally different to the aspirations of general public.

New public figures, who were totally absent during the past, emerged instantaneously and became the leader of some movements that appeared with religious identity even though directed by political players. Hate speeches against Sri Lankan Muslims stormed very often in public meetings and media conferences. Further, the newly emerged group of racists fostered the mistrust and misunderstanding among the communities. Such intensified propaganda had created some negative consequences in the collective phycology as well as attitude of both Sinhalese and Muslims. Brutal attacks, which were staged repeatedly in several places such as Aluthgama and Kandy, made a rift in the relationship between two respective communities. Both regimes, which came to power following to the victory, have somewhat failed to fulfil their promises in terms of the security of minority Muslim who played a pivotal role in nation building process throughout the history. Those who were in high positions and authorities, except few, prefer not to utter even a condemnation against the unethical and injustice attacks led by some religious leaders on innocent people.

Social media, especially Facebook and WhatsApp, played a negative role in promoting racism and bigotry. It is obvious that some people forwarded and shared what they received in social media without verifying the information. Some past incidents got rebirthed again and again. Hatred speeches that played with the emotions and feelings of the society were circulated by the followers.

Read More

Ellanga Gammana System recognized as Global Agricultural Heritage Site

 Thursday, April 19, 2018

The international forum and ceremony to award Sri Lanka’s Cascaded Tank-Village System as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Site took place in Rome, Italy today.

The system, known locally as the “Ellanga Gammana,” was recognized as one of the 14 newly designated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Sites in the world.

The award was accepted by the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture B. Wijeratne on behalf of Sri Lanka.

The other sites awarded today are in China, Egypt, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Portugal and Spain.

An “Ellanga system” is a system where a large number of small rivers are inter-connected based on their geographical locations to nourish one large river.

18 TUS OPPOSE POSTPONING MAY DAY BY THE GOVERNMENT

19/04/2018

18th April 2018 /Joint Trade Union Media Release.

Protest against postponing May Day and obstructing worker commemoration.

We strongly protest the decision of this “good governance” unity government that has not only postponed the international workers’ day on May 01^st that in Sri Lanka is a workers’ right to celebrate, but also its attempts at disrupting any workers’ celebrations on May Day.

It was in 1956 that May Day was declared a holiday in Sri Lanka for Public, Bank and the Mercantile sectors. After 62 years this government has declared May Day a working day by issuing a gazette notification that has created confusion even among the top Bureaucracy. Government has on a unilateral decision, declared May 07 as the alternate day for May Day celebrations. The government did not even consider it worth discussing the issue of postponing May Day in the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) before it decided on the postponement.

The government said the May Day was postponed as it would disturb Buddhist religious activities widely practised during the “Wesak week”. Trade unions therefore decided to hold their May Day rallies on the international workers’ day on May 01st in a manner that would not disturb religious activities as claimed by the government.

Following up on the government which gives into the greed of wheeler dealer business postponed the May Day to May 07, the major partner of this government, the UNP that now controls the Colombo Municipal Council has refused permission for May Day rallies to be held in public parks on May 01^st. The government has thus achieved an indirect ban on all May Day celebrations in Colombo.

It is our experience now, this government that gives into wheeler dealer interests is openly and seriously into curbing worker and democratic rights. All these including the postponement of the May Day and refusing permission to hold May Day rallies in public parks, fall in line with the appointment of a businessman who was brought into parliament on the UNP national list, being appointed as acting minister of Labour and Labour Relations. We therefore forewarn, these developments would leave all promises and guarantees given by this government to the EU in regaining GSP “Plus” as benefits and advantages to the businessmen and not to the people and the workers of Sri Lanka.

As such, we as trade unions will proceed to hold our joint May Day rally as usual on May 01^st, whatever hurdles there could be. We therefore call upon all organisations, groups and individuals who stand for human, democratic and worker rights to join hands with us, this May Day.

1. Ceylon Bank Employees Union
2. Ceylon Mercantile Industrial & General workers union
3. Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union
4. Ceylon Estate Staff union
5. Union of Postal and Telecommunication officers
6. United Federation of Labour
7. Ceylon Teachers Union
8. Insurance Employees Union
9. Women workers Solidarity Union
10. Commercial & Industrial Workers union
11. All employees Union of Information Telecommunication
12. Telecommunication Engineering Diplomat’s Association (TEDA)
13. Federation of Media Employee Trade Union (FMETU)
14. Government United Federation of Labour

Five dead in ‘ammonia tank’ accident at Horana rubber factory

By Yusuf Ariff-April 19, 2018 

The death toll following the accident at a rubber factory in Horana, caused by an employee falling into an ammonia tank, has climbed to five, the police spokesman said.

