Tuesday, April 26, 2016

The UNP and its allies secured 106 seats at general election 2015 and the SLFP and its allies secured 95 seats. In the history of Parliamentary elections under the new Constitution only in two instances was a clear majority of 113 seats secured by the winning party. That was in 1989 when the UNP secured 125 seats amidst the JVP insurrection and in 2010 where the UPFA secured 144 seats soon after winning the war. In all other instances there were stable governments with the support of a section of the Opposition either supporting from the Opposition or joining the Government.

If the Parliament was dissolved immediately after the presidential election in January 2015, the UNP would probably have secured sufficient majority in the Parliament. Also had the President dissolved the Parliament earlier, it would have been advantageous to the UNP. The President himself admitted this at the speech addressing the nation delivered soon before the general election 2015.

Strategic move

If Rajapaksa continued to be the Chairman of the SLFP, there would be an exodus of MPs from the SLFP to the UNP soon after the presidential election.

A few members left the SLFP and joined the UNP just before the general election after the SLFP gave nominations to Rajapaksa. In that case the battle-line was clear and the UNP would have been strengthened as a result.

However, this did not happen since the leadership of the SLFP was handed over to the President.

WikiLeaks: JR Jayewardene Elected UNP Chairman – US Analysis Of JR’s Leadership

“JR Jayewardene unanimously elected UNP party president at special meeting of working committee April 26. Conference was managed by Dudley Senanayake appointees, with Dudleys shadow all but eclipsing J. R. as part of reported deal with working committee” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

April 26, 2016

“As UNP chieftain, Jayewardenes principal weakness is lack of national following relative to popular affection and charisma which Dudley enjoyed and which evidenced at his funeral.” US Embassy Colombo said in a confidential cable.

“Political history of Ceylon since independence in 1948 has basically been struggle between two families, Bandaranaikes and Seyanayakes, to control country. Efforts now reportedly being made by Senanayake family, headed by dudley’ s brother Robert, to maintain UNP control and possibly groom one of Robert’ s three sone for future role in politics, much as PM Bandaranaike has apparzntly sought to groom her son Anura. Selection of J. R. to head party for moment appears likely but ‘old guard’ means to keep string on him and check any tendency to slide back into previous thoughts of coalition with Mrs B.” the Embassy further noted.

Colombo Telegraph found two related leaked US diplomatic cables from the WikiLeaks database regarding JR Jayewardene‘s appointment as the UNP leader 43 years ago. We publish below the cables in full;

(Lanka-e-News- 26.April.2016, 7.00PM) Minister of Ports and shipping ArjunaRanatunge has spent Rs. 2.4 million of Ports authority funds to get down Ayurveda sex stimulating drugs (aphrodisiacs) into the Port for his sexual pleasure and to gratify his perverted lust in the company of his whores and sluts , according to Port employees.

Among the drugs got down from the Sri Lanka Ayurveda Corporation
are :Ashwagandhaarishta ,ashwaganda choornaya , Shrthayamadana modakaya , Kameshwara modakaya , to name but a few, which are all sex stimulating drugs , and used also for impotency .

Some of these rare drugs are valued at about Rs. 100,000.00 per gram. The Port employees assert ,these aphrodisiacs are not necessary for the employees as they are not suffering from sexual starvation and have no craving for those drugs, while adding these are needed only for the frustrated sex maniacs like minister Arjuna. The latter in spite of being married and having a wife ,is concurrently having illicit relationships with five other women. It is therefore clear the minister has got down these aphrodisiacs for his personal use , the employees revealed.

Arjuna appointed his own brother as Ports chairman amidst criticisms and controversies , in order to release Port funds for such nefarious purposes . This is confirmed by the following details …

Minister Arjuna is obviously wasting Ports Authority funds to meet the expenses of his concubines and to maintain them . Manisha Kannangara , , Shereen Kumaratunge , Sudharma Neththikumara, Ruwani Dias Bandaranaike, and Nishanthi Herath are five such whores with whom Arjuna has relationships openly.

