March 31, 2017 The Ministry of Health says that apart from influenza-A H1N1 (swine flu), there are several other viruses which are also currently spreading across the country. Director General of Health Services Dr Jayasundara Bandara stated that sneezing, coughing and fever are the first symptoms of these viruses. However, he state that such illnesses are not fatal and that it is only dangerous if the patients are prone to complications. He stated that small children, pregnant women, elderly persons and those with immunodeficiency disorders should be extra careful regarding such viral flu. The director general said most of the country’s hospitals are able to treat such illnesses and that therefore there is no need for any undue fear or concern regarding the situation. He stated that the country’s weather conditions have an impact on the spread of such viruses and also urged the public to pay extra attention to their personal health as it would help control this situation. -
(Lanka-e-News- 31.March.2017, 11.50AM) The H1N1 contagious influenza is fast spreading in the North, already about 400 patients have contracted it and no hospital in the North is having the facilities to control the virus was revealed by Lanka e news via its report on 8th March.
Now , there are reports that this H1N1 influenza has spread to Matale , Dambulla and its environs very swiftly. At the Matale hospital alone , about 60 cases have been identified and five have died due to this contagion. Among them is a mother. In addition , some members of the staff including two nursing officers of the Matale hospital have also contracted the ailment.This is because the facilities for treatment are available only at the Colombo hospital.
Like in the North even in the districts aforementioned , the hospitals do not have the facilities or equipment to identify the H1NI virus. The phlegm and blood samples of the patients have to be sent to Colombo for examination . Owing to this handicap , the disease is fast spreading.
This is a disease that is spread via breathing , but the hospitals aforementioned haven’t the isolation wards to treat patients. Even the N19 masks for protection against the virus are inadequate in those hospitals.
Doctors of high rungs staging strikes also a reason…
With the disease spreading like wild fire , there is a likelihood of the menace gripping the whole country soon , and the disease spreading across the entire country in a few days.
It is a pity , one of the main reasons for this prevailing grave situation is the responsible and superior doctors of the country who should be in the vanguard to combat this health danger at this crucial moment are instead neglecting their duties , and wasting their time on the SAITM issue while staging strikes across the country to the detriment of the patients and the country at large.
In the circumstances , the president ,the Prime minister , minister of health , and provincial council health ministers must take urgent action to rescue the country from this most perilous situation which is threatening the life of every citizen.
--------------------------- by (2017-03-31 23:30:50)
Chairman of the Muslim Personal Law reform committee former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Saleem Marsoof said the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama (ACJU) have acted in contravention of the good faith reposed in them, and instead have extended all their resources to stunt the work of the committee.
Justice Saleem Marsoof
He also said the actions by the ACJU have had an intimidating effect on the members of the committee.
“Mufthi Rizwe and Mubarak Moulavi both of ACJU are members of the Committee chaired by me. According to news reports, a delegation of ACJU have gone around meeting Muslim members of Parliament and handed over various documents including working drafts prepared by me for consideration of the Committee under confidentiality,” he said in a Facebook post in which he called for opinions on the reforms.
Mufthi Rizwe is the Chairman of the main theological arm of the Muslims, the ACJU. He has been the Chairman of the theological arm for over 17 years.
The ACJU came in to severe criticism by the Muslim intelligentsia following an expose by Colombo Telegraph on its support to Underage Marriage of females, among other rituals and views, deemed archaic.
The legal luminary, who also acted as Chief Justice further said that the ACJU have commenced a campaign expending all resources to curtail the work of the committee.
“Already jumma sermons and signature campaigns have been conducted to object to any amendments to the MM&D Act on the purported basis that it is of divine origin, and some members of my committee feel intimidated and may tow the ACJU line” he said.
The discussion on his Facebook page was called for by Justice Marsoof following a revelation by Colombo Telegraph which said the Ulamas were in agreement on child marriage and that a child could be married even before puberty.