The factory employee who fell into the ammonia tank and four villagers who attempted to rescue him have died.

Several other persons who were unconscious have been admitted to the Horana Hospital
It was previously reported that one person died after falling into an ammonia tank at the rubber factory in Ballapitiya while another 14 persons who tried to rescue him have been hospitalised.

Police said that the incident had occurred at around 1.20pm today (19) when a factory employee fell into the tank, which collects ammonia wastage from the rubbery factory, while attempting to clean the tank.

A group of villagers, residents of the area, had attempted to rescue him, however some 15 of them had collapsed unconscious possible due to breathing in the toxic gas and were rushed to hospital.  Four of the villagers had also died.

Horana Police is conducting further investigations. 

Workers Can Surely Highlight Their Woes On May 7

 

The Trade Unions which have grouped together argue that May 1 is the International Workers Day or labour day

2018-04-20

It is reported that a group of Trade Unions, offended by the decision to declare May 7 as ‘Workers Day’, had decided to protest. This decision to change the date had apparently been taken by President Maitripala Sirisena on the advice of the Maha Nayake Theras who had pointed out that 

the week following Vesak Poya, which falls on April 29 and 30 will be one of religious observances and therefore, not opportune to have May Day rallies on May 1, immediately after the two Vesak holidays.   

The Trade Unions which have grouped together argue that May 1 is the International Workers Day or Labour Day popularly known as May Day which according to them is universally celebrated as the day on which the workers highlight their woes and voice their legitimate demands and as such it was against international norms and rules to annul the May 1 holiday and instead declare May 7 as the day to mark workers day. The Unions argue that this decision violates the Constitution of Sri Lanka too and say that there were a few occasions in the past, when May Day was celebrated just before or just after Vesak Day. They go on to highlight the historical significance of May Day and that almost all countries have declared May 1 as workers day or labour day. The trade unions have declared that they would defy the Government’s decision and hold rallies on May 1.   

It is worthwhile pondering on the historical background of May Day. In early pagan culture of Europe, May 1 was celebrated as the first day of summer and over the centuries, the day was associated with various religious and cultural festivities and celebrations. This day was observed as a spring holiday in the northern hemisphere with varied cultural and religious activities. In the late 19th century, May Day was chosen as International Workers Day by the Socialists and Communist movements of the Second Internationale to commemorate the bombing on May 4, 1886 of a demonstration by workers conducted in support of an eight-hour workday in Chicago known as the Haymarket Affair. Due to the bombing, seven police officers and four workers lost their lives. This celebration also combined with the anti-capitalist movement of that time in England. Since then, the working classes of many countries celebrated May 1 as International Workers Day and several governments recognized the day and declared it as a holiday. However, some countries celebrate workers day on different dates which are significant to them such as in the United States labour day is celebrated on the first Monday of September. This year in England, the May Day holiday has been fixed on May 7, which is aMonday, since May 1 falls on Tuesday. It had been the practice in England over the years that May Day was recognized as a holiday if it fell on a Monday and if not, on another day, usually a Monday was chosen as the May Day holiday.   

Now one may wonder why the trade unions are irked by the decision to declare May 7 as May Day. If the workers wish to highlight the issues that affect them directly or of concern to them, why is it not possible for them to hold their rallies on any holiday in May? The message will be effectively put across to the respective authorities if unity among workers is firmly displayed. But what happens in Sri Lanka is that a majority of the unions are affiliated to the major political parties and they participate in May Day rallies organized by the parent political parties who make use of the May Day rallies to demonstrate their strength. There is more disunity than unity among workers when it comes to highlighting their woes. The only unions with sufficient numbers is the plantation workers unions, which too has become aligned to political parties of their choosing. As a result, it is not the aspirations of the workers that are highlighted on May Day but the slogans prepared by political parties. Therefore it is a moot point whether the trade unions have their workers day on May 1 or any other day in May or even for that matter any day in the year. The trade unions are responsible to their members to effectively present the workers’ grievances and make representations against the policies or practices of the employers that affect them adversely. Instead what we currently see is that the Unions mobilize workers or members against totally unrelated issues and more often than not, ‘missing the woods for the trees’ where their main issues are not highlighted but the workers are made to respond to the May Day slogans of the political parties they are affiliated to.   

The May Day rallies of the so called socialist countries are also farcical demonstrations where such rallies are used to demonstrate their economic and military might to the world and hardly any worker-grievances are highlighted

The May Day rallies of the so called socialist countries are also farcical demonstrations where such rallies are used to demonstrate their economic and military might to the world and hardly any worker-grievances are highlighted. Due to the shrouded nature of worker conditions, the world hardly gets to know the plight of the workers in those countries because the Unions are State controlled, as are the media.   