Nishanthi Herath claims she is an acupuncture diploma holder and has been given appointment illegally in the Port as an acupuncture advisor and is paid a monthly salary as high as many hundred thousand rupees . In addition to these five known concubines , many other whores visit the office of Arjuna located in the Port premises. This is well and widely known , and it is no secret .

When selecting women for posts in the Port , minister Arjuna only chooses those who come through his close friends . With every application , a recent photograph of the woman applicant must be attached. Only if the minister is satisfied after his personal assessment that she will serve his lascivious propensities and sex starvation , the candidate is called for an interview , and given appointment.

The employees of the Port who are fully aware of what the minister is up to are making a request to the public not to send their daughters for employment to an Institution which is headed by a Casanova who is always kasanava (itch at the wrong place) despite having countless women for his bed diet.

Arjuna who has now got wind of the fact that he may be dismissed from his ministerial portfolio any time amidst the fury and wrath of the trade unions of the Port which had reached rebellious proportions , is now sending messages through his brokers to the trade union leaders. It is learnt that the minister and the chairman are meeting with trade union leaders separately to put through ‘deals’ , in order to safeguard their posts so that they can slowly but surely rout the Ports Authority beyond redemption.

The Ports employees nevertheless say the efforts of the duo (Ranatunge brothers) to entice the trade union leaders have been proved unsuccessful , and all the unions are rallying together to chase the Ranatunge family out of the Ports authority before they become an ineradicable curse. The employees are of the view that a right answer will be given to the Ranatunges very soon who while robbing the assets of the Ports Authority from dawn to dusk are chanting incessantly they are against robbery and pilferage.

Legend has it that King Farook of ancient Egypt , another notorious Casanova who could not stand to see a woman, in fact had no ‘stand’ and it was that frustration that drove him to chase after every beautiful woman ( unlike Arjuna who has only sluts and whores for his bed diet ). It is being questioned whether the same ‘stand’ theory applies to Arjuna . But fortunately for late King Farook , he was not vulnerable to AIDS disease because it was non existent during his time. It is best if Arjuna realizes before it is too late he is not that lucky .

---------------------------
by (2016-04-26 14:26:17)

PM desperate to defuse SriLankan landmine

* Four Airbuses with VIP kits ordered by MR to be cancelled

by Zacki Jabbar-April 26, 2016,

Most of Mihin Lanka’s losses had been hidden in the Sri Lankan Airlines balance sheet thereby inflating its debt burden to USD 3.2 billion, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in Colombo yesterday.

He told a news conference at Temple Trees that in an effort to continue former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s pet project Mihin Lanka, much of its losses had been transferred to SriLankan which was already mired in debt.

The end result had been that the national airline saddled with mounting losses now totaling USD 3.2 billion, was on the verge of closure, the Prime Minister added.

Describing SriLankan as a ‘landmine’, he said that the choice was to shut it down or run it as a joint venture with a foreign airline or an investor. "The Cabinet of Ministers has decided on the latter. But, we have to first reduce SriLankan’s debt burden, otherwise it won’t be possible to find a partner. So, the government would be taking over part of the USD 3.2 billion loss."

PM Wickremesinghe revealed that the restructuring programme would include cancellation of the four A330-300 Airbuses equipped with luxury quick change VIP kits which the Rajapaksas had ordered, despite the national airline not being able to afford such extravagances.

Special Projects Minister Sarath Amunugama said that the Opposition had created a wrong impression of the proposed increase in Value Added Tax (VAT).

Taxes would not be imposed on essential commodities.Free health and education would also be continued. The increase in VAT would apply to private hospitals and international schools, he noted.

PNG court rules Australia's Manus detention centre unconstitutional

Apr 26, 2016

Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court has ruled that the detention of asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island is unconstitutional.

Australia sends asylum seekers to the Manus Island detention centre under its offshore processing policy.

But the five judges on the Supreme Court's bench ruled the camp breached section 42 of the constitution, which guarantees personal liberty.

The court said "all steps" should be taken to end the "illegal" detention.

Currently around 850 men are held on the island, around half of whom have been judged genuine refugees.

