January, 11 2011, 04:18pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Dr. Chris Pincetich, Sea Turtle Restoration Project (415) 663-8590 x102; cell (530) 220-3687; chris@tirn.net Carole Allen, Gulf Director, Sea Turtle Restoration Project (281) 444-6204, cell (281) 455-4415, carole@seaturtles.org Teri Shore, Turtle Island Restoration Network (415) 663-8590 x104; tshore@tirn.net
Gulf Oil Industry Overhaul Needed to Protect Sea Turtles
Presidential commission blames BP, Haliburton, and Transocean for oil spill failures
WASHINGTON
The presidential panel investigating the causes of the massive BP oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico concluded today that drastic changes
including stringent new environmental and safety requirements must be
made to avert another catastrophic offshore drilling accident.
Sea turtle advocates agree that mistakes made by BP, Transocean, and Haliburton
combined with flawed government oversight of the oil and gas industry
triggered the worst oil spill in U.S. history - and the most devastating
environmental disaster for endangered sea turtles and other marine life
in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Rescue of sea turtles and protected swimways
through the maze of oil rigs must be prioritized in oil and gas
regulations," said Dr. Chris Pincetich, marine biologist at Sea Turtle
Restoration Project, the environmental organization that forced BP to
stop burning turtles during the oil spill clean-up. "Until now sea
turtles have been an afterthought to oil drilling and spilling, but
hundreds of deaths and the poisoning of a generation of sea turtles
cannot be ignored."
The BP oil spill led to hundreds of endangered sea turtle deaths and oiled waters and beaches where loggerheads, Kemp's ridleys,
green turtles and even leatherbacks nest. The Sea Turtle Restoration
Project is advocating for the following changes to oil industry
regulations for oil spill prevention and response:
Sea Turtle protection from Oil and Gas:
*
Avoidance of sea turtle breeding, foraging and migration habitat for
any new or renewed oil drilling platforms. * Establishment of protected swimways through the Gulf of Mexico where new oil and gas development is prohibited and existing operations phased out.
Oil
Spill Response for Sea Turtles * Independent observers on all oil spill
response vessels to record wildlife sightings; * Sea turtle rescuers on
all cleanup vessel teams; * Increase the number of qualified wildlife
rescue teams on-call; * Establish a volunteer protocol for wildlife
rescue assistance. * Maintaining an effective level of search effort for
sea turtles and wildlife; * Endangered species prioritized for rescue
and rehabilitation; * Chemical dispersants and "controlled burns" banned
where endangered species are present.
Oil Spill Restoration * Funds set aside specifically for restoration of sea turtle nesting beaches and nearshore habitat. * Full cleanup of nesting beaches, oil free to a depth of 30 inches.
"On-water
rescue of sea turtles was a bottle-neck. In the future, boat teams with
fishermen and biologists should be deployed quickly to target
endangered species rescue," says Dr. Chris Pincetich.
Sea turtles
in the Gulf of Mexico are threatened by the poisoning and habitat
degradation brought on by the BP oil spill and continued offshore oil
and gas development. Fisheries such as the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl
fleet have undergone major modifications in gear and management in
recent years to minimize deadly interactions with sea turtles, yet, the
offshore oil and gas industry have not made any systematic changes to
reduce their impacts to the Gulf's sea turtles and marine life.
The
offshore oil and gas industry have yet to make any systematic changes
to reduce their impacts to the Gulf's sea turtles and marine life.
Background:
During the BP spill, cleanup vessels performing "controlled burns" were
ignoring endangered sea turtles for over two months before sea turtle
protection groups including Sea Turtle Restoration Project organized a
legal challenge to save them. As a result of a lawsuit, BP halted
burning of the oil until independent, trained wildlife observer and
rescue teams were placed on the "controlled burn" task force vessels.
The
Sea Turtle Restoration Project also called for reduced fishing pressure
to allow ecosystem recovery, continued cleanup by BP, a halt to sand
dredging to build berms to block oil, an accurate
calculation of the total number of sea turtles estimated as killed in
the spill, impacts of submerged oil be assessed, sea turtle stranding
and recovery network improvements, and complete transparency of all
findings related to the toxicity of gulf seafood, contamination of the
environment, and the health of sea turtles in a report released last
year. Click here for the STRP BP Spill report.
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Palestine Allies Stage Global 'Economic Blockade' of Gaza Genocide
Organizer A15Action said the worldwide demonstrations targeted "the global economy for its complicity in Israel's ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people."
