Keeping Children in Sri Lanka Safe and Empowered Online

UNICEF launches landmark study on Sri Lanka’s digital landscape 

UNICEF calls for equitable and safe access for all children in Sri Lanka in response to study that shows substantial ‘digital divide’ between girls and boys, and highlights the risky behaviors of some children online.

( February 6, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) UNICEF has launched a new report entitled ‘Keeping Children Safe and Empowered Online: A study on Sri Lanka’s digital landscape’ to mark Safer Internet Day 2018. The report shows, for the first time, how adolescents access and use the internet in Sri Lanka, and recommends key actions to ensure that young people benefit from the full, positive potential of these technologies, whilst minimizing the potential for harm.

The study reveals that while 52.8 per cent of young people in Sri Lanka access the internet – with the average age of first access being 13 years – there is a significant ‘digital divide’ based on gender, geographical location and poverty. Specifically, among the 11 – 18 year old’s 67.6 per cent are boys reported having online access compared to just 33.1 per cent of girls. Regional variances show that 67.8 per cent of respondents from urban areas were online users, compared to 47.1 per cent from rural locations and just 39.3 per cent from plantation areas.

“Digital technology and the internet has the potential to be a game changer for children and adolescents in Sri Lanka – especially vulnerable and disadvantaged communities – by providing new opportunities to learn, socialize, make their voices heard and prepare for the future” said Tim Sutton, Representative, UNICEF Sri Lanka adding “However, these same technologies can also be a dividing line, exacerbating and enabling inequities to prevail. We must work together to ensure the benefits and opportunities of the digital world are open to all children while ensuring their safety and security online”

While digital access exposes children to a wealth of benefits and opportunities, it can also unlock a host of risks including the misuse of their private information, access to harmful content, and cyberbullying. The report highlights that whilst children and adolescents are increasingly going online, they are doing so without adult oversight or supervision. When asked, 53.6 per cent of child online IT users responded that they were ‘self-taught’ about the internet, compared to 16.5 per cent who were ‘taught by parents’. In terms of online behaviour 46.3 per cent of child online IT users had communicated with people they did not know online, with 27.9 per cent of these respondents having physically met an online-stranger in person. A concerning 18.3 per cent of these young people had done so without informing anyone. 15.1 per cent of respondents admitted to giving true, private information such as their name, age, telephone number and email to strangers online. A proportion of those who undertake risky behavior admitted to sending nasty messages that could hurt someone’s feelings (24.8 per cent) and sending or uploading ‘adult’ images, video, text (10.7 per cent). 25 per cent of child online-IT users were not aware of the privacy settings for their online accounts.

With an estimated 6.7 million internet users in Sri Lanka in 2018 representing 32 per cent of the total population, a rise from 4 million in 2015, internet usage is growing across all age groups.  Yet whilst 28.3 per cent of people in Sri Lanka are ‘computer literate’, this differs substantially by age, rising to 60.7 per cent of 15 -19 year old’s compared to just 19.9 per cent of 40 to 49 year old’s. This represents a rise in overall computer literacy, across all age groups since the report data was collected in 2015.

The report highlights that many parents feel a ‘knowledge gap’ between themselves and their children in terms of digital technology, resulting in some parents holding a negative view of the internet. 41.8 per cent of children who are not online responded that they did not access the Internet as ‘their parents did not allow them to’.

With poverty, gender, geographical location and parental control limiting the opportunities of some children to engage with digital technology, the report also highlighted a difference in terms of career aspiration and employment prospects. When asked, 25 per cent of respondent boys hoped to gain employment in engineering compared to just 9 per cent of girls. Moreover, 6.2 per cent of boys hoped to find employment in IT or software related industries compared to just 1.9 per cent of girls.

“As Sri Lanka identifies and positions itself for a new role in the wider region, and drives to become a knowledge-based economy as a route to further prosperity, it is clear that the digital skills and wellbeing of its young people will be fundamental. By utilizing the insight presented in this report, and by implementing the clear recommendations, we can help to ensure that we maximize the vast opportunities provided by digital technology to children, whilst minimizing the risk of harm, for the benefit of all in Sri Lanka” added Mr. Sutton.

Among the several recommendations for action, the study highlights the need to provide an increasing amount of quality online content in the Sinhala and Tamil languages. UNICEF’s global The State of the World’s Children 2017 report: Children in a digital world revealed that approximately 56 per cent all websites are in English and many children cannot find content they understand or that is culturally relevant.

Other key recommendations presented at the launch event included the need to;

• Enact legislation to ensure the safe use of the Internet by children, including revising the ‘Computer Crimes Act’ in terms online safety of children.
• Establish a self-regulatory body of industry partners (telecom and IT in particular) to develop ‘codes of good practices’ to guide the Internet industry on measures required to keep children safe online;
• Encourage Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to introduce network-level parental controls to customers, which would give parents the choice and the means of protecting their children online. In this respect, given the expansion of Wi-Fi hotspots in towns and cities in Sri Lanka, an accreditation mark for child-friendly Wi-Fi zones is recommended;
• Develop age-specific educational and training material into the IT curriculum in schools to build students’ knowledge of digital literacy and safety on the Internet, online security teacher training and ensure that this content is available online and in all three languages.

An expert panel discussion was also held as part of the launch event, which included Mr. Roshan Chandraguptha – Sri Lanka CERT, Ms. Mahishaa Balraj – Hashtag Generation, Ms. Shalini Ratwatte – Microsoft Sri Lanka, Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe – University of Colombo; Dr. Paula Bulancea – UNICEF, and Mr. Isura Silva – Sarvodaya Fusion.