'Breach of rights'

Papua New Guinea's constitution guarantees personal liberty for all people, except in defined circumstances relating to crime, illegal immigration and quarantine.

In 2014, Papua New Guinea's government amended section 42 of the constitution to add a paragraph that allowed for "holding a foreign national under arrangements made by Papua New Guinea with another country".

But the Supreme Court ruled this amendment was unconstitutional, as it did not meet a requirement to respect "the rights and dignity of mankind".

It said that because the asylum seekers and refugees had not voluntarily entered Papua New Guinea, the situation of illegal immigration did not apply to them.

"The detention of the asylum seekers on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea… is unconstitutional and illegal," it said.

"Both the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments shall forthwith take all steps necessary to cease and prevent the continued unconstitutional and illegal detention of the asylum seekers or transferees at the relocation centre on Manus Island and the continued breach of the asylum seekers' or transferees' constitutional and human rights."

Policy 'won't change'

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement that the court's decision did not change Australia's immigration policy.

"People who have attempted to come illegally by boat and are now in the Manus facility will not be settled in Australia," the statement said, repeating the government's long-standing policy.

The opposition Labor party urged the government to hold urgent talks with Papua New Guinea, while opponents of hard-line immigration policy declared offshore processing of asylum seekers dead.
"The game is up. The government has got to shut the Manus Island detention camp and bring these people here," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

"This is an important decision and I welcome it. It shows that the Australian government has been illegally detaining refugees on Manus Island for years."

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said the Manus Island centre should eventually close, during an address to Australia's National Press Club in March this year.

"Who is going to pay for it? Certainly the PNG government does not have the resources to resettle the refugees," he said. "We are also reassessing the numbers who are supposed to be resettled."
- BBC-

Rajapaksa Meets Alleged 'Arms Dealer' Udayanga Weeratunge In Thailand

12 Little Known Laws of Karma

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa met with former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Russia Udayanga Weeratunge in Thailand.

They met during Rajapaksa's trip to Thailand. Prof. G.L. Peiris also accompanied Rajapaksa.

Weeratunge, a close confidant and relative of Rajapaksa, was alleged to have been linked with arms smuggling to Russian backed Ukrainian rebels. The government was said to be investigating Weeratunge in 2015. However, there were no recent developments regarding the alleged incident.

During his tenure as the Ambassador, Weeratunga got involved in several important arms deals such as procurement of MiG-27 ground attack aircraft for the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF). The transaction is currently being investigated by the Police Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID).

Fingers were also pointed at Weeratunga over the death of an individual named Noel Ranaweera, an unmarried 37 year-old translator and an assistant secretary at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Moscow, who died mysteriously in Russia, on June 11, 2014.

The former Ambassador has been living abroad since the change of government in January 2015.

Husband and wife dead following murder-suicide

April 26, 2016
A 52-year-old man murdered his wife before committing suicide by hanging himself at a residence in the Udawela area in Bingiriya.

Police said that the 36-year-old wife was found hacked to death and that she was allegedly murdered by her husband over a family dispute.

The magistrate’s inquiry into the incident is to be carried out by the Hettipola Magistrate while Bingiriya Police is conducting an investigation.

Large haul of Kerala Ganja detected, two arrested

2016-04-26A large haul of Kerala Ganja weighing around 220 kilos and valued at Rs. 40 million was seized by the Police in Nawagaththegama today.

Police said the detection was made while the drugs were being transported in a hybrid vehicle and two suspects who were in the vehicle were arrested.

The suspects, who are residents of Mannar, would be produced in the Anamaduwa Magistrate’s court.(Hiran Priyankara)

Vieo by Hiran Priyankara

Video by Richan

Video: Don’t call us “Arab lovers,” says head of Israel’s “peace camp”

Ali Abunimah-25 April 2016

Isaac Herzog, the head of Israel’s official opposition, the Zionist Union, doesn’t want his party to be seen as a bunch of “Arab lovers.”

