Post Parliamentary Election Scenario Developments In Maldives

It will be a great challenge for this government to manage the Chinese debts accumulated under Yameen’s regime

by R M Panda-2019-05-03

 

President Ibrahim Solih and his party MDP won the Presidential election and also the Parliamentary elections back to back within a span of six months. Election results of MDP’s super majority in Parliamentary elections outshone the rest of the political parties. Out of all total 87 Parliamentary seats MDP won in 65 seats, (PPM + PNC) got 8 seats, JP 5 seats, MDA 2 seats and (MRM + MRM supported Independent) got 7 seats. Some 44 incumbent MP’s mostly from the opposition and JP and some independent candidates failed to get re-elected. In this 100% Sunni Islamic country only four female candidates were able to win in this election out of 37 female candidates who contested. The total number of candidates who participated in this election was 386.

 

Though the present Speaker Gasim managed to win his parliamentary seat, his party-the JP performed poorly in this election as the number MPs elected came down to 5 from 15. Gasim was a popular leader in his own right and had managed to have a good following because of his charity activities where poor people benefitted from his benevolence. He lost all these in one stroke by aligning himself with the tyrant Yameen even after he was humiliated and persecuted by the latter during latter’s term of Presidentship!

 

The Opposition party PPM also shuffled its leadership after defeats in the presidential and parliamentary elections. They have elected three new deputy leaders as Vice Presidents to the party. Significantly it includes Ghasan Maumoon, son of former Presidednt Gayoom. The other two Vice Presidents of the Party are Ahmed Shiyam and Dr. Mohamed Muizzu. Yameen, an autocrat as he is , chose the names himself without going through the rules of the party and did not let anyone else to contest. Ghassan was not even present during the voting!

 

The PNC (branch of PPM) is also in the process of electing its leaders as required party laws. As the founding member of the party Mohamed Hussain Shareef’s statement, a president, two deputies and 20 council members will soon be elected. There is no doubt that this party is a sub group of PPM and all the members and the party will be under tight control of Yameen.

 

Former President Nasheed who had a big role to play in being successful in the elections had spoken extensively on many issues like, changing of presidential system to a parliamentary system, on foreign judges and judicial reform, MDP’s alleged anti-Islamic policies, enacting the MDP’s Agenda-19, anti-defection law, environmental protection and unity within MDP’s parliamentary group etc. The list is long and time is short. But the priority of the new government should be to tackle the corruption that has got embedded into this system and is pervasive everywhere.

 

The next priority should be to strengthen independent bodies like Anti-corruption commission, Human right commission, Elections commission, Civil service commission and the Auditor General’s office. The current administration is in the process to change the composition of the Judicial Service Commission too. Yameen had successfully destroyed every independent organisation and it is going to take a long time for such independent Commissions to gain some respect and credibility. The Judicial Commission needs special attention.

 

Much to the chagrin of the Chinese ,the foreign freehold policy (leasing of Maldivian territory for 99 years to outsiders done under Yameen) has been blocked successfully by this government.

 

Speaker Gasim ignoring the criticism of MDP MP’s managed to push through new laws in the last days of this Parliament. Some lucrative bills in favour of the lawmakers who failed to win their re-election have been passed. These need to be reviewed.

 

MDP MP Eva Abdulla who is among one of the lucky female MP’s to have won in this 2019 Parliamentary election condemned the urgency in passing the bills and said that the new Parliament with MDP’s majority should repeal the controversial privileges granted under the bills rushed through by Gasim in his last days as Speaker.

 

The ongoing 18th parliament which started in May 28, 2014, concluded its final sitting last Monday and broke for a one-month recess before the end of its five-year term. As per the regulations, the newly elected MP’s will take their oath on the day the 18th parliament will officially end on 28th may 2019.

 

Maldives China Relation

 

It will be a great challenge for this government to manage the Chinese debts accumulated under Yameen’s regime. The debt is mostly in the form of sovereign guarantees on Chinese loans to companies. Latest finance ministry data shows that these guarantees amount to $935 million.

 

This Government has also till now kept in abeyance the free trade agreement entered into with China . Maldives has also to reorient and review the projects agreed to under the BRI as is being done by other countries who are also facing the “debt trap.” It was interesting to note that out of eight SAARC member states, only Pakistan and Nepal sent their heads of governments to 2nd BRI forum. It has been six months now since this new government has taken over but neither President Solih nor his Foreign minister has visited China so far.

 

On the loan repayment issue, the Chinese Ambassador Zhang Lizhong said that China is ready to address the Maldives’ concerns and it can be discussed freely at a high level discussion between the governments.

 

President Solih has expressed his concerns over the high interest rates of Chinese loans and has called for re negotiation with the Chinese government.

 

Maldives India Relations

 

Since President Solih came to power, many high level visits have been exchanged between Maldives and India. India is committed to help Maldives by addressing their development priorities and challenges. Export Import Bank of India has signed an agreement with Maldives to make available the credit worth $800 million for a variety of development project out of the $ 1.4 billion financial assistance committed by Indian Prime minister Modi.