The government and the President cannot obviously ignore the advice of the Maha Nayake Theras in respect of religious observances connected with Vesak and the President quite rightly got the Cabinet to approve the shifting of May Day celebrations to May 7. What is the position if Vesak Poya fell on May 1 itself? In such a scenario would the trade unions want the Poya Day shifted to some other day to enable them to celebrate May Day? In this instance, the rights of the workers and trade unions have not been suppressed and merely allowed another day to conveniently exercise their rights. The unions claim that this rescheduling of May Day is a violation of international norms and our constitution. As explained in previous paragraphs, celebrating May Day on May 1 is not an international norm though prevalent in many countries. The claimed that the Constitution was being violated, maybe hinting at the favoured treatment meted out to Buddhists but there is no discrimination against other faiths in this exercise. Hypothetically, if workers day falls on Christmas day itself, there is no other option for the Government but to reschedule the workers day to some other time.   

Have the Trade Unions lost their marbles or is there a more sinister motive underlying their agitation? Only time will tell.   

National disregard on ‘quality construction’ – A few lessons

If everyone in the construction team does not play their own part, the quality of the outcome cannot be achieved

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intentions, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives”

– William A Foster-Wednesday, 18 April 2018

The First Step

I commenced my career as an engineer with a Sri Lankan semi-Government engineering consultancy organisation. I was immediately assigned to a major hydro-power construction project of the accelerated Mahaweli Development Scheme.

National disregard on ‘quality construction’ – A few lessons.docx by Thavam on Scribd

The trial of Dareen Tatour and the madness of being Israel

Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour, center, is seen in an Israeli courtroom with her family and supporters in the city of Nazereth, November 2017. A verdict in her trial over a poem she wrote is expected in early May.Oren ZivActiveStills

Kim Jensen and Yoav Haifawi- 18 April 2018

In 1985, Mahmoud Darwish wrote an essay called “The Madness of Being Palestinian.”

After reflecting on the attacks against Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, he concluded that a Palestinian can only do one thing: “to become more Palestinian, a Palestinian until homeland or liberty, a Palestinian until death.”

Thirty years later, when the poet and photographer Dareen Tatour was seized from her home, interrogated, imprisoned and put on trial for “incitement to violence” and “support of a terror organization,” her only crime was just that: becoming more Palestinian in her words and her poems.
On 3 May, a verdict in this hollow charade of a trial is scheduled to be handed down by Adi Bambiliya-Einstein, a judge in the Nazareth magistrates court.

Human rights observers and free speech advocates around the world will be watching closely to see if the state of Israel will convict an innocent Palestinian poet against all evidence and in stark violation of international law.

Jennifer Clement, the president of PEN International, who visited Tatour and her family in Reineh – near Nazareth – last October, has reiterated the free expression group’s unwavering position.

“Dareen Tatour has been targeted for her poetry and peaceful activism,” Clement said. “We call for the charges against her to be dropped and for her immediate release.”

Despite such prominent expressions of global and local solidarity that have buoyed Tatour’s spirits, her outlook on the verdict remains bleak. Speaking from the confines of her home where she remains under house arrest, she relayed a pessimistic message: “There is no hope and no justice in the Israeli courts.”

The proceedings of the last few months do not inspire confidence. State prosecutor Alina Hardak’s closing arguments on 18 February, as well as her 43-page summary submitted to the court, demonstrate a disturbing eagerness to pursue a conviction based on emotional manipulation, distortion and slander.

The fact that the judge has countenanced this steady recitation of falsehoods and half-truths for two and a half years does not bode well.

Case built on distortion

The most obvious flaw in the case is the lack of any evidence that Tatour provoked an act of violence or that her work contains “a direct call for violence.”

Instead of presenting proof, Hardak has instead resorted to vilifying Tatour and systematically demonizing three key words she uses in her work: qawim, intifada, and shahid.

Though the word qawim – “resist” – implies many forms of struggle, including nonviolent struggle, Hardak has incorrectly maintained that the word constitutes a direct appeal for violent resistance. The prosecutor has also incorrectly claimed that the word intifada, which means a “shaking off” or an “uprising” can only imply violence and terrorism.

While these two misreadings are maddening enough, it is Hardak’s misinterpretation of the word shahid, or “martyr,” that has transformed the lengthy proceedings into a bizarre display of vindictive incompetence.