This is the same Herzog who is habitually presented in The New York Times as the leader of a “center-left” party “who advocates a peace deal” with the Palestinians.

But as Palestinians have long known, the parties that make up the Zionist Union, particularly Herzog’s own Labor Party – whose previous leader Yitzhak Rabin signed the 1993 Oslo accords with the PLO – have only ever offered Palestinians an iron fist in a velvet glove.

Last week, Herzog dropped the mask even further, in candid comments at a meeting with party activists inAshkelon.

Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan subtitled the video at the top of this article of Herzog’s comments.

Herzog explained to activists how the Zionist Union needed to act to stem the loss of votes to parties even further to the right.

“How do we win the hearts of the people?” he asked.

The challenge, Herzog said, would be to convince the public that the Zionist Union was fit to govern “without giving a sense – which I encounter in numerous meetings with the Israeli public – that we are always Arab lovers.”

Notably, this crass pandering comes at a time of escalating racism in Israeli streets, including frequent “Death to the Arabs” marches.

No gap

Herzog also revealed that he had made intense efforts to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, because “these days the gap between myself and Moshe Yaalon is relatively small.”

Yaalon, a member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, is the Israeli defense minister who executed Israel’sdevastating summer 2014 attack on Gaza that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, including 551 children.

Now considered a relative moderate in Israeli political terms, Yaalon has likened Palestinians to cancer.

He has also narrowly evaded arrest for war crimes in the UK and in New Zealand.

More recently, Yaalon, the ostensible moderate, expressed his preference for Islamic State, the violent extremist group also known as ISIS, over Iran, the Persian Gulf power which last year signed a nuclear agreement with Israel’s largest patron, the US.

If it wasn’t abundantly clear that there is no practical difference between Israel’s Zionist “right” and “left,” Herzog boasted at the Ashkelon meeting of his plan for hafrada – the Hebrew word for separation that can reasonably be translated as apartheid.

This was the plan Herzog campaigned on during last year’s Israeli election, and it reveals that the vision of Israel’s so-called peace camp amounts to nothing more than permanent occupation of the West Bank and abantustan for Palestinians.

In addition to Herzog’s comments in Ashkelon, Barkan added three more clips to the video that underscore that the Zionist Union is not and has never been an alternative to Israel’s status quo.

The second shows Herzog defending his Ashkelon comments on Israel’s Channel 2 a day later and the third is of an election campaign broadcast from last year in which Herzog accuses Netanyahu of not being harsh enough toward Palestinians.

The final clip shows Herzog, then minister for social affairs, on the UK’s Channel 4, trying to explain and excuse Israel’s attack on a UN facility during Israel’s 2008-2009 assault on Gaza.

Though it did not come to pass, bringing Herzog on as foreign minister would have made sense for Netanyahu since, as the record shows, the two have few real policy differences.

But as former Israeli prison guard and Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg put it, Herzog, with his dovish image, could “gain access to the West Wing” of the White House, where Netanyahu has “burned bridges.”

Herzog must go

The liberal Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz was so appalled by Herzog’s “Arab lovers” comments that iteditorialized that the party must get rid of him as soon as possible.

“Veering rightward won’t help the Labor Party either in the polls or on election day,” it said, adding that “the public will always prefer to buy racist goods from the source, rather than from a wretched, pale imitation.”

Haaretz hoped that Herzog would be replaced “with a leader who will offer a moral alternative to the right-wing government and hope for a just, egalitarian Israel.”

In the unlikely event that this happens, it would be historic and completely unprecedented.

Air strikes in Syria's Aleppo kill at least 25 civilians

Since Friday, over 100 civilians have died from air strikes or rocket fire

Aleppo is criss-crossed with supply routes that are strategic for practically all of Syria's warring sides (AFP)

Tuesday 26 April 2016

Air strikes and shelling in Aleppo and a town to its west left 25 civilians reported dead on Tuesday, as a surge in violence tests a troubled ceasefire.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned" by the fighting and urged both sides to stick to the two-month-old truce and troubled peace talks in Geneva.