 

President Solih made a short visit to India for two days that concluded a week ago. During his visit he met with the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and discussed bout building a cricket stadium in Maldives. He also watched the IPL cricket match in Bangalore. India has agreed to support and develop the infrastructure in Maldives for Indian Ocean Island Games 2023.

 

According to the agreement between both the countries, Indian Experts are in the process to restore and conserve the 17th century UNESCO World Heritage Listed 'Hukuru Miskiy' - Male' Friday Mosque.

 

Maldives is the country with 1200 islands stretching over a latitude distance of 850 kilometre and it claims a huge exclusive Economic zone . India is helping Maldives to protect its maritime boundaries by setting up a coastal surveillance radar chain in the island nation. The radar chain will provide a comprehensive live feed of ship movements in the Indian Ocean Region.

 

The author can be reached at pandaradhamadhaba@gmail.com

Labour lose some seats in northern strongholds

Clare Fallon-3 May 2019North of England Correspondent

 Labour’s night wasn’t quite as bad as the Conservatives’, but they still lost seats pretty heavily, with particularly worrying results for them in what would normally be considered strongholds in the north.

Labour’s night wasn’t quite as bad as the Conservatives’, but they still lost seats pretty heavily, with particularly worrying results for them in what would normally be considered strongholds in the north.

Aberrant terrorism: The tragic, bloody and painful events

By Anwar A. Khan-Saturday, 4 May 2019

The recent terrorist attacks on New Zealand and Sri Lanka are evil and unforgivable crimes… we will not rest until, together, we hunt down these criminals and bring them to justice. And when we do, their punishment will be swift and severe.

These terrorists have turned their backs on innocent people and they have perverted our faith; they do not in any way represent Islam and Christianity. They only represent hatred towards all of humanity.... we are determined to eradicate the terrorists who bring violence and hatred to the whole world.

Any religion is of peace and tolerance. Unfortunately, there are those who use religion to advance depraved agendas. Anyone who resorts to violence and extremism in the name of religion is a deviant and criminal. The open and public expression of these views has been a critical aspect of how we continue to fight successfully against extremists. The Bangladesh Government seeks to protect the nation from violence and destruction and its youth from deviant ideologies that may corrupt the country’s future.

Development can only be achieved in a climate of security and safety. So, we reiterate our resolve to annihilate the deviant group of murderous terrorists and fight the deviant thought with a sound one.… There is no room in the country of some deviant people for extremism.

Security efforts alone cannot eliminate terrorism. The intellectual effort is also necessary as it prevents extremist ideas from taking root in the minds of young people. Killing and terrorising innocent people and the destruction of property are not condoned by any religion or by Islam. Attributing all these horrific incidents to any religion is unjust. Muslims should tell the truth and unveil falseness, and inform all people that Islam is a religion of righteousness, betterment and progress.

A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what a religion says on the matter…When a preacher believes in what he is saying and is in the need of uprooting extremist ideologies, his words will be sincere and strongly influence the people. The aberrant group seeks to develop its destructive capabilities to inflict greater damage on the homeland and its achievements and has extended its base of support…We must continue determination to confront this group.

Harmony between ideological and security efforts shall have to be achieved. …Unfortunately, the ideological effort has not reached the level that we hope for. Security measures in themselves are not sufficient in our country, because recent Kallyanpur and Gulistan incidents bear testimony to this fact; it is mainly action on the ideological level that prevents rogue ideas from influencing the minds of youths. Pulpits of mosques or churches or temples… should be used to guide people. When they are used for other purposes, it is an error that can lead to the gravest danger, namely violation of the faith.

Cursing peaceful non-Muslims is not accepted in Islam … Preachers are required to follow the guidelines of the holy Quran in this respect. Preachers play a significant role in explaining Islam to all people. Imams of mosques who deviate from the path of tolerance and moderation are few and do not represent a trend. Nonetheless, these incidents should not be allowed to distort the image of our faith and country around the world.

Achieving decisive victory against terrorism requires not only denying terrorists all financial support, but also combating extremist thought and the environment in which it prospers. It is our responsibility to confront this problem i.e. deviant ideology by applying our knowledge, minds and courage. There are so many mosques in various parts of the world and if the khatibs use this opportunity to expose the deviants and their ideology, it will have a great positive impact upon societies.

The media and cultural agencies must do more in confronting the phenomenon of terrorism, by rooting out terrorist ideology and addressing social and international factors that promote terrorism. These terrorist activities are targeting Islam or any other religions and peace between people and countries of the world. If we do not move together, then terrorism will continue. We should, therefore, decide to spread the culture of moderation, tolerance, dialogue, and openness; to reject all forms of terrorism and extremism, as well as all exclusionary racist trends, hatred campaigns and endeavours.