Within the context of Palestinian literature, culture and politics, the word shahid signifies all of those who have died in the struggle or as a consequence of the occupation, most especially the innocent victims.

Ignoring this incontrovertible fact – as if Google didn’t exist at all – the prosecution has relentlessly promulgated the racist Israeli misconception that the word shahid is a codeword for terrorist or suicide attacker.

This malicious misinterpretation has led the prosecutor to miss the point of “Resist, My People, Resist Them,” Tatour’s fiery anti-occupation poem written in reaction to the extrajudicial execution of the Palestinian student Hadil Hashlamoun and the burning of two Palestinian children, Muhammad Abu Khudair and Ali Dawabsha.

The line at the center of the indictment – “follow the caravan of martyrs” – functions as a figurative invitation for readers to remain mindful of the victims, not as an explicit invitation to martyrdom.
The twisting of the concept of the martyr is also central to the charge related to the “I am the next martyr” meme that Dareen posted on Facebook after Israeli soldiers and guards shot the young Palestinian Israa Abed in Afula – a city in present-day Israel – during October 2015.

The widely used meme is akin to the popular “Je suis Charlie” or “I can’t breathe” memes expressing solidarity with victims of violence, yet the prosecution ludicrously contends that Tatour posted it to encourage suicide attacks.

Propaganda and delusion

Though Israeli authorities quickly exonerated Israa Abed of any attempt to carry out an attack, police witnesses in Tatour’s hearings repeatedly called Abed “the terrorist who was in Afula” in order to falsely associate Tatour with terrorism.

In her written summary and oral arguments, Hardak, the prosecutor, slanderously insists that at the time of her post Tatour knew that “she [Abed] came to Afula to attack Jews,” even though Tatour in all her interrogations explained that she didn’t believe the false accusations against Abed. By the end of the hearings, not a single fact was left standing. When the defense team and the international solidarity campaign began to focus on Tatour’s right to freedom of expression, Hardak switched tactics mid-trial and started to deny that the poem “Resist, My People, Resist Them” was even a poem and that Tatour was a poet at all.

In her entire summary, Hardak carefully avoids calling Tatour a poet, or calling the poem cited in full in the indictment a poem, referring to it only as “a text” or “selected words.”

Still maintaining that Tatour was “influential” and that her words had a “real possibility of legitimizing and encouraging acts of violence or terror,” Hardak writes that Tatour was invited “to present” at public events, studiously avoiding the fact she was invited to recite her poetry.

As we review such records of propaganda and delusion, it is clear that the trial of Dareen Tatour is not about madness of being Palestinian, but rather the madness of being Israel. This is the madness of a state that is consistently lenient on convicted Israeli terrorists but that is willing to persecute nonviolent expressions of Palestinian protest.

This is the madness of a state that deploys snipers to target unarmed protesters, and then claims that the snipers are merely defending a “border.”

This is the madness of a state based on the foundational denial of the indigenous people who have made it a central aspect of their identity to resist their own erasure.

No matter what the verdict is on 3 May, we can be sure that the spectacle of intractable insanity will only end when the Palestinian people, who refuse to be obliterated or silenced, will achieve full, equal rights.

For her part, Dareen Tatour is busy writing a book about her ordeal called My Dangerous Poem. Hopefully – if activists around the world exert enough pressure – she will be able to finish, publish and publicize this book as a free woman.

Kim Jensen is a Baltimore-based writer, poet and activist. Her books include a novel, The Woman I Left Behind, and two collections of poems, Bread Alone and The Only Thing that Matters. She is professor of English and women’s studies at the Community College of Baltimore County. Yoav Haifawi is an anti-Zionist activist and maintains the blogs Free Haifa and Free Haifa Extra.

Israel at 70: Three academics take the political temperature

Will Israel ever suffer a 'dictatorship'? Who will be the true friends of a future Israel? These, and other questions, answered

Lubna Masarwa

Wednesday 18 April 2018 

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the foundation of Israel. Middle East Eye asked three Israeli academics to reflect on the health of Israeli politics. Has Israel become a colonial power? What aspects of modern Israeli society would disturb the first Zionists? Why is there an "extraordinary silence" about the future of a Palestinian state?

Yaron Ezrahi, Eva Illouz and Yonatan Mendel give their thoughts on the dominant Israeli political themes of 2018 and where that conversation might take us next. Here’s what they had to say:

'The occupation is the most amazing subject of denial' 

Yaron Ezrahi is professor emeritus of political science at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and a former senior fellow at the Israeli Democracy Institute, Jerusalem. He has published several books: in 1997 he was a winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Rubber Bullets: Power and Conscience in Modern Israel.

