CIVIL SOCIETY CALLS ON PM & PRESIDENT TO PUBLICLY EXPRESS THEIR CONFIDENCE IN THE CHAIRPERSON AND HRCSL

Image: Dr. Deepika Udagama, (Daily FT)

Statement by 37 CSOs and 170 Individuals Condemning Attacks Against HRCSL Chairperson Dr. Deepika Udagama.

16/07/2018

We are appalled at statements akin to death threats, violence and hate speech against the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), Dr. Deepika Udagama, a highly respected scholar and human rights advocate. We express grave concern and alarm at these statements and extend our solidarity and support to Dr. Udagama.

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To hang or not to hang!

Tuesday, 17 July 2018

President Maithripala Sirisena dropped a bombshell out of the blues last week, sans all ‘maître’ (loving-kindness) when he launched a coup de main on drug offenders. He threatened to use his powers to place his signature to execute the death sentence on those sentenced for drug offenses.

Drug trafficking carries the death penalty in Sri Lanka, but since 1976 it has not been implemented. Though J.R. Jayewardene retained the death penalty in the 1978 Constitution, he never signed the death warrant but commuted it to life imprisonment. Since then, all those who held the position of the President of Sri Lanka followed this precedent and commuted all death sentences issued by the courts to life sentences.

But one solitary courageous and humane man with a conscience and common sense; Minister Mangala Samaraweera openly voiced his dissent.

He said, “I have always been against the Death Penalty and my stance has not changed. Even within the Cabinet, I voiced my opinion but the majority was for it. What is needed is, to take action against the main culprits responsible for running the drug cartels in the country. The ones that are in the prison are not the ring leaders; they are just peddlers and second level dealers. The big ones are hidden behind charity work, affluent social work organisations and religious organisations — we need a system to catch them by enforcing law and order in full force.”

Minister Samaraweera correctly points out that there is no evidence of crime rates falling in the presence of the death penalty in countries which had enforced it; and the best course of action instead is to enforce the law to the letter.

As he rightly says, this country needs more rehabilitation centres for drug addicts instead of sending them to prison, and that life imprisonment for drug dealers was a greater punishment than death, “It would kill him a little every day instead of putting him out of his misery.”

For the latter to be effective there should be no chance of parole available to the offender and locked away in a maximum, high-security prison similar to the former Alcatraz Federal Prison in the USA. Such would be a fate far worse than death!

Killing the offender by whatever means deemed ‘legal’ is the easiest way out. The challenge for the authorities concerned is to let the offender live until the end of his natural life but, away from society.

But many of us share his doubts whether, in reality, it will ever be possible to apprehend the large scale drug lords despite the death penalty!

The rich and powerful drug barons and kingpins with “connections”, with some among them, reportedly living a luxurious life in prison will pooh-pooh it all. The police in this regard are, at the best of times, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, with political pressure of all hues bearing down on them, while some amongst them are reportedly colluding with the underworld.

Though our Police are not particularly reputed for its integrity, there are also the pearls amongst the swine who have lost their morale due to lack of political will and backing.

Furthermore, no criminal justice system is immune from error. This is a fact though most prefer not to acknowledge it. Despite the best efforts of most within the system to do what’s right and justifiable, there is always room for error. And with the death penalty enforced, the possibility of the innocent facing the hangman’s noose is inevitable.

Also, most of those who advocate the death penalty may not know or care to know the traumatic, economic, social and psychological repercussions it would inevitably have on the family members of the sentenced.

Shockingly, though it should not be, the Minister of Buddha Sasana, Gamini Jayawickrama Perera did a volte-face on his Cabinet colleague Mangala Samaraweera on the matter. He fully endorses President Sirisena’s call to revive the death penalty, while claiming to have the full backing of the Maha Sangha.  He also laments, “It should have been carried out fifteen years ago.”

From the human rights perspective, capital punishment is clearly a serious human rights violation. The premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being defines the death penalty, and it is the ultimate violation of human rights by the State in the most cruel, inhuman and degrading way; all in the name of justice!

According to many United Nations studies across different countries and regions, there is no credible evidence whatsoever that the death penalty has a greater deterrent effect than prison terms. Thus it has no justification from the perspective of the Buddhist philosophy or international human rights law.

At the end of the day each person who favours and condones the death penalty has to reconcile it with their moral principles!

The law of karma as per the Buddhist philosophy does not recognise motive as justification to take a life, be it a human or animal, nor does it absolve one of the crime however appropriate it may seem for some.