“Have your say! The Quazi Court is an integral part of the Sri Lankan Judiciary. Aggrieved parties may appeal from its decisions and orders to the Board of Quazis and from there to the Court of Appeal. The Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act restricts appointments of Quazis and to the Board of Quazis only to males, when Art 12 of the Constitution guarantees equal opportunity to all. The ACJU vehemently objects to opening out these judicial appointments to women. I share this article that seeks to clarify the ACJU stand, and for opening out the issue for discussion in the public interest!” Justice Marsoof said on his Facebook page.
The MMDA does not stipulate a minimum age for marriage and the act specifies instead that a female under the age of 12 could be married subject to authorisation by the Qazi.
In effect it means that there is no minimum age for marriage and children over 12 years of age could be married with no bar. The MMDA also does not have provision for consent from the Bride and females do not participate in the signing of the marriage.
Accordingly the females are legally permitted to be married at any age without their consent. Girls under 12 have to be married subject to Qazi authorisation according to the act in its present form.
The Colombo Telegraph is also in possession of evidence of widespread fraud among the Qazi’s. According to the Act, the entire Qazi system is legally mandated to be only male.
The expose, came on a submission made by the Ulama to political leaders.
Issuing a statement in November Justice Marsoof said the committee is in its final stages of preparing the recommendations.
The efforts to reform the act have been met with stiff resistance from conservative elements among the Muslims. They insist that the Laws including marriage before puberty, the non appointment of females due to a reasoning that a female is not on par with a male are valid.
The Colombo Telegraph learns that the male dominated clergy have been using the Friday sermons attended by males to propogate these views in mosques across the Island.
March 31, 2017 Sri Lanka’s consumer price inflation hit a record high of 7.3 percent in March under a new index, government data released on Friday showed, which analysts attributed to the impact of a lingering drought, higher taxes and a weaker rupee, besides the effect of a low base year. The inflation, measured on the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI), rose to 7.3 percent in March from a year earlier, accelerating from the previous month’s 6.8 percent under a revised base-year and market basket. “This is predominantly because of the prices of food and other materials except energy going up,” said Danushka Samarasinghe, an economist and research head has stated. “The economy is seeing the full impact of the value added tax (VAT) increase. The rupee depreciation is also having an impact. Food prices have risen due to the drought.” Inflation measured on a 12-month moving average basis also hit an all-time high of 5.0 percent, compared with the previous month’s 4.6 percent. Core annual inflation, which excludes fresh food, energy, transport, rice and coconuts, rose to 7.3 percent in March, compared with the previous month’s 7.1 percent, the index with a new base year of 2013 showed. The rupee has fallen 1.4 percent this year, resulting in expensive imports. -Source: Reuters -Agencies
Many an eyebrow has been raised by a senior UNP minister’s claim that he had offered money to the tune of Rs. 5 mn to secure the release of private land held by the military in the Mullaitivu district.
Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Affairs D M Swaminathan yesterday said that he had received an assurance from the MoD that 189 acres of land would be released within one month after receiving Rs. 5 mn payment.
A senior spokesperson for the ministry said that following discussions between Minister Swaminathan and Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi last week, the former had received an assurance that in addition to 189 acres of land, the military would release 279 acres in the Keppapilavu area on or before 15th of May 2017. The area identified for release consisted of 248 acres of state land in the Keppapilavu village and 31 acres of private land in Seeniyamutai village area. Altogether, a total of 468 Acres land were to be released, the official said.
The ministry said that the ongoing release of military-held land was taking place under the directions of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Recently, the SLAF released a section of land within the SLAF Mullaitivu station following protests launched by a section of the four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The TNA wants the SLAF to vacate LTTE built runaway in Mullaitivu. (SF)
At present Mrs. Kumarathunge's Parliamentary position has been challenged due to her dual citizenship in Switzerland. Lanka News Web talks with MP Geetha Kumarasinghe regarding that issue.