"The cessation of hostilities should go on, otherwise it will be very difficult for humanitarian workers to deliver," Ban told reporters in Vienna.

At least two male civilians died in rebel rocket fire on government-controlled areas in the west of Aleppo city on Tuesday afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In the rebel-held east, the air strikes and shelling came down "like rain," one resident told AFP.

Fifteen civilians were killed in air strikes on several rebel-held districts, according to civil defence volunteers known as White Helmets.

Another three civilians - two women and a child - were killed in government artillery shelling on another eastern neighbourhood, they said.

"The planes are bombing markets, residential areas ... We're exhausted, we can't keep up," one civil defence worker said.

Five of their own were killed when the White Helmets headquarters in the town of al-Atarib, controlled by rebels, was hit by an overnight air strike, the group said on Twitter.

It was not immediately clear whether Russia or President Bashar al-Assad’s air force carried out the strike on al-Atarib, 35 kilometres (20 miles) from Aleppo.

The Syrian government is accused of dropping indiscriminate barrel bombs on rebel-held neighbourhoods.

Several districts of Aleppo, once Syria's commercial hub, have also seen sporadic fighting between government forces and rebel groups.

Rebel-held neighbourhoods in eastern Aleppo have had their water and electricity supplies cut by bombardment, an AFP journalist said.

Fighting has surged on several fronts in Aleppo province, which is criss-crossed with supply routes that are strategic for practically all of Syria's warring sides.

Once Syria's commercial hub, Aleppo has been divided between rebel control in the east and government forces in the west since 2012.

In the rebel-held Fardos neighbourhood, an AFP correspondent saw a youth being helped down a rubble-strewn street with blood streaming from his head and leg.

Violence has rocked the city since Friday, with at least 100 civilians killed by artillery or rocket fire and air strikes.

At least 19 civilians were reported killed and 120 wounded on Monday in a rebel bombardment of Syrian government-held districts of the northern city of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

"Shells fired ... by rebel groups at districts under regime (government) control left 19 dead, including three children, and 120 wounded," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AFP news agency.

Syria's SANA state news agency reported 16 dead and 86 wounded by "fire from the terrorist groups Nusra Front [al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria] and its allies" on at least five residential districts.

The Observatory also reported four people including a child killed by government fire targeting rebel-held neighbourhoods of the city.

The fighting severely threatens the February ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia and comes as UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva stall.

Syria's main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), halted its formal participation this week in the latest round of Geneva talks that started on 13 April.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura is due to give a progress report to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, when the talks are scheduled to go into recess.

A leading opposition group, the National Coalition, condemned the strike on al-Atarib and hailed the "remarkable efforts and bravery of Civil Defence workers".

"Favourable conditions for the political process cannot be created whilst the Assad regime's killing machine continues to wreak death across Syria," the Coalition said in an online statement.

More than 270,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions forced from their homes since the conflict erupted in 2011.

South Sudan peace hopes rise as rebel leader returns to join government

South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar after arriving in the capital Juba on Tuesday as part of a power-sharing pact seeking to end more than two years of conflict. (Stringer/Reuters)

By Jason Patinkin and Brian Murphy-April 26http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/air-strikes-syrias-aleppo-kill-least-25-civilians-1110838515

JUBA, South Sudan — Rebel leader Riek Machar returned to this struggling five-year-old nation Tuesday under a peace deal and was promptly sworn in as first vice president, boosting hopes for an end to one of Africa’s deadliest civil conflicts.

A U.N. plane carried Machar from Ethiopia to this South Sudanese capital as part of a power-sharing plan aimed at quelling a war that has raged between Machar’s followers, mostly ethnic Nuer rebels, and ethnic Dinkas loyal to President Salva Kiir. The fighting hasclaimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than 2 million people, driven parts of South Sudan to the edge of famine and spilled over into neighboring countries.

But it remains unclear whether Machar’s new role will be enough to quiet the unrest fueled by ethnic and tribal rivalries. Another key challenge is rebuilding a shattered economy heavily dependent on oil exports at a time of slumping crude prices.