The UNICEF commissioned study was conducted by the Institute for Participatory Interaction in Development (IPID) in and questioned over 5,349 children, parents and teachers.  Entitled Keeping Children in Sri Lanka Safe and Empowered Online. A study on Sri Lanka’s digital landscape: Potential risks to children and young people who are online, it can be downloaded at  www.unicef.lk

Liquor ban on women: Hypocrisy and sexism posing as morality

2018-02-07

Now the ground reality in Sri Lanka in terms of gender equality is a scenario like this.   Women can enter prestigious professions such as law, medicine, engineering, civil service, etc. without any obstruction; in fact the number of females entering these professions far outweigh their male counterparts. The world’s first ever female Prime Minister was produced by this country more than six decades ago, even before the English could pull out something of that nature in the form of Margaret Thatcher.

One of the very few female Executive Presidents in the world came from this country a quarter of a century ago. We also had a top notch female Chief Justice who was second to none in that exalted seat. 

At a glance, would one safely come to the conclusion that ours is a country where gender equality is existent at its best? Almost yes, but not quite. 

The Executive President, the consulting physician, the commercial pilot flying a jet worth billions of rupees, being females, will have to go through a male proxy to buy a dram of scotch (or even gal) over a bar counter.
 
Moral HYPOCRITES
A woman who goes to the Middle East bracing herself up for all the atrocities her master or mistress could inflict including rape, abuse, slavery, nailing (literally) or the worker who works in the free trade zone 12 hours a day for a meagre salary deprived of her youth and personal life, has been banned from working in a bar or a liquor restaurant. The moral pricks, who do not give a tuppence when our women are treated as slaves in the Middle East or waste their lives in front of Juki machines, are piqued at the site of a female bar tender, as it is against the ‘cultural values’. 

The flip flop stance by the authorities in removing an archaic regulation that barred women from working in bars and buying booze over the counter, only to be reimposed days later on a presidential order received wide publicity on international media. At a time when even conservative Saudi Arabia is permitting women to drive vehicles, the reimposing of these restrictions come not only as an anti climax to the liberal minded reforms the Government was intent on introducing, but also hinting at a fundamental fissure in the principles of the two major constituent parties of the coalition government. 

The furore over the liquor ban was just one aspect of the discriminatory and patriarchal attitude that permeates the whole society

The bliss of self deception
Ugurata hora beheth kema or swallowing medicine without the throat knowing about it, is best demonstrated and practiced in this country when it comes to issues relating to the so-called ‘moral and cultural values’. For example, liquor bars are closed on Poya Days, which, logically would mean that liquor should not be consumed on that day. Ask any bar owner or the bar tender at a supermarket chain as to the most profitable day of the month. The ever lengthening queues on any pre-Poya day with people clamouring to buy liquor are themselves sufficient answer to that question. Then take the ban on the sale of meat on Poya days; fresh meat such as beef, chicken, pork disappear from boutiques and supermarkets on Poya days while meat products such as sausages, meatballs, lingus are freely available, bought and consumed. 

One columnist in this very newspaper, sarcastically referred to the authority which reimposed the ban, super-ceding the removal by the Finance Minister, if I remember correctly, as a Polonnaruwa Moral and Cultural Authority. It not only reeks of populist politics at election times; quite apart from it, is reflective of a self deception that bugs the sinhalese from time immemorial.   No wonder it reflects a backward, archaic and patriarchal mindset that militates against all Sri Lanka has achieved, at least legally, in making the ground equal for women in their social enterprises viz a viz men; yet it constitutes only the tip of the iceberg. Although technically women are on an equal footing with men, more or less, in many aspects, very few make it to decision making tiers, not due to any lack of expertise or skill, but simply consequential of a patriarchal and exclusivist system that shuts down women from being part of decision making.

For example the private or mercantile sector has a fair share of female employees almost equal to that of men; yet the percentage that makes it to director board-level is minuscule in comparison. The same applies to the percentage of women who are engaged in politics even though you see many women at political rallies as supporters. The situation when compared to our neigbours in South Asia was so bad that a minimum quota of 25% had to be introduced by legislative action to remedy it. A sexist attitude is prevalent in all spheres of social life, whether it is employment, access to state services, marriage, judiciary, etc. 

The restriction imposed by the Excise Ordinance is highly discriminatory and a violation of the fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution

Men of vice and women of virtue
The furore over the liquor ban was just one aspect of the discriminatory and patriarchal attitude that permeates the whole society. A country that has the highest suicidal rate in the world, one of the leading porn consuming countries on internet and the worlds leading boozers in terms of per capita consumption of liquor according to research,
A situation where the man enjoys booze and other indulgences to his hearts content and the woman is destined to pick up the pieces to keep the family in tact is, inhuman, not to say sexist. 

I wonder whether it is my lack of intelligence or not, that the culture and morality that we talk so highly about escapes my comprehension; Ask a young woman widow or a divorcee who faces this ‘moral and culturally rich’ society or a rape victim who faces the justice system, they will recount the ‘moral values’ that they experience daily, from this 2,500 year old value system. 

 No wonder it reflects a backward, archaic and patriarchal mindset that militates against all Sri Lanka has achieved

Modern day Brahmana attitudes
Lord Buddha was criticial of the hypocritical brahmanas, who used social taboos as a means of perpetuating discrimination against women in society. Jesus Christ showed compassion to women who the patriarchal Jewish society termed sinners. If we claim to be a moral and ethical society we would do well to recognize that women should enjoy equal rights as men, not merely in terms of constitutionally guaranteed rights, as stated in Article 12 of the Constitution, but as civilized citizens of the global community, leave alone the ‘2,500-year-old something’ 

The restriction imposed by the Excise Ordinance is highly discriminatory and a violation of the fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution. The Fundamental Rights Applications filed by a dozen brave women will set the record straight in terms of a woman’s right to buy liquor over the counter and also to work in places selling and making booze without any disability viz a viz male counterparts. 