Victory in the war on terrorism also depends on eliminating the mentality of extremism and violence that perverts religion; on raising the level of global consciousness about different faiths and cultures; and on solving the political problems that enflame passions. Fanaticism and extremism cannot grow on an earth whose soil is embedded in the spirit of tolerance, moderation, and balance. To the spread of moderation embodies the religious concept of tolerance. We will fight the terrorists and those who support them or condone their actions for days if we have to until we eliminate this scourge…

We are now looking forward as a world to think and unite in fighting terrorism. These terrorist activities are targeting religions and peace between people and countries of the world. Bangladesh has taken steps to combat the mindset that instils and justifies acts of terror, hatred and violence. Islam is a religion of peace, benevolence and tolerance, and we will not allow deviants to corrupt our faith…

As Islam is a religion of peace and harmony, and understanding, and, therefore, if there is anybody who is misusing Islam for any purpose whatsoever, we cannot accept that. And we do not accept that. Killing of the souls that God prohibits is a greater crime and one of the greatest sins, as God says, “And kill not anyone whom God has forbidden. Shedding the blood of the innocents is prohibited everywhere, and whoever does not believe in its prohibition is a sacrilegious deviant.”

We are fighting terrorism, those who support it and those who condone it. We will continue to do so until we eliminate this evil…It is our hope that we will usher in a new era of international cooperation in the war against terrorism that will enable us to rid our world of this threat.

We reiterate terrorism is not just an act, but the product of an aberrant ideology that must be fought. That is why the onus of the responsibility lies with all societies, with all our institutions, to confront and combat terrorism since, just as the security institutions have their obligations, cultural – academic, mass media, and educational – institutions have a great responsibility to inculcate the right ideals and sound human values and to immunise societies against any delinquent ideas or evil deeds.

Malicious acts of the terrorists including killing non-Muslims, accusing Muslims of being “infidels,” and calling for them to be attacked must be stopped. All Muslims should, therefore, cooperate to eradicate extremism and make young people aware of its dangers.

The world has witnessed acts of terrorism that aim at undermining the pillars of stability and security as well as intimidating innocent people. Unfortunately these acts have been perpetrated by people who claim they belong to Islam or any other religion. We would like to make it clear that these terrorist acts in fact run counter to the teachings of all religions, and have been carried out by individuals whose ideas are deviant. Terrorism leads to corruption on earth and to destruction; we should work in unison to uproot it, refuting the deviant ideas believed in by terrorists, and clarifying Islam’s position on terrorism.

All peace-loving countries should work together to combat the phenomenon of terrorism through a comprehensive plan based on the United Nations. It is essential to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. No country in the world should ever provide shelter to terrorists, nor should any country ever enable them to practice their subversive acts from its territory. The killing and terrorising of the innocent that is taking place in countries, is something evil and a sign of great danger. Such acts must never be ignored or justified but confronted and stopped by all available means.

A wicked group driven by a deviant ideology to destabilise country’s security must not be allowed. We reiterate that any terrorist act is criminal and contrary to religion. The perpetrators of these acts, members of a deviant group have killed and intimidated people, destroyed property, and wreaked havoc on earth; and therefore, they will surely be punished in hell in the hereafter.

Religious scholars in the countries must continually and unequivocally condemn terrorism. In our war against terrorism, these condemnations are a powerful weapon. We condemn the explosion and urge confrontation of the deviant ideas that lead to such criminal acts. We call for fortifying young people against destructive ideas that run counter to the teachings of all religions. In the Holy Quoran and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad clearly stipulate such an act as “forbidden” and highly sinful.” It is forbidden to cover up such acts, or to express justification for them, and whoever does so, is an accomplice to the crime. 

The entire world, including Bangladesh, has been harmed by many acts of terror intended to undermine stability, and spread fear and evil. Some of these events have been perpetrated by individuals unfortunately claiming to be Muslims or identities of other religions. It is necessary to clarify the position of Islam concerning these events and their perpetrators. These acts, and those who carry them out, are aberrant. It is important to oppose them. These acts are a function of false ideas, contrived by individuals who have strayed from the truth, and contradict the teachings of religion.

As a human community, we must be vigilant and careful to oppose these pernicious and shameless evils, which are not justified by any sane logic, nor by any religion.  What you call suicide bombings are illegitimate and have nothing to do with jihad in the cause of God. It is another form of killing oneself.

(The writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs.)

Politics to decide rupee's near-term fate: Reuters poll

FILE PHOTO: An India Rupee note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo

Indradip Ghosh-MAY 3, 2019 

BENGALURU (Reuters) - The outlook for India’s rupee has deteriorated from just a month ago as the outcome of a more than month-long national election draws near, according to foreign exchange strategists polled by Reuters.

While the rupee pared some of 2018’s losses early this year, it has remained under pressure. It lost about 1 percent against the dollar last month due to a significant surge in fuel prices - India’s largest import - and a strengthening U.S. currency.

The Reserve Bank of India has also cut the main repo rate twice in the run-up to the election, putting it at 6.0 percent, 50 basis points lower than where it was at the start of the year.

India’s multi-stage national election started on April 11 and will end on May 19. The result, due on May 23, will decide who governs the world’s biggest democracy for the next five years.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling alliance - which got the biggest mandate in three decades in the previous election - is widely expected to win again, but with a thinner majority, according to an average of four opinion polls recently by different agencies.

