Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Petition signed by over 5,000: Inaction of Police in face of extremism

Photograph courtesy Fox News

Dear Mr. Jayasundara,-GROUNDVIEWS on 11/22/2016

Attached herewith, is a follow-up Complaint to you, signed by 5000+ people from Sri Lanka, regarding the inaction of the police against extremist groups, particularly those led by Buddhist monks. The petition is still online in all 3 languages, and is gaining momentum daily. We will continue to send you complaint after complaint until you take the necessary legal action against these extremist groups, as we reiterate that nobody should be considered above the law, and that everyone must be treated equal under the law.

We note H.E. President Sirisena’s instructions to you at the Security Council meeting held earlier this week, to take action against all those who incited racism, as a positive step. However, these instructions are yet to have any bearing, even following the mass rally jointly organized by all/many of these extremist, Buddhist monk-led groups, in Kandy, on the 19th of Nov. where racist, hateful and Sinhala Buddhist supremacist speeches were made and slogans chanted, leaflets meant to mobilize more recruits and incite the masses were distributed, and even property was destroyed. i.e. mosque road board was destroyed, and a Buddhist flag erected in its place. (Flyers and pic of destroyed board can be accessed here.)

We have made 5 main demands (original complaint can be accessed here), including, calling for the immediate arrest of Buddhist monks, Gnanasara and Sumangala Himi, for fueling communal tension and threatening to incite violence against ethnic and religious numerical minorities. We have provided adequate evidence, (also freely available in the public domain) in this regard. We also call for the Police to conduct prompt investigations into the actions of all other extremist groups and persons, and take urgent and necessary action under the law.

Thank you, and please contact me for any further clarifications.

Kind regards,

Marisa de Silva (On behalf of the signatories)

CC:

H.E. Maithripala Sirisena, President.
Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister.
Hon. Sagala Ratnayake, Minister of Law & Order and Southern Development.
Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Hon. Mano Ganesan, Minister of National Co-existence Dialogue and Official Languages.
Hon. Ruwan Wijewardena, State Minister of Defence.
Hon. Jayantha Jayasuriya PC, Attorney-General.
Dr. Deepika Udagama, Chair, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.
G.M.W.P. Jayathilake, Secretary, Judicial Service Commission Secretariat.
Prof. Siri Hettige, Chairperson, National Police Commission.
Ven. Mahanayakas of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters.

Human Rights, Constitutional Reforms & Devolution In Sri Lanka

By Asoka Bandarage –November 21, 2016

Dr. Asoka Bandarage

Significant efforts have been taken towards reconciliation and integration of the Tamil minority in the Sri Lankan political system since the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. However, the Tamil separatist movement has not been halted. It is pursuing a separate state through political means demanding an Autonomous Tamil Region merging the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka.

Using ample funds and cultivating access to the British, U.S. and other western governments, pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora groups have influenced the United Nations in adopting the 2015 United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution (co-sponsored by the current U.S. backed Sri Lankan government) in Geneva and issuing the 2015 Report of the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner. Both documents call for accountability and international investigation of human rights violations in the final stage of the Sri Lankan armed conflict and international monitoring of transitional justice and reconciliation. Clause 16 of the U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution calls on the Sri Lankan government to devolve power on the basis of the 13 Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution and uphold its commitment to political settlement, reconciliation and human rights.

“ Welcomes the commitment of the Government of Sri Lanka to a political settlement by taking the necessary constitutional measures, encourages the Government’s efforts to fulfil its commitments on the devolution of political authority, which is integral to reconciliation and the full enjoyment of human rights by all members of its population; and also encourages the Government to ensure that all Provincial Councils are able to operate effectively, in accordance with the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka”.

However, the legitimacy of the United Nations to continue to intervene and monitor Sri Lanka is questionable given its ‘systematic failure’ to carry out its own duties and uphold humanitarian interests during the final phase of the Sri Lankan armed conflict. This failure has been admitted by the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon himself. The Report on Secretary General’s Internal Review Panel on UN Actions in Sri Lanka’, concludes:

“…events in Sri Lanka mark a grave failure of the UN to adequately respond to early warnings and to the evolving situation during the final stages of the conflict and its aftermath, to the detriment of hundreds of thousands of civilians and in contradiction with the principles and responsibilities of the UN. The elements of what was a systemic failure can be distilled into … a UN system that lacked an adequate and shared sense of responsibility for human rights violations; …an incoherent internal UN crisis-management structure which failed to conceive and execute a coherent strategy in response to early warnings and subsequent international human rights and humanitarian law violations against civilians. ..”.

U.N. documents refer to human rights violations by ‘both parties’. However, as the LTTE no longer exists as such, calls for accountability are now directed solely at the Sri Lankan government in power during the last stage of the armed conflict. Accountability is not called for from external groups who provided funds for the terrorist LTTE to acquire weapons to kill thousands of civilians, forcibly conscript Tamil children as rebels and suicide bombers, destroy property and Buddhist sacred sites, so on and so forth. An international investigation which focuses merely on one party –the Sri Lankan government- and on just the final phase of the war, absolves all the other parties to the thirty year war -the LTTE, various Tamil militant groups, previous Sri Lankan governments, the JVP, the IPKF, et.al. – of human rights violations.