Yet as to the patriarchal, discriminatory and hypocritical attitudes of the so-called ‘2,500-year-old heritage’ as expressed by the President, obviously under pressure from the Buddhist clergy and the self righteous conservatives in society, is merely an expression of deeply entrenched gender bias and discrimination, that would not yield the field to modernist liberalism. It would require constant struggle, bravery and vigilance of the progressive minded members of civil society to expose the villainy of these hypocritical moralists and their agendas.   

Gaza hospitals shut down as deadly siege tightens

Doctors at Gaza’s al-Nasr children’s hospital say patients’ lives are at risk as hospitals in Gaza shut down due to a shortage of fuel for generators. (via Facebook)

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 6 February 2018

Emergency generators have run out of fuel in at least 19 health facilities in the Gaza Strip as Israel’s deadly decade-old siege on the territory tightens.

The health ministry in Gaza announced Tuesday that the generators have shut down in 16 primary care clinics and three major hospitals, but that medical staff have been ordered to stay at their posts and do what they can to assist patients.

On Tuesday, the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA warned that “emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza will become exhausted within the next 10 days,” unless donors step in to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

But for patients and medical personnel on the frontlines, the catastrophe is already happening, and it is only the latest chapter in the forced collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system.

At the al-Nasr children’s hospital, head of intensive care Dr. Raed Mahdi said that the lives of dozens of children in his unit are at risk.

According to the health ministry, Mahdi said overcrowding and pressure on medical staff and supplies had reached a crisis point at his hospital as children were being transferred there from other facilities that had lost all power.

At the Muhammad al-Durra hospital in eastern Gaza, named for a Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces in 2000 at the start of the second intifada, doctors said at a press conference Monday that entire departments had already shut down and some patients were being turned away.

Speaking at the press conference, Jamal al-Durra, Muhammad’s father, appealed for urgent international intervention, saying that to allow the crisis to continue would be to “kill my son a second time.”

“The imposed fuel crisis threatens dialysis services for 400 patients with kidney failure in the Gaza Strip,” the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq also said Monday.

Due to the chronic power crisis, dialysis in Gaza is already a dangerous business.

Al-Haq added that Gaza hospitals are currently unable to carry out 200 operations per day “due to the corruption and subsequent waste of hundreds of units of blood because of the lack of cooling required – a consequence of the deliberately imposed electricity shortage on Gaza.”

Hospitals closing

Due to Israel’s ongoing restrictions on Gaza’s electricity supply, the population of two million people, half of them children, currently receive electricity for no more than eight hours each day. At times that supply has plummeted to just three or four hours.

“Hospitals have already begun to close. Without funding, more service providers will be forced to suspend operations over the coming weeks, and the situation will deteriorate dramatically, with potential impacts on the entire population,” the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator Roberto Valent said. “We cannot allow this to happen.”

“Gaza’s health system is on the verge of collapse as hospitals in the besieged territory are expected to face a total power blackout by the end of February,” Ashraf al-Qidra, the Gaza health ministry spokesperson warned.

On 23 January, the Palestinian Authority health ministry in Ramallah allocated almost $300,000 to buy emergency fuel, but that supply would only be enough for 10 days and, according to Al-Haq, “will not resolve the structural electricity crisis imposed by Israel.”

Deadly delays

While collapsing the healthcare system inside Gaza, Israel is also making it harder for Palestinians to seek life-saving treatment outside the besieged territory.

The number of Palestinians allowed in and out of Gaza, both through the Erez crossing, controlled by Israel, and the Rafah crossing with Egypt – which has been closed for years except with rare exceptions – fell sharply last year.

The exit of Palestinians from Gaza through Erez fell by 50 percent in 2017, compared with 2016, according to OCHA.

On average there were just 7,000 exits per month in 2017, compared with more than 500,000 per month prior to the year 2000.

Israel’s approval rate for medical exits via Erez fell to 54 percent, down from 62 percent in 2016 – the lowest rate since 2006, according to OCHA.

“The decline is occurring alongside a gradual increase in the absolute number of referrals and related permit applications to West Bank hospitals in the wake of stricter constraints via the Rafah crossing,” the UN agency noted.

In November, Hamas authorities handed over control of the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing to the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, in the wake of a reconciliation deal signed the previous month.

“To date,” however, “this development has had no apparent impact on the passage of Palestinians from Gaza through the Israeli- and Egyptian-controlled crossings,” OCHA said.

In most cases, unsuccessful applications were due to lengthy delays or lack of response, rather than outright denials.

“In situations such as cancer treatment, delays can have life-threatening implications for patient health,” OCHA stated.

Sometimes, delays have been caused by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah: over the summer its leader Mahmoud Abbas imposed sanctions on Gaza, including delaying approval of medical referrals to hospitals in the West Bank, as part of his effort to bring Hamas to its knees by exacerbating civilian suffering.

Some of these delays proved deadly.

Al-Haq this week called on the PA “to remove all impediments to access to healthcare for children traveling from Gaza, and to ensure urgent cases are immediately prioritized, for all cases within its competence.”

Israeli denial

But there is no doubt where the overall responsibility lies.