Let us start the discussion from the dual citizen issue. What is the truth behind this story?
I completely refute these allegation. Every media institution has been showcasing this as a grave issue. There was nothing else for them to criticize me. I was elected by the popular votes of the people. If anyone challenges my appointment that means it is a challenge made to the people's sovereignty of this country.
Does that mean you have no dual citizenship with Switzerland? Are you a sole citizen of Sri Lanka?
Yes. I would like to emphasize once again that I am only a citizen of Sri Lanka. This is a court case that has been filed against me in a baseless manner. Some people have been accusing me by referring to something that was mentioned by the Attorney General's department during the trail. Still the case is not even over.
What is the present status of this court case?
Now it is in the Court of Appeal. I respect the court. And I have a big trust about our legal system. So I am waiting moderately until the court executes justice. Since this is an ongoing trial I would not comment further on the matter. I do not have any intention to insult the judiciary.
If the Court suphold the fact that you had possessed Swiss citizenship then your MP post would be abolished. What would you then?
It cannot happen. And even if id does, there is a Supreme Court to appeal next. I became an MP from the votes of the people. If anyone had a problem about me then they could have forwarded a petition during the nominations. At that time there was a lot of time available for election petitions. But no such thing happened. If these sort of things are allowed, it would set up a bad precedence. The MP posts of all the 225 members of the parliament could be taken away just by filing a case at a lower court. There are laws to prevent these things. Even now there are several MPs in the parliament who have dual citizenship in other countries. But none of them are being chased by the media.
Who are attacking you like this?
There is a group of politicians who have been rejected by the people. But they have been able to creep back into the government and even secure ministerial positions. This is not democracy. After that these defeated politicians have filed cases against the victors. But in public they are shouting about increasing the female representation in the parliament into 25%. Instead of increasing, what they are doing at present is decreasing that number even further. The people can judge the fairness of these matters. As a woman, my determination was my main strength. It was far more than physical strength. Even after being defeated for 6 years, I worked for the betterment of the people. That is why the people decided to elect me into the parliament. I have made my contribution to the society. At present, the tradition of our politics is to inherit political power from husband to wife and children. May be there are other ways as well. But I did not come from any such way. I was born and raised in a village. I went to a village school. After coming into cinema, I did my best to make it greater. I have taken the name of the country even into international cinema.
But what about the Geetha Kumarasinghe the politician?
Yes. Even in politics I have faced many challenges and have overcome them. I was addressed with every derogatory insult that could be said to a woman at political stages. I was mentally tortured. I even faced underworld threats to silence me. I will like to reveal such an incident for the first time to media. Recently there were elections for the Co-operative societies. When the time came for the election of Director Board there was a big competition. There were about 20 candidates from the UNP. But the SLFP was divided into Mahinda and Maithri Factions. However, when we were discussing the matters, suddenly, three thugs crashed into the place and scolded us in gutter language. I would like to request all political parties not to give nominations to rapists and thieves. If not, they are only going to protect their fellow criminals.
Why are you being accused like this?
I gave up a luxurious life, a citizenship of a foreign country and a vast wealth in the name of politics, it was the reason for the breakup of my marriage. It was an emotionally difficult incident for me. All this happened to me because of politics, if I had just kept quiet without demanding anything, no such thing would happen to me. But I like to face challenges than accepting ministerial invitations.
Does this mean that they are you are being subjected to political revenge taking?
Definitely. There are members in the TNA who have dual citizenship. There are other MPs and ministers who have dual citizenship.