 

'A deeply fragmented society of different groups'

Eva Illouz is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and Directrice d'Etudes at the EHESS in Paris. In 2018-19 she will be a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. She writes for Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit and Ha’aretz across literature, politics and social affairs among others.

'Who calls the shots in Israel?'

Yonatan Mendel is the director of Manarat, the Jewish-Arab Center at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He serves also as an assistant editor of Maktoob, a series of books dedicated to the translation of Arabic literature into Hebrew. His main research interests include Arabic, Jewish-Arab relations and the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The views expressed in this article belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Photo: An Israeli soldier keeps guard near a Palestinian woman standing by a Star of David graffiti sprayed by Israeli settlers near an army checkpoint in the centre of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on 18 May 2009 (AFP)

Trump allies press Rosenstein in private meeting in latest sign of tensions

President Trump has suggested firing Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, as Republicans launch criticism against the FBI and the special counsel. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

by Robert Costa and Ellen Nakashima April 18 

Two of President Trump’s top legislative allies met with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein this week to press him for more documents about the conduct of law enforcement officials involved in the Russia probe and the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server, according to three people who were not authorized to speak publicly about the discussion.

Rosenstein’s meeting at his office Monday with Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) came days after Meadows, an influential Trump confidant, warned Rosenstein that he could soon face impeachment proceedings or an effort to hold him in contempt of Congress if he did not satisfy GOP demands for documents.

Trump and Meadows spoke at some point after the meeting, the three people said, but they declined to share details of the exchange.

The visit by Meadows and Jordan — leading members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus — is the latest sign of the rising tensions between Trump’s inner circle and the Justice Department. Rosenstein, a veteran prosecutor, is confronting a torrent of criticism from Republicans and an uncertain future that puts special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia probe at risk.

In recent days, Trump has seethed over the FBI’s raid last week on the home, office and hotel room of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, which Rosenstein approved. He has also taken note of conservative commentators who have called for Rosenstein to be fired, according to two administration officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. And Trump encouraged Rosenstein to work with lawmakers on their document requests in a White House meeting April 12, the officials said.

“They’ve been saying I’m going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months, and they’re still here,” Trump said at a news conference Wednesday when asked about Mueller and Rosenstein.

Meadows, in a brief interview Wednesday, acknowledged that he met with Rosenstein earlier in the week.

“We keep getting promises that Congress will get the documents it has requested, but there has been little action that has supported those promises,” Meadows said. He called the meeting the culmination of the “dissatisfaction I’ve expressed on a number of occasions with varying degrees of passion.”

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Meadows and other Republicans close to Trump, such as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), have long clashed with Rosenstein over documents related to the origin of the Russia investigation. Last week, in a move widely seen as an attempt to calm that rancor, the Justice Department gave Nunes access to a redacted document detailing the beginning of the probe — a day after Nunes suggested that he may try to impeach high-ranking FBI or Justice Department officials over their failure to produce what he wanted.

A Justice official said last week that the department had provided Nunes, ranking Democratic member Adam B. Schiff (Calif.) and all committee members access to the document with redactions “narrowly tailored to protect the name of a foreign country and the name of a foreign agent.”

House Judiciary Committee member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) questions FBI Director Christopher Wray during a House Judiciary hearing on Dec. 7, 2017. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Before that release, Trump sent a barrage of tweets accusing the Justice Department of “slow walking” document production and asked what the FBI and Justice officials “have to hide” on multiple fronts.

But the anger inside Trump’s orbit goes far beyond concerns about Mueller’s Russia probe and related documents and includes the Clinton investigation and memos from former FBI director James B. Comey about his interactions with Trump. On Wednesday evening, House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) served notice to the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) that he intended to issue a subpoena for Comey’s memos, which have been turned over to Mueller.

Nadler, noting the memos were part of the special counsel investigation and likely could not be handed over to Congress, accused Goodlatte of seeking to create “an excuse” to hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress. That possible motive, he added, might give the president “the pretext he has sought to replace Mr. Rosenstein with someone willing to do his bidding and end the special counsel’s investigation.”

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Washington refused to order the public disclosure of Comey’s memos in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by media organizations. The Justice Department has said the release would interfere with Mueller’s investigation.

Many critics of Trump say congressional Republicans are, fundamentally, attempting to build a case against Rosenstein in the hopes of closing the Mueller investigation — using the battle over documents to paper over their core aim of ending a probe that has become a political and legal burden for the president. Meadows contested that suggestion in the interview Wednesday.