As the belligerent occupier, “Israel has continued obligations to ensure the maintenance of civil life in the Gaza Strip, which includes the supply of basic services and infrastructure to the civilian population,” according to Al-Haq.

The group says that “that denial of travel permits leading to delays in accessing treatments, not only violates the rights to health and the right to life, but may also constitute inhumane, degrading treatment” that violates international law.

Yet on Monday, Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman declared that there is “no humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.

That contradicted the assessment even of Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot who told Israel’s cabinet a day earlier, as Haaretz reported, “that the Gaza Strip is on the verge of collapse due to the worsening humanitarian crisis.”

“Feigned and simplistic”

Last week, Israeli diplomats presented a “humanitarian rehabilitation” plan for Gaza at a meeting of donors in Brussels.

“Israel expects the international community to cover the costs of the plan’s implementation, an estimated $1 billion,” the Israeli human rights group Gisha observed.

The group dismissed Israel’s plan as “feigned and simplistic,” noting that Israel’s crushing blockade on Gaza is what has caused the “dire humanitarian conditions.”

“The alarming state of Gaza’s infrastructure, its chances for economic development and the living conditions of its two million residents are largely dependent on Israel,” Gisha stated.

But Lieberman, the defense minister, made clear Israel will continue its policy of denying basic humanitarian services to civilians in Gaza as a form of political blackmail – a war crime.

Among other political goals, Israel is holding two million people hostage in an effort to get information on several Israelis held in Gaza, including the bodies of two of its soldiers killed during its 2014 invasion.

“As long as there’s no progress regarding the [Israeli] captives and missing persons, we can’t move forward with all sorts of initiatives for [helping] the Strip,” Lieberman said. “As far as its rehabilitation, it can only be on one condition – demilitarization [of Gaza].”

Gisha has also documented how Israel tightened its closure of Gaza in 2017, including a host of new restrictions “introduced with little to no justification provided as to their purpose and, it appears, no consideration of the impact they would have on the lives of Gaza’s residents.”

Israeli forces kill Palestinian suspected of murdering settler

Ahmad Jarrar, who is suspected of killing a settler on 9 January, was shot dead in a pre-dawn raid in the West Bank

Palestinian protesters near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah (AFP)

Tuesday 6 February 2018 

The Palestinian suspect in the murder of a rabbi on 9 January was shot dead on Tuesday in a pre-dawn raid hours after another Israeli was killed in a stabbing in the West Bank.

Israeli forces killed Palestinian Ahmad Jarrar during a wide-scale military operation in the town of al-Yamoun in the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin as hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets to mourn his death.

 

Since rabbi Raziel Shevach, who lived on an illegal outpost, was shot and killed last month while driving near Nablus, Israeli forces have embarked on a manhunt for Jarrar, who had managed to evade capture for weeks.

 

In January, during a raid while searching for Jarrar, Israeli forces shot and killed his cousin Ahmad Ismail Jarrar near the Jarrar family home in the Wadi Burqin neighbourhood of Jenin city, reported Palestinian media.

 

The incident comes after Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during an arrest raid in the village of Burqin in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said on Saturday.

 

The governor of the Jenin district, Ibrahim Ramadan, said in a statement on Tuesday that he was informed of the killing of Ahmad Jarrar, adding that his body was being held by Israel.

 

During the raid, Israeli forces reportedly called on Jarrar to exit the building in which he was hiding, and when he did not, forces launched at least one missile at the building.

Read more ►

Palestinian teenager slain by Israeli army during West Bank raid

Shortly after the missile was fired, forces then began demolishing the building with a bulldozer, reported Palestinian media.

“When Jarrar finally came out of one building, he was armed with an M-16 assault rifle and a bag full of explosives, prompting the Israeli forces to open fire and kill him,” Ynet said.

Ynet added that Israeli forces also arrested several Palestinians who have been accused of helping Jarrar hide.

Clashes between young Palestinian men and armed Israeli forces erupted in al-Yamoun following the operation.

A Red Crescent official, Mahmoud al-Saadi, told Ma’an news agency that seven Palestinians suffered from severe tear-gas inhalation during clashes.

Condolences for Jarrar and his family were announced via the loudspeakers of the mosques of Jenin city, while schools and stores closed in mourning as a general strike was called.

Israelis mourn

Meanwhile, several hundred mourners attended the funeral on Tuesday for rabbi Itamar Ben Gal, the 29-year-old settler killed a day earlier.

There was no indication of a direct link between the two attacks, with violence common in the West Bank between Palestinians and Israeli settlers or security forces.

"The security forces will catch whoever tries to attack Israeli citizens and we will deal with them to the fullest extent of the law," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

Both attacks have led to Israeli calls for more settlement building in the West Bank, which has been under Israeli occupation for more than 50 years.

Earlier this week in response to Shevach's murder, Israel's government in a rare move decided to "legalise" the rogue West Bank outpost where he lived, Havat Gilad, essentially creating a new settlement.

There were further calls for more settlement construction at Tuesday's funeral for Ben Gal, held at the Har Bracha settlement where he lived, Israeli media reported.

The Bitcoin Psyop ( Documentary)

( February 6, 2018, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) Do bitcoin and blockchain represent the technological innovations that will forever alter the way we conduct financial transactions, or are they merely a hype-fueled sham? Amidst the cacophony of ongoing arguments between the system’s harshest skeptics and most boisterous cheerleaders, it can prove challenging for a layperson to decipher truth from propaganda. The Bitcoin Psyop, a documentary short produced by The Corbett Report, peeks behind the hyperbolic techno-babble to deliver a clear-eyed view of the cryptocurrency revolution.