Budget bungled?

Parliamentary Committee on Public Finance Chief says Ravi K’s numbers don’t tally

Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Committee on Public Finance Chairman and Opposition lawmaker M. A. Sumanthiran yesterday charged in Parliament that the 2017 Budget presented by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake didn’t tally with the actual figures by which the Ministry was working on.

Sumanthiran, tabling the report on ‘Assessment of the Fiscal, Financial and Economic Assumptions of the Budget 2017” prepared within four days by a panel of experts and economists, recommended moving the actual numbers with immediate effect.

“We were given a set of figures on 2 November, which later turned out not to be the basis on which the Minister of Finance presented his budget. Thereafter, on 12 of November, another set of figures were given to us and we have now based our report on that new set of figures. We have recommended that the Government distributes to members of Parliament the second set of figures from 12 November, at least during the Committee Stage debate,” explained MP Sumanthiran.

According to MP Sumanthiran, the fiscal assessment of the Budget 2017 is the first report presented by the current committee. “Although the committee worked without a parliamentary budget office this year, we are indebted to the service rendered to us by a few individuals including Dr. Anila Dias Bandaranaike, Rose Cooray, Themiya Hurulle, Sarath Mayadunne and a team of economists working through Verite Research, including Dr. Nishan de Mel, who gave invaluable input and assistance without any remuneration,” said Sumanthiran.

The Committee on Public Finance was established by a resolution passed in Parliament on 19 December 2015 with a broad mandate to examine the public funds, revenue and debt. The committee is mandated to present a report within six weeks of the tabling of budget estimates. (AH)

President probes Wijedasa R’s rabble rousing statement militating against govt.’s plans; Speaker repudiates in toto !

(Lanka-e-News - 21.Nov.2016, 11.30PM) The several statements made by Justice minister Wijedasa Rajapakse when participating in the second reading of the budget have been roundly opposed by many higher ups of the government.

Specially the reckless racism kindling statement made by Wijedasa that 22 members of 4 families have gone to Syria to be trained by the ISIS had come in for heavy flak.

President inquires from the Intelligence divisions…

When president Maithripala Sirisena inquired from the State intelligence service (SIS) about who passed this information to Wijedasa, the SIS had replied categorically , nobody had given such information to Wijedasa , and this was information known to the erstwhile government as far back as three years ago. The State espionage service had explained to the president it is that outdated information which had been uttered by Wijedasa in parliament as though it happened now , and that antiquated ‘story’ had been passed to him by Gotabaya (the devil incarnate) who was the defense secretary at that time.

About three years ago , it was reported that a Sri Lankan who joined the ISIS died while he was abroad. When an investigation was conducted into it then , it was revealed that a Sri Lankan Muslim working in an NGO in Afghanistan who got attracted to the ISIS organization , had along with his family ,and three other families who are his relatives , young and old went to Syria .

The 22 members comprised infants and parents. The one who died was a youth among them who went to Syria. Hence , there are no reports whatsoever that ISIS groups arrived in Sri Lanka to provide training to Sri Lankans and enrolled them , to bear out the rabble rousing statement of Wijedasa the somersault sultan.

Of course many such incidents are reported in England and European countries , yet the ministers of justice of those countries have not made a big din about them or made rabble rousing speeches to create hatred and tension among the races, or sought to de stabilize the country. It is a pity , only in Sri Lanka , there are renegades and rascals who are waiting to grab every opportunity to give a mischievous racial twist for personal gains and to achieve selfish political ambitions , with utter unconcern for the country which can be plunged into a holocaust owing to their cruel and crafty machinations driven by ulterior motives.

Wijedasa despite being a responsible minister and a lawyer ( there is rhyme and reason to call a lawyer like him a liar) making such irresponsible and rash announcements while distorting the truth and indulging in mischievous exaggerations is to create a most explosive situation nationally as a whole and are statements deliberately or otherwise militating against the tourism Industry specially.

The setting fire to the popular Establishment ‘Fashion bug’ at Pepiliyana owned by a Muslim closely on the heels of the statement made by Wijedasa can be considered as a sequel to a Sinhala Buddhist extremist rally held in Kandy on the day following Wijedasa’s rabble rousing speech. This inflammatory speech of Wijedasa despite being a minister under good governance had created misgivings and suspicions so much so that the Sinhala people have been made to look upon the Muslims with suspicion. In the days gone by too , it is the politicos who incited racial riots . When innocent people of both sides were dying in the streets, these double crossing rascals and renegades happily stayed at home and watched the carnage on television with their families.

Another statement made by Wijedasa rejected by speaker

The other most odious and obnoxious statement made by this same Wijedasa was : no matter what the international community says , the Prevention of Terrorism Act will be re implemented.

The Speaker repudiated this statement in toto.

Speaking to Lanka e news , the speaker said , the government is not expecting such a thing to happen. On the contrary , the terrorism prevention laws of world standards followed internationally are being studied with a view to introducing new prevention of terrorism laws in keeping with international standards, the speaker pinpointed. Already the draft is under preparation , and the existing prevention of terrorism Act will not be re enforced, he noted.