- AshWaru Colombo
What a world! We want the right to destroy our planet 2017-03-31 On Monday, the big powers spurned yet another move to rid the world of nuclear weapons. They apparently prefer to be called the destroyers of our planet. “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” J. Robert Oppenheimer said quoting from the Bhagawad Gita. He was one of the fathers of the first atomic bomb – the illegitimate child conceived and delivered by the top secret Manhattan Project. The first atomic bomb was detonated by the Manhattan Project’s nuclear physicists on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. On August 6 and 9 the same year, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world’s first atomic bomb attacks killed more than 200,000 people in the two cities instantly. Tens of thousands of people exposed to high radiation died in the months and years to follow. The ill-effects are still being felt. Oppenheimer, despite his liberal and socialist worldview, supported the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. But he later became an advocate of nuclear non-proliferation and opponent of the global nuclear arms race. However noble the nuclear non-proliferation initiative is, it smacks of hypocrisy and allows a few nuclear-armed nations to become global bullies and intimidate the rest of the world. Given the destructive power of modern-day nuclear weapons which are a thousand times more lethal than ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nothing short of total nuclear disarmament will ensure the safety of our planet, which we call our home. Every nuclear test is a stab on the back of Mother Earth. Every nuclear accident is a blow on her head. A nuclear war will be the ultimate death blow. If we love this planet and the humanity, we must not rest until the last of the world’s nuclear weapons is dismantled. But the humans are the Earth’s only species hell-bent on the destruction of the planet. According to 2016 estimates, the nine nuclear-armed nations – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea -- possess some 15,000-23,000 nuclear warheads which could destroy this world more than 100 times over. Man can be good and evil. Leaders can be brutish and if driven by their animalistic id, they could become destroyers. With the United States and North Korea – both nuclear armed – being run by maverick leaders, the world’s first nuclear war is no longer just a subject for dystopian novelists to describe the aftermath in vivid detail. The dangerous reality or MAD (mutually assured destruction) is close and staring at us. The US has warned North Korea that its policy of strategic patience has ended, while reports say Pyongyang is preparing not only for yet another nuclear test but also for a nuclear war with the US. Months before Donald Trump became the US President, Nato and Russia had deployed nuclear missiles in Europe, stoking fears of a nuclear war. The tense situation has somewhat eased now because of Trump’s special relationship with Russia. In the volatile Middle East, Israel has some 300 nuclear warheads and Iran is accused of harbouring nuclear weapon ambitions. In South Asia, too, a nuclear war cannot be ruled out, given the hostility between India and Pakistan. Evil triumphed on Monday when a golden opportunity to bring about a nuclear-weapons-free world was squandered. The United States, Russia, China, Britain and France together with 36 other nations staged a walkout when the United Nations General Assembly began discussions on a global ban on nuclear weapons. Monday’s session came in sequel to a General Assembly resolution adopted in December to convene a conference “to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.” Kim Won-soo, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, addressing the UN conference said, “Let us all work harder and more creatively, so that we can achieve our common goal of a world, safer and more secure, without nuclear weapons, and better for all.” He said the possession of nuclear weapons was fundamentally incompatible with humanity’s common aspirations for peace and security. Pope Francis sent a message of support to the conference. “I wish to encourage you to work with determination in order to create the conditions necessary for a world without nuclear weapons,” he said. The Pope said international peace and stability “cannot be based on a false sense of security, on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or on simply maintaining a balance of power.” While the widely respected pontiff called for concerted efforts to save our planet, President Trump, in a reckless act that underscored his contempt for warnings about climate change, revoked environment laws his predecessor, Barack Obama, had introduced, and his UN envoy Nikki Haley scuttled UN efforts aimed at total nuclear disarmament. Addressing journalists at UN headquarters in New York, ambassador Haley, South Carolina’s former rightwing governor, defended her country’s need to possess nuclear weapons, saying, “in this day and time, we can’t honestly say that we can protect our people by allowing the bad actors to have them and those of us that are good trying to keep peace and safety not to have them.” She was referring to the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea. “There is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons. But we have to be realistic. Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?” she asked. Haley only confirms our worst fears that a nuclear war between the US and North Korea could be a reality. Imagine how many innocent people will die in both these countries. Some studies claim that North Korean missiles can wipe out 80 percent of the US population, while US strikes can reduce North Korea to mere nuclear ash. Who wants to give up nuclear weapons, the very possession of which will deter even a thought of an attack in the mind of the enemy? Nuclear weapons mean power and they are here to stay until there emerges a weapon system that can deactivate nuclear weapons of an enemy state through hacking. Reports say the US, Russia and China are moving in that direction. But before such cyber weapons become a reality, a nuclear war could break out.
