Some murderers, thieves named war heroes – Rajitha

2018-03-04

"President Maithripala Sirisena, we asked you to handover those who were (allegedly) involved in the Treasury Bonds scam to the Police and not to do otherwise" has been the most popular post that went viral in Sri Lankan social media ever since Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Minister of Law and Order at the recently held Cabinet reshuffle.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe who remained composed on surface despite being pressurised to step down from the Prime Minister post and also to step down from the party leadership. Though he appeared to be confident on continuing as the Prime Minister, his own party colleagues are up in arms against his leadership thus letting even UNP Leader Wickremesinghe's confidantes to speculate a massive 'explosion' within the party.

Taking a dig at how the country's one of the main and oldest political party's leadership has not been changed over almost two and a half decades, social media once again having #ranil94 challenge where they would post how each individual, country or location has changes over the years since 1994 while UNP leadership remained unchanged.

However, unlike on previous occasions where Leader Wickremesinghe managed to secure his leadership with the help of the UNP Working Committee as the majority of its membership comprises alleged Wickremesinghe supporters. The current situation, according to party sources, is hardly in favour of Wickremesinghe.

Wickremesinghe is tipped to face the
litmus test with the major group of the party which met recently demanding Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down as the party leader or face the threat of losing his premiership.

"We decided to demand him to step down from party leadership on his own will and let a new leader be appointed democratically. If he does so, we will not disturb his continuity in office as the Prime Minister. But, if he is adamant on holding both positions we will support any no-confidence motion that would be brought against him," State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vasantha Senanayake told Ceylon Today.

Meanwhile, United People's Freedom Alliance sources also indicated they too will take a final decision in this regard earlier this week. The Joint Opposition too has announced their fullest support in favour of the no-faith motion against the Prime Minister. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) meanwhile said they will decide whether to support the no-confidence motion based on the content.

"If it includes lack of action against culprits in the previous regime and Wickremesinghe failing to perform his duties as the Prime Minister and as the line minister concerning Treasury Bonds scam we have no issue in supporting the no- faith motion," JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayke said.
State Minister Palitha Range Bandara earlier last week said, the United National Party (UNP) will bring a no-faith motion against UNP Leader Wickremesinghe.

Not the auspicious time?

Meanwhile, finding a suitable leader to replace Wickremesinghe has also appeared to have become a problem to the party as an individual who has been named as the most suitable person to become the party's leader was reluctant to accept the post.

Even though several influential people, from business tycoons to other political leaders attempted to get this UNP stalwart who claimed to have won the hearts of the general masses to take the reins of the party, he had continued to refuse it. Upon further inquired as to why he was reluctant in accepting the post, he had apparently confided in a few individuals that astrologers had advised him that this is not the correct time to take any such responsibility.

Meanwhile, Ceylon Today reliably learnt that the UNP leadership has also offered another rising young leader who has had a strong Sinhala Buddhist political background, to take up responsibilities as a deputy leader of the party. This request has been made in a bid to rid the anti-Sinhala Buddhist image of the UNP and attract that vote base from the Rajapaksas.

Issue of Law and Order
Even though PM Wickremesinghe was appointed Law and Order Minister, it was said he will be in the position only for two weeks.

A new committee headed by the new Minister of Law and Order, Wickremesinghe, to look into taking steps to eliminate cases of fraud and corruption, was appointed by himself on Monday (26).

The Prime Minister's office, issuing a press communiqué, said that the decision to appoint the committee was taken, following a special meeting between senior Police officers and Secretary to the Ministry of Law and Order at Temple Trees. It was reported that the meeting discussed recommendations set forth in a report compiled by the former Minister of Law and Order and incumbent Minister of Youth Affairs and Southern Development Sagala Ratnayake.

As a result, Wickremesinghe, acting as the freshly-designated Minister of Law and Order, appointed the committee to take procedural steps in enacting the recommendations in the report. The committee includes Minister of Health Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, Minister of Prisons and Rehabilitation D.M. Swaminathan and Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera.

A separate committee to establish and manage a University for Criminal Justice was also appointed during the meeting. The committee led by the Premier himself, comprises Minister of Justice Thalatha Athukorale and Ratnayake.

Furthermore, another committee to inquire into appeals regarding acts of political antipathy within the Police Department was appointed by the Premier. This committee includes Minister of Foreign Affairs Tilak Marapana, Minister of Public Administration Ranjith Maddumabandara and Ratnayake.
Field Marshal and Minister Sarath Fonseka is most likely to be appointed as the new Minister of Law and Order, in two weeks from the date on which Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Minister, Minister of Health Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said (26).

Speaking to Ceylon Today, Dr. Senaratne said that the Premier had taken over the Ministry temporarily in the absence of Fonseka who was abroad at the time of the Cabinet reshuffle.

"It was Fonseka's name that was initially proposed for the said portfolio, but was given to Wickremesinghe temporarily as Fonseka was not in the country," Dr. Senaratne said.

However, Dr. Senaratne, while addressing media had said that several high-ranking Police officers were against the appointment of Fonseka as the Law and Order Minister.

He, however, said that officers in the lower ranks were in favour of the appointment.

He said, "The country needs a person who can take stern action as the Law and Order Minister. People who play double games are not suitable for such a post."

Moreover, Dr. Senaratne further said that Fonseka is also a war hero. "Everyone has to accept that. Today, some murderers and thieves are also named as war heroes. Therefore, the Government should take fair decisions and it should not appoint Ministers by looking merely at their names," the Minister added.