The speaker who spoke with Lanka e news to tender his apologies in connection with the irresponsible statements made by Wijedasa also repudiated the criticisms mounted by Justice minister Wijedasa against Lanka e news . The comments in the foregoing paragraph too were made by the speaker while he was speaking via the phone.

The speaker most clearly and categorically expressed his unreserved appreciation in respect of the indefatigable efforts and unwavering support Lanka e news extended to overthrow the Rajapakse regime , and install the current good governance government . He will never ever forget that he added. It is hoped Lanka e news will continue to fearlessly champion the cause of truth by leveling justifiable criticism as it had always done ,while contributing to strengthen good governance , he exhorted.

---------------------------
by (2016-11-22 22:47:55)

Rajapaksa & Company’s Crocodile Tears & Their Public Stripping

By Vishwamithra1984 –November 22, 2016

“It is the wisdom of the crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour.” ~Francis Bacon

‘Come on, man’…that’s how President Obama ridiculed those who believed that Donald Trump was a sincere politician who professed to rule the United States of America and ‘Make America great again’ as a ‘successful’ businessman. Donald Trump winning the elections is another matter altogether and I have already written a commentary on the savagery defeat the Democrats and Hillary Clinton suffered. I have also repeatedly emphasized that ‘wide acceptance of an idea among a majority group is no proof of its validity’. I use the same phrase that Obama used to subject the former President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa to utter scorn and ridicule. ‘Come on man’, do you think that the people of Sri Lanka were born only yesterday? Step down from your portals and witness what is real and factual. Open your eyes and ears and behold the unprecedented harm and injury you have brought upon the good name of our nation and in the name of patriotism.

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s article ‘Media Repression Is Now a Cornerstone of Yahapalana Policy’ is an unmitigated insult to the rudimentary intelligence of every man, woman and child in this country. After committing atrocities of monumental proportions on the men and women of the mass media during his regime, Rajapaksa’s plea to the mass media cannot be construed in any other way than as a preposterous joke. He has lost all his credibility on this single article he is supposed to have written to the newspapers. Unfortunately for the Rajapaksas, the atrocities visited upon the men and women in the media have been well catalogued. They have been illustrated and presented in a book that is currently in circulation. It’s titled “Rajapaksa & Company” and authored by dahamipurawesifoundation– Righteous Citizens’ Foundation- a very credible presentation of facts and figures, cataloguing the range of atrocities committed by the Rajapaksa family and their relatives, cohorts, and henchmen. It is indeed a graphic description of an alleged commission of dastardly acts by a set of politicians headed by the First Family of the time.

In such a context, how on earth can the former President utter such nonsense? His transparent wickedness and apparent disregard for the immediate past is deplorable. And the total rejection of the people’s power of memory is appalling and contemptible and must be condemned by all those who yearn for good governance. Good governance- Yahapalanaya- did not have a place of recognition under his regime; Sri Lankan civil service and constitutionally independent institutions like the Central Bank were servile serfs. The defense cum military establishment was a lapdog under the command of a sibling reminding one of some third or fourth world dictatorships whose only goal was enrichment of themselves and their closest comrades-in-arms.

1,050 national identity cards found buried!

Nov 22, 2016

One thousand and fifty national identity cards that had remained buried for years have surfaced at Nuga Sevana in Beminiyanwila, Ambalantota.

The IDs were found yesterday (21) when earth was being moved by a backhoe during maintenance work in an irrigational reservation of D 3 canal in the Uhapita Goda Grama Seva division area.

Peduru Arachchige Chandrasiri, who is the driver of the backhoe, said he found them packed in black-coloured polythene bags.

After being informed, police took custody of the IDs. Some of the IDs are still recognizable and belong to persons with addresses in Mamadala, Beminiyanwila, Hanganwathura, Jansagama and Walawewatte areas.

(Rahul Samantha Hettiarachchi - Hambantota)

SLTB law suit: Mahinda allowed to file objections

2016-11-22

The law suit filed by the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the recovery of Rs. 143 million for using SLTB buses in election campaigns of last Presidential Election is to be taken up again on January 26.

The plaintiff previously cited Mr. Rajapaksa, 2015-UPFA presidential election committee members Susil Premajayantha and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa as respondents but later amended the initial plaint to exclude both Premajayantha and Yapa.

When the case was taken up today, President's Counsel Nihal Jayamanne who appeared for the defendant Mr. Rajapaksa, sought court permission to file legal objections over the previous amendment made by the SLTB to the initial plaint in court.

Acceding the defendant's request, the court postponed the case to file objections. (Shehan Chamika Silva)

Palestinian activist cultural centre in Toronto leaving 'on high note'

As Beit Zatoun prepares to close, founder Robert Massoud and supporters say the centre will live on as an idea

Jillian D'Amours-Tuesday 22 November 2016

TORONTO, Canada – “Palestine is at the root, but the tree is global justice.”

That’s how Robert Massoud describes Beit Zatoun, a gallery and activist space that he founded nearly seven years ago to bring social justice struggles and human rights issues from around the world to Toronto.