Apr 15, 2024
Pro-Palestine activists around the world on Monday executed a day of direct action protests aimed at "blocking the arteries of capitalism and jamming the wheels of production" amid Israel's ongoing genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza.
Asserting the need to "shift from symbolic actions to those that cause pain to the economy," organizer A15Action vowed ahead of Monday's demonstrations that "together we will coordinate to disrupt and blockade economic logistical hubs and the flow of capital."
Protesters taking part in the worldwide "economic blockade" flooded the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City in an afternoon action, while at least hundreds of people marched through downtown Los Angeles demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and no war against Iran.
In downtown Los Angeles several hundred people marching in a Pro-Palestinian protest, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/BoBhFWWKat
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) April 15, 2024
Earlier in the day in the San Francisco Bay Area, thousands of protesters blocked the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and two key East Bay highways—I-880 and I-980—from morning rush hour into the early afternoon. Protesters locked themselves and their vehicles together, complicating law enforcement efforts to disperse them and clear traffic lanes. They unfurled a banner reading "Stop the World for Gaza" across all three southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge. The California Highway Patrol said 15 people had been arrested by 11:30 am local time.
"In halting traffic along this route we seek to stop the movement of millions of dollars in daily capital flow, much of which, headed to and from the Port of Oakland, the Oakland Airport, and the nearby rail yards directly and indirectly supports the ongoing genocide in Gaza," A15Action explained on Facebook.
Both directions of the Golden Gate Bridge have been shut down due to a Pro-Palestinian protest. Demonstrators have blocked the southbound direction of Highway 101. This is the second protest causing major back-ups on Bay Area roadways, the demonstration has blocked northbound… pic.twitter.com/oO5dMCvqFD
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) April 15, 2024
"Global capital is complicit in the war crimes occurring daily against Palestinians, and it also hurts us here at home," the organizers continued. "Increased cases of respiratory ailments and cancer are but some of the signs of this uneven devastation at home in Oakland."
"The genocide in Gaza is the horrible cost visited upon our comrades and brothers and sisters abroad," the group added. "We are shutting down 880 to disrupt the global flow of capital that causes so much destruction across the world. We are shutting down 880 in support of a liberated Palestine."
In Middletown, Connecticut, at least 10 people were arrested after dozens of demonstrators blockaded a road leading to Pratt & Whitney, which manufactures engines used in Israeli warplanes. The company is also a subsidiary of military-industrial complex giant RTX—formerly known as Raytheon—several of whose facilities have been previously targeted by protesters since last October.
The Middletown protesters—who said they weren't from any group but were acting in solidarity with A15Action—said Pratt & Whitney is "complicit in the arming of the Israeli military."
The activists demanded that the company—whose stock price has soared by nearly 50% since October—end exports to Israel "and begin the transition to a peace-based economy where the engines will not enable war and genocide."
(1/3) More than 50 protestors from NYC & CT shut down Pratt & Whitney Factory in Middletown, Connecticut demanding it halt its profiting from ongoing genocide in Gaza; Israel has been using planes powered by Pratt & Whitney’s engines to drop bombs on Gaza.
Demonstrators are… pic.twitter.com/SUJC3SkppN
— @TheIndypendent (@TheIndypendent) April 15, 2024
A15Action and allied actions shut down highways in Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Illinois—where 40 people were reportedly arrested after blocking the I-190 entrance to Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
"On this Tax Day, when millions are paying taxes which fund the ongoing U.S. and Israeli bombardment of Gaza, protestors seek to take dramatic action, alongside other A15Action organizers worldwide," Chicago Dissenters wrote on Instagram.
Arms giant Lockheed Martin's office in Arlington, Virginia was occupied by activists who locked themselves together while chanting "fund care, not killing."
Activists shut down the arms factory Lockheed Martin in Arlington, VA to protest its complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza by providing Israel with weapons.https://t.co/g4Lafxgrjk pic.twitter.com/IM3FqKsqdY
— Kuffiya (@Kuffiyateam) April 15, 2024
Boeing's St. Charles, Missouri facility—which demonstrators said "produces missiles and bombs sent directly to Israel"—was also targeted in a pre-dawn protest that ended with the arrest of seven activists, who are likely to face unlawful assembly and trespassing charges.
Protesters chanting "free, free Palestine" and "from the river to the sea" blockaded the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Similar chants were heard during a shutdown of Piraeus Port in Athens, Greece.
BREAKING: Anti-Israel protesters are blockading Deltaport in the Port of Vancouver.
This is part of a global campaign by the far-left activists who say: "No business as usual during a genocide".