Kareem, the protagonist of a new feature film about a Palestinian hip-hop artist, embodies “the sequel to what happened in the Nakba,” said Tamer Nafar, who co-wrote and stars in Junction 48.
The character Kareem, Nafar told The Electronic Intifada, was inspired by his own life. Nafar is an emcee in the hip-hop trio DAM.
Like Nafar, Kareem is a rising star living in Lydd, a city near Tel Aviv in present-day Israel.
Lydd was the site of one of the worst episodes in the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In July of that year, some 50,000 Palestinians were driven out of the town by Zionist militias and expelled to the West Bank.
Nearly 70 years later, residents continue to resist discriminatory Israeli policies targeting Palestinians and their homes in Lydd.
The ongoing oppression and displacement of Palestinians inside Israel – what Palestinians call ‘48 – inspires the storyline of Junction 48.
“Universal message”
The film takes up many of the issues that Nafar and DAM have been rapping about for years: poverty, crime, police brutality, racism, sexism and expanding settler-colonialism against Palestinians inside Israel.
At the beginning of the film, Kareem is reluctant to define his songs as political and is happy just to be performing on stage. But as a series of events both tied to him personally and to his circle of friends brings pain and loss, Kareem takes risks for his art and his community and the broader Palestinian liberation struggle.
The inspiration for the story “was the neighborhood itself,” Nafar told The Electronic Intifada. “[But] we felt something was missing.”
Nafar and director Udi Aloni understood that to properly depict life in Lydd, and the characters’ conflicts, the continuing trauma of the Nakba would have to be prominently featured.
“In order for us to deliver a true universal message, we have to be extremely particular in the details of what Lydd is,” Aloni told The Electronic Intifada. “What it [means] to be a Palestinian within Israel, who we call 48ers, what is this place that you live [in], the apartheid that is not so obvious to the people outside of Israel.”
“Living with the threat”
In one scene, the house belonging to a friend of Kareem is demolished by Israeli police while family and neighbors watch helplessly. The Israeli municipality intends to build a “museum of coexistence” on the property.
Aloni said that set designers built the house from scratch. The set was so realistic, he added, that in an act of terrible irony, city authorities gave the filmmakers a notice to destroy the house.
During the filming of the demolition scene, actors and crew members started to cry because the destruction was so familiar.
“Many [of the residents have] tried to stop many house demolitions in Lydd,” Aloni explained. “Many are living with this threat that their house could be destroyed every day.”
In the film, after the house is crushed, a protest concert for the neighborhood is held on top of the rubble.
Aloni said that this is part of the Palestinian “spirit of resistance.”
He remarked that the Palestinian Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the southern Naqab desert, for example, has been destroyed and rebuilt by its residents more than 100 times since 2012.
“We can sing on the ruins, and then we rebuild,” he said.
Junction 48 has won awards at film festivals in New York and Berlin. The film is currently touring the US.
It is also available for streaming and download on iTunes.
The film was recently featured as “critics’ pick” by the The New York Times.
To hear the full interviews with Tamer Nafar and Udi Aloni, listen to the podcast via the media player above.
Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor of The Electronic Intifada.
AUkrainian intelligence officer was killed in a car explosion in Mariupol on Friday.
Lieutenant Colonel Oleksandr Kharaberiush was deputy chief of Donetsk’s local counterintelligence unit, over which Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014. Ukraine’s security service (SBU) was quick to blame the separatists.