Karmic retribution is no respecter of person, and will haunt the perpetrator and follow him/her, life after life. The design and intent to kill is the fundamental factor here, and the natural law of cause and effect that will come into force as a result, is irrevocable and unstoppable!

What moral-right has any man to decide if another should live or die!

“Hatred is never ceased by hatred. By non-hatred alone is hatred ceased. This is the eternal law” – Dhammapada.

TID Compelling Medical Practitioners & Public Health Officials To Breach Professional Ethics

By Murali Vallipuranathan –JULY 16, 2018

Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan

“When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi” ~ Matthew 2:16

Reports have emerged that the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) had sought information on all babies born from May 25th to May 30th 2018 in the Kilinochchi district from doctors and public health officials (1) (2). Consequently doctors and public health officials in the Kilinochchi District are compelled to provide the information about the mothers who delivered babies between May 25thand May 30th. This news has caused ripples among the medical personnel and public health officials as such disclosure of information will constitute violation of confidentiality of patients’ information. Ethics of confidentiality is not only applied to the medical practitioner but also to other health care professionals such as nurses, midwives and institutions involved in providing health care (3).  

General Medical Council stipulates that a medical practitioner must not disclose personal information of patients to third parties such as lawyers, police officers or officers of a court without the patient’s explicit consent, unless it is required by law, or ordered by a court, or can be justified in the public interest (4). Applying the same standards of ethical practice in Sri Lanka a medical practitioner should not disclose information to TID officers without them fulfilling the above criteria and if they disclose the information that would result in TID officials treating all the mothers delivered between these days as suspects or aiding terrorists, visiting them and subjecting them to the well-known interrogation methods used by police in extracting information. The only justification in disclosing information in the GMC recommendation would be in an instance where others remain at risk. In this example if the mother is directly involved in terrorist activity then probably information about that person may be disclosed. But here it appears the TID officials has taken an unusual method of finding a terrorist suspect by tracing the delivery date of his wife. Even if somebody argues that the details of the wife of a terrorist suspect could be disclosed there is no justification to reveal the details of the delivery dates of other innocent mothers because they were not involved in any criminal activity or not putting others into any risk. 

If the confidentiality is not maintained the patients will lose confidence in the health care provider and will not share any sensitive information (5). In this instance if mothers find that the information revealed to government health service could be revealed to the security services and they are at the risk of being subjected to unpleasant interrogation they will in future not turn up to the government service clinics and even resent public health midwife and other health care providers visiting their households and collecting information. This would be a major setback to the public health achievements Sri Lanka had achieved so far such as low maternal and infant mortalities and high level of immunization rates in par with developed countries. We were able to reach these targets because of the fullest cooperation extended by the public to the health care providers and the confidence of the people placed on the public health system in Sri Lanka. As a responsible public health official with knowledge in medical ethics I appeal to the authorities, medical associations and human rights organizations to support my call to allow the confidentiality of the patients to be maintained and without jeopardizing the confidence of the mothers have on the health service providers and the public health system. TID officials should use improved techniques to find out suspects rather than harassing all the mothers by using the data on the date of deliveries. This improvised method only remind me the biblical account of Massacre of Innocents where all suspected children born on a particular period near Bethelehem were killed. 

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Eternal link between chemicals, Food and disease

 Since Sikkim became the first organic paddy farming state in India in 2015, many other countries have shown interest in working towards establishing a safe and organic food industry. 

Senior Professor and Chairman of the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of Sri Jayawardenepura, K.K.D.S Ranaweera, explained how people can avoid diseases like cancer by consuming organic food. The professor also explained why people should change the present system and adopt the old system of farming and food consumption.   

 2018-07-

“The Gene Structure of humans who lived 10,000 years ago was different compared to the modern humans. The majority of the food they consumed were of plant origin and not artificial like today. Maybe the food we consume today is incompatible with our genes and it is causing non-communicable diseases.   

“Those people lived before the boom in the pharmaceutical industry and controlled diseases with the food and the medicines found in the wild. They didn’t consume higher levels of sugar or anything artificial. Their drinking water was not contaminated with harmful chemicals and they didn’t have diseases such as Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). ” Professor Ranaweera said.   

How are cancer cells formed? 

“The human life starts with one cell dividing and multiplying into trillions of cells which are then coordinated. There are about 80-100 trillion cells in the human body. The coordination keeps the cells well tuned into do what is expected.   

“This coordination is broken sometimes when the cells lose control and become abnormal. Genes sometimes change themselves in a way that could develop cancer cells. Cancer cells have an advanced defensive mechanism when compared to healthy cells in our body. They can move anywhere. They grow without control in blood cells and lymphatic cells.   