"Ministerial portfolios are not eternal things. It is the President and the Prime Minister of the country who should take a decision about the Government, not the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) or the United National Party (UNP). The Cabinet cannot be formed according to the wishes of ministers," he noted.

Meanwhile, speaking at a media briefing on the same day, the SLFP General Secretary Minister Duminda Dissanayake also said that the Premier was sworn in to the Law and Order Ministerial portfolio temporarily.

PM Wickremesinghe who was in Singapore had telephoned Leader of the House Minister Lakshman Kiriella asking whether he would take the responsibilities as the Minister of Law and Order. Minister Kiriella had not responded to this request even by last evening.

MR in Thirupathi

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in India to worship at the famous Tirupathi Temple. An ardent devotee of the Temple, Rajapaksa however, visited the Temple for the first time after his defeat in the 2015 presidential election.

During a media interaction upon the return from Tirupathi Temple Rajapaksa was quoted by the Hindu Newspaper as saying that India was not interested in building ports and highway projects in his country when it was first offered.

The Hindu reported him saying, "We offered India first - port/highways. But somehow they were interested in building the port at Hambantota. The Government did not want it at that time because it was war time I think." His response came to a question on increasing interest from China in Sri Lankan projects.

"What else to do? We went to China and when we mentioned about this, they immediately accepted that [proposal]. In any case, it was only a commercial transaction," he said, adding that they knew how to pay it back. "We knew the importance of Hambantota port. When they offered it, what is the main duty of the leader?: To look after the country."

Unfortunately, he said, the current Government sold everything. "In our policy there is no privatization and we do not believe in privatization. They [present Government] sold it for 99 years." Incidentally, the Sri Lankan Government handed over the port to Chinese firms on a 99-year lease last year.

Rajapaksa said that his country had good ties with India. "But they [India] misunderstood us in the past. In fact, an Indian Ambassador had told me that India is like a teenage girl because teenage girls often misunderstand." On further prompting, he said it was Nirupama Rao, the former Indian ambassador, who had made the comparison. While India's external policy towards Sri Lanka is good, the former President said that some cases need discussion.

On the victory that his Sri Lanka People's Party attained in local body elections, Rajapaksa said: "We won by a majority. People have given a mandate. We had said that this is not a Local Government election, but a referendum against the National Government. Within these three years, whatever Government has messed up, people showed dissatisfaction with the Government."

After returning from his tour, and for the first time since Local Government elections held on 10 February former President Rajapaksa and the incumbent President Sirisena met at a top
businessmen's house in Colombo. While, it was speculated the discussions were on the lines of current political situation and so on, details of the discussion that went on for a little over one hour was not officially disclosed.

Pakistan request's for its Prisoners

According to reliable sources in the police, Pakistan has approached the Sri Lankan Government for the return of around 50 Pakistani criminals, currently, serving long jail sentences in Sri Lanka. Interestingly, all convicts for whom this request for transfer has been made were found guilty of drug trafficking by Courts in Sri Lanka and are serving harsh sentences including death penalty and life imprisonment.

The transfer, in case if takes place, will be carried out under the ambit of the Agreement of the Transfer of Offenders, signed between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 2004. Though Sri Lanka has earlier sent back Pakistani prisoners under this agreement, police authorities are alarmed not only by the sheer number of prisoners for whom the transfer has been sought but the fact that most on the list are hardened drug traffickers. There are also concerns that after their return to Pakistan, the likelihood of these criminals being let off without completing their sentence is high. Pakistan ranks notoriously low, among the bottom 10 per cent, in the world Rule of Law index.

Pakistani drug cartels are among the chief suppliers of heroin in Sri Lanka, smuggled into the country either through airports or via the sea route. As per official records, in the year 2016, 16 Pakistanis were arrested by Sri Lankan authorities for drug related offences, A total of 131.6 kg of heroin was recovered from them. Similarly, between January and May 2017, nine Pakistanis have been arrested in Sri Lanka for trying to smuggle heroin into the country.

Pakistani heroin smugglers are known to source the product from Afghanistan, which produces close to 90 per cent of the world's heroin. This amounts to around 6,000 tonnes annually. Close to half of this is smuggled via Pakistan to various foreign destinations, including Australia, Japan, Europe, the US and Sri Lanka. The high profits involved in this trade is evident from the fact that a kilo of heroin that costs US $ 2,000 in Afghanistan, increases to $ 4,000 a kg in Pakistan, $ 275000 a kg in Sri Lanka and fetches a rate as high as $ 376,000 a kg in Australia. On Sri Lanka's streets, a kilo of heroin would sell from anywhere between Rs 4-5 million.

In many countries around the world, including in Pakistan, the connection of State functionaries, politicians et al with the drug business, is sell known, Further, keeping in view the high stakes involved, foot soldiers or the carriers are crucial links for sustaining the business. This would explain the sense of alarm and doubt among Sri Lankan authorities at this unusual Pakistani request for transfer of 50 drug traffickers.

According to Sri Lanka's National dangerous Drugs Control Board, there are over 250,000 drug addicts in the country. This includes 50,000 who are addicted to heroin, most in the age group of 16 to 30 and using 50-100 mg of heroin daily. While the decision on the Pakistani request will largely be influenced by foreign policy considerations, the Government should bear in mind that by agreeing to transfer these prisoners, it could be assisting drug cartels in Pakistan in expanding their contraband trade in Sri Lanka.