“The Indian rupee is at a crossroads. Recent developments, including higher global oil prices, a strong U.S. dollar and historical seasonality patterns point to downward pressure on the rupee in the near-term,” noted Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ.

“The general election result has the potential to either amplify the weakness, or push against the seasonal weakness as it did in the previous two elections.”

The latest Reuters survey of nearly 50 strategists taken April 26 - May 2 predicted the rupee will weaken nearly 2 percent to 70.67 per dollar in six months from Thursday’s 69.36. It will then strengthen slightly to 70.50 in a year.

But those forecasts were downgraded from a survey conducted a month ago when contributors expected the currency to trade at 70.00 and 70.38 per dollar over the six- and 12-month horizon, respectively.

“Overall, we see scope for the rupee to recover in the second half of the year. This is based on our view that inflation will remain stable, the monetary policy stance will stay dovish, growth will start to recover, and fiscal policy will show restraint,” ANZ’s Goh added.

Other analysts point to a surge in the price of oil, India’s biggest import, as a potential threat to the rupee given the wide trade deficit. Denominated in dollars, when the dollar rises, it means more rupees have to change hands to pay for the oil India needs.

Oil prices have jumped over 30 percent this year and are expected to remain elevated over the coming year, a separate Reuters poll showed.

“The expiration of U.S. waivers on Iran oil sanctions on May 2 forces India to look for other sources of oil in order to compensate for the estimated drop in Iranian oil imports by a third to 80-100 thousand barrels per day,” noted Lee Hardman, currency strategist at MUFG.

“Other Middle East countries do not offer terms as attractive as Iran. This would make oil imports more expensive and is likely to lead to wider trade deficits.”

Polling by Khushboo Mittal and Anisha Sheth; Editing by Sam Holmes

Conservatives lose more than 1,200 seats in local elections

Siobhan Kennedy-3 May 2019Business Editor

They may not yet agree on a Brexit deal, but Theresa May has concurred with Jeremy Corbyn that the failure to deliver Brexit lies behind their English local election losses.

They may not yet agree on a Brexit deal, but Theresa May has concurred with Jeremy Corbyn that the failure to deliver Brexit lies behind their English local election losses.

The plot that failed: how Venezuela's 'uprising' fizzled

A demonstrator stands near a fire during clashes with security forces in Caracas on Wednesday. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

When the coup was hurriedly launched a day early, defections from the regime failed to materialise, Maduro remained in power and the US government looked like it had badly miscalculated

by Patricia Torres in Caracas, Julian Borger in Washington, Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá and Tom Phillips in Mexico City

The video that appeared on Tuesday morning had the appearance of history in the making. In the purple light of dawn, it showed a group of armed men and a military vehicle on a road leading to La Carlota airbase in eastern Caracas.

In the foreground, stood Juan Guaidó – the head of the national assembly recognised by most western countries as the rightful leader of Venezuela – declaring the “final phase of Operation Freedom” with oratory seemingly destined for legend.

“Today, brave soldiers, brave patriots, brave men loyal to the constitution have heard our call. We have finally met on the streets of Venezuela,” Guaidó said.

Behind him, was the country’s most prominent political prisoner, Leopoldo López who had been under house arrest since 2017. The fact that he was free as the uprising was being declared seemed proof that something significant was afoot.

We now know that there was indeed a plan designed to resolve the dangerous standoff in the country between Guaidó’s assembly and the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro, heir to Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian revolution.

Key members of the security apparatus were to defect. (Christopher Figuera, the head of the secret police, Sebin, had already done so, springing López from house arrest.) That was supposed to be a signal to the armed forces – the key to Venezuela’s future – to flip sides.

Members of the Bolivarian national guard who joined the self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaidó fire into the air near La Carlota military base in Caracas on Tuesday. Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images

Maduro was to fly to Cuba “in dignity”. Everyone else from his regime would keep their jobs while Guaidó became interim president, pending new elections. All of this had been put down in writing, in a 15-point document, according to officials in Washington.

But it is still far from clear whether this plan had any chance of working – or whether some of the would-be defectors were simply laying a trap.

Even if the plan was real, it was already going awry when Guaidó made his speech to camera on Tuesday.

It was a day earlier than planned. Operation Freedom was supposed to reach a climax with mass protests set for Wednesday. And in retrospect it is clear the Tuesday video had been closely cropped to mask the fact that there were only a handful of troops standing with Guaidó.

Vanessa Neumann, who was appointed Guaidó’s envoy to the UK in March, said that his camp had heard reports that Maduro had got wind of the plan and was going to arrest the national assembly president.

“The decision to go on Tuesday rather than Wednesday was an operational decision, taken in reaction to new reports from the ground that we got,” Neumann told the Guardian. “But how it unfolded – in terms of the people, the military and calling on the people to join – that was foreseen.”

The rattle of hundreds of pots and pans being banged woke Julio Bianchi on Tuesday morning. The Caracas architect thought it was yet another power cut, but his bedside light was still on. Then he looked on his phone and saw the Guaidó video.