They ask dock workers to join in.https://t.co/kddQK47rmLÂ pic.twitter.com/l1ciRyhW1Q
— Efrain Flores Monsanto 🇨🇦🚛 (@realmonsanto) April 15, 2024
There were actions in cities including Barcelona, Spain; Dublin, Ireland; Utrecht, Netherlands; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Adelaide, Australia, where Foreign Minister Penny Wong's office was the stage for an occupation and "die-in."
Demonstrations also took place targeting the Australian ports of Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne.
"As states founded on colonization and violent dispossession, so-called Australia has much in common with so-called Israel," A15Action wrote on Facebook. "The call for 'Land Back, Liberation, End Colonial Occupation' has been a consistent one since October."
"Building on a decadeslong movement for a free Palestine, and staunch Aboriginal resistance by the First Peoples of this continent, activists continue to protest at arms manufacturers that contribute essential F-35 fighter jet components to the global supply chain, complicit seats of government, universities funded by weapons dealers, and at Zionist-funded sporting and arts events," the group added.
"Land and sea blockades of the ports of Melbourne and Botany have caused major disruption to business as usual during the genocide," A15Action added. "Long live the Intifada!"
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World Bank, IMF Must Prioritize Wealth Tax and Canceling Debt to Tackle Global Inequality
While global institutions claim to want to tackle inequality, said one campaigner, "ordinary people struggle more and more every day to make up for cuts to the public funding of healthcare, education, and transportation."
Apr 15, 2024
With world leaders convening in Washington, D.C. this week for the annual Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, global anti-poverty campaigners said Monday that delegates from the world's largest economies must prioritize taxing the superrich and taking other steps to alleviate rampant inequality in the Global South.
Oxfam International revealed that based on the World Bank's analysis of worldwide inequality and poverty, 64 out of 106 low- and middle-income countries that receive grants and loans from the bank and the IMF have high or increasing rates of income inequality.
Sixty percent of countries that are eligible for grants or low-interest loans from the International Development Association (IDA) have ratings above 0.4 on the Gini coefficient scale—a warning level developed by the United Nations. The scale rates more equal countries closer to 0 and countries with high income and wealth disparities closer to 1, with rating above 0.4 signifying high levels of income inequality.
Kate Donald, head of Oxfam International's Washington, D.C. office, noted that the news comes less than a year after more than 200 worldwide economists successfully pressured the World Bank to set a new goal of reducing the number of countries with high inequality rates.
The agreement was "a landmark move," said Donald. "But if the bank is serious about tackling inequality, the first test will be making it a headline priority for its lending to the world's poorest countries, being discussed now at the Spring Meetings."
According to Oxfam's analysis, half of IDA-eligible countries are overindebted and need roughly 45% of their debt to the banks canceled in order to address surging inequality in their own communities.
The global financial institutions must prove at the Spring Meetings that "tackling inequality is a priority," said Donald.
"Ordinary people struggle more and more every day to make up for cuts to the public funding of healthcare, education, and transportation," she said. "This high stakes hypocrisy has to end."
At Inter Press Service, Jaime Atienza, equitable financing director at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, pointed to the example of Zambia, one of 37 countries identified by Oxfam as facing rising levels of inequality.
While still struggling, Atienza wrote, through the G20 Common Framework on Debt, Zambia "secured serious debt relief and restructuring with both government and private creditors, which will help enable vital and urgent investments in health, education, and social protection."
"For too long, Zambia's plans for ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, and for realizing crucial development needs, have been held back by constraints in investment caused by the debt crisis," wrote Atienza. "The debt relief and restructuring that has been agreed at last gives the country a fighting chance. All those who have facilitated this agreement have saved and transformed lives."
In dozens of countries in the Global South, said Oxfam, "ballooning debt and interest repayments are diverting scarce resources from crucial areas like public education and healthcare and social safety nets."
Both Atienza and Oxfam said delegates from G20 countries, the world's largest economies, must center at the Spring Meetings Brazil's call for a global plan to require wealthy people to pay their fair share in taxes.
"Higher taxes on the income and wealth of richest could raise trillions of dollars to plug IDA funding shortfalls and to fill the huge development and climate funding gaps in low- and middle-income countries," said Oxfam, which noted that the net wealth of billionaires must by taxed more than 8% annually to help reduce inequality in the worst-affected countries.
Wealthy governments must also increase their donations to the IDA, said Donald, which have flatlined in recent years despite growing needs in African countries and throughout the Global South.