Cancer cells make a lump or a cluster of cells, grow and spread. This is how cancer cells grow except for Leukemia cells. There are more than 100 types of cancer. Abnormal genes inside a cell are the cause of this abnormality.   

“A developing fetus has the best gene combination of father and mother. When the baby’s genes fail to meet the demands of the environment it is being born to, stillbirths occur as a result of the ‘Natural Selection’, which might create a baby with resistance to the Viruses like HIV, in the future.” professor Ranaweera noted.    A gene is a sequence (a string) of bases. It’s made up of combinations of A, T, C, and G. These unique combinations determine the gene’s function, much as letters join together to form words. Each person has thousands of genes - billions of base pairs of DNA or bits of information repeated in the nuclei of human cells -which determine individual characteristics (genetic traits), MedicineNet.com says.   

There are friendly as well as unfriendly genes in our body. Friendly genes help us to fight diseases and suppress the bad ones, while some do help the spread of diseases.    Some genes get ‘silenced’ (by attaching to a part of Methyl or CH3) and loses the ability to help us in fighting diseases. Gene Silencing is resulted by the food and drinks we consume while other factors are stress, food additives, certain medications and drugs. (Medicines are as harmful as pesticides, even though we do not think deeply of the danger of the former.)   

Irradiation (exposure into a radioactive substance), Ultra Violet rays, X rays, Cigarette smoke, a high dose of medicine as well as long-term consumption of medicines, pesticides, chewing betel nut with tobacco, some viruses and most serious ‘Free Radicals’ make cancer cells except for gene silencing.” Professor Ranaweera explained.   

The story of Free Radicals

Unpaired electrons are called free radicals - an atom or atoms with at least one unpaired electron; in the body, it is usually an oxygen molecule that has lost an electron and will stabilize itself by stealing an electron from a nearby electron - (defined by the Vocabulary.com)   

“These free radicals are made in our body. They are made naturally. Those are aggressive and try to bond themselves with another electron, regardless of whether it is good or bad. 

Then the robbed electron becomes a free radical (because there is only one electron) This robbing and pairing might proceed in a chain, and the entire DNA molecule could be changed, generating a cancer cell. Free radicals display both good and bad traits as well as fighting viruses and bacteria. 

 
Oxidation (exposure to air) can get one electron out of a paired electron other than free radicals. Cigarette smoke might have oxidation compounds, which force one electron out of the bond. Free radicals cause Cancers and Organ damage (Liver -the machine in human). Pesticides and other chemicals are far harmful to the liver than liquor.   

If one electron volunteered to give an electron of its’ pair, the chain reaction stops. Those volunteers are called antioxidants that are so common in fruits and vegetables.  

“We can control this dangerous play of free radicals by consuming more fruits and vegetables. It is true, fruits and vegetables can prevent the formation of cancer cells, but from where on the earth comes fruits and vegetables free of chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides?” he questioned.   

Chemicals and the food chain

“It was discovered that artificial chemicals avoid the damage of pests and weeds and improved harvest. The West began to research on food species and introduced their new, but less successful varieties and developed the existing ones. Even then we had developed agricultural practices in Sri Lanka, which were later replaced by the Westerners.   

“They acquired and deposited those samples in their ‘Gene Banks’ in the guise of offering scholarships to countrymen, In the name of “International Rice Research”. It was easier for them to manipulate us since the islanders always looked down upon themselves.   

“New varieties were lower in quality compared to the local ones which had great characteristics of resisting salt and floods. Punctual management, proper caring and more water were needed for the newly introduced ones. However the root system was also weaker and chemicals were mandatory in all paces of cultivation. The commonly used chemicals eventually became hazards not only for pests and to the soil, but also for the farming and consuming human, environment and the wildlife.   
Years passed and the farmers couldn’t survive without pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Many of them are still unaware of the toxicity of these highly poisonous substances. After knowing of these dangers, some farmers grow vegetables and crops for their own consumption, free of chemicals. Responsible Government officials lack the interest to inform and explain the dangers of these hazards.” he pointed out.   

We can control this dangerous play of free radicals by consuming more fruits and vegetables. It is true, fruits and vegetables can prevent the formation of cancer cells

Ignorant farmers 

“Some farmers make a ‘Cocktail’ by mixing several pesticides together. They are unaware of the fact that when applying these to vegetations such as Snake Gourd most of the spray falls back on them. It takes time to decompose chemicals in vegetations.