The name – “House of Olive” in Arabic – is a nod to Massoud’s own Palestinian heritage, and the olive served as the perfect symbol to bring the issue of Palestine to North America, Massoud explained.

“The olive tree is ubiquitous in Palestine; it’s everywhere,” Massoud told Middle East Eye earlier this month.

“The olive tree is a symbol also of [Palestinians’] resistance to occupation because the olive tree is resistant to drought, resistant to fire, resistant to wind; it has very deep roots in the soil, and for Palestinians that also is a symbol of their relationship to the land.”

But Beit Zatoun is about more than just Palestine. “You name it, we’ve dealt with it,” Massoud said.

Beit Zatoun has hosted more than 1,000 events since it opened in 2010, from film screenings and photo exhibitions to art installations, speakers, press conferences and interactive plays.

Yet despite its success, and running a packed schedule of events this past fall, Beit Zatoun is preparing to close its doors at the end of November.

The city of Toronto plans to tear down the building as part of a large-scale refurbishment project in the neighbourhood, which is known as Mirvish Village. Condos and other new buildings will be constructed in its place.

“Now that we’re forced to close because the building is being torn down… there’s a huge gap or hole that people recognise. What’s going to fill that hole?” Massoud said.

He said he decided not to move Beit Zatoun to another location because of the space’s current size, relatively affordable rent and location near a subway stop were tied to its success.

"As a cultural centre, it wasn’t just the Palestinian culture, it was for all people. The inclusiveness drew them in, and out of the inclusiveness comes diversity."

“Beit Zatoun will not continue as a physical space anywhere, but what it has done it is has blazed a trail so that perhaps other groups, other people, can follow in those footsteps down the road,” Massoud said. “We’re leaving on a high note.”

Building links beyond Palestine

Patrons of Beit Zatoun often cite its rich programme of Palestine-related events as one of its main draws.

Pamela Dodds, a Toronto-based visual artist who began attending events at Beit Zatoun a year-and-a-half ago, said that though the physical space was warm, it was Massoud’s personality that made Beit Zatoun so welcoming.

“He brought to every event a very sort of open, questioning, inclusive [feeling], and really insisted that people listen to each other,” she said, adding that Massoud would personally step in if post-event discussions ever devolved into screaming matches.

“He would always interrupt and say, ‘We’re here to listen to each other and debate these ideas, not to yell at each other.’ He would immediately get everyone back on track and the result is that we would have really in-depth conversations… People felt safe to express their views in a way that would be heard and respected,” Dodds told Middle East Eye.

But Massoud stressed that events have intentionally focused on issues beyond Palestine, including struggles for social justice in South America, the Caribbean, Asia and across Africa.

“My original vision for Beit Zatoun was not an ethnic ghetto,” Massoud said. “As a cultural centre, it wasn’t just the Palestinian culture, it was for all people. The inclusiveness drew them in, and out of the inclusiveness comes diversity.”

He said building a wide coalition of support across these many groups is critical.

“Beit Zatoun has been a real bonus… for the Palestinian solidarity and advocacy groups. But I think it’s also very important that they were bolstered with other groups,” he said. “Had we been just a Palestine centre so to speak, that would not have been very satisfying to me, only because I think Palestine needs friends.”

‘Beit Zatoun isn’t going anywhere’

Indeed, the space also grew into a home for the city’s tight-knit activist community.

Toronto-based photographer Ali Mustafa hosted his first photography exhibit at Beit Zatoun, showcasing images shot during the Egyptian revolution. He later discussed his work in Brazil and Syria, before he was killed in a bombing in Aleppo in 2014 while photographing Syrian emergency first responders.

An exhibition of Ali Mustafa's photographs from Syria was held at Beit Zatoun in April 2016 (MEE/Jillian Keslter-D'Amours)

After his death, Beit Zatoun donated its space annually for a memorial exhibit of Mustafa’s work, explained Johannah May Black, a member of the Ali Mustafa Memorial Collective, which was formed to honour his memory.

“This space has meant so much to our collective in terms of being able to continue to show Ali's important work to the community. There are few places in the city that would donate space for an exhibition without charging,” she told MEE.

She said Beit Zatoun took an active part in continuing Mustafa’s legacy of standing against global injustice.

“In this sense, Beit Zatoun was not only a community centre, but it was also a place to build movements, to confront injustice, and to come together to remember those who have dedicated their lives to these goals," she said.

Meanwhile, Lia Tarachansky, an Israeli-Russian journalist and documentary filmmaker, recently described being in the audience for one of Beit Zatoun’s last events, a talk by Massoud reflecting on the imminent closure of the space.

“As I was standing there, I was thinking to myself that with Beit Zatoun shutting down in two weeks, Toronto will lose the space NOW Magazine’s readers voted the ‘Best Place to Get New Ideas,’” Tarachansky wrote in a Facebook post in mid-November.

“The more I listened to Robert, though, the more I realised, [Beit Zatoun] isn't going anywhere. It is being transformed, reconfigured, defragmented, and reconstructed. I can't wait to see it in its new incarnation.”