Under the peace accord reached in August, Kiir and Machar agreed to work together in a unity government and to hold elections within 30 months in the world’s newest nation. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

[South Sudan leaders sign deal to end civil war]

Smiling and wiping sweat from his brow at the airport, where government and rebel soldiers alike stood guard, Machar called Tuesday for immediate steps to end fighting, stabilize the economy, provide relief to war-affected people and launch a program of national reconciliation.

“I wish that the security situation will be stabilized in the shortest possible time now that we’re just about to form the transitional government of national unity,” Machar said later after being sworn in at the presidential palace.

Kiir said at the ceremony that he had “no doubt that [Machar’s] return to Juba today marked the end of the war and the return of peace and stability to the people of South Sudan.”

However, fighting continues in parts of the country. Rocket-propelled grenades fell Monday night on a U.N. base where more than 100,000 people have taken shelter from the war in the northern town of Bentiu, the United Nations said.

[Bloodshed crosses border into Ethiopia]

Many South Sudanese are skeptical about the peace deal because few of its provisions have been implemented in the past eight months. The government has not withdrawn its troops from Juba as agreed, and deliveries of humanitarian aid remain restricted in some areas.

In addition, the accord puts back in power the same two men whose falling out led to the outbreak of violence. Machar was previously Kiir’s deputy but was dismissed amid a power struggle in July 2013. He later fled the country and led rebel forces after fighting erupted in December that year.

Both sides have been accused of committing horrific human rights abuses, often along ethnic lines. According to the United Nations and human rights groups, soldiers forced people into starvation, gang-raped women and girls and shot civilians hiding in mosques and hospitals. Kiir and Machar themselves are accused of having command responsibility for some of the soldiers who committed such crimes.

“The war was vicious,” Machar told reporters in Juba. “We have lost a lot of people in it, and we need to bring our people together so that they can unite, reconcile, heal the wounds, the mental wounds that they have.”

[South Sudan’s child soldiers: scarred for life]

A new government “buys some time . . . and that might be a small mercy insofar as at least thousands of people aren’t being slaughtered,” said J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. “But it certainly doesn’t move the country forward.”

While Kiir and Machar each spoke of reconciliation, neither mentioned accountability measures agreed to in the peace deal, including an African Union-led hybrid court to try high-level perpetrators for atrocities.

“Who is going to court? Who is supposed to be indicted?” asked Jacob Chol, dean of Juba University’s political science department. “It will be very hard for sitting leaders” to be put on trial, he added.

Kiir and Machar instead spoke at length Tuesday about economic recovery, appealing for international support for the transitional government. South Sudan’s government is nearly out of money after heavy war spending — $850 million, according to a U.N. estimate — and a steep drop in oil revenue. Economists warn of looming hyperinflation; the South Sudan pound has lost more than 80 percent of its value since the war began.

Finance Minister David Deng Athorbei said in an interview that the International Monetary Fund is prepared to help and that the government, which has been accused of rampant corruption, would be willing to enact financial reforms at the IMF’s request. But doubters abound.

“You can’t let the same people who [mismanaged the economy] implement the reforms,” said Peter Biar Ajak, a South Sudanese economist at the London-based International Growth Center.

Murphy reported from Washington. William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.

The Illusion of Rights

In the end, the unpleasant truth is that only might makes right, and sentiments and fine words count for very little. We truly have made small progress since the days when a French nobleman’s coach could run down a peasant in the roadway without consequences. We are still ruled by wealth, and the security services, servants of wealth, gain added and unaccountable powers almost daily.

by John Chuckman

( April 25, 2016, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) In truth, there is no such thing as a right.

The last three centuries or so of European history developed the concept and fixed it in our minds as something real and many modern states have enumerated lists of rights, but, in the limit, the concept of rights has no force behind it.

Words on paper mean nothing when those with real power in your society decide that the words are only that, words. Judges have no power to direct where the society’s power is unwilling to cooperate.

Apart from what has happened at various times in a number of European countries, the ability simply to switch off rights has been demonstrated many times in America’s history, and there can be little doubt that dimming down and gradually switching off rights now has become a central activity in American society.