 Therefore farmers are advised to use them at least two weeks before harvesting time, but they use it the day before. They have no understanding of the doze too.   
“Using Glyphosate in tea plantations is quite popular in the hills while some paddy farmers use the same substance for their rice harvest, expecting a smooth and separate bran (the outer husks of the grain) and the seed during threshing. Manioc farmers are using it around the bush a few days prior to harvesting so that the entire bush comes out smoothly.   

These are the results of the restricted connection between farmers and the immediate Agrarian officers. Private agrochemical firms take this opportunity to reach farmers, giving ‘sound advice’ and good chemicals for crops. The remaining gap in these loopholes allow the malpractices and misuse of pesticides and fertilizers.   
Sri Lanka is a paddy farming country inheriting a proud history of successful agriculture, but hasn’t yet produced any equipment to test the percentage of pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals present in the crops.   

Sri Lankan farmers are still using banned pesticides secretly. Many of these pesticides dissolve in the fat layer in our body since many pesticides are not water-soluble. Therefore the pesticides we consume could have been stored in our body, in the forms of Vitamin A & D. These substances will produce unhealthy long-term results.” Professor Ranaweera noted.   

Fruits and vegetables 

“The majority of fruits and vegetables we consume are results of the basic needs of plants (Primary Metabolize), such as fruits and seeds.  Some plants have unique characteristics developed to protect themselves from herbivores, to resist drought, salinity and floods, and attract animals etc, - these fall into Secondary Metabolize which are known as “Bio-Active Compounds.” These are present in spices (Cinnamon), food, antibiotics.   

The bright red colour in Water Melon and Tomatoes is a pigment called Lycopene present in fruits and vegetables in Carotenoid Family. Lycopene is strong enough to fight free radicals, Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL - bad cholesterol) in blood, and cancers in Pancreas, Colon, Rectum, Esophagus, Breasts, Teeth and even the Cervix. (Lycopene pigment emanate only when the food is cooked or heated up.)    Vegetables in Brassicaceae family including Cabbage, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Chinese Cabbage, Cauliflower, Radish, Mustard and Turnips have a natural component, a bioactive group called “Glucosinolate”s, which protect the body from cancers. Eating those vegetables is like having medicine. 

But there will be benefits only if the vegetables are planted naturally, without the use of chemicals.    According to the results of a university research, Purple Cabbage is rich in glucosinolates. Chewing the food will give the best effects. The majority of fruits and vegetables are rich in flavonoids, Isophane, and saponins that may help lower the risk of cancers.   

Small Onions, Green Tea, Red Grapes have a component called ‘Quercetin’ which helps the DNA methylation in a good way. ‘Genistein’ present in Soy Bean and Curcumin changes the DNA methylation according to the bodily needs. Vegetables belonging to the Caretonoid family like Pumpkin and Carrot as well as fruits like Mango also possess antioxidants.   

The commonly used chemicals eventually became hazards not only for pests and to the soil, but also for the farming and consuming human

Many farmers and sellers use calcium carbide (highly carcinogenic substance) to forcefully ripen fruits as mango, pineapple, and bananas. Many fertilizers could include heavy metals, which are harmful to human health.    

Nearly all the harmful chemicals are used in leafy green vegetations. Cleaning vegetables and soaking them in moderately warm salt water to remove chemical residue is also important. Vinegar, Baking Soda, and Turmeric water play important roles in removing these chemicals and germs. 

These fruits and vegetables help us get rid of diseases like cancer and to take advantage of that we should cultivate our fruits and vegetables organically.   

“A proper monitoring system and a value chain must be implemented by the Government. Consumers, farmers, retailers, transporters and all related should not miss this since food safety is a collective responsibility.” he concluded.   

Israeli air raid kills two children in Gaza City

Relatives mourn over the body of 16-year-old Louay Kuhail at al-Shifa hospital, one of two children killed in an Israeli air attack on Gaza City, 14 July.

 Mahmoud AjourAPA images

Ali Abunimah- 14 July 2018

Two Palestinian children were killed on Saturday as Israel intensified its bombing of the Gaza Strip that it began on Friday night.

The health ministry in Gaza named the victims as 15-year-old Amir al-Nimra and 16-year-old Louay Kuhail.

The ministry said the children were killed by an Israeli missile that hit the al-Katiba area of Gaza City.

At least 25 others were injured in the Israeli air attacks, the health ministry stated.

Graphic video and photos shared by Palestinian media showed the two boys covered in blood lying on the ground, as people attempted to help them.