The most common point of confusion lies in defining what bitcoin and the blockchain actually are. In simplest terms, bitcoin is an innovative payment network that operates without a bank or intermediary. Each transaction is logged on a digital ledger known as the blockchain. This database of transaction is accessible by anyone on the bitcoin network, yet its creators insist this information is secured by military grade encryption technology.

The bitcoin network represents something entirely new, and consumers have every reason to feel disoriented. Certain power figures of finance want to perpetuate that sense of bewilderment. According to the film, they frequently employ interchangeable terms and confusing lingo to keep the system’s more ominous potential in the shadows. Just like with most weapons, the blockchain can be used with nefarious intent or as a tool to defend the greater good.

The network can be used to take power from the traditional banking system and place it back in the hands of the people. It can allow for the transfer of valuables and property without having to deal with needlessly intrusive regulations or invisible global borders. But it can also be used to exert greater control over the people and increased oversight of their every purchase, and leave individual users vulnerable to the whims of totalitarian governments.

At this moment in time, bitcoin and blockchain stand at a crucial precipice. If we reach an understanding of the network and all its capabilities, we can begin to combat its potential for misuse. The Bitcoin Psyop provides a terrific primer on a complex topic, and outlines the important role we all can play in making it a beneficial force in the world economy.

Directed by: James Corbett

House panel clears release of Democrats’ rebuttal to GOP memo, forcing showdown with Trump

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) on Feb. 5 said the House Intelligence Committee voted to release Democrats’ response to a GOP memo alleging surveillance abuses. (The Washington Post)

 
 By Karoun Demirjian and Devlin Barrett February 5 at 7:51 PM

 
 The House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously Monday to release a Democratic rebuttal to GOP accusations that the FBI misled a secret surveillance court. President Trump now has five days to decide whether the information will become public.

The vote means the political rancor roiling Congress is likely to continue. Each party has accused the other of misrepresenting sensitive intelligence surrounding the ongoing probe into whether any Trump associates coordinated with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

The panel’s senior Democrat, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), announced the vote results, saying Republican attacks on the Justice Department and the FBI show desperation on the part of the president’s defenders.

“We think this will help inform the public of the many distortions and inaccuracies” in the GOP memo released last week, Schiff told reporters after Monday’s vote, adding that he was concerned the Trump administration could still try to stymie the Democrats’ response.

“We want to make sure that the White House does not redact our memo for political purposes,” Schiff said. “There is a rising sense of panic, clearly, within the White House and as well on the Hill.”

From left, Reps. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee; Jim Himes (D-Conn.); and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) exit a secure facility in the Capitol last month. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Schiff said that he gave copies of the Democrats’ memo to the FBI and the Justice Department days ago and that he expected it to go to the White House on Monday night for review.

In announcing the vote, Schiff blasted the Intelligence Committee’s Republican chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), for his handling of Russia-related intelligence issues. He said Nunes had blocked efforts to obtain testimony from key witnesses and refused to answer repeated questions about whether he had coordinated with the White House in preparing the GOP memo.
Nunes did not address the media after Monday’s vote.

One Republican on the panel, Rep. K. Michael Conaway (Tex.), said he was not aware of any coordination between Nunes and the White House. “I just can’t imagine Devin would be involved in that,” Conaway said.

In an interview Friday with Fox News, Nunes blasted Democratic critics, saying they were trying to conceal abuses of surveillance powers by the FBI and the Justice Department. “These guys tell so many lies, you can’t keep track of them,’’ Nunes said.

[Release of disputed GOP memo on FBI surveillance unleashes waves of recrimination]

Even with the committee voting to make the Democrats’ memo public, Trump could decide to keep it secret. Under congressional rules, the president has five days to consider whether to block the memo’s release. If he blocks it, Nunes could then ask the full House to override the president’s decision.

 Former CIA director John Brennan and lawmakers from both parties on Feb. 4 commented on the release of a GOP memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

A White House spokesman said the Democratic memo would undergo the same review as the GOP memo before it.

Before Monday’s vote, Trump charged in a tweet that Schiff “leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information” and “must be stopped” — suggesting that the president may decide not to allow the Democrats’ assertions to be made public.

And during a speech about tax cuts Monday in Ohio, Trump went off script to talk about the Nunes memo.

“Oh, but did we catch them in the act or what?” he asked his audience. “You know what I’m talking about. Oh, did we catch them in the act. They are very embarrassed. They never thought they were going to get caught. We caught them. Hey, we caught them. It’s so much fun — we’re like the great sleuth.”

In the same speech, Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric against congressional Democrats, suggesting they were “treasonous” for not applauding during his State of the Union address last week.

Nunes has indicated to other committee members that the president might make significant redactions before allowing the Demo­crats’ memo to be released, according to one person familiar with the discussion, though accounts differed.

Rep. Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.) said that he did not think the president would block the memo’s release but that Trump should redact information about sources and methods of intelligence collection. Such details do not represent the bulk of the Democrats’ memo, he added, calling it an inaccurate representation of what’s contained in underlying intelligence documents.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said last week that he supports the rebuttal’s public release once it goes through the same process the Republican memo was put through. The GOP memo was available to House members to read in a secure facility for 11 days before the panel voted to make it public. On Jan. 29, the House Intelligence Committee voted to make the Democrats’ memo available to all members to peruse in a secure facility as well.

The four-page GOP document released Friday accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of misusing information from a British ex-spy during the 2016 election to help justify their warrant application to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.