“We knew that this could be coming, but when I saw Leopoldo [López] in the video, I had no doubt that this was it: Maduro had fallen. If Leopoldo was free this had to be big.”

Mariana Otero, a young mother of three sons, got the call from a friend who lives near La Carlota: “Come now because the base has fallen.” With a Venezuelan flag draped around her shoulders like a cape, Otero quickly headed out to join thousands of others heeding Guaidó’s call.


A demonstrator throws back a teargas canister during clashes with government security forces in Caracas on Tuesday. Photograph: Carlos García Rawlins/Reuters

“If Leopoldo is out there on the streets, I should be too. I want freedom in my country. The streets are ours and I want my children to be witnesses to the way we have come out to struggle for our liberty.”
She was not alone. As she headed towards Plaza Altamira in the affluent municipality of Chacao in eastern Caracas, hundreds of people were on the street around her.

But there were fewer protesters from poor areas on the city outskirts – perhaps because of the air of uncertainty and fear spread by paramilitary groups loyal to Maduro which have snuffed out dissent in poor areas of the city.

At midday, those who had crowded into Plaza Altamira could not believe their eyes: on top of a truck in the square, a group of rifle-toting national guardsmen surrounded Guaidó as he again told the crowd that the regime had fallen.

The troops wore blue ribbons on their arms to show they had defected to the opposition; one wore a bandanna across his face. López and several members of the opposition-controlled national assembly were also there.

“Valientes, patriotas, sí se puede,” chanted the crowd. “Brave patriots! Yes we can!”

But the momentum was already disappearing. After addressing the crowd, Guaidó and his team melted away – and the crowd which had expected to march on the Miraflores presidential palace were left milling in the square.

Apart from the secret service chief, Figuera, no big names from Maduro’s government had switched sides. One by one, the big fish tweeted out vows of allegiance.

Meanwhile, in downtown Cúcuta, a Colombian border town, a group of Venezuelan army defectors watched news of the uprising in a hotel room TV.

“When we saw our President Guaidó there with our brother soldiers and Leopoldo López, now free, at his side, we immediately coordinated with troops here to see what we could do,” said one defector.

Unarmed and in civilian clothing “out of respect to Colombia”, the defectors gathered by the Simón Bolívar International Bridge that separates the two countries in hopes of an ad hoc invasion. “We were ready to take San Antonio,” one defector said, referring to the town on the Venezuelan side of the bridge. “We were just waiting for the orders to join our brothers in arms on the other side.”

Juan Guaidó climbs up a makeshift stage during a rally to commemorate May Day in Caracas. Photograph: Cristian Hernandez/AFP/Getty Images

That order never came. Instead, defectors say, they received an order from Guaidó’s team to return to their hotels.


“It was a great letdown,” one soldier said. “We wanted to help free Venezuela.”
In Washington, Trump administration hawks who had hailed a moment of liberation watched in consternation as the uprising fizzled.

It is far from clear whether the US communicated directly with Maduro’s circle in the buildup to Operation Freedom. López, after seeking haven in the Spanish embassy in Caracas, told journalists that the key negotiations took place at his house over the past few weeks, but the claim has been treated by sceptics as grandstanding by an aspiring president anxious not to be outshone by Guaidó.

The Trump administration reacted as if it had been personally betrayed, and took the unexpected step of going public with its version of events, saying out loud the sort of details normally kept secret.
John Bolton, the national security adviser, named the three powerful Venezuelan officials he claimed had been negotiating Maduro’s departure: the defence minister and head of the armed forces, Vladimir Padrino; the chief justice of the supreme court, Maikel Moreno and Iván Hernández, the head of the presidential guard and military intelligence.

Bolton called out the men three times outside the White House – and then again in a bizarre video that was supposed to be an appeal to patriotic Venezuelans but which was entirely in English apart from the single word “libertad”.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, claimed that Maduro’s plane had been on the tarmac waiting for takeoff, but that he had been persuaded not to leave at the last moment by the Russians, a claim the Russians denied.

Donald Trump himself went on Twitter to rail against Cuban support for Maduro. And the US envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, a veteran of Reagan-era US covert operations in Latin America, appeared on a independent Venezuelan television channel, giving a detailed account of the 15-point document the defectors were supposed to have signed.

So while the official line was that the uprising was the work of the Venezuelan masses, everything the Trump administration did reinforced the message that it had been made in Washington.

“It’s idiocy. I don’t know what they think they are doing but they are undermining the efforts of the opposition to achieve their goals,” said Eva Golinger, the author of several sympathetic books about Chávez.

By Tuesday evening, Maduro staged a show of unity and strength for the television cameras surrounded by a phalanx of soldiers, with defence minister Padrino, one of the supposed defectors, at his right shoulder.

María Corina Machado, the leader of the Vente Venezuela opposition group, which openly supports the idea of foreign military intervention to unseat Maduro, admitted temporary defeat.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is accompanied by the defence minister, Vladimir Padrino, left, and a large body of loyal troops in Caracas on Thursday. Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images

“Of course, the final objective was not accomplished,” she said. “Our goal was to have an urgent transition to democracy in Venezuela because this human catastrophe will only stop or start to be solved the moment Maduro and his mafia regime leaves power.”