#فيديو شهيدان و14 اصابة جراء استهداف الاحتلال الاسرائيلي لمنطقة الكتيبة غرب غزة pic.twitter.com/FVMjzU82Yp

— وكالة شهاب (@ShehabAgency) 14 July 2018

وكالة شهاب

✔@ShehabAgency

#فيديو شهيدان و14 اصابة جراء استهداف الاحتلال الاسرائيلي لمنطقة الكتيبة غرب غزة

12:10 PM - Jul 14, 2018

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Israel in turmoil over bill allowing Jews and Arabs to be segregated

Law will ‘reveal ugly face of ultranationalist Israel in all its repugnance’, professor says

 Benjamin Netanyahu wants the new bill to be passed this month Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/AP

Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem-Sun 15 Jul 2018

Israel is in the throes of political upheaval as the country’s ruling party seeks to pass legislation that could allow for Jewish-only communities, which critics have condemned as the end of a democratic state.

For the past half-decade, politicians have been wrangling over the details of the bill that holds constitution-like status and that Benjamin Netanyahuwants passed this month.

The proposed legislation would allow the state to “authorise a community composed of people having the same faith and nationality to maintain the exclusive character of that community”.
In its current state, the draft would also permit Jewish religious law to be implemented in certain cases and remove Arabic as an official language.

“In the Israeli democracy, we will continue to protect the rights of both the individual and the group, this is guaranteed. But the majority have rights too, and the majority rules,” the Israeli prime minister said this week.

A vote on the bill is expected next week, although a final draft has yet to be agreed on. The legislation has been compared to South African apartheid by Israeli parliamentarians, and several thousand Israelis protested in Tel Aviv on Saturday.

The Middle Eastern country sees itself as both a democratic and a Jewish state, saying its legal system protects the rights of Arabs, who make up more than a fifth of the population, and other minorities. However, the “Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people” bill would enshrine the country’s Jewish national and religious character into law.

“Our main concern is that it is changing the nature of the state and it changes the balance of Israel as a nation state,” said Amir Fuchs, the head of the defending democratic values programme at the Israel Democracy Institute. “You can be a nation state and still be a democracy as long as you don’t discriminate,” said Fuchs. “That the state is allowed to create villages that will separate on the basis of race or religion or nationality – this is outrageous.”

The purpose of the bill, he said, was “to change the balance, to make us more of a nation state, more of a Jewish state, and less of a democracy. There is no other way to put it. And this is the biggest problem.”

Netanyahu has lashed out at domestic and international critics, ordering the foreign ministry to reprimand the EU envoy Emanuele Giaufret after he was reported as saying the bill was discriminatory.

Both Israel’s attorney general and president, who holds a symbolic role, also opposed details of the bill. The president, Reuven Rivlin, said it would harm the Jewish people worldwide and “even be used as a weapon by our enemies”. The segregation clause, he said, could also allow towns that exclude Jews of Middle Eastern origin – who have been historically sidelined – or homosexuals.

Legislator Miki Zohar, from the prime minister’s Likud party, said: “Unfortunately, President Rivlin has lost it” and had “forgotten his DNA”.

Many Israeli neighbourhoods and towns are already effectively segregated, with residents either vastly Jewish or Arab. In many places, it is tough for an Arab to move in, although segregation is not legal.

Writing in the progressive-leaning Haaretz newspaper, Mordechai Kremnitzer, from the faculty of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the bill would “remove the mask so as to reveal the ugly face of ultranationalist Israel in all its repugnance”.

The debate has also opened a rift with the Jewish diaspora, with fears among more liberal American Jewish groups that it would prioritise Orthodox communities over other denominations.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said the bill was a grave threat to Israeli democracy and hurt “the delicate balance between the Jewish majority and Arab minority, and it enthrones ultra-Orthodox Judaism at the expense of the majority of a pluralistic world Jewry”.

Daniel Sokatch, the chief executive of New Israel Fund, which supports civil rights groups in Israel, decried the bill as “tribalism at its worst”.

For Mueller, pushing to finish parts of Russia probe, question of American involvement remains

Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III has brought charges against 32 people, including 26 Russians. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

By Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, Carol D. Leonnig and Shane HarrisJuly 14Email the author

 

In a 29-page indictment Friday, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III blamed specific officers in the Russian government for the 2016 hacking of Democrats, answering one of his investigation’s central questions while highlighting another he must still explain: Were any Americans involved in the conspiracy to interfere in the race for the White House?

As Mueller faces the task of resolving that piece of his inquiry — as well as his examination of whether President Trump has sought to obstruct the probe — people familiar with the investigation said the special counsel is pushing to wrap up a significant portion of his investigative work by the end of summer.