The Democrats’ 10-page rebuttal, written by Schiff and staffers, suggests that the Republicans’ memo is misleading and relies on cherry-picked information intended to discredit the ongoing probe into possible links between Russian agents and the Trump campaign.

In his Monday tweet, the president accused “Little Adam Schiff” of being “one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington,” along with former FBI director James B. Comey; Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; former CIA director John Brennan; and former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. All had spoken out against releasing the GOP memo.

[Clinton, DNC paid for research that led to dossier]

The committee is scheduled to interview former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon on Tuesday — the third time it has scheduled him for a return trip to Capitol Hill after he refused to answer the panel’s questions related to the Trump transition team.

But lawmakers were unsure Monday evening if Bannon was going to show and indicated that they were starting to lose patience. Rooney warned that if Bannon did not comply with the committee’s subpoena, it could prompt talk about “contempt of Congress,” which could trigger a showdown between the legislative and executive branches.

A person familiar with Bannon’s plans said he would not appear Tuesday because the White House and the House counsel have not come to an agreement about whether Bannon is covered by executive privilege, as the White House insists. This person said, however, that Bannon will meet with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III before the middle of the month and will answer his questions with no restrictions.

In the Senate on Monday, Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) released a heavily redacted version of their memo urging the Justice Department to investigate whether the British ex-spy, Christopher Steele, lied to the FBI. Steele authored a now-famous dossier alleging ties between Trump associates and the Kremlin, a document at the center of Republicans’ complaints about the bureau.

The two senators also made clear that they are probing whether officials at the State Department may have helped Steele. Nunes has indicated that he is investigating this as well.

The document made public by Grassley on Monday indicates that the Senate Judiciary Committee launched its inquiry in response to reports published by The Washington Post about Steele and the firm that hired him, Fusion GPS. It accuses Steele of misleading the FBI about his contact with reporters during the campaign.

Steele declined to comment. A lawyer for Fusion GPS did not immediately comment on the document.

John Wagner contributed to this report.

Long-Term Surveillance of Sunni Muslim Immigrants

Those fitting broad “at-risk” profiles would be targeted for continuous vetting.

Two Muslim women stand near a fence across the street from the White House before the start of a protest against the Trump administration's proposed travel ban, in Washington on Oct. 18, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) 

BY GEORGE JOSEPH-

 FEBRUARY 5, 2018, 4:53 PM
A Department of Homeland Security draft report from late January called on authorities to continuously vet Sunni Muslim immigrants deemed to have “at-risk” demographic profiles.

The draft report, a copy of which was obtained by Foreign Policy, looks at 25 terrorist attacks in the United States between October 2001 and December 2017, concluding there would be “great value for the United States Government in dedicating resources to continuously evaluate persons of interest” and suggesting that immigrants to the United States be tracked on a “long-term basis.”

If the report’s recommendations were implemented, it would represent a vast expansion of the Trump administration’s policies aimed at many Muslim immigrants, extending vetting from those trying to enter the United States to those already legally in the country, including permanent residents.

The report was produced at the request of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan on Jan. 22, according to internal DHS correspondence reviewed by FP. The purpose of the report, the document says, is to “inform United States foreign visitor screening, immigrant vetting and on-going evaluations of United States-based individuals who might have a higher risk of becoming radicalized and conducting a violent attack.”

In the report, CBP identifies a broad swath of Sunni Muslim residents as being potentially “vulnerable to terrorist narratives,” based on a set of risk indicators, such as being young, male, and having national origins in “the Middle East, South Asia or Africa.”

FP, which reviewed the original draft document and related correspondence, is publishing a reproduced version of the text of the report.

In response to queries from FP, a CBP spokesperson called the report a “first draft” that has already been changed and is still undergoing revisions. “[I]t is extremely important to highlight an important aspect – the document that was improperly provided to you is not a final CBP intelligence assessment, and therefore does not reflect CBP’s policy on this matter,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “More specifically, the initial draft assessment in your possession not only is still undergoing internal CBP review, but, at the time of its improper disclosure, did not reflect a large number of substantive comments and revisions that have since been made to subsequent versions of the document as a result of CBP’s internal and external review process.”

The CBP draft report comes on the heels of a controversial study by DHS and the Justice Department, released on Jan. 16, which claimed that three out of every four individuals convicted of international terrorism or terrorism-related offenses were immigrants. Critics have charged that the joint report had serious methodological issues and cherry-picked the data to justify the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies.

The draft CBP report shares similar methodological problems, according to current and former DHS officials who spoke to FP.

A DHS official who reviewed the report and requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it said this terrorist incident analysis, which focuses exclusively on “radical Sunni Islamist militancy,” is currently the only such risk analysis product they know of circulating within the department. The official also noted that the draft’s title — “Demographic Profile of Perpetrators of Terrorist Attacks in the United States Since September 2001 Attacks Reveals Screening and Vetting Implications” — is meant to sound all-encompassing, when, in fact, it is limited to select cases.

“First, this report would steer policymakers to implement unfair and discriminatory surveillance of particular ethnic groups,” the DHS official told FP. “Second, the analysis, which is misleadingly packaged as a comprehensive analysis of post-9/11 terrorism, could lead policymakers to overlook significant national security threats.”

A former senior DHS official also expressed concern about the way the report was formulated. “It feels very much like the self-licking ice cream cone,” the former official said. “That is, they have presented an answer to a question that has not specifically been asked.”

The former official said the assessment appears to rely on a “sweeping classification to military-aged males from a very specific group across all classes of émigré.” Such an approach risks “putting a projection on an entire class that they are never fully American.”