She partly blamed drug cartels and guerrilla groups that she said represent a shadow power network within the country for the failure of the uprising.

In Washington, Bolton and Pompeo have hinted at the possibility of direct US military intervention to tip the scales to oust Maduro, but have so far been restrained by the Pentagon. The Washington Post reported a confrontation in the White House, between Bolton’s hawks and the vice-chairman of the chiefs of staff, Paul Selva.

As Selva made the case against any risky US escalation, he was repeatedly interrupted by Bolton aides demanding military options, until the normally mild-mannered air force general slammed his hand on the table, and the meeting was adjourned early.

Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA expert on Latin America now at American University said he was concerned that the generals could not hold out indefinitely against the calls for action.

Armstrong said: “These [Trump administration] guys are so desperate for a win – and with so much testosterone in their veins, I am really worried they are going to do something really stupid.”

Xinjiang surveillance app targets legal, everyday behaviour – rights group

Indian Muslims hold placards during a protest against the Chinese government over the detention of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, in Mumbai on September 14, 2018. Source: PUNIT PARANJPE / AFP

@ascorrespondent-2 May 2019

CHINESE authorities are using a mobile app designed for mass surveillance to profile, investigate and detain Muslims in Xinjiang by labelling “completely lawful” behaviour as suspicious, a Human Rights Watch report said Thursday.

Beijing has come under international criticism over its policies in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where as many as one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps, according to a group of experts cited by the UN.

Human Rights Watch has previously reported that Xinjiang authorities use a mass surveillance system called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP) to gather information from multiple sources, such as facial-recognition cameras, wifi sniffers, police checkpoints, banking records and home visits.

SEE ALSO: China’s alleged Uighur abuse could strain ties with Muslim countries

But the new study, entitled “China’s Algorithms of Repression”, worked with a Berlin-based security company to analyse an app connected to the IJOP, showing specific acts targeted by the system.

Xinjiang authorities closely watch 36 categories of behaviour, including those who do not socialise with neighbours, often avoid using the front door, don’t use a smartphone, donate to mosques “enthusiastically”, and use an “abnormal” amount of electricity, the group found.

The app also instructs officers to investigate those related to someone who got a new phone number, or related to others who left the country and have not returned after 30 days.

“Our research shows, for the first time, that Xinjiang police are using illegally gathered information about people’s completely lawful behavior -– and using it against them,” said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“The Chinese government is monitoring every aspect of people’s lives in Xinjiang, picking out those it mistrusts, and subjecting them to extra scrutiny.”

“Moving red-line”

The rights group obtained a copy of the app and enlisted cybersecurity firm Cure53 to “reverse-engineer” it — to disassemble it and look at its design and data — and examined its source code.

Along with collecting personal information the app prompts officials to file reports about people, vehicles and events they find suspect — and sends out “investigative missions” for police to follow up.

Officers are also asked to check whether suspects use any of the 51 internet tools that are deemed suspicious, including foreign messaging platforms popular outside China like WhatsApp, LINE and Telegram.

A number of people said they or their family members have been detained for having software such as WhatsApp or a Virtual Private Network (VPN) installed on their phones during checks by authorities, according to the report.

The rights group said its findings suggest the IJOP system tracks data of everyone in Xinjiang by monitoring location data from their phones, ID cards and vehicles, plus electricity and gas station usage.

Increased surveillance: Police patrolling a night food market in Xinjiang. Source: Johannes EISELE / AFP

“Psychologically, the more people are sure that their actions are monitored and that they, at anytime, can be judged for moving outside of a safe grey-space, the more likely they are to do everything to avoid coming close to crossing a moving red- line,” Samantha Hoffman, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre, told AFP.

“There is no rule of law in China, the Party ultimately decides what is legal and illegal behaviour, and it doesn’t have to be written down.”

SEE ALSO: China testing facial-recognition systems to track Uighur community 

The IJOP app was developed by Hebei Far East Communication System Engineering Company (HBFEC), which at the time of the app’s development was fully-owned by China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, a state-owned technology giant (CETC), said Human Rights Watch.

CETC could not be reached and HBFEC did not respond to requests for comment.

Washington last year imposed export controls on key Chinese companies including HBFEC and other institutions under CETC, citing risks to US national security and foreign policy interests.

Greg Walton, an independent cybersecurity expert who advised on the report, said while the system is a “blunt instrument that may be directly contributing to the massive numbers of people in internment camps”, the data if stored could be used in the future for more advanced policing algorithms.

“This means that data collected through the app today may well be analysed in a few years’ time by far more sophisticated logic,” he said. © Agence France-Presse

Watergate had the Nixon tapes. Mueller had Annie Donaldson’s notes.