Nothing so effectively trumps rights as government claims of emergency situations, such as civil war and now the so-called war on terror. For the foreseeable future, rights in Western countries are going to increasingly be limited or ignored, if not even proscribed.

This is certainly the case in the United States where construction of a national security state is well underway, the template being that of Israel, a state which despite a stage show of democracy is quite literally more of a security state than the former East Germany, moreboth because technologies now are vastly more effective and penetrating than anything the Stasi had and because the proportion of military and security services in society is far greater in Israel than it was in a supposed absolute state.

Establishing such a vast state apparatus anywhere is never without consequences for human freedom and rights, although Israel has never pretended to establish defined rights, it being an impossible task to do so for a “democracy” where only one kind of person is welcome and where millions are literally held against their wills and where the state apparatus feels free to seize anyone’s property at any moment.

So it is a very ominous model towards which America is working. The work has proceeded gradually since 9/11, so that there is no sudden panic in such a large general population, but it proceeds inexorably, with new steps announced periodically limiting this or that activity. Of course, it just so happens that the project serves the establishment’s own power interests, effectively securing continued and increased authority.

The events used to excuse the project and make it acceptable, those of so-called international terror, were themselves natural outcomes, reactions to the establishment’s abuse of authority in a long series of attacks and wars to reshape the Middle East and its endless tolerance of an intolerable human situation in Israel. The establishment’s behavior created international terror.

After all, that is how America governs much of the rest of the planet today, isn’t it? Why should home be any different?

Comey: FBI Becoming ‘Prolific Hacker’ Won’t End Encryption Crisis

BY ELIAS GROLL-APRIL 26, 2016

Faced with increasingly sophisticated ways for criminals to scramble communications and cover their tracks online, the FBI has broadly embraced government hacking to track down suspects. But on Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey cautioned that hacking tools won’t solve the challenges law enforcement faces while carrying out investigations in the digital age.

Comey has repeatedly warned that his agents’ inquiries are “going dark” as suspects embrace encryption and other security tools. According to Comey, that shift has made it harder for the government to solve and prevent crimes, including murder and terrorism cases.

Hacking has in some cases allowed the FBI to circumvent such technology, but is at best a partial solution, Comey said during remarks at a Georgetown University conference.

“I don’t see us becoming a prolific hacker being the answer to our public safety problem,” he said. Hacking, Comey argued, has helped the FBI make breakthroughs in certain cases, but lacks what he called “scalability.”

The dispute over government access to encrypted data came to a head in recent months when FBI agents tried and failed to access an iPhone 5c belonging to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the suspects in the San Bernardino shootings last December that killed 14.

The Justice Department first sought and received a court order compelling Apple to undermine the security features of that phone, but then retreated after a still unidentified third-party approached the FBI with an exploit to hack it. Comey has said the bureau paid at least $1.3 million for that tool.

That case should serve as a cautionary tale for FBI reliance on hacking as an investigatory tool, Comey argued. “San Bernardino is a great example,” he said. “We paid a ton of dough for the tool because it mattered so much for that investigation, but it works on a 5c running iOS 9 so it’s not scalable to other devices.”

The FBI, Comey said, doesn’t want to find itself “in an arms race with every device that’s made.” In testimony before Congress last week, the FBI’s top scientist, Amy Hess, said the bureau lacks the resources to be able to consistently break into suspect devices.

Relying on hacking raises difficult ethical problems for the government about when and whether it should disclose vulnerabilities in software and devices to their manufacturers. The Obama administration has set up what it calls a “vulnerabilities equities process” to make such decisions. That body weighs whether the intelligence or law enforcement uses of a computer vulnerability outweigh the public interest in building more secure digital systems.

On Tuesday, Comey said the FBI hadn’t determined whether to submit the San Bernardino exploit to that process, which will determine whether to share it with Apple. The question, Comey said, is whether the bureau is aware of the vulnerability exploited by the tool it purchased, adding that the FBI is “close to a resolution” on the issue.