Exclusive - Russian tankers defy EU ban to smuggle jet fuel to Syria: sources

Russian military jets are seen at Hmeymim air base in Syria, June 18, 2016. REUTERS/Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry via Reuters/File Photo

By Guy Faulconbridge and Jonathan Saul | LONDON-Wed Nov 23, 2016

Russian tankers have smuggled jet fuel to Syria through EU waters, bolstering military supplies to a war-torn country where Moscow is carrying out air strikes in support of the government, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

At least two Russian-flagged ships made deliveries - which contravene EU sanctions - via Cyprus, an intelligence source with a European Union government told Reuters. There was a sharp increase in shipments in October, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

A separate shipping source familiar with the movements of the Russian-flagged vessels said the ships visited Cypriot and Greek ports before delivering fuel to Syria.

The Russian defence and transport ministries did not initially respond to requests for comment. The defence ministry later said EU sanctions on fuel supplies to Syria could not be applied to the Russian air group in that country.

A spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs and security policy said the implementation of EU restrictions lay with member states. "We trust that competent authorities are complying with their obligation to ensure respect of the restrictive measures in place and to pursue any circumvention attempts," she added.

Greece's foreign ministry referred questions to the shipping ministry, which was not immediately available to comment.

The Cypriot government said its authorities had not approved the docking of any Russian tankers carrying jet fuel bound for Syria. "We would welcome any information that may be provided to us on any activity that contravenes U.N. or EU restrictive measures," the Cypriot foreign ministry added.

Syria's civil war, which began in 2011, has become a theatre for competing global powers, with Russia and Iran supporting President Bashar al-Assad, and the United States, Gulf Arab and European powers backing rebels who want to depose him.

Russia changed the course of the conflict in favour of Assad's government last year when it intervened with air strikes. Moscow says it targets only Islamic State militants and other jihadist fighters.

EU Council Regulation 1323/2014, introduced two years ago, bans any supply of jet fuel to Syria from the EU territories, whether or not the fuel originated in the European Union.

Over one two-week period in October, Russian tankers delivered 20,000 metric tonnes of jet fuel to Syria - worth around $9 million at today's world prices - via the European Union, according to the EU government intelligence source.

"The jet fuel shipments from these vessels have played a vital role in maintaining Russian air strikes in the region," said the source. "This points to a sustained Russian build-up of resources needed to support their military operation and ambitions in Syria."

Some of the shipped fuel also went to the Syrian military, helping to "keep Assad's air assets operational", the source added.

The shipping source and a third person, an intelligence consultant specialising in the Mediterranean area, also said the fuel was likely intended for Russian and Syrian military use.

TRANSPONDERS OFF

Publicly available ship-tracking data confirms that at least two Russian tankers, the Yaz and Mukhalatka, made one trip each between September and October, stopping in Greece and Limassol in Cyprus. In Greece, the Yaz stopped at Agioi Theodoroi port but it is unclear where the Mukhalatka stopped.

From Cyprus, they sailed towards Syria and Lebanon. Their tracking transponders were switched off near the coasts of those countries, according to the data.

The EU intelligence source said the Mukhalatka went on to deliver jet fuel to Syria, while the other two sources said the Yaz almost certainly carried fuel to the country. All the people declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

It was unclear where the fuel might have originated.

Alexander Yaroshenko, general director of the owner of the Yaz and Mukhalatka ships, St Petersburg-based Transpetrochart, declined to comment when asked by Reuters about the shipments.

Transpetrochart asked for written questions, which were supplied, but did not provide an immediate response.

Transpetrochart says on its website that it was founded in 2002 and specialises in shipping crude oil, fuel oil, diesel oil, gasoline and other oil products. It operates seven oil tankers.

The intelligence consultant said the Yaz was investigated by Greek authorities for possible EU sanctions violations during its stay in the port of Agioi Theodoroi in September, but that it was allowed to leave bound for Turkey.

The Greek coastguard service said in September that it had investigated the Yaz for possible breaches of EU regulations regarding Syria and had pressed charges against the ship's captain. A spokesman did not give further details about the investigation when contacted by Reuters.

One coastguard official said separately the captain was charged and released pending trial.

The EU government intelligence source said Russia was also using ships flying the flags of other countries to carry jet fuel to Syria. Reuters was unable to corroborate that allegation with other sources, or with ship-tracking data.

(Additional reporting by Michele Kambas and Renee Maltezou in Athens and Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; Editing by Pravin Char)

Trump’s pro-torture, pro-Israel CIA chief

Congressman Mike Pompeo indicates he wishes to expand an already vast surveillance apparatus.Gage Skidmore

Michael F. Brown-22 November 2016

A Tea Party congressman from Kansas has accepted an offer by US president-elect Donald Trump to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

Mike Pompeo, a three-term member of Congress and member of the House Intelligence Committee, is one of several hardliners picked by Trump for a top post. If confirmed by the Senate, he would would oversee a vast surveillance apparatus which he has indicated he wishes to expand.

Pompeo and David B. Rivkin Jr., a senior fellow at the neoconservative think-tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that “Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed.”

They urged Congress to pass a law “re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a single comprehensive, searchable database.”

Pompeo, as noted by The Nation, “is a foreign policy hawk who has fiercely opposed the Iran nuclear deal, stoked fears of Muslims in the US and abroad, opposed closing the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and defended the National Security Agency’s unconstitutional surveillance programs as ‘good and important work.’”