“The SBU will punish the terrorists who blew up the car with the SBU officer in Mariupol as soon as possible,” the SBU statement said. Donetsk region police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin said Kharaberiush, who was alone in the car, died instantly. No other information was made available.
On Monday, Ukraine’s news agency reported three Ukrainian servicemen and eight were wounded in Donbas in 24 hours. That came just days after former Russian parliamentarian Denis Voronenkov was murdered in Kiev (he was set to testify against Viktor Yanukovych, the former Kremlin-backed president of Ukraine).
Mariupol is a Sea of Azov port town, and one hit hard by the violence that has killed over 10,000 in Ukraine since April 2014. It was at one point controlled by separatists, but later retaken by Ukrainians. Since fighting began, the town’s population grew by over 100,000 (one in five in Mariupol is an inland refugee, of which there are 1.8 million in Ukraine).
Many believe Russia is angling to seize Mariupol to create a land bridge to the Crimean peninsula. The city has been seen as a bellwether for whether the Minsk agreements are being fully and properly implemented.
On Friday, Mariupol once again served as a reminder that they have not been.
Congress and U.S. intelligence agencies are scrutinizing connections between Russia and the Trump campaign as they investigate evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Here are members of Team Trump who are known to have Russian connections and the story lines that have made those ties relevant.
Lawyers acting for a US journalist based in rebel-held northern Syria and a former Al Jazeera bureau chief have filed a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump and other senior officials who they say have placed them on an alleged "kill list".
Human rights group Reprieve and law firm Lewis Baach filed the case on behalf of Bilal Abdul Kareem and Ahmad Zaidan, a former Islamabad bureau chief for Al Jazeera Arabic, in the US District Court in Washington on Thursday.
The lawsuit states that the defendants placed the pair on a "kill list" which has "resulted in their being targeted for death".
Abdul Kareem, an occasional Middle East Eye contributor, told MEE on Friday that "well-placed sources have informed me that I have been included on the drone list for flights that take off from the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey".
Incirlik is used by US forces carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) group and other Syria-based armed groups.
Abdul Kareem and Zaidan contend that they were erroneously placed on the list by the previous administration of former president Barack Obama.
But their lawyers said they believed Trump's administration not only planned to pursue existing names on the list but had also “removed certain restrictions and criteria previously employed in the designation of persons to be included on the Kill List".
The lawsuit states: "Neither Zaidan nor [Abdul] Kareem pose a continuing, imminent threat to US persons or national security. Neither Zaidan nor [Abdul] Kareem is a member or supporter of any terrorist group. Inclusion of Zaidan and [Abdul] Kareem on the kill list under these circumstance was arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion."
Abdul Kareem last year described to MEE how he had walked away from a suspected drone strike which destroyed the vehicle in which he was travelling.
He said he and his crew had been filming outdoors shortly before and were waiting to interview a fighter with the then-al-Qaeda-aligned Nusra Front when the attack occurred in June 2016.
"As we are sitting there in the car, all of a sudden everything goes black," Abdul Kareem told MEE in an interview conducted via Skype.
"I thought they had hit the earth and the earth had split and the car was falling into the earth. But what was happening is that when the car was hit, it went airborne, flipped over and it pointed us in the opposite direction on its side."
According to the lawsuit filed on Thursday, Abdul Kareem has "narrowly avoided being killed by five separate air strikes, at least one of which was carried out by a drone" in the past year.
Ahmed Zaidan, who is Syrian and based in Qatar, is one of Al Jazeera Arabic's most prominent journalists. His reporting has focused on the Taliban and al-Qaeda and he has conducted a number of high-profile interviews including with Osama Bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda leader who was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.
Zaidan was included in a top-secret National Security Agency presentation about a programme called "SKYNET", details of which were leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 and reported on by The Intercept website in 2015. It lists Zaidan as a member of both al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, allegations that Zaidan denies.