The focus on a specific group of Muslims is particularly concerning, said another former DHS official, referring to the “at-risk” demographic selections. “The only things these people have in common is that they are Sunni Muslim,” the former official said. “The study was limited to Sunni Muslims, so that’s not a finding — that’s the design of the study.”

Even if the report were one of many group-focused reports, the limited data used in the study effectively bakes in bias against Sunni Muslims on a broad scale because its findings don’t narrow the population significantly, said Margo Schlanger, a professor of law at the University of Michigan, who reviewed the study.

“They’re saying we can use their demographics to identify at-risk people, but the demographics they identify are all over the map: citizens and noncitizens, native and naturalized, Middle Eastern, African, and South Asian,” said Schlanger, who served as the DHS officer for civil rights and civil liberties during the Barack Obama administration. “So it basically concludes that everybody who is Sunni Muslim needs extra scrutiny.”

The CBP recommendations wouldn’t be the first proposal to enhance the ongoing monitoring of foreigners in the last year, since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced plans to build an “extreme vetting” data-mining program to continuously monitor a select group of high-risk visa holders.

CBP’s vetting report differs from ICE’s recent vetting proposals, however, in that it focuses exclusively on Sunni Muslims and also has far-reaching implications for permanent residents and potentially even U.S. citizens. According to the report, Sunni Muslim residents identified by these metrics as having a “higher risk of becoming radicalized” would face more intensive evaluations from immigration authorities when applying for visas, benefits, or travel.

“CBP would use this kind of analysis to tighten their risk algorithms,” said John Sandweg, the former acting director of ICE and general counsel at DHS, told FP. “A lot of the recurring vetting CBP does is electronic vetting, running you against all their databases to see if there’s been any derogatory information to flag you for, or reviewing social media to check for things related to terrorism.”

But Sandweg said the assessment might not, on its own, imply unfair policies. This kind of report “wouldn’t be uncommon” for CBP’s Office of Intelligence to do. “There are a lot of issues as to how you do this targeting — age-based, country of origin-based are certainly things that have to be looked at.”

Others, however, feel the risk classification analysis is unusual in that it seems to target specifically Sunni Muslim immigrants.

“The primary threat we face today comes from people who are born here,” said John Cohen, the former acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at DHS, adding that the focus on those in the United States legally and who are not involved in criminal activity is a misuse of enforcement resources. “And disclosing that you are doing that will further erode the relationship between law enforcement and community members.”

Legal advocates say the report is another signal of the administration’s overt anti-Muslim stance.
“This is definitely troubling. This is really racial profiling,” said Abed Ayoub, the national legal and policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. “It’s continuing to ignore the real threat in this country, and that’s white supremacists and their agenda.”

Sharifa Abbasi, an immigration lawyer, said the report suggests that DHS may be seeking to reinstitute programs like the George W. Bush administration’s National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which registered noncitizen visa holders almost exclusively from Muslim-majority countries.

“It’s not like Muslims have not been subjected to this before,” Abbasi said. “It’s a way for this administration to vilify certain ethnicities in support of their white nationalist agenda.”

The former senior DHS official, who expressed concerns about the sweeping classifications used in the report, said the assessment and its recommendations appear to reflect the broader policy goals of the Trump administration.

“When your immigration policy is formulated by Stephen Miller and Katie Gorka,” said the former official, referring to two senior Trump appointees known for attacking Muslim immigrants, “this is where governmental radicalization and overreach by departments becomes particularly odious.”

Text-of-CPB-Report.pdf by Thavam on Scribd

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian and Martin de Bourmont contributed reporting to this article.

Maldives’ is a case of a young democracy’s teething troubles

The Maldives is an archipelago of hundreds of tiny, idyllic islands, many of which are luxury resorts attracting Westerners in search of a quiet retreat. But the quietness of the country appears to be restricted to its physical features.   

2018-02-06

Maldives’ politics has been one of the noisiest and volatile in the South Asian region in recent times.  

The volatility and the instability that one is seeing presently, and has been seeing frequently in the last decade, could be attributed to a variety of factors, but fundamentally they appear to stem from the fact that democracy is new to the country, just ten years old. And power is still concentrated in the hands of an elite, which like all power elites, constantly scheme against each other to grab and monopolize power.  

Maldives is now on the verge of political chaos with President Abdulla Yameen facing a sudden onslaught from, not just the opposition parties which he is used to, but from institutions like the Supreme Court and the Election Commission, which were thought to be firmly under his control.   
The loyalty of the police, a vital arm of the State, came under suspicion and its chief was changed twice in two days last week.   

Manifestation of the crisis

The Supreme Court last Thursday ordered the government to immediately release from prison nine top opposition political leaders. Among them was former President Mohamed Nasheed. The Court also re-instated 12 MPs who had been sacked earlier for crossing the floor.  If implemented, these orders would have greatly strengthened the opposition parties both inside and outside Parliament and helped the opposition carry out its threat to impeach President Yameen.   

On Sunday, Attorney General Mohamed Anil told the media that government has information about the Supreme Court’s plan to pass an order to arrest and impeach Yameen. Anil dubbed the move as unconstitutional and said that as per the constitution, only parliament can impeach and remove the President.  

He warned that the government and the police would not carry out illegal and unconstitutional orders. Army Chief, Maj.Gen. Ahmed Shiyam, who was by Anil’s side, said that the Security Forces would stand by the government in upholding the law and constitution.   

The Maldives Parliament minus a number of opposition MP, was thought to be firmly under Yameen’s control. Vital resolutions of far reaching domestic and international import, such as the China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement (CMFTA), were passed in ten minutes flat without a debate.