A figure close to the far-right Koch brother billionaires, Pompeo has also suggested that National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden should be executed.

Praise for Israel’s police

Trump, who has promoted plans to surveil Muslims and mosques in the US, has also lauded Israel’s use of racial profiling as a model for the US to follow.

Pompeo’s praise for Israel’s police two months into a wave of violence that saw Palestinians being executed in the streets is further cause for alarm.

In December last year, Pompeo stated that he “traveled to Israel and Lebanon, where I was briefed on the unconscionable acts of violence being committed against innocent Israeli civilians and police officers.”

Pompeo made no reference to the Israeli occupation, discriminatory anti-Palestinian laws, or the overwhelming violence Israeli forces have brought to bear against Palestinians.

“I saw graphic video footage of some of the violent acts that are continually targeted at Israelis, solely because they are Jewish,” Pompeo asserted, conflating Palestinian resistance to a decades-long military occupation with religious bigotry.

“After seeing this, I can tell you that the Israeli people and the Israeli National Police are demonstrating admirable restraint in the face of unspeakably cruel attacks. As a friend of the state of Israel, I commend the officers for their professionalism and thank them for all they do,” he added.

That fall, however, Israeli forces and armed civilians used deadly force against Palestinians who posed no immediate lethal threat. Subdued captives were repeatedly summarily executed – sometimes on video – with Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraging “the transformation of police officers, and even of armed civilians, into judges and executioners,” as an Israeli rights group put it.

Amnesty International has called for investigations into such killings and a ranking US senator, along with 10 members of Congress, has asked the State Department to probe “possible gross violations of human rights by security forces in Israel and Egypt – incidents that may have involved recipients, or potential recipients, of US military assistance.”

Pompeo made his defense of the Israeli police notwithstanding that force’s brutal beating of American citizen Tareq Abukhdeir the previous year in the Shuafat neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, where police intimidation and violence is an everyday reality.

Pompeo’s website features just two paragraphs on foreign policy. Notably, almost one whole paragraph of that is devoted to his strong support for Israel:

“America must … continue to stand alongside our allies around the world – such as our democratic ally in the Middle East, Israel. The US-Israeli alliance serves as a cornerstone of international and regional security. As a vibrant and dynamic democracy, Israel is a model of progress in the Middle East, and the United States must continue to support the State of Israel.”

The suggestion that Israel, which has occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip for almost half a century, is a “model of progress in the Middle East” is the type of language that would come up for inquiry in Pompeo’s confirmation hearing if Democrats were to become keener to connect with liberal Democrats and younger voterswho, according to polls, are showing increasing sympathy toward Palestinians rather than Israel.

“Law and order” Trump

Pompeo’s lionization of Israel’s police accords with the Trump campaign’s heavy emphasis on “law and order.”

Candidate Trump was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, raising questions about how police forces would interact with demonstrators as well as people in Latino, African American and Muslim communities during a Trump presidency built on racism and bigotry directed at these and other groups.

Tom Jackman, who covers crime and the courts for The Washington Post, noted that Trump told the Fraternal Order of Police in a questionnaire he “would rescind an executive order by President Obama which limited the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement, saying the transfers were ‘an excellent program that enhances community safety.’”

Pompeo regards the use of waterboarding as within the parameters of US law, a viewpoint Senator Dianne Feinstein, author of a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the practice, said she would challenge during Pompeo’s confirmation hearing.

Trump is also on record voicing support for torture practices such as waterboarding and killing the families of alleged terrorists. Trump stated in February: “I would bring back waterboarding and I would bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”

Under pressure, Trump appears to have backed away from killing family members of “terrorists,” but grave fears remain that he will go beyond waterboarding or, at the very least, redefine what constitutes torture.

Senator John McCain sought to allay such concerns over the weekend, stating, “If [any agency of government] started waterboarding, I swear to you, there’s a whole bunch of us that would have them in court in a New York minute.”

“And there’s no judge in America that wouldn’t say they’re in violation of the law because it’s specifically, in law, now prohibited,” McCain added.

Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, rejected McCain’s assertion, telling Face the Nation, “We’re going to have a president again who will never say what we’ll never do.”

The torture proposed by Trump and Pompeo is very much aligned with practices carried out by the Israeli government.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has asserted – as recently as this month – that Israel’s “using torture happens and is not exceptional in interrogations. Painful handcuffing and threats are a common method used in Shin Bet [Israel’s domestic intelligence agency] interrogations with the purpose of causing a detainee grave pain and suffering and to break his spirit.”

Hunger strikes and torture

From Israel to Guantánamo Bay, brutal interrogation and prison techniques have been applied in the post-9/11 world by the US and its allies.

In response to Pardiss Kebriaei with the Center for Constitutional Rights describing the forcible feeding of hunger striking prisoners at Guantánamo, Pompeo replied, with the dismissive and misogynistic rhetoric characteristially espoused by Trump and his allies, “I have no idea what that woman is talking about.”

Pompeo added: “The last thing to say about these folks who are assertedly [sic] hunger strikers is that they look to me like a lot of them have put on weight.”