“We’re looking at all DOJ and FBI decision-making as it relates to the lead-up to the 2016 election,” Meadows said. “I’ve sent multiple requests to the deputy attorney general, and he knows that my motivations are all about doing the proper oversight, doing my job for my constituents.”

In a 2000 letter to Congress, Assistant Attorney General Robert Raben noted that “Congress has a clearly legitimate interest in how the department enforces statutes.” But, he said, “the department’s long-standing policy is to decline to provide congressional committees with access to open law enforcement files.”

Still, lawmakers over the past year have been given access to law enforcement records that include the classified surveillance warrant application and subsequent renewals targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. It is unclear whether the Page investigation is ongoing.

The Justice Department’s handling of the Clinton email investigation also remains a Republican target. On Wednesday, several House Republicans sent a letter to the Justice Department demanding criminal referrals for a number of prominent figures, including the former secretary of state and Comey.

Goodlatte last month subpoenaed the Justice Department for records collected by its inspector general in his probe of how the FBI handled its investigation of Clinton’s private email server. That subpoena also covered documents related to an FBI internal report that recommended the firing of the bureau’s former deputy director, Andrew McCabe. Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe last month, citing in part the FBI report and the inspector general’s finding that McCabe “lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.

McCabe has alleged that the move was an attempt to slander him and undermine Mueller’s probe.

Meadows and Jordan have made their pursuit of documents related to these various probes a rallying cry and legislative cause, often showcasing their loyalty to Trump in the process.

Speaking Monday on CNN, Jordan said he has never heard Trump lie. “He’s always been square with me,” he said. “That’s for darn sure.”

At the Capitol last week, Meadows told reporters that he was ready to draft articles of impeachment for Rosenstein or push to hold the Justice official in contempt of Congress — and said congressional Republicans were willing to mount an aggressive campaign on Trump’s behalf.

“Contempt of Congress is really at the doorstep of Rod Rosenstein more than anybody else,” Meadows said.

He called contempt “the first step,” to be followed by “other tools” if the Justice Department did not produce the documents requested.

“It is certainly on the path to impeachment,” Meadows said.

Congressional Republican leaders, meanwhile, have shown limited interest in taking legislative steps to protect Mueller’s investigation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that Trump will not fire Mueller and that he would not hold a vote on a bipartisan measure proposed last week to protect him. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has pledged to hold a vote on the bill this month.

“We’ll not be having this on the floor of the Senate,” McConnell told Fox News.

Sari Horwitz, Matt Zapotosky and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

Here Are 16 of the Dumbest Things Americans Believe -- And the Right-Wing Lies Behind Them

Sarah Palin.Photo Credit: Today

By Sarah Seltzer / AlterNet-April 19, 2018

We’ve gone beyond Stephen Colbert's' truthiness' into a 'truth-be-damned' environment.
Americans are often misinformed, occasionally downright dumb, and easily misled by juicy-sounding rumors. But while the right wing is taking full advantage of this reality, the Left worries that calling out lies is "rude."

Remember when Congressman Joe Wilson stood up during Obama’s State of the Union address and shouted “You lie”? He was chastised soundly by the pundit class. But mostly he drew heat for being impolite, and was compared to Kanye West and other famous interrupters.

 

Revisiting Wilson's foolish tirade underscores the state of our upside-down political world. Wilson shouted “you lie” in the face of truth, but President Obama is hesitant to speak up when he’s being slandered with bald, glaring untruths. The dark irony will continue as the Republicans take over the House this winter and the rumors and insinuations from extremist right-wing pundits keep circulating. It feels like no one with a loud enough megaphone has the courage to call a spade a spade, or more accurately a lie a lie.

We’ve gone far beyond Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness” into a more “truth-be-damned” environment; what Rick Perlstein described in the Daily Beast as a “mendocracy. As in, rule by liars.”
Here are some examples of recent ways we have made inroads in ignorance:

• Polling data during and after last week’s midterm elections suggested that many Americans genuinely believe President Obama has raised their taxes -- even though the reality is that our president actually lowered them for most of us. This means that people trust pundits like Rush Limbaugh, a major force behind spreading that lie, over the numbers on their own tax returns.
• Another recent phenomenon? Half of new Congressmen don’t believe in the reality of global warming. It’s not that they don’t just disagree on the source or the severity of the problem. They flat out don’t think the world is getting warmer--despite the evidence outside their windows.
• The new Congress will probably try to restore millions of dollars of funding for scientifically inaccurate, largely disastrous abstinence-only curriculum in schools, many of which have been shown to spread lies like "condoms don't work" and "abortion causes cancer." 
• News outlets picked up a wildly inflated and completely outlandish claim from an Indian blog that Obama’s trip abroad cost $200 million a day--and listeners have swallowed it. (In this case, the White House flat-out denied it.)