"We don't buy the excuse that 'we can't afford it,'" she said. "The money is there; it's just not flowing to where it's needed. We urgently need donor governments to step up their contributions to IDA, and for the G20 to move forward with a global deal to tax the super-rich."
"It's all part of ensuring that rich countries and rich people pay their fair share," she added, "towards tackling inequality and climate breakdown."
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20 Years Later, Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Get Their Day in Court
"Meanwhile, the U.S. government STILL hasn't provided compensation or other redress to people tortured by U.S. troops in Iraq," said one observer. "These three men are the lucky few."
Apr 15, 2024
Two decades after they were tortured by U.S. military contractors at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, three Iraqi victims are finally getting their day in court Monday as a federal court in Virginia takes up a case they brought during the George W. Bush administration.
The case being heard in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Al Shimari v. CACI, was first filed in 2008 under the Alien Tort Statute—which allows non-U.S. citizens to sue for human rights abuses committed abroad—by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of three Iraqis. The men suffered torture directed and perpetrated by employees of CACI, a Virginia-based professional services and information technology firm hired in 2003 by the Bush administration as translators and interrogators in Iraq during the illegal U.S.-led invasion and occupation.
"This lawsuit is a critical step towards justice for these three men who will finally have their day in court."
Plaintiffs Suhail Al Shimari, Asa'ad Zuba'e, and Salah Al-Ejaili accuse CACI of conspiring to commit war crimes including torture at Abu Ghraib, where the men suffered broken bones, electric shocks, sexual abuse, extreme temperatures, and death threats at the hands of their U.S. interrogators.
"This lawsuit is a critical step towards justice for these three men who will finally have their day in court. But they are the lucky few," Sarah Sanbar, an Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote on Monday. "For the hundreds of other survivors still suffering from past abuses, their chances of justice remain slim."
"The U.S. government should do the right thing: Take responsibility for their abuses, offer an apology, and open an avenue to redress that has been denied them for too many years," Sanbar added.
U.S. military investigators found that employees of CACI and Titan Corporation (now L3 Technologies) tortured Iraqi prisoners and encouraged U.S. troops to do likewise. Dozens of Abu Ghraib detainees died in U.S. custody, some of them as a result of being tortured to death. Abu Ghraib prisoners endured torture ranging from rape and being attacked with dogs to being forced to eat pork and renounce Islam.
A May 2004 report by Maj. Gen. Anthony Taguba concluded that the majority of Abu Ghraib prisoners—the Red Cross said 70-90%— were innocent. In addition to thousands of men and boys, some women and girls were also jailed there as bargaining chips meant to induce wanted insurgents to surrender. Some of them said they were raped or sexually abused by their American captors; lesser-known Abu Ghraib photos show women being forced to expose their private parts. Some female detainees were reportedly murdered by their own relatives in so-called "honor killings" after their release.
Eleven low-ranking U.S. soldiers were convicted and jailed for their roles in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the prison's commanding officer, was demoted. No other high-ranking military officer faced accountability for the abuse. Senior Bush administration officials—who had authorized many of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used at prisons including Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay—lied about their knowledge of the torture. None of them were ever held accountable.
Bush's successor, former President Barack Obama, promised to investigate—and if warranted, to prosecute—the Bush-era officials responsible for the torture that had become synonymous with the War on Terror. Instead, the Obama administration protected them from prosecution.
In 2013, L3 Technologies agreed to pay $5.28 million to 71 former Abu Ghraib detainees who were subjected to sexual assault and humiliation, rape threats, electrical shocks, mock executions, brutal beatings, and other abuse.
The following year, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling prohibiting Abu Ghraib torture victims from suing U.S. companies implicated in their abuse. But the court later reversed itself, finding the case had sufficient ties to the United States to be heard in an American court. The suit was later dismissed under the political question doctrine, which prevents courts from ruling on issues determined to be essentially political.
However, in 2016, a 4th Circuit panel ruled that "the political question doctrine does not shield from judicial review intentional acts by a government contractor that were unlawful at the time they were committed," allowing the Iraqis' case to proceed.
"This is a historic trial that we hope will deliver some measure of justice and healing for what President Bush rightly deemed disgraceful conduct that dishonored the United States and its values," CCR senior attorney Katherine Gallagher toldThe Guardian on Monday.
"In many ways, this case may be seen as setting a precedent for holding contractors accountable for human rights violations should they happen in other contexts, too," she added.
CACI—which denies any wrongdoing—has tried to get the case dismissed 20 times. The company still lands millions of dollars worth of U.S. government contracts. In February, Fortuneincluded the firm on its "World's Most Admired Companies" list for the seventh straight year.
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