In an opinion piece for Al Jazeera in 2015, Zaidan said he believed that the allegation that he was a member of al-Qaeda originated with the Syrian government, which had levelled the same accusation on state television when he reported on rebel groups in Idlib
"This was an attempt to assassinate my professionalism, as a precursor to a political assassination. It seems to be driven by Syrian intelligence deception. I must ask, therefore, is the national security of the Assad regime more important than the national security of the United States and the American people?" he wrote.
"I reserve the right to take legal action based on the NSA document. It is a document that is unfair to America, journalism, Al Jazeera, and me personally."
'I don’t see a lot of other journalists around'
SKYNET uses a complex computer algorithm to calculate the threat of certain individuals by looking out for visits to places of interest and regular swapping of phone simcards.
But the lawsuit alleges that its reliance on metadata and mobile phone tracking to identify patterns of suspect activity meant that SKYNET "may target persons solely because they frequently interact with so-called 'militants,' even if for innocent reasons like journalists interviewing sources."
Abdul Kareem has reported from Syria since 2012 and gained widespread recognition for his reporting in December from rebel-held eastern Aleppo as it came under assault from pro-Syrian government forces.
His work has been featured by media networks including CNN, the UK's Channel 4 News, and the BBC, as well as by his own On The Ground News online news channel. Last month he was the subject of a profile in the New York Times newspaper.
His critics accuse him of being too close to Islamist rebel groups that control the areas of Idlib and Aleppo provinces where he regularly interviews fighters and military commanders.
Abdul Kareem has said: "I don’t care if you like Nusra, Assad or Obama. I only bring you the news so you can make an informed decision. I don’t see a lot of other journalists around. I plan to continue doing the work we are doing. I’m not going to roll over and play dead for anybody.”
Kate Higham, head of the Assassinations Project at Reprieve, said: “It is an affront to US values that journalists are living in fear of being killed by US drones, simply for doing their jobs. The inclusion of reporters on a US ‘kill list’ on the basis of their metadata makes a mockery of due process, and will do nothing to make Americans safer. President Trump must urgently review the entire targeting program, before any reporters are killed on his watch.”
'It is a basic principle of the rule of law that innocent people should not be targeted and killed'
- Jeffrey Robinson, attorney
Jeffrey Robinson, attorney at Lewis Baach, said: "It is a basic principle of the rule of law that innocent people should not be targeted and killed. This is especially the case with courageous journalists performing an essential function of keeping the public informed."
Moazzam Begg, a director at human rights group Cage and a former Guantanamo detainee, said that Abdul Kareem had provided valuable insight into the war in Syria.
“The killing of an American journalist in the course of his work by its own government would be an unprecedented act in the War on Terror. It would send a deplorable message about the state of independent reporting in the US, which would resonate across nations,” said Begg.
“In a week when the US has accepted responsibility for hundreds of deaths [in Mosul] caused by air strikes on civilians, it comes, unfortunately, as no surprise that it would be prepared to target one of its own nationals.
“Cage calls for Abdul Kareem’s name to be removed from all ‘kill lists’ with immediate effect. In keeping with the rule of law, countries which provide launch-pads for extra-judicial killings risk being complicit in illegal assassinations.”
Little is known in the public domain about the US government's alleged secret kill list, although media reports suggest it is known in counter-terrorism circles as the "Disposition Matrix".
A Washington Post article in 2012 reported that the list had first been drawn up in 2010 and consisted of a database of information for tracking, capturing, rendering or killing suspected enemies of the US.
The database is meant to provide a variety of options for ensnaring suspects wherever they are in the world.
“If he’s in Saudi Arabia, pick up with the Saudis,” a former counter-terrorism official told the Washington Post. “If traveling overseas to al-Shabab [in Somalia] we can pick him up by ship. If in Yemen, kill or have the Yemenis pick him up.”
Names for the list are reported to be nominated at a weekly meeting known as "Terror Tuesday” with the president himself agreeing the final schedule of names.
March 31, 2017
March 31, 2017