The scary thing is, these kinds of rumors have a way of taking root in the popular consciousness. Just as the election season began heating up earlier this year, Newsweek published a list of “Dumb Things Americans Believe.” While some of them are garden-variety lunacy, a surprising number are lies that were fed to Americans by our leaders on the far-Right. This demonstrates that media-fed lies can easily become ingrained in the collective memory if they’re not countered quickly and surely. Newsweek’s list included the following 12 statistics taken from recent and semi-recent polls and surveys. The first half are directly related to right-wing rumormongering.

• Nearly one-fifth of Americans think Obama is a Muslim. Thanks, Fox news, for acting like this was a matter of opinion, not fact.
• 25 percent of Americans don’t believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution while less than 40 percent do. Consider the fact that several of our newly elected officials, specifically newly elected Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, share that belief.
• Earlier this year, nearly 40 percent of Americans still believed the Sarah Palin-supported lie about "death panels" being included in health care reform.
• As of just a few years ago, about half of Americans still suspected a connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11, a lie that was reinforced by none other than Dick Cheney.
• While a hefty amount of this demonstrable cluelessness gets better as the respondents get younger, all is not well in the below-30 demographic. A majority of “young Americans” cannot identify Iraq or Afghanistan--the places their peers are fighting and dying--on a map.
• Two out of five Americans, despite the whole separation of church and state being a foundation of our democracy thing, think teachers should be able to lead prayer in classrooms. So it seems those right-wingers clamoring to tear down the wall between church and state aren’t the only ones who don’t know their constitutional principles.
• Many Americans still believe in witchcraft, ESP and other supernatural phenomena. Does that explain why Christine O’Donnell was so quick to deny her “dabbling”?
• Speaking of antiquated religious beliefs, about a decade ago, 20 percent of Americans still believed that the sun revolves around the earth. That's just sad, considering that even the Vatican has let Galileo off the hook for being right.
• Only about half of Americans realize that Judaism is the oldest of the three monotheistic religions. Other examples of wild misunderstanding about religion and the separation of church and state can be found in this fall’s Pew survey on Americans’ religious knowledge.
• This one made a huge splash when it appeared. In 2006 more Americans were able to name two of the “seven dwarves” than two of the Supreme Court justices. And that was before Kagan and Sotomayor showed up. To be fair, Happy and Sleepy are easy to remember.
• More Americans can identify the Three Stooges than the three branches of government--you know, the ones who are jockeying over our welfare.

So what to do in a political and cultural landscape in which well-told lies have more validity than fact-based truth? Perlstein explained how this environment gets created by explaining what happened on Election Day this year:

“...by a two-to-one margin likely voters thought their taxes had gone up, when, for almost all of them, they had actually gone down. Republican politicians, and conservative commentators, told them Barack Obama was a tax-mad lunatic. They lied. The mainstream media did not do their job and correct them. The White House was too polite—"civil," just like Obama promised—to say much. So people believed the lie.”

We’ve entered a bizzarro world in which calling out lies is considered rude, says Perlstein, so liars are allowed to sit tight and dominate the discourse. This gels with Bill Maher’s critique of the Rally for Sanity, that calling for “balance for balance’s sake” ignores two important aspects of news reporting: facts and evidence.

Blaming Americans for being ignorant unwashed masses--or taking potshots at an education system that doesn’t teach critical thinking-- would be the easy answer to this conundrum.

But the reality is that if messaging has such a big effect on Americans, then messaging matters. Folks on our end have to counter the lies with well-told, unabashed unironic, truth-telling. And we have to demand that our media, and our politicians, call out the other side. As Perlstein notes, “When one side breaks the social contract, and the other side makes a virtue of never calling them out on it, the liar always wins. When it becomes 'uncivil' to call out liars, lying becomes free.”

Even worse, once lies begin to spread, they become more than rumors--they become permanent beliefs.

Sarah Seltzer is a freelance writer based in New York City. Her work has been published at the Nation, the Christian Science Monitor, Jezebel and the Washington Post. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahmseltzer and find her work at sarahmseltzer.com.

The Windrush Generation: Fighting to be British

Simon Israel-12 Apr 2018Senior Home Affairs Correspondent

Since January, Channel 4 News has been reporting the plight of the Windrush kids. They came to UK as children, attended British schools, worked British jobs and built British lives. Now thousands of people who arrived in the UK decades ago – in the first wave of Commonwealth immigration in the 1950s and 60s – are living with the threat of deportation.