There are various factors that could alter Mueller’s efforts and timeline, most notably whether the standoff over an interview with Trump is resolved or ends up being litigated in court, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be able to discuss an ongoing investigation.

As recently as this week, Mueller’s team has discussed interviewing more witnesses, a sign that a part of the probe remains very active, a person familiar with the matter said.

Mueller has discussed scenarios for winding down at least some of his office’s work in the coming months, the people said, emphasizing that the special counsel views his primary responsibility to be investigating — not necessarily prosecuting — any wrongdoing linked to the Russian interference efforts.

A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.

Since his May 2017 appointment, Mueller has charged 32 people, including 26 Russians. Grand jury indictments have laid out detailed allegations of how Russia sought to manipulate Americans through social media, break into state voting systems, and hack the email accounts of Democratic committees and party leaders.

The special counsel has yet to offer any conclusions about whether Trump or his associates worked in concert with the Russians, a question he was tasked to examine.

Former federal prosecutors noted that investigators often approach a case as if it has the concentric circles of a target — starting with the larger circles and moving inward.

“It’s standard practice to start at the outside of the misconduct and work towards the center,” said David Kris, who oversaw national security matters at the Justice Department in the Obama administration. “Depending on what other evidence Mueller has, it might start to look like the walls are starting to close in on the president and his closest associates.”

In announcing the latest indictment Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein noted that no Americans have been charged with assisting the Russian interference and urged the public not to make assumptions about that part of the investigation.

“In our justice system, everyone who’s charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. It should go without saying that people who are not charged with a crime also are presumed innocent,” Rosenstein said.

As the probe has spilled over into a second year, Mueller has come under intense political pressure to bring it to a close — much of it directly from the president, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and argued there is no evidence of “collusion.”

On Friday, hours before Rosenstein announced the indictment in Washington, Trump — who had been briefed that the charges were coming — again called the investigation “a rigged witch hunt” during a news conference in England.

Trump’s attacks on the probe come as the special counsel has been investigating whether he has sought to thwart the investigation. For months, Mueller has been seeking to interview the president.

Members of Trump’s inner circle and legal team said they see signals that Mueller may want to avoid a lengthy subpoena battle for Trump’s testimony to wrap up his obstruction report and Russian interference probe.

In March, Mueller had raised the possible threat of subpoenaing the president in a meeting with Trump’s lawyers, but Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani said in an interview Friday evening that Mueller has not raised it since then.

The Mueller investigators and Trump legal team have been at an impasse about the interview since that March meeting, with the president’s side more recently demanding specific conditions and putting central topics off-limits, Giuliani said.

Among them: that Mueller not ask any questions about actions Trump has taken as president, including his private discussions with then-FBI Director James B. Comey.

Giuliani said Trump does not recall asking Comey to drop an investigationinto former national security adviser Michael Flynn and he does not want the president to be accused of lying about the episode.

“The president firmly believes he didn’t say it,” Giuliani said.

“He doesn’t recall it. . . . But Mueller could come out the other way,” he added. “They’ll say he’s lying. We don’t want to expose him to perjury [accusations].”

Trump’s attorneys — who expect their interview terms will be dealbreakers for Mueller — have not yet gotten any response from the special counsel or his deputies.

“We don’t expect Mueller would agree,” said one person briefed on the discussions. “But if he did, well, then we’d face a really interesting choice.”

Despite the impasse, Trump attorney Jane Raskin continues to regularly negotiate with Mueller’s deputy, Jim Quarles, over the possible setting of the interview, including the time, place and setting, according to people familiar with her role.

Meanwhile, inside the Justice Department, law enforcement officials have discussed several scenarios in which the prosecutions of people who may be charged as a result of Mueller’s investigation are farmed out to other offices to handle any future trials.

In those scenarios, these people said, some prosecutors on Mueller’s team could move with their cases to Justice Department headquarters or individual U.S. attorney offices, these people said.

The transferring of some cases has already begun. Last month, a new group of Justice Department prosecutors were assigned to a previously filed case of Russian people and companies accused of using fake social media accounts to try to influence American voters in 2016. At the time, people familiar with the probe said the new prosecutors were being brought on board because the case would probably be turned over to the federal prosecutor’s office in Washington.

On Friday, when a grand jury working with Mueller’s office indicted 12 Russian military officers, Rosenstein said the case would be handled by prosecutors at Justice Department headquarters.