The bizarre claim points to a type of cruelty that is likely to pervade a Pompeo CIA – one that may even surpass the abuses and law-breaking of the George W. Bush administration.

Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, a prisoner at Guantánamo, described the process of forcible feeding to The New York Times in 2013:

“I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I can’t describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way. As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone.”

Yet the probable next director of the CIA regards such brutality as a means of putting on weight. Such outrageous and odious views have proved to be a springboard – for more than Pompeo – into Trump’s good graces.

Trump Foundation admits to violating ban on ‘self-dealing,’ new filing to IRS shows

Painter Michael Israel, left, poses with Donald and Melania Trump in 2007 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. Trump spent $20,000 that belonged to the Donald J. Trump Foundation to buy a six-foot-tall portrait of himself painted by Israel. (Michael Israel)

By David A. Fahrenthold November 22 at 5:14 PM

President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses or their families.

The admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation’s IRS tax filings for 2015, which were recently posted online at the nonprofit-tracking site GuideStar. A GuideStar spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation’s law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

The Washington Post could not immediately confirm if the same forms had actually been sent to the IRS.

In one section of the form, the IRS asked if the Trump Foundation had transferred “income or assets to a disqualified person.” A disqualified person, in this context, might be Trump — the foundation’s president — or a member of his family or a Trump-owned business.

The foundation checked “yes.”

Another line on the form asked if the Trump Foundation had engaged in any acts of self-dealing in prior years. The Trump Foundation checked “yes” again.

Such violations can carry penalties including excise taxes, and the charity leaders can be required to repay money that the charity spent on their behalf.

During the presidential campaign, The Post reported on several instances in which Trump appeared to use the Trump Foundation’s money to buy items for himself or to help one of his for-profit businesses.

But the new Trump Foundation tax filings provided little detail, so it was unclear if these admissions were connected to the instances reported in The Post.

[Trump boasts about his philanthropy. But his giving falls short of his words.]

The Trump Foundation tax forms did not, for instance, describe any specific acts of self-dealing. They also did not say whether Trump had paid any penalties already. That kind of detail would be submitted on a separate IRS form, which was not included in the information posted online by GuideStar.

Trump’s team did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Inside The Post's investigation of Donald Trump's charitable giving (Peter Stevenson, Julio Negron/The Washington Post)

The New York attorney general’s office is investigating Trump’s charity, following up on reports in The Post that described apparent instances of self-dealing going back to 2007. A spokesman for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman declined to comment, other than to say “our investigation is ongoing.”

The IRS also did not immediately respond. That agency has not said if it is investigating the president-elect’s charity.

The Trump Foundation has existed since 1987. This appeared to be the first time that it had admitted committing such a violation.

Philip Hackney, who formerly worked in the IRS chief counsel’s office and now teaches at Louisiana State University, said he wanted to know why the Trump Foundation was now admitting to self-dealing in prior years — when, in all prior years, it had told the IRS it had done nothing of the kind.

“What transactions led to the self-dealing that they’re admitting to? Why weren’t they able to recognize them in prior years,” Hackney said. He said that, since the prior years’ returns were signed by Trump, that opened the president-elect to questions about what he had missed and how.

Trump Foundation 2015 tax filing

During the presidential campaign, The Post revealed several instances — worth about $300,000 — where Trump seemed to have used the Trump Foundation to help himself. From 2009 until this year, the charity was funded exclusively with other people’s money, an arrangement that experts say is almost unheard of for a family foundation.

In two cases, The Post reported, the Trump Foundation appeared to pay legal settlements to end lawsuits that involved his for-profit businesses.

In one case, Trump settled a dispute with the town of Palm Beach, Fla., over a large flagpole he erected at his Mar-a-Lago Club. The town agreed to waive $120,000 in unpaid fines if Trump’s club donated $100,000 to Fisher House, a charity helping wounded veterans and military personnel. The Trump Foundation paid that donation instead — effectively saving his business $100,000.

In another, Trump’s golf course in New York’s Westchester County was sued by a man who had won a $1 million hole-in-one prize during a tournament at the course. The man was later denied the money because Trump’s course had allegedly made the hole too short for the prize to be valid.

The lawsuit was settled, and details on that final settlement have not been made public. But on the day that the parties told the court that their lawsuit had been settled, the Trump Foundation donated $158,000 to the unhappy golfer’s charity. Trump’s golf course donated nothing.

In three other cases, Trump’s foundation paid for items that Trump or his wife purchased at charity auctions. In 2012, Trump bid $12,000 for a football helmet signed by then-Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. In another case from 2007, Trump’s wife, Melania, bid $20,000 on a six-foot-tall portrait of Trump painted by “speed painter” Michael Israel during a gala at Mar-a-Lago. And in 2014, Trump bid $10,000 to buy a four-foot painting of himself by artist Havi Schanz at another charity gala.

[How a Univision anchor found the missing $10,000 portrait that Trump bought with his charity’s money]

In all three cases, the Trump Foundation paid the bill. Tax experts said that, by law, the items had to be put to charitable use. Trump’s representatives have not said what became of the helmet or the $20,000 portrait.