White House counsel Donald McGahn inside the Oval Office on Feb. 16, 2018. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By Carol D. Leonnig-May 3 at 7:30 AM

The notes, scribbled rapidly on a legal pad, captured the fear inside the White House when President Trump raged over the Russia investigation and decreed he was firing the FBI director who led it: “Is this the beginning of the end?”

The angst-filled entry is part of a shorthand diary that chronicled the chaotic days in Trump’s West Wing, a trove that the special counsel report cited more than 65 times as part of the evidence that the president sought to blunt a criminal investigation bearing down on him.

The public airing of the notes — which document then-White House counsel Donald McGahn’s contemporaneous account of events and his fear that the president was engaged in legally risky conduct — has infuriated Trump.

“Watch out for people that take so-called ‘notes,’ when the notes never existed until needed,” Trump tweeted a day after the release of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report.

The scribe keeping track of the president’s actions was Annie Donaldson, McGahn’s chief of staff, a loyal and low-profile conservative lawyer who figures in the Mueller report as one of the most important narrators of internal White House turmoil.

[Graphic: How a White House aide’s notes became a road map for Mueller]

Her daily habit of documenting conversations and meetings provided the special counsel’s office with its version of the Nixon White House tapes: a running account of the president’s actions, albeit in sentence fragments and concise descriptions.

Among the episodes memorialized in Donaldson’s notes and memos: the president’s outrage when FBI Director James B. Comey confirmed the existence of the investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, Trump’s efforts to pressure Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from overseeing the probe and his push to get Mueller disqualified and removed as the special counsel.

The Harvard Law School graduate’s unflinching words — “Just in the middle of another Russia Fiasco,” she wrote on March 2, 2017 — have cast the die-hard Republican in an unfamiliar role: as a truth teller heralded by Trump’s foes for providing what they view as proof he is unfit for office.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has already signaled that he intends to subpoena Donaldson as a critical witness.

[Barr puts Trump’s actions in best light, despite ‘substantial evidence’ of obstruction cited by Mueller]

Donaldson — who lives in Montgomery, Ala., where her husband recently got a job as a federal prosecutor — did not respond to requests for comment. She left the White House in December, both proud of her service and also somewhat stung by her experience in Washington, friends said.

Those close to Donaldson fear she will be thrust in the middle of the building war between congressional Democrats and the White House. Some privately worry she could become a target of the president, despite having worked hard to help implement his agenda.

“My only concern for her now is not getting too caught up in this Washington meat grinder, when she really did the right thing and cooperated as she was directed,” said former Republican senator Luther Strange, who hired Donaldson to work in his law firm in Alabama.

Documenting worries about obstruction

McGahn confers with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus shortly after President Trump’s inauguration. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

McGahn in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on May 24, 2018. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

As McGahn’s chief of staff, Donaldson was charged with managing 30 to 40 lawyers in the counsel’s office, getting White House policies legally vetted, keeping judicial nominations on track and working with McGahn on Trump’s top priorities.

Along the way, she did what virtually all lawyers consider a necessity: kept a record of decisions, disputes, and tasks left to do. Nearly every day, when McGahn emerged from the Oval Office or other West Wing meetings, she would take notes as he recalled significant discussions with the president and his team, according to people familiar with her role.

In the case of Nixon, the discovery of his White House taping system provided unquestionable proof of his role in a coverup of his campaign’s illegal spying on opponents, precipitating his resignation in 1974.

Alexander Butterfield, deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon, talks to The Post's Bob Woodward about revealing the existence of the White House tapes. (Thomas LeGro, Ultan Guilfoyle/The Washington Post)

In Trump’s case, Donaldson’s notes depict McGahn and others as worried that the president could be accused of criminal obstruction — and as seeking to protect him from his impulses.

In an entry on March 21, 2017, Donaldson recounts how Trump told McGahn he was furious with the testimony that Comey gave to Congress about the Russia probe the day before, sounding as if he might fire him on the spot. The president felt betrayed that Comey had failed to do as Trump had asked: to tell the public that he was not personally under investigation.

“beside himself,” she wrote of the president. “getting hotter and hotter, get rid?”

Former FBI director James B. Comey appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, 2017. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

McGahn was so concerned that Comey’s firing was imminent that the counsel’s office drafted a memo analyzing the president’s legal authority to do so, according to the report.

McGahn’s lawyer William Burck declined to comment.

That day, Trump repeatedly pressured McGahn to get the Justice Department to intervene, Donaldson later told investigators. McGahn then called Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente asking whether officials could “correct the misperception that the President was under investigation,” the report said.

At one point, McGahn warned the president that some of the actions he took — such as asking Comey to let go of his investigation of Flynn — could make him vulnerable to accusations of obstruction of justice. “biggest exposure . . . other contacts . . . calls . . . ask re: Flynn,” Donaldson wrote that day.

White House aides who know Donaldson said they are confident her notes are an accurate account of events in Trump’s White House.

For her part, Donaldson is dismayed her confidential work product — documenting sensitive conversations with the president that would normally be shielded from public view by executive privilege — is available for all to see, colleagues said.