AG Mohamed Anil warned the Govt. and police would not carry out illegal and unconstitutional orders

But then, suddenly on Thursday, the Supreme Court passed an order re-instating twelve MPs who had earlier been unseated for cross floor crossing. If they do come back to Parliament and sit with the opposition, the latter’s power to pass an impeachment motion against the President with the required two thirds majority would have been enhanced.   

To add to Yameen’s woes, the Secretary General of Parliament, Ahmed Mohamed, resigned, as he had been of the view that the reinstated MPs could start attending parliament.   

Fearing trouble, the Speaker decided to postpone the parliament session indefinitely and the Security Forces surrounded parliament. Two reinstated MPs, Abdulla Sinan and Ahmed Ilham, who had arrived from abroad, were arrested at the airport.

Maldives is now on the verge of political chaos with President Abdulla Yameen facing a sudden onslaught from Supreme Court and Election Commission

Earlier, the Election Commissioner, Ahmed Sulaiman, resigned amidst former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s allegation that Yameen is planning to rig the September 2018 Presidential election. After Sulaiman’s exit, the President decided to have an entirely new Elections Commission and called for applications..  

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court refused to accept the government’s plea that the nine political leaders ordered to be released by the court cannot be released because of certain legal and other concerns and that a mutually acceptable way has to be found to implement the release order.   

The government had pointed out that the leaders in question had been jailed for serious offences like terrorism, bomb attacks, bribery, embezzlement and fraud. 

But the Supreme Court said on Sunday that it did not accept the government’s concerns as valid because the court was only asking for release prior to a retrial. The court’s point is that the trials which had ended in conviction were not fair.   

Meanwhile, in an effort to intimidate the Supreme Court, the government started investigating the allegedly questionable purchase of properties by Justice Ali Hameed and the Judicial Administrator Hassan Saeed Hussain. There were reports that Chief Justice Abdullah Saeed may also have been involved in such transactions.  

The Criminal Court passed an order to arrest the Judicial Administrator, but the Supreme Court annulled it saying that the lower court had not followed the correct procedure.  

Thirst for monopolistic power 

These events are a culmination of more than four years of authoritarian rule of President Yameen. Though he has rendered yeoman service for the economic development of the Maldives by trying to diversify its fisheries and tourism-based economy, there has been a palpable deficit in his skills in handling of men and matters.   

Like his predecessors, Yameen has been high-handed and arbitrary and hungry for monopolistic power, alienating even his principal supporters in the process.  Yameen enacted and enforced harsh restrictions on free speech and assembly. In 2015 former President Nasheed was arrested on terrorism charges and was jailed for 13 years. Though the trial was not seen as being fair, the Supreme Court validated it in June 2016. In November 2015, Vice President Ahmed Adeeb was arrested and jailed for alleged involvement in a plot to kill Yameen.  

The courts and Election Commission (EC) also announced decisions that benefited the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). The EC deregistered almost half of all MDP members, citing their failure to adhere to a law requiring them to submit their fingerprints to it. In December 2016, a civil court ruled that the EC must postpone local council elections set for January 2017 because the ruling party, embroiled in a leadership dispute, was not sufficiently prepared for them.  

Parliament approved and Yameen ratified a new act criminalizing and raising fines for defamation to up to Rufiyaa 2 million (US$130,000). Those who fail to pay the fines can be jailed for up to six months. Several media outlets were forced to close following decisions by the courts or by regulators, prompting alarm among press freedom advocates.   

In 2016, Nasheed had been given leave to go to the UK for medical leave but is yet to come back to serve his sentence. The Jumhoory Party leader Gasim Ibrahim , who was with Yameen, was alienated and subsequently arrested for bribery and sentenced to three years in prison. Recently Gasim’s resorts were denied critical supplies and a huge tax bill of US$ 200 million was slapped. Gasim too was given leave to go abroad for medical treatment but is yet to come back. In February 2016, the Adaalath Party leader Sheikh Imran was charged with terrorism for organizing a rally and sentenced to 12 years in jail.  

Supreme Court refused to accept Govt’s plea that nine political leaders ordered to be released by the court cannot be released

 From the UK, Nasheed gathered all the opposition parties and vowed to unseat Yameen “through constitutional methods”. In this he has the full support of the powers which are looking at Yameen’s lurch towards China with alarm.   

Opposition no better

But opposition leaders have not been pure as driven snow either. They behaved the same way when they were in power. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ,who is now a senior leader of the anti-Yameen movement, ruled with an iron hand for 30 years.   

Nasheed had to fight hard to get him to draft a democratic constitution and hold fair elections in 2008. But in January 2012, Nasheed ordered the arrest of the Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed known as “Liberty’s Shield”. Judge Abdulla’s arrest triggered a police and military mutiny forcing Nasheed’s resignation on February 7, 2012.  

Circulation of elites

The problem in the Maldives appears to be that though democratic institutions have been put in place, and the 2008 constitution is impeccably modern, implementation by the political leaders and institutions have been grievously flawed.  

The entrenched and historic thirst for dictatorial power has not gone away with the advent of “democracy”. This is partly because politics is still in the hands of the country’s socio-economic and political elite, which has been ruling dictatorially for decades.   

For example, President Yameen is the half-brother of former dictator and now the opposition patriarch, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. And several of Yameen’s relations are on the opposition due to family quarrels over the spoils of office.  

Maldivian politics lacks in loyalty, with the result, no leader is sure of his supporters. He has to be on guard all the time and nip opposition in the bud, which in turn, generates intense animosity and triggers the urge for revenge.