There are practical reasons for Mueller to hand those cases over to other prosecutors — collectively, they involve charges against 25 Russian citizens who are unlikely to be arrested and extradited, so the indictments could linger as open cases for years.

Law enforcement officials have discussed similar transfers of other matters that Mueller is investigating, according to two people familiar with those discussions.

There have been other public indications that some areas under investigation are nearing their end. Sentencing dates have been set for two people who pleaded guilty to charges and cooperated with the probe: former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopolous and Richard Pinedo, a California man charged with a Russian Internet trolling operation.

In one key case, however, Mueller has signaled that he intends to do more work. Prosecutors have twice asked to postpone the sentencing for Flynn, who pleaded guilty seven months ago to lying to the FBI. He was back in court last week, reiterating his cooperation. Prosecutors have offered to update the judge in that case on Aug. 24.

Friday’s Russian hacking indictment revealed an astonishing level of detail, which means that intelligence and law enforcement officials were prepared to expose valuable sources and methods to make a public case, said Aloke Chakravarty, a former Justice Department attorney who prosecuted the Boston Marathon bombing.

“If they can do that in a way they can prove beyond reasonable doubt, it opens up all the connections that a conspiracy might have: the facilitators, the aiders and abettors,” he said, adding that the indictment could be used as a springboard to bring other conspiracy charges later.

The indictment did not name or charge WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group led by Julian Assange, which published thousands of Democratic emails just before the party’s 2016 nominating convention.

The document did, however, charge that Russian intelligence officers, using a fake online persona called Guccifer 2.0, discussed the release with WikiLeaks beforehand.

Barry Pollack, an attorney for Assange, the organization’s founder, said the conduct it described — soliciting sources for information and publishing it — was akin to how any news outlet might act.

“The description of the actions of Organization 1 in the indictment is identical to how one would describe any journalistic organization,” Pollack said.

Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.

Trump’s UK visit ends in controversy ahead of Putin meeting

15 Jul 2018

Donald Trump has left Scotland after four eventful days in the UK. This morning he described the EU as the foe of the United States. And there was also just time this morning – as the President was on the golf course, for Theresa May to get in in a dig of her own on breakfast TV. The Prime Minister revealed with a wry smile the Brexit negotiating advice the President said she had ignored.

Yameen regime in Maldives turns to Islamic countries for support

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 Saturday, 14 July 2018


The Abdulla Yameen Government in the Maldives is turning to Islamic countries in a bid to resist pressure from the West and India to restore democracy as per their prescription, and to do their bidding in economic, foreign policy and strategic matters.

While China is already there as a confirmed supporter and a powerful one at that, the Yameen regime is beefing up its defences by cultivating Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all avowedly Islamic countries which are also in the forefront of the international Islamic bloc.

In a way, it is natural for the Maldives to do so, because it is a 100% Muslim country. Though Maldivians are encouraged to practice a moderate form of Islam, no other religion can be practiced publicly. While all political parties in the Maldives are wedded to Islamic principles, there is an explicitly Islamist party, the Adaalath Party (AP) headed by Sheikh Imran, which was with Yameen earlier, but is now part of the Joint Opposition.

Ties with Pakistan 

Among the Islamic countries Yameen is cultivating, the most significant is Pakistan because the growing relationship between the Maldives and Pakistan rings alarm bells in India.

To New Delhi, having an exclusive hold on the Maldives is a strategic imperative given the archipelago’s centrality in the defence of India’s interests in the Indian Ocean. Maldives is located 700 km from the Lakshadweep islands belonging to India, and 1,200 km from the Indian mainland. Around 97% of India’s international trade by volume, and 75% by value, pass through the Indian Ocean, and Maldives is the most strategically located littoral state there.

In 2016, the Maldivian Defence Minister had said that a $ 10 million credit line to buy military aircraft from Pakistan was on the cards. But this did not come through. However, New Delhi was alarmed when the Pakistan Army Chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, visited Maldives in March this year at the invitation of the Commander of the Maldivian Defence Force, to discuss joint Maldives-Pakistani surveillance of the archipelago’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Since 2016, India has been having a project with the Maldives to keep an eye on the EEZ. Pakistan’s inclusion in this task is considered unwarranted in New Delhi especially because a large section of the Maldivian EEZ is contiguous to Indian territorial waters.

A Joint Maldivian-Pakistani surveillance of the EEZ, if finalised, will considerably enhance Pakistan- Maldives security collaboration. As on date, the cooperation is restricted to training, port visits and occasional multilateral exercises.