Shortly after Comey’s remarks, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI will not submit the exploit because of a lack of information about it. The FBI “knows so little about the hacking tool that was used to open a terrorist’s iPhone that it doesn’t make sense to launch an internal government review about whether to share the hacking method with Apple,” the paper wrote. The FBI did not immediately respond to questions from Foreign Policy about the report.

Rather than rely on hacking, Comey said he would like to find a compromise to the seemingly opposing values of security and privacy — but offered no concrete proposal for how to do so.

Proposed Senate legislation would require companies to be able to turn over and decrypt customer data when presented with a court order. But security experts say doing so would introduce fatal flaws into encryption technology used not just by criminal groups, but also by banks, doctors, companies, and individuals to secure data.

Photo credit: ALEX WONG/Getty Images

Journalists protest against arrest of colleagues in Cairo

A journalist holds up a pen during a protest against the detention of journalists, in front of the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt April 26, 2016.--Journalists and activists protest against the restriction of press freedom and to demand the release of detained journalists, in front of the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt April 26, 2016.

Egyptian security forces are seen nearby a demonstration held by journalists and activists against the detention of journalists, in Cairo, Egypt April 26, 2016.--Masked Egyptian security forces walk by a demonstration held by journalists and activists against the detention of journalists, in front of the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt April 26, 2016.

Wed Apr 27, 2016

Around 100 Egyptian journalists staged a protest in central Cairo on Tuesday against the arrest of colleagues for covering demonstrations opposing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Security forces arrested at least 33 reporters trying to cover small anti-government protests in Cairo on Monday that were dispersed with tear gas, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Tuesday, some 100 reporters gathered in front of the headquarters of the journalists' union, witnesses said.

Yehia Qalash, head of the union, said security forces had prevented dozens of accredited journalists entering the building on Monday. "This kind of incident has not happened for years," he said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from authorities.

Sisi has faced a wave of public criticism for agreeing to cede control of the uninhabited Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi and Egyptian officials say the islands belong to Saudi Arabia and were only under Egyptian control because Riyadh had asked Egypt in 1950 to protect them.

There are no signs that Sisi's rule is under immediate threat but the former head of the armed forces has also come under pressure from a faltering economy and allegations of police abuses, some of the motives for the uprising that unseated veteran president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

(Reporting by Cairo bureau; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Cambodia’s environmental activists: Internationally awarded, but murdered at home

Murdered Cambodian forest defender Chut Wutty. Pic: Global Witness-Cambodian environmentalist Ouch Leng speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Pic: AP.

Cambodian environmentalist Ouch Leng speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Pic: AP.

Poster for “I Am Chut Wutty”. Image via YouTube.--The N1M logo. Pic: not1more.org

By Alexandra Demetrianova-26th April 2016

THE Cambodian public and netizens cheered last week, when activist and human rights lawyer Ouch Leng was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for his undercover investigations into the illegal logging trade.

Leng has done some admirable advocacy work with local communities, who have been affected by deforestation and land grabbing linked to illegal logging. He tried to expose the corruption behind Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) and founded the Cambodia Human Rights Task Force, an organization which leads the civil society fight against the country’s illegal logging and timber trade.

“Ouch went undercover to gather evidence of illegal logging activities, posing as a laborer, timber dealer, driver, tourist and even as a cook. He documented the illegal operations of Cambodia’s biggest timber magnate (Try Pheap), revealing how ELCs were used as a cover for illegal logging and exposing criminal collusion between timber companies and government officials at all levels of power,” said the Goldman Environmental Prize committee.

Leng was one of six awardees who were chosen by the seven-member jury. The recipients were awarded a prize of US$175,000 each. Days after receiving the prestigious award, Leng announced that he would use the money to support environmental activists in his homeland and their fight to save Cambodia’s forests.

“I will use the cash prize for the protection of remaining forests, including the launching of mechanisms against the timber trade, such as gathering people for government advocacy with the aim to shut down all kinds of sawmill operations and timber-processing factories nationwide. This is what we need to do as a first step.”

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