“I doubt she had any notion that these notes would ever end up in anyone’s hands, let alone Mueller’s,” said one former White House official, who requested anonymity to describe internal dynamics.

White House advisers expect records of their confidential advice to the president to stay private, probably for decades, until they are released for historical archives.

Bob Bauer, who served as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, said Donaldson’s notes bring the unprecedented nature of the Trump presidency into immediate focus.

“It is impossible to imagine that these extensive notes were taken for any reason other than to document questionable presidential conduct and the counsel’s office response,” Bauer said. “It speaks volumes to the extraordinary challenges facing lawyers in this White House, and it raises the question: If this is what is necessary for lawyers to do their job, then how is it a job the lawyers should agree to do?”

Annie Donaldson (Obtained by The Washington Post)

Friends and colleagues said McGahn trusted Donaldson, who worked as his associate at Jones Day, to make tough calls without him and to lead a team of deputies with their own impressive legal pedigrees.

He had once compared their work relationship to that of a football coach and a defensive coordinator, according to one colleague. They had walked through all the films and plays together for so long that Donaldson knew his mind.

'The glue that held this all together'

As McGahn drank from a fire hose of meetings, deregulation debates and legal disputes, Donaldson was known for her careful tracking of small details.

She met McGahn each morning with a to-do list she wanted him to tackle, and she gave similar lists to deputy counsels and associate lawyers.

Annie Donaldson (Obtained by The Washington Post)

 

White House aides praised her ability to get the often prickly factions within the White House to respond to her requests. She sought to make sure McGahn was included in meetings in which some Trump advisers tried to avoid the lawyer’s input. She displayed a quiet confidence, often speaking toward the end of a meeting rather than first, and made her points slowly and precisely.

“She has a true desire to get things done,” said her friend and former boss Katie Biber, who worked with Donaldson on the 2008 Mitt Romney presidential campaign. “She’s not trying to get credit.”

“Don may have been the White House counsel, but Annie is the glue that held this all together,” she added.

There was one major exception to her low-key ways: Donaldson’s red Corvette, an older model that once bore the vanity plate “RLL TIDE” in honor of her alma mater, the University of Alabama.

She parked the Corvette on West Executive Drive; other senior White House aides would spot it there when they arrived for work and see it still there when they headed home, as she often arrived at the White House at 7 a.m. and stayed until 9 p.m.

“The entire West Wing knew it was her car. It was always there,” said one former administration official. “You’d walk in on a Saturday and see it: ‘Oh yeah, Annie’s already here.’”

Donaldson had the legal credentials to pursue a Supreme Court clerkship, but she was smitten with politics, friends said. She joined Romney’s presidential campaign in 2007, and when he lost the Republican primary to John McCain, she applied to Harvard Law.

At Harvard, she served as both an editor of the Harvard Law Review and executive editor of its conservative sister publication, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, a bastion of the Federalist Society.

After graduating, she got a job as an associate lawyer at Patton Boggs, where she met McGahn. She worked for Romney’s second presidential bid as a campaign lawyer in 2012, and then followed McGahn to work for him at Jones Day. There, she joined him in his work as legal counsel for the Trump campaign.

At the White House, Donaldson played a significant role in helping push forward Trump’s judicial nominations; a record 30 were seated on federal appellate courts in his first two years, double the number of any previous administration.

“Annie is going to go down in history as a real unsung hero of the judicial nominations process,” Biber said.

But one nomination painfully singed Donaldson and her husband Brett Talley. Trump nominated Talley for a federal district court seat in Alabama, but he was among a rare handful of nominees whom the American Bar Association rated “not qualified.”

Brett Talley, who is married to Annie Donaldson, was considered for a federal-district court seat in Alabama but was deemed “not qualified” by the American Bar Association. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Talley, who was a deputy in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, had never tried a case in court. He withdrew his nomination amid questions that he failed to disclose he was married to a White House lawyer on public forms asking if any of his family could create potential conflicts. Donaldson had recused herself from involvement in his nomination.

After just eight months in the job, Donaldson would learn her notes were going to be turned over to federal investigators.

Trump reacted angrily when he learned from a news report in February 2018 that McGahn kept a written record of their encounters, according to Mueller’s report.

“What about these notes? Why do you take notes?” Trump asked McGahn during a tense Oval Office confrontation. “Lawyers don’t take notes. I never had a lawyer who took notes.” (McGahn told investigators Trump was referring to Donaldson’s notes, which the president thought of as McGahn’s.)

McGahn responded to the president that he keeps notes because he is a “real lawyer” and explained that notes create a record and are not a bad thing, according to the report.

Trump replied: “I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes.”

In the end, the president’s desire for the investigation to come to a close ultimately led to the release of Donaldson’s precise description of events. In an effort to speed up Mueller’s review, then-White House lawyer Ty Cobb embraced a strategy of turning over all the administration’s records to Mueller.

McGahn privately warned that the approach would force him to divulge highly sensitive and privileged communications, and increase the chances that they would become public. His forecast proved true.

McGahn leaves the White House on Aug 30. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Rachael Bade and Alice Crites contributed to this report.