Susith Nirmal’s murderer arrested

By Manushi Silva

The suspect over the killing of the 10 year old boy at Iranawila in Chilaw was arrested at Nayaru fishing village in Mullaitivu today (04) according to Police Media Unit.

The suspect was identified as a 52-year old Jude Fonseka.

Susith Nirmal, 10, a resident of Samidugama in Iranawila, was reported missing on Sunday (25).
His body was later recovered from a jungle at Iranawila area in Chilaw, on February 27.

The autopsy revealed that the child was sexually assaulted and death was caused due to using some force on the head of the deceased.

The CCTV camera of a shop in Iranawila had recorded footage of the boy being accompanied by a certain unidentified individual on the day of his disappearance.

Following a search carried out by the villagers, the naked body of the boy was found this morning (27) inside a jungle in Iranawila.

Journalists demand public apology from ex-Navy Chief

 File photo of Hambantota incident on Dec 10, 2016

March 4, 2018, 11:38 pm

Provincial correspondents demand that former Navy Commander and current Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne apologise in public for assaulting a provincial journalist on Dec. 10, 2016 at Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa port in Hambantota.

President of the Provincial Journalists’ Association Kanchana Kumara Piyadasa says the former Navy Commander assaulted the provincial journalist of Hiru TV and Divania Newspaper Rashan Gunasekera in public while he was covering a workers’ protest and, therefore, the apology, too, should be tendered in public. "Now we hear that the Navy has written to the Supreme Court regretting the incident. Former Navy Commander abused the journalist in raw filth before assaulting him in public. We demand that an apology be made in public."

Attorney-at-Law Thishiya Weragoda, Counsel for victim Gunasekera said that the Navy had, in response to a fundamental rights violation petition filed by Gunasekera, submitted a letter to the Supreme Court regretting the incident.

The letter titled ‘Supreme Court Case No SC/FR/18/2017’ dated Feb 09, 2018 and signed by Rear Admiral M. M.V. B. Meddegoda, Secretary for Commander of the Navy reads: "Sri Lanka Navy unconditionally regrets the inconvenience caused to Mr Gunasekera Arachchi Patabendige Roshan Dilip Kumara of 6286, Pola Pahala, Dharmigama, Sooriyawewa at the Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa port on 10th December 2016. The Sri Lanka Navy regrets the events transpired on the said date and further assures that appropriate action to sensitize all members of the Sri Lanka Navy on ensuring the safety of media personnel during media reporting of conflict situations."

Former Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa has said the letter sent to the Supreme Court could not be considered an apology. "The assault took place in the public and a public apology, too, should be made if the victim be compensated. The letter sent to the Supreme Court more than one year after the incident is not an apology," Dr Mahanamahewa says.

Towards a Sri Lankan Cyber Strategy

Last week the Defence Secretary ceremoniously opened the cyber operations centre based at Sri Lanka Air Force Head  quarters, which was primarily established to monitor cyber borne threats that are directed towards any institution under the umbrella of the Ministry of Defence. Cyber threats and challenges are increasing in magnitudes that has made even the most advanced defence establishment scrambling for solutions and devising mitigation strategies globally.

2018-03-05 

Cyber challenges are spread across various domains from the military to the civilian and through public to private sectors. Sri Lanka has been fairly safe from the larger cyber-attacks that has had impacted most countries militarily, economically and politically. Last five years have seen an increase in cyber espionage, cyber-attacks on banks, and critical infrastructures from Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas giant ARAMCO to Power plants in Ukraine. The economic losses as a consequence of cyber attacks are staggering, many states have no real idea of the value of mass transfer of money to cyber criminals and adversaries.
Sri Lanka cannot pretend to be immune from the current regional and global competition for power among big powers. The Indian Ocean as many pundits have serially pointed out is becoming competitive, militarized and strategically pivotal. Thus sitting amidst all such competition, Sri Lanka is witness to an intense geo political rivalry pitting between China and India, the larger power struggles involving USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Israel and North Korea. These contests are spilling out of their regions and most of these global rivalries are intensely articulating in cyber space.
Two major international security concerns are increasing rapidly, the emphasis of nuclear weapons option, the development and expansion of tactical nuclear weapons. Western defence establishments are warning of Russia’s increasing interest in low-yield nuclear weapons with the option to launch limited and selected strikes if its interests are threatened. Russia’s Syrian military intervention has seen an increase of sophisticated Russian weapons platforms in action which has alarmed many Western allies.
This points to a more ambitious Russia, and a more confident Russia, when it comes to flexing its military muscle. In comparison with the United States in 2017, Russia spent US $ 69 billion on defence expenditure while the US has spent 611 billion, with an additional 54 billion pledged by Donald Trump in 2018. Yet the nuclear option levels this discrepancy and possess a significant threat to the United States. 