They came here as children, attended British schools, worked British jobs and built British lives.

Now thousands of people who arrived in the UK decades ago – in the first wave of Commonwealth immigration in the 1950s and 60s – are living with the threat of deportation.

Known as the Windrush generation after the British ship ‘The Empire Windrush’, which travelled from the Caribbean to Tilbury Docks in Essex in 1948, many have made the UK their home for their entire lives.

Channel 4 News has been following the stories of a few of this generation as they fight for their right to be British – a nationality they had always taken for granted.

A new petition on the government’s website calling on the Home Office to grant them an amnesty has attracted more than 23,000 signatures. The Home Office said it would handle applications to stay “sensitively”.
Watch their moving stories below.

Windrush mother blames immigration problems for son’s death

Why people invited to the UK faced deportation – explainer

Former England cricketer Roland Butcher: Windrush generation ‘should have been dealt with humanely’

Read More

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: a dictator in all but name seeks complete control

Turkey’s president is unlikely to lose an election that will make him more powerful than Atatürk

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: he remains Turkey’s dominant politician and a deeply divisive figure. Photograph: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images

 Simon Tisdall-Thu 19 Apr 2018

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is one of a crop of present-day political leaders who value the respectability an ostensibly democratic election confers but don’t want to risk actually losing the vote.

In this respect, Turkey’s president is no different from Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Egypt’s Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Their shared idea of democracy can be summed up by the motto: “You vote, I win.”
It is possible Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) could lose the snap presidential and parliamentary polls called for 24 June. But it is extremely unlikely. The AKP won a clear majority of seats in parliament in 2015 and is already assured of the support, should it need it, of the Nationalist Movement party (MHP).

As for Erdoğan, he remains Turkey’s dominant politician, a position he has occupied for a decade or more at home, in contrast to the steady decline in his international standing. He is also a deeply divisive figure. A recent survey by Metropoll gave him a nationwide approval rating of 49.8%. Just over 42% of respondents said they disapproved.

Even if there were a politician of sufficient power and prestige to effectively challenge Erdoğan – and there isn’t – the odds are stacked against any would-be usurper. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the likeable but ineffective leader of the main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP), gained only 19% approval in the same poll.

Erdoğan has sidelined old comrades such as Abdullah Gül and Ahmet Davutoğlu, formerly president and prime minister respectively, ensuring nobody within the AKP is in a position to rival him. And since the failed 2016 coup, he has systemically emasculated rival power bases and independent media, locking up pro-Kurdish lawmakers and journalists and sacking tens of thousands of civil servants, academics, military, police and judges on specious grounds of national security.

In such circumstances, the prospect of truly competitive, open, free and fair elections is slim to non-existent. In a very real sense, Erdoğan, himself a one-time prison inmate who came up the hard way, has been waiting for this moment all his life. If and when he wins, he will assume the full powers of the new “executive presidency” that was narrowly voted through in last year’s bitterly contested constitutional referendum.

Elections had not been due for another 18 months. By bringing the polls forward, Erdoğan is finally set to gain full, personal control of all key aspects of domestic and foreign policy. He will become a dictator in all but name, more powerful perhaps than even Kemal Atatürk, modern, secular Turkey’s founding father.

Worried politicians in Paris, Berlin, London and Washington no longer see a reliable friend and ally in Ankara. They see an autocratic figure exploiting nationalist and neo-Islamist sentiment, xenophobia and Europhobia, and feelings of public insecurity brought on by next door’s Syrian crisis, to justify egregious human rights abuses, institutional vandalism and anti-EU, anti-western policies.

Turkey under Erdoğan, though still a Nato member, is now closely aligned with Russia. In Syria, Erdoğan has backed Moscow and Tehran in pursuing a political and territorial settlement that would keep Bashar al-Assad’s regime in place, even though he had previously demanded the Syrian leader resign.

In return, Moscow gave tacit support to Turkey’s recent military incursion into Afrin, in north-west Syria, in furtherance of Erdoğan’s obsessive vendetta with the Syrian (and Iraqi) Kurds – all of whom he denounces as terrorists. On past precedent, inflammatory anti-Kurdish rhetoric will play a big part in Erdoğan’s re-election bid. The need to be “strong” in Afrin was one reason for calling early polls, he said on Wednesday.

Putin and, for example, China’s Xi Jinping, another executive president-forever, may be impressed by Erdoğan’s dubious ascendancy. Iran’s hardliners may cheer him on. But the western democracies, which Turks for many years aspired to emulate, will not. For them, Turkey is increasingly on the wrong side of a global argument between freedom and control.