The $10,000 portrait was, however, located by Post readers, following coverage of the Trump Foundation. It was hanging on the wall of the sports bar at Trump’s Doral golf resort, outside Miami.

In September, a Trump campaign spokesman rejected the idea that Trump had done anything wrong, by using his charity’s money to buy art for his bar. Instead, spokesman Boris Epshteyn said, the sports bar was doing the charity a favor by “storing” its art free of charge.

Tax experts said that this argument was unlikely to hold water.

“It’s hard to make an IRS auditor laugh,” Brett Kappel, a lawyer who advises nonprofit groups at the Akerman firm, told The Post then. “But this would do it.”

In the new 2015 tax filing, the Trump Foundation acknowledged for the first time that it owned these items. But it listed market values far below what the foundation had paid: The helmet was valued at $475, the portrait purchased for $20,000 was valued at $700, and the portrait purchased for $10,000 was valued at $500.

The tax filing did not give any details about where these items are or what charitable use Trump has in mind for them.

The Trump Foundation’s tax filing also shows that — for the first time in six years — the foundation received a donation from an entity controlled by Trump himself.

It lists a donation of $566,370 from the Trump Corporation, an entity 100 percent owned by Trump himself. It also lists a $50,000 gift from Trump Productions, a Trump-owned business that produced “The Apprentice.”

Previously, the last donation to the foundation from Trump or one of his businesses had come in 2008. Trump’s spokesmen did not respond to a question about the reason for these new gifts.

In addition, the Trump Foundation reported a $150,000 gift from the foundation of Viktor Pinchuk, a powerful Ukrainian steel magnate. That was the first such gift from him.

Pinchuk, who supports closer ties between Ukraine and Western nations, had also pledged large donations to the foundation of Trump’s presidential opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Those donations, pledged to the Clinton Foundation while Clinton was secretary of state, raised

questionsabout whether she had conflicts of interest when she met with her family foundation’s donors.

A spokesman for Pinchuk’s foundation said that the gift was made as part of an agreement for Trump to speak — via video link — to a conference Pinchuk organized in September 2015. The conference, called the Yalta European Strategy annual meeting, was held in Kiev. At the time of his 20-minute speech, titled “How New Ukraine’s Fate Affects Europe and the World,” Trump was already a presidential candidate.

Trump’s spokesmen did not respond to a question about Pinchuk’s gift.

[How Donald Trump retooled his charity to spend other people’s money]

Marc S. Owens, the former head of the IRS nonprofit division, noted that this was a rare contribution to the Trump Foundation from overseas. The only other foreign gifts were small ones from New Zealand and Canada in 2006 and 2008. And it was certainly the first from a foreigner who could seek to influence the foreign policy agenda of a President Trump.

“The contribution points out a potential way for foreign donors to align themselves with [Trump],” Owens said.

So far, Trump has said nothing about how he will run his foundation when he takes office — or what he will do to avoid potential conflicts of interest involving Trump Foundation donors.

In contrast, when she was preparing to take office as secretary of state in 2009, Clinton was closely questioned about the operations of the global charity founded by her husband. As a result, the president of the Clinton Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with the Obama administration that placed certain restrictions on its activities, notably limiting some donations from foreign governments.

The agreement was criticized by Republicans during the campaign for loopholes, and the Clinton Foundation has also acknowledged at least one failure to fully uphold its terms. But the document showed an understanding that some additional transparency and regulations were needed while Clinton held public office.

“I will certainly do everything in my power to make sure that the good work of the foundation continues without there being any untoward effects on me and my service and be very conscious of any questions that are raised,” Clinton said during her 2009 confirmation hearing. “But I think that the way that this has been hammered out is as close as we can get to doing something that is so unprecedented that there is no formula for it, and we’ve tried to do the very best we could.”

The Post was first alerted to the 2015 tax filing by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group. In a written statement, CREW spokesman Jordan Libowitz said many questions remained to be answered.

“Why were the Trumps unable to provide locations of the Foundation’s assets like paintings and football helmets . . . when they clearly remain in the possession of the Foundation? What assets do [they] admit to transferring to a ‘disqualified person?’ ” Libowitz wrote. “It’s pretty clear at this point that the IRS needs to investigate.”

In all, the 2015 tax filing shows that the Trump Foundation took in $781,000 and gave away $896,000 in grants during 2015. That left it with $1.1 million at year’s end, slightly down from the year before.

An early look at its outgoing grants showed a familiar pattern: Trump gave to a smattering of New York and Florida charities, plus a few connected to friends and business partners. Also, as he entered the presidential race, he gave to several nonprofit organizations connected with conservative causes.

One of them was Project Veritas, the group run by conservative provocateur James O’Keefe, which has used hidden-camera stings to target liberal groups. Stephen Gordon, of Project Veritas, said that its point of contact had been Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s one-time campaign manager.

He said they had a brief meeting with Trump in 2015 at Trump Tower. Trump gave $10,000 from his foundation to the group, which is an IRS-certified nonprofit organization.

“We showed him a couple of videos. He thought that was really cool. And we walked out with a check. It was a typical donor meeting,” Gordon recalled.

Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.