"In a recent observation on creating better cyber security capabilities, the biggest challenge according to a British cyber military commander was ‘people, people and people’ a mantra similar to what geo-political gurus say about Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean ‘location, location and location’"

Parallel to that the second development is the increasing demand for cyber security and establishment of cyber offensive capabilities. Many defence establishments are looking at using limited nuclear strikes as responses to cyber attacks. These discussions were already in play in the United States when the Sony entertainment company was hacked in 2013.
Sri Lankan policies on cyber have focused extensively on countering cybercrime and the laws have been modified over the years, all tri forces do maintain their own cyber security cells. The new cyber operations centre is a preliminary effort to consolidate all cyber operations under a centralized structure. Globally militaries are adapting to creating cyber security and mission integration capabilities following the US, Cyber command structure that was established in 2010 as a sub unified command and elevated to a unified combat command last year under a presidential directive.
Sri Lankan defence establishment could observe the functioning of US cyber command and focus on cyber security debates that are intensifying in India. India has been looking at developing their own cyber agency since 2012, India unveiled its first cyber security policy in 2013. Analysts and scholars alike are calling for a serious overhaul of this policy. India has witnessed significant cyber-attacks on both its military and civilian infrastructure.
 Nearly 30 Indian banks have been subjected to attacks and cybercrime has increased by more than 300% in the last few years. In response Indian defence establishment is seeking to establish a unified command similar to US cyber command named ‘Defence Cyber Agency’ this year. 
The key to going about in developing a cyber security approach is to get the overall strategy right, arriving at a cyber strategy that links with the political objectives of the state remains a very difficult task. Cyber has totally displaced the space and time to think through a plan, its effects are always new but consequences far reaching. Coming up with a strategy to cope does take time as the learning process is slow. States have become so vulnerable during this time lag of analysis and action. 
Last week Admiral Michael Rogers the current head of the United States Cyber command said to the Senate Armed Forces committee that even the US Cyber command has not been able to prevent or project key threats that has emanated from Russia in the last few years. The cyber command currently has 133 teams working in separate cells and an ever increasing budget yet even for the world’s largest cyber security apparatus dealing with Russia alone has become a difficult task.
Admiral Rogers went on to project Cyber command’s new path in which he highlighted the importance of devising a cyber strategy in consultations with the private sector and academia in his briefing. He said, ‘We intend in the coming year to create an unclassified collaboration venue where businesses and academia can help us tackle tough problems without needing to jump over clearance hurdles, for example, which for many are very difficult barriers’.

"Nearly 30 Indian banks have been subjected to attacks and cybercrime has increased by 
more than 300% in the last few years"

If Sri Lanka security establishment plans to have a serious thought about devising a national or security policy leading to a cyber strategy it also could benefit from cross stake holder consultations. The private sector, think tanks and academia is a trinity that could not be ignored. Expertise they bring in from their own fields can act as force multipliers and cyber threats are intimately linked with both private and public network vulnerability. Since the United States presidential elections the society as a whole is viewed as the primary node of vulnerability.
Thus what Sri Lanka needs to quickly create properties of strategic adaptabilities to deal with cyber vulnerabilities, Sri Lanka’s military component of cyber strategy in late 90s evolved as a response to dealing with propaganda and disinformation campaign that was carried out by a multitude of pro-LTTE front organizations.
The military should revisit this experience, much before the American’s started exploring narratives that damaged their democracy and electoral process in 2016, the LTTE was successful in weaving a narrative that got the attention of global media, policy makers, think tanks, civil society activists making it extremely difficult for the Sri Lanka government to counter.
Even in the post war scenario most of these networks still manage to function utilizing the networks built during the war, thus Sri Lanka still faces challenges of weaponised narratives from external adversaries.What we are not realizing is that the social media platforms within Sri Lanka are now becoming spaces for hate speech, most Sri Lankans without fully realizing the damage they can do to the fragile social cohesion we are maintaining are contributing to its destruction. 

"Sri Lankan policies on cyber have focused extensively on countering cybercrime and the laws have been modified over the years"

Thus cyberspace is continuously been used by our adversaries from the outside and our political protests and frustrations are leading to an attack on our own national identity from inside. This is what Western scholars now call weaponized narratives that can seriously undermine democratic processes and influence electoral functions.
In a recent observation on creating better cyber security capabilities, the biggest challenge according to a British cyber military commander was ‘people, people and people’ a mantra similar to what geo-political gurus say about Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean ‘location, location and location’. Thus Sri Lanka today is driven by the ‘location’ mantra but we should create a cyber strategy that could safeguard not just our security networks and infrastructure but political processes thus we also should seriously consider the ‘People mantra’. This is where cyber policies should include academia and private sector into the state security discourse. A cyber weapon or security institution with no real strategy to back it will be as useless as the mother of all bombs that the US Air force dropped on the Taliban in Afghanistan early last year yielding zero strategic advantage 
or outcome.

The writer is the Director, Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS)

Ex-Netanyahu aide, businessman released and put under house arrest

Investigators carried out simultaneous interrogation of six suspects at different locations to prevent them coordinating testimonies

Nir Hefetz, left, appears in Israeli Justice Court in Tel Aviv in February (AFP/file photo)

Sunday 4 March 2018 

A former aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a top businessman were released and put under house arrest on Sunday after 14 days in custody over suspicions of fraud involving the premier, police said.

Elovitch (AFP/file photo)

Tel Aviv magistrates court released Nir Hefetz, a former media adviser to the Netanyahu family, and Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of telecoms group Bezeq, after complex questioning of the two men, Netanyahu, his wife and other suspects.

Police suspect Elovitch's business was given regulatory breaks in return for Netanyahu receiving positive coverage on Walla, a news website he owns.

Hefetz is alleged to have acted as a messenger between Netanyahu, Bezeq and Walla officials.

He is also suspected of trying to bribe a retired judge to block a probe into the prime minister's wife, Sara Netanyahu, over alleged misuse of public funds.

The judge presiding over the case did not approve a request from the police to prevent them from being interviewed by the media throughout this period, Haaretz reported. Hefetz was ordered to stay away from government offices for 45 days, and he and Elovitch were both restricted from leaving the country for 180 days.

Police are not divulging details of the probe but Israeli media said that police and Securities Authority investigators on Friday carried out a carefully orchestrated simultaneous interrogation of six suspects at different locations to prevent them coordinating their testimonies.

Top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot said while Netanyahu was being questioned for five hours at his official Jerusalem residence, Sara was being grilled at national fraud squad headquarters near Tel Aviv.

Elsewhere in the same police building, it said, Hefetz and Elovitch were under interrogation, along with Elovitch's wife Iris and a former senior communications ministry official, whose name is subject to a court gag order.

All were placed in separate rooms, it said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon Leaving for the US: pic.twitter.com/8hP6B72STS

— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) 4 March 2018

PM of Israel

✔@IsraeliPM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon Leaving for the US:

3:35 AM - Mar 4, 2018

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"Detectives who were sitting in a forward command post continually received updates in real time from the six separate interrogations and steered the complex operation," the paper added.

"They fed questions to the detectives in the interview rooms and tried to find holes in the answers that were received."

Friday's session with Netanyahu was the eighth time since January 2017 that the right-wing premier had been questioned over a string of corruption allegations that threaten to end his long tenure.

READ MORE ►

Netanyahu opposes early polls as graft probes intensify

It came after police last month said they had sufficient evident for his indictment for graft, fraud and breach of trust in two other cases.

Netanyahu, 68, has denied all charges and rejected talk of stepping down. He is due to meet US President Donald Trump, perhaps his closest international ally, at the White House on Monday.

The premier is expected to undergo another interrogation after he returns from his visit to the US, Haaretz reported.

In one case, Netanyahu and family members are suspected of receiving $285,000 in gifts, including luxury cigars, champagne and jewellery, from wealthy figures in exchange for financial or personal favours.

In the other case, investigators suspect the premier of trying to reach an agreement with the owner of Yediot Aharonot newspaper for more favourable coverage.

Honduras energy executive arrested over activist murder

 Berta Caceres was a champion of indigenous rights in Honduras CREDIT:  FERNANDO ANTONIO/ AP

  Our Foreign Staff -3 MARCH 2018 • 1:35PM

 

Honduran authorities said they have arrested an energy company executive allegedly behind the high-profile 2016 murder of prominent environmental activist Berta Caceres.

Police detained electrical engineer Roberto David Castillo Mejia "as the intellectual perpetrator" behind Caceres's murder, the prosecutor's office said in a statement Friday.

Officials said Castillo had served as CEO of the company Desarrollos Energeticos (DESA) - which Caceres actively campaigned against over plans to build a hydroelectric dam - at the time of the activist's slaying.

He was "responsible for providing logistics and other resources to the perpetrators," the statement said.

Caceres opposed DESA's plans to construct the dam across a river on which indigenous communities depended.#

Roberto David Castillo, center, is taken into custody by the police CREDIT:  FERNANDO ANTONIO/ AP

Two masked gunmen fatally shot the activist at her home in La Esperanza, northwest of the capital Tegucigalpa on March 3, 2016.

Her murder sparked international outrage and highlighted threats to Honduran activists.

At least eight other people have been arrested in connection with the murder - among them employees of DESA - but Caceres' family has repeatedly demanded the masterminds be brought to justice.

Late on Friday some 400 people including relatives and members of the indigenous community in western Honduras marched to reiterate that call.

Caceres "taught us to defend the river, the land and the forest - we are not going to surrender," said Lenca Paulina Gomez as she rallied marchers over a loudspeaker along the main street of La Esperanza.

 

In a statement issued after his arrest, DESA said: "Castillo, like all members of DESA, are totally dissociated from the unfortunate incident that ended the life of Ms Berta Caceres."

"We respectfully request the immediate release of Mr David Castillo," said the company, whose dam project has been suspended but not canceled.

The Honduras branch of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Twitter said it "continues to express its support for the family" of Caceres and "efforts to seek the truth".

Made in America, But Lost in Iraq

U.S.-made tanks that fell into militia hands has sparked a standoff with Baghdad over assistance.

An Iraqi army M1A1 Abrams tank on its way to Mosul, on Nov. 4, 2016. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

BY DAVID AXE-

 MARCH 2, 2018, 9:25 AM
The U.S. company that repairs Iraq’s American-made M1A1 Abrams tanks has pulled many of its people from Iraq after at least nine of the armored vehicles ended up in the hands of pro-Iran militias. Now, many of Iraq’s tanks are immobilized for want of maintenance, potentially jeopardizing the country’s ongoing campaign against Islamic State militants.

While the Islamic State has retreated from large swaths of Iraq it once controlled, mobile groups of militants continue to stage attacks on Iraqi troops and their allies. An Islamic State attack near the city of Hawija in mid-February reportedly killed 27 militiamen fighting for Baghdad.

Iraq bought 140 of the 63-ton M1s for $2 billion starting in 2008 in order to re-equip some armored units that previously operated Soviet-made vehicles — many of which the U.S.-led coalition destroyed when it invaded Iraq in 2003.

As part of the tank sale, the Pentagon brokered an arrangement whereby workers from Michigan-based General Dynamics Land Systems, which manufactures the Abrams, would maintain Iraq’s tanks, repair battle damage and train Iraqi mechanics to fix the vehicles themselves. The U.S. Army has paid General Dynamics $320 million for the work starting in 2012.

Then in late December 2017, most of the General Dynamics contractors abruptly left Iraq. “We were informed that the [U.S. government] shut the program down until such time [as] the few M1s are returned to us,” one contractor told Foreign Policy on the condition we not print their name, as they’re not authorize to speak to the press.

Now, scores of Iraq’s M1s are “not battle-ready,” the contractor added. That represents a major reduction in the Iraqi army’s firepower.

The M1s with the four crew members and 120-millimeter cannons were in the thick of the fighting when Islamic State swept across northwestern Iraq in the summer of 2014. The Islamic State captured several M1s, compelling U.S. warplanes to target them in air strikes.

Other M1s led Iraq’s U.S.-backed counterattack starting in 2015. In April 2016, U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, a coalition spokesman in Baghdad, celebrated the crew of of one M1 nicknamed “Beast,” which took part in fierce fighting in the city of Hit.

As early as 2015, at least nine M1s showed up in the arsenals of several pro-Iran militias that have been fighting the Islamic State alongside the Iraqi army, according to a quarterly report from the inspector general for the U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Syria, released in February.

In January 2015, a video circulated depicting an M1 flying the flag of Kataib Hezbollah, which the United States has labeled a terrorist group. A second video from February 2016 showed an M1 flying the flag of Kataib Sayyid Al Shuhada, another militia with ties to Iran.

In February 2018, the U.S. military and State Department finally admitted that pro-Iran forces were operating M1s. The militias seized some of the M1s from the Islamic State after militants captured them, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson told FP.

One M1 fought on the side of pro-Iran militias in skirmishes with U.S.-backed Kurdish troops in the city of Kirkuk in October 2017. The Kurds disabled the M1. Not long after, the burned-out vehicle showed up at General Dynamics’ facility in Iraq, the contractor said.

“As recipients of U.S.-origin defense equipment, Iraqi authorities have an obligation to adhere to end-use requirements as outlined in agreements concluded with the United States government,” a Central Command spokesperson told FP. The command said Baghdad had managed to get back “several” of the tanks.

The General Dynamics contractor said in late February that just two M1s remain unaccounted for. But the return of seven of the nine missing M1s apparently wasn’t enough to satisfy the State Department and Pentagon.

In December, American pressure on the Iraqis increased, but the Iraqis believed the Americans were bluffing, the contractor said. “We spoke multiple times weekly with the [Iraqi army] and the [Iraqi ministry of defense] and they did not believe we would leave until the final 10 days, basically.”

Technically, the U.S. Army’s deal with the Iraqi military to provide contractors to maintain the tanks remains in effect. “The M1 Abrams maintenance program for the Iraqi security forces is still currently active, and there is no plan to discontinue this program in the near future,” a coalition spokesperson told FP.

But for all practical purposes, the tank-maintenance effort is in limbo until the Iraqis get the last two M1s back from the militias. At present, just 10 General Dynamics employees are still in Iraq as part of the M1 program, the contractor said. Their only job is to protect the dozens of broken-down and battle-damaged tanks that remain in storage.

A General Dynamics spokesperson declined to comment on the issue. The Iraqi Embassy in Washington, D.C. did not respond to a request for comment.

The contractor expressed pride in his work in Iraq. He said his team rebuilt most of Iraq’s 140 M1s “three times over,” and repaired one “blown-up” tank in just 20 minutes and sent it back into battle.

The Iraqi army can’t maintain the tanks without American help, the contractor said, and now as many as half of Iraq’s M1s await repairs.

The Future Partnership — Theresa May’s Speech in London

The main theme in all her addresses were “tacking back control of our money, our borders and our laws.”

by Victor Cherubim-Mar 3, 2018

( March 3, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The long awaited sixth of the senior Conservative Cabinet members’ clarification on “The Road to Brexit” was delivered by Prime Minister,Theresa May on Friday 2 March,2018 at Mansion House, City of London, to a wide audience of journalists from Britain,EU, and ambassadors.

The Prime Minister spelled out her aims for UK-EU Trade after Brexit following her earlier addresses at Lancaster House,London and Florence last year 2017 and the one delivered in February 2018 in Berlin.

The main theme in all her addresses were “tacking back control of our money, our borders and our laws.”

Her Mansion House Address went further in response to the demand of Opposition Leader,Jeremy Corbyn and some Conservative rebels for the “UK to remain in the Customs Union with the EU after Brexit.”

She said she wanted the broadest and deepest possible agreement covering more sections and cooperating more fully than “any Free Trade anywhere in the world today.”

In her clarification she went on to reveal comparisons of Trade deals of many nations with the EU ranging from Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, South Korea and recently Canada.With each of these nations there were variations applicable to the situations in these countries and adaptions made to suit the circumstances. She was hard pressed to state that there was no off the shelf solution.. She implied the same set of guidelines of understanding will guide the future of her negotiations with the EU.

Theresa May’s pitch to the EU was that she can be trusted to uphold the values of the EU project. She urged the EU to show more flexibility in talks on a future relationship after Brexit. She said “we all need to face up to some hard facts and neither of us can have exactly what we want. We need to strike a balance.”

It was an ambitious appeal for a tailor made Free Trade deal that would include financial services and not an off the shelf trading arrangement. She said Britain would aim for associate membership of EU regulators covering chemicals, medicines and aerospace.

It was a different and more pragmatic Theresa May on this occasion as she jettisoned her earlier view that Britain could walk away from the talks as she appealed to the EU to work together to secure some of the more difficult problems, including over Northern Ireland, where there was some fear of a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland after Brexit.. She was adamant on keeping the border open as per the Good Friday Agreement.

The EU must now consider whether they want to put rigid doctrines ahead of the mutual interests of her people and those in the UK.

EU observers state she is sincere, but European leaders fear she is weak.

The choice for the people of UK and EU is whether the reality of Brexit matches up to what has been promised.

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May’s five tests for the future Brexit trade talks

First, the agreement we reach with the EU must respect the result of the referendum.It was a vote to take control of our borders,laws and money. And a vote for wider change,so that no community in Britain would ever be left behind again. But it was not a vote for a distant relationship with our neighbours.

Second, the new agreement we reach with the EU must endure. After Brexit both the UK and the EU want to forge ahead with building a better future for our people,not find ourselves back at the negotiating table because things have broken down.

Third, it must protect people’s jobs and security. People in the UK voted for our country to have a new and different relationship with Europe, but while the means may change our shared goals surely have not – to work together to grow our economies and keep our people safe.

Fourth, it must be consistent with the kind of country we want to be as we leave: a modern,open, outward looking, tolerant, European democracy. A nation of pioneers,innovators,explorers and creators. A country that celebrates our history and diversity,confident of our place in the world; that meets its obligations to our near neighbours and far off friends, and is proud to stand up for its values.

And fifth, in doing all of these things,it must strengthen our union of nations and our union of people.

We must bring our country back together,taking into account the views of everyone who cares about this issue,from both sides of the debate. As prime minister it is my duty to represent all of our United Kingdom,England,Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; north and south, from coastal towns and rural villages to our great cities.

‘Pure madness’: Dark days inside the White House as Trump shocks and rages

 President Trump prepares to board Marine One as he heads to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 23. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

By Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey March 3 at 4:26 PM


Inside the White House, aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility — with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center.

These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much farther President Trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. As one official put it: “We haven’t bottomed out.”

Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal. He voices frustration that son-in-law Jared Kushner has few on-air defenders. He revives old grudges. And he confides to friends that he is uncertain about whom to trust.

Trump’s closest West Wing confidante, Hope Hicks — the communications director who often acted as a de facto Oval Office therapist — announced her resignation last week, leaving behind a team the president views more as paid staff than surrogate family. So concerned are those around Trump that some of the president’s oldest friends have been urging one another to be in touch — the sort of familiar contacts that often lift his spirits.

In an unorthodox presidency in which emotion, impulse and ego often drive events, Trump’s ominous moods manifested themselves last week in his zigzagging positions on gun control; his shock trade war that jolted markets and was opposed by Republican leaders and many in his own administration; and his roiling feud of playground insults with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker explains what the departure of White House communications director Hope Hicks means for President Trump. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Some of Trump’s advisers say the president is not all doom and gloom, however. He has been pleased with the news coverage of his role in the gun debate and lighthearted moments have leavened his days, such as a recent huddle with staff to prepare his comedic routine for the Gridiron, a Saturday night dinner with Washington officials and journalists.

Still, Trump’s friends are increasingly concerned about his well-being, worried that the president’s obsession with cable commentary and perceived slights is taking a toll on the 71-year-old. “Pure madness,” lamented one exasperated ally.

Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey said the American people — and Congress especially — should be alarmed.

“I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well,” McCaffrey said. “Trump’s judgment is fundamentally flawed, and the more pressure put on him and the more isolated he becomes, I think, his ability to do harm is going to increase.”

This portrait of Trump at a moment of crisis just over a year after taking office is based on interviews with 22 White House officials, friends and advisers to the president and other administration allies, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss Trump’s state of mind.

The tumult comes as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russia’s 2016 election interference and the president’s possible obstruction of justice has intensified. Meanwhile, Kushner, a White House senior adviser, was stripped last week of his access to the nation’s top secrets amid increasing public scrutiny of his foreign contacts and of his mixing of business and government work.

Trump has been asking people close to him whether they think Kushner or his company has done anything wrong, according to a senior administration official. Two advisers said the president repeatedly tells aides that the Russia investigation will not ensnare him — even as it ensnares others around him — and that he thinks the American people are finally starting to conclude that the Democrats, as opposed to his campaign, colluded with the Russians.

Officials in four countries discussed ways to manipulate Jared Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

[‘Jared has faded’: Inside the 28 days of tumult that left Kushner badly diminished]

Still, the developments have delivered one negative headline after another, leading Trump to lose his cool — especially in the evenings and early mornings, when he often is most isolated, according to advisers.

For instance, aides said, Trump seethed with anger last Wednesday night over cable news coverage of a photo, obtained by Axios, showing Sessions at dinner with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation, and another top Justice Department prosecutor. The outing was described in news reports as amounting to an act of solidarity after Trump had attacked Sessions in a tweet that morning.

The next morning, Trump was still raging about the photo, venting to friends and allies about a dinner he viewed as an intentional show of disloyalty.

Trump has long been furious with Sessions for recusing himself from oversight of the Russia probe, and privately mocks him as “Mr. Magoo,” an elderly and bumbling cartoon character. But this past week the president was irate that his attorney general had asked the Justice Department’s inspector general — as opposed to criminal prosecutors — to investigate alleged misdeeds by the FBI in obtaining surveillance warrants.

On Friday morning, Trump targeted his ire elsewhere. About an hour after Fox News Channel aired a segment about comedian Alec Baldwin saying he had tired of impersonating Trump on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” Trump lit into Baldwin on Twitter, initially misspelling his first name. “It was agony for those who were forced to watch,” the president wrote at 5:42 a.m.

“Trump’s fundamentally distorted personality — which at its core is chaotic, volatile and transgressive — when combined with the powers of the presidency had to end poorly,” said Peter Wehner, a veteran of the three previous Republican administrations and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “What we’re now seeing is the radiating effects of that, and it’s enveloped him, his White House, his family and his friends.”

Trump jetted Friday to his favorite refuge, his private Mar-a-Lago Club in South Florida, where he dined on the gilded patio with old friends — former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and wife Judith and Blackstone Group chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman, among others. Trump tried to convince his companions that trade tariffs were more popular than they think, according to someone with knowledge of their conversation.

Shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday, he rolled up to the Trump International Golf Course for a sunny, 70-degree morning on the greens. Rather than firing off a flurry of angry messages as on other recent weekend mornings, the president tweeted only, “Happy National Anthem Day!” But then shortly after noon, once he returned to Mar-a-Lago from the golf course, Trump tweeted that the mainstream media has “gone CRAZY!”

Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax and a Trump friend, said, “I’m bewildered when I see these reports that he’s in turmoil. Every time I speak to him he seems more relaxed and in control than ever. He seems pretty optimistic about how things are shaping up.”

Trump is testing the patience of his own staff, some of whom think he is not listening to their advice. White House counsel Donald McGahn and national economic council director Gary Cohn have been especially frustrated, according to other advisers.

The situation seems to be grating as well on White House chief of staff John F. Kelly, who had been on the ropes over his handling of domestic-abuse allegations against former staff secretary Rob Porter but who now appears on firmer footing. Talking last week about his move from being homeland security secretary to the West Wing, Kelly quipped, “God punished me.”

Last Friday, Kelly tried to explain anew the timeline of Porter’s dismissal with a group of reporters — an unprompted move that annoyed and confused some White House staffers, who thought they were finally moving past the controversy that had consumed much of February.

“Morale is the worst it’s ever been,” said a Republican strategist in frequent contact with White House staff. “Nobody knows what to expect.”

[Trump aide Hope Hicks to resign amid personal tumult and Russia probe]

Since Trump entered presidential politics three years ago, Hicks has been his stabilizing constant, tending his moods and whims in addition to managing his image. Within the president’s orbit, many wonder whether Trump has fully absorbed the impact of Hicks’s upcoming departure.

Trump told one friend that Hicks was a great young woman, who, after three intense years, was ready to do her own thing. He told this friend that he recognized the White House was full of “tough hombres,” according to someone briefed on the conversation.

But other confidants said the president feels abandoned and alone — not angry with Hicks, but frustrated by the circumstance. Coupled with last fall’s departure of longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller, Trump will have few pure loyalists remaining.

“Losing people is too much of a story for the president,” said oil investor Dan K. Eberhart, a Trump supporter and a Republican National Committee fundraiser. “It just seems like it’s imploding . . . Trump had momentum with tax reform, the State of the Union speech. He should try to keep that going.”

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers were left in varying states of consternation by Trump’s whipsaw on guns. He suggested publicly last Wednesday that he favored tougher background checks and would forgo due process in taking away guns from the mentally ill, but then sent opposite signals after huddling with National Rifle Association lobbyists the next night.

Trump’s aides said his vacillation was a function of the controlled chaos the president likes to sow. Trump recently has come to favor opening his meetings to the media — “It’s like his own TV show,” said one adviser — where he often chews over outlandish ideas, plays to the assembled press and talks up bipartisan consensus, even if it never leads to actual policy.

Trump doesn’t see guns through the traditional prism of left vs. right, but rather as a Manhattan business developer, said one senior administration official, adding that he has told staff that he doesn’t understand why people need assault rifles.

[‘Every day is a new adventure’: Trump upends Washington and Wall Street with shifts on trade, guns]

The president’s decision last Thursday to announce steep new tariffs on aluminum and steel — and gleefully tout a possible trade war — caught almost his entire team, including some of his top trade advisers, by surprise.

Earlier in the week, Cohn was telling people he was going to continue stalling Trump on tariffs. He described the tariffs as “obviously stupid,” in the recollection of one person who spoke to him.
“Gary said to him, you can’t do this, you can’t do that,” a senior administration official said. “The more you tell him that, the more he is going to do what he wants to do.”

Trump’s allies say that in his past ventures he has thrived in chaotic environments, and he has replicated that atmosphere in the White House. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) recalled visiting Trump in the Oval Office for a bill-signing photo opportunity a few weeks into his presidency that was scheduled to last just a few minutes.

“We were in there over an hour, and every White House character was in there at one point or another. . . . It was like Grand Central station,” King said. “He has a way of getting things done. He had the worst campaign ever. On election night, he was the guy smiling and had won.”