The India-Maldives joint surveillance of the EEZ has been stymied by differences over the stationing of two Indian Druv helicopters and their crew. The Maldivians have been suspecting that the choppers and men are on an intelligence gathering mission. Therefore the agreement on the use of the choppers was not renewed when it expired.

The Maldivians asked India to take back the choppers but India took back only one. The Maldivians want a Dornier aircraft in place of the choppers, which they consider to be more suitable given the tricky weather conditions over the Maldives. But India considers the demand for the Dornier a cover to send back the choppers.

The Maldives also did not accept an invitation to participate in the ‘Milan’ naval exercises organised by the Indian navy in March 2018, giving the then disturbed domestic security situation as an excuse. It also did not participate in the Defence Expo near Chennai in April 2018 on the grounds that Maldives is not an arms buyer.

However, in April, a Maldivian delegation headed by Defencse Minister Ahmed Shiyam, which was attending the Defence Services Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, requested a meeting of the head of the Indian delegation, Lt. Gen. P.S. Rajeshwar. But the South Block insisted that it would be only a courtesy call given the strained relations between the two countries.

But there was a thawing of relations in May, when an Indian naval vessel INS Sumeda was sent to conduct surveillance of the Maldivian EEZ in collaboration with the Maldivian Defence Force.

In 2016 an Indo-Maldivian MoU to set up a coastal surveillance radar system for real time surveillance of EEZ of the Maldives was signed. But the plan to set up 10 coastal radars is yet to be implemented.

Relations with Saudi Arabia 

The Yameen regime is cultivating Saudi Arabia which could be a major source of support in the Islamic world. The Saudis could also invest massively in the Maldives, given Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s push to reduce his country’s dependence on oil wealth.

Given the Saudis’ uneasy relations with the US led by Donald Trump, they could be of help to the Maldives which is also under a threat from the US and EU. The EU has threatened “targeted sanctions” if Yameen does not democratise his rule before the 23 September presidential election.

According to Yameen, the EU could clamp sanctions by July end. But Yameen has made it very clear that he will not back out. Therefore, confrontation with EU and US is likely to increase in intensity. In 2015, the Maldives and Saudi Arabia had signed an agreement on religious cooperation, with the Saudi financing guaranteed for ongoing mosque construction projects in the country. Additionally, the Maldives is part of Saudi Arabia’s “Islamic Military Alliance”, formed to unite Muslim-majority countries against the Islamic State (ISIS).

President Yameen and the Saudi regime share an animosity to Qatar. While the Saudis accuse the Qataris of promoting terrorism, Yameen resents Qatar’s interference in the domestic affairs of his country through its Al Jazeera TV.

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera had telecast an embarrassing expose on Yameen’s allegedly corrupt and opaque deal with the Saudi Royal family to get it to invest $ 10 billion on a luxurious city in Faafu atoll straddling 26 islands sold to them. The Saudis denied that they was such a project and Yameen denied that the islands were being sold. Prince Salman’s much trumpeted visit to the Maldives was cancelled.

However, the friendship between the Yameen Government and the Saudi regime continued to be strong. Dr. Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, Chancellor of the Islamic University of the Maldives (IUM), who Yameen has chosen to be his running mate or the Vice Presidential candidate, is close to the Saudis.

It is said that Yameen chose him to help him get the votes of Islamists in Maldives and also to build close ties with Saudi Arabia.

Many fellow Islamic scholars came to Dr. Shaheem’s support when the opposition leader, Mohamed Nasheed, recently called him an “ISIS recruiter”. Shaheem is a well-known opponent of terrorism and is with the Saudis in opposing the Islamic State.

This month the Saudi Minister of Interior, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, visited the Maldives and signed an agreement to fund a massive housing program for the under-privileged.

Cultivating Turkey

Turkey and the Maldives have been friendly for long. They have closely cooperated on several international platforms, including the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The longstanding Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a firm Islamist, wanting to be the 21 century champion of Islam, and wanting to be a military and economic force in the world. The Maldives sees much to be gained by cultivating the resurgent and expansionist Turkey led by Erdogan.

Turkey could give the Maldives modern technology and finances for infrastructural development. Besides, like the Maldives, Turkey is at odds with the West, especially Europe, which has been reluctant to accept it as a ‘European’ country.

This has made Erdogan ‘Look East’ and also champion the cause of Muslims and Islamic countries. The Maldives is hoping to benefit from this. This is the reason for the much publicised visit of the Maldivian Foreign Minister, Dr. Mohamed Asim, to Turkey recently, to attend the inauguration of Erdogan’s Government after he